Michael Stackpole - Chartomancy

“Not the question I asked.”

A low chuckle came from within the cloak’s hood. “I learned of it two hours before you did, but had no verification. We believed Koir to be in Vallitsi, so I had to wait and see if he would emerge.”

“Any other news from the south?”

“From Erumvirine, no. Those who do manage to cross the border are segregated. No news travels north, if there is any. Kelewan must be under siege by now.”

“And a long siege that will be.” Pyrust stroked his jaw with his half hand. “It would take nine regiments to seal it off, and nine times that many to be assured of victory without unacceptable losses. And then all you would have is a city, not a nation.”

“Perhaps the city is what is desired, Highness.”

“What do you mean by that?”

The assassin shrugged. “I mean that not every general considers the greatest gain when he begins a campaign.”

Pyrust laughed aloud, then wiped rain from his face. “Would you apply that axiom to me, Delasonsa?”

“Not on this campaign.” She nodded toward the pavilion. “Neither Cyron nor his nobles will come to you like dogs. You will succeed here, but only because you have Jasai and can offer the dogs hope with her child. Cyron will have nothing.”

Pyrust nodded. In The Dance of War, Urmyr counseled that one should always allow an enemy a route to escape. But circumstances conspired to deny that route to Cyron. He couldn’t flee south. North would be denied to him, and the west of his own nation had little love for him.

“Perhaps he will sail down the Gold River and follow his Stormwolf wherever it went.”

“Or perhaps the Empress Cyrsa will arrive and save him.” The Mother of Shadows slowly shook her head. “Both are equally improbable. Cyron will fight and many of his citizens will stand with him. Moriande may fall, but chances are just as good of its falling to the invaders as you.”

“If the invaders come north, you mean.” Perhaps the invaders only wanted Erumvirine, but the sense of that defied him. The forces they’d expended to take Erumvirine could easily have eaten up the eastern half of Nalenyr and could be surrounding Moriande even now. Nalenyr was far more rich a prize.

He looked at the assassin. “Why Erumvirine?”

“Not having met the enemy, my lord, I cannot guess his mind.”

“An invasion requires a great deal of planning. I would have expected probing attacks over several years before an invasion could be mounted, but these people came prepared. Either they had superior intelligence about Erumvirine, or something is chasing them, giving them no choice but to find a new home.”

“Given how swiftly they’ve eaten into Erumvirine, that may be the most dire idea of all. If they are fleeing, whatever chases them will swallow the Nine whole.”

“Let us hope this is not the case.” Pyrust nodded slowly. “Yes, Captain, you have news?”

The Fire Hawk captain bowed as the rain washed blood from his armor. “The ministers asked to speak with you, Highness.”

“Thank you.”

“Highness, I was unable to spare the carpet.”

Pyrust shrugged. “Fear not. Soon many of the ministers will be without employment. I will have them clean it.”

1st day, Planting Season, Year of the Rat

10th Year of Imperial Prince Cyron’s Court

163rd Year of the Komyr Dynasty

737th year since the Cataclysm

Uronek Hills, County of Faeut

Erumvirine

There are generals who look at war as a game. They study maps, not battlefields, and think of their warriors as toy soldiers. They think of casualties in terms of “acceptable losses” or “inevitable costs.” While they may be wise, they have their troops fight to shift colors on a map and, in their minds, all is reduced to dipping a brush in ink and painting.

I would give my opponent the grace of judging me and my troops based on the Virine troops he’d faced during the invasion. Doing that, however, would inevitably lead to the conclusion that he was stupid, precisely because he assumed I was stupid and that my men were incapable of fighting. He chose to underestimate us, which is as sure a sign of intellectual weakness as a military leader can display.

The first axiom in war is to assume the enemy is as clever as you are, if not more so. This forces you to look at all his actions and to ask yourself why you would be doing the same thing. If you can find no advantage to his action, then you may have discovered a mistake. If you can see a gain to exploiting that mistake, then you exploit it.

My difficulty lay in choosing which of his mistakes I would exploit.

Our withdrawal from Kelewan resulted in no serious pursuit. Once we had eluded the battalion he’d sent after us, we moved northwest through the central Virine plains toward the County of Faeut. We followed the Imperial Road, but I did send riders out to villages and towns advising them to evacuate north. My people found many of the villages already deserted, and these we put to the torch after hauling off anything of use.

We did leave one village intact, after a fashion. We put livestock into pens, then arranged every manner of trap we could think of in the houses. We poisoned the wells and prepared everything to burn. I left a squad there to observe what happened when the enemy reached it.

The refugees who preceded us raised the alarm, so local nobles met us on the road with whatever household warriors they could muster. They thought initially to oppose us, but when Captain Lumel introduced them to Prince Iekariwynal, they decided to join us. This swelled our number to over seven hundred, which was a decidedly useful force in the rugged hill country of County Faeut. Moreover it gave us guides and scouts who had an intimate knowledge of the battlefields we might use to engage the enemy.

Here was another mistake my enemy made. Because his army lived off the land, including the people, he had no locals to advise him. While the invaders advanced in good order, even the best maps could not account for places where spring runoff had collapsed part of the road, or where seasonal flooding turned a plain into an impassable marsh. The terrain forced his troops to stop where they needed to keep moving, and to take paths they knew nothing about.

Our campaign was not without surprises either, and the Prince turned out to be one of the pleasant variety. Though quite young, he did not lack for intelligence. He trusted Captain Lumel and struck up a friendship with Dunos. Dunos’ unwavering confidence in me became transferred to the Prince, and among our company, my word became law.

I divided my force into three battalions. Captain Lumel had his Jade Bears and had we ever arrayed ourselves for open battle, they would have held our center. Deshiel commanded the Steel Bear archers and two companies of local troops. Ranai commanded our heroes and whatever other locals came to fight.

Not all of my heroes led companies or even squads, for heroes do not always make good leaders. If they expect of others what they can do because of years of training, they willingly thrust their troops into situations where survival is impossible. I made it clear to all of my officers that our intent was to hurt the enemy as much as we could, and to allow them to do as little as possible in return. We would not duel with them, we would not engage them in any honorable pursuit. We would strike when they thought we could not, we would escape when they thought they had us trapped, and when they attacked from their right, we would strike from their left.

Urardsa attended all the briefings and watched the proceedings carefully. Many of the fighters found having a Gloon among them rather unnerving, but the fact that he never predicted doom was heartening. Even without suggestion, he would spend time peering off south toward the enemy host, then shake his head and turn away. My warriors’ confidence that he had seen doom for the enemy was worth ten warriors for every one I already had.