Bam steers their mount to the summit. Evie expected the rest of the Sicclunan outriders to rush up the hill as soon as they saw the ambush begin. Instead, their leader has held them back and formed them into a line several dozen yards from the foot of the hill. They wait there, swords at the ready. Evie has to admire their discipline. They couldn’t know what numbers were waiting for them on the other side of the hill, and rather than charge headlong into that potentially lethal unknown, they’ve gathered their remaining force and prepared for an attack, even at the expense of coming to their fellow soldiers’ aid.

The rest of the mounted Savages have joined Bam and Evie along the hilltop. On Evie’s left, Mother Manai grins and holds up a cleaver dripping with Sicclunan blood. On Evie’s right, Yacatek and the warrior riding behind her silently and intensely await the charge to come.

“Thirty-two battles and I’ve never sat a horse!” Lariat calls to her, sounding as though they’re preparing to ride to a feast. “I feel like the Lord Commander of the Skrain!”

“Give the order, little Sparrow,” Mother Manai says to Evie.

Evie blinks at her, uncertain.

“You brought us here, together,” Mother reminds her. “That makes it your command as much as any. Give the order!”

And they truly are awaiting her command, even the Elder Company. Evie looks to her right and sees Yacatek waiting as well, though even in that moment something tells her it’s more courtesy than anything else.

Evie nods. She stares down the hill at the waiting enemy line, raising her short sword.

“At them!” she cries.

Bam kicks and reins their horse into motion and Evie feels the rush of descending the hill at high speed. The Sicclunan captain orders their riders forward at the same time. Seconds later the mounted warriors clash like two waves made of horseflesh and steel, the mounts whinnying and the Savages howling their unrestrained cries of battle and the desperate bloodlust left to warriors with nothing else. Bam immediately knocks the head of the center rider between the man’s shoulder blades.

Evie leaps from behind Bam at the rider on his opposite flank, taking advantage of the soldier’s attention being focused on the mallet-wielding Savage. She hooks him around the throat and drags him from his saddle, managing to hang on to the bridle as she bears the soldier to the ground. Evie centers herself in the saddle. Below her, the soldier recovers to their feet, though they’ve lost grip of their sword.

Evie launches a kick into the outrider’s face, feeling bones shatter beneath meat. The soldier falls to the ground.

As the remaining Sicclunan riders contend with Evie, the Elder Company, the B’ors, and the remaining Savages swarm them on foot. Desperate and hungry hands again claw armed and armored soldiers from their saddles.