Heirs of the Enemy (20 page)

The Mage’s glare was all the answer Garth needed. There was not a hint of humor in Fakir’s face, and Garth sighed heavily.

“How many must we save?” asked Kalina.

“War is confusion,” sighed the Mage. “I cannot see how many will die or live, but Alutar seeks the tears of a million. Can you tell me how many Alceans will die during the coming war? How many orphans and widows will lend their tears to Alutar’s cause?”

“I have no answers,” conceded Garth.

“Then neither can I tell you how many of the Federation must live. Rework your strategies, Alex. Save those you can.”

“That is impossible with only two months before they invade,” replied Garth. “We are short on time as it is.”

“We need more time,” begged Kalina. “Give us a few more months to work on this.”

“That is something that I cannot do,” replied the Mage. “I do not control the minds of the Federation. They will attack when they will.”

“There must be something you can do to alter their timetable,” pleaded Kalina.

Fakir looked at Kalina for a long time before eventually smiling and nodding.

“Tell the Warrior King to search out the gods. The solution to your problem lies in their plane of influence.”

General Forshire tried to enter the meeting room, but the guards checked the list for his name. He was denied entry to the meeting of generals. Disappointed with his failure to gain entry, Clint moved a ways down the corridor and leaned against the wall where he could watch the door to the meeting room without appearing to do so. After only a score of minutes, Grand General Kyrga left the meeting. Shortly after his departure, General Franz left the room. He returned five minutes later, and that was when the shouting and cursing began. The shouting was so loud that Clint could hear it all the way down the hall, but he could not make out the words. He pushed himself off the wall and walked casually back towards the meeting room. Just as he drew near to the door, it opened. General Ross walked out and closed the door behind him. Not wanting to seem out of place, Clint turned sharply and headed towards the rear door of the palace. He was aware of General Ross following him, but he held no fears that the Baroukan general was tailing him. When he stepped outside the mansion, General Ross grabbed the door before Clint could close it.

“Sorry,” apologized Clint. “I didn’t realize you were also heading outside.”

“I need the fresh air after that meeting,” sighed General Ross.

“I could not help hearing the shouting. What happened?”

General Ross sighed heavily and looked around to see who was within hearing range. “You are the one who did the investigation on Kyrga, aren’t you?”

Clint raised an eyebrow at the question, but then he remembered that Colonel Taerin was supposed to bring Ross to see the emperor after Kyrga was fired. He figured that is how Ross learned of the investigation.

“I am.” Clint nodded.

“That took a lot of guts, Forshire, but that makes you okay in my book. It shows that you stand for the good of the Federation and not any one particular man.”

“I hope that I was not the cause of the disturbance in the meeting,” frowned Clint.

“Goodness, no,” chuckled General Ross. “I doubt anyone other than me even knows about the investigation. What started the ruckus was Kyrga’s planning for the invasion. He did an excellent job of providing maps of the Alcean areas in question, and his schedules of deployment were exceptional, although I suspect that General Tauman did most of that, and Kyrga is merely taking the credit. What Kyrga failed to take into account is the gathering of armies prior to deployment. I assume you know about Camp Destiny?”

“I ran into General Tauman up there.” Clint nodded.

“It is in the middle of nowhere,” stated General Ross. “Kyrga has all of the armies of the Federation leaving from that valley, but the armies are nowhere near it. More than a few of our armies are more than thirty days march from there, especially the Aertan armies, yet he had planned to launch the invasion within the month. That would have demanded some of our armies to force march just to get into position to start the invasion. It is a ludicrous way to start a war.”

“But we now have two months warning, don’t we?”

“And that is precious little time,” continued General Ross. “Kyrga has been so wrapped up in secrecy that he hadn’t even bothered to inform the generals to make sure that their armies are prepared for war. We have armies that have just spent the last month on training maneuvers. The men need some downtime, and their provisions need to be restocked. There is just no excuse for such negligence.”

“I guess I can see why there was turmoil in the meeting,” replied Clint.

“Oh, that is not the worst of it,” chuckled General Ross. “General Franz was so angry at how Kyrga merely walked out of the meeting without resolving these issues, that he decided to pay a visit to Emperor Jaar. You won’t believe what happened there.”

“The emperor’s guards refused to admit General Franz,” stated Clint. “They told him to request a meeting with Grand General Kyrga.”

General Ross stared at Clint dumbfounded.

“I also tried to see the emperor,” explained Clint.

“That is incredible,” remarked General Ross. “I have never seen a day when a general in the Federation army was denied a meeting with the emperor. There is something rotten going on here.”

“So it would seem,” sighed Clint.

The door to the mansion opened and General Gattas stuck his head out. “We just received a message that the emperor will be coming to our meeting. You might want to head back inside.”

“Thank you, Gattas,” General Ross said. “Come along, Forshire. Let’s see what the emperor has to say.”

“I would love to, General Ross, but my name is not on the attendance list.”

“Nonsense,” the general said dismissively. “Come along and hear what he has to say. I might want to hear your opinion afterwards.”

Clint eagerly followed General Ross back to the meeting room. As they approached the door guards, General Ross started up a conversation with Clint, and they were both admitted without questions from the guards. Moments later, Grand General Kyrga and Emperor Jaar entered the room. The generals all rose and bowed. Kyrga escorted Jaar to the front of the room.

“I understand you came to see me not long ago, General Franz,” the emperor began. “I have left instructions for Grand General Kyrga to handle my scheduling because there are so many people in the palace for the celebration, and they all seem to want some of my time. I apologize if you felt offended, but there is a chain of command to be followed, even for generals. Now, I understand there is some discontent with the scheduling for the invasion. Let me make things quite clear. I have the utmost confidence in Grand General Kyrga, and he alone is responsible for the schedule of the invasion. If there are valid reasons for modifications to be made, I am sure that he will entertain changes, but the overall schedule must be kept. Gentlemen, I want you all to remain in this room with Grand General Kyrga until the schedule problems are satisfactorily resolved.”

Grand General Kyrga beamed with the emperor’s words until the very last statement. As the emperor walked towards the rear of the room, Kyrga started sweating. He tried to move after the emperor, but the generals crowded around him with questions and complaints. Kyrga ignored them all as he watched the emperor leave the room with his bodyguards once again gathered around him. With a sigh of relief, Kyrga turned and brought the room to order.

Seated on the aisle in the very last row, Clint watched the emperor’s performance with suspicion. No matter how convincing Jaar seemed to be, Clint knew that the emperor was incapable of having total faith in Kyrga. That made the whole speech a sham in his mind. As Jaar walked up the aisle to leave the room, he made eye contact with Clint. The emperor’s eyes screamed out for help and then lowered to his right hand. Clint followed the emperor’s gaze and saw a small slip of paper clutched in Jaar’s hand. As the emperor passed by, the paper flew from the emperor’s hand and bounced off Clint’s knee to fall on the floor. The Ranger immediately moved his right boot to cover the paper as he looked around to see if anyone had noticed. No one had.

Clint waited until the emperor was gone and Kyrga was immersed in conversations with the other generals. He reached down and snared the paper from under his boot. Not wanting to be seen reading it, Clint rose and left the room. He hurried to his suite before unfolding the note and reading it. It said, “Tell no one. Family held captive. Rescue. Report.”

* * * *

Alex and Jenneva were shown into the king’s study where Arik and Tanya were getting ready for a strategy meeting.

“You two are becoming regular visitors,” smiled Tanya as she rushed over to embrace her parents.

“I am glad you came,” added King Arik. “I do not know if you received the same information that I did, but I am convening a full strategy meeting in a couple of minutes.”

“If you mean the news about the timing of the attacks,” answered Alex, “we did hear about it. What do you mean by a full meeting?”

“The governors of the provinces are here,” answered the king, “as well as the Knights of Alcea. I figured that this information was important enough for them to receive it personally.”

“I agree,” stated Alex. “Before we go to the meeting, Jenneva needs to share a personal message with you.”

The king looked expectantly at Jenneva.

“We ran into the Mage in Farmin,” explained Jenneva. “I tried asking him to delay the invasion, but he said that he could not help us. When I pressed further, he said that the Warrior King should consult the gods.”

“The gods?” frowned King Arik. “And how am I supposed to do that?”

“He didn’t say,” sighed Jenneva, “but it is important that you figure that out. The reason I pressed so hard for a delay is that Egam warned us that we must not kill all the Federation soldiers. If we do, we risk helping to fulfill Alutar’s needs.”

“He is asking us to lose the war?” balked the king.

“Not at all,” replied Alex. “Evidently, Alutar needs a million tears for some reason. We do not understand it, but the way Egam explained it, it is a combination of the dead, widowed, and orphaned on both sides of the war. While we should endeavor to get the enemy to surrender, safeguarding our own people is just as important.”

“More so, I would think,” frowned the queen, “but I believe I understand what he is trying to say. Does he realize that we will be very fortunate just to survive?”

“I sometimes wonder what Egam really knows,” replied Alex. “He thinks about our problems in a distracted manner, as if things on this plane do not matter to him as much as other things.”

“I am sure that he is dealing with the problem of Alutar again,” Jenneva said in her old master’s defense. “In a sense, if he fails in his mission, there can be no true victory in ours, but the reverse is not necessarily true.”

“That makes sense,” nodded Tanya. “If Alutar wins, it will not matter how our armies fare. We would all be doomed.”

“Egam also warned about the Claws of Alutar,” stated Jenneva. “They are the four special demonkin that we warned you about. Wycaramor was one of them, but Egam said that each will be worse than the one before.”

King Arik nodded in understanding. “If there is nothing else that I need to know personally, let us go to the meeting. I don’t want to keep the others waiting.”

The four heroes of the Mage left the king’s study and proceeded to the council chamber where the king’s advisors waited. When they entered the chamber, Alex stared at the charts on the wall. He was amazed to see the organizational structure of the entire Federation army along with the commanding generals of each of the attack prongs.

“Your people have been busy,” Alex said with appreciation. “I do hope that access to this room is strictly controlled?”

“The charts will be taken down when we leave,” assured General Gregor. “I thought it would be useful for everyone to visualize the threat facing us.”

“I am greatly impressed with what your spies have accomplished,” Governor Fernandez of Cordonia said to Alex. “This information is extremely valuable, especially the names of the opposing generals. You don’t suppose that you could get the files on each of those generals, do you? Understanding the strategies and peculiarities of each man might be decisive in battle.”

“There is a risk to each piece of information we gather,” warned Prince Oscar. “You should know that better than most, Governor. I will not waste our resources by trying to obtain information that is less than critical.”

“I understand,” sighed the governor, “but should that information become available…”

“If we have it, you will get it,” promised Alex, “but I agree with Prince Oscar. What we are asking our people to do is beyond dangerous. They are literally sitting in the spider’s web, trying to get information out to us.”

“I am happy enough just to learn when and where the enemy will strike,” interjected Governor Mobami of Sordoa. “We no longer have to wonder how many men we will be facing. Now all we have to do is figure out how to defeat them.”

“We may have an opportunity to learn their strategies,” offered the king. “Each of the armies represented on that chart is sending an envoy to Alcea to inspect the route his army will have to use. We are bringing in every available fairy to shadow their every move. We should be able to learn much from them.”

“Like what?” asked Fredrik, the Royal Sorcerer.

“The men chosen for the trip are colonels,” explained Alex. “They should check the terrain for possible ambush sites, places to preposition supplies, bottlenecks, places to build temporary fortifications if needed. They will also be trying to learn as much about our defenses as possible. This is an opportunity for us.”

“How so?” asked Wylan.

“These men are highly trained officers,” answered Alex, “but they know very little about Alcea. Clint reported that the generals did not even know of Alcea before last week. The emperor kept information about Alcea to himself. Well, now we have a chance to make a lasting impression on these officers. I want them to think that each province is weaker than the next. We need to feed them information that will ensure overconfidence on their part.”