of confidence.”
“I’m just here because a certain someone insisted that you come back alive.”
“Speaking of which, we leave the day after tomorrow,” he told her. “From that point on you’ll have to wear your armor every day while we travel.”
She squinted at him. “We haven’t met the enemy yet, plus we’ll be in the carriage—at the rear. What’s the point of making me suffer so early in this war?”
“I won’t be in the carriage,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I’ll be riding out in the open, and I plan to stay close to the lead elements. You can ride in the carriage if you want, but if you intend to be with me, you’ll have to wear the armor.”
“Oh.” Laina didn’t argue. Though it was obvious she’d rather not ride, Will hoped she wouldn’t complain, and as it turned out, Laina proved to be remarkably resilient.
The next day passed quickly, and they set out the day after, staying with the lead regiment of First Division. As the division included over five thousand men by itself, and since they were forced to travel a narrow road through the mountains, the other divisions were far out of sight. When they stopped for the evening it would be almost eight hours before Sixth Division arrived. Because of that, the army could only travel for eight hours each day before the lead division would stop and begin preparing the ground for the rest of the army to camp. That included minor earthworks followed by some hunting and scavenging.
Of course, there wasn’t anywhere near enough game to make much of a dent in the army’s daily food requirement, but every bit helped. Once they were out of the mountains and into the lowlands, the hunting duty would change to persuading locals to sell their crops and livestock for fair prices. Lustral had been adamant that they should simply take whatever they found, but Will had remained firm on the point, although the definition of a ‘fair’ price would be lower than the usual market value.
‘Sell’ was a debatable term as well, since they wouldn’t be giving the farmers much of a choice, but it was better than simply stealing what they wanted. Will’s argument was again that they weren’t there to destroy the nation, or oppress it, but rather to take stewardship and replace a bad ruler with a better one. Lustral and some of the other officers might have thought Will was crazy, but he didn’t care, and it was his opinion that counted in the end.
At the end of the third day’s ride, they had reached a fork in the mountain road. Each fork took a different route around two large mountains, but their final destination was the same, the city of Klendon. The northern road was a longer route and would require an extra day’s travel while the southern road was better and shorter.
The enemy knew they were coming. They’d known for months, if not longer, and they knew Terabinia’s army would have to take one of the two roads. That meant there was a high probability of an ambush or other obstacles no matter which path they chose. During the planning sessions, they had decided to follow the longer northern road, but Will had a surprise for the officers.
When they met that evening, he explained that he intended to change plans and follow the southern road. Objectively, it was quicker and easier, but his main reason was simply that if there had been any information leaks the enemy would be less likely to expect them on that road. Predictably, it was Duke Lustral who complained the most.
“What’s the point in changing our route now?” demanded the nobleman.
Will refused to let his feathers be ruffled. “What’s the point in arguing against it?”
Lustral’s scowl deepened. “They’re more likely to expect us on the better road.”
“You can argue that all day long. They’ll also expect that we might choose the road less travelled. They can’t know which way we’ll go.”
“Then why bother changing it now?” asked the duke.
“Because they might have caught wind of our plans. They won’t have time to readjust if I change them now,” said Will calmly.
Lustral waved his hand at the other marshals and commanders. “You think one of us might be a traitor?”
Will shrugged. “I don’t need to justify myself to you. Nor does it necessarily follow that one of you might be a traitor. There are plenty of methods for obtaining such information that don’t require betrayal on your part,”