128 During the lull she saw a fighting man carrying
a wounded comrade up the hill. Suddenly a young maiden on a dog seemed
to appear out of nowhere. She reached down and lifted the young man off
his friend's shoulder, swung him on the back of her dog, and turned to
ride away. The only thing was, the young man was still on his friend's
shoulder! When the man reached her, The Lady Hawk examined the youth.
"He's dead," she whispered, "put him over there."
129 "But he was alive a moment ago," the fighting man groaned.
130 "I know!" comforted The Lady Hawk, "I know!"
131 As the man walked off with his burden The Lady Hawk shook her head.
"I didn't see that!" she muttered, "I did NOT see that! It was just my
imagination...or WAS it?"
132 With an angry roar The Epons returned, and the battle was again
joined. They pushed the defenders back and the defenders
pushed them back. Epon after Epon was carried away, dead or wounded.
More of The Hawk's people and Bright Star's people were killed or
wounded, but neither could break the other's will.
133 One of The Lady Hawk's guards returned with a wounded man and
looked worried. "Damn!" he cried, "It's not going well. If we had just
one more group to throw into the center, I know we could break their
lines and drive them off for good, but we have nothing; nothing at all.
If they fall back again, we may have to retreat."
134 The Lady Hawk walked to the hill and looked at the battle below.
Then she walked over to the dead, found a young man about her size,
stripped off his armor, and put it on!
135 "What do you do, Our Lady?" cried the guards.
136 "I'm going to find that group we need!" she said. Going to the pile
of weapons she found a sword and shield. She saw perhaps one hundred
men without armor standing around the Zoam ox carts, and went over