It wasn't the Herders' light cavalry who caught up first, but Lieutenant Bard, responsible for rounding up the missing.
When Bard caught up with the main force with his riders, almost every rider had an extra person sitting behind them.
"Found more than twenty, couldn't locate the rest in the pitch dark," Bard reported to the Colonel.
But what the Colonel cared about was something else, "Any pursuers?"
"Didn't see any."
Colonel Jeska's expression was grim, rubbing his stubbled chin, and it took him a while to make up his mind.
He commanded, "Tell everyone not to rest, we're setting off right now."
The supply train's militia had lost thirty percent of its men, and the Colonel was forced to distribute the weapons of the deceased to the drivers and the merchants.
Those civilians who had never undergone military training were temporarily organized into a unit, commanded by Bard—because they only trusted Lieutenant Bard.
