13 Day War

by Richard S. Tuttle

  Theos’s tornado roared as it came up against the physical shield protecting the black-cloaks. Tanya watched it with interest as she held her hands far apart. She appeared to be trying to bring her hands together, but something was stopping her from doing so. Jenneva concentrated on the ground. The rumbling increased, and the ground began to ripple in waves flowing away from the Alcean diamond. Trees creaked loudly and began to fall. The black-cloaks tried one more salvo of offensive spells before giving up and concentrating on strengthening their shields.

  “Keep it up, Theos,” Jenneva said. “You are wearing through the shields.”

  Theos nodded and started moving the tornado around to the side of the enemy mages. Tanya twitched.

  “No,” Tanya said quickly. “Not the side. Attack only from the front. I am holding physical shields to both sides of them.”

  Theos raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the queen, but he promptly obeyed. He directed the tornado back to the front and grunted as he forced more energy in to the spell.

  “To stop them from spreading apart?” Theos asked.

  “Sort of,” Tanya replied. “Just weaken their shields and hurry up about it.”

  The ground shook violently, and dozens of great trees toppled to the ground. The black-cloaks stumbled, and Tanya’s arms moved rapidly together until both arms were straight out before her.

  “Hit them with fire, Theos,” Tanya shouted in a strained voice.

  Theos watched as the black-cloaks stumbled and then they all suddenly flew towards one another until they were stacked like a season’s supply of wood. That was when Tanya shouted for fire. Theos did not hesitate. He dropped the spell controlling the tornado and sent sheets of flames towards the black-cloaks. The Zaran battle mages screamed in agony as the flames devoured their bodies.

  “Time to go,” Jenneva stated. “Balamor, cover our retreat.”

  The mage from Pog nodded and cast an illusion before dropping his shields. Anyone looking towards the Alcean diamond would see nothing but the large thorn bush. They would not see the four unicorns come out of hiding to carry away the Alcean mages. Moments later the four mages returned to the camp of the Rangers. Alex and Arik were waiting anxiously for them. Alex and Jenneva left the camp in one direction while the king and queen left in another, leaving Theos and Balamor alone.

  “What happened back there?” Theos asked Balamor. “Was Jenneva trembling the ground?”

  “She was,” nodded Balamor. “She is quite effective with that spell.”

  “Quite effective?” echoed Theos. “She brought down the forest. I cannot begin to imagine what power that must take. How did she manage to stack the black-cloaks?”

  “That was Tanya’s doing,” answered Balamor.

  “Tanya?” frowned Theos. “She was merely holding physical shields to keep the enemy from fleeing. It is a rather curious use for a shielding spell, but it certainly stopped them from splitting up. Why do you say that the stacking was Tanya’s doing? Did she abandon the shields?”

  “No,” Balamor replied. “She merely brought the two shields closer together.”

  “What?” Theos asked. “That is impossible. You can’t use shields as offensive spells, and you can’t drag them across the ground. If you want them moved, you need to recast them. You can’t just move them.”

  Balamor smiled at the Tyronian mage. “Obviously, the queen can. She used those physical shields as a vice to crush the black-cloaks. I would say it was a novel and effective use of the spell.”

  “I would call it more incredible than anything else,” Theos said with awe. “I cannot imagine the power that must take. I thought the queen only knew a little magic?”

  “The queen is modest,” chuckled Balamor. “I often wonder who is stronger, Jenneva or Tanya, but I think that is a question that will never be answered. I have never known them to use the same spells as each other during a battle, as if that would invite a comparison of their powers.”

  * * * *

  General Tauman and Colonel Dorfan stood near portal seventeen in Camp Destiny. Nearby was a company of cavalry from the 1st Corps of the Empire of Barouk.

  “Do not approach this assignment casually, Dorfan,” warned General Tauman. “General Montero is a very popular general. If his troops get the idea that you are there to arrest him, a company of cavalry will not save your life. You will have to use deceit to snare him. Perhaps you can tell him that King Harowin has died, and he is needed to assume the throne immediately.”

  “He only has three more days in Alcea,” noted Colonel Dorfan. “He will not be anxious to return home before the war is won even if the crown awaits him.”

  General Tauman pressed his lips together in thought and nodded. “I think you are correct. What will get him home is if he thinks someone else is seizing the throne while he is away. He will feel compelled to hurry home and set things right.”

  “I will try that,” agreed the colonel. “Is Prince Lyker or Prince Lindmyr the eldest?”

  “The next in line after Montero is Harold,” stated the general, “but Harold is a sickly boy. Montero would never believe that story. I believe Lyker comes next. If I am wrong and he wants to know why Lindmyr isn’t seizing the throne, tell him that Lindmyr is dead.” The general sighed and shook his head. “Look, Dorfan, I don’t need to tell you how to lie. You’ve been doing it just fine for years. Just make sure that Montero is sent back here. This portal opens in Pontek. There should be no Alcean opposition after Montero has passed through. Between him and Gattas they will have killed anyone they came across, but play it safe anyway. You will be in hostile territory. Good luck.”

  “Thank you, General,” replied Colonel Dorfan.

  The colonel signaled the captain of the company accompanying him to Alcea. The captain addressed his men and sent a squad towards the portal. That squad was to secure the other side of the portal for the rest of the company. The squad leader approached the portal and started to open the door. Unexpectedly, the squad leader was thrown back as the door sprung open. Water started surging through the door with such pressure that a wall of water shot over three paces before touching the ground. The squad waiting to go through the door was immediately caught by the flash flood. Their legs were swept out beneath them and they tumbled in the surf as the water plowed up the dirt and spread out.

  “Shut that door!” shouted General Tauman. “Shut it now!”

  The company of soldiers raced to obey the general’s orders, but the flow of water made it impossible to approach the door directly. Some of the men ran around the rapidly spreading flood to approach the door from behind, but they could not budge the door. The flow was too strong.

  “It’s like trying to walk up a sewer in a storm,” shouted one of the men. “It can’t be done.”

  General Tauman looked at the rapidly building flood with dismay. He sniffed the air and frowned deeply. He turned to Colonel Dorfan and said, “Get on your horse, and go get some mages. Be quick about it and send as many mages as you can find.”

  “Won’t it eventually just stop?” asked the colonel.

  “When the valley is full it might stop,” snapped the general. “That is seawater coming through the door. Wherever the other half of that portal is, it is underwater, and I don’t think this valley is large enough to hold the entire ocean.”

  The colonel swallowed hard and raced for his horse. The general turned his attention back to the portal and the futility of his men trying to close the door. He shouted for them to retreat and then mounted his own horse as the waters reached his boots and began to rise. A thousand thoughts went through the general’s mind as he waited for the mages to arrive, but none of them could explain why seawater would be flowing through the portal. Portal seventeen led directly to an inn in Pontek, and while Pontek was a coastal city, the inn was not near the shoreline. For this much seawater to be flowing through the portal, the whole city of Pontek would have to be underwater. That would indicate a flood of massive proportions, and
General Tauman thought that was too much of a coincidence to be a viable answer to his question.

  The mages finally arrived and began casting spells to hold the water back so they could close the door. General Tauman appeared to be watching, but his eyes were unfocused, his mind still pondering why the water was coming through. When the mages were finally done and the door was closed again, the general waved them to him. They promptly complied.

  “Can you do that again?” asked the general.

  “With a short rest,” replied one of the black-cloaks.

  “You will have a ride of three leagues to rest,” stated the general. “We are going to portal eighteen to see if it also floods.”

  “You think the other portal will also flood?” inquired the black-cloak.

  “I hope not,” answered the general, “but I have a sinking feeling that it will. If water does come out of it, we will need to check every portal in the valley.”

  “You think the whole country of Alcea has sunk beneath the waves?” gasped the black-cloak.

  “I do not know what to think,” sighed General Tauman. “None of this makes sense, but I know where this portal comes out, and I cannot imagine a flood of such significance to cause what is happening here. Portal eighteen comes out in a barn near Barouk that is well above sea level. If we can open that door, one of you can go through and travel to Pontek to find out what is wrong with this portal.”

  Chapter 36

  Day Eleven

  General Bledsoe and General Kozinski bent over the map in the large command tent of Team Miram. The Spinoan general sighed and shook his head.

  “There is little alternative to our route,” General Kozinski said, his voice showing his weariness. “We have been looking at these maps since we made camp and dawn is only hours away. Nothing is going to change the fact that we have to proceed along the Coastal Highway. There is no other option.”

  “There are always options,” retorted General Bledsoe. “Retreat to Miram is one of them, although I am not proposing such a thing. We could also fortify this position and dare the Alceans to attack us, or we could leave the road and proceed overland to meet up with Team Mya.”

  “I am not sure that we could meet up with Fortella before he attacks Tagaret,” frowned General Kozinski. “Our armies would be slowed going overland, and Team Mya’s approach is perpendicular to our own. We would be fortunate to meet up with them on the morning of the thirteenth day, which would buy us nothing in the end. Your thought about fortifying our current position intrigues me, though. How can we do that and still arrive in Tagaret on time?”

  “I cannot believe that we are facing the full strength of the Alcean army,” explained the Baroukan general, “but this works just as well if we are. If we halt and fortify, that leaves our enemy two choices. They can either show themselves and attack us, or leave the area to intercept Fortella or Pryblick. If they decide to attack us, we will not only have numerical superiority, but we will also have our fortifications. We could conceivably destroy the Alcean army right here.”

  “And if they decide not to attack?” asked General Kozinski.

  “They will retreat to intercept one of the other teams. That would leave us the option of breaking camp and starting a forced march towards Tagaret to make up for lost time.”

  “We would have to know what the enemy is doing for that to work,” countered General Kozinski. “With the loss of our black-cloaks, we no longer have the ability to spy on the enemy. If we guess wrong, we either end up missing the war or engaging the enemy in the middle of a forced march. How do you propose to spy on them without the mages?”

  General Bledsoe sighed and nodded. “That is the problem. They have obviously been fairly successful spying on us. That mage attack yesterday was timed perfectly. It was the only time of the entire day when they could have possibly gotten close to the black-cloaks. Whoever is leading our opposition, he is clever. I will give him credit for that.”

  “How bad were our losses?” asked General Kozinski. “Have you been informed yet?”

  General Bledsoe nodded. “Besides the black-cloaks, we lost around fifty men, but we also have three-hundred badly wounded, and no mages to heal them. Unless we fortify and stay put, we will have to leave them behind.”

  General Kozinski grimaced. “And they did that with only four mages?”

  “That is what has been reported. There was also a dragon, but it caused no damage. It did cause a great deal of panic, and that troubles me. Did the Alcean mages attack when the dragon caused a convenient distraction, or was the dragon causing a distraction so that the Alcean mages could attack?”

  General Kozinski gasped. “Could the Alceans actually control a dragon? Is that what you are saying?”

  “It makes no sense, I admit, but I am not a big believer in coincidences, and that was a rather large coincidence. There is a lot to be said for knowing your enemy, and we do not know ours. That is a flaw that I intend to take up with Grand General Kyrga when we return to Despair. His demand for secrecy has hurt us a great deal already, and this war is far from over. The Federation must never make such a mistake again.”

  “There will be time for dealing with that later,” General Kozinski said dismissively, “and I would like to get some sleep before morning. What is wrong with continuing along the road to Tagaret the way we have been?”

  “I do not like doing what the enemy expects,” answered General Bledsoe, “but you are correct in assuming that that option remains on the table. If we do continue onward, I would expect an ambush today or tomorrow.”

  “How many men can they have out there?” frowned the Spinoan general. “They are only supposed to have ten-thousand men in all of Targa.”

  “The black-cloaks reported seeing at least one-thousand men yesterday,” answered the Baroukan general, “but they reported that the enemy was trying to remain hidden.” General Bledsoe sighed wearily. “The truth is, we don’t have any idea what we are up against. Let’s get some sleep. I will make the decision in the morning.”

  * * * *

  Dawn was still two hours away, but the Lanoirian army camp was starting to stir as soldiers rose and prepared for another day of forced march.

  “These men will be worthless when we finally face General Kolling’s armies,” complained General Za-hong. “We must find a way to transport them.”

  “The boats will not be back from transporting the prisoners in time to ferry the men,” replied Bin-lu. “There is nothing we can do.”

  “There is something we can do,” offered Rut-ki. We can slow down Kolling’s armies more than we are. That will give our own men some time to refresh before battle.”

  “How do you plan to do that?” frowned Bin-lu. “Elandros is already doing all that he can. He only has one-hundred elves.”

  “We have the five-thousand men from Chi already on their way towards General Kolling,” answered Rut-ki. “I can use them to stall the Federation march towards Ongchi.”

  “That might work,” Bin-lu replied optimistically.

  “And it might not,” warned General Za-hong as he glanced around the tent to make sure that no one was listening. “I would not be caught saying this in front of the men, but our Lanoirian soldiers are not well-trained warriors. While we might now equal the size of the Federation armies that we are up against, I would not expect our men to hold their own against a well-seasoned enemy such as the Federation. We need another one of your traps, Bin-lu.”

  “I have no more tricks,” frowned Bin-lu. “Perhaps we had best head to Ongchi and prepare to defend the city walls.”

  “I thought we had decided to avoid a long siege of Ongchi?” retorted Rut-ki. “If we allow General Kolling to lock our army inside the city walls, he will have control over the rest of the country. We will not be able to stop him from raiding and destroying anything he wants. We need to either force Kolling to surrender or destroy his army. Let me take our captive generals to meet with Kolling. Even if he doesn’t agree to su
rrender, the meeting will slow his armies down for another couple of hours, maybe even half a day.”

  “I see no harm in that,” nodded General Za-hong, “but I doubt that he will surrender.”

  “Then Colonel Wu-sang and I will use his five-thousand men from Chi to attack the rear of the Federation column,” replied Rut-ki. “They should be getting close to the Federation armies by now. That will buy more time for you to get the rest of our army in place.”

  “This might work,” Bin-lu said optimistically. “We may not have enough boats to transport the entire army, but we can transport some of them. What if we used boats just to move portions of our army a couple of hours closer to Ongchi? If we could run the boats day and night, we might shave half a day off our march, and Rut-ki can buy us another half day between her negotiations and harassing. That will allow us to position our forces between Kolling and Ongchi, and we will still have the ability to fall back inside the city walls if things do not go well.”

  “That plan is far better than what we face now,” agreed General Za-hong. “Let me send a fairy to Ongchi. I will have Za-chan send every available boat towards us, no matter how small.”

  * * * *

  Hendy Valley was three-day’s march south of Trekum, and the place held special significance for Captain Orteka, leader of the Kadin Claws Mercenary Company. As he waited for dawn to arrive, his hand subconsciously rose to his right cheek and felt the long thin scar there. There was a similar scar on his left cheek, and both of them had been inflicted in Hendy Valley years ago. The mercenary had been assigned to spy on the approaching Lanoirian army under Emperor Hanchi, and he had been captured and beaten. He was mutilated and sent back to General Mobami with a message to flee before the might of the Lanoirian army. It had been an experience that Captain Orteka had never forgotten.

  “Put it behind you,” Captain Azule said softly as he approached. “That was a different time and a different war.”