They had been found out.
Wollfen looked to Duggan,
“
Is there a way out?”
“
Yeah always have an escape route out the back.”
He pointed towards the rear, Wollfen nodded to Keera who raced out the back to check, it was clear.
“
They are here!” cried Dark and with that the door crashed in, soldiers pouring through.
Wollfen swung his sword as he slid it from his scabbard, Dark had done the same with Justin standing by her.
“
Take off I’m right behind you!”
Wollfen focused his mind and held the entering men for a few seconds, they moved like they were in slow motion and again he called out,
“
Go! I’ll be right there!”
Dark hesitated but pulled back, they had to run, it was their only chance. Wollfen backed up now, following his team.
They all turned and ran out the back door except for Wollfen. He felt like he was moving through treacle. The sorceress was working her own magic on him, he sent out a mental blast of energy at her and immediately felt himself released. The door was right there. Back outside soldiers were pouring down the lane, Dark hanging at the door.
“
Run!” called Wollfen as he approached the door.
They all took off, Dark was sure he was right on her heels but for Wollfen at the last moment the door swung shut, pushed by an ethereal hand and he ran full force into it with a loud slam. Falling back and staggering then leaning on the floor with one knee he saw soldiers filling the room behind him. His sword lying useless too far away, he stood up with blood dripping from his nose and faced them. The men stood in an arc around him and kept their distance. The sorceress filed in and stood before him, he could feel the tendrils of her searching mind feeling his mental shields. As she did, he grabbed her consciousness and placed a cloak over it, blocking her mind from her physical senses. He felt her resist but he was in, channeling his energy, he manipulated her vocal chords, 'He is of no importance, release him',
“
He is of…..no…im, import…”
She was fighting hard, damn she had strength, it wasn’t going to work. The sergeant in the room watching caught on what was happening and raised his sword. Swinging it, he caught Wollfen on the side of his head with the flat of his blade, sending him crashing to the floor. The sorceress released, fell back and let out a cry. Wollfen looked across and saw bare feet in simple sandals under the sorc’s robes, a moment of clarity filled his head, of course, Keera and Dark had been wearing boots, then it all went black.
The sorc looked down at their prize, who was he? How was it he had so much power? And he was a man? This person was very important. She didn’t know why right now, but she knew this catch was very important to them, they had been told to keep an eye out for just this sort of person.
“
Bind this man and when he awakes, make him drink this.”
She produced a vial from within her robe, it would keep his mind foggy.
“
Where shall we take him Priestess?”
“
Down to the wharf, inform the High Priestess Madeira and see to it he is shipped back to the homeland immediately, you do NOT deviate from this command, do you understand?” She fixed him with a glare.
“
It shall be so.”
The soldiers bound then gagged him and dragged him out.
Wollfen awoke a little clearer headed two days later to a rocking motion, where was he?
INCURSION
The Warlord Aristeides stood in the War Room studying the maps on the table and wall. They had been in this land for five weeks now and hadn’t gotten much done at all. The first two weeks had been taken up by organization of the port and taking stock of what was available. The incumbent regent was supposed to have taken care of that before the Isogorrean fleet landed. His nickname of Beerguts suited the drunk. At least they had managed to get into the city and take over without any real fighting. That was a plus. Beerguts was now rotting in a cell far below, Aristeides wouldn’t kill him yet. There may be some useful information still in that alcohol-rotted brain of his.
Before arriving, they had been dealing with the multiple sicknesses that had sprung up on the voyage. Scurvy and dysentery were the worst; there had even been some reports of rickets. Losing six supply ships in a storm three months out hadn’t helped. In fact it had made things desperate. They had immediately gone onto half rations, then quarter rations over the last week of the voyage. By then some of the food had been going off. Getting to land at the time they did had been just in a nick of time. Not only did he have to occupy the city but also strip it of every necessary supply he could find.
In the subsequent two weeks he had sent out scouts into the countryside. After the scouts, dressed in local clothes, had returned with information of what outlying towns existed and where natural borders lay, Aristeides put together a plan of attack and cleaned out two dozen local towns without there being too much worry of a major alarm going off. He had sent out a dozen small attacking forces into the flatlands with specific orders to kill everyone that moved and to take what food and material supplies they could lay their hands on.
Killing the locals served three purposes, there would be no underground resistance starting up, plus there was no chance of any ongoing reports filtering back to the Kingdom government of his build up and also there was the added benefit of knowing for sure that anybody they met on the conquered lands would be the enemy. All trade had been immediately cut off and any traders still approaching captured and their materials confiscated. Those that weren’t of strong back and potential good laboring stock were put to death. He now had a few thousand slaves able to take care of the more mundane tasks under the watchful eyes of his established troops.
It was only this past week he had really been able to mobilize anything of significance and he knew he needed to act quickly. Reports from the spies up north told of all being quiet still. That was a gift from the gods, but he knew it wouldn’t last as long as he would like it to. The engineers had moved into the cleared lands and were building a firebase centrally located but easily accessed by opposing forces on all sides. He wanted it that way. That base would be loaded up with all the spare munitions and supplies he could muster. In fact a lot of the foodstuffs to be deposited there were the very same taken from the burned towns.
With the base established, any kingdom forces would, by necessity have to attack it. It was his plan to have the Kingdom expend its resources and men against that base. Aristeides would take heavy casualties, but he was prepared to do so. He had plenty of men here and the city’s munitions and supplies would do nicely in arming them. The rest of the plan involved a smaller mobile army held in reserve to spring into action against the enemy troops once either sufficient numbers had been killed or the Kingdoms forces tried to retreat. It was necessary they hit a telling blow against whichever army was sent against them. Not only would it be good for the morale of the troops who had been involved in all of this for almost a year, but also it would shake the confidence of the kingdom and hopefully destabilize it.
Then it would be a whole lot easier for the third army group Aristeides was assembling to hit the north. This third army would travel up the eastern passes and hit the capital city of Kassandrea from inland. With the Kingdoms army focused on the firebase, he would let reports filter through to the Kingdom that two forces were mobilizing and moving north towards them. Aristeides had every confidence of defeating the Kingdom in less than three months. It all hinged on the destruction of the Kingdom’s first army at the firebase.
It was why he had placed his best general in charge of it. Resourceful, cunning, quick-witted and totally merciless, he especially liked that last quality the best in the man. Marcellus was a consummate soldier, obeying every order without hesitation and without question, what more could you ask for?
An adjutant came into the room and stood to attention, Aristeides looked up,
“
What is it?”
“
The High Priestess Madeira wishes a word sir.”
Damn, he hated them and their whole clique, the only reason he was here was because they had the ear of their King and had promised him wealth beyond imagining to be found in these lands. Personally he hadn’t seen any evidence at all up to now.
“
Send her in.”
The hooded woman glided in quietly under the gaze of the warlord, upon drawing near she stopped and pulled back her hood. Jet-black hair flowed out over her shoulders and her steely eyes fixed him to the spot. He was always taken aback when she revealed herself, the pearly white skin in perfect contrast to her raven colored locks.
“
Priestess, may I be of service?”
“
Why have you not mobilized your forces and moved north? This week has seen no troop movements whatsoever and this talk of building a base here? We are supposed to be overthrowing the Kingdom not establishing our own colony.”
Aristeides sighed, it was simple for them, control a mind here, control one there and they did your bidding, but here he was dealing with a country of hundreds of thousands of people. She had no understanding.
“
I am handling the practicalities of an occupation and conquest of this land. The base is but a precursor to something much larger.”
“
What we should be doing is marching on the Capital right now and fighting the kingdom before they get mobilized, defeat them quickly.”
Again Aristeides tried to explain,
“
We are a force of twenty five thousand men. If we were to march north now and attack the capital city, we would be facing a force of twenty thousand regular troops plus the entire multitude of whomever else they called up for service. Since they are behind fortified walls impervious to our heavy weapons, we would then have to lay siege which would take many months and that would take us to winter. Then there would be nothing more to do but suffer through winter until the thaw, few supplies and loss of men to the cold resulting in a weaker force. As well as that, we would be trying to continue the siege against an enemy still safe behind their walls and probably stronger having had the time to make munitions and train more men for battle. Then there is their navy that would almost certainly be sent down to harass our supply ships coming in from the homeland. So it would go, us getting weaker and weaker while they got stronger, till our ultimate defeat. Is that what you want?”
Madeira looked on, trying to gather an understanding of men’s ways.
“
We need to be in that city soon and the sooner the better.”
Aristeides could feel her tendrils flowing over his mind and it scared him. He hated having to deal with them, but what could he do? They were the power behind the throne and no one stood up to them.
“
I can promise you we will be in their city in three months. Once everything falls into place we shall act very quickly.”
He was making promises he wasn’t sure he could keep, but he wanted her out of there, out of his mind.
“
Very well, I shall hold you to that.”
He felt the tendrils pull back from his consciousness, then she turned and glided out. How he hated them, hated their aloofness, hated the elitism, hated the fact that it was a woman that commanded him. And if those riches weren’t here as they had promised, oh he had a plan and it involved her head on a spike.
A thought entered his head, ‘But why the rush to be in the city? Wasn’t the goal to conquer and simply take their riches? Why would the sorcs be so desperate to gain the riches for the king? They had no use for them personally.’ A seed of troubled thoughts began growing at the back of his mind, it might pay well to keep his wits around him. It suddenly occurred to him that the sorcs were up to something else altogether.
Down on the streets below Dark and Keera were arguing in a back alley. It had been a full evening and day of dodging patrols, weaving their way through deserted warehouses and lane ways always running.
“
We need to go back! We need to find out where they took him and find where they have him locked up.”
“
We are dressed up as two priestesses on foot with only one guard soldier and dozens of enemy soldiers on foot patrol looking specifically for us. Even if Justin and I split what happens to you? Do you really think they won’t have some guards at the tavern even now? We left our horses and supplies there too. They will be watching very closely.”
Keera was right, Dark had been distraught at the idea of Wollfen being in their hands. He was her rock and now, what had happened to him? Where had they taken him? They were in a city with no friends and a particularly hostile army. Dark decided to take stock, what would Wollfen do? 'Every situation breeds its own choices and consequences.' would be his thinking.
“
Keera, do you know of anyone else in this city?”
Keera thought for a bit then replied,
“
I can only think of a couple of other people that I would trust. One is a man called Kendall, he is a swordsmith. The other is a laborer by the name of Vaughn down at the wharves.”
Ah yes, two particularly good nights she had spent with him. A strapping young man with a vitality that oozed more than sweat. Keera began reminiscing, but now was not the time.
Dark considered who might be willing to collaborate, the swordsmith less likely, he was probably busy doing repairs and sales to the new army. The other option didn’t seem to give them any advantage, but he would at least know the area.
“
We go to the wharves to meet this Vaughn that you know Keera.”
Without any further delay they checked the entrance of their alley and moved out unseen. Keera was quite happy with the choice, though Justin looked a bit petulant. It was dark again and they were able to move a lot quicker through town, they were at the wharves within twenty minutes. Keera looked up and down the length of the wharf getting her bearings. The last time she had been here, she was drunk and horny. She picked a glow on a smaller craft moored in a nook of the jetties. Yes, now she remembered, that was the spot they had skinny dipped from the edge of his dwelling, giggling and splashing about only to be caught by the night guard. Good times they were.
“
This way.” She whispered and led them out.
Dark followed with a disgruntled Justin bringing up the rear. There was still activity on the jetties, but with the amount of supplies being moved about and being stored out in the open it wasn’t that hard to stick to the shadows to get to their destination. It simply took a long time, ten minutes to go 100 yards.
Vaughn heard a knock on the hatch to his floating abode. Who would that be at this time of night? Moving up he flipped the hatch back and was met by not one but two sorcs standing in his light. Gasping he fell back as they both moved in without a word. He certainly wasn’t going to resist! Now they stood there, a soldier behind them giving him a foul look. 'I am for it now I’m sure', he thought to himself. They both drew their hoods back, his mouth dropped open and he could do nothing but stare, it was Keera!
“
Keera? You are a sorceress now?”
She shook her head then lifted and threw the makeshift horse rug off. Now she was dressed as one of the enemy soldiers. He was even more confused.
“
You don’t have another set of clothes on under them do you?”
Keera smiled and shook her head again,
“
Hello Vaughn, I hope you have been well.”
Behind her he was distracted by the other sorc stripping too, she also had a soldier’s uniform on underneath. Now she was interesting, lean taller than Keera and rich blonde hair, smaller tits, but hey you couldn’t have everything.
“
Oh I have been just fine in spite of the excitement around here.”
He was still looking at Dark while he spoke. Keera turned and felt that pang of jealousy again.
She leaned across and slowly spoke,
“
That would be Dark, partner to our leader Wollfen.”
She stressed the partner bit and he got the message. The soldier didn’t look any happier since arriving, Vaughn nodded towards him with a questioning look.
“
Oh that would be my partner Justin.” remarked Keera with a totally different way of saying partner.
It gave Vaughn hope of an interesting night.
Dark looked at Justin and could see the young man gritting his teeth. Keera was leaning down to kiss this man and she watched Justin move his hand to the hilt of his sword. Dark reached across and stayed his hand, giving a little shake of her head when he looked back at her. Keera was being a bitch, no Dark thought, a slut!