The eastern dust changed direction.
Batu was on the open ground between the center collision and the junction when the column that had been moving north and west along the line's outer edge began moving south. He watched it for the seconds it took to confirm. The arc was off the junction. Dorbei's wheel was pressing behind it without closing on open flat terrain against a force already committed to withdrawal.
It would make it south in order.
The pressure on Chaidu's riders let go.
The eastern sound had been a sustained press against the main body's rear, the noise of a fight running against a fixed point with nowhere to fall back. Now it dropped. The remaining sounds from the east were horses moving and men calling intervals, the sounds of a body pulling off contact and reforming.
The incoming fire from the arc's riders stopped as the range opened and the distance between the two sides became something that arrows could not close.
