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The expected sortie from the city came almost immediately. Even hurriedly assembled, the attack held a third of Mat's command in cavalry and around a dozen damane. Before the force was even out of the gates, lightning flashed down from the heavens to pound at Mat's army. The lightning frightened the horses, sometimes badly, but none of it actually reached the troops, stopping on a shield held high in the sky.
If the nullification of the damanes' power fazed the Seanchan, they gave no sign. Masses of horsemen flowed over the hills, more than twenty thousand strong, and the main Seanchan army was still marshalling inside the city. The sul'dam and damane followed closely, and some of them made the mistake of gathering on a hill. The tip of the hill seemed to catch flame, like one of Aludra's matches, and it fired up until nothing remained but a crater. Three of the captive female channellers were instantly dead. The remaining ones backed off from the battle and seemed to be hysterical. Their sul'dam gave them harsh punishments, and they reluctantly continued on.
The Seanchan cavalry finally came within the range of the crossbows, and a massive volley hissed and flew from the Legion. The arrows were fired indiscriminately, but they massive numbers made up for the loss of accuracy. The powerful bolts cut through armor and flesh alike, killing horse and man alike. Horsemen flew off their horses, transfixed by arrows, and the leader of the charge was thrown off into the air as a bolt ripped through his head. The heavily armored bodies of men lay dead and dying across the field, and blood soaked the ground. Many horses ran free without their horsemen, and freely galloped about the battlefield. The remaining soldiers hardly had time to react before the lightning fell.
At least two dozen bolts impacted with the ground, tossing horses about as the crossbow bolts had tossed men. Great holes opened up in the charge, and crisped circles dotted the field. The charge staggered and almost completely collapsed, and then another volley came from the bows. The arrows had the same deadly effect, and men once again were thrown or fell from their horses. The remains of the charge finally hit the front lines.
The solid and unbroken lines of pikemen met the blow solidly. Most of the horses shied away from the pikes at the last seconds, but the ones that didn't slammed with a sickening thud into a wall of blades. The Seanchan horsemen ran among the pikemen as they were drawing back for another thrust, cutting through them. The pikemen held, though, and cut through the remains of the charge.
The highest remaining officer among them ordered a retreat, and they turned and ran back up the hill. More than twelve thousand of their comrades weren't retreating with them, lying on the field of slaughter and blood. A final volley from the crossbows cut apart the men who were too slow, dropping a few hundred of the retreating cavalry. The brief battle closed the fighting for the day, and the Seanchan withdrew to lick their wounds.
Rand viewed the field dispassionately and said to Mat, " They'll be better prepared tomorrow, and they will come in greater numbers." Mat shrugged, grinned, and sent for a report about the battle. He had learned something about the Seanchan, or at least about the general who was leading them. He was a fool.
***
During the night, the Seanchan attempted to attack again. Their forces slunk in as quietly as they could, mostly footmen. When they got close enough that it didn't matter whether the Band's sentries could hear them, they let loose a war cry and charged. Mat had suspected a night attack, and had set up a small battle line of pikemen and swordsmen just in case. The Asha'man let loose a ball of light in the sky, which lit up the battlefield as if the sun were up. The lines surged against each other, and the Seanchan were pushing the pikemen back. The strange, bug-like, helmets of the Seanchan forces could be seen pushing against the pike line. The surging battle line was littered with bodies of both forces, and the ground grew slick.
The Seanchan broke through the line and it almost collapsed entirely, but it was at that moment that the Band's cavalry rushed into the gaps. The cavalry cut through the infantry, driving two long stakes toward the center of the Seanchan army. The flanks began collapsing on the cavalry thrusts, but they split through the back of the forces, completely driven through. The horsemen quickly turned around and plunged into the Seanchan, ripping through them again and again. The Seanchan finally fell back as the moans of the injured and dying cut through the night which was as bright as day.
***
" Today should be the day we fall back, Mat. We have kept up the illusion long enough." Mat nodded and agreed with Rand. His forces had only committed to two battles and won, but he knew he couldn't keep it up. He would commit to one more battle in the day, and then fake the retreat. He picked up the Ashandarei and walked out with a heavy heart.
The battle line was solid and firm, and the plan was laid out. The Seanchan would probably just commit all their forces to an all-out attack, and they could probably expect to win. They had far more channellers, and they would be the fist that truly broke Mat's army. They had nearly fifty damane to unleash upon the enemy. That was what Mat wanted. If the Seanchan expelled all their channellers into the effort to rip apart his army, they would follow the army when it pursued him. They would be very far from the city indeed, when Mat traveled with his army into the heart of Ebou Dar.
Mat smiled briefly as he thought of Tylin's expression when he walked into the doors to accept High Lady Suroth's surrender, but he wondered whether expression would be joyful or angry. Mat liked her, and believed he knew her, but she had been raised to the Blood. Who knew what the Seanchan nobility system could do to change a good person? Mat smiled longer, though, when he thought that he would have the power to make Tylin his pretty. He almost laughed.
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