Chapter 19
"I know some men who don't believe in ghosts. That these men have never experienced battle seems no minor coincidence."
- Quendon Franklin, 3 Marek, 1788 AC
"Sixty mounted Horsemen from Meadows, a hundred Archers from Greenhaven, two hundred fifty mixed Troops from Verdentia," Rodrig read the numbers as he flipped through the pledges as though reading a list of supplies, "and here's the kicker: two hundred heavy Infantry and three hundred crossbows from Kohlmann."
"No surprise there," Marke muttered, and then continued when he saw Aidan's curious look. "Kohlmann's been trying to maneuver Kiefernwald into a more solidified alliance for five years, even before he took Barrowdown. Kiefernwald wants to secure a marriage, but his daughter's intolerable. Not unlike a certain other Lady we're all familiar with."
"If Ygretta heard you compare her to that entitled ninny," Rodrig scoffed, "she'd slit your belly."
"I imagine," Charlene said, her lips spreading into a snarky smile, "that he would not be so bold if she had remained with us."
The council shared a laugh, and Rodrig began placing large, carved-wood Kahess pieces around the map on the floor. He placed a group of five in Graydon Forest, which Aidan assumed represented their group, and then one or two pieces here and there for the likely routes the other commanders would lead their group. They gathered around as he laid out their situation.
"We can expect Lord Kiefernwald will probably make an appearance, with his two hundred Spearmen here," Rodrig tapped a Wizard piece near Barrowdown with the tip of his hand-and-a-half sword. "And march northeast toward the forest."
He moved the piece toward Graydon, leaving it on a hill just outside the clustered groves that dotted the hills around the forest like moons to a planet. He grabbed a King piece from the south and moved it north until it lay on a hill that was crested by a small grove, just to the east of Lord Kiefernwald's troops.
"The Deputy should follow suit and end up here. This area," Rodrig pointed with his sword, and Aidan knew the ravine well - very flat and wide bottom, very gradual descent from the neighboring hills, "is the most likely staging area."
"They won't fear ambush from the hills because they'll take them first." Marke said, scratching his chin in thought.
"Exactly," Rodrig agreed. "The other Nobles are all behind the forest from here, and I can't imagine any would be foolish enough to march through our woods directly."
"Their men would likely mutiny at the suggestion," Aidan said, grimly remembering the mutiny that he had to put down among his own troops on New Mongolia. Sixteen men dead, thirty wounded, and all because some commander was so eager to reclaim his honor that he tried ordering them to attack a fixed position with a garrison four times their number. An obscene waste.
" ... and so if Kohlmann comes through this pass, we have a chance to ambush them here from this large hedge." Rodrig was pointing to a swirly, scribbly hedge and took a playful stab at a Knight piece that was attempting to join up with the enemy pieces south of its position.
"Under different circumstances, perhaps," Marke said, looking very skeptical, "but five hundred troops is far more than what we can raise. An ambush might be more costly for us than them."
"They'd never discover it," Charlene said, coming to Rodrig's defense as usual. "We've never used it, first of all, because the only ones who travel by that path are poor folk generally not worth robbing. And the only armored men I've seen pass by never give the hedge more than a casual glance. It may as well be an outcropping of rock!"
"At least rock would give us some cover!" Marke was raising his voice, and Aidan intervened before it turned into a shouting match.
"It's one option; let's plan without it first and then decide if it's worth it."
Rodrig moved the piece south and joined it with the others in the flat-bottomed ravine. Two to go, Aidan thought. And we haven't accounted for latecomers. Rodrig mapped out the likely route the other two forces might take, and they speculated over who would show up in person and who would send Captains in their stead. One thing was for sure: the Deputy or one of his appointed agents would lead the battle.
"The real question is whose livery they're going to use." Marke looked at Aidan with grim uncertainty. "If they bear the Royal Crest, it will complicate matters."
"Make us rebels in the eyes of most folk," Rodrig said, nodding gravely. Even Charlene's face looked almost as though she were mourning. "And giving an order to spare anyone wearing the triple-crown could cost us the battle. Cause our people to hesitate."
Aidan sighed. "Let's not surrender before we've assembled. The posses we fought were dressed in the bloody bear's paw, not the three crowns."
"And really, there's nothing we can do about it either way," Charlene said, shrugging and knocking over the King piece with her crescent-topped staff. "The Deputy started this war. We ought to fight him whether he dresses himself in crowns or a floral dress."
Rodrig chuckled, but hastily righted the King piece and arrayed the enemy troops for battle. None of the hills were large enough to host the entire enemy forces, so he arrayed them across the front of one. "Seems likely to me they'll want at least some of the high ground, even just to box us in."
It looked to Aidan like defeat and death, their five squadrons arrayed against the enemy's seven. This isn't even to scale - their seven pieces account for three times our number at least! Their position, and Rodrig's description of the likely defensive formation they would take meant one thing: an attack on such an army laid out in this way would fail, no question.
"We've got to get them to attack us," Marke said, right as the same thought crept across Aidan's mind. "But I think the chances of that are good."
"Why would they give up their cozy little spot on the hill?" Charlene gestured with her staff and hovered it over the King piece as if she meant to knock it over again, but brought her staff back to her side instead with a warning look from Rodrig.
"They consider themselves the aggrieved party," Aidan said, "since we're technically trespassers. The Deputy will be eager to secure vengeance for his posse. He'll attack."
Aidan eyed the King piece, picturing Deputy Meadows' face beneath its intricately knotted crown. One way or the other, I will see your face for the last time when we meet again. His heart began to race like an overwhipped horse, and he felt the urge to draw his mace, just to feel its well-used wrappings in his hand.
"We could keep our troops here," Marke used his sword's scabbard to gesture to the forest's tree line. "Defend the forest, put some sharpshooters in the trees and let them open gaps in the enemy line that we can exploit."
"No," Aidan said, seeing Charlene open her mouth as if in agreement. "What you are describing is a siege, and we won't survive a protracted defense."
"Aidan, godsdammit," Marke glared at him the way he had after he discovered Aidan knew Ygretta's secret proclivity before him, "put your pride away and think. Sieges favor defenders. We can send out hunters for food while we give the Deputy's men ample weapons to smack their heads into."
"Holding the tree line is possible only if we have comparable numbers. We don't." Aidan looked each of the other council members in the eye, determined to squash such talk. "We'd be defending a porous wall , and any hunters would end up prey for roving parties of bounty hunters, which Meadows could dispatch at his leisure. A slow defeat is still a defeat."
Marke held up his hands in surrender. He gave Aidan an offended glower as though accusing him of being overly harsh in arguing his point, but Aidan just nodded. In war, his father's voice echoed in his memory, a friend can be just as dangerous as an enemy.
"We ought to defend this spot here," Rodrig arrayed their five pieces on the map, three in front of two, and placed them on Bardon's Hill. Aidan knew it: a steep slope on the enemy's side and a relatively flat top on which they could arrange a long defensive line. It's a start.
"I agree," Aidan said, looking to Marke and Charlene who gave tacit nods. "Let'
s talk tactics and stage scenarios."
Rodrig opened his mouth to begin with the most likely scenario, which Aidan guessed was a march, probably three or four columns, by the Deputy and his allies straight into the waiting shields of their troops. Before the horse master could speak, the tent flap swooshed open, and Ygretta bounded in, giggling like a little girl on Winterfest morning.
"The Soldiers are ready, Sir Aidan," she announced, a goofy grin plastered on her face as she bounced a little on her heels in anticipation.
"Ready for what?"
She grinned as though about to tell them that the cook had prepared roast pheasant with garlic and cilantro. "They're ready to show you what they can do."