She turned away and nodded, closing her eyes. “Yes. I’ve learned more since the last time you’ve visited.”
“Thank the Skies,” Luykas said with a sigh of relief.
“Thirteen thousand foot-soldiers, eight thousand archers, three…three thousand gryphon riders.” Nyria started to laugh, but it was a hopeless sound. There was nothing funny about her words. “Another two-thousand standard cavalry, all of which she’s hoping to transition to gryphons. Two hundred and fifty ballistae to kill your wyvern.”
“Nyria?” Luykas tried to commit those numbers to memory.
“She has more people in her army than you have for your entire people,” she whispered. “How did I ever think the Andinna would win this?”
“We still can,” he snapped. “We can still win this. Please believe in us.”
“What happened?” she asked, swallowing as she looked back at him.
“We…lost roughly a thousand warriors in an ambush. You didn’t tell me her sorcerer count. Has she brought in the sorcerers yet? They’re the only way she could have pulled off her ambush of our summer campaign.”
“The Sorcerer Guild isn’t an official military unit,” Nyria reminded him. “They answer directly to her. I think they’ve offered twenty or thirty magic users so far for advanced work. The rest are lower ranking. I put them with archers because that’s where they’ll be deployed—a thousand proficient sorcerers in the archery unit. Instead of arrows, they’ll be throwing fireballs and the like. Whatever they can think of.”
“Ah, of course,” Luykas said softly, nodding. “That’s what she did last time. She merged them with her ranged units. What about these advanced sorcerers? Do you think any of them could do any sort of mental manipulation spells?”
“They’re the ones who taught her and that she’s taught,” Nyria answered.
There was no life in her. Luykas was beginning to believe that between her own weakness from the spell backlash and learning the Andinna’s true odds, that his sister was beginning to weaken in her resolve.
I can’t blame her. The odds are terrible.
“Listen to me,” he said, going to a knee beside her. He wished he could take her hand, make her look, but all he could do was wait for her to meet his gaze. “We are Andinna, and we have our ways. Don’t give up faith in us just because she has the bigger force.”
“Every day, I hope she’ll realize that she’s wrong,” Nyria spoke softly. She turned back to the fire, watching it with dull gold eyes. “Every day, I hope she becomes the mother who saved me from my father again—a mother who was righteous and good and powerful, who saved me and could have saved others. Instead, every day, she continues to plot ways to murder your people and cement her own power. She killed a couple of nobles over the spring when she found out they freed their Andinna slaves to keep from getting hurt. She locked several others in cells. She thinks it’s treason.” Nyria shook her head as if she were dismissing her own thoughts. “I know you have a chance to beat her. I’m just feeling down this evening. It’s happening less frequently, but I’m still trying to heal from…”
“I know.”
“You were right that spells have consequences. I should have been more careful.” She shifted, wrapping her blanket around her further. “Mother wants me to visit her over the winter. She thinks the stress of the war, added to losing my brother and my father, did this. She thinks if I’m with her, I’ll be less…like this. She’ll probably keep me up there to watch the war unfold.”
“She doesn’t plan on beating us by the end of the year, then. That gives us time,” Luykas said, nodding. “Thank you for that.”
“No, she plans on beating you next year.” Nyria reached out and tried to touch his cheek, going through him. “I don’t want that to happen, so I’m still moving money where she can’t get it. She knew Fenoth was the richest noble of the Empire, but she never knew exactly how rich. She doesn’t know the money she’s losing. If she can’t pay her soldiers or feed them, they’ll start deserting. I haven’t succeeded yet, but next year, she’ll start to feel it because the fields have lost their slaves. It’s going to be a disaster for her, and she knows it. That’s why she’s aggressively trying to beat you quickly. I wish I could tell you more, but I’m not in her meetings. I’m here in Elliar, and she isn’t. That’s all I know.”