Ranks formed as ten-thousand soldiers took their places in three fighting formations.  Don Diego looked over his army, wishing again for more cavalry.  When he saw the bears prowling outside the stockade he had blanched.  Madre de Dios, they are huge!  He had no illusions cavalry might defeat such monsters, but he was sure his horses were faster.  He wished he hadn’t sent two legions through the swamp with Dante; it looked now like he needed them here.  There couldn’t have been more than a few hundred basajuan inside those walls, and as long as he had them so outnumbered, his men would eventually breach their defenses and slaughter every last one.  Breaching their defenses would be costly, though, with those bears guarding the walls.

A low wall separated his ar...

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