by Logan Jacobs
“That seems helpful and all,” Penny said, “but don’t we kind of already know all this, thanks to Golierian and the map we found in the Garrison?”
“Yeah, but there’s gotta be--” I started.
“Wait!” Ava hissed. “Look at the fort closest to the city where Skam is. I mean the regular wilderness fort, not the secret fort that we just destroyed.”
I followed her gaze, and I realized that tiny flecks of ink on the paper seemed to move all around the fort. Then, as I stared even closer at the fort on the map, all the ink markings shimmered, completely dissolved, and then re-formed as a close-up of that section of the map.
I could now see the individual walls of the fort, as well as the layout inside it, and I could even see small specks that moved back and forth inside the wilderness fort. The specks inside the fort were all lined up into neat rows and columns, but there were so many of them that it was almost impossible to see the paper itself because of all the individual dark ink stains.
“Are those… are those people?” Penny whispered.
“I think we’re getting an up close and personal look at the elves inside the fort,” I said. “And I think… let me test something. Map, show me--”
“No!” the elven priest cried, but Clodia kicked him in the kidneys before he could protest any more.
“Map,” I said again, “show me Tevian.”
One of the ink blots inside the fort suddenly grew bigger, and a small ‘T’ appeared above it. Then it returned to a normal size, but as I continued to watch the map, the whole fort shimmered again and then returned to its original size, too, so once again, I was able to see a birds-eye view of the whole empire.
“Looks like we really did just find the key to our victory,” I murmured.
“How did you know Tevian was there?” Penny asked.
“Lucky guess,” I said with a shrug, “but also, it seems like way more soldiers there than there should be at just one fort, so I guessed that Tevian might have already brought some additional troops there.”
“So you think he already got troops from the fort closest to the Blood City?” Clodia asked. “And from the fort closest to the City of Slaves?”
“It looks like it,” I replied, “and then since he wants to make a huge united army before he tries to come against us, he moved on to the next closest fort after that.”
“And that’s the one outside of Skam’s city,” Ava said. “Do you think he’ll attack the city?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I replied. “I think he’ll probably keep going from one fort to the next to try to create his massive army, but with this map in hand, we should be able to track his every fucking move.”
“By the Ancients,” Clodia swore. “That’s incredible.”
“It looks like the green Rainbow Key really was the most powerful one, after all,” I said with a grin. “I had actually started to get a little worried about how we were going to plan our moves against Tevian when we weren’t even sure where he was, but now… well, now we’ve fucking got this.”
“And we’re sure it, uh, you know… is reliable?” Penny arched an eyebrow.
“Let’s test it,” I said.
At first, I just focused on the fort outside of the Blood City, but when the image zoomed in, I saw that the fort didn’t have a single ink spot around it, and that had to mean that it was already empty. Tevian must have collected all the soldiers from here and then moved everyone out, and the map quickly showed me that the same thing was true for the fort outside the City of Slaves.
“Alright, let’s do one more test,” I said. “Map, show me Ashlin.”
As my gaze wandered over to the Capital on the map, the ink on that section of the paper shimmered and then re-formed to show a close-up of the Capital, along with a small speck with a tiny ‘A’ above it in the Entertainment District. But even though the map had just proven that I was right about how we would be able to track Tevian from here on out, that wasn’t what really captured my attention.
Instead, my eyes were almost immediately drawn to the wilderness fort outside of the Capital. Some of the specks that symbolized the elven soldiers were still inside the fort, but most of the specks appeared to be outside the fort, and they all seemed to be on the move across the map toward the Capital.
“Shit,” I muttered. “The elves there must have gotten word of our revolution, so now they’re going to attack before Tevian has a chance to get to them.”
“What do we do?” Clodia demanded.
“We go surprise them before they show up outside the Capital,” I said. “Based on how slow it looks like they’re moving, we might still be able to surprise them in the country before they reach the city, or at least in the woods outside of the city.”
“So we need to take the Elite through the portal and then march out through Falrion Forest to try to meet them before they get to the Capital?” Penny asked.
“We could always wait for them to show up and attack the city,” Ava said. “We have almost all our defenses in place there, so we could take the defensive.”
“If we don’t make it there in time,” I said, “then that will be our back up plan. But if we can cut them off before they even get to the Capital, that would be even better, and it would sure as hell make it less risky to all the civilians in the city.”
“Fair enough,” Ava said.
“Alright,” Clodia sighed and glanced at the five captive members of the priesthood. “Then what do we do with these bastards?”
“Oh, they’re gonna come with us,” I said. “I have a little friend who would very much like to meet them.”
“I don’t think it’s exactly fair to say that Azure is little anymore,” Penny chuckled.
“He is compared to the size he’ll be once he has a little more to eat,” I said with a smirk. “Penny, I’m actually gonna put you in charge of bringing these assholes to Azure once we go through the portal.”
“Are you sure?” the pixie thief asked.
“The rest of us will go ahead and move out to try to cut off the elves before they get to the city,” I said, “but I want you to take care of Azure and then head back into the Capital to help reinforce their defenses. Then, just in case the elves are able to get past us, you’ll be there to help Twila and everyone else with defending the city.”
“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Penny said. “But I’ll do whatever you think is best, my king.”
“Good, then let’s move out,” I said as I rolled up the magic map and tucked it inside my armor. “We’ve got work to do.”
Once the Elite all formed a tight unit around our elven prisoners, we hurried them out of the temple. I tasked one of the unit commanders to carry them all the way to the portal and told him I would meet him there as soon as I went to inform Leif and Cimarra of our quick change in plans. Penny, Ava, and Clodia all went along with the rest of the Elite, while I stopped in at the garrison on the way to the portal.
“Leif!” I called out as I strode through the gates. “Cimarra!”
The big gladiator and the raven-haired dancer were both seated at a table across the courtyard with a shit-ton of papers spread out in front of them. But as soon as they heard my voice, they both immediately jumped to their feet.
“Before you ask, everything went fine,” I said. “The temple is ours, and so is every last member of the priesthood.”
“Wade, that’s amazing,” Cimarra said. “But then why are you in such a hurry?”
“I’ve gotta get to the Capital,” I said. “The elves from the fort there are preparing to march on it.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” the beautiful dancer said. “And I don’t want to hear any arguments. It’s my city, so I’ll be damned if I don’t do anything to help it when it’s under attack.”
“If everything goes according to plan, it shouldn’t come to that,” I said. “But I agree that you should come with me. You can help Penny with a side project I have for her, and then you ca
n both go to the city to help with its defense.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Leif asked.
I was about to answer when I glanced down at the papers on the table and saw all sorts of numbers and lists.
“What’s all this?” I asked.
“The results of my morning with Arlix,” Cimarra replied. “He was very helpful, and I’ve made a lot of progress already on the supply inventory. I just started to go over everything with Leif, so he had a clearer picture of what we have to work with, too.”
“Goddamn, you’re good, Cim,” I said with a smile. “In that case, I want you to stay here, Leif. You can finish going over these lists, but I also want to leave the Blood City in the hands of someone that I trust.”
“I’ll be right here whenever you come back, my king,” the big gladiator said. “Just let me know if you need anything else from me.”
“I will,” I said. “We’ll be back soon, but until then, you should be safe from any elven attack.”
I told them briefly about the magic map that I’d found, and when I finished, Cimarra actually clapped her hands in delight.
“I always knew you were favored by the Ancients,” the raven-haired beauty said.
“I bet those priestesses are having one hell of a bad day,” Leif snickered. “First, they lost to a human, and then they figured out that their human conqueror is blessed by the very Ancient Lords that they worship.”
“That is some beautiful shit,” I laughed. “Now, come on, Cim. We should get going.”
“I’m right behind you,” Cimarra said.
With Leif in charge of the Blood City, Cimarra and I hurried through the streets toward the portal. By the time we reached the museum where the secret portal was, almost all of the Elite troops had already passed through it into the Capital, so we slipped through the archway right behind the last few soldiers and came out into the room underneath the catacombs.
When we reached the surface of the city in the human district, I saw that the unit commanders had already assembled themselves in their marching units. Penny and a small squad of the Elite stood off to one side with the elven prisoners, while Clodia and Ava waited at the head of the Elite for me to join them.
“Cim, go with Penny,” I said. “And when you’re all done with Azure, hurry back to the city and make sure everything is ready, just in case shit goes badly out in the wilderness.”
“It won’t,” Cimarra said and then kissed my cheek. “But we’ll be ready, anyway.”
After Cimarra, Penny, the Elite squad, and the elven prisoners all marched off toward Falrion Forest to provide Azure with a late morning snack, I dispatched messengers to Dryson to have the human guards here join us before we set off toward the elven fort. I wanted to leave a few units here just in case, but I knew that if we were going to be successful, I would need most of the troops in the Capital to march with me.
It took about an hour before Dryson and the human guards in the Capital had assembled right behind my own Elite soldiers, and then it only took about half an hour after that before we were all able to march out of the city and head south through the woods toward the fort.
I knew that my friends and I had trained them, so of course they were well-prepared, but I was still impressed by how efficient my soldiers all were. We really had trained them well, and even though none of them had been born as soldiers, they were all so disciplined and practiced that they damn near could have been.
As I marched in front of all my troops with Ava and Clodia right by my sides, I glanced back. The Elite all looked tired but ready for another fight, and the human guards behind them seemed almost as nervous as they were excited.
Of course, at the end of the day, we were all nervous because we knew exactly what we were up against. But even though the elves had the force of the empire on their side, they only fought to try to keep their power, while we humans all fought for something greater, and so did the dwarves and the halflings on our side.
We fought for our very freedom.
The Elite were armed as they always were, but the human guards had new equipment to try out against the elven forces. They had archers of their own, in addition to the archers of the Elite, and they also had several units of pike-men. Their pikes were over twice as long as the men were tall, and the ends of each pole not only had a long dagger-type tip, but they also had what looked like a curved axe blade. Anyone who got caught on the wrong end of the pike would be first skewered by the dagger and then held in place by the curved axe blade until their insides ripped right out and spilled all over the ground.
When we drew closer to the elven forces, I would rearrange my troops, so the pike-men would be the first in battle. They would be our best offense against the cavalry, along with our archers, and then our sword and buckler troops would be behind them to clean up any leftovers.
I wondered how the time of day would impact our battle. It was a little after high noon, and early afternoon wasn’t exactly my favorite time to launch an attack, but I wanted to be damn sure to stop the elves before they reached the city itself. The Capital could probably withstand an attack from the elven forces, but if I didn’t have to take that risk, then I wouldn’t.
Besides, if we were able to surprise the elves, then we still might be able to gain the advantage. And since the woods stretched to the south of the city for a long time, I thought we might be able to set up a perfect trap for our enemies inside the tree line.
As we continued to march south through Falrion Forest, I pulled out the magic map from the Blood City again to examine our enemies’ positions. This really was going to be the key to our victory because even now, I could see the elven troops on the move from the fort toward the Capital. They were headed north and a little to the west, so I adjusted our own course south to make sure we met them head-on.
When we finally reached the edge of the woods far to the south of the Capital, I looked far into the distance and could just make out the glint of sunlight on armor on the horizon. It depended on how fast they rode their horses, but the elves would probably be here in an hour or less, so that gave us just enough time to set up our trap.
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do,” I said as soon as I called a halt. “Clodia, you stay front and center with me, so we can use our magic against them. They shouldn’t really have any casters with them, but if they do, we’ll be ready for them.”
“And if they don’t, we’ll just destroy them that much faster,” the night elf replied.
“Exactly,” I said. “Ava, I want you and your archers up in the trees along the edge of the forest. But don’t shoot until the elves actually reach the tree line, because I don’t want them to have a chance to regroup or retreat.”
“So you want us to primarily target the middle and back of the elven force?” Ava asked.
“That’s the plan,” I said and then scanned the troops in the forest until I found the red-bearded human commander. “Dryson!”
Dryson instantly moved toward us through the trees.
“I want all your pike-men in the grass at the edge of the tree line,” I said. “The shadows of the trees should hide us until the elves are almost right on top of us, but since there’s no other way to reach the Capital except for through the woods, they’ll have no choice but to go forward.”
“And then when they get close enough, we should be able to skewer their cavalry on the ends of our pikes when they charge us,” Dryson said. “And hopefully, that will be before they even see us.”
“That’s the plan,” I agreed. “Then Ava and her archers will unleash hell, and Clodia and I will use our magic to make some headway against them.”
“What do we do after the initial push?” Dryson asked.
“Let your pike-men fall back before they’re trampled,” I said. “Our swordsmen will take over from there, and we’ll be able to fight in the woods a lot better than the elves on foot or on horseback. It’ll be easier for us to maneuver, and plus, we’ve trained fo
r this kind of fighting.”
“We could send the pike-men out of the forest,” Ava said. “Once they’ve accomplished their first task, anyway.”
“They could,” I said with a nod. “But I’d rather keep them in a solid formation in case we need them to provide a defensive position for our troops if need be.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Clodia said.
“I certainly hope so,” I said and took a deep breath. “So, is everybody ready?”
“We’ll get into position now,” Ava said, just before she went up onto her tiptoes to kiss me. “We will win, Wade. I know we will.”
“Thanks, Ava,” I said and then laid my hand on her gently rounded belly. “Be careful, okay?”
“Always,” the blonde assassin said with a wink, and then she disappeared to direct all her archers up into the trees with her.
While Ava and the rest of the archers climbed into the trees at the edge of the forest, Dryson organized the pike-men into a solid wall in the grass at the border of the woods. I spoke with the unit commanders to make sure that they knew what the plan was once the elves entered the forest itself, and then I moved to join Clodia just behind the line of pike-men.
“I can’t see over their poles,” the night elf grumbled. “How am I supposed to cast magic like this?”
“You’ll be able to see them when they’re close enough,” I said as I pulled out the magic map to check on the enemies’ position again.
The elven soldiers were still headed straight for us, and so far, they didn’t seem to have any idea that an entire force of human troops was hidden waiting for them in the woods just up ahead. We just had to keep quiet, and before too long, the elves should be at our mercy.
I stalked up and down behind the pike-men to try to find the best viewpoint so I would be able to use my magic against the elves but not be out in front of the pike-men. That would make me way too much of a target, and it would also get in the way of my troops and their planned surprise attack on the elven cavalry.