Ten
Sitting down heavily in his camp chair at the command tent, Nick blew out a breath, pressed both of his uncovered hands to his face, and closed his eyes.
Last night he’d kept to his bargains.
First with Lorelai, then Delaney.
Afterward he took Lucian and a small group of people into the no-man’s land behind what was now the enemy front line. Nestling into a spot that hadn’t been de-trapped, and as such the enemy was avoiding it, Nick had gone forward with his plan.
He purchased thousands of rats infected with horrific diseases, wild monsters that would require a fairly hefty group of people to attack, and a large number of undead.
They were all released straight into those fields and allowed to do whatever they wished.
It’d been somewhat expensive, draining him of twenty-percent of his wealth, but it was worth it. What he hired in those horrific things was easily eight or nine times in number what he would’ve gotten for hiring mercenaries.
On top of which, everything he’d dispersed into this area would be entirely for the enemy to deal with. There would be no need for Nick to intervene with orders, or admissions of guilt.
Lorelai had assured him that the Dark Elves operating in the area wouldn’t have any issues with what he was doing. If anything, they’d likely use it to their advantage and lead things into delicate targets.
Unfortunately the previous nights work left him with precious little time to sleep.
He was now so rundown that he just wanted to crawl back into bed.
“Dragon King, I’ve finalized all the reports and summarized it,” stated a young sounding man.
Nick let his hands fall down and he looked to the speaker.
A large group of people in armor had moved up to his table. More than a few had papers in their hands while others looked as if they were waiting for orders.
These were all adjuncts, advisers, or assistants to the original command team under the Marshal.
Unfortunately, whatever the enemy had done to him and the entirety of his command hadn’t been fully treated yet. Everyone was still unconscious, or so weak they could barely stay awake.
None of them was in any life threatening danger, but they were all incapacitated.
“Wonderful,” Nick murmured and gestured at his map. “Fill it in and tell me what’s the status as you do so. Audible is great for now but I’m sure it’ll be better to have it all written out cause I’ll forget something.”
“Total casualties on our side is eleven-thousand, six-hundred,” stated the same speaker. “That’s just a little rough but not much. It could be off by ten to fifty but… that’s it.
“Of those eleven-thousand, three-thousand were killed. The rest are wounded or missing. Severity of the wounded is unknown, just that they’re in medical.”
“That’s so much better than I thought it would be,” confessed Nick in a nearly breathless voice. “How about our enemies? How’re they looking?”
“They… their casualties are close to one-hundred and sixty-thousand. Of that… of that we estimate that seventy-thousand of them are dead,” stated a second individual. They looked like a knight-class and had their helmet tucked under their armpit.
Nick felt his eyebrows go up and his eyes widen.
That was a heart-stopping number of people to lose in a single battle.
The enemy had lost more troops to death, than Nick had in total.
“They’re receiving reinforcements, though the Dark Elf agents have noted they seem to be only in the middle promotions,” continued the second speaker.
“Name,” Nick said and pointed at him.
“I’m… I’m Marsahl Ferish’s grandson, Lukov Ferish,” said the man, standing up straighter.
“Great, you’re now my personal adjunct,” Nick ordered while pointing at him. “Between you and I, maybe we can equal a fourth as much of a brain between us as your grandfather. And you?”
Nick asked and and pointed to the original speaker.
“I’m-I’m the second son of the Royal Spymaster, Mikhael,” said the man with a dip of his head. “My nephew is first in line to inherit our territories so I am working hard to make myself useful in the army.”
“Great, you’re my intelligence head right now,” Nick declared and shook his head. “Did we get any news as to the gryphon force?”
“None, Sire,” answered Ternhal. Everyone else had come up to the table by this point, including Lorelai. “The enemy has been slowly moving their camp ahead of the wall without the gryphons cover. They’re relying entirely on shielding to keep themselves safe.
“The ah… mercenaries you hired have been hammering at them since last night. It’s gone on all night. It’s quiet for us but for them it’s like thunder booming constantly.
“Lady Angelique has also taken to doing strafing runs with-with her children. It seems she’s taking this entire situation as a chance to begin ‘training them in combat’. No one has declined her and the quartermasters are making sure all three Dragons are cared for before attacks and after.”
“Fantastic,” Nick murmured as he read over all the numbers that were being written into the map.
Of his forces, most had an equal amount of loss, though one looked like it’d lost more than the rest.
“Cycle this regiment out. Immediately,” Nick ordered. “Bring up a replacement. If you have to reorganize positions, do it. How’s our reinforcements looking? How’s the enemies?”
“Ours are coming in much as we expected. We received a thousand overnight and this morning,” stated Lukov. “They’re very green. We’re having them backfill where we need them but we’re trying to not put too many in so they don’t weaken.”
“The enemy is a different matter,” muttered Mikael. “Last I saw they received forty-thousand reinforcements in one massive column throughout yesterday according to the reports that made it through.
“Though they were reportedly wounded and battered. I cannot imagine how many they had before whatever happened to them… happened to them. I’m not privy to reports from the Dark Elves.”
Everyone turned to look at the beauty that was Lorelai.
“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t receive any reports from them,” she said with a short wave of her hand and a rather bubbly laugh. “They operate independently and it would be dangerous for them to try and send reports. What I can say… as a Dark Elf… I would’ve been targeting those reinforcements a great deal. A great, great, deal.
“If forty-thousand made it through, I would imagine it lost at least ten-thousand getting to where it is, though that assumes a lot of our normal tactics wouldn’t work.”
Jessie laughed at that and nodded her head.
“Yeah, I’m with Lorelai,” Jessie confirmed. “If poisons and spoilation worked, it was probably a lot worse. If they’re on the march like that, they’re either carrying their own supplies, or using camps. If it’s camps, I’m sure we got ahold of it. If it’s their own supplies, that’s where it’d be harder. Probably went after any water source nearby.”
Lorelai nodded her head quickly, grinning at Jessie, only to look back to Nick.
“Have no fear, your Dark Elves are doing their best for you, my Dragon King,” purred Lorelai and a slight bounce. “You just won’t know how much they’ve done until it’s all done.”
Chewing at his lip, Nick nodded his head to that. There was no reason to argue with her and he imagined the Dark Elves were doing exactly what they felt were best to cause maximum casualties or problems for the enemy.
“How’d the trap setting go? Did it go well enough? Did we close up the routes and narrow it down?” Nick asked. Looking to Mikael and Lukov.
“Somewhat, Sire,” Lukov admitted and leaned over the map as Mikael finished up his additions. With a grimace he picked up another thin charcoal stick and sketched out some areas into the map. Using a simple A like shape without the bar across the middle. “We were able to get all these locations trapped and set up so that it’d be incredibly time consuming to work their way through it.
“We of course didn’t have enough time to get everything done, so we focused on trying to create lanes of traffic. We couldn’t do it everywhere though so we-or I that is, I had them focus on the areas on the sides. Funneling losses to the edges with traps and spells.
“I assumed you’d want to try and narrow their approach and that’s what we went for. If they decide to push, we’ll be herding them toward a central area.”
“That’s exactly what I want,” Nick confirmed and then chuckled. “I’m glad you took the initiative rather than waiting on me to make the order.”
Staring at the map, Nick realized that as much as he wanted to attack right now, he didn’t have the ability to do so. There was no way he could press an offensive right now as the enemy recovered that wouldn’t overly risk his people.
They were recovering from the previous defense and many of them likely had small aches and pains that wouldn’t make them wounded, but made it harder for them to work at peak ability.
Beyond that though, it was a question of numbers.
His forces were spread out on the wall.
They weren’t thin, but they weren’t as thick as they were previously at the original wall. The defenses there had a high number of defenders per square foot of wall. There would be at least half as many along this wall.
Sending out his limited forces to launch an offensive ran the risk of thinning out his defenses even further with any losses or wounds they might take.
Nick drummed his fingers along the table
Gramps, hows our finances, exactly?
“For yourself, the campaign, or the country, Sire?” Lucian clarified.
All three?
“The campaign’s coffers are dry,” Lucian started. “The Ducal forces were drawing on their incomes to make things happen. Now that you’re leading it, they’ve ceased paying into it. Which of course I would expect from them and would expect you to do the same if you were in their position.
“The country’s wealth is unfortunately not healthy at this time. Much of it was spent by Marshal Ferish to combat the very same war from the other side. The amount that was required to be paid out to settle the war was also significant, but needed.
“If we were working from the last report from Distis, there would be roughly ninety-thousand gold left in the country’s treasury.
“As to your personal wealth, as well as what I hold in the Dolphen Royal family vault, you have approximately nine-hundred thousand gold coins. That is the extent of all that you have.
“I would remind you, Sire, that there is a certain minimum that you will need to keep on hand to pay everyone across the whole of the land. I don’t have that number available at this time, but it would likely prevent you from spending too freely.”
Right.
Buying up gryphons just to launch them at the gryphons wasn’t a winning strategy.
The contracts for the mercenaries and their indirect fire was worthwhile since so long as they’re protected, they fire endlessly and cost me no ammunition or firepower.
Buying contracts for mercenaries to hold the walls or attack directly is less worthwhile because they could die and that’s that.
But in the same damn breath, I just don’t have the forces to keep the wall right now. I don’t.
Do I.
Nick’s last thought wasn’t much of a question. It was more of a request for confirmation about what his current situation was.
“I do believe you have the right of it, my boy,” Lucian grumbled. “It becomes a situation where you may have to spend everything, to keep anything.”
Then… then we’re just better off buying them all now.
Buying them now, trying to turn the enemy, and utilize it to the best of our ability.
Rather than waiting too long, taking too many losses, and scrambling to backfill.
“That is what I would do, my boy,” agreed Lucian. “Better to bring on the mercenaries and let them take more than their fair share of the blows. Every person we lose is one more child we will need to convince a mother to birth for our country.
“The economics work out long term in favor of-of emptying our purse and taking a horrific short term loss.”
“Right,” Nick muttered to himself. “Then let’s—”
“Sire!” called a voice as someone sprinted toward him. They’d already been stopped by the royal guard at the perimeter and allowed to pass.
“A messenger! A messenger has arrived from the invaders! They want to talk to the leader of our forces!” proclaimed the runner. “They’re halfway across the open field between the two walls. They have a white-flag. The closest field commander sent a soldier to speak with them and-and they want to talk!”
Uh-huh.
What that means is they want to ascertain the situation and if we want to keep going.
I can’t imagine they’d want to back off after spending all those lives.
“Most likely not, Sire. But we’ll be able to learn more about them as well,” Lucian countered.
“Fine,” Nick said and stood up. “Did they say who they were? Also, how many people do they have in their party?”
“Twelve,” answered the man quickly. “And it’s their lead general out there. They claimed they were in charge of everything.”
“Harlowe, Delaney, Nathaniel,” Nick ordered immediately. “Mikael, Lukov. Fill the rest out with top promotion body guards or people who are good at reading people. We’ll also take Angelique and bring Lucian out if we need to. If this is a trap, they’ll pay dearly for it.
“Though, I shouldn’t be going. If anything, I should be remaining here regardless of what they claim. They’ve already attacked our command structure directly once. Not that we’re any better but… no reason to give them an easy out of it.
“Mikael, Lukov, one of you act the part of the head of the army. We’ll have to figure out some way for me to actively ask, answer, or provide information on the go despite not being there.”
“I can handle that,” Sara offered and nodded her head quickly. “It was a present I wanted to gift you but I didn’t have a good chance to do it. This’ll actually work out.
“It’s a lovers compact. I can take my half with me and go with the team.”
Nick stood there, a frozen smile on his face.
He had no idea what that was.
Gramps…?
“Small device for lovers to plan rendezvous,” Lucian explained quickly and succinctly. “It’s called a lovers compact because it’s often used between people with extra marital dalliances. The range isn’t very good for them, depending on the magic used to imbue it.”
“Ah, will the range work?” Nick asked, trying to act as if he knew what they were and had a reasonable question.
“Yes? I hope so? I spent a lot of coin to have Wretin enchanters craft it for me. It should reach the distance we’re talking about since there’s no trees or cover between the two spots either.”
“The compacts tend to have issues with walls and houses,” Lucian added. “They were often used outside of a home to communicate to the partner to see if the spouse was… out of the home.”
Erk.
“Well, then let’s see how this goes,” Nick murmured. “If they catch on that the true leader isn’t there, just claim that their last attack on our command structure has given us pause and we’ll not be giving them a second chance at that apple.”
“Of course, Sire,” everyone stated and saluted him.
Nodding his head Nick waved a hand at them. Dismissing everyone to go about their tasks.
For his part, Nick knew what he needed to do while his team went to go speak with the enemy.
Going to his personal tent, and realizing that Jessie and Lorelai were trailing him, Nick went straight to his desk, sat down at it, and pulled out his ledger.
Opening it he quickly wrote in ‘heavy defense mercenaries’ into the query and then waited. He’d poked around more than a few times into what mercenaries he could hire and this was an inquiry that gave him his best results in the past.
Looking to the line items that were appearing, he saw exactly what he wanted.
Extremely heavy foot knights that specailized in point defense. They came in every flavor possible, from those who used large two handed weapons, to arming swords and shields.
Looking through them, Nick picked out all the ones he could hire immediately and then ticked them into his purchase category.
And left them there for now.
He would need to take on a massive debt of a hundred-and sixty thousand gold coins to hire sixty-thousand soldiers. Yet they were masters of their craft and would be his to command for six months.
Which was the majority of the campaign season.
The ledger would require the money immediately which meant he’d have to likely send Lucian with the ledger off during the night.
“You can purchase a letter of credit with a percentage to be paid later, Sire,” Lucian advised. “The percentage is often stiff and best to be paid off immediately. It would allow you to get the soldiers quicker than otherwise would be possible.”
Another concession I have to make just to keep a crown I never knew I was going to wear.
Remind me again that this is better than just… buying a number of bags of wheat and heading out into the grasslands to the south?
“I… can’t, my boy. I can’t tell you that it’s better,” answered Lucian. He sounded pained that he couldn’t provide a different answer. “All I can tell you is that the very land itself is struggling to assist you with this matter.
“If not for your own desire to sit the throne, it would be best to continue through this for those who have given their lives to make it happen.
“Forgive me for setting such a poisonous barb into you, but the lives of so many cannot simply be set aside, can they? So many have already died for you to have this throne. For your royal line, our family, to remain seated in the throne. Your forebearers sacrificed much to give you the chance that you now hold. Even if it’s while also fighting off an enemy invasion.”
With a grimace on his face, nick re-set his inquiry to letters of credit. He wanted to be ready for whatever might be happening next.