by Peter Last
“You were not to know of the plan until it was too late,” the first guard said. “Yes, the plan is for the council to surrender the city along with the entire county of Gatlon to Molkekk’s army.”
“Has madness taken root in the council?” the other guard retorted. “Molkekk is the sworn enemy of Magessa. There’s no way we can abdicate to him!”
“Don’t be a fool,” the first guard growled. “Molkekk is more powerful than our entire country put together, even if we could get all three counties to cooperate. You know that politics will prevent that from happening, so we don’t stand even the most remote chance of being able to resist him.”
“You have taken leave of your senses as well, I see,” the other guard stated coldly. He drew his sword and pointed it at the first guard. “I hereby place you under arrest for treason against the country of Magessa. Drop your weapon, or I may be forced to harm you.”
“You idiot, you know I am the better swordsman,” the first guard said as he drew his sword. “You don’t stand a chance.”
“And neither do you,” the General said and stepped between the guards. “I already insulted your ability to use that weapon, and I stand by that. I could incapacitate you even without a weapon.”
The first guard gave a roar of rage and swung his sword in an overhanded strike at the General. The General watched with amusement at the sloppy attack and swiftly sidestepped the blow. The guard’s sword dug into the dirt, and in a flash the General stepped forward and smashed his armored fist into the guard’s face. The man dropped to the ground, and the General wasted no time in turning to the guard behind him.
“Are you for Magessa or against her?” he asked the stunned man.
“For her, sir,” the man stammered.
“Good,” the General said. “Send the message throughout the city that an army of the enemy is approaching. Gather the soldiers and order an evacuation of the civilians. I also need you to figure out who is behind this treachery and lock them in the dungeons. We will leave them to the tender mercies of Molkekk’s soldiers. As for those loyal to Magessa, tell the civilians to fall back to the Vänern River and follow it all of the way to Sulmon if necessary. Everyone who is capable of wielding a weapon, however, is to join my forces.”
“Yes sir,” the guard said and disappeared among the buildings of the city.
******
The enemy was attacking again. This time boulders from their siege machines smashed into the wall of the city, but they would soon be quieted by a counterattack from a platoon of dragons. The enemy dragons would attempt to protect the engines, but experience had proven time and time again that it was much easier to attack the clumsy machines than it was to defend them. The dragons of Magessa split into two groups and hit the machines with one while attacking the defending dragons with the other. As had happened many times before, the defending dragons were simply unable to properly protect the equipment, and the attacking dragons quickly laid it to waste. They turned and headed back to the city, followed closely by the enemy dragons; however, these fell away when they came within range of the city’s ballistae.
Senndra watched the skirmish without much interest. She had seen the same thing happen twice before, and both times the result had been the same. She only wondered how long it would be until the enemy realized that their strategy was not working, or worse, repeated the action and sprung a trap when the dragons of Magessa attacked them. If the latter happened, the result could be disastrous for the defenders. As it stood, neither side could gain the upper hand in the battle. The defenders were outnumbered too heavily to consider an attack, but the attackers could not breach the city walls. All of their attempts to do this were thwarted by the defending dragons. If they chose to involve their own dragons, the defenders would simply draw them into range of the city’s ballistae, and they would be forced to withdraw or be killed. If, however, a trap were to drastically decrease the number of defending dragons, Molkekk’s forces would be able to attack with the knowledge that their own dragons could more than take care of those defending the city. Because of this, the dragons of Magessa were very careful every time they ventured from the city walls. They thoroughly checked their surroundings for traps and completed their missions as quickly as possible so as to get back to the protection of the city.
The dragons soared back over the wall in a crowd of many colors and dispersed to various parts of the city. They were all staying in the city rather than the nearby mountains so as to be ready at a moment’s notice. This was an essential part of the defense strategy since the dragons composed the backbone of the defending force. Because of this they were catered to so much that Senndra feared Feddir might become spoiled. She spotted Feddir landing some distance into the city, and Senndra considered going to meet him but decided against it. Instead she headed down to a place where the other cadets often chose to congregate. The hangout was an old, abandoned military building which the cadets had appropriated for their own use. Senndra entered the building and was rendered blind momentarily by the sudden decrease in light. As she grew accustomed to the dim light, the features of the room as well as its occupants came into view. Old chairs and couches, several of them occupied by cadets, stood against the walls, and a large table occupied the center of the room. Senndra crossed the room to a row of cupboards situated over a counter and opened one filled with glasses. She filled one of the glasses from a pitcher that stood nearby and carried it to the table in the center of the room. She sat on one end next to Timothy and across from Vladimir. Several other cadets were seated at the table as well, and all of them were involved in an energetic discussion. Timothy looked up as Senndra sat down and nodded to her.
“We’re discussing battle plans,” he explained. “Lemin decided that now was as good of a time as any to get some real life experience, so we are reviewing the proposed plans concerning the defense of Belmoth as well as plans concerning the extermination of the threatening army. Lemin also instructed us to see if we could come up with any plans of our own. If we do come up with any ideas that he decides have merit, he said that he would suggest it to the Grand Admiral of the city.”
“I see,” Senndra said. She pulled a stack of maps toward her and glanced over them. Marks and words covered them, obviously indicating the positions and movements of troops in different battle plans. Senndra’s training in battle maneuvers immediately kicked in, and quickly she began to eliminate plans that would not work. One plan pitted the defending dragons against the attacking dragons, a skirmish that would almost certainly end badly for the defenders, yet the plan still depended on the victory of the defending dragons. This was only the first of roughly half the plans that Senndra discarded based on obvious flaws. Next she began to look more carefully at the plans and discard more of them because of less obvious flaws, but ones that would, nonetheless, spell defeat for the forces of Magessa. In only a few minutes she had decreased the number of feasible plans to five then to two and finally to none.
“None of these plans are any good,” she said out loud, still looking at the last plan. She tossed the map and accompanying papers onto the stack of discarded battle plans and looked up to see that the other cadets had stopped arguing and were looking at her.
“It’s true. All of these plans have fatal flaws in them,” she reiterated.
“What about this one?” Timothy pulled one of the maps out of the stack and smoothed it out. As he did so, the sleeve of his shirt rose up his arm, revealing the last several inches of his wound. It had been neatly stitched up, and Senndra thought that perhaps the healing process had been helped along by magic.
“I really liked this one,” Timothy continued. “It could use some finishing touches, but all of the major parts are here, and there aren’t any major flaws.”
“This one?” Senndra asked. “This particular idea depends on the supposition that our wall-mounted siege machines will be able to fire on their soldiers. This is simply not going to happen. There is no way they will come
into range of our equipment. Nothing we have control of would be enough incentive to convince them to leave the safety of their camp and draw them into a danger zone.”
“What about the other plans?” a cadet that Senndra did not know asked. “Are you telling us you went over every one of them and found something wrong with each one?”
“Actually, that is exactly what I am saying,” Senndra said matter-of-factly. “I could take the time to go over every single one of them with you, but that would waste a lot of time.”
“Well, why don’t you show us one that won’t work and explain why,” the cadet said.
“I already did that, but I’ll do it with another one,” Senndra said. “Take this one for example.” She chose the first plan that she had eliminated and slapped it down on the table. “The success of this one hinges on our dragons being able to defeat those of the enemy in a head-on fight. We have less than half as many dragons as them, so that simply is not going to work. Besides that…” She stopped in midsentence and pulled the map closer for a better look.
“Actually, this idea is pretty good,” she commented after several minutes. “Besides a few minor flaws and the major one that I mentioned, this actually has potential to succeed.”
Timothy grabbed the map and began to look over it for himself. His critiquing of the plan took longer than Senndra’s, and as he was studying it the other cadets looked at him expectantly. Finally he raised his head and looked at the cadets surrounding him.
“She’s right,” he said. “It does have a few problems with it, but none that we can’t fix.” He passed the plan to the cadet next to him and pulled an unmarked map from another stack on the table and placed it between himself and Senndra. He grabbed a pencil and began to scribble on the map, quickly drawing the position and movement of several units of the army. Senndra reached for a pencil and began to add shapes and words to the side of the map closest to her. She sketched out the positions of several groups of infantry as well as adding three archer positions. She also sketched several maneuvers for the cavalry, mending the mistakes that she had seen in the original plan and adding several of her own maneuvers. Finally she turned her attention to the problem of the enemy dragons. It was obvious that the number of dragons for Magessa was significantly less than that of Molkekk, so they would not be able to defeat them in an all-out battle; however, if they had the support of heavy ballistae, they would have a good chance of being victorious. After pondering the problem for several minutes, Senndra added a few mobile ballistae to the slopes of Rebel Mountains and scribbled a question mark beside them. In words, she described a maneuver that she thought might succeed in drawing the enemy dragons within their range.
When she had finished, she raised her head and looked at the other cadets around the table. They had all looked at the plan and were scribbling on separate sheets of paper. Every so often one of them would reach for another piece of paper or a pencil, but otherwise there was almost no movement besides the scribbling of pencils on paper.
Senndra reached for her glass and took a draught of the liquid. She decided that it was some sort of fruit juice, though she wondered where the cadets would have gotten juice from. As she was pondering this question, Timothy put down his pencil, sat up, and stretched. He rose from his chair and crossed the room to the cupboards, chose a glass, and poured himself some of the contents of the pitcher. After tasting the liquid, he walked back to the table and sat down beside Senndra.
“Well, that went well, I think,” he said. “I was able to rework some of the problems with the original battle plan, and from what I saw of your side, it looks like you did even more than I did. If everyone else does half as much as we did, I think that we should have a decent plan.”
Senndra nodded her agreement. She glanced at the plan that Timothy and she had drawn up and scanned it for any obvious mistakes but didn’t find any. The other cadets were still working after she finished her critiquing, so she turned her attention to Timothy.
“How’s your arm doing?” she asked quietly so as not to disturb the others. He was taking a drink, and her question caught him off guard. Instinctively, he began to reply but started coughing instead.
“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Senndra asked, ready to help him. Timothy lifted a finger indicating that she was to stay back and continued coughing. Senndra had a worried expression on her face as her friend hacked and coughed for a few minutes. Finally he managed to clear the liquid out of his lungs and took a deep breath.
“My arm is okay,” he gasped in a hoarse voice. “My lungs, on the other hand, aren’t feeling so well.”
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Senndra asked again. Timothy nodded, and Senndra began to relax when he suddenly went into another fit of coughing. When he had finished, he looked up at her.
“I think I’m actually okay, now,” he said in a much clearer voice. He wiped a tear from his eye then pushed up the sleeve of his shirt so that the entire scar was visible. “Apparently it was very bad to begin with, but the military surgeons managed to stop the bleeding and stitch it up. When I came to, I found all of that work already done plus something else. Vladimir had been in to visit me and used magic to speed the healing process along a bit. I should be able to get the stitches out tomorrow.”
“That’s good,” Senndra commented. “We’re going to need everyone that can fight if the enemy attacks again, and you’re one of the best that we have.”
“Actually, we really don’t need all that many infantry soldiers,” Timothy contradicted her. “The dragons and a few archers are all that are really needed to keep the enemy infantry at bay.”
“You know as well as I do that they’re doing the exact same thing in their camp that we’re doing here,” Senndra said. “The chances of them creating a plan to bypass our defenses are just as good as our chances of doing the same to their defenses, maybe better since they have more warriors at their disposal. If they do that, we’re really going to need all of the soldiers we have and then some. We’ll really need you, since you can work magic.”
“Work with magic,” Timothy corrected her. “I’ve already explained magic to you about a hundred times. I don’t ‘work magic,’ I simply put it together so that it does what I want. Or rather, what Elohim wants.”
“How do you do that?” Senndra asked, interrupting Timothy. “How do you know what Elohim wants?”
“Sometimes He speaks to me like a person would speak to me,” Timothy answered. “Sometimes I can hear Him speaking to me in my head, but most often I just know what He wants me to do. I can’t really explain it; I just know. There was actually one time that I didn’t even know how to do the specific bit of magic that He wanted me to do. I just let Him work through me, and before I knew it, I had already done what I didn’t know how to do.”
“So He speaks to you frequently, but what about you? Can you speak to Him?” Senndra asked.
“I can, and do so often,” Timothy said. “Anyone can talk to Him whenever they want to, but whether He responds or not is a different story. Sometimes He will answer me right away, and sometimes it takes a long time for Him to answer. Sometimes it seems like He doesn’t answer, but that is simply because I am not looking at things in the correct light. Very often He will use something that I read or see to answer my question, and if I am not in the correct frame of mind, I can miss those answers very easily.”
“Maybe He doesn’t answer sometimes because He doesn’t hear you,” Senndra suggested.
“No, that has never happened and never will happen,” Timothy said. “In His Holy Book He wrote, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you.’ He always hears those who call on Him.”
“Then why do bad things happen to people who trust Him?” Senndra asked. “Did they not ask Him to protect them from evil, or did He not hear them?”
“Neither answer is necessarily correct,” Timothy answered. “Elohim hears every prayer prayed by men, and He always answers, but He does not necessarily answer the way that we
would like Him to answer. Perhaps, in your example, the righteous who trust in Him did ask for His protection. That does not necessarily mean that He will give that protection from all evil. There is no doubt that He answered, but maybe that answer was ‘No.’”
“But why would He do that to His people?” Senndra asked. “Why would He allow them to suffer when He would have to do so little to take that suffering away?”
“No one knows the answers to questions like that,” Timothy said, “because no one knows the mind of Elohim. One answer is that Elohim has given us free will and, for the most part, will not interfere with our choices. The choices made by some people may be what causes the bad things to happen to others. There are many other answers to your question; for instance, perhaps He allows things to happen so that His people can be strengthened by the experience. Like I said, no one knows the mind of Elohim, but we do know this: there is nothing that happens in this life that He cannot or does not use for His own good and the good of His people.”
“If He uses everything for good, then what is the purpose of the recent attacks on the country?” Senndra asked. “Surely they cannot be used for good.”
“Oh, yes they can,” Timothy responded. “Just one way that they could be profitable is if the uncertainty of them causes the people of this country to turn back to Elohim. There is really nothing better for bringing people back to Him than hard times.”
“If that’s the purpose for these attacks, I guess we can assume they will not end very soon,” Senndra decided. “I know that since the last attack, there has not been a massive revival in the nation. On the other hand, this last attack did bring many of the soldiers back to Elohim. I have noticed that a lot more of them believe in Him and talk about Him now than did when we were not at war.”
“First, we do not know if the purpose of these attacks is to bring the nation back to Elohim,” Timothy said, “however, if it is, I think that perhaps we will not see the end of it very soon. You were right when you said that many of the soldiers that did not use to believe in Elohim now do. Facing death is a very unique experience, and not many people can do it without having assurance that if they do die, they will be going to a better place. Those who trust in Elohim know that they are going to be with Him when they do die, and this makes fighting much easier. By this same token, the reason that the nation as a whole has not turned back to Elohim is that the fighting has not touched them yet. Which is why I think that perhaps this battle will not be finished very quickly and that it is a distinct possibility we will not be able to hold the city. If the enemy gains entrance to the country, they will essentially take the war to all of its inhabitants. When faced with death, they will find, like the soldiers did, that it’s easier to face death with the knowledge that they will be with Elohim when they die.”