by Gerard Bond
“Would you really have us believe that we can attack Kassandrea, destroy the enemy and reorganize for a further attack on Oceania before it falls? To attack Kassandrea alone will take months. We all know that it took the Isogorreans almost five months to find a way in and then that was only because of a traitor giving away a weak point in the sewage system that they were able to take advantage of. That way in will no longer be available. The Isogorreans will have that covered for sure.” Wollfen waited patiently a moment for the murmurs to subside.
“I understand your concerns gentlemen. It is also true that in every past war the walls of Kassandrea have never been breached. It can only be achieved by similar means to what the Isogorreans did. As you point out that weak spot will be covered now. I too understand all this. But I can tell you. When we march on Kassandrea, we will have a way revealed, it is the one thing I have been organizing since soon after Kassandrea’s fall.”
“And what if you do find a way in? Do you think they will take flight like the Kassandreans did? There are twenty thousand Isogorreans still left within those walls. We are a force of thirty thousand yes, but they have the great advantage of their defenses in place.”
Wollfen looked at the elves. They were taking insult to the statement. In a stern loud voice he returned the challenge.
“Let me assure you, the numbers are not all important. Of those thirty thousand we have here, twenty thousand are elven. I would happily pit them against any army three times their size knowing they would win. This is not a boast. It is simply a statement of fact.” Still the murmurs continued but they were more of discontent now.
“You may be the Overlord of the elven army but you are not in charge of this human one. It is not for you alone to decide what we do.”
Earl Gerlach stood forward and spoke,
“Listen, all of you! Wollfen here has been fighting the Isogorreans since the start of the war. His own lieutenant in the east was able to gain a great victory over an entire army group there. It was Wollfen who managed to get word to the Kingdom’s forces of what was happening in the south so early. Since then he has managed to destabilize the power of the sorcs too. Mark my words, without his involvement we would already be lost.”
Wollfen nodded to the Earl and saw the opportunity to reinforce his own credentials. He could see it would be necessary to gain their trust.
“I can also add that I have organized the eastern army to cut off their supply route to the north here. In tandem with that I have also cooperated with Lord Raz in organizing his army of ten thousand south of Port Cholandra to march on them and keep them occupied with raids. His navy too continues to make inroads into their supply route from Isogorr. Gentlemen, all of this is being done for one reason only, these final major battles to be fought at Kassandrea and Oceania. We need more than ever to cooperate to defeat a common enemy.” The murmurs continued but they had no argument against this.
Finally General Beowulf spoke up and Wollfen immediately recognized that he had won the man over, it meant the rest would follow,
“So what is it you would have us do?” Wollfen stepped forward to the table with all the maps on it.
“I will send our entire army directly to Kassandrea but stop short of tipping them off of our presence. I want to keep the element of surprise. A small contingent of elven scouts will travel ahead of us looking for any scouts of theirs and eliminate them. They will know something is up but won’t know what. Also a second elven scout group will shadow the main Isogorrean army to Oceania and if something major happens that we need to know about they will be able to keep us informed via mind touch.”
“That still leaves us with the question of how to get in?” Wollfen looked to the men.
“Do not worry I will reveal that once we get there. For now I don’t want any possibility of word getting out of my intentions.”
They all understood what he meant, spies would be amongst them. In fact Wollfen didn’t have an idea at all. He had sent Vaughn ahead when they had arrived to make contact with whom he could to see if the local criminal element was still working out of Kassandrea. If so, Vaughn was expected to ask some pertinent questions. Wollfen just hoped Vaughn could get the right answers. Beowulf put his final stamp of approval on the plan,
“Very well, as there is nothing else we can do that could possibly succeed in such a short space of time I recommend that we adopt your plan and begin preparations at once, we shall follow you.”
I thank you all, we will very soon take our country back.” The men cheered.
Wollfen left the meeting to allow them to organize last minute needs. They were already prepared having been warned of a major movement after Wollfen’s arrival. He let out a big breath, right now he just wanted a hot bath. They had been riding for over three weeks and the elves set a cracking pace. He felt worn out. Walking into his quarters he found Dark had already been using the tub and she stood by wrapped in a towel, she looked up and smiled at him.
“You will want to use that bath my love. It is invigorating. The girls have already finished too, they are off to a tavern.”
As she spoke, Dark walked up and started pulling at his clothes to loosen them. He joined in and was stripped off quickly. Laying in the bath water the heat seeped into his aching muscles and Wollfen was finally able to allow himself to relax. Dark poured in another jug of hot water and he grunted in appreciation.
“Thank you my dear, you are very good to this old wolf.” She pressed a finger to his lips.
“Shh, just relax and I’ll wash you.”
He closed his eyes as her fingers started to rub soap on him. He felt himself drift as Dark began massaging his shoulders. One day hopefully in the not too distant future they could share this sort of thing with each other on a regular basis.
The next morning Wollfen was sitting on his horse having a final talk with the elven scouts. They were going to move off ahead at a faster pace to gather intelligence. They all nodded to each other and the elves left at a trot. Wollfen turned back to his own little entourage, Dark, Nightwing and Loranda were together. The three human Generals were with him as was Commander Amdur and General Gwindour of the elves. Generals Beowulf, Arafin and Kordon all stood at the ready. Wollfen looked to them and gave his orders to move out. They then turned and signaled the columns it was time. A number of horns blew and the columns began to move. Wollfen and his entourage sat there on their horses and watched as the soldiers moved past. In less than a week Kassandrea would be in their sights.
Vaughn had spent his time traveling around the taverns the day before they moved out looking for the right people. He needed to find a contact that would know of those that had originally operated out of Kassandrea before it fell. He knew there would have to be someone here. He had eventually found a person in the remote corner of the poor sector and after much discussion a meeting time had been made. The only problem was they wanted to see Wollfen himself. Vaughn had to go back to him and explain that the parties Wollfen were interested in would only meet him at their designated time and place. That was a couple of hours after midnight and Wollfen wasn’t impressed.
Nevertheless had he agreed to go. There wasn’t really much choice. So later that night they had arrived at the tavern only to be led away down some alleys and side streets until neither Wollfen nor Vaughn knew where they were. Then they had been ushered into a ramshackle building with the roof falling in. There they had waited until a man had presented himself. He was purported to be the gang’s leader and spent a fair amount of time in discussion with Wollfen. Yes he did know a way in and no he wouldn’t say. There had to be a price. That was something Vaughn wasn’t privy to, he had been asked to wait outside with the others, all he knew was that Wollfen had managed to acquire the man’s services and that they would meet again closer to Kassandrea when the time came.
It had proven to be a fruitful night. Vaughn could tell that things had gone well, Wollfen seemed a lot happier after that meeting. He was glad things had tu
rned out as they did, if it had proved fruitless then the entire army contingent would have been wasting their time marching to Kassandrea.
Four days later Vaughn had been watching up in the trees near their path on the journey south and saw the telltale sign high up in the branches. They had agreed that a small red scarf tied in the upper limbs wouldn’t attract too much attention but would signal Wollfen and Vaughn as to where to meet the leader of the gang. He rode over to Wollfen’s side and spoke a few words. Wollfen looked up for a second then looked away again. Vaughn moved off of his own accord back to his station. After riding a minute or so more Wollfen turned to Dark.
“If anyone wants to know, I have ridden off into the trees for a leak.”
Dark gave him a wink of understanding as he left. Wollfen rode far enough directly into the trees that he could no longer see the column and then doubled back. It didn’t take him long to find himself in a quiet grove away from prying eyes. There the leader of the gang was sitting quietly on his horse. He watched as Wollfen approached.
“Good day Wollfen, I hope you have had a pleasant enough ride?”
“Yes pleasant enough, but then the end of my journey will prove to be the real test won’t it?” The man agreed.
“I didn’t want to give you the information in town. If I had, a number of my associates may very well have gotten wind and it would have been my life. You understand that what I am about to reveal to you is the greatest secret we have? It is the source of our wealth and once we lose it, it will be gone forever.”
“I understand that perfectly well. It is why I agreed to your terms, they are extravagant but then again I understand it's value to you.”
“Very well. When you get to within a half days ride of Kassandrea you will see a cliff face off to the left. There will be a cave in the base of it. It won’t be easy to find as the shrubs that grow at the base of the cliff are dense and the opening itself isn’t very big, but it is there. This is where you must enter.” The man produced a scroll and handed it to Wollfen, “You will find the directions written down on where to go once inside. There are a number of tunnels down there and if you take the wrong one you will be lost forever. The right one will take you directly under Kassandrea.” Wollfen sat there and then asked a question.
“Vaughn approached you in Kassandrea quite awhile ago asking for information on how to slip out of there. You said the Isogorreans had killed your men at the last attempt?”
The man shook his head.
“No, we just didn’t want to reveal the tunnel is all.”
The man turned and rode off leaving Wollfen to his thoughts. As he rode back to the army column, he got to thinking. The gang couldn’t have dug the tunnel. It was over half a day to reach its destination and that was by horse. By foot it would be even longer. No, he suspected that this tunnel may be one of the lava tubes they were going to look for. It certainly made sense. Would it help them find the right one under Kassandrea and the staircase to the fixed portal? Time would tell.
Dark watched as Wollfen pulled back into line with them. He seemed a little more content now.
“A good leak was it?” Wollfen responded with a curious look and then he raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, yes indeed.” Dark laughed.
“You are a funny man wolf boy, did you ever think of going into comedy?” He chuckled.
“Somehow I don’t think I would come across very funny at all, more likely send ‘em off screaming.”
The following afternoon at seeing the cliff face, Wollfen called for his companions and a small force of Elves to peel off. Before they moved off he gave final instructions to the Generals present.
“Tomorrow night we will be inside Kassandrea. We will open the gates at midnight at all three points. I expect you will be able move in under cover of darkness at that time. It should be ideal. There is no moon for a few nights so that will aid us perfectly.”
“We will be ready, they won’t know what hit them.” Wollfen was pleased by his response.
“Good because I really don’t want to be wandering the streets surrounded by Isogorreans trying to look inconspicuous.”
“Save a beer for us then won’t you? Good luck!” Wollfen waved back as he rode off and called back.
“You too!”
Wollfen’s small column disappeared into the woods. It wasn’t long before they rode up to near the base of the cliffs and dismounted.
“We are looking for a small cave entrance covered by shrubs, fan out and see what you can find.”
They entered the bushes and poked about searching for it. It took maybe ten minutes of scrambling around and digging about. The gang leader was right when he said it wouldn’t be easy to find. Finally one of them called out, it was found.
“Alright, everyone grab a torch and a pack,” Wollfen turned to one man, “I want you to return to the column with our horses. I expect we will need them again at the other end.”
The soldier gave a salute and did as he was told.
They all stood there at what was a low small hole exposed after pulling back some branches. They all had to stoop low to work their way in. The elves had the hardest time being the tallest. The entrance didn’t open up for about thirty feet but when it did it widened quickly. There Wollfen lit his torch and looked around. There was no evidence at all that anyone had been this way. Probably deliberate so as not to tip off any idle inspection.
Two elves took the lead and they walked along for what seemed like only a few minutes. It was a lot longer but in that darkness all sense of time was lost. They came out and before them lay three openings. Wollfen took the scroll out given to him and he looked at it.
“We take the middle one.”
The elves resumed the lead and continued forward. Wollfen studied the walls as they moved. They were too sharp and smooth to be lava tubes. Maybe his guess was wrong. It looked like it could have been mined. After a few more hours, they exited into a much larger tunnel from the side. Looking around Wollfen could see this one definitely was a lava tube. The roundness, uneven floor and swirls in the rock paid testament to that.
Wollfen looked at the scroll once more.
“We go to the right here.”
Again they set off traveling at a steady pace and still going down. After awhile Wollfen got to wondering; how far away were they now? He knew they couldn’t rely on a sense of time, but this constant blackness and silence was starting to get to him. He kept referring to the scroll even though he already knew very well what was on it. The thought kept coming to mind that maybe they had gone the wrong way? It was a normal reaction and he kept reminding himself to be patient, they would get there.
The elves in front stopped. One turned and signaled Wollfen to approach. He walked forward and found himself at the edge of another larger area in front of them. He peered forward but there was nothing to see. The other walls were too far away for the light to reach. One of the elves spoke up,
“It appears to be a cavern but we cannot tell how big it is.” Wollfen gave it some thought and he came up with an idea.
“Wrap a rag onto the end of one of your arrows and light it, fire high and long, we shall see how far it travels.”
The elf did as he was instructed, lighting an arrow he notched it into his ornate bow. He moved forward a little, drew the bow and fired. The arrow flew in a bright shining arc across the gloom and just managed to light up the cavern roof. It was huge, the arrow continued on unimpeded on its journey to finally fall a few hundred yards away. They all stood there looking on in wonder, you could fit thousands of people in here with room to spare if you wished.
Wollfen looked to his scroll again. It did mention a large cave but he wasn’t expecting this. Looking at it he read off to the others. They were to keep to the left hand wall and count off three side caves before entering the fourth. Giving the elves their instructions they moved forward once again. They were nearing the end of their journey. In the fourth cave they walked along for only fort
y yards and they came upon a staircase going up, Wollfen looked at them. They had sharp edges, it was quite obvious they weren’t very old at all. Up those stairs and they would find themselves in Kassandrea.
“There is no need for us to go up there now. I don’t want to accidentally tip off any enemy soldiers to our presence, we wait until it is time.” Wollfen looked about, “We can get some sleep here, three sentries posted on one hour shifts. I’m not sure how we are going to measure the time but make the best guess you can.”
Wollfen looked to Vaughn,
“You can go first then give me a tap when you are done.” Vaughn nodded and sat against a wall to make himself comfortable.
After eight shifts had passed Wollfen sent an up elf to check on what time it appeared to be, when he returned he was able to report.
“The hatch opens into some sort of storage area. There is much in the way of crates and sacks of supplies. I had a look around and found the building to be deserted. It won’t be hard for us to move about once we leave here. It appears to be mid morning too.”
That was good, it meant they wouldn’t be disturbing any guards when leaving. It occurred to Wollfen that with approximately twenty thousand troops in place the city would be rather deserted. That meant they would have much less chance of running into someone. The flip side was they were more likely to stand out should they be seen.
“I’ll have you go back up and do a study of the local streets from within the building. See if you can ascertain what sort of regular activity there is.”
The elf nodded and left again. Wollfen sat there looking off into the gloom, they were burning one torch to save the others should they have to return this way. It would be fifteen hours before they could move, he began wondering what they should do?
“Dark?” She looked up at him. “Would you like to go exploring the main cavern with me?”
“Yes we have a lot of time to kill, what about the others?”
Wollfen turned to Vaughn and the two other girls, they looked up and gave him the thumbs up, anything was better than sitting around doing nothing. Wollfen turned to the waiting elves,