"And so it ends, Taur Urgas," he declared in an icy voice.
"No!" Taur Urgas croaked, trying to pull a heavy dagger from his belt.
Cho-Hag watched his feeble efforts coldly. Dark blood suddenly spurted from the open mouth of the Murgo King, and he toppled weakly from his saddle. Struggling, coughing blood, Taur Urgas lurched to his feet, gurgling curses at the man who had just killed him.
"Good fight, though," Cho-Hag told him with a bleak smile, and then he turned to ride away.
Taur Urgas fell, clawing at the turf in impotent rage. "Come back and fight," he sobbed. "Come back."
Cho-Hag glanced over his shoulder. "Sorry, your Majesty," he replied, "but I have pressing business elsewhere. I'm sure you understand." And with that he began to ride away.
"Come back!" Taur Urgas wailed, belching blood and curses and digging his fingers into the earth. "Come back!" Then he collapsed facedown in the bloody grass. "Come back and fight, Cho-Hag!" he gasped weakly.
The last that Cho-Hag saw of him, the dying King of Cthol Murgos was biting at the sod and clawing at the earth with trembling fingers. A vast moan shuddered through the tight-packed regiments of the Murgos, and a sudden cheer rose from the ranks of the Algars as ChoHag, victorious, rode back to join the army.
"They're coming again," General Varana announced with cool professionalism as he watched the waves of oncoming Malloreans.
"Where is that signal?" Rhodar demanded, staring intently downriver. "What's Anheg doing down there?"
The front ranks of the Mallorean assault struck with a resounding crash. The Drasnian pikemen began to thrust with their long, widebladed spears, wreaking havoc among the red-garbed attackers, and the legions raised their shields in the interlocked position that presented a solid wall against which the Malloreans beat futilely. Upon a sharp, barked command, the legionnaires turned their shields slightly and each man thrust his lance out through the opening between his shield and the next. The Tolnedran lances were not as long as the Drasnian pikes, but they were long enough. A huge, shuddering cry went through the front ranks of the Malloreans, and they fell in heaps beneath the feet of the men behind.
"Are they going to break through?" Rhodar puffed. Even though he was not directly involved in the fighting, the Drasnian King began to pant at each Mallorean charge.
Varana carefully assessed the strength of the assault. "No," he concluded, "not this time. Have you worked out how you're going to make your withdrawal? It's a little difficult to pull back when your troops are engaged."
"That's why I'm saving the Mimbrates," Rhodar replied. "They're resting their horses now for one last charge. As soon as we get the signal from Anheg, Mandorallen and his men will shove the Malloreans back, and the rest of us will run like rabbits."
"The charge will only hold them back for so long," Varana advised, "and then they'll come after you again."
"We'll form up again upriver a ways," Rhodar said.
"It's going to take a long time to get back to the escarpment if you're going to have to stop and fight every half mile or so," Varana told him.
"I know that," Rhodar snapped peevishly. "Have you got any better ideas?"
"No," Varana replied. "I was just pointing it out, that's all."
"Where is that signal?" Rhodar demanded again.
On a quiet hillside some distance from the struggle taking place on the north bank, the simpleminded serf boy from the Arendish forest was playing his flute. His melody was mournful, but even in its sadness, it soared to the sky. The boy did not understand the fighting and he had wandered away unnoticed. Now he sat alone on the grassy hillside in the warm, midmorning sunlight with his entire soul pouring out of his flute.
The Mallorean soldier who was creeping up behind him with drawn sword had no ear for music. He did not know - or care - that the song the boy played was the most beautiful song any man had ever heard.
The song ended very suddenly, never to begin again.
The stream of casualties being carried to Ariana's makeshift hospital grew heavier, and the overtaxed Mimbrate girl was soon forced into making some cruel decisions. Only those men with some chance of survival could be treated. The mortally hurt were quickly given a drink of a bitter-tasting potion of herbs that would ease their pain and then were left to die. Each such decision wrung Ariana's heart, and she worked with tears standing in her eyes.
And then Brand, the Rivan Warder, entered the tent with a stricken face. The big Rivan's mail shirt was blood-spattered, and there were savage sword cuts along the edge of his broad, round shield. Behind him, three of his sons bore the limp, bleeding form of their younger brother, Olban.
"Can you see to him?" Brand asked Ariana hoarsely.
A single glance, however, told the blond girl that the wound in Olban's chest was mortal. "I can make him comfortable," she replied a bit evasively. She quickly knelt beside the bleeding young man, lifted his head, and held a cup to his lips.
"Father," Olban said weakly after he had drunk, "I have something I have to tell you."
"Time enough for that later," Brand told him gruffly, "after you're better."
"I'm not going to get better, father," Olban said in a voice scarcely more than a whisper.
"Nonsense," Brand told him, but there was no conviction in his voice.
"There's not much time, father," Olban said, coughing weakly. "Please listen."
"Very well, Olban," the Warder said, leaning forward to catch his son's words.
"At Riva - after Belgarion came - I was humiliated because you had been deposed. I couldn't bear it, father." Olban coughed again, and a bloody froth came to his lips.
"You should have known me better than that, Olban," Brand said gently.
"I do - now." Olban sighed. "But I was young and proud, and Belgarion - a nobody from Sendaria - had pushed you from your rightful place."
"It wasn't my place to begin with, Olban," Brand told him. "It was his. Belgarion's the Rivan King. That has nothing to do with position or place. It's a duty - and it's his, not mine."
"I hated him," Olban whispered. "I began to follow him every place. Wherever he went, I wasn't far behind him."
"What for?" Brand asked.
"At first I didn't know. Then one day he came out of the throne room wearing his robe and crown. He seemed so puffed-up with his own importance - as if he really was a king instead of just a common Sendarian scullion. Then I knew what I had to do. I took my dagger and I threw it at his back."