CHAPTER 18I
Ptosphes was shocked by the casualties. Well, they were rather shocking—only forty-two hundred effectives left out of fifty-eight hundred infantry, and eighteen hundred of a trifle over three thousand cavalry. The body-count didn’t meet the latter figure, however, and he remembered what the Saski officer had said about Blathames’ chase almost to Esdreth Gap. Most of the mercenaries on the left wing had simply bugged out; by now, they’d be fleeing into Listra Valley, spreading tales of a crushing Hostigi defeat. He cursed; there wasn’t anything else he could do about it.
Some cavalry arrived from Esdreth Gap: Chartiphon’s Army of the Besh men. During the night, they reported, infantry from both the army of the Besh and the Army of the Listra had gotten onto the mountain back o
