Thirteen
Nick rubbed at his face with both hands. His gauntlets were resting on the table next to him.
He’d arrived only minutes ago.
After removing his gauntlets and helmet he’d washed his face, his hands, and then come over here and sat down. Cal and Ronnie had wandered of to go find a quartermaster and get fed.
“Here, Sire,” murmured a camp servant who put down a plate of food and drink in front of him.
Nick had barely looked at the speaker before they’d fled. He got the general impression that it was someone from the quartermaster’s tent.
Groaning, he realized he couldn’t just eat it either. Despite it smelling amazing.
It was unlikely Nathaniel and the royal guard had completely settled the defenses here. Especially since they hadn’t realized he was here yet.
However, some random servant knew he was here and brought him a meal and a drink. He hadn’t announced himself, but counter to that line of thinking, his armor, weapons, and the Dragons were unique to him as well.
It could go either way.
Gramps? What’re the odds it’s poisoned?
“I’d… honestly, my boy, I have no idea. As you yourself thought out, you’re a very well known personage. On the other hand, Nathaniel isn’t here and there’s no way to know if everything was secured.
“It wouldn’t hurt to wait. You won’t die of thirst or hunger. It’s a shame we lost all the healing spells. Some of the deeper ones have ‘detect poison’ in their lines.”
Huffing, Nick just remained seated at the table. His eyes closed and his mind turned inward.
Sitting there, he didn’t move, twitch, or do much of anything other than think.
“My Lord Dragon King!” blurted out a voice after he’d only sat there for thirty seconds.
Lifting his head, he had a single second before Delaney was there.
She’d suddenly wrapped her armored arms around him and pulled his head into her shoulder.
“My Lord Dragon King, your escort knight and Paladin is here,” she cooed. “The Land guided me to you. It also warned me only an hour ago that your seed grows within me. We have a boy, my Lord Dragon King.”
“Goodie,” mumbled Nick against Delaney. He liked her well enough, but he really didn’t like having this many kids with so many women, despite knowing he needed to do it. He felt strange and that he wasn’t forming the connections he wanted.
“Yes, this is good. I’m sorry for touching you, but after our night together, I realized that holding myself back was depriving you of what is yours,” Delaney continued and leaned her head down to actually kiss him.
It was shocking to Nick considering how she’d been acting all this time.
“Now, let’s make sure this isn’t poisoned, shall we?” Delaney stated and sat down nex to Nick at the table. “That is my role and to make sure you’re safe.”
She picked up the bread, looked it over, then set it down. She picked up the spoon and dunked it into the soup several times, and then let it sit in it. Only to pick up the mug of what was weak beer and sniff at it.
Lifting her gauntleted hands she held them above the meal that’d been set before him and a golden light blossomed from her hands and radiated downward.
“If it was poisoned, it is no longer,” she said and looked to him, putting her hands in her lap with a smile. “You should eat. You look pale, my Lord Dragon King.”
Not waiting, Nick immediately went at his food. He didn’t bother with the spoon, but instead just dunked the bread into the soup to sop it up, and began eating it in large bites.
As he ate, he noted Lukov and Mikael arrive.
Then Jessie, Lorelai, Sara, Harlowe, and Nathaniel came.
Angelique was not far away, likely talking with her kids given he could see her massie wings.
Sighing, Nick finished eating and looked to Mikael and Lukov. The two had clearly been waiting for Nick to finish eating. He pushed back from his now empty tray and looked to the two men.
“How many did we lose?” he asked. “How bad was it for them?”
“We… right now our initial reports put our losses at about nine-thousand, Lord Dragon King,” answered Mikael. “Around nine-thousand. We’ll get better details later, but that’s the number you should know.”
Nick nodded at that. It wasn’t a great number, but it wasn’t horrible either. It was around eleven percent of his total troops. He now had only seventy-one thousand, give or take.
Reinforcements would be few and far between.
“Enemy casualties?” Nick prompted.
“They lost aproximately seventy thousand. We think,” Mikael admitted with a shake of his head. “It could shift up or down by five thousand but that’s the range we’re at. We’ve been able to utilize some of the Dark Elves to get information a bit more readily. They’ve been sending crows.
“They are most versatile assets and have been central to our informational push.”
Raising an eyebrow at that Nick looked around.
Jessie and Lorelai were standing directly behind him. He had a momentary fear of having two Dark Elf’s standing behind him, then it vanished before he finished the thought.
“Any chance I can convince the Dark Elf nation to move into Dolphen? Just… all of you,” Nick suggested. “Interested?”
Lorelai blinked at that and beautiful head tilted to one side.
Jessie laughed and punched his armored shoulder.
“Shut up,” Jessie said loudly. Too loudly. She was still clearly on edge that he’d gone into combat by himself. “You’ve got enough Dark Elf women. No more. And… you’re okay, right? Your… your beard is gone. I think your eyebrows burned off. Your skin is red and your armor is black. Char black.”
“My eyebrows,” Nick repeated. He imagined he looked pretty strange.
“I will let my people know that we’ve been welcomed as citizens,” Lorelai murmured wiht a wide smile as Nick sat there saying nothing more. “I’m sure many will take the opportunity to move.”
“I’m fine,” Nick said when he realized Jessie was still waiting for an answer despite Lorelai trying to rescue him with a subject shift. “I used two spells from close range and it definitely burnt me. Drank a health potion.”
“I’m healing him right now,” Delaney offered from his side, her hand patting his armored thigh plate. He hadn’t even realized her hand was ther. “His vast hitpoint pool makes it hard for me to heal him up quickly but I’m taking care of it. I can’t do anything about his hair though. It’ll just have to grow back.”
“Lukov, Mikael,” Nick said, looking back to his two aides. “I’m going to need to give you standing orders and we’ll need to move some units around.
“First, I’ll move with the bulk of the army moving forward. I’ll keep it with me and operate from there. I’ll… be part of the cavalry personally. Cal and Ronnie will be acting as my mounts.”
Mikael and Lukov both nodded at that.
As did Nathaniel. He was clearly making plans for the Royal Guard.
“For now, send out small units that—” Nick paused as the Werewolf and the Mysil Envoy’s arrive.
“I’ve brought many more of my kind. We are… we’re taking the offer you made previously. We’ll be attempting to settle a city for ourselves in Dolphen. We’re organizing units to assist,” stated the Werewolf. A prince of his kind. They were a race without a capital of their own. It seemed as if they were now deciding to gamble.
Nick cudgeled his brain and finally came up with a name for him.
Viktor.
“Wonderful, Viktor, thank you. You’ll like my next order,” Nick continued. “Mikael, Lukov, I want all the nearby road crossings, crossroads, ferries, water crossings, trade roads, and high points guarded.
“Send small groups of soldiers to each. I want all of it guarded, but not to the point that we would lose our people.
“I want those soldiers to make the enemy pay for those locations. Pay dearly. I want them to suffer casualties. They have to pay for every single one of those points because they’ll reach out to try and take them.”
Everyone nodded at that.
“I’m going to lead the cavalry away from the army often, so I’ll need an assistant-general to make sure the army is moving along at the right time nad speed while I’m away,” stated Nick. “I’m open to suggestions. Did any of the Dukes or command group wake up?”
“They were all transfered to the main hospital back at the capital,” Lukov stated with a frown. “None recovered enough to return to service. Whatever was used on them, lingers even now. It won’t happen again, but that doesn’t change that it happened once already.
“As to an assistant-general… ah… perhaps… Lady Angelique? She seems to be somewhat versed in war. I’ve spoken to her on several occassions and found she has more information on battles than I expected.”
“That’s a very valid suggestion, Sire. Angelique is an old Dragon. Older than you realize. She’s watched many wars from a far and participated in a few, though they were wars among non-human’s far far from here. She traveled a great distance to be where you found her.”
“That sounds like a valid suggestion,” Nick stated and nodded his head.
“Now, with that partially settled, back to the cavalry discussion. I’m going to… to… well, I had a stupid idea. I’m going to put all late stage caster promotions onto horses and create an artillery cavalry.
“The enemy has no cavalry. We’ve seen it over and over. They don’t have cavalry. I have no idea why, but they don’t. Gryphons and infantry. That’s it.
“They’re not going to be able to move swiftly through Dolphen and their foraging and scouting parties will rely on Gryphons or infantry.
“Except I can’t imagine them wanting to use Gryphons for that when every time they deploy them, our Dragons intercept and maul them. They were saving the gryphons this time and didn’t use them until the breach was confirmed. They hesitated.”
“So their scouting parties and foraging parties will be on foot,” Nathaniel repeated.
“And if I take the casters on horseback, we can do ride-bys and launch magic. Endlessly,” Nick finalized the plan. “Endless passes and loops against their man body, their foragers, their scouts. Throwing spells, dodging, and doing it over and over. We probably won’t get a lot of casulties per day, but we’ll get them. It’ll add up.
“We’ll have to also make sure we never take a fight that isn’t deeply in our favor with our army. Hit and retreat, ambushes, glancing attacks. Nothing that would ever risk our core. Because if we lose our core fighting force, that’s the end of the war.”
“That makes sense,” Sara murmured and looked frustrated. “I’ll purchase a spear and rie with you as a guard. I can’t use magic but I can at least protect you.”
“As will we,” Nathaniel stated.
“Yes!” Delaney added.
“I’ll be riding behind you with my bow going forward,” Jessie said.
“You most certainly are not,” Harlowe growled and pointed at her. “You know you’re pregnant. The priest confirmed it. You are going to the capital, just like others.”
Jessie lifted her chin, her lower lip pushing out. She looked like she was about to start a full blown argument and whining session.
“Yes, time for you to go to the capital,” Lorelai said and patted Jessie on the back. “I will remain with our king. I have not been so fortunate as you. I must keep trying. Do be safe on the journey.”
Jessie glared at Lorelai. It was obvious the Dark Elf really didn’t like being dismissed by the other Dark Elf like that, but everyone knew Jessie had been waiting for the news of pregnancy.
If she risked it now, there might not be another chance any time soon.
“I… fine,” Jessie grumbled and shook her head. “I will go. To the capital. With-with the other pregnant women. At least Cordelia and Julie are there.”
“I will ride behind the Lord Dragon King,” Harlowe put in. “My bow is strong, I’m max lele, and I can provide basic first aid and assistance.”
“I’ll tend his camp bed?” Lorelai offered with a warm laugh. “My personal guards will keep the command tent and royal tent safe while you’re away, Sir Nathaniel. You can take the whole of the guard with you if you trust my people enough to let us tend to things where our Lord Dragon King is not.”
Nathaniel seemed to think that one over then nodded his head once.
“Then let’s get moving. Set the orders,” Nick stated and then sighed and rubbed at his jaw. He had a few days before the enemy would move en masse. They would need to deal with their losses again. As well as the corpses.
With so many corpses at the first wall, and now at the second wall, as well as all the ‘presents’ Nick had dropped off behind their lines, they were going to need to act.
There also wasn’t much in the way of fresh moving water nearby so they’d have to protect and secure their water supplies and the route.
He had time to act and he had a plan he wanted to try.
Because he needed something to combat the gryphons.
At some point, they’d figure out Nick only had two Dragons and all they had to do was divide their gryphon cavalry up. Then Nick’s response would be even more limited.
He imagined it’d happen soon.
“We’ll stop by at our beloved friends place tonight,” Nick said, looking out in the direction the enemy would be. He had an ugly plan. “We need to make sure that the horror-show I dropped behind their lines remains there.
“I’m going to buy some holy wards. Ones that’ll last for six months or so. It won’t be cheap, but also not too expensive. They’re not indefinite so that limits the cost.
“We’ll run it down the secondary wall’s base. That way the undead and plague carriers I left over there stay beyond the wall. It’ll turn into a nice lake of absolute awful for our enemy that they have to cross just to get supplies. It’s not like they can try to dump the dead over the wall, or even bury them in the space they have. The manpower would be astronomical for the latter, and foolish for the former. We’d attack them. They have to use the breach space as a corridor and gateway. They can’t just leave it alone.”
Nick’s thoughts continued in that line.
“We’ll mark the wall with the ward. Then cast raise undead on the dead,” he said in a low tone. It was not something he wanted to say aloud and it’d be awful if it was found out he’d done such a thing.
“Except there were no rules when it came to war as far as he was concerned. He would do what he needed to do, to hurt the enemy.”
“What if you end up making a lich?” Sara asked, sounding concerned.
“Then I deal with it later. If anything, a lich would be helpful short term,” confessed Nick, looking at the beautiful Elf. He gave her a sad smile. “Let’s pray for a lich.”
“What about after that?” Harlowe prompted. “You made it sound like you had further plans.”
“Yes! Yes. I do. I want to go find those Drakes again,” Nick explained. “I want to make them a deal. I need them. I need them more now than I did before. I’m going to try to bargain with them again, but this time as a Dragon would. With Cal and Ronnie beside me as I do it.
“They’ll take my offer this time, because it’d be in their best interest. That and… I’m going to offer them sanctuary and a protected habitat.
“They like canyons. Ridges. Small mountains and nooks and crannies. In the south-west we’ve got a lot of that. A lot of open areas that they could call home and become part of the Dolphen land scape.
“I’m the Dragon King. I even have Dragons that serve. Why not Drakes? If I can get them to serve, to be mounts, we can fight the damn Gryphons in a better way.”
“You seem positive that they’ll take the deal,” Delaney mused. “How come?”
“Because I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse,” answered Nick and met Delaney’s eyes.
His plan was to destroy them or incorporate them. He didn’t have the luxury to be kind to them. To recruit them naturally.
He’d tried that already and they’d said no.
No was no longer an option.
“Sire, lady Claudia just rode in,” stated Lukov after a messenger ran up to him.
“Did she? Wonderful,” Nick said and stood up with a smile for everyone. “Do forgive me. I need to go greet Claudia. She had a rather dangerous and needed mission. She’s arrived well ahead of schedule.
Stepping away from the table, Nick caught up Jessie quickly and kissed her. Hugged her.
Held onto her. He pressed his mouth to her ear, held onto her, and breathed out slowly.
“I’m glad,” he said finally, holding her.
She’d been trying to get pregnant just about from the moment they met. He’d comforted her more than a few times when she questioned everything, cursed everyone, and cried quietly at the small hours of the morning.
Doubting herself and her body.
Where every was a hope and a curse.
Despised and looked forward to in equal measure.
She was mad about going away, but also happy for the reason she was being sent away.
He could see it as clear as day in her face.
“Protect our treasure,” he instructed her, squeezing her tight in his embrace.
“I… yes. Nicky and Jessie, and I’m going to prot-protect our treasure. I made treasure,” she whispered, her fingers clawing briefly at his armor before finding purchase at his sides. “I made our treasure.”
“You made our treasure,” Nick confirmed.
Jessie let out a sniffle, then her head tipped down, and rested against his armor. He could tell she was crying by the way her shoulders shook, and the quietly sniffling coming from her.
Nick didn’t move away and just held her.
“My poor queen, she got what she wanted at the worst possible time, he murmured for her ear alone.
“Fucking right?” grumbled Jessie, thumping her forehead against his breastplate. “Fucking… right…”