"On, Nessa!" she screamed—and her heels bit the doe's flanks.
Meg leaped astride the doe, and kicked her heels into its flanks. With a wild leap it sprang into motion through the ranks of the little men.
She was halfway across the open walk-avenue of the village before the first startled cry of warning seared an invader's throat. She was flaming down upon the god-box, the narrow gateway of the magic wall, by the time that shout had spun its guardians' heads about.
Then there was mad confusion. Meg cried, "Nessa! Leap, Nessa!" even as Togi and his companion guards fumbled for their ray-sticks. The foremost was the first to lift his weapon to her breast—but even as he would have released its charge Meg's sword was biting through the thin plate of his shoulder-harness.
The Japcan screamed horribly and clutched with his free hand at a grisly stump from which spurted a scarlet ribbon of blood. The fingers of his severed arm contracted in an insensate reflex; cherry flame spewed from a stick rolling aimlessly upon the ground—and another of the guards crisped into steaming filth before it.
Now a jolt shook Meg as Nessa's cloven hooves met solid earth, and a brazen cry of gladness split the air.
"On, Nessa!"