“Shore up our right flank!” Liandra bellowed to her runner. She pointed to the direction indicated, sword outstretched along with her arm.

She glanced back toward the royal family surrounded by their retinue, her knights positioned defensively around the group. They were safe for the time being, but their forces were surrounded on two fronts. The only good thing about this confrontation was that Liandra had several thousand men at her disposal. More were reinforcing their ranks as warriors poured in from the direction of the temple even now.

If the First Spear was going to attack the summit, now was the time. Taking men off the defenses at the temple to fight in the harbor was weakening their strong position. The knight commander was not looking forward to being outflanked. Soon they would be out of time. But the height advantage of the plateau afforded them a defensible position, even if severely outnumbered, so she had some time.

That was the only reason why she could split her forces and fight on two fronts. But they couldn’t last forever, either at the temple or in the harbor.

As she directed the battle, surrounded by Hukama’s forces on the left flank and right flank, she directed her runners to convey orders to the flag bearers to shore up their lines with swords and spears.

“Where are my archers?”

“Ready, commander!” the Imperial general Yorikana shouted in reply.

“Hit the right flank,” she ordered.

“But commander, our men could be hit!”

“It’s a chance we’ll have to take,” she said, “but to be safe, overshoot if necessary. We need to ease the brunt on our line.”

“Yes commander!”

She didn’t watch as the signal was given, only heard the flitting of arrows as bowstrings went taut. The arrows were hardly visible as they came back down.

“Kuso!” Yorikana exclaimed. “A miss.”

“It was the wind,” Liandra said, glancing toward the mountains and the roiling black clouds. The skies had been clearing, but that only served to mislead both armies, as the storm would surely hit them now.

“Readjust and order another volley!”

“Hai!”

The knight commander was sweating in her armor, but the cool wind was a relief at least. She did not look favorably on standing in squelching boots later on, though.

“We push for the ship!” she ordered, then looked about. “Now where is that damn mage?”