The horn sounded again, a deeper note this time, and the summons that had been pressing the line suddenly pulled back, reorganizing themselves They drew into tight formations, clusters of ten or fifteen moving with a coordination that the earlier waves hadn't possessed, and behind them, through the dust and the flickering light of the damaged barrier, I could see larger shapes moving.
Not just one like this time, there were several of the kind of creatures I had killed.
Five of them. Each one about the same size of that beast, carapaced and bone-spurred and radiating the kind of spiritual pressure that made the air taste like copper. They moved in a staggered line, the smaller summons falling in around them like infantry escorting siege towers.
The mercenary line stopped moving forward. Several of them started moving backward.
