Disciple of War Disciple of War (Art of the Adept #4) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,135

still hadn’t explained his suspicions regarding Lognion’s possible immortality. “Nevermind.”

Before they could continue their conversation further, Renly stepped into the tent. “A new messenger has arrived from First Division, sir.”

“Send him in.”

There were two messages, one written by Spry and the other from Lustral. Will elected to read the least pleasant missive first.

Marshal,

Your deceit in issuing my orders has become apparent, though I am still attempting to succeed despite your blatant attempts at undermining our efforts in Darrow. Sub-Marshal Spry’s arrival has forestalled the disaster that nearly took us, but we cannot hope to advance without more men.

The Patriarch’s forces have arrived in significant numbers, numbers far in excess of what we originally anticipated. At the moment we are surrounded on three sides and may soon be forced to withdraw in the only direction left available to us.

A Loyal Servant of His Majesty, King Lognion,

Field Marshal Lustral

Will snorted. Even with his ending, Lustral had found a way to snub his superior by pointing out that his true loyalty lay only with the king. He doubted things were as bad as the duke indicated though. Turning to the next letter he opened it and began to read.

Royal Marshal Cartwright,

I trust this finds you well. Third Division is continuing to support and assist the field marshal and First Division, but things are worse than expected. First took considerable casualties in excess of five hundred men before we arrived and were in full retreat. Since then we have held our ground and begun to dig in.

Personally, I feel we should withdraw, either to meet you and the rest of our forces at the crossroad, or potentially even make a full retreat to Klendon. Lustral insists that we remain here, but the enemy numbers are far greater than our previous intelligence indicated. Things are barely tenable as they are. Any further pressure may result in disaster.

Please advise.

Sub-Marshal Spry

Will handed them to his father while he thought things over. A few minutes later, the other man asked, “Well?”

“We only need two days here,” said Will firmly. “Then we can leave a garrison and move to reinforce them.”

“Assuming you can take the city in a single day,” said the sub-marshal.

“We will.”

“That’s a big assumption, and things could get worse there quickly. Lustral might be exaggerating, but Spry seems honest enough.”

Will nodded. “I think he is, but he’s also inexperienced. This is his first time seeing an actual war. It can be overwhelming. I don’t think things are as bad as he believes. The Darrowans don’t have enough men to overwhelm two divisions.”

Mark Nerrow frowned. “Five hundred casualties are nothing to sneeze at. It sounds as though First was decimated.”

He meant the term in its technical definition, meaning they had lost a tenth, not that that made it any better. Losing nearly one in ten was a substantial blow to the division. Will could only hope that Eric wasn’t among those injured, or worse, killed. “Lustral is playing the game from both ends. If he’s really working with the Darrowans, he may have engineered the situation to create a disaster, but he won’t be willing to endanger himself further.”

“Or maybe he isn’t a traitor,” said the sub-marshal. “Maybe he’s just incompetent and the losses come down to superior tactics on the part of the Darrowan commander. If so, those losses could compound if the First and Third aren’t reinforced and given strong leadership.”

“You could send Hargast and the Second to support them,” suggested Mark.

He growled. “Maldon is a large city. I need them to ensure a quick surrender. I can send them the day after. Once we have Maldon, we’ll be free to concentrate all our resources on Myrsta. The war will be all but over, whether we take the capital or whether we spend a year starving them out from their walls.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Chapter 37

The next morning the sun rose as usual, but it wasn’t readily apparent. A thick mist hung over the city and the fields around it out to a distance of at least a mile. The only clue that the sun had risen was that the mist took on an ambient glow, dimly lighting everything within it.

Will wished he had news regarding the First and Third Divisions, but that probably wouldn’t come until noon as the riders usually didn’t travel at night. When they did arrive, it would be the ones sent the afternoon before. If he was lucky, he might receive the messengers from this morning by dark. For now, he