As the crowds built up on the bank, they faced the problem of congestion, hundreds of frightened people queuing for the next boat in the soaking rain, and all those feet, horses, and wagons turning the dampening earth to mud. Sofy rode up and down, ordering wagons aside to make way for new ones, and finding volunteers to ride abandoned wagons back up the road, to collect stragglers and bring them here faster.
Other boats were arriving, smaller fishing craft, piloted by local Rhodaanis. They took as many passengers as they could, more than was safe, and the little boats struggled in the wind and heavy rain out into the river, waters lapping perilously close to their hull rims. Still the crowds grew as more people arrived, trudging in ankle-deep mud through the trees.
A new arrival told her of wagons stuck in the mud where the road entered the forest. Sofy put heels to her horse and rode that way to find the source of the problem-wagons queued twenty deep, with more coming from the further fields. The lead three were completely stuck, whole teams of men pushing at wheels and horses and getting nowhere.
Beyond the thunder, Sofy heard something else. It seemed to be coming from the north, fading now as the wind gusted from a different direction. And then again she heard it. Hooves and yelling. Fighting.
“Leave the wagons!” Sofy yelled at them. “Leave them and run! Run to the river, the Elissians are coming!”
People ran, grabbing children, carrying the elderly, stumbling and falling in terror. From further up the road, others were still moving at a sedate pace, perhaps unhearing of the battle. They had to be warned.
Sofy galloped up the road, yelling at all there to run. They ran, some pitifully tired from the hot days of marching. A woman tried to hold up her child for Sofy, begging in Rhodaani for her to take him ahead to the river. Sofy galloped on, cursing this situation, the storm and the Elissians both. Jaryd had told her that she could not save all these people, and she had refused to listen. But now she saw his awful logic.
She turned about and galloped back. Trees cleared to her left, and across fields she saw horses galloping. Astride them were cavalry, no knights but men in mail and leathers, with coloured surcoats. Elissians, at least twenty of them. And more beyond the field, coming up the adjoining road.
Sofy's heart hammered in fear. She spurred her horse to greater speed, and then stopped on an impulse as she passed the woman with her child. She reached for the boy, pushed by his frantic mother over the saddle horn, then set off again with the screaming child in her arms. Rain blinded her, made the reins slippery in her hands, and the boy struggled; she was not an experienced rider, and riding like this was desperately dangerous. But an encounter with the Elissians would be far more deadly.
Elissians fell from their saddles. Sofy risked a quick look as she approached the abandoned wagons and saw serrin riders pursuing on the Elissians' tails. Horses wheeled to meet them, while others raced on, plunging through the trees ahead, heading for the river.
She tore between the first trees, slowing so she wouldn't hit any…and didn't see the running family until it was nearly too late. She hauled on the reins, the horse protested, and the next thing she knew they were falling, and she hugged the child to her chest as the ground rushed up and hit her. Then she was stunned, smelling wet leaves and mud, hands hauling her to her feet before rushing onward.
Her horse was nowhere to be seen, and she was still holding the child, who was screaming, and heavy. Sofy saw a woman sent flying in a collision, a man cut down by a sword. She ran, slipping on leaves and mud, and heard more hooves coming, but with the child she had no hope of defending herself. A horse rushed up, and she expected to die, but it passed and killed a running man beyond, who tried to throw up his hands in defence.
Elissians wheeled through the trees, striking about them. One fell to an arrow, and then there were serrin riders, firing repeatedly. Elissians chased them, and the serrin evaded. Sofy ran, legs and lungs burning, and now her arms and shoulders too, with the child's weight. Battle crashed around her, and arrows flew through the rain. Her boots sank into mud, sucking at her feet. She passed an Elissian cavalryman on the ground, groaning and trying to crawl with an arrow through his side. Nothing mattered but the river, and putting one foot before the other, as fast as possible. She did not remember it being so far away.
Then she could see the bank, a scene of chaos compared to when she'd last seen it. Bodies sprawled in the mud, terrified people scattering, tumbling down the bank as horses galloped past. Fighting milled nearby, defending cavalry exchanging blows with Elissians, but she was too blind with fear and rain to see who was winning.
She hid behind trees as more Elissians galloped by, saw a running family slashed down with swords, children and all, severed limbs falling. Then she ran, clutching the child tightly, across that open ground before the bank, arrows zipping overhead from somewhere, then a booming crash of thunder. Mud at the lip of the bank was calf-deep and bloody amidst the bodies, some of which still moved and shrieked.
Then the drop-off to the water, down which Sofy was about to throw herself with careless desperation…but there she saw mounted Elissians below at the water's edge, chasing unarmed Tracatans into shallow waters now red and floating with bodies. Several more Elissians had dismounted, and were pursuing others into the water, killing without mercy as those mounted riders indicated others who might get away.
They did not know which was the Princess Regent, Sofy realised. Even now, she could see them singling out the women for death. They did not know which was her, and so they killed every woman they could, and everyone else in between.
More arrows zipped in, coming from the river. Serrin boats were approaching, unable to find a place to land, archers firing from middle range at the Elissians on the shore. Swimmers were thrashing into deep water, trying to reach the boats, dragged aboard by the crews.
Sofy heard more hooves, and looked. Three Elissians were galloping at her. A young woman holding a child, she was the only immediate target, but their attention switched as two new horsemen arrived. One was Asym, not bothering to cut, but simply using his shield to bash an opponent from his saddle. The man hit the bank and tumbled down to the water.
The other rider was Jaryd, who chased the remaining two as they rode straight past Sofy, slashing one who was too slow. That man hit the mud ten paces from her, head-first and neck snapping.
“Sofy!” Jaryd yelled at her, and pointed upriver as he wheeled back. “That way, there's a boat!”
She looked, and sure enough a longboat had pulled into the shallows, surrounded by refugees. Jaryd turned back as more Elissian riders came at him…he didn't have time to pick her up. She had to run. The pain of exhaustion was worse than anything she'd ever felt. But so was the fear.
Sofy threw herself into a feet-first slide down the embankment, and hit the water with a splash. She struggled up, regathering the child with stiffening arms, and ran on. The water here was shallow. But the Elissians, previously below her in the water, were now behind.
Even as she threw a look over her shoulder, she could see them coming. There were two on horseback. Another few strides and they'd run her down.
A horse and rider appeared on the lip above, and simply fell off the edge. Jaryd, Sofy realised in midplunge. The horse hit the leading Elissian horse right across the saddle, crushing it and rider into the riverbank. Jaryd fell in the tangle, disappearing under rolling horses.
“Jaryd!” Sofy screamed, and turned back. He fought clear of fallen horses as they struggled to rise, one with a broken leg and thrashing. The second Elissian circled into deeper water, but the thrashing horse connected with his own, which reared and panicked. The Elissian fell with a splash, but came up just as fast.