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hroats as the massed delegations of the D'Troit launched themselves in

pursuit.

Like his commander, Oshio Shinoda, Mitsunari would have dearly loved to

know the battle plan of the D'Troit.

The chain of agents stationed in the outlands who had acted on behalf

of the Yama-Shita family in setting up this 'arrangement' had tried to

persuade the D'Troit to accept the help of a small team of advisors

including a flag signal unit which could have maintained contact with

the advancing flotilla.

The idiot monkey-faced chieftains who led the D'Troit had spurned this

offer, giving as an excuse the difficulty of concealing IronMasters

among their own ranks. The discovery of such individuals by their

rivals would, they claimed, have brought an immediate charge of

collaborating with the enemy - a charge the D'Troit intended to make

against the She-Kargo.

As a result, Oshio Shinoda, his junior force commanders and the

boat-captains had no way of knowing the on-shore situation beyond what

they could see through their telescopes. And under the strict policy

of non-belligerence imposed by the Toh-Yota shogunate - to which they

were obliged to adhere because of the unwelcome presence of the

wheel-boats crewed by the Ko-Nikka and Se-Iko - they could not lawfully

intervene until they had run the boats ashore and had received a formal

request for assistance!

Responding to Mitsunari's request for more speed, the wheel-boat

captain sent the traditional signal to the sweating stokers in the

engine room. Off his rear port quarter, smoke belched from the funnels

of the rest of the flotilla as they responded to a similar order from

Oshio Shinoda.

On shore, having recovered from their surprise, the massed clan

delegations of the D'Troit raced after the She-Kargo like a howling

lynch-mob. Moving with them were their own summoners, but they could

not reply in a similar manner. In order to do so, they would have had

to place themselves of were their own warriors - exposing themselves to

a well-aimed crossbow bolt. A summoner could only call up the forces

from the earth and sky when he was standing still. The very act rooted

him to the spot until the forces had passed through him. That was the

second drawback to being a summoner.

The deadly hail of stones raised by Dark-Star's team had cut down

hundreds of warriors. The D'Troit were not prepared to wait for a

similar cloud to smite the fleeing She-Kargo. Some of the pebbles on

the beach were bigger than a man's fist but a direct hit could not be

guaranteed. Knives, on the other hand, always found their target.

The She-Kargo faction had been ordered to cover the three miles to the

channel at the fastest possible speed.

Those who tripped and fell, or lagged behind for whatever reason were

to be left to their own devices. They could either try to catch up or

make a stand in the few seconds that remained before they were engulfed

by the screaming horde now racing towards them. A brave but futile

gesture which failed to slow the pace of the pursuit.

The leading ranks of the D'Troit simply ran around the stragglers,

leaving them to be hacked to pieces by the tens of thousands of

warriors packed into the middle and rear of the column.

The time taken to cover the first three miles was a little under

eighteen minutes - well outside the world record for that distance, but

this race was run over an uneven bed of sand and shingle, not a rolled

Olympic-class cinder track. Even so, the leaders were still travelling

at over ten miles an hour, equal to the speed of Mitsunari's

wheel-boat.

Fortunately, the wheel-boat had further to go and it was still out of

range when the front of the column reached the three hundred yard wide

channel and pounded across in a cloud of spray.

Mitsunari realized that there was no chance of placing his wheel-boat

in the channel - thereby cutting off the She-Kargo's line of retreat.

And having seen the violent sandstorms raised against the D'Troit, he

was reluctant to get too close for fear of losing the vessel. The