Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4)

by Olan Thorensen

decks many large transports

  Yozef’s gut tightened, and a cold wave passed through him. “So, it begins,” he said softly, staring at the paper. “Tomis . . . you were saying how we can be motivated. I’d say this message counts.” He handed the sheet back to Orosz. “The news has only gone to hetmen so far. We’ll need to spread the word. It’s time to begin everything we planned. The War Council is to come here and remain for the duration of what will happen. There’ll be no time to wait to gather all four of you once action begins. The people destined for redoubts should begin either moving there or getting away from the coast.”

  “This soon?” said Orosz, surprised. “I thought we assumed it would take these new Narthani time to recover from months at sea.”

  “The new ones, yes,” said Yozef, “but what about the ones already here? They haven’t moved lately, probably because after our actions they figured they didn’t have enough men to provide security in Preddi Province and carry out attacks. Now, they’ve got tens of thousands of new soldiers, even if they’re weak from the voyage. That leaves the originals free to do what they did to Swavebroke or do a reconnaissance in force into Selfcell and Eywell provinces. I recommend that everyone within thirty miles of a coast start moving now.

  “We also have to initiate our final plan. You’ll need the other War Council members to agree, but if semaphore messages go out immediately, you should hear back today. The Level One alert can then go out.”

  The agreement from Stent and Keelan returned within two hours. Feren Bakalacs was away from the Farkesh capital when the message came in. Only after sunset did he learn that the new Narthani army had arrived; then he read Orosz’s request. The next morning, the first semaphore message from Devanyo, the Farkesh capital, carried the final vote to begin Level One.

  Preddi City

  Brigadier Aivacs Zulfa found himself the most junior officer in the headquarters room in Preddi City. At Marshal Gullar’s request, a large map of Caedellium lay spread out on the rectangular table around which stood eleven men. Zulfa, Akuyun, and Hizer were the only members of the original Narthani forces attending. The marshal, Admiral Dimir, and six of Gullar’s generals at or higher than Akuyun’s rank made up the other eight. The last three days had been filled with disembarking the newly arrived army, getting them settled in an encampment a few miles from Preddi City, organizing the mountains of supplies that accompanied the army, and meetings, meetings, and more meetings. In the current meeting on the fourth morning, they would begin to decide on details of the Twenty-Ninth Corps’ campaign.

  “Let’s get started,” ordered Gullar. Side conversations hushed, and the men alternated between looking at the marshal and the map.

  “We’ve had a chance to go over past reports again and be briefed by General Akuyun and his staff on current conditions on Caedellium. On the voyage here, we spent considerable time thinking about options on how to execute this campaign. The pieces of information we did not have at that time were a full appreciation of the islanders’ performance at the Moreland battle, increased suspicion that the Fuomi had had a hand here, and the loss of the two allied clans. The obvious conclusion is that we cannot think we are simply dealing with a mass of unorganized locals. Although it didn’t result in major battles, the clan campaign to isolate the two allied clans showed planning, tactical sense, unit organization, and, from all reports, a good number of horse artillery.

  “All these factors sum to mean we’ll face an enemy more like we’ve faced in mainland campaigns and not merely a mass of unorganized, inexperienced clansmen. If anything, I see this as an advantage. We’ll be facing an enemy we’re more accustomed to instead of one that is unpredictable. It’s also fortunate our corps completed the conversion from mixed pike and muskets to all muskets. In retrospect, the High Command sending pike and musket units to Caedellium was a mistake, albeit an understandable one, due to the erroneous information about likely islander tactics focusing mainly on light cavalry. We now know that in addition, they will fight afoot and have at least light artillery. Brigadier Zulfa has described the odd three-swivel carriages they used, but those are too short range to be a major problem. More serious are the 12-pounders they captured and the horse artillery they now seem to possess in some respectable numbers. General Akuyun assesses, and I agree, that we should be open to the possibility they’re producing heavier cannon, though these haven’t yet been encountered. Also unknown are the number and capabilities of any Fuomi on the island, but it’s unlikely there are enough to be decisive, as long as we’re aware we might make contact with them.

  “Our basic strategy is to achieve one or more decisive victories and force them to capitulate. To do this, we’ll move into their provinces and destroy whatever is necessary to bring them to battle. As we’ve discussed, there are three general options to follow—naturally, with many variations. One is to follow a similar strategy as already attempted by Brigadier Zulfa: cutting the clan territories into two unconnected sections by driving through to the other side of the island. An advantage to this option is that it hinders coordination among the clans. A disadvantage is that it leaves us open for attacks to our rear and our supply line. Given the number of men we have and our total naval control, this disadvantage doesn’t seem critical.

  “The second general option is to keep within contact of our navy, attacking coastal provinces, with the advantage of easy supply and movements via ship. The major disadvantage is the conquest would take longer.

  “The third option is to divide our forces with multiple attack points. The advantage here is that it might lead individual clans to surrender sooner and, as that happens, encourage the others to follow suit. However, if we divide our forces, and given the islanders’ recently displayed capabilities, it has the danger of being attacked ‘in detail’—letting the islanders focus on one part of our corps at a time and losing the advantage of overwhelming superior forces at any one point.

  “I’m inclined to agree with the previous tactic of forcing the islanders to stand and fight. Even with our corps and General Akuyun’s men, we only have about eighty thousand men on an island-continent five hundred miles across at its widest points. If the clans refuse to stand and fight, we could spend years chasing the last ones around the island. We have to force them to defend their towns, people, villages, and farms. This is the basis of the strategy Narthon has used before, and it has worked elsewhere.

  “We also have a precedent right here on Caedellium. The islanders massed to defend Moreland City. There’s no reason to believe they won’t do the same if we threaten provinces and major cities.”

  During the next two hours, the men discussed and argued the salient points of each strategy and combination of tactics. Akuyun believed Gullar already had a plan in mind and was using the meeting to see if any significant contrary arguments came to the fore.

  They set the launch date for one and a half months from that day—time for the men to recover from the long voyage and regain their physical condition. Time to match horses for the ten thousand cavalrymen just arrived. Time for maneuvers to refresh integration of arms. Time to finish organizing logistics with local resources. Time for Tuzere and Akuyun to plan for administrating large new chunks of Caedellium territory and peoples. Time to gather more information about the islanders’ current capabilities. Time for Akuyun to wonder if they still underestimated the islanders.

  “The lack of updated information bothers me the most about the situation,” said Gullar. “I agree with General Akuyun’s decision to concentrate on protecting the civilian population until we arrived. However, we have enough forces here now to explore other options without endangering the province’s security.”

  Chapter 40: It Begins

  Free Clans, Level One

  The Level One alert gave affected islanders up to three days to initiate action, depending on location and assignments.

  The two rotating regiments currently patrolling the Eywell/Preddi border were ordered to pull their camps back tw
enty miles farther and continue patrols from the new camps. They assumed the Narthani had managed to slip enough scouts through the clans’ screen to locate the existing camps. With more Narthani available, they might risk trying a surprise foray against the two regiments.

  All units, from regiment down to platoon, had to prepare to move on one day’s notice, with each reporting on its ability to do this, any reasons why it couldn’t comply, and when it would be ready. The order implied that units failing to satisfy the War Council would have their leaders replaced and be moved from their current location to another clan’s territory.

  Only essential military and men involved in critical tasks, such as food production, were to remain within thirty miles of the coast. All others needed to move inland, such as to their assigned redoubt.

  All Selfcellese in the southern half of the province had to move to the hastily organized redoubt in the low mountains northwest of Sellmor. Selfcellese in the northern part of the province prepared to leave on a twelve-hour notice to head into Stent Province, where they would be directed to the Stent redoubt.

  Eywellese could begin moving into other provinces, but each Eywellese had to decide individually, because no organized leadership existed in the clan. Estimates were that about one-third of the Eywellese would respond.

  Six regiments of dragoons gathered at Hanslow in Eywell Province. The city stood in the center of an arc that ran from the Keelan/Eywell border to the sea west of Wynmor in northern Selfcell Province. Many Hanslow residents had fled the city, leaving ample empty buildings to lodge regiments and store supplies. Owill Brell estimated half of the remaining population would actively support the clansmen, and the other half would sullenly tolerate the use of their city as a staging site against the Narthani.

  One regiment would go to Wynmor to join with Hetman Selfcell and two thousand of his clan’s fighting men. The Selfcellese had only begun to organize on the model of the other clans, but only a few bitter past victims doubted their commitment. Welman Stent had written to the War Council that his main concern with the Selfcellese was they might be too committed to prove their loyalty to the rest of Caedellium.

  The final deployment in Level One consisted of two regiments of dragoons to Dornfeld in western Keelan.

  Kolsko Household, Orosz City

  Adjustments came to the Kolsko household. The room Culich Keelan had slept in before he returned to Caernford was cleaned and made ready for his return. He would stay in Orosz City for the duration of the crisis. However, the household numbers would remain the same.

  “Ceinwyn’s leaving?” asked Yozef when Maera gave him the news.

  “In two days,” Maera said. “The women’s platoon she’s been training with is being split up and used as a cadre, you call it, to train more women. I confess I wasn’t aware of how it was going for her, but it turns out she was a squad leader in the platoon. She and her squad are going to Clitwyth in Stent Province to form new women’s platoons there.”

  “I didn’t think the idea of women’s units was being accepted.”

  “Stent is one of the early exceptions,” said Maera, “but many of the others are slowly coming around.”

  “Both of you are so busy, I’m not surprised you haven’t seen what’s happened with Ceinwyn,” said Anarynd, who had been listening. “She’s become quite well known in Orosz City, and I wouldn’t be surprised if stories of her have spread. A hetman’s daughter training to fight the Narthani? Who also fought the Narthani assassins and got that terrible scar?”

  “That’s why Welman specifically asked for her—which is what Ceinwyn told me,” said Maera. “She expects to be a platoon leader in the new units being formed.”

  “It’s an incongruous image,” said Yozef. “From my experience with her and what I’ve heard, Ceinwyn seemed to be a self-centered bitch—pardon me, Maera, I know she’s your sister, but . . . ”

  “No apologies needed, Yozef. I’d hesitate to use the word myself, but I can’t argue with its accuracy—at least, with the Ceinwyn I’ve known the last few years. Things have changed with her, though. I don’t understand exactly what’s going on inside her, but she’s not the same person. Despite my saying I haven’t kept up with her since we came to Orosz City, we’ve still gotten along better and had more real conversations during the last month than in the last ten years. Perhaps it’s the scar? At first, she did her best to hide it, but now, if anything, she arranges her hair to let it show better.”

  “I suspect it’s become her identity symbol,” said Yozef. “You’d need to have a psychiatrist figure it out, but there’s any number of reasons. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism. Sometimes, when people don’t like something about themselves, they make themselves proud of it to compensate. Maybe she’s come to appreciate the attention and respect the scar brings her from other people. Maybe the Ceinwyn we see now was always there but was hidden and has now come out. Hell, I don’t know.”

  Maera didn’t know what either a “psychiatrist” or a “defense mechanism” was, but she thought she understand the intent of Yozef’s musings.

  “She’s also probably a great recruiting poster . . . uh . . . a sign you have made with pictures and words encouraging people to do something—in this case, to convince women to train to fight and join units,” said Yozef. “I can almost hear the arguments: ‘Brave hetman’s daughter fights to protect her family from the dastardly Narthani. If she can fight, why can’t you?’”

  “They have such ‘recruiting posters’ in Amerika, Yozef?” asked Anarynd.

  “Oh, yes,” he replied. Not to mention advertising posters.

  Ceinwyn wasn’t the only woman in the household to get training, although for the others it occurred “in-house.”

  Yozef came home early one day and found Anarynd, Gwyned, and Braithe Reese being given dry-run lessons in loading and firing muskets and pistols by Braithe’s husband, Gowlin.

  “Wife’s been nagging me for sixdays, Yozef,” said Gowlin. “When I finally remembered and found time, the others asked to learn, too. I hope you don’t mind?”

  “Not at all, Gowlin,” said Yozef. “I should have thought of it myself. Go ahead and arrange a time to take them all out to a firing range outside the walls. Dry runs are only useful so far. They need to know how the recoil feels.”

  Later, when Yozef talked with Maera, he learned he hadn’t been aware of other goings-on among the clans.

  “I only heard about it a few days ago, Yozef. In several clans, they’re giving firearms training to children as young as eight years old. The northern clans are even including children down to ten years old in auxiliary units.”

  “Ten years old! They couldn’t even hold a musket!”

  “I’m sure it’s the smaller pistols for ones that young,” said Maera.

  “Still, that’s awfully young to plan on them fighting Narthani.”

  Maera patted him on the arm. “You still don’t understand us completely, Yozef. Naturally, we want our children out of danger, but that desire is not absolute. Most Caedelli would rather see their eight-year-old child helping fight the Narthani than see him enslaved or possibly killed while hiding.”

  She’s right, he thought. I still don’t understand them as much as I should, but this shouldn’t surprise me. He remembered Yonkel Miron, the eight-year-old boy who first found Yozef lying naked on the beach near Abersford. Later, when he came to know Yonkel, Yozef had told the boy’s parents that Yonkel was bright enough for schooling beyond most islander children and that the boy might be a candidate to be a scholastic someday. That promise had ended the morning of the Buldorian raid. Yozef had glimpsed Yonkel standing behind the courtyard barricade, holding a short, rusted sword and looking eager for an adventure he had no true understanding of. Later, after the Buldorians withdrew, Yozef found the boy lying dead, his chest cleaved by a raider’s blade.

  Keelan Manor, Caernford

  “Why can’t we stay together, Father?” pleaded fifteen-year-old Mared Keelan, her eyes
wet with tears but her voice firm in demanding an answer.

  She’s becoming so much like Maera, thought Breda Keelan. Is it because she’s turning into a woman or because it was always there? Maybe we didn’t notice when Maera was around, and we didn’t see it in our youngest daughter?

  “You know why, Mared,” Culich Keelan said firmly. “I would prefer to stay here with you, your mother, and the rest of our people. Agreeing to be part of the War Council gave me the authority to plan all the clans’ fight against the Narthani. That makes it necessary for me to be with the other council members when we believe the critical time has come against the invaders. That time is now.

  “And no, you and your mother will not come to Orosz City with me, even as much I would prefer us all together. Maera and Ceinwyn are already there, where the center of resistance against the Narthani will likely be. Should the worst happen at Orosz City, your sisters and I want to know some of our family are still safe.”

  “But I’ve heard you s—”

  Culich cut her off with an abrupt hand raised, palm toward Mared. He knew what she would say. “Yes, there’s nowhere absolutely safe, but it’s your mother’s decision and mine that we not all be in the same place.” He didn’t elaborate that Breda had not been convinced but finally acceded to Culich’s wishes.

  “It’s also important for our people going to the Dillagon redoubt to know I believe it’s a safe haven while fighting is going on. Otherwise, why would their hetman send his wife and daughter there? If we all went to Orosz City, some might think it’s because I thought it was safer there—which it’s not.”

  Mared grudgingly nodded, accepting the argument’s truth and logic.

  “Remember,” said Culich, “your mother will be busy helping our people, and it’ll be your responsibility to help her, be sure she takes care of herself, and do your best to be the brave hetman’s daughter, as an example to the families taking refuge in the Dillagons.”