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diminish the risk even further by overturning them. But the immense

pressure exerted by the middle and rear ranks caused the column to

steamroller over anyone who stopped at the front.

Those who stumbled and fell usually brought a tangle of bodies down on

top of them. If they were lucky, those behind ran past or leapt over

them, but if there were too many choke points, they were simply

trampled into the ground.

Some distance behind the spiked mats were a collection of twenty-foot

long barriers made out of a simple framework of poles to which more

sharpened stakes had been lashed at an angle facing the enemy like the

steel girders in pre-Holocaust tank traps. These too were swung across

the sand-bar by the last men to pass.

Compared to the number killed and injured by the wheel-boat's cannon,

the casualties suffered by the D'Troit through these hastily-prepared

devices were pitifully few. There had not been enough time to prepare

and position enough of them, but with the lines of bowmen still firing

then falling back, it was enough to break the momentum.

The sand-bar was five-hundred yards wide - enormously wide if you have

to defend it, but exceedingly narrow when you have sixty thousand

screaming warriors from groups who don't particularly like each other,

all chasing the same quarry - and all trying to elbow their way into

the front line. Added to which there were now dozens of dead-faces

mounted on strange four-legged beasts demanding passage through their

ranks from the rear!

When Aishi Sakimoto, the acting regent of the YamaShita had resurrected

Domain-Lord Hirohito's plan, he had never considered the possibility

that the D'Troit might regard the Iron Master's assistance as an

interference.

But from the angry reactions of the grass-monkeys now surrounding them

it was clear to the officer in charge of the first cavalry squadron

that they bitterly resented being forced to stand aside. It was their

brothers who had fallen. What right did the dead-faces have to push to

the front and take all the glory?!

The resulting melee in which Iron Master and Mute ended up brandishing

their weapons at each other brought the rear third of the D'Troit

column to a standstill.

What began as a spontaneous reaction became a deliberate ploy to hold

back the Iron Masters so that their clansmen could finish the job they

had started, but it gave the She-Kargo and their allies an unexpected

respite.

The possibility of Iron Masters giving chase on horseback had been

foreseen by Carnegie-Hall. The ultimate line of defence consisted of

five staggered rows of forward-sloping stakes running across the

sandbar from lake to lagoon. They were spaced wide enough apart to

allow a warrior to slip through, but any horseman attempting to ride

through it would immediately find himself in difficulty. The pointed

stakes were too close together and too high, and because they were

staggered in depth, they could not be cleared in a single jump.

The job of gathering, sharpening and planting the stakes, begun as soon

as darkness fell, had continued after dawn and was still being

completed as the She-Kargo began to pass through.

The lines of bowmen now formed into two groups, one on either shore to

protect the rear of the column, but stocks of the precious crossbow

bolts were now dangerously low. When a bowman emptied his pouch, he

joined the retreat.

The pursuing D'Troit thought it was a rout, but they were wrong. It

was a strategic withdrawal. And.that was not a play on words to hide a

bitter truth. Every man and woman in the She-Kargo faction would have

preferred to stand and fight regardless of the odds. To face an enemy

who outnumbered you by 3 to 1, knowing that you were bound to die

demanded a very special kind of bravery for which the She-Kargo were

renowned. But Mr Snow's stern message had been passed to the leaders

of all the threatened delegations. Talisman had spoken through him.

The D'Troit, the C'Nat