it.” The ground in front of the engines was covered with fallen soldiers.
The southrons did not give the survivors long to enjoy their little triumph. The men who’d served the engines weren’t the only soldiers in gray on that part of Merkle’s Hill. Pikemen and crossbowmen assailed Captain Ormerod’s company in such numbers, he had to order them to fall back.
They lost more men retreating to about the place from which they’d begun the attack on the engines. Ormerod wondered if the assault had been worth it. He shrugged and made the best of it: “We hurt them.”
“And they hurt us, too,” Gremio said.
Ormerod would have bet that his lieutenant would s