A Memory of Light

you home,” Lan said softly.
    “Don’t look at me that way, Lan,” Andere said. “We all knew what this was going to be when we . . . when we joined you.”
    “That is why I tried to stop you.”
    Andere scowled. “I—”
    “Peace, Andere,” Lan said, rising. “What I wished was selfish. I came to die for Malkier. I have no right to deny that privilege to others.”
    “Lord Mandragoran!” Prince Kaisel rode up, his once-fine armor bloodstained and dented. The Kandori prince still looked too young for this battle, but he’d proven himself to be as coolheaded as any grizzled veteran. “They’re forming up again.”
    Lan walked across the rocky ground to where a groom held Mandarb. The black stallion bore cuts on his flanks from Trolloc weapons. Thank the Light, they were superficial. Lan rested a hand on the horse’s neck as Mandarb snorted. Nearby, his standard-bearer, a bald man named Jophil, raised the flag of Malkier, the Golden Crane. This was his fifth standard-bearer since yesterday.
    Lan’s forces had seized the Gap with their initial charge, shoving the Shadowspawn back before they were able to emerge into the valley. That was more than Lan had expected. The Gap was a long, narrow piece of rocky ground nestled between craggy rises and peaks.
    Holding this position required nothing clever. You stood, you died and you killed—as long as you could.
    Lan commanded a cavalry. It wasn’t ideal for this kind of work— cavalries did best where they could spread out and had room to charge—but the passage through Tarwin’s Gap was narrow enough that only a small number of Trollocs could come through at once. That gave Lan a chance. At least it was more difficult for the Trollocs to take advantage of their superior numbers. They would have to pay a butcher’s bill for every yard they gained.
    Trolloc carcasses had formed an almost furlike blanket leading through the canyon. Each time the creatures tried to push through the gorge, Lan’s men had resisted them with lances and polearms, swords and arrows, eventually slaughtering thousands and leaving them heaped for their fellows to climb over. But each clash similarly reduced Lan’s numbers.
    Each assault forced his men to withdraw a little farther. Toward the mouth of the Gap. They were less than a hundred feet from it now.
    Lan felt the fatigue pressing deep into his bones.
    “Our forces?” Lan asked Prince Kaisel.
    “Maybe six thousand still able to ride, Dai Shan.”
    Less than half of what they’d started with a day before. “Tell them to mount up.”
    Kaisel looked shocked. “We’re going to retreat?”
    Lan turned to the lad.
    Kaisel paled. Lan had been told that his gaze could unnerve any man; Moiraine had liked to joke that he could outstare rocks and had the patience of an oak. Well, he didn’t feel as sure of himself as people thought, but this boy should have known better than to ask if they were retreating.
    “Of course,” Lan said, “and then were going to attack.”
    “Attack?” Kaisel said. “We are on the defensive!”
    “They’ll sweep us out,” Lan said, pulling himself into Mandarb’s saddle. “We’re exhausted, worn out and nearly broken. If we stand here and let them come at us again, we’ll fall without a whimper.”
    Lan knew an ending when he saw one.
    “Pass these orders,” Lan said to Prince Kaisel. “We will slowly pull out of the pass. You have the rest of the troops assemble on the plain, mounted and ready to attack the Shadowspawn as they come out of the Gap. A charge will do great damage; they won’t know what hit them.”
    “Wont we be surrounded and overrun if we leave the pass?” Kaisel asked.
    “This is the best we can do with the resources we have.”
    “And then?”
    “And then they eventually break through, slice our force into pieces and overrun us.”
    Kaisel sat for a moment, then nodded. Again, Lan was impressed. He’d assumed this boy had come with him to find the glory of battle, to fight at the side of Dai Shan and sweep their enemies away. But no. Kaisel was a Borderlander to the core. He hadn’t come for glory. He’d come because he’d had to. Good lad.
    “Give the order now. The men will be glad to get back on their horses again.” Too many of them had been forced to fight on foot because of the lack of maneuverability in the narrow confines.
    Kaisel gave the orders, and those orders burned through Lan’s men like an autumn fire. Lan saw Andere being helped into