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Show gaggle of reds, acting for all the world .as though they'd executed the rescue themselves alone. Then the remaining Grendels, riderless, swooped down from the cliffs above the overhang like avenging furies, drifting their incredible claws just above the heads of the stampeding Four Kingdom warriors, breathing fire, and screaming like the SouthSeaBanshees. Through the fleeing warriors and around the edges of the crowd, Lusela ran screaming: "Take heart, excrementi, ye unspeakable fools! Reinforcements be coming-the great GarGantuas! My Lieutenant be coming- Rollanda!" She prodded a knot of whimpering knights viciously with her broadsword, glowering like a gargoyle from NewOxbridge's huge cathedrals. "Ye crawling reptiles!" she screamed. "Ye legless YellowBison!" In truth, she had wanted to keep the arrival of Rollanda's terrifying force a secret, for she'd intended to wrest command from the others after they'd beaten this Commendium rabble. They be so stupid, her compatriots- Zud and Jothra-Jothra with his simpering ideals of gallantry and wisdom, and Zud, that offspring of t h e i v e s . . . ! She spit on the crowd of knights she'd been harassing and ran raging toward some Seljuk archers making for the Round Valley pass behind the clot of fleeing YellowBison. Elsen, seeing her coming, ducked behind an outcropping of rock. After all, he was but regent for the young King Damon, he reasoned. Let her r a g e . . .. A Grendel just above her let out a fearful cry at that point and a gaggle of red DragonGeese in Lusela's path exploded into spread wings and scrabbling feet, maddened with excitement, fear, and stupidity. Lusela tripped over two of the darting birds in a row, failed to regain her footing the second time, fell headlong against a nettle tree, and lay 296 |