by Andy Holland
John shook his head. "We're too near the border here. The Blues could cross over at any time. Could you seriously leave them all here in danger after all the trouble we went to get them out?"
Natan sighed irritably. "Alright, let's go and find Theo. I get the feeling you're not going to let this lie, are you?"
John shook his head, extending his hand to help Natan stand up. "This place has completely changed; where is everything now?"
Natan shrugged. "Well the population has more than doubled, so what did you expect? Follow me. We're right by the headquarters."
Natan led John to the headquarters, which was formed of a series of large tents, each with guards outside.
"John and Natan for Theo," Natan said to the guard outside the first tent.
The guard nodded and waved them in. Inside the tent Theo was talking to two grey-haired men; all three of them sat around a large table.
"John! Welcome back! I had heard that you had arrived. I was just about to send someone out to find you."
John nodded. "What's happening about relocating all of these girls, Theo? We're very near the border here. This place has no defensive advantages and it's too big a risk to keep them here any longer."
Theo shook his head, smiling in a bemused way, and turned to the two men beside him. "Straight to the point as always. Gentlemen, meet John. He's the reason that we're all here today on this mission. John, this is Jude and Benjamin, who work in the Department of Immigration. We were just discussing this matter and it's all being taken care of. We will be moving all of the foreign girls out of here first thing in the morning. There aren't any populations of Blues nearby, so there won't be any attacks before we get them out of here."
"What about the Browns? The others make up a small minority. They'll still be here."
Theo sat back, looking a little surprised. "They're already home, John. It's up to the Browns from here."
"Not good enough, Theo," John replied. "They're fighting a war now and these girls are near the border and at risk. They should be moved further away from the border—much further away. If the Blues attack here in force they could kill thousands of those girls."
"Young man," Jude replied, "that is something that is out of our control. We've handed these girls over now. It's up to Gul to manage their safety."
"Speak to Gul then," John said. "They're not safe here."
Jude shook his head. "Gul doesn't need us telling him what to do—"
John banged the table and stood up. "Fine. I'll go and speak to him. Enjoy your committee meeting." He stormed out of the tent and approached the guard at the next tent's entrance.
"Is Gul in here?"
The man shook his head and pointed to the central tent, a large, richly decorated one. John nodded and hurried towards the tent.
"John, wait!" Theo called after him.
John ignored him and walked up to the two guards at the tent. "Urgent request to speak to Gul. I'm the one who led the return of the prisoners. It's regarding their safety."
The guard shrugged, sizing John up and then turning to go into the tent. "Follow me," he said as he entered.
"Ah, the young man," Gul said in greeting. "Apologies, but your name escapes me."
John shook his head. "No apology necessary, sir. My name is not important. I've come to speak to you about the girls we rescued; I'm concerned about their safety so close to the border."
Gul nodded, smiling. "Borders are not fixed, young man. The border will be moving away from them in a couple of days."
Theo burst into the tent accompanied by Jude and Benjamin. "Gul, I apologise for John's intrusion. He is tired from his trip and not thinking clearly."
Gul waved his hand dismissively. "It is fine, Theo; I was hoping to thank him for returning all of the girls to us. He has done a marvellous job."
John shook his head impatiently. "But they're still at risk. Having them all together, it makes them a target. They need to be moved away from the border."
Gul frowned. "These are our girls, John, and our concern. I don't see any Golden Dragons in their midst. Worry about your own."
John looked him in the eye. "There were Golden Dragon women out finding the camp though, and it was one of them who rescued the first prisoners. There were no Brown Dragons in that first trip into the Blue Dragons' territory, just us. You didn't want us to just worry about our own then."
Gul glared at him icily. "Perhaps you forget who you're speaking to, boy."
Theo placed his hand on John's shoulder to calm him and smiled disarmingly at Gul.
"It's so easy to forget that John is just a boy when you consider what he has achieved, wouldn't you agree, Gul? But being just a boy and having never visited your great nation before, we can make some allowances for his ignorance when it comes to how to address leaders as important as yourself, don't you think? Children can so easily lose their heads in situations like this." Theo smiled at John, but his eyes were hard.
Gul turned to Theo and nodded curtly. "I expect the boy is tired from his long trip; we can make allowances in this instance."
Theo smiled and bowed. "Although he does so inexpertly, he raises an important point. Borders are irrelevant at a time such as this. The Blues could attack at any moment."
Gul shrugged. "What would you have me do? I need all my men to fight this war, which you wanted us to join. The girls cannot move themselves and where could they go anyway? The Blues could attack anywhere up and down the border."
John spoke up again. "Fine, let us take care of them. Take them over the border to our land till the war is over. We will find a haven for them. The Blues would never dare attack us."
"What?" Jude exclaimed loudly. "Have you gone completely mad? That's over five thousand girls to take in. Have you any idea what that would cost?"
John ignored him. "I didn't bring them back here just to let the Blues catch them again. Do you accept this offer?"
Gul laughed, all hostility having evaporated. "Do you have the authority to make this happen? This man doesn't seem to think so."
"He doesn't," Jude replied firmly. "Come on now, we've taken up enough of Gul's time."
"I have no authority of my own," John agreed. "But our laws are clear. We are obliged to take the girls in if they request a safe haven. We might not be able to join in fighting this war—not legally—but we can still play a part."
"But young man, that's over six thousand refugees!" Jude pointed out. "We've never had that many in one go. We were going to struggle with just the foreign girls."
John shrugged, caring little for Jude's objections. "The law puts no limit on how many we have to take in. But I would have thought it would be more than that. You may wish to evacuate children from all of your border towns. After all, there's no point rescuing all these girls if we're going to let them just catch a new batch. Theo will be able to help you arrange this. All I ask is you move the girls away from the border first thing tomorrow morning. The children can accompany them if you wish and then you can forget about the problem of protecting them as well. I'd suggest moving them all to somewhere near our border perhaps. These three can manage it from there."
Gul laughed and rose to his feet. "John, I like the way you do business. You have a deal." John shook his outstretched hand before turning to Theo, who was gawping at him in amazement. He opened his mouth as if to respond, but no words came out.
"Our responsibilities are clear," John told him. "There's no point in leaving this job half done. If anything, I suspect our laws oblige us to make this offer. Either way, it's the right thing to do and it's going to happen now whether you like it or not."
"Thank you, John," Jude said coldly. "You'll be heading back in the morning, won't you?"
"No he won't!" Theo spluttered. "This is his idea; he can help implement it."
John shrugged. "I had hoped to go back to Immigration House to see my friends, but I guess one more day can't hurt."
"Are you sure you want him to stay?" Benjami
n asked dubiously. "He's only been here for five minutes and he's burdened us with this huge task. I dread to think what he'll have committed us to if he has a whole day."
Theo nodded, smiling at John. "He made this mess; he can help us deal with it. I wouldn't count on it being just one day's work either. I suspect you've just given us many years of work, but we'll have to see. Go on young man, I know you haven't eaten yet, we will speak after your dinner. We have a lot of work to do."
John nodded and excused himself before leaving the tent.
"What's the joke?" Gul asked, noticing Theo's smile.
Theo shook his head. "No joke, not really. John's right, that's all. He's just a sixteen-year-old boy, and has a better sense of right and wrong than any of us. We were shying away from a difficult and trying task, but he wouldn't let us. It just struck me as amusing. Gul, please excuse us; we have a lot of work to do…."
Chapter 23 - Planning the defence
"It's bad," Lord Robert announced to his fellow members of the Council. The Commander of the Southern Armies was presenting his report, which consisted of the commanders of each of the armies, the head of military intelligence and the representatives of each of the eight noble houses. Half of the nobles were absent, as was Lord Lance, the Commander of the Northern Army. "They've begun attacking and ransacking villages to the north of Black Rock. We thought they might skip over them and come straight here, but they're being thorough. They're doing so using overwhelming numbers and are taking no chances. Our dragons don't stand a chance and are being evacuated from anywhere that can't be defended."
"As was expected," Lord Daniel stated gloomily. The Commander of the Eastern Principality had little to be joyful about since the fall of Obud. "They won't attack us here in Furnace until they have cleared the way. They can't sneak in as they did to attack us before, but they are clearly nervous of attacks from behind."
"Then you should attack them now!" Lord Oscar cried shrilly. "Rather than cowering here in Furnace, you should lead your troops on the counterattack!"
Lord Daniel regarded him with contempt, cursing the day that Prince Henry's father had elevated this fool's family to being a noble house, making him a Lord and placing him on the Council. "Cowering here in Furnace? I was in Obud when they attacked, commanding my troops. What were you doing? What support did we get from Furnace?"
"Lord Oscar, with the size of the Blue Army, a counterattack would be fatal," the Prince replied in a rather bored tone, ignoring Lord Daniel's response. "Their troops would be better used defending their capital, which is where they are."
"Along with their brave King," Oscar declared proudly. "Unlike the Princes, all holed up in the West." The rulers of the three Principalities that had been attacked had been evacuated to the Western capital in advance of the first attack.
"Not true," Prince Gerald responded quickly before Robert or Daniel could react. "I am here, am I not? I'm not ruler yet, but I'm here in my grandfather's place, along with a number of our forces."
The young Prince was popular in the Council, and was present as a guest, as technically Lord Jeremy, the Commander of the Western Army, was there in place of Prince Carl. The number of troops sent by the West was quite small, the remainder being sent to guard towns bordering the areas now held by the Blues.
"A very noble act," Prince Henry agreed, "although a few more of your troops would not go amiss. Come, Lords, tell us, what more do we know?"
"Perhaps I should answer that question, as head of military intelligence," Lord Karl replied. "Through Lord Richard, Prince Cornelius's representative in Lord Lance's absence, we've been given a clear picture of the state of the North, and it is the one ray of hope. Newcastle stands firm, having successfully survived the initial attack and the Blue Dragon Army appears to have taken very heavy losses during that defeat, and we believe it will be some time before they are able to mount a second major assault on the city. Sadly the rest of the North did not fare as well. The Blues divided their numbers, attacking Newcastle and Oldcastle simultaneously and Oldcastle fell quite quickly with substantial losses, as the North had not evacuated as many of their residents as the East or the South."
"Which perhaps explains why we in Newcastle stood firm when Obud and Black Rock fell," Lord Nicholas suggested smugly. Lord Nicholas was the head of one of the two noble houses in the Northern Principality and owned much of Newcastle, but couldn't really claim to have had anything to do with the success of the defence, having been in Furnace when the Blues attacked.
"Inept leadership helped," Lord Richard replied quickly, eager to avoid annoying the other commanders. "Lord Lance himself said that the attack was badly led by the Blues, continuing with a plan that had clearly not worked, leading to far higher losses than they needed to sustain. We had a degree of fortune not shared by Lord Robert or Lord Daniel."
"Quite," Lord Karl agreed. "As I was saying, Oldcastle has fallen and as far as we can tell, the Blues have control of all land to the east of Oldcastle and are attacking settlements close to Newcastle. They're having some success, but Lord Lance is keeping them at bay for the time being."
"The East is another matter and it is here where the Blues have concentrated their forces. Obud fell swiftly and although we were fortunate enough to evacuate all unable to fight before the invasion, and to use the tunnels under the city to evacuate those that managed to retreat from the air, we still sustained considerable losses. Considering the size of the forces lined up against us, it is very fortunate that our losses weren't much higher. Lord Daniel may have lost the city, but the Blues lost a lot of their dragons and he managed to save a large proportion of his forces."
"That'll help a lot with defending Furnace," Prince Gerald commented. "Here is where they'll be defeated, and then we'll retake Obud."
Lord Daniel nodded, smiling politely at Prince Gerald, but lacking any conviction. Losing Obud was hard for him to bear and it was even harder to see how it could be recaptured.
"The rest of the East is in the process of being overrun," Lord Karl continued. "The Blues have launched a series of attacks against villages and towns around Obud and all have fallen. My intelligence officers report that Obud itself is not being used itself, but a site to the south-east, where the Blue Dragon Army is amassing."
"That's good news," Prince Gerald said. "Obud should be easy to recapture if they're not concentrating their forces there."
"Alas, no, it is far from good news. They have only chosen another location as Obud is too small for their number. They are clearly preparing for a second wave of attacks, which, if my officers are right about their numbers, will sweep away all resistance in the Eastern Principality, clearing the way to Furnace."
"He's right," Lord Daniel admitted. "I've just come from the town of Two Rivers, near the north-east of the Eastern Principality. Thousands of dragons have fled there from all over the Eastern Principality, and a number of them have corroborated that report. I've given the order to evacuate Two Rivers; I doubt it will be safe for long. The only problem is where to send them."
"The West," Prince Gerald replied quickly. "We will take them in. You can be assured of that."
There was a brief, awkward silence as the commanders exchanged looks. "Prince Gerald," Lord Jeremy began, "perhaps this is a matter we should discuss before committing ourselves. We have no idea of the number of refugees that need accommodating and as you know, we've always had a rather strict policy regarding immigration into the west."
"Ah yes, the beauty contests," Lord Daniel commented sourly. As the safest, richest and most developed Principality, there had been a continuous flow of applicants for permission to move to the West, and that had been the case for many years. Unfortunately, the selection process had developed a reputation for selecting immigrants based on looks. A reputation, which was never denied, and appeared to have a solid foundation.
"Nonsense," Prince Gerald replied. "Normal rules are suspended during a time of war. Make it so. I will take responsibility; my g
randfather will agree, I assure you."
"Are you sure about that?" Lord Jeremy asked, clearly uncomfortable with this concession. "He's always been very clear on this matter."
"All he cares about at the moment is finding his granddaughter," Prince Gerald replied. "I will have no problem convincing him that this is the right thing to do."
The Council members nodded sympathetically. "Has there been any word regarding the young princess?" Lord Daniel asked. "Or your daughter, Lord Robert?"
"Nothing other than the note Arthur left," Prince Gerald replied. "I find it hard to believe that he would let her do something so reckless, and even harder to believe that she would choose to do so."
"It's that boy's doing," Prince Henry added. "I never trusted him. He'll have talked her into this."
"Not according to Arthur's note," Prince Gerald replied. "She left John with little choice."
"Considering Crystal's last year, I had no reason to be surprised," Lord Robert added. "My only consolation is that she might be no better off here."
"They may be successful," Prince Gerald pointed out. "That boy is unusually resourceful. We could do with some assistance in this war."
"Well I wouldn't count on Brown Dragons," Lord Nicholas replied. "We don't know them and they don't know us. Even if they make it there, I can't see why they'll help us."
"For the time being, we will have to assume they won't be helping us," Lord Karl concluded, returning to his report. "Moving on to the South—"
"We know the situation there," Prince Henry interrupted, his irritation undisguised. "What are we going to do about it?"
Lord Karl nodded. "They outnumber us many times over. Facing them outside cities would be madness, and doing so near a city is little better. Our only hope is to try and single out smaller groups and turn the tables on them. I understand the West had a particularly successful outcome when the Blues sent a thousand dragons to attack one small town on the Western border, only to find it was defended by ten thousand.