Attending these tables and the maps on the walls were mages. Each bore a slate that she assumed was an arcanslata. Somewhere in the field, other mages were scouting the enemy and sending information back to Caledo and King Bowmar. Provided the information was reliable, the reports gave the Murosans a great tactical advantage over the enemy.
“Your Majesty, here are your guests.”
Alexia had followed the guide’s glance to a particular table and expected one of the grizzled, older men to greet them, but instead a tall slender man dressed in the black robe and mask of a mage reacted to the news. His crisp gait made short work of the distance separating them. Close up Alexia could see several strands of white in his thick black hair and beard, but otherwise he seemed more Prince Murfin’s match in age. I could easily have taken them for brothers. What surprised her was that, for as long as she could recall, the king of Muroso had been Bowmar, and the man before her hardly looked of an age to be Sayce’s father, much less father to Princess Dayley or Prince Murfin.
She’d also not expected him to be a mage. She’d heard stories of his being a masterful tactician and had even studied a couple of minor battles he’d waged when one of his dukes had rebelled and tried to join Saporicia. He had showed a good sense of territory and deployment of troops. For that reason she had assumed he was a warrior, but clearly this was not the case.
“I am pleased to meet you all.” The king smiled easily and his dark eyes did seem to reflect his smile. Not completely, but enough that Alexia did not feel wholly uneasy. “There will be a ball, of course, at which we shall all be formally introduced, but I know well who all of you are. I apologize for how you were brought here, but I do not regret your presence. You have arrived at a most critical time.”
He turned from them, then beckoned them on with the wave of a hand.
They followed him to one of the sand tables. It depicted a city by a river. Aurolani forces outnumbered Murosan units three to one, and the Aurolani had already taken the city. The Murosan troops were strung out on the road leading south and some undecorated blocks had been used to represent refugees.
“This is the city of Porjal. A cousin of mine ruled over it, but now he is dead. Two of his sons have likewise perished, and a third is wounded and being evacuated. His eldest daughter is leading the rearguard action as the refugees are evacuating west to Nawal and beyond. You all know how difficult a march that will be, especially in this weather.”
Alexia nodded. “I am sorry for your loss, Highness.”
“You are most kind, Princess Alexia. When I have the time I shall mourn their deaths, as well as that of my city. What concerns me most, now, is what the destruction of Porjal portends.” Bowmar folded his arms over his chest. “Dragonels are the key to all this, of course. We met them as we would normally do. Our mages fought theirs, killing a number, losing some ourselves. Despite warnings, however, my cousin took great comfort in Porjal’s walls. Spells had been worked to reinforce them. They did take a harder pounding than Lurrü in Sebcia, but the walls fell nonetheless. My cousin had promised me a month; I got a week.”
Crow nodded at the table. “How current are the positions?”
“Those positions came in at dawn. We should be receiving another report soon, by noon at the latest. If we hear nothing, we have to assume signal-mages are being lost. The slaughter would be incalculable.”
Alexia studied the situation closely. Muroso’s terrain consisted largely of rolling hills that sloped west toward the ocean, then rose again toward the Saporician Highlands and southeast toward Bokagul. Forests dotted the countryside, which made it more defensible than flat, bare plains. Even so, that the Aurolani were used to winter neutralized that advantage and created hardships for Murosan troops.
The majority of the population existed along the seacoast, save for those who lived in Caledo and, a bit farther south, in the city of Zamsina. The roads from Oriosa and Saporicia ran through Zamsina before heading north to Caledo and then out west to the coast. Coming in toward the capital they’d skirted the city and picked up the north road halfway between Caledo and Zamsina.
The defensive situation was not good at all. The Aurolani had two targets to hit. The first consisted of the coastal cities. They’d already taken Porjal and could roll into Saporicia, right to the border of Loquellyn. The advantage of doing that would be to allow them to ship supplies down by boat, which would be quicker than the long road past Fortress Draconis.
And they will be needing more supplies. If a city’s walls can be reinforced, by stone or magick or both, the Aurolani will require morefiredirt and shot to bring the cities down. In addition to providing the Aurolani another line of supply, taking the coastal cities would also cut the Murosans and the folk of northern Saporicia off from being supplied by sea. For those two reasons, rolling the coastal cities up made perfect strategic sense.
The other target was Caledo itself. Because it was the capital of the nation, it made a perfect political target. Taking Caledo would be the equivalent of decapitating the nation. Its citizens would lose heart. The nation would, in the minds of some, cease to exist. Some nobles would take advantage of that state to either ally themselves with Chytrine to save their realms, or otherwise proclaim themselves independent—until the Aurolani rolled over them and shattered their cities.
The very idea of failing to defend Caledo adequately was as bad as losing the city itself. If the coast went, the city could hold out for a while. But if Caledo fell, the chance at cohesive opposition to Chytrine evaporated. While the government might fall back to Zamsina, the loss of Caledo would let the Aurolani still take the coast, and Muroso’s free zone would slowly starve.
King Bowmar looked over at Alexia as if he had read her mind. “It is grim. They feint at the coast, so we have to move to defend it. They feint at Caledo, so we have to defend the capital. I do not have enough in the way of troops to save both areas, and the loss of one betokens the loss of the other. Chytrine’s dragonels will shatter our walls and kill our troops.”
“Then we have to stop the dragonels.”
Alexia looked over at Will. “Easier said than done, Will.”
“I know, but not impossible.” The young thief squeezed in at the edge of the table beside her. “Look, I’ve seen dragonels. The only way to stop them from breaking the walls is to build bigger walls, which I’d guess you’re going to try to do, or prevent them from getting in range to hit your walls. Or, if you can’t keep them out of range, you keep them from being able to hit so hard.”
The king canted his head. “I’m not sure I follow you, Lord Norrington.”
Will sighed heavily. “In Bokagul, Princess Sayce was shot by a draconette. Lombo was, too. Dranae figured some of the folks using the firespitters didn’t put enough firedirt into them. The shot didn’t hit as hard as it could have. Now it strikes me that if they’ve not got the firedirt, they can’t use it, and since you know where their troops are, you could have some folks out there stealing their supplies.”
Alexia smiled. She’d wondered at Will’s sudden exposition on tactics, but once again he’d reduced a military operation to an exercise in thievery. “Very good, Will. I think you’ve got the half of it.”
“I do?”
She rested a hand on his shoulder. “Yes. Highness, Will’s right. The only way to slow the Aurolani forces down is to cut their supplies. This means that, as your people retreat, they have to destroy anything they can’t carry off. It’s winter. There’s no living off the land and an army can’t fight when there’s only snow to fill their bellies. Despite the hardship it will cause, everything the Aurolani will benefit from must be destroyed.“