by Pirateaba
“Putting numbers aside for the moment…Orthenon, based off of your knowledge of the nations that sent these armies, how many high-level warriors are we likely to encounter? Any specialty troops?”
“None that I know of. I would assume they would be obvious if they were included, but it seems that Gemira and Oblinat have declined to commit their most experienced forces.”
“Wise of them.”
Maresar whispered that. Flos nodded. He looked at the twins. He was still explaining. Still explaining, as if this meant…nothing.
“A battle is not decided merely by numbers in this world, Trey, Teres. Nor in yours, I suspect. But aside from the quality of arms and strategy, the existence of high-level warriors and mages can change the course of an entire battle. In fact, the enemy [General] alone can tip the scales between victory and defeat if his level is high enough.”
“So can armies geared towards a certain type of fighting, where all their soldiers have the same kind of class. Highly mobile armies, armies where the most common soldier knows a Tier 2 spell…if we don’t see them here, it is to our advantage.”
Orthenon’s calmness was getting on Trey’s nerves.
“But they have over fifty thousand—”
“Trey. I understand your concerns, but we must appraise our enemy fully before worrying.”
Flos gently patted Trey on the shoulder and let him take his seat. Trey sat, fidgeting on the chair as Flos looked at Ortheon. The steward continued.
“The highest level [General] in the region would be [Duke] Balimar Wulten. I assume he will lead the coalition army.”
“An aristocratic general?”
“No.”
Orthenon shook his head to Flos’ clear disappointment.
“He gained the [Duke] class from achieving distinction in battle, not at birth. To my knowledge his one main class is [General].”
“A pity.”
Flos sighed. He looked at Gazi.
“So. We know there may be as many as eighty thousand, and no outstanding units have been spotted. I hate to ask it of you, Gazi, but you are our highest-level [Scout]…”
She was already ready. Gazi bowed to Flos, eying the position of the army on the map.
“I will appraise their forces and return shortly, my lord.”
She would have strode out there and then, but Flos caught her arm. He stared down at Gazi.
“Go safely, my dear Gazi. Take no risks for me. I cannot bear to lose you too.”
She smiled at him. Smiled in a real way, so happy that it made Trey hurt to see it.
“I will be careful.”
Then she was gone. In lieu of better knowledge, Orthenon declared the meeting adjourned. He began shifting forces along the north east wall in preparation for the battle. And he sent more riders out after Gazi had gone, although not to scout for soldiers.
“There are streams of refugees and villagers flooding the road to the city, my King. They have been forced out of their homes. Not just the ones in your lands—anyone who refuses to renounce you as King has been forced out.”
Flos paused.
“Were any killed?”
Orthenon hesitated.
“Some. But most are allowed to leave unharmed, but without any belongings. They mean to starve us, by forcing you to open your storehouses to feed so many.”
“Clever.”
Flos turned away. He stared at the map, and then walked out of the room. Orthenon called out.
“My King? Where are you going?”
“To see these fleeing people for myself. They are frightened, homeless. Because they believed in me. I will go to them. While I do that Orthenon, would you carry out an order?”
“Of course, my King. What is it?”
“Open my storehouses.”
—-
The rest of the day, Trey and Teres stood with Flos as he walked the battlements or descended to the streets, greeting the exhausted people coming to his kingdom.
They came in small groups, some of them. Others arrived in long, winding streams, stumbling towards the gates, footsore, weary. Many had nothing but the clothes on their backs. Some hadn’t eaten in over a day and had to be half-carried inside. But they called out when they saw their King, riding towards them with wagons filled with food.
It was a bad idea to help them. Trey knew that. Teres told him how many storehouses Orthenon had to open and how much was left. And yet, they were Flos’ people and no one in the entire kingdom could have stopped Flos from feeding his subjects or going to them.
They were refugees. People without a home, forced out of their country by war. The very definition of refugees. It surprised Trey, that there would be that kind of people in a fantasy world, a magical one. But that was what made it reality.
Refugees, and dead children. It was too real for Trey.
But still, Flos kept him by his side. And in the evening when the rush of people entering the city had slowed, he took them back to the war room and explained what they were facing.
“It is not a vast army. A large one, yes, but if my kingdom were not wasted from a decade, it would be a poor army to pit against me. As it is, it is the first of many. A test.”
It was incredible to Trey that Flos could say that, given the disparity in numbers. But Flos was adamant the coalition wasn’t as dangerous as the Emperor of Sands, not by a long shot.
“I am weak. Reim is weak. That is why these small nations have a chance of defeating me, and why they had to declare war now. Eighty thousand soldiers is a force to be reckoned with, but I am a [King] of the highest level, and I have two of my Seven here and Orthenon. Normally any army would hesitate to attack with that knowledge.”
“But you’re outnumbered ten to one!”
Teres pointed that out and Flos nodded.
“We are. But six thousand soldiers to hold a wall is not bad. And there are tricks to be used…”
“I’d feel a lot better if you had a few more zeroes on the end of your army. Like three more zeroes.”
Flos had to laugh. He spread his hands over the map as he spoke to the twins.
“Six million? If such an army came towards me I would run long and fast, even if all of my Seven were with me. But sixty thousand is manageable. Perhaps it is a small number to you? The largest of armies I have seen mustered was over four hundred thousand strong. But it is rare that any one army grows to that size; the logistics of feeding and moving so many grows to extreme. No, when my conquest was at its greatest, I had three armies each over a hundred thousand soldiers in size, and many smaller ones led by my vassals. Is that comparable to your world?”
It was, but not exactly favorably. Trey was hazy on the exact number, but he knew over three million men had served in the British army during World War II. When he told that to Flos, the King’s eyes gleamed.
“Armies of soldiers millions strong. Would that I could see that—but I suppose they would not all be deployed along one single battleground for the same reason. In truth, Trey, Teres, there are armies of that size in this world, only no nation fields them. When a Goblin King rises, his army will be at least a million Goblins strong, and countless more will be led by his Goblin Lords.”
“How do you beat that? How do you beat any army that large?”
“With Skills and levels and a good bit of strategy. Do not worry—I do not rely solely on my Seven and Orthenon when declaring this battle winnable. But it is true they tip the odds greatly by themselves.”
Trey just couldn’t imagine that. One person shouldn’t be able to influence an entire battle, even if they were as strong as Flos. But the King seemed to think each one of his vassals was worth thousands of soldiers.
“Thousands? If used correctly, certainly they could kill thousands. In their own way. Amerys could do it directly with lightning magic. Drevish could probably count the soldiers his walls have killed in the tens or hundreds of thousands.”
“Who were they?”
Trey found the courage
to ask that question. Flos blinked at him. Trey found his tongue knotting, but went on when Teres nudged him.
“I mean—sorry, but we’ve heard some stories, but no one talks about them. Even Mars and Gazi—people seem to think we should know what they’ve done, but we don’t. What were they like? Mars seems so…normal. Well, sort of. She doesn’t look normal, but—”
Trey yelped as Teres trod on his toe. Flos laughed, but his eyes had turned distant. He went to the map and picked up a small pin with a flag on it.
“What were they like? Ah, Trey. Of all the questions you could ask, that is the hardest. My Seven. You know they were the highest leveled of my vassals, my greatest and most trusted companions?”
Trey and Teres nodded. Trey held his breath as Flos stared down at the map. He seemed older, as he spoke of the past. Older, yet there was a smile on his face when he said there names. And unshed tears in his eyes.
“Mars, Gazi, Takhatres, Drevish, Amerys, Tottenval, and Queravia. Those are the names of my Seven, the heroes who rode with me and shook the world itself.”
Trey hadn’t heard two of those names before. Tottenval and Queravia. He knew they were the two who had died without being told.
Flos went on.
“Not all of them were warriors. Drevish was not, and neither was Tottenval. But they all contributed to my kingdom in some great way. In the past, each of my Seven fulfilled a different purpose. Gazi often rode alone, scouting ahead and behind, safeguarding my kingdom. With her eye and Skills, she slew every [Scout] that sought to the movement of my forces, and killed each [Assassin] or [Spy] that dared lurk within my borders.”
“That’s why you sent her out?”
Flos’ eyes met Teres’. He nodded.
“Other nations feared to commit their forces, because they had no clear image of my forces. Some could use magic, but if they sent a person, that person would die within a fortnight. Gazi was feared for her ability to hunt down anyone and find their deepest secrets. When battle called, she would ambush the enemy, infiltrating the camp and killing a valuable soldier or stealing battle plans. Then she would slip away.”
Trey could imagine Gazi doing just that, with her slight smile. That was why she was always looking. That was how she’d found the child. He shivered.
Flos continued.
“Others occupied different roles. Mars is a pure warrior. She would be at the head of every charge, and crush the opposing army’s champion before each battle. She deserved her class. [Vanguard].”
“And Drevish?”
The name made Flos stiffen at first, but then he relaxed. Trey hated to ask. But he wanted to.
“He was an [Architect], right? He built walls, castles, and stuff?”
“More than that. He was one of the three of my Seven who knew magic, Trey. He could enchant a gate so the mightiest battering ram couldn’t break it. He could build a wall overnight with his teams of [Builders], so that an enemy army would be facing a fortified defense when they tried to launch a counterattack. He did not like war. But he was essential. Ah, but I asked too much of him, didn’t I?”
Flos’ head lowered. Trey and Teres exchanged a glance. She was the one who asked the next question.
“What about Orthenon? He’s not one of the Seven, but he’s like them isn’t he?”
“My steward? Yes. He deserves to be placed among them. But he is not one of them. He is my left hand, the one who does what I cannot. So he never achieved the same level of fame during the war that they did.”
Flos smiled ruefully. Trey thought about Orthenon carefully and meticulously plotting the enemy’s movements, just like he took care of everything else.
“Is he the one who led your armies? Like a [General], I mean? Or was that you?”
The King looked first surprised, then amused. And then heartbroken.
“Orthenon? No. He was far too busy managing my kingdom to plan out the movement of armies and lead battles himself. I led my own army of course, but I did not have the skill to plan out the grand movements of each of my armies. No, it was another of my Seven who did that. Who…used to do that.”
His fist tightened on the wood. Trey didn’t want to ask, but Flos continued. He lowered his head and stared at something neither Trey nor Teres could see.
“Her name was Queravia. She was one of my Seven. She and Tottenval died in the war. She led my armies, not Orthenon. It was she who won the fiercest battles in my name, directing soldiers while my other vassals rode forth and fought on the front lines.”
He had to ask it. Trey whispered.
“What was her class?”
The wood on the war room table cracked slightly. Then Flos looked up and smiled. Tears ran down into his beard.
“She was a [Strategist]. The finest in the world.”
His smile slipped.
“Second finest. No. No—she was the greatest of them all!”
He seemed to be arguing with himself. Flos turned his face to Trey, and there was pain in his eyes.
“I did not see her end. But I heard of it. I did not think it was possible that she would ever die. She was my great strategist, Trey. Not just any [Strategist] either—she bet against luck itself. She was a gambler, a [Gambler Strategist]. Before she died she was a [Gambler of Fates]. And she lost her last bet in Baleros.”
There were no more questions after that. Flos wept and the twins left the room, shaken, hearing the past echo around the King of Destruction. They knew him well, after having lived and heard his more secret confidences for a month. And yet, they knew him not at all. They did not know what he had lost.
—-
In the days that followed, things went simply for Trey and Teres. They followed, they watched, they saw streams of refugees fleeing the enemy army, and they heard endless reports about it approaching.
Gazi returned after two days, riding hard, looking tired. But she had come with vital news.
“Sixty-two thousand strong.”
Orthenon bent over the map, looking tired. He had good news for Flos and a lot of bad news.
“There are less mages than we could hope for in their number, and Lady Gazi reports that none of them are of the highest level each nation could offer.”
“They’re being cautious. No one wants to commit all of their best.”
Gazi sat gulping water in a chair. She eyed a plate of biscuits that had been prepared for the meeting in the war room, but didn’t take one. Trey didn’t either; he knew they’d go to people who were actually hungry afterwards.
“Less mages is good news. Without Amerys, we lack any magic users of note. What is the bad news?”
Orthenon grimaced.
“They’ve brought siege weapons. Even a pair of trebuchets.”
Mars swore. Trey looked around. Flos had to explain.
“Siege weapons are not common for most armies. They are hard to produce, and only rare classes such as [Engineer] can create them. However, they are manageable in battle…”
“But not what we want in a siege.”
Orthenon nodded. He stared out of the window at one of the battlements. Trey knew that the city had a number of high watch towards and decently tall walls, but no trebuchets or catapults of their own.
“Drevish worked on the city, but he only did so once. And that was before we formed an alliance with the Mad Ones. He never installed siege fortifications for defense.”
“And if they had, no doubt they would have rotted away by now. That complicates the issue.”
Flos nodded. He still didn’t look concerned, but perhaps that was because he was a King and couldn’t afford to show weakness. Trey could do that for the both of them. His heart was pounding out of his chest.
“I think we had better rely on the original plan. In which case, we must sortie and meet the army in the field, rather than wait for them to assail us with their siege weapons.”
Orthenon began placing units outside of the city. Flos nodded. Trey, who hadn’t been privy to every discussio
n stared blankly at the board. Orthenon was taking half of the soldiers out of the city? Three thousand versus sixty thousand sounded a lot worse, and Trey had thought it was impossible to make the odds any more stacked against them.
“In that case, I will take all of our mounted forces, a good number of our highest level foot—a unit of archers under Lady Maresar, and Lady Gazi. Our plan will be aided by some of Gazi’s acquisitions from her adventuring days.”
“Oh?”
Gazi grinned.
“Fog arrows. I bought a quiver back when I was going through one of the Walled Cities.”
“Fog arrows? Now that changes things. I assume they’re mine to use?”
Maresar broke into the conversation, looking intrigued. Gazi smiled, and they walked to a corner over to talk with unsettling grins. Trey saw Orthenon glance several times at his King before he cleared his throat.
“This plan will necessitate you staying behind in the city, my King.”
Flos’ brows snapped together.
“And leave you to face that army alone?”
“We cannot execute our plan if you are with us, my King. The coalition army is here for only one reason. Your head. And we must keep the city secure or else lose it while half of our army is in the field.”
“Your plan is dangerous, Orthenon. I cannot sit idly by—I will ride with you. My Skills will make this part of your plan—”
“We need them at a later point, my King! You must wait. You must—”
Flos began arguing hotly with Orthenon. Meanwhile, Trey and Teres stared at the map. Teres nudged Trey.
“What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know! Did they come up with it when we weren’t there?”
“Maybe yesterday? When we went to lunch?”
They were so busy whispering, they didn’t notice Mars coming up behind them. She slung an arm around both twin’s shoulders.
“Hey. You two. Explain the plan to me.”
They stared at her. Mars stared back.
“Come on, you’re always hanging our King.”
“We don’t know.”
