Nightrise

monkey, and although, in comparison to its own huge size, they were little more than needles, they stung its face and blinded one of its eyes. The monkey howled in pain, baring its teeth, but held its ground. Then there was an explosion and a white, glowing missile shot past it, just missing its head. Jamie turned to see where it had come from. He had thought the cannons had opened fire but in fact the shot had come from one of the copper pipes that he had noticed before. The pipes were a crude type of bazooka that the men had hoisted onto their shoulders and were aiming into the enemy forces.
    Jamie saw another one go off, the white-hot missile streaking through the air on a trail of smoke. This one found its target. One of the knights had broken through Matt's lines. There was an explosion and he was gone, quite simply blown apart.
    There was no way to tell where the line between the two armies had been drawn. It seemed as if both sides had abandoned any strategy as soon as the battle had begun and were now engaged in completely random, hand-to-hand combat. Matt's soldiers were standing their ground, holding the man-creatures at bay. And yet, the bodies were beginning to pile up. Medical teams were already rushing into the field with stretchers, somehow emerging again with the injured, carrying them to a makeshift hospital that had been set up amongst the tents. Even in these early stages, and as much as he hated to admit it, Jamie was sure he was on the losing side. The odds against them were too great.
    And still Scar refused to move. Nobody had noticed her and her troops, high up on the hill overlooking the battlefield, partially concealed behind the pine trees. They were only a hundred strong — not enough to make any real difference. But Jamie couldn't bear just standing there. He felt wretched, a coward.
    "We have to go down!" he exclaimed.
    "No!" Scar was furious. Her eyes were fixed on what was happening down below and her whole body seemed to be frozen.
    "Why not? We're not doing any good."
    "This is the way Matt wanted it." Scar was clutching her sword so hard that her fist had turned white, and for a moment Jamie wondered if she would even have attacked him if he had tried to advance.
    "They don't know we're here," she explained. "That's the whole point. They mustn't see us. And we have to wait."
    "Wait for what?"
    'You'll see!"
    Jamie glanced at Finn as if he might say something different, but the big man shook his head slowly and continued to watch the progress of the battle. Jamie forced himself to look back at the field and at once the screams of the dying and the sickly smell of newly spilled blood rose up and consumed him. He had seen films. He had played computer games. But this was utterly different. There were no cameras, no artful arrangements. Here death was vicious, random, all around him.
    And then the monkey fell. A great ball of orange flame had soared over the fighters. Once again, Jamie had been unsure where it had come from. Then he saw an elaborate catapult, a strange construction of metal and wood, like something salvaged from a junkyard. It had been hidden amongst the tents and had just fired a blazing missile at the creature, hitting it square on the shoulder. The huge animal exploded in flames that spread in seconds across its fur, its whole upper body disappearing in a red inferno. Jamie saw it trying to beat out the fire with its hands but then its arms caught alight too. The monkey screeched once — a hideous, piteous sound. Finally it plunged backward, crushing several of its own soldiers, and lay still.
    But there was no time to celebrate this one small victory. The other giant animals were killing dozens of people, the condor and the hummingbird striking down again and again, the spider spitting poison or crushing its victims underfoot. The spiked knights were also continuing forward, more like robots than men, cutting down anyone who stood in their path. The cannons roared and two of the knights fell, their horses screaming as they came crashing down. The Old Ones had no heavy artillery — no cannons or catapults. But they didn't need them.
    For the first time, Jamie noticed the thirteen horsemen who had accompanied Chaos. These had to be the fire riders that Scar had mentioned the day before. They were dressed in gray, like monks or friars, their faces completely hidden by hoods. They appeared unarmed…until Jamie saw one of them lean forward and touch one of Matt's