Free Doom's Break by Christopher Rowley Page B

the lines before they could form properly. Men died by the dozen, going down under a sudden overwhelming tide of the enemy. The rearguard was shattered, and the fighting became a free-for-all around the top of the cliff trail.
    Heuze himself, swinging a sword taken from a dead man, was caught in the thick of the fighting. He saw Lieutenant Fode killed not five feet away. Splatters of the man's brains fell across his legs. The huge monkey whose sword had felled Fode turned in Heuze's direction, but before he could close in on the admiral, two men engaged him. Their shields resounded from heavy blows, but they fought on. Heuze stumbled away, horribly aware that he'd just pissed himself from the terror but glad not to be facing that huge monkey. A few steps farther on and he reached the top of the downward trail to the beach.
    There was no more to be done on the cliff top. The monkeys were all over them. With a terrified scream a man fell over the precipice, then another. The monkeys were pushing the men right to the edge and then out into thin air.
    Down at the beach, meanwhile, the boats had arrived. Men surged out to meet them, and would have swamped them but for the remains of their discipline and a lot of bellowing from officers.
    The first three hundred were taken off the beach. The boats headed back to the Anvil , which had raised her anchor and set a few sails to shift position toward the beach. With a practiced eye, Heuze calculated the time it would take for the ship to come close enough to exchange the rescued men. Still too long for those on the beach.
    Heuze suddenly understood what had to be done. It was the only chance. He turned and fought his way back through the crowd to General Polluk, who was standing on the trail beneath a rock overhang that gave some protection from the rain of missiles falling from above.
    "Polluk!" snarled Heuze. "Where are the fornicating flags?"
    Polluk stared at him. The general was trying hard to keep control of the remaining men fighting at the head of the trail. They were losing the fight, but they were stubborn men of Shasht, and they would hold their ground for a long time.
    "The signal flags? Lieutenant Cump has them."
    "Cump!" roared Heuze.
    Young Cump was there, toting the pack with the signal flags and lines to string them on.
    "Send a message to the ship: 'Send ropes. Seven hundred men have to move.'"
    "What are you planning, sir?" Polluk had hold of his elbow.
    "The fornicating monkeys have taken the cliff top. Look!"
    A rain of rocks and logs, stones and arrows was hurtling down from the cliff onto the men packed on the beach below. The men had no choice but to walk out into the waves.
    Cump and two men worked frantically to sort out the flags. A line was dropped over the edge of the cliff, and flags were fed onto it with desperate speed.
    The Anvil got the message. Additional sails spread within seconds, and she accelerated toward the boats bearing the first three hundred.
    As the ship swept down on them, the men were ordered out of the boats and made to swim. The boats turned about immediately and started back to the beach. The Anvil , slowing, with an anchor splashing into the water, caught up to the boats, and coils of rope were hurled down to them. Meanwhile, rescue netting was being lowered over the sides and stern to the swimmers.
    Heuze gave thanks for Captain Pukh's wits. The man had been slow on the uptake originally. This was the Pukh whom he trusted in a fight. The first swimmers were clambering up the side. Sailors dived into the sea to help the wounded and those who couldn't swim very well.
    Above him, the men at the top of the trailhead had been forced to retreat almost as far as Polluk's post under the overhang. More rocks, pieces of burning brush, and occasional men's bodies kept flying off the cliff and hurtling past.
    Heuze had seen how it was going and was already hurrying downward, stumping as fast as he could go. Ensign Combliss was with him, while