The sun was two fingers above the eastern peaks when he rode Man o’ War along the lane to their second house in Caernford. It had deliberately been designed not to resemble the first house—where Anid, Mirramel, Norlin, and two guards had died in the Narthani assassination attempt. The first house had been mainly wood. The new one had stone outer walls and enough stone inner walls to serve as fire breaks. There were three entrances, each recessed in a garden alcove. Acceding to Wyfor Kale’s recommendation, weapons cabinets were scattered throughout the house, and every staff member was required to be able to handle musket, pistol, and hatchets as the blade of choice for the untrained.
Yozef had been prepared for resistance to all of the precautions, but none were voiced. All members of the Kolsko household had either been present at the attack or knew every detail. Yozef felt only moderately surprised when on the day of the first musket practice, Breda, Ceinwyn, and Mared Keelan showed up, along with every member of the hetman’s household not already familiar with weapons.
He had been gone three sixdays when he arrived home. Word of his imminent arrival traveled ahead of him, and Maera was waiting at the lane’s entrance.
Although his horsemanship had improved markedly, Yozef’s aching butt and stiff legs betrayed him in his hurry to dismount—not that an observer would have noticed, because he and Maera fell into each other’s arms as soon as his first foot hit the ground.
“I know the reports said that everything went better than expected and you were safe,” said Maera, “but I only truly believe it when I have my arms around you.”
Yozef kissed her, and they walked arm in arm to the house. Anarynd waited on the veranda. Aeneas crawled around her feet, and she shifted her weight in rhythm to whatever game the baby thought they were playing.
For a moment, when Yozef embraced Maera, he’d forgotten about Anarynd. A pang of guilt washed over him. He’d agreed to the marriage and tried to treat Anarynd and Maera equally, but in moments such as these, it was Maera who remained the focus of his feelings. Maera seemed to read his mind, for when they neared the veranda stairs, both she and he opened their free arms toward Anarynd, who scooped up Aeneas and raced down the stairs to join a hug—with protesting Aeneas pressed in the middle.
After a moment, Maera spoke first. “A bath is waiting, Yozef. Clean up, and we’ll eat. You’ll tell us everything that happened.”
Yozef waited three days to confirm the thinking he’d done on the return trip, then reluctantly brought up the decision he’d made. His first instinct was to talk with Maera first, but he resisted the impulse as part of his effort not to make apparent distinctions between Maera and Anarynd in family matters. He felt confident Maera would agree since they had already discussed the topic, though he worried how Anarynd would respond after only recently settling into her new life.
He had been unusually quiet during morning meal. It was only the three of them—Braithe had taken Aeneas for changing and feeding.
“What is it, Yozef?” Maera prodded. “Something’s on your mind.”
Anarynd looked between the two—a piece of biscuit halfway from her plate to her mouth. What did Maera mean?
Yozef stopped spreading Nerlin Filtin’s muddleton berry jam on his own biscuit and set down his biscuit and knife. “Yes, there is something we need to discuss. It’s been on my mind since I got back. I haven’t brought it up since I wanted to be sure of my own thinking. To be honest, it’s something I’m not pleased about, though I think it’s necessary. As I said, I just got back, yet I’ll need to go to Orosz City again the next sixday for a War Council meeting.”
“Then I assume Father will be going, too,” said Maera.
“Yes, neither of us has any choice. I don’t imagine Culich is looking forward to the trip and being away any more than I am, possibly even less so, because he has his clanspeople to be concerned with. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I’ve had to make too many trips to Orosz City, and it will only get worse. We probably only have a few months, at best, before the new Narthani army arrives. Then, assuming they need time to organize and recover from the voyage, a month or two later we can expect the next major moves against the clans. With so much to do, and with Caernford in the south of the island, I could expect to spend most of my time in Orosz City, traveling back and forth, or travelling elsewhere on Caedellium. In addition, the Fuomi leaders are staying in Orosz City. I think they’re going to be important, and I need to be nearer to them.”
Maera spoke as soon as the last syllable was out of Yozef’s mouth. “You think you need to be living in Orosz City.”
“Orosz City?” exclaimed Anarynd, a hint of alarm in her tone.
“Only until the crisis with the Narthani is resolved,” said Yozef.
“Yozef is right, Ana,” said Maera. “Orosz City is more centrally located. That’s already where the War Council meets. It’s the logical location for them, because Hetman Orosz is already there, and the capitals of the other three hetmen are about the same distance from Orosz City. Also, when the Narthani start their next attempt to conquer the island, clan resistance and coordination will have to be geographically centralized.”
“B-But . . . ” Anarynd said, “ . . . then you should go, too, Maera. You’re important in planning and helping Yozef.”
“More than just me,” said Maera. “The rest of the MIU should move, too, those who aren’t already in Orosz City. The MIU needs to coordinate intelligence and support the War Council, and from Orosz City the MIU can better collate and evaluate reports from all over the island.”
Thank you, God, if you exist, for Maera, Yozef thought.
“Thank you, Maera, and you’re right. The entire MIU needs to be in Orosz City, and I’ll need all the help I can get.”
“Well, then,” said Anarynd, “that means all of us will be going.”
Yozef stared. He had wondered how Anarynd would receive the news. “Uh . . . I had thought you would stay here with Aeneas,” said Yozef, “and then go with the other Keelanders to the Dillagon redoubt when the time came.”
Anarynd pursed her lips and laid both hands firmly on the table in front of her. “I’m a wife of Yozef Kolsko, and if Maera is going, then so should I.”
Oh shit, Yozef thought, does she take my being pleased at Maera agreeing to move as favoring her?
Maera jumped in. “Of course, Ana is coming, too.”
“Well . . . ” Yozef mumbled. “I’d thought of Anarynd and Aeneas, Gwyned and Morwena, and Dwyna all being safe in the Keelan redoubt, where I wouldn’t worry about them.”
“Would we really be safer in the redoubt than with you in Orosz City?” asked Anarynd, her tone leaving no doubt about her level of irritation at the suggestion of being separated from the rest of the family.
Maera leaned over and laid a hand on Anarynd’s. “Yozef means well, Ana. He’s thinking you and Aeneas would be safer in the redoubt, but he’d miss you both.” Maera gave Yozef a pointed look.
“Of course, Anarynd,” he said. “I only thought I’d worry less about the two of you.”
“Ana’s question is pertinent, Yozef. Oh, I understand the logic of the redoubts, but if the Narthani win, even the redoubts would eventually fall. Moreover, Orosz City itself is a redoubt, and if what you’ve said and the reports I’ve read are true, it may be one of the strongest, what with strengthening its walls and with the mountains protecting two sides. I think both of us will be able to do our work better if we have Ana and Aeneas with us. I think the entire Kolsko household should make the move. With Aeneas going, then there’s no question Braithe and Gowlin Reese will move as well. Carnigan and Wyfor would go, so Gwyned, Morwena, and Dwyna will, too.”
It was settled. Yozef went from wondering how to explain why he needed to move to Orosz City to the entire Kolsko household moving. The details Yozef left to Maera, Anarynd, and Gwyned. He had a month’s worth of work to do in the next sixday.
Drill
Yozef marveled that although the Caedel
li were relatively unsophisticated and the leadership of some clans cantankerous, once they set their minds to complete a task, they were relentless. The original cadre of dragoons trained in Abersford and Caernford had spread their experience and training routine throughout Keelan, then to the other four members of the Five-Clan Alliance, along with Stent and Orosz, and by now, basic training continued in all of the free clans. Feren Bakalacs, the Farkesh hetman, had taken to this role as War Council member focusing on personal training—the “gee-2,” in Yozef’s terminology. Bakalacs had also taken staffing suggestions to heart, and his top aides were all from other clans: Pawell, Swavebroke, and Gwillamer.
The completed campaign against Eywell and Selfcell had confirmed problems with single-clan regiments. In addition to the Moreland regiment commander who had been removed from command, Stent demoted two other commanders of the eleven regiments he’d had in the Northern Force. All three decisions caused problems with the respective clans, but Bakalacs and the rest of the War Council supported Stent.
In a similar manner, several of the eleven regiment commanders did the same with leaders down to the platoon level. Most clans were adjusting to the new ways of thinking, but Nyvaks, Vandinke, and Pawell continued to be problematic with regard to personnel—as they were in most areas.
The MIU assisted the War Council in establishing a rating system for unit readiness, meaning as ready as was realistic in the existing circumstances and having enough training to be considered operational. Within a sixday of the end of the Eywell/Selfcell campaign, approximately 24,000 men served in “operational” units. Another 14,000 were in units rated as needing more training and/or reorganization of units, replacement of officers, or both. Another 27,000 men were identified as able to fight and slated for training to whatever level they could attain, and depending on the time left.
Bakalacs, to the surprise of everyone, took to Yozef’s suggestion that capable available women also needed to be trained to fight—at least, as a last-ditch reserve or for duties where they could relieve men to join front-line units. As detailed reports and evaluations about the operations of all regiments circulated among clans, uncertainty and, in some cases, resistance to unit organization faded. A few minor adjustments were made, but the War Council settled on platoons of twenty-five men, companies of one hundred, battalions of four hundred, and operational regiments of two thousand. On Yozef’s advice, no permanent units larger than regiments were formalized. He thought it hard enough to keep regiments organized, and actions requiring more than a regiment would involve ad hoc combinations of regiments, although potential leaders of up to divisional sizes were identified and given an appropriate rank. Thus, Denes Vegga, while in direct command of a regiment, retained the rank of brigadier, as did Welman Stent. In case still larger combinations of regiments were needed, leaders, such as Vegga and Stent, would brevet to the rank of general.
Problems lingered with identifying leaders based on ability. Prominent families slowly and, in many cases, grudgingly accepted the new way of thinking. However, the War Council wielded the authority given it by the All-Clan Conclave, and in two cases, a letter from Yozef Kolsko helped facilitate cooperation when he wrote to recalcitrant hetmen that “it had come to him” that God might not be pleased with a clan’s progress and cooperation. The latter tactic was judiciously used with hetmen known to be devout.
Most Caedelli found the concept of drill one of the hardest lessons. They initially considered it meaningless to spend hours doing the same simple tasks over and over: riding, marching, digging, or whatever else the officers deemed relevant. Yet its primary purpose was to teach them to automatically obey orders and to work as a team.
Once the men got into dragoon units of company size or larger, training included weapon coordination. Yozef stressed that they focus on three scenarios for fighting, one using their mobility and a combination of dragoons and 6-pounder horse artillery. Most of the men were already acceptable horsemen. The inexperienced riders engaged in intense practice for hours a day until they became adequate. One tactic that they practiced hard was riding as a unit, dismounting as a unit, deploying artillery, firing at an enemy, and then reversing the procedure and moving on to do it again. The goal? Being able to quickly set up, hit a Narthani force, and withdraw before the Narthani could counterattack in force.
A second tactic was the classic cavalry charge, if opportunity and need arose—a scenario Yozef prayed they would seldom have to use.
The final basic tactic amounted to acting more like infantry. The unit would ride to a position, dismount, and picket the horses, then take up pick and shovel to dig positions. Of the three tactics, the men hated digging the most, particularly when repeated four times or more on the same day.
They’ll learn, thought Yozef, the first time they see how many lives it saves.
CHAPTER 31: BATTLEFIELDS AND COMMANDS
Keelan Battlefield Candidate
Yozef took time for one shorter trip before heading to Orosz City and the War Council meeting. The MIU had come up with only three potential battlefield sites that matched his stringent criteria for a place where the clans could trap a Narthani army and oblige them to attack strong clan defensive positions. He had already visited two of the sites—the one in the Stent Province glacial valley and the site along the Farkesh coast cliffs. They had taken to referring to them as the Glacier and Coast sites. The third site, the one he hadn’t seen yet for himself, was nearby—only twenty-five miles north-northeast of Caernford and near the Hewell Province border.
Gartherid Kennrick’s surveyors had already extensively studied the site. Yozef had read their reports and maps, but he needed to see the site for himself. Yozef and Denes accompanied Gartherid, three surveyors, and guards left Caernford at first light and arrived at a gap in a one thousand-foot ridgeline at mid-day. The geological feature that put the site on the candidate list reminded Yozef of a college roommate’s description of the terrain north of the roommate’s hometown, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains. The Susquehanna River flowed through a series of gaps in parallel ridgelines. The roommate had tried to explain to Yozef, back when he was Joseph Colsco, the theories about how the river had cut the gaps. The proposed theories talked of different rock layers, fractures, and floodwaters, but it had sounded to Joseph as if the experts had no clue.
The site in Keelan didn’t match the Alleghenies, but there was evidence of glaciers around the higher peaks and several ridgelines at lower elevations. Two ridges were six miles apart at their widest but merged at two ends of an ovaloid valley thirteen miles along its long axis. Yozef theorized that glacial melt had formed a lake that broke through the first ridgeline. The water poured into the valley, filling it until it, too, broke through the second ridgeline. The glaciers were long gone, and only a modest stream now flowed through the two gaps slightly off-center a third of the way from the western end of the valley. The southern gap was two miles wide and the northern gap only a third of a mile wide. Both gaps were flat, with deep alluvial soil.
They rode the six miles to the northern, narrower gap.
“No problem setting up fortifications here,” said Denes, “but the other two sites are further along in building. If we add this, we’d have to get going quickly.”
Yozef nodded. “Since it’s near Hewell and Mittack, we could have Keelan, Mittack, and Hewell working on it and maybe workers from other clans.”
“My worry is the other end,” said Gartherid. “That’s why we didn’t push this site earlier.”
“You were right to worry,” said Denes. “There’s no natural features to help block a Narthani army from exiting the valley through that gap. The Coast Site has the cliffs, ravines, and water. Glacier has that terminal moraine and shallow lake. Here, there’s nothing but flat land back across the first gap. Then there’s the ridges. The slopes aren’t as steep as the other two sites. They would be hard to cross, especially for the horses, wagons, and cannon of a Narthani army,
but not impossible. If they did manage to get even infantry across, our blocking force could find itself attacked from both directions.”
“No site is going to be perfect,” said Yozef. “The main problem I see here is how to block the Narthani from forcing their way through any fortifications we throw up. There couldn’t be any in place when the Narthani pass through the wider gap the first time. Nothing to warn them. Then, once they’re inside, we’d have to dig and build before they realized our intent. Even if our men could hold off any smaller attacks until their main formations attack, I don’t see how we’d have more than one day, possibly less, to build and dig enough to withstand a determined attempt to break out of the trap. Then we’d be back where we were, and they’d be alerted to our intentions.”
Gartherid’s face turned downcast. “So you think this site isn’t worth considering. I’m sorry you and Brigadier Vegga made the trip.”
Yozef slapped Gartherid on the back. “No, the site is interesting. I’m just laying out the main problems. Let’s head back to the wider gap, take in some other views, and discuss the possibilities.”
Forty minutes later, they stood on the bank of the small stream flowing through the two-mile gap.
“Let’s state the problem,” said Yozef. “We lure the Narthani to chase us through this gap and into the valley. Maybe a few miles inside, we deploy as if intending to stand and fight—to encourage them to move all their forces and deploy to fight a battle. As soon as we think all or most of them are in the valley and focused on our force they’re pursuing, we close this gap behind the Narthani with men and cannon forward enough to allow building hurried defenses.”
Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4) Page 41