\u201cWhat do we do to stop this from happening again?\u201d Iaprem was furious, storming from one side to another of the small room he called an office.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop the raiders? Nothing. We haven\u2019t been able to stop them for years. Why should we suddenly be able to do so now? We\u2019re always spread too thin. Sure, if we concentrate our forces and they\u2019re foolish enough to go straight at them, then we\u2019re more than a match. But we can\u2019t force them to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iaprem muttered, his face deep in thought, wondering about possibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if we could force them to that point? How many soldiers would you be able to bring to bear?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, perhaps three hundred. The rest of those we\u2019ve forcibly enrolled into the army are still the craven peasants they were before their training began. Sure, some of the men and women show signs of being useful, but it\u2019s only signs. It will take an age of training before they don\u2019t flee when battle joins.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what are our best estimates on the raiders?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe maximum we\u2019ve ever guessed as a total is five hundred, but that doesn\u2019t take into account things like camp followers or the strengths of the various species that are thieving from us. Honestly though, we barely have a clue, since we\u2019ve never pushed out and attacked their base. We\u2019ve always been too scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t I know it. I\u2019ve been watching Cynlyaa decline and crumble all around me since I took my first steps on her cobbled streets, and unless we make these lands secure, we\u2019re never going to have enough. With what we have now, I\u2019ll be surprised if the crop harvest doesn\u2019t fail in a year, and we watch our friends starving to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you propose a last ditch gamble, throwing everything into a single strike and praying for the right outcome. Death or glory, is that it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve walked our current path for a long, long time, you and I. We know what lies at its end. So we step off the path, leap as far away from it as we can. What better way to do that than charge into the teeth of those who have harassed us all these years?\u201d<\/p>\n
Yenque smiled. \u201cI agree, but we\u2019re going to need numbers on our side, and that means time. How long do I have?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s spring now which means the peasants are busy planting what crops they can manage all about us. Call it late summer. That\u2019s when we strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a deeply shared smile, a giddy smile, that flashed back and forth between the two friends. Perhaps it was a foolish plan, but at last they had a plan that could result in the saving of their people, and a time frame within which to act. Digging through the broken cupboard at the back of the office, Iaprem pulled forth a dirty glass bottle, liquid sloshing in it when held up to the light.<\/p>\n
Toasts were exchanged, a great many of them, to bravery and honour, Fasnachu and Hannhangnefedd, Lady Luck and War. It was a revelry that dream strange looks from the men who passed by the door to the room, and when at last Dregnon was summoned to see what had happened to his comrades, he found them dead drunk, slumped against walls and floors, but at last with smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n
Whatever it was that had caused those smiles to come to be was surely something they would inform him of when next they regained consciousness, and so he directed a few of the men nearby to carry Iaprem and Yenque to their cots, and leave them there until such time as the ringing in their heads ceased.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
What came next was not of Iaprem\u2019s making, or of Yenque\u2019s. Rather than being left to sleep in the peace which their plans had earned, they found themselves roughly shaken awake, dragged from their cots with heads ringing, making the voices that shouted at them all the more unintelligible and painful.<\/p>\n
Holding up a hand, Iaprem bellowed at those around him. \u201cQuiet! Now, you\u2026\u201d He pointed, then spun about. \u201cOr maybe you\u2026 Bah! One of you three senior people tell me what the hell is going on? And stop swaying!\u201d<\/p>\n
The one in the middle stepped forward. Of course, so did those on either side of him. Forsaking dignity, Iaprem slumped back down onto his cot and waved a hand, gesturing for the lieutenant to begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been invested.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy what? Termites? We already knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe raiders. Although at this point, calling them that seems a bit wrong. They\u2019ve surrounded the old palace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iaprem shot bolt upright, nearly collapsing as his head struggled to deal with the sudden reorientation. \u201cSurrounded us. Here? Where are the citizens who were outside the walls?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll but a few made it through the old tunnels before they were spotted. We had to collapse the one they used, however.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the few?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlast. That\u2019s going to break our morale, if the opposing commander has any sense in him. What the hell is going on here, anyway? Why are the raiders trying to siege us out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey think we\u2019re weak, most likely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve known we\u2019re weak for years! Why now?\u201d Iaprem shuddered at his own shouting. \u201cWhere\u2019s Yenque? He needs to hear this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready in the briefing room sir, looking at the maps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iaprem set off in hot pursuit.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
When they arrived, it turned out that \u201clooking at the maps\u201d meant gently dozing atop them, slumped in an old and broken wooden chair. A quick jab to the ribs woke Yenque, and he was soon coherent enough to participate in the discussion they were having.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe largest collections of enemy forces are here and here, opposite the gates into the old palace. Given the doors there are not of the sturdiest construction, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re try and force a breach in a simple charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gates, as were many things in this city, were laid out along the north south axis, and so were the points in the old palace furthest from one another, which would make reinforcing either difficult. It would even make knowing what was going on at both difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst step is I want a soldier or two up in the highest tower that can see both gates. There has to be one atop this damn old edifice that\u2019s still useful. Given him a bunch of boys as well, and tell them to shout down anything they can see. Or wave or dance or do whatever it takes to get our attention. Now, where are the men?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them are at either gate, but with a flying force of about fifty men in the middle. We\u2019ve put recruits along the walls between the gates. It\u2019s mostly a show of numbers, but it should help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iaprem pondered that for a moment. \u201cIt might, but they\u2019ll also collapse entirely if they get tested. Not that we can leave the walls unmanned entirely\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if we leave a gap on the walls? An obvious place to strike where we don\u2019t have enough men to cover it?\u201d That was Yenque, his first useful contribution since waking from the alcohol induced slumber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat do we do to stop this from happening again?\u201d Iaprem was furious, storming from one side to another of the small room he called an office. \u201cStop the raiders? Nothing. We haven\u2019t been able to stop them for years. Why should we suddenly be able to do so now? We\u2019re always spread too thin. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[60,4],"tags":[61],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-bf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":703,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=703","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":0},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #10","date":"April 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Glancing backwards, he saw that the line of his soldiers had stretched out to the right, the man on that edge of battle attempting to hedge his unprotected side away from the foes who assailed him, with those placed near him unconsciously following. It was a natural outcome of fighting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":687,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=687","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":1},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #1","date":"March 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the opening of a new novella in an old setting, called Arhosa. I'll be posting a thousand words a day of Work-in-Progress, with the end goal being five chapters of 10,000 words each, roughly. \u201cHow many? How many did we lose today?\u201d \u201cEnough. Some of them went willingly.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":702,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=702","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":2},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #9","date":"April 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The soldiers of Cynddeir gave even better than they got, however, and despite the rust and the age of the weapons they wielded, there was no give when blade found opening and piercing flesh. Indeed, after the first heady moments of the clash, the front line of the battle could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":696,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=696","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":3},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #5","date":"March 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the next installment of a new novella in an old setting, called Arhosa. I\u2019ll be posting a thousand words a day of Work-in-Progress, with the end goal being five chapters of 10,000 words each, roughly. It was a panicked and upset messenger who burst in upon the three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":694,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=694","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":4},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #3","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the next installment of a new novella in an old setting, called Arhosa. I\u2019ll be posting a thousand words a day of Work-in-Progress, with the end goal being five chapters of 10,000 words each, roughly. Yenque cursed as he watched yet another of the craven simply drop their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":701,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=701","url_meta":{"origin":697,"position":5},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #8","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It was now midnight in the courtyard of the old palace at Cynlyaa, and all was still, silent, and, mostly, dark. Torches lay scattered here and there along the battlements, and occasionally one would rain down before the gate, illuminating the ruined roadway there, but otherwise little in the way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}