“Very good, my lord,” Markus said. He sent a runner to get the bridging company on the march.
General Dayr returned, and Jaymes spent another hour making specific dispositions, speaking with the quartermasters to make sure the wagon trains of food, fuel, and arrows were dispatched with all haste. He spoke to the captains of two score companies, impressing upon them the urgency of the relief mission. He described the appearance of Ankhar’s new, powerful ally, and the desperate straits in Solanthus. By the time he was finished, the camp had become a frenzy of activity, with tents being struck, corrals dismantled, horses and oxen haltered and prepared for the march.
Only then did Jaymes return to Coryn, who was waiting patiently beside the muddy patch of ground that had, a quarter of an hour earlier, been the command compound in the midst of neatly arrayed tents. “Once you make up your mind, things happen pretty fast,” the wizard noted wryly as a column of Crown Knights thundered past them, and three files of pikemen formed up for a rapid march to the north.
“By evening tomorrow too many of these good men will be dead,” Jaymes said. “They know it-we all do-but no one hesitates when battle is necessary.”
“You’re the only man who could bring all these knights, these soldiers, together,” Coryn said. “And I know the crossing will be dangerous. But it has to be done.”
An advance team of boatmen trundled past, a caravan of five horse-drawn wagons. They, and others like them, would ride toward the major crossings, carrying bundles of canvas and strips of supple wood. Under the cover of darkness they would assemble hundreds of boats in a single night.
The heavy bridging company also got under way, rolling south in a separate wagon train, carrying long pontoons and sections of planking. Their goal would be to establish a usable span across the river in the next twenty hours.
“Send for Sir Templar,” Jaymes barked to a nearby courier. In a few moments the cleric-knight appeared, out of breath and red faced, before the army commander.
“Yes, my lord!” he cried, extending a salute and standing rigidly at attention. “I await your orders!”
“At ease,” Jaymes said. “I want you and your apprentices to go with General Markus-to the south. Stay with the bridging company. When they start to put their pontoons in the water, do whatever you can to help conceal their work-whether it be fog or darkness or some kind of invisibility spell. Many lives will depend on those bridging sections reaching far across the river before the enemy takes note of them.”
“But…” Templar looked stricken, then immediately stiffened again. “Yes, my lord! As you wish! We will do whatever lies in our power.”
“I’m sure you will. And understand, there is no time to waste.”
“Certainly, my lord! Yes, of course!” Templar stood still for another beat then seemed to realize he had been dismissed. With a salute, the Clerist spun about and hurried away.
“Do you think they’ll be able to help?” asked Coryn.
“We’ll know better tomorrow. But they’ve been riding along with the army since we moved north from Caergoth, eating our food, preaching the creed of Kiri-Jolith to whoever happens to be within earshot. It’s time to find out if these cleric-knights can be any kind of real asset to this army.”
The white wizard’s face went pale and her eyes moist as she watched another company, mostly young swordsmen from the northern plains, march past. They were singing a battle song, though several of the soldiers-mere boys, really-looked almost faint with fear.
“War is such a terrible business,” Coryn said, a catch in her voice.
“Yes. We’ll lose a lot of men,” Jaymes said. “But by hitting them in so many places at once, I expect we’ll find a chink in Ankhar’s defenses somewhere. Once we find that chink, the knights will pour through.”
“But Solanthus is still nearly fifty miles away,” the wizard pointed out.
“We’ll march as fast as we can. One column, a steel fist that will smash any of Ankhar’s defenders out of the way.”
“Even so, it will be costly,” she said quietly.
“What would you have me do?” he demanded, his tone growing sharp. “We’re bound by certain restrictions-and the speed an army can march is one of them!”
“Dammit!” she snapped back. Her dark eyes bored into his for a moment until she sighed and looked away, turning toward the east. “Yes, you’re right. I’m angry at myself-all this bloodshed.”
“It ’s a fact we must deal with it and move on.” He grimaced and shook his head. “I do wish we knew more about this monster, this king of the elementals. If I could see it, observe it, I would have a better grasp on how we might make war against it.”
“There is one thing we can try,” Coryn said. She sounded strangely hesitant, and when she looked at the marshal, her eyes had softened. There was fear, there, but it wasn’t fear of danger or death.
“What’s that?” Jaymes looked away, studying the troops as a company of horse archers trotted passed.
She bit her lip nervously then spoke. “I could try to teleport you into the city. You would have a chance to do something there that no one else can do because no one else possesses your courage… or your sword.”
“Are you suggesting Giantsmiter could slay this elemental king?”
“No, not slay it. I doubt that anything can slay it-it would be like trying to kill the very essence of the world. But I have been reading a great deal of history. The gist of it is that your sword was created by Vinas Solamnus, but he had the help of a mighty wizard. It might just help you to learn something crucial about the elemental, to discern some weakness, some way we might banish it back to its lower plane.
“By pointing your sword at the being and staring into its eyes, you might be able to read its mind. It’s a dangerous strategy-reading the thoughts of other beings is a frightening experience under the best of circumstances. But if you can stand before the elemental and study it while you point your sword at it, it is possible you could perceive some weakness, some frustration of the beast that you might be able to exploit.”
“If it doesn’t kill me first,” he noted.
“If it doesn’t kill you first, right,” Coryn agreed.
“And how do I go about this?”
“You must stand before the creature. And try to get a look at its eyes, drawing the monster to look at you. If you concentrate, listen carefully, you’ll get a sense of its intentions, its fears.”
“I’ll try,” he said without hesitation. “My generals can command their wings and win this battle. I myself will go to Solanthus and find the elemental,” he said. “Can you send me?
“It’s not quite that simple,” she demurred. “You know about the Cleft Spires, of course?”
“The big split mountain, in the middle of Solanthus? Sure.”
“Well, it is a rock with powerful magical properties. Ever since the siege began, the wizards of the city have used it to block teleportation magic. This is to prevent Ankhar’s Thorn Knights from sneaking into the city or sending assassins, saboteurs, and the like into its midst. Their magic makes it more complicated to send you there.”
“Is there any way around their magic?”
“I think I can circumvent it, when the white moon is high. Solinari is full tonight, so I will send you when he reaches his zenith in the skies. Perhaps you want to get some sleep first.”
“My troops aren’t sleeping tonight; I won’t either. But that will give me time to write out orders, send detailed plans to the generals.”
“Very well,” Coryn said. “I’ll prepare the spell. And I’ll enchant your ring, the one I gave you years ago. You will have one teleport spell, so you can get out of the city when you’ve accomplished your mission.”
“I thought you said teleportation doesn’t work in Solanthus?”
She shook her head, like a tutor impatient with a slow-learning pupil. “The barrier keeps people from teleporting in. There is no restriction on leaving-in fact, I have been visited by wizards who have come from the city. It’s one way I’m able to keep aware of what’s happening there.”