Richard Tuttle - Web of Deceit

“Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?” asked Wyant. “I will never tell you where the tribes are. Isn’t that what you pay Brakas to find out?”

“Brakas is an incompetent fool,” spat Winus. “Why you ever let him rise in the Zaldoni is beyond me.”

“Because he was clever, sneaky, and persistent,” responded Wyant. “Good characteristics for being a bandit. Things have changed though. As a soldier, he is only a good swordsman.”

“Grulak has me running all over the country trying to find this boy Rejji,” continued Winus. “Why is he so important?”

“Because he is the opposite of Grulak,” smiled Wyant. “He is a builder, not a destroyer. He is the future of Fakara, General.”

“You expect me to believe that the boy will make a difference when Grulak has amassed the army he has?” Winus asked.

“You can believe what you wish, but I believe in him,” declared Wyant. “I do not know what it is about him, but he brings out the best in people. I do believe that he will rebuild Fakara into a great nation and that he will defeat Grulak. Don’t ask me how, but he will do it. Your army certainly hasn’t been able to catch him.”

“Bah,” spat Winus. “Catching him would be no problem if I could get rid of the magician that has been forced on me by Grulak. The fool has no concept of strategy or tactics. He has had my army split in two for weeks. I just finally got them back together.”

“Before or after your little raid on Ghala?” questioned Wyant.

“After,” frowned Winus. “Brakas commandeered the southern half of my army for that little fiasco. You seem to be very well informed. That tells me much about what is going on.”

“How does that tell you anything?” quizzed Wyant.

“I would have to be deaf not to know that Ghala is getting food from somewhere,” smiled the general. “All of the villages east of the mountains are abandoned. My men saw large numbers of buildings in Ghala and heard Rejji’s name mentioned there. Brakas has reported that Rejji is there and trying to unite the tribes. Now you pop up. You happen to know where the tribes are. Oh, you may not tell me where they are, but you know. I have no doubt about that. Now you inform me that you know Ghala was attacked. Put that all together with the fact that we have been seeing tribe after tribe heading for Ghala and what do you come up with?”

“Why don’t you tell me so I can die with a smile on my face?” retorted Wyant.

“What I come up with is the same thing Grulak will come up with,” smiled Winus. “The tribes and Rejji and food are all in the same place. It will not be long before the full army of the Jiadin descend on Ghala like the vultures upon yesterday’s battlefield.”

“Well those vultures might just die of starvation like everything else in this country,” retorted Wyant. “If you are so sure of victory, why don’t you just let me go? It will only delay my death by a few days.”

“Why are you so eager to die, Wyant?” asked Winus. “You are slipping in your old age. Riding at night alone? Allowing my two men to capture without at least killing one of them? You haven’t even asked why my men were that far from camp.”

Wyant’s face puzzled over as he dwelt on the general’s words. It was true that he had been very careless in getting captured, but the Jiadin men were fairly far from the camp.

“They weren’t sentries, were they?” asked Wyant.

“Very good,” nodded Winus. “No they weren’t sentries. They were out searching for food. Just as I imagine all of Grulak’s men are. Or most of them anyway. I am sure Grulak’s elite are eating well enough.”

“So why didn’t your army seize the food in Ghala when you attacked it?” queried Wyant.

“Brakas told them their mission was to capture Rejji,” sighed Winus. “It appeared that Rejji had managed to escape during the attack, so they gave chase. I doubt the fools even knew there was food there. Brakas never told them the name of the town they were attacking and most of men have never been this far east. I found them before they found Rejji.”

“And why didn’t you go back and get the food?” inquired Wyant.

“I was very tempted to,” admitted the general. “There was one minor problem with that plan. Brakas sabotaged the gates so my men could enter. By the time my army was whole again, I was sure that the gates would have been repaired. Our losses with the gates operational would have been severe. I have less than five hundred men, Wyant. I am saddled with this fool magician who thinks food for an army doesn’t matter. I swear, I don’t think the man eats.”

“Why don’t you just get rid of him?” questioned Wyant. “You do not need a mage for your task.”

“Finally, someone who understands things,” smiled Winus. “The mage is dangerous. He almost killed me with his bare hands. He did kill two of my men who tried to murder him. If I had not known beforehand who they were, I would not have recognized them. Frankly, he scares me.”

“I can’t help you there, Winus,” frowned Wyant. “I know nothing about magic. I have to say though, I would not let him kill my men.”

“Those two were nothing,” scowled Winus. “This mage has cost me over a hundred men. He throws their lives away as if they were some scat stuck on his boot. I cannot tell you how many nights I have remained awake thinking of ways to rid myself of that evil.”

“You do not appear to be the happiest of Grulak’s minions,” observed Wyant. “Why do you continue to serve him?”

“Truthfully,” Winus said softly, “I have no desire to. Why do you think I am camped so close to Ghala? If I could rid myself of this magician, I would join the free tribes in a heartbeat. Perhaps one of the large tribes heading for Ghala will attack us. Even that offers an opportunity for the magician to fall during the battle. We have known each other for some time, Wyant. We have not always seen things in the same light, but we are not that different either. I eagerly joined the Jiadin because we were going to use our fighting skills to carve out a piece of rich Khadora, not to kill my fellow countrymen or to throw away young Fakarans to please a wizard. Every day I am saddled with this evil man makes my blood boil. Tell me how to get free of him and you will have close to five hundred more men to defend Ghala.”

“Will your men go along with this?” questioned Wyant.

“To the man,” assured Winus. “It is all I can do now to keep them from running off during the night. They despise the wizard and have come to hate Grulak for making us suffer him in our midst.”

“Can’t you send him back to Vandegar for some reason?” asked Wyant.

“The only news that would be important enough for him to make that move, is the information I refuse to give him,” the general said. “If I told him that Rejji, the free tribes, and food were all in Ghala, he would be out of here in a flash. I cannot do that to my countrymen any longer. I would rather my own men die first.”

“I think you have hit upon the solution,” smiled Wyant. “Let me ask this first though. What exactly would Grulak do when he heard the news? And I don’t mean order his army to crush Ghala. What would his troop movements be?”

Winus sat for a long moment before answering, “That depends on how the information is portrayed to him. If he knew that Ghala was a defensive position only, he would ready his army and march east. If he thought that time was critical, however, like if the tribes were to use Ghala as a staging area for attacks, he would rush out with a portion of his elite guard and order the rest of the army to follow. Either way, he would want to be in the vanguard for such a crushing blow.”