Fortress Draconis (54 page)

“Light Aurolani infantry is gibberers led by vylaens. Heavy is gibberers with a fair number of hoargoun backing them. No sighting of draconetteers among them, but the heavy infantry do include some men.” Adrogans frowned. “The giants are ponderous and slow, but tough to kill.”

“So legend has it, General.” Alyx smothered a growl. “My father died at one’s hands.”

Beal rested a hand on Alyx’s shoulder. “It was asullanciri, Highness. Nothing less could have slain your father.”

“I appreciate that thought, mot Tsuvo, but to somehow let ourselves believe hoargoun are not deadly in and of themselves is foolish.” Alyx looked over across the table at Adrogans. “The cavalry is temeryces?”

“Light is frostclaws, yes. Heavy is made up of grand temeryces carrying armored men and gibberers. Again, no draconettes.”

“And thesullanciri Adrogans pointed to Svarskya on the north coast nearest Alyx. ”Malarkex remains there with two regiments, one of foo!, the other of cavalry. The red flag there in the city indicates our information about her placement is too old to bi reliable. The yellow flag on the road regiment means it’s three days old, whereas the green in Svoin tells us it’s current.“

“Communicated to you by Vorquelves who venture out and ‘die’ in expeditions against the Zhusk?”

Adrogans smiled as Phfas cackled. “You are very perceptive, Princess.”

“You’re too kind.” Alyx sighed. “The problems with liberating Svoin are overwhelming. The road regiment is in a position to lift the siege on the city. The land around Svoin, if your map is at all accurate, is marshy, and this summer was far from hot enough to dry it out. As a result cavalry will have a hard time operating there. Bringing in siege equipment and moving it will also be tough.”

The Jeranese general shook his head. “It was not a wet winter, nor has the summer brought a lot of rain. While the watertable there is high, the lake is down. The earth will be solid enough for our purposes.”

“That is good then, but for all sides.” Alyx chewed her lower lip for a moment. “If the city holds out for any time at all, bringing a relief force down from Svarskya means we’ll be caught in the basin. Fighting our way free will be bloody.”

“I agree, but when we have the city, repulsing the relief forces will be easy.”

“It’s rather optimistic to suppose you can take Svoin with what we have and repair it fast enough to hold Malarkex off; and that’s provided that she takes her time coming down from Svarskya.”

Adrogans waved away her protest. “The city won’t hold out long enough to matter. Our scouts report no hope of that. Guranin raiding from the highlands down into the Svarskya region will pull some Aurolani forces west, putting at least two rivers between them and our position. There are many details, of course, to be dealt with, but I have no doubt we will accomplish our objectives.”

Alyx glanced up at General Caro. “What do you think?”

Caro stroked a hand over his chin. “Risky, but feasible. Realistically, Svoin is the only objective we could hope to take and hold before winter sets in, and I don’t want to be on this plateau when snow begins to fly. Plans will have to be modified depending upon locations of enemy troops, their strength and the like, but if the intelligence proves good, I can see proceeding.”

She nodded her head slowly. “I see. Well, I look forward to working out the details of the campaign.”

Adrogans shook his head. “You needn’t concern yourself with them.”

“What?”

“That’s for General Caro, his counterparts among the other forces, and me to do. I need you to work on saving the hostages. In the next building over we have a layout

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of the city. We have their locations determined as best we can.“

Her violet eyes blazed. “You’re not serious.”

“Oh, but I am.” His chin came up as he gave her a frank stare. “Saving them will be critical as far as the campaign is concerned. Saving them will provide people with hope and a reason to resist if their positions are overrun. It will also earn us the gratitude of Vorquelves, and I would not mind having their volunteers join us. Lastly, Phfas says it must be done.”

The Zhusk shaman nodded once. Alyx blinked. “I think your last reason is the paramount one, and I need more explanation than that.”

“In fact, Princess, you do not.” Adrogans gave her an infuriating little smile. “You have your task. If you fail, so will we. There is no one else to whom I could entrust the planning and execution of this mission.”

Alyx frowned. “Why would you hate me so?” The Jeranese general frowned. “Hate you? It’s your ability I admire, Princess. I’m giving this task to you because it is the one problem here I cannot solve. If you can, the liberation of Okrannel may actually be possible.”

Will slung his blanket around him like a cloak in an effort to cut the chill creeping through the camp with dusk. Qwc, who had launched himself into the air as Will began the move, flutter-buzzed back to resume his perch on the thief’s left shoulder. Will smiled despite the light sting of a wing hitting an ear.

“Easy, Qwc, I have use for that ear.”

“Hearing praises, hearing.” The Spritha reached out and tugged on his ear. “Hit they get, hit, because big they grow with praises.”

“That’s not true.”

“Lie, foul lie.”

Though the Spritha’s voice remained light, and Will caught not even a hint of a whiff of malice in the words, they did sting. Most of the soldiers in the camp had seen him in passing in Yslin, and clearly stories about who he was and what he would do had raced through the camp faster than the red pox. The cavalry troops supplemented stories with what they had seen and heard on the road— which shouldn’t have been much since he didn’t do anything but ride, sleep, and talk, Despite that, soldiers gave him smiles and nods when, three months earlier, they’d have cuffed and kicked him back to the Dim.

Part of him could understand what they saw in him. The fact that a prophecy said he’d finish Chytrine made them happier and more confident. Having him on their side meant they had an edge in battle. Chytrine’s defeat was preordained and now the only tough work would be convincing her of that fact.

Will did notice one subtlety in the good wishes and brags folks made within his earshot. Jeranese forces regularly linked him and Adrogans as an unbeatable pair. The Okrans forces included Alexia when praising him, and most vocal were the Guranin highlanders.

The Zhusk tribesmen tended to stay away from Will, which surprised him. Phfas, the headman, had looked him over very thoroughly, running hands through his hair, checking his teeth, tugging on his arms, examining his hands and feet. The old man spent a long time staring him in the eyes, and whenever Will would glance away, Phfas hemmed and hawed, or hawked and spat, muttering something Will couldn’t understand at all.

Will found the Zhusk tribesman as intriguing as he did intimidating. Whereas Resolute had decorated himself with tattoos of magickal import, Phfas had all sorts of bone carvings, stone figures, and metal bits clipped into his skin. Will couldn’t be certain, but he thought some of the talismans were replaced from time to time, or moved, but no scheme or reason for doing so presented itself to him.

What intimidated Will, and made Phfas something more than an old man he’d have dismissed as insane in Yslin, was the strength in the man’s hands. Steely fingers poked and prodded Will. When the old man pulled on his arms, or gave him a shove, Will lost his balance. And the one time he tried to shove back he felt as if he could have more easily moved Gyrvirgul.

Something just isn’t right about Phfas.Whatever it was, Will couldn’t figure it out, but he was happy that the Zhusk and his people kept away from him. Will would have asked Resolute what was going on, but the Vorquelf had been in a singularly poor humor since the first night, when Alexia had called them together to talk about the coming campaign and the battle for Svoin.

Will returned his attention to Qwc. “You really think I listen too much to what everyone is saying about me?”

“More, listen more to Alexia, that is what I think.” Qwc pointed with two arms toward the longhouse where Alexia had been planning her part in the campaign. “Help, Will, help them.”

He sighed and tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “Resolute keeps chewing on me because Vorks are working for Chytrine. I know why that makes him angry, but what did I do?”

“More, you can do more.”

Will growled, then rolled his shoulders, opened his eyes, and marched into the village. “You have an annoying way of being right, Qwc.”

The Spritha laughed, flew up in a loop, then turned, flying backward, waving Will on. “Will, brave Will, smart, Will, smart.”

Qwc flew on and made a grand show of struggling to push the curtain in the doorway aside for him.

The thief ducked his head and, entering, quickly scanned the room. Alexia, Perrine, Crow, Beal mot Tsuvo, and Orla crowded around the table. Orla hid a yawn behind a hand, and the others had fatigue shadows beneath their eyes. Back in the far corner Kerrigan had collapsed and snored lightly. Opposite him Resolute rasped a whetstone along the edge of a longknife. Of Lombo and Dranae he saw no sign, and he even glanced up into the rafters to see if the Panqui had hidden himself in the shadows up there.

Crow acknowledged his entrance with a quick nod. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks.” Will approached the long table in the middle of the building quietly, less worried about breaking Alexia’s concentration than giving Resolute something to complain about. The situation on the table-hadn’t changed that he could see since early that morning. A half-dozen buildings bore flags that indicated that hostages had been held there, but the situation flags were all yellow, indicating the information was fast slipping into uselessness.

Alexia shook her head. “I agree, sister, that if the hostages could paint some sign on lintels, or hang rags out of windows, that you and the Warhawks could fly over and scout their positions. The difficulty comes in two areas: a quick move of the hostages would invalidate your information, and more hideous, if someone betrays the signals, we’d be drawn into traps.”

Orla frowned. “Spells could locate the hostages, provided things close to them could be smuggled out of the city and used to make a link to them. The difficulty there is that the use of magick might alert the Aurolani forces to our mission, or could be altered to lead us into a trap.”

Alyx slowly shook her head. “The whole thing could be a trap. I can’t fault Adrogans’ assessment of the benefits from rescuing the hostages, but the cost will be excessive. Phfas is pushing to have us do this, and I don’t like that at all.”

Beal nodded. “Princess, I understand your reservations about Phfas. You know that we highlanders have no love of the Zhusk, but since I have been here, there are things I have learned. Nothing quantifiable, but Phfas has an insight. I think he sees the land differently than we do and that, perhaps, the rescue of the Vorquelves will influence theweirun. The simple fact is, however, that as long as we are positioned to rescue the Vorquelves, we will have Zhusk support. Without it, the campaign will not succeed.”

The princess sighed. “I know, which is why we’re doing this. We need to consolidate the hostages. If we can’t use magick without detection, then infiltration is our only other option. Is that feasible?”

The Guranin woman reached out and pointed at each suspected haven as she counted them.

Will scratched at the back of his neck. “That detecting magick thing, how does it work?”

Before Orla could answer, Resolute growled, “Stop wasting their time, boy. You don’t know anything about a military mission like this. When we get in and need locks opened, then you will be useful.”

Crow looked over at him. “What are you thinking, Will?”

Will shrugged abruptly, unseating the Spritha.

Qwc grabbed at Will’s tunic with all four hands, dangling down over his left breast. “Sorry, very sorry.” Climbing up hand over hand over hand, the Spritha righted himself.

The thief shrugged again, more subdued this time. “Well, I was thinking that Resolute is right. I don’t know about military stuff. I’m just a thief, so I’m looking at it the way a thief would. Now, if I was out to steal a hundred things that had been split up for safekeeping, that would be tough. So I was thinking that maybe you could convince the Aurolani to bring them all together. Or at least they could move them to places where you knew they would be.”

The Vilwanese warmage arched an eyebrow. “Detecting magick works into this how?”

“Okay, you’ve been thinking about trying to go in through the sewers, right? Come up as close to these buildings as possible, inside them if you can, right?”

Alexia slowly nodded. “We have to get in unseen and that’s the easiest way.”

Will smiled. “Okay, couple parts to this plan. The first is to make them think their places for holding the hostages aren’t any good. If I were going to steal stuff, I might break in and leave indications I was there, as if I almost got caught. If we got folks into the sewers and used some sort of magick so the Aurolanidid detect it, we could make them think we were scouting out where the hostages were.”

Resolute rose from his chair and crossed to the three-dimensional map of Svoin. “They would know where we were going to strike, so they would move the hostages.”

“Right, and Peri or one of the Warhawks could be flying high and see them move. We find out where they are that way. Since there are only a few buildings that are solid enough to use to hold the prisoners, it narrows down their choices.”

The Vorquelf’s silver eyes tightened. “That’s relying too much on the stupidity of the enemy, boy.”

Beal nodded in agreement. “Besides which, if we show the Aurolani that we can come in by the sewers, they will have troops ready to ambush us when we do come through.”

Will smiled. “And how will they know we’re coming?” . Resolute snorted. “What’s the answer you’re looking for, boy?”

The thief sighed. “What I’m thinking is that they will have their vylaens looking to detect magick in the sewers. They will send squads of gibberers down there looking to get us.”