by Bob Blink
Before too long it was hoped that the track would extend unbroken into the city of Davo. It was extremely ambitious to hope that much could be completed, but Shyar had shown him projections that it might happen by the end of spring. The backup telegraph line that was to pass through the tunnel would be routed to Ekine, and then onward. As the track expanded, it could be used to carry the heavy rails for further expansion. Some of the track now was being carried by wagons, a cumbersome process, especially in the middle of winter.
While waiting for the train system to become operational, the output from the factories in Angon was being sent by conventional means wherever possible. A few shipments had been sent via land, attempting to get up through Trailways and down into Kimlelm, but they had failed to clear the snows and were stuck for the winter somewhere along the way. The ocean route was deemed a bit risky given the winter storms, so the goods were now usually shipped from Cobalo to Jupura, then up the river to Carta, and then overland to Belth along the border between Seret and Kimlelm. Once in Belth, it wasn’t too much of an effort to get them into Kimlelm, where the local government took charge of their distribution.
A second ocean route had started growing between Angon’s Burar and the small town of Jidan in Seret. Goods were then shipped overland through Honlt, a sleepy little place Jolan remembered, on to Ekine, and then to Slipi for shipment to Kimlelm. Jolan couldn’t help but think about Morin when they mentioned Slipi, and he wondered if his friend was making some money from all this activity.
Burar was clearly going to grow. As the city at the crossroads for goods that would be coming and going between the two countries by rail, it couldn’t help but expand. The same applied to Jidan in Seret. In addition to the shipments, several factories for the production of war materials, including both gun and explosives facilities were almost complete in western Burar. That would further reduce shipping delays when goods didn’t have to make the week long trip down from Cobalo. Cobalo could send its output via the ocean route, and Burar would ship everything through the tunnel.
That evening they dined in Seret, the tunnel workers having broken through as promised and opened the final few feet of rock, allowing the group to walk all the way into the southern end of Jidan. An appropriate celebration was thrown, and Jolan and Shyar spent the night there, rather than walk all the way back after dark. They would have liked to stay until the end of the week when the first train was expected to roll through the tunnel, but they would have been gone more than two weeks by the time they got back as it was, and they wouldn’t be adding to the effort by staying. They both knew they had to go back.
Chapter 79
“Major, I can’t see it happening,” Jolan told Major Wylan on the first day back from his successful trip with Shyar. When they arrived they were handed a telegram from the Assistant Director, that had been so helpful while they were there, stating the first “trains” were now making the transit, and goods were moving faster than anyone could believe.
“Why?” demanded Wylan. “It would be a very powerful weapon and might quickly change the direction of the war.”
“Because the only safe way I can think of to make the bomb work requires magic and therefore active participation of the mages, and they won’t use their magic to target the soldiers. It would only be marginally effective against the wizards themselves, and the damage that would result from widespread use is frightening. I think they are also afraid the idea could spread and could elevate the type of conflict into something far more destructive than they are willing to see.”
Jolan wasn’t a military thinker, but he thought he was beginning to understand much of Angon’s thinking about the war. No matter how bad the war became, Angon wasn’t at much risk. Hopefully the weapons and aid they were providing would stop the Ale’ald advance and return things to the long standing status quo, but if the worst happened, Kimlelm and Seret would fall to Ale’ald, but the war would stop there. All one needed to do was look at the map. Ale’ald wasn’t that big a country, and could only field so many soldiers. Even with the power of the wizards, they were limited. A wizard couldn’t be everywhere at once, and couldn’t command people to follow his directives simply by force of will. If Ale’ald were to take Kimlelm, they would probably be stretching themselves a bit, but if they also took Seret, they would simply run out of resources to continue a war. The southern part of Angon was protected by miles of impassable mountains, and the north by a significant stretch of ocean.
With a need to put down rebellion in the lands they’d just conquered, set up their own ruling government, and generally stabilize their control, Ale’ald wouldn’t have the ability to continue for years, if ever. That allowed many in Angon to look at the war as an intellectual exercise. Jolan thought they might be overlooking something, but he was hardly an expert.
“How are the grenades coming along?” Jolan asked, trying to change the subject. He knew that Wylan was different than most, and felt the only way this would end in a manner that would benefit Angon was with the complete destruction of the wizards in Ale’ald.
“They have been easy enough to develop, and are into production. We will be shipping the first load of them to our friends in Kimlelm later this week. We also have several of the hot air balloons you wanted, but I am not as certain how useful those will be. I understand the idea, but they seem too easily captured.”
“Just be sure they are each equipped with the means to be destroyed if needed,” Jolan reminded him.
“You might be interested to know that our troops will start deploying later this week now that your tunnel is open. There’s been no reasonable way to send them with the passes filled with snow.”
Jolan knew that no one in the Settled Lands had developed troop carrying ships, not that they would have been practical during the winter months anyway. Now that the troops could march through the tunnel, the men Angon had pledged in support of her allies could start on their way, and would most likely be in place before the spring attacks.
“I hear the production of rifles is going more smoothly than we could have hoped.”
“We’ve shipped over fifty thousand of them already, along with five million rounds of ammunition. We have kept as many here in Angon to equip our own. Our rifles are far better than those that Ale’ald is fielding.”
Jolan had heard that the testing of the captured rifles had shown them to be inferior, but hadn’t learned any specifics. “Theirs are heavy, and the barrels are of poor quality steel. They can’t handle the higher pressures we use, and use a much smaller and weaker load. They have to be relying on volume of fire, because they aren’t very accurate and at the distance some of the battles were fought it would be sheer chance hitting a target. Even a hit would be more likely to wound.”
“A wounded enemy takes more of your enemy’s resources than a dead one,” Jolan observed. From what he’d been told, the Ale’ald troops were more than willing to leave wounded and dying soldiers alive on the field for their fellows to deal with after a battle.
“Any word of Mojol?” Jolan asked.
“From the latest messages, he seems to have recovered from the worst of his wounds. He is often at the other end of the telegraph line, but flatly refuses to return to Angon. He knows what the coming of spring will bring, and plans to lead the army of men Angon is sending. If he ever gets back, his father won’t allow him back to the battlefield.
After the meeting Jolan returned to his room in the dorms. Shyar was still off somewhere, and Asari wasn’t around either. Rifod and Nerila had sent a letter by courier indicating the wedding had been wonderful, and they would be returning in the spring. For now, they were far away and out of the bustle of activity that seemed to affect everyone’s every waking hour.
Luzoke was in special training. As he’d expected he’d been tapped to join the mages that would see combat, but given the special training they had planned for him it would be at least a year before he would be sent. There were squads of already trained ma
ges who would be going initially, and he would be one of the replacement mages expected to be ready against losses in the field. He’d had time to think about the implications of those simple words.
Ronoran’s duties hadn’t changed, so he was the only one of their group that Jolan saw frequently. He came hurrying in to Jolan’s room shortly after Jolan had returned.
“Hey, did ya hear?” he asked excitedly.
“Hear what?”
“The King of Seret has abdicated the throne.”
“Are you sure?” asked Jolan. He knew there had been political turmoil in Seret since Ale’ald’s attack on Kimlelm just before winter. The King of Seret had been slow to respond or prepare, with almost no increases in their troop strength, nor serious preparations against attack. With only a river separating Seret from Kimlelm, the people had been understandably concerned.
Jolan’s friend Tomas had become politically active, and had been pressing for the removal of the King, a political maneuver that had never been tried in Seret. Tomas wanted a leader who was better able to lead the country in time of war. Tomas’ father was still too ill, so a previous member of their Parliament was the favored replacement, but Jolan hadn’t expected the effort to come to much. Everyone he talked to here in Cobalo said that Seret was too bound by their tradition to allow a King to be ousted before his term was up.
“The old swindler had his hand in the coin box,” Ronoran said with a grin.
That surprised Jolan. He’d not liked the King, but hadn’t considered he might be tapping the treasury. “They’re sure of that?” he asked.
“Seems so. He and one of the members of the Parliament. They probably would have gotten away clean if it hadn’t been for the war. The demands of funding a war effort resulted in a lot closer look at the country’s finances and the missing funds were discovered. I hear it wasn’t too hard to trace the losses back to the King and his buddy.”
Briefly Jolan wondered how this affected Therasi. He didn’t really know her, but knew she held her father in contempt. He also suspected she would be glad to no longer be a “princess” and would be free to continue as an ordinary member of the weathy class. She wouldn’t ever worry about money, and the freedom would probably suit her.
“What does that mean for the country?”
“Well, from what I’ve been hearing, the King has disappeared somewhere, but they expect him to turn up eventually. They’ve temporarily placed a retired member of the Parliament in charge until elections can be held. Her name’s Iril; Queen Iril now I guess. The good thing is she jumped right in and started things moving. Seret is now acting like a war is coming and doing more than just sitting there with their hands out. I’m told the reserves have been called up, and she has ordered full military preparations against an invasion across the border.”
* * * *
Kimlelm had not been idle during the weeks since the attack either. All males of eligible age had been called into service, and training was on-going. Although the shipments from Angon had been sporadic and slow in coming, the new rifles were now arriving, and with the help of the recovering Mojol and his men, the soldiers were rapidly becoming accustomed to the new weapons.
Recalling what he’d heard about Asari’s efforts to make the rifles more accurate, Mojol telegraphed to Buris in Cobalo for instructions to make the modifications, and created a sniper squad of twenty of the best shots selected from his remaining troops and the new Kimlelm trainees. With the impact the wizards had had on the battle fresh in his mind, along with the trick Jolan had demonstrated when he first arrived in Cobalo a year before, Mojol pressured his contacts to get a supply of cuprum from stores in Kimlelm’s possession. From that he was able to make twenty-one bullets that were coated with the material, which he planned to hold in reserve against the next time that he and his team encountered the wizards on the battlefield.
The planned telegraph lines had been fully installed despite the harsh winter conditions. There were now redundant lines back to the other capitals as well as a number of outposts along the mountain border shared with Ale’ald where small portable telegraph outposts had been located. Stringing the lines along the ground to support the remote telegraphs sites left a fragil connection, and many failures were encountered, but when they worked the portable stations were invaluable. Without the forts, the troops were on patrol, and rapid awareness of anyone coming across the border was considered essential if they were to contain the future attacks. Moving people over the distances still remained a major obstacle Still, given the advanced warning system and the vastly superior rifles that Angon was supplying gave them a certain level of confidence.
Sisco’s harbor had also been engaged in preparations for war. Underwater hazards had been sunk to restrict the lanes of traffic in and out, with those still passable close to shore where troops could fire on vessels coming in to attack or drop off troops. The military strength in the city had been increased ten-fold from the pre-attack numbers. In all, counting troops that had come from Angon and a few from Seret, almost a quarter of a million soldiers were scattered along the mountainous border region, with a large cluster near the port. The city of Perta had become a military command center, and the controlling officer staff was stationed there along with the troop reserves they held for rapid deployment once the areas of attack were known.
Members of the government had made preparations to relocate the government from Yermo to Angla should conditions deteriorate to a point where the capital was in danger. If the situation reached that point, the country was probably lost anyway, but if they could keep the president and his staff out of enemy’s hands, the war might at least continue. At least the recent news from Seret was positive, and they might actually have an ally that would be of help after all.
Chapter 80
The opening shots of the spring war were not when or where everyone had expected. To start with, they came earlier in the spring than anticipated. More importantly, the initial attacks came in the mountains, not along the extended border with Kimlelm, but near Trailways. The little village was taken by Ale’ald’s forces with virtually no fighting, and in one swift move Ale’ald had cut off the normal trade routes that connected the various countries. Historically this approach had never been tried because of the difficulty of moving men and material through the restrictive mountain trails. The logistics of keeping an army fed were monumental, and there simply were not enough local resources to feed an entire army. A battalion of soldiers were moved into the area to hold it, and within weeks as the weather continued to improve, the forces increased to more than two divisions as the army started moving into Kimlelm from the west, coming into the country the back way. Cheurt had no plans of supplying the troops in Trailways from Ale’ald. He was going to use Kimlelm’s own resources to keep his men in Trailways supplied.
Word of the attack and closing off of the trade routes was slow in coming to Cobalo, or any of the other capitals that would be interested. No one had thought to route a communications line up through the mountains to the relatively insignificant village where the road split. Until a lucky merchant who had witnessed the take-over managed to escape back down the trail into Angon and reached one of the cities where electronic communication was now in place, Cobalo remained ignorant of events. By the time word of the take-over reached Major Wylan and he was able to forward the information to his counterpart in Kimlelm, it was far too late to do the small town of Jom any good. The western-most town of Kimlelm had fallen days before and was now the regional headquarters of the Ale’ald army in Kimlelm.
Just to keep things interesting, Ale’ald started attacks elsewhere as well. At approximately the same time as the troops started moving into Kimlelm from Trailways, attacks began again in the same area that they had begun the previous fall. The attacks were far more widespread than they had been a few months before, extending westward an additional fifty miles, and almost all the way east to the coast. The forces that Kimlelm had deployed to patrol the area e
ncountered the invading troops almost as soon as they came over the tops of the mountains, and numerous battles raged along the border, with surprises for both sides. Each army found the other better equipped than they had been led to believe.
Because of the portable communications stations, word was sent back to the command center in Perta, and from there almost immediately back to the capitals of Kimlelm, Seret, and Angon. Upon hearing that the attacks had begun, Mojol gathered his remaining forces and his sniper team and headed towards the battle, despite the fact he was still limping from wounds received in the last battle. A day and a half later he came under enemy fire once again.
As a sign how well the Ale’ald forces had planned and scheduled their attacks, a series of targeted explosions were triggered all along the northern border of Kimlelm, taking out all eight of the significant bridges that crossed the Lasayss River between Seret and Kimlelm. The loss of the bridges effectively halted the supplies flowing into Kimlelm because the size and swiftness of the current of the river that divided the two countries made it impossible for wagons to cross. It was still possible to cross by horseback, or even for the brave of heart by swimming in selected places, but wagons loaded with goods had little chance of making the crossing. It was immediately clear that the destruction of the structures was caused by someone skilled with the power, but no responsible individuals were ever identified, which meant there were still a number of Ale’ald wizards loose in the heartland of Kimlelm.
While it was not known for some time, attacks had also been carried out against some of the ships carrying goods from Angon. At least six ships failed to reach port, which brought to mind the loss of the first shipment of rifles the previous year. No one would ever know whether the loss was the result of individuals that had been integrated into the crew, from foul weather, or from some manner of attack that wasn’t understood.