The skirmishes had continued for four days after the first confront, small groups from the forest, one section at a time, pulling back before the siege could close on them. The perimeter pushed back each time and the forest gave nothing back afterward.
On the fifth morning the Bulgars changed it.
Nameless Rider POV
He was in the center of his section when the forest shifted at six points at once.
The open ground stretched across the section's full front, three large clearings showing riders at the same time, while movement appeared at the two far edges where bodies pressed through the thin margin of trees to extend the line further east and west.
He counted forty, then seventy, then more than a hundred and fifty riders coming out in a continuous pour, and their riders were already firing before half of them had come out the forest.
He shot at the nearest cluster, a group of twenty riders coming through the middle at a canter. The range was eighty meters and falling.
