"Where?" demanded Borla.
"There, on a horse!" said the captain.
"Give me a spear!" said Borla.
The captain turned and yanked one out of the hands of the nearest guard and handed it over.
Seizing hold of the spear, Borla mounted his horse and began waving it over their heads as he sought to round up the Emperor's men and muster them into some kind of manageable defensive formation.
But it was too late.
"YAAAAAAAAAAA!!!—" The challenging war cry rang out from a thousand throats as Kadrug's forces suddenly charged as one and drove the Emperor's forces backwards across the camp perimeter, mercilessly cutting down everyone and everything that stood in their path.
Si'Wren watched helplessly, cringing as she retreated step by step until she was abruptly brought up short against the heaving flanks of her black stallion. He stamped his hooves and neighed, for the thunder of hooves from the invader's horses was shaking the very earth itself.
Si'Wren had never been in any battle before and never expected to be caught in one, but she had worried about something like this happening ever since their departure for the land of Noah. Breathlessly she looked around, trying to make some sense out of the situation and decide upon the best move to make.
Abruptly she froze in stark terror as a giant fully twice the height of a normal man came striding out of the tall grass behind the Emperor's tent. He carried a shield the size of a cartwheel on one arm, and a spear like a well-pole in his other hand. No one else seemed to even notice him yet.