Book 7, Chapter 26: The Best Laid Plans
While the generals readied the soldiers, I walked along the wall, trying to get a feel for the place. After all, I sort of owned the city now. Might as well learn it. The wall was sturdy, had tall stone merlons for defenders to hide behind when necessary, though the gaps between them were worryingly wide now that catapults were in play. Leaning against one of these, I looked out to the enemy army.
The sun was low on the horizon, meaning we’d parley in dusk or darkness. I wasn’t sure if that would give us an advantage or them. Our guys presumably knew the land better, but defending a city, it felt like we were more exposed. And they had twice our numbers.
They were camped on a hill perhaps half a mile out and busy building fortifications. I stared and squinted. Multiple work teams covered the area directly in front of their camp, setting stakes, digging pits, but they seemed too few for an army of that size. Inside their camp, most of the traffic was to and from the side opposite us. That was odd. “Mest, doesn’t it look like they’re concentrating on protecting their rear?”
She looked for a while before answering, “I would guess that they are.”
“Huh. That’s interesting.”
“Ma’am.”
I looked at her. In the prime of her life, taller than me, well-muscled and dangerous. “So, ah, what do you think about coffee?”
“It treats me better than wine does.”
“That’s definitely one way to think about it.”
“I think you are making a mistake,” she smiled just a little, “by introducing coffee to the men.”
I smiled back, returning my attention to the enemy. “It has to be grown in their land. East of here. Must be a lot south, too. I wonder if their emperor is with this army.”
“If so, perhaps you will take their lands, too, when you kill him.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” In the absence of the urgency I felt, not attacking was the wiser course of action. Ignoring the Others, time was on our side. Multiple friendly armies marched to shore up our strength, Serce’s army was probably shadowing this one given how they were setting up defenses, and we’d defeated the army they hoped to link up with. If I had time, waiting for reinforcements was the wisest choice. In light of all that, it was possible we’d negotiate their surrender during the parley. But I knew this world all too well and that wouldn’t happen.
“If I may ask, my lady, what is it you want? I mean in terms of land. Will you take the world?”
“Ha! Mest, I had no such ambitions before. But now, I don’t know, it might be better for everyone. I might be able to force peace on this land. Though I have to say, conquering for peace is a story as old as humanity and just as honest.”
She faced me, “I think the nobles may try to assassinate you.”
I turned likewise to her, “Oh?”
“By promising regular soldiers land and homes, you’re weakening their power. I’ve seen them kill each other for less.”
“You’re right, they will be upset. But they aren’t something I can occupy my thoughts with right now. We’ll have to deal with the nobles later. Thank you for keeping that in mind.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
“Change always upsets someone, Mest. And I’ve only ever been the bringer of change in this world.” It made me wonder what was going on in my own kingdom. I’d originally left Maitlan in charge, the boy ever hoping I’d become romantically interested in him. He was to take over if I hadn’t returned by the end of summer.
Well, I had returned. If briefly. He’d tried to get me to marry him one more time, and I left him there sleeping. How’s that for being a vengeful goddess? Nevertheless, I wondered what he’d done since I’d left. He’d want to retake his castle, but Brundle wouldn’t allow that unless the general thought the time was right and we had enough troops.
Yet, my generals and nobles would have been expecting my return. Morry likely rode out to where I’d battled the mages and found me long gone. He’d probably have scoured the area, learned where the army I’d been abducted by was going. Since I didn’t see him, he probably didn’t follow us. What would Morry do?
Probably get an army. If he did and if he made good assumptions, he’d likely be marching on this city even now. I wondered if the reason our scouts hadn’t returned was because my army had taken out Serce’s. If so, it was my army the enemy was fortifying against.
I hoped – for sure I hoped! – but that situation was too good to possibly be true. Yet a few days ago – or was it earlier today? – I foresaw Brin meeting with me. And that meant two, maybe three possibilities.
“What was that, ma’am?”
“Nothing. Just a moment, I need to think.” If my premonition came true, I remained divine. Or the divinity was returning. Or, at the least, I was more than human. That gave me some hope against the Others, but I didn’t know how to capitalize on it.
Second, if Morry was bringing an army here, Brundle would have sent Maitlan west against Ketzle. The Ketzillian armies, excepting the one inhabiting Maitlan’s castle, were entirely defeated. Maitlan would likely therefore go through their capital on his way to retaking his lands. Hell, they may have abandoned his lands to shore up their national defenses.
And third, my friends were coming. A smile broke out on my face. And then I got to business, “Mestamir, let’s return to the harem. I want to see what state our catapults are in.”
***
Entering the harem for the second time, as its owner now, was different. I wouldn’t be prevented from leaving or ordered to some silly etiquette class. I wondered then, if the teacher survived. I’d left her in the hallway full of armed men. If she did, maybe I could get her a job cleaning the bedpans of the castle.
At the long tables near the top of the giant hall, many women sat, staring in disgust at the soldiers moving about here and there. Men were going into the hallway where I’d held off the skirmishers, others were hammering away at wood on the other side of the pool, and more were moving carts of stones and metal caltrops to the assembly area.
Once I was noticed, commands were shouted and the soldiers quickly faced me, with all taking a knee. As the soldiers went down, an applause broke out from the high tables. Women stood, their gazes on me, applauding.
“Ma’am, they’re thanking you.”
“Ah.” I nodded at them and waved.
Two girls came racing down, one barely older and taller, one younger and shorter, “Cayce! Cayce!”
I tried not to facepalm. I should have known, I really should have, that my cousins would be around somewhere.
The younger one, Sorya, ran up and embraced me in a hug, “I can’t believe it! You really saved us all. How did you hold off so many men?”
“Uhm,” I started when the older one likewise gave me a hug. “Ah, thank you, too.”
“No!” Letting go of the hug, she took my hands in hers, looking into my eyes, “thank you.”
“Yes,” said Alleah, backing up, “thank you. Now, if I’m not mistaken, you have assumed command?”
Mest stepped out to my right, swords hanging free, saying sternly, but not angrily, “You will address Her Divine Majesty properly.”
The girls’ eyes went wide, they quickly looked at each other, then curtsied long and low, “Your Royal Majesty!”
“Divine Majesty,” said my bodyguard.
“Divine? I’ve never addressed someone in this manner before,” said the eldest, crossing her arms and staring at Mest.
“Uh,” I broke in, “it’s a more honest representation of my being. Anyways,” I nodded at my annoyed bodyguard, “formalities achieved, are you two doing ok? I’d thought the soldiers had cleared the harem of women.”
“Some of us wouldn’t leave,” said the older, narrowing her eyes at the soldiers. “And we outrank them.”
Sorya smiled, “We wanted to see you, Cayce. But we didn’t know if you’d come back here. So, we waited.”
“Here I am. What would you like?”
“Uhm,” she clasped her hands together, looking down, “will you still be . . . marrying, uhm, Prince Searcian?”
“No.”
Sorya quickly looked up, “No?”
“Nope.”
“But you were supposed to!”
“Not even a little.”
Alleah asked, “What’s to become of us?”
With the young one saying, “Are we to be your wives?”
I shook and shook my head, “No, no, no, that’s a huge no. Uh, you’ll be returning to your families and pursuing whatever career you want. I hope,” I placed my hand on the older one’s shoulder, “you take up medicine. If that’s all you want?”
“You’re just going to send all the girls home?!” Sorya’s mouth dropped open.
Alleah stepped a touch closer, “It’s a terrible idea, Cayce.”
The young one took me by the arm, “Politics. We women are the mortar of politics. You need us to get anything done.”
The older took the other arm, “It’ll be so much easier for you if you maintain the harem,” and we began walking slowly toward the long and large pool.
“I’m not going to maintain the harem.” I pulled myself out of their arms, “Look, I’m the empress, I don’t need a bunch of useless husbands. My god how annoying that would be! And I don’t like the institution at all! So, I’m doing away with it.”
The elder asked, “What are you doing with the harem, then?”
“Apartments for the most influential families. So they can maintain liaisons here. Listen, this is all assuming we survive. There’s a lot of reasons we might not, including that damned army outside.”
The young one squeezed my arm and half-turned toward me, “Might not survive?”
For her part, Alleah let go to stand in front of me, “We’ll handle the nobles for you. We’ll be your representatives. If, as you say, we survive.”
“My representatives?”
She took my arm again, and the young one quickly went to the other side, and Mest didn’t come throw them off even when I gave her a desperate glance. “Cayce, we were born for this. We’re your cousins, so we’ll keep your interests foremost on our minds.”
“Uh, I’m not sure that-”
The young one, “Are you going to change Laemacia to the Nevarrelund aristocracy? Does that make me a duchess?”
“Ah, I haven’t thought that far ahead.” I hadn’t been hoping to never see these two again, but they had not been foremost in my thoughts. Still, they had the connections and knew more than I could learn about politics and noble house dynamics. Might as well delegate! “Yes, the answer is yes. You can be my representatives. Turn this place into apartments, assign noble families rooms, make a committee or something. To bring their, ah, issues to me.”
“In your interests, Your Majesty,” said the elder.
“What are you doing to do with Serce?” asked the younger cousin.
Alleah faced her, “Cayce is clearly going to execute him.”
Sorya covered her mouth, “No!” She pulled on my arm, “Cayce, please, I love him!”
“Ah, well. Listen, I’ll talk with Serce.”
“No empire survives having two emperors,” said Alleah. She reached out to her sister, taking her hand, “We’ll find you another husband. High ranking.”
“But, I . . . we already . . . can’t he just return to his own noble family?? Are you going to have them all executed, Cayce?”
“Whoa. Ah. Listen, Sorya, we’re not there yet. I’m trying to figure out how to survive the next few hours, not how to extract my vengeance on these nobles. And I’ve got a lot of work to do or we’re all going to die. So, you two go plan how you this place,” I raised my arms above my head, “can be turned into apartments. With both sexes. And then start liaising. With the nobles.”
They both blinked and blinked in confusion, “How?”
“Find some advisors. I trust you’ll figure it out.”
***
After they ran off to do whatever it is teenage girls newly in charge of building an early type of parliament for an empire do, I continued on to the catapult emplacements. We got the honorifics out of the way and they showed me their weapons.
“Twelve so far? Only twelve?”
The person in charge of setting these up – I didn’t know what rank they were yet in this army – wearing a blackened chainmail and tunic, nodded and held his head low before answering, “Yes, ma’am. We are placing twelve here. We have them placed elsewhere around the city as well.”
I looked behind me, at the enormous space of the platform, and back the other way, “Are you positioning more?” This would be an ideal ledge to lob heavy stuff into the attacking army, should they get within range. I couldn’t help it and sighed. It would be nice to have a fully stocked army, it really would.
“Not catapults, ma’am, no.”
“Archers, then?”
“Not so many, ma’am.”
“Are you just,” I swept my hand along the platform, “just leaving this space empty?”
“No, ma’am.”
I stared at him for a few moments wondering if he didn’t know how to offer information up or if I terrified him. Crossing my arms, I asked, “Why don’t you tell me what your plans for this platform are?”
“Well, ma’am, we are very soon putting up the, uhm, new weapons. The trebuchet, I believe they are called.”
“You’re bringing them up now? That’s excellent! How many have you got?”
“Eight, ma’am.”
“Are you in charge of this area or just the delivery and set up?”
“The area, ma’am.”
“Excellent.” I knew I had to be as specific as possible, because this guy was so utterly literal. Or terrified. I tried to be gentle, and touched his arm, leading him to the empty space, “This is what I need you to do . . . “
***
Passing through the hallways of the Laemacian capital palace, mostly red brick with some oranges mixed in, I thought about what my now dead brother wanted.
I dared not name my family, even in my thoughts. For the Others might be listening. I didn’t know. Better to err on the side of safety. Yet they weren’t my family, but the god who Created me, Loki’s family. Loki’s stepfather, the Allfather. He once visited me in a dream, highlighting his own way of gaining wisdom, power. Now my brother, his bloodline true son, instructed me to take this same path.
It could only mean one thing. If old in history, I was new to life. Just over a year, by my count. Yet I had knowledge aplenty. Among the many attributes I lacked, wisdom was perhaps the foremost. With only some aspect of my divinity remaining. It would only return in full when the mage who stole it from me died in the world I sent him to.
Yet the Allfather gained wisdom and power another way. He traveled to the sacred and secret waters of Mimir, tore out his own eye to offer it as a sacrifice, and tied himself to a tree, the great tree, the only tree, Yggdrasil, for nine days and nine nights. Like Jesus, he was pierced by a spear. Though in this case, it was the Allfather’s own weapon.
That’s what he meant, my brother. Follow in our Father’s path! I’m not sure I could make the nine days. I’d die of thirst. No idea how the old man didn’t, but he was a deity at that point. Why didn’t the storytellers make it nine years? Centuries!
Because they were human storytellers. Nine days on a tree is a lot if you’re not a god.
Worse and more pressing, the Others could be out in nine days! Even if I wanted to subject myself to that, where was the time?
After a long hallway, we passed through double doors to the courtyard, horses were waiting on a large field, which I marked for planting crops if all my ideas failed. They brought me a large, large warhorse, armored and angry, and ready for me to lead it into battle.
I touched its head, “I’m a friend of Sleipnir.” I wondered, then, if I should call for him one more time. Perhaps later. One more loss would hurt. Even one I already experienced.
The horse bowed its head twice. I mounted.
The city gates were opened for us. Atop the large horse, I paused. They’d set up a tent for our parley, and it wasn’t in the middle of the battlefield, but close to their soldiers. I held my hand up, “Wait. Bring me a spear.”
A soldier bowed his head, “Ma’am,” and ran off.
Sasan, beside me on a chestnut mare, said, “I’m not sure we should proceed. Seeing the tent that close to their own lines is clearly a trap.”
“You think they’ll attack?”
Sorstram said, “It’s several hundred yards from their main camp.”
“Yet in range of their cavalry and catapults. And out of range of our fastest horsemen.” Mazdak looked away, then back, “I believe their aim is to capture us.”
“If they were, I’m sorry, if they were to try to capture you . . . how many cavalry would they need?”
“Perhaps fifteen, ma’am.”
“We should be fine then.” Not a chance the nuns knew I could fight. Somehow they knew I’d lost my divinity. Candles, it was candles. No idea how they worked, but that seemed their forte. Though Talaren and I had yet to test it, I was convinced the candelabra put me down. Therefore, some candle or other probably kept track of me. Yet the interesting thing about that was, if it could affect me, it could affect the other deities here. Like Anansi. I wonder if he’d help. It’d be nice, but I didn’t know how to get in contact with him other than screaming at spiderwebs. Maybe I should try it.
“Your will.”
After the soldier appeared with my new spear, we made our way to the gates. Seeing their army, I second guessed myself. It was between fifty and seventy thousand men. The one we’d defeated numbered perhaps fifty thousand, but they’d trapped themselves within a city with narrow walkways and small roads. And we had massive war rhinos that filled those spaces up.
Those rhinos were probably the reason Bracken’s army now camped in the field beyond rather than attempting their previous position by the destroyed city gates. They understood we defeated their fellows and chose a more defensible location.
Our army numbered thirty thousand, plus the tens of thousands of surrendered troops. I promised them land; I hoped they’d remain if not loyal, then on our side. We were using them largely as logistics support. They transported ammunition, water, food, and whatever, to the front, removing what needed removing. And they were building our beyond-the-wall fortifications.
But, wow, I wish I could just give them weapons. If only we could trust them.
Alexander could probably succeed, but I wasn’t so gifted. Yet I’d borrow from him. I’d be sneaky, I’d be apparently chaotic, and I’d be brash.
We didn’t try to outflank the enemy this time. Or send regiments around them. As none of our scouting parties returned, either the enemy captured or killed them, or something else happened. Ergo, too dangerous to try that for this engagement.
Nope. We had horsemen archers waiting behind the ruined western walls, out of sight from their tents. And more archers riding around to the east side. Our phalanx and skirmishers were ready to run out the main southern gates into formation. It was dangerous, for the gates were a bottleneck, and if the enemy advanced quickly enough, they could outnumber us easily.
Yet, for the same reason, we didn’t want to position our troops on the field as we – as I – could see no path to victory on open grounds.
The horse archers were just in case. A fast attack that could leave the battlefield quickly. The infantry waiting if an opening presented itself. What that opening would be, I didn’t know.
Archers on the walls, archers on the rooftops of the city. Catapults here and there, but concentrated on the largest viewing platform in the city, the harem. Along with the new trebuchet, operators of which would now be fixing their sights, marking their angles to distance.
If worst came to absolute worst, our infantry would take position as quickly as possible while our ranged caused as much damage and confusion as possible. I’d fight as best I could, but they had many more archers than I could deal with.
I didn’t know how we’d win with such a defensive strategy. But I could not come up with a better plan, not without the war rhinos.
But maybe, just maybe, I could talk some sense into the enemy. The nuns, after all, knew what was in that Temple. They should be just as worried as I was.
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