Dragon's Challenge - D. R. Rosier Page 0,71
then, so was a mating between an elder dragon and a phoenix…
Chapter Eighteen
The large war room had a large map table in the center of it, and along the walls were paintings of battles that dated from the beginning of the kingdom to the last war with the necromantic lich and the skirmishes with the elves. It was early the next morning, about an hour after breakfast. There were no chairs at all, and he and his ladies stood on the far side of the table with the princess and Cinder, while the king, Benjamin, and two generals stood on the other.
He knew Cinder wanted to talk to him in private, mostly because she’d bluntly told him so, but he wasn’t sure what the hell it could be about. He also didn’t think he’d have time for it anytime soon, it’d be a long day. April also wanted to talk to him in private, she’d have to wait for later as well.
The king said, “Cinder, what’ve you been able to discover?”
Cinder replied, “Several things. They march in just six days. As soon as their supply train has enough food and arrows to supply the troops for a couple of weeks. A thousand troops, four wizards, and two earth sorcerers. They don’t really have the troops to run a slow and sure campaign to roll over us.”
She pointed at the map, at a fort on the border, almost directly south of the capital city.
“They’re going to cross here. Two squads and a wizard will take the watchtowers to the east and west of the fort. Their objective is to prevent the signal fire that will alert the forts east and west of there. Once that’s done, they’ll hit the fort hard using the sorcerers to breach the walls. Then they’ll march north to take the capital.”
General Leonard said, “That’s insane. At most that would buy them a two-day lead if we hadn’t found out about it. Even less now. With defenders on the city walls, the rest of our border troops would come up behind them and grind them to dust against the defended walls. Leaving a live enemy behind you is a foolish mistake, and our enemy is not that foolish.”
She nodded, “They seem sure they can breach the city’s walls before that and claim the capital. Then if necessary, man the walls and defend from the rest of the southern troops.”
The king scowled, “If necessary?”
She said, “It does sound a bit insane, your majesty. But Khalea has convinced them if they can get troops and wizards in the city and take out Muranth, the war will be over. They believe once the demoness was banished your minds will clear and you’ll be thankful for the aid. The emperor also plans to use that as leverage to force the treaty forward with a true marriage to his son and claim Uradia that way through the generations. The prince himself, and Khalea will be leading the invasion.”
He growled lightly, and the princess took his hand.
Cinder shrugged, “They don’t have the troops to free up for a full-on invasion without risking their other holdings or borders, so this is the course they’re taking. That’s for the battle. They also dispatched assassins and kidnapping squads. They want Muranth dead. But failing that they’re going to try to kidnap the princess to draw Muranth into a trap. A last-ditch effort, before they commit a legion of men and six magic users to a rather risky battle plan.”
He actually calmed at that, if they weren’t trying to assassinate the princess, it was less to worry about. The need to pull his sister’s spinal cord out however, was raging in his chest.
“Khalea could be influencing them with nature magic, so they’d consider it a good gamble.”
For all he knew, she’d fucked and bonded them, and they were nothing but puppets at the moment, but despite all his sister had done he didn’t think that was likely.
The king replied, “Ironic, if true. When they march north, we’ll send most of the military wizards to the fort. Both to reinforce the walls, and to inform the other forts of the breach once their forces are sighted. The other forts can move immediately at that point, we can’t afford to do so beforehand in case this is a trick of some kind.
“I also want the guard doubled on the stairwells and doubled on my daughter whenever she’s on the ground floor. Make sure those guards are well aware of