“You bastard,” Rachel said, imagining it in her mind’s eye. Her father often said that one of the main mistakes that was made again and again in military history was failure to adequately follow up a broken enemy. He drove routs as hard as he possibly could.
“And when he comes, when they all come, we will have them trapped. And we’ll destroy the closest two legions and then, Miss Ghorbani, the war will be all but over.”
In the woods a shadow moved, ever so slightly, then settled again. A white head lifted to sniff the air, yowled faintly, then settled back to its vigil.
“Archers will debark here, at Wilamon,” Edmund’s chief of staff for land forces said. “They will march overland at a rapid pace and assemble on the reverse slope of this hill…”
Edmund nodded as the briefing went on. The archers were in for a hard night’s travel but, weather permitting, they’d arrive in enough time for a bite to eat before the main battle. If the enemy moved the way he anticipated, they would slay them. The group of Blood Lords Gunny had brought with him would do for close support if the orcs broke towards the archers. Between the Blood Lords and their stakes, the archers would be fine.
And he still hadn’t told anyone about Fell Deeds.
The battle should go about as well as any battle he’d ever planned. Things would go wrong, but nothing they couldn’t handle.
So, why was his stomach on fire?
“That is the outline of the ground phase. Questions?” the chief of staff asked.
“I have one,” Herzer said. He was in the briefing representing Joanna and the remaining dragon wings. “I know I’m the air guy for this one, but I’ve got an issue with the ground plan,” he said, looking at Edmund then the intelligence officer. “You say there’s only ten thousand in the camp. That’s what they landed with. Why haven’t they reinforced with portals?”
“We don’t know,” the intel officer admitted. “There have been teleports, but we can’t tell the difference between them and portals. The number of ports has been… high. But they have not reinforced by portal and, yes, that has us worried.”
“Duke Edmund?” Herzer said, widening his eyes.
“What would you have us do, Major Herrick?” Edmund asked, softly.
“Not what they expect,” Herzer replied. “These movements are the minimum that I would expect, given our logistics and movement constraints. But, going in cold like this, the word ‘corncob’ comes to mind. I also note that there is no indication of anti-dragon defenses. That seems… well nigh to impossible.”
“These are questions that we’re not going to take up at this time,” Edmund said, softly again. “Continue with the briefing. Major Herrick, I’ll see you afterwards.”
“You’ve got a concussion,” Rachel said, holding a candle up to reflect off the ocular mirror over her eye. The left pupil dilated normally as did the right. “You need three days, probably no more, of rest in a quiet tent. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No,” the officer growled, pulling on his shirt. “Not the way this damned siege is going.”
“Fine, we’re done,” Rachel said, backing up and rotating the mirror up.
“You should come by,” the New Destiny officer said, reaching out to touch her red hair. “You’d enjoy yourself.”
“I’d rather fuck a Changed,” Rachel replied, coldly. “Get out.”
“That can be arranged as well,” the officer snarled, reaching for her.
“First of all, if you get your blood pressure up having sex, don’t blame me for the headache you’ll get,” Rachel said, avoiding the grab. “And as to the rest, you’ll have to take it up with Mr. Conner.”
The officer paused at that and then shrugged. “There will be later.”
“I’m sure,” Rachel replied. “Now get the hell out of my -hospital.”
She ducked through the flap of the tent and walked to the rear. The back of the main examining tent was by the east wall and there was a broad avenue between it and the wall. Since it was only used to move troops during an attack or a drill, it was a relatively quiet and out of the way spot for her to try to get her head back together.
The two Changed assigned to watch her followed her out. They were remarkably docile for Changed but that was Conner’s doing. As long as she stayed in the hospital area and didn’t try to talk to anyone but patients, they left her completely alone.
She looked up and nodded. The UFS fleet had to be near because there was a dragon up watching the camp nearly every day. It was right towards the sun but that suited her just fine. She ducked her head and twiddled the reflector back over her eye then looked back up at the dragon. It was a chance but she didn’t think the Changed were smart enough to know what she was doing. They had been instructed not to let her talk to people, not to prevent her from signaling.
“Herzer,” Edmund said as the major came through the door. His eyes widened in surprise as the Blood Lord was followed by Megan Travante. “Mistress Travante. I asked to see Herzer, however.”
“Am I unwelcome?” Megan said sitting down in one of the chairs. She glanced at the floor and saw that the bloodstains still hadn’t been removed.
“No,” Edmund said after a moment. He picked up a pair of stapled together message sheets and flipped them to Herzer. “From one of your dragons keeping an eye on the camp. You were right.”
Herzer looked at the sheet and frowned. The top was broken words, the bottom an attempt at translation.
“Eleven gates in tent,” Herzer read. “Trap for legion and archers. Seventy to one hundred thousand Changed. Feigned retreat. Conner in charge. Buggly.” He looked up at Edmund and frowned. “Buggly?”
“I used to call Rachel my little buggly-wuggly,” Edmund said, frowning at the desktop. “Not the sort of thing you would expect them to extract in questioning.”
“And not the sort of thing they’d tell us,” Herzer said, waving the paper. “That it’s a trap. But you suspected that, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Edmund replied, still looking at the desktop. “And even my intended counter to it won’t work against the full force. Unless…” He leaned back and rubbed at his chin, closing his eyes. “A hundred thousand. How fast for them all to emerge? Figure two abreast through ten portals with the eleventh for special weapons and groups. How fast are they emerging?”
“Figure twenty per second,” Herzer said. “Close enough. But, sir, we can’t let them come out!”
“This is the bulk of the New Destiny army,” Edmund pointed out. “If we can break them, here…”
“Will all due respect your Dukeship,” Herzer said, tossing the paper back down. “We can’t face a fraction of that force!”
“Yes we can,” Edmund said, his eyes flaring open. “Don’t kid yourself. It’s all in the timing and we can do timing; they can’t.”