Arcane Mercenaries: Insurrection, page 33
Queen Fraunces had chosen wisely, seizing the initiative. Ardwick failed to see it and wanted to march forward with trumpets sounding battle hymns. The Kingmaker was a skilled leader and an exceptional politician, but this same ego led him into a futile cavalry charge against the Arcane Mercenaries. He wasn’t a tactical genius.
“General, we require you to issue marching orders,” Dominick instructed to the broad approval of the gathering.
But where? Grant pondered. He couldn't challenge the duke and the prince, especially with the leaders busy self-congratulating for something they hadn't accomplished.
“Of course, sire,” he muttered.
“I require a moment with you both,” Duke Ardwick interjected. He had aroused numerous queries now—more theatrics for the benefit of the group. Dominick should have thrown the man into a prison in Ardwick castle.
Grant, Ez, Sina, Tegan, Rienne, Dominick, and Ardwick navigated to Catrin's quarters. Despite her recovering strength and countless hours away from Dominick’s side, Catrin retained an air of fierce command. Rumors of her ability to penetrate minds and quell the human spirit abounded, a superstition Dominick exploited to his benefit when required.
Catrin pushed herself upright and adjusted her pillow when they entered, her brow arching at the sight of Henry Ardwick. Yet, she held her tongue, allowing Dominick to orchestrate the meeting.
"General Gwydian, I'm aware of your doubts regarding my intelligence," Ardwick began, to which Grant offered no response. "Despite your public slight, the real revelation is not about the queen's forces, but the queen herself."
"I'm listening," Grant prompted.
"The queen has ordered the attack, but she is departing the city," Ardwick revealed.
Grant waited for more details.
"She boasts that her troops will destroy our rebellion while she takes her customary vacation in the countryside."
"And her entourage?" Ez enquired, her mind racing with the implications.
"Fifteen hundred," Ardwick confirmed. "That's her standard."
"And the number of soldiers in that party?" Grant pressed.
"Three hundred of her finest, all expert riders.”
Grant stroked his beard. This was the intelligence breakthrough he needed to end the war. Maintain the pretense of their plan to besiege the queen while subtly altering the marching order to repel the queen's attack. By the time the queen launched her assault, Dominick could have a formidable force of mercenaries, archers, and knights to retaliate.
"You've got that look," Ez remarked.
"The mad one?" Tegan queried.
Ez nodded in affirmation.
"Who's riding with you?" Rienne asked.
Grant returned her query with a grin. "Prince Dominick and Duke Ardwick remain here with the main column. Any informants for the queen must perceive our operations as usual. To deceive the scouts monitoring our movements, the Arcane Mercenaries and Tegan's company stay with the column. We'll reshuffle the forces into a steel core pointed at the queen’s advance.”
Jafran raised an eyebrow. "That's not the best part.”
"I will lead a select few to seize the queen. We ride fast and hard with a small group that won't draw much attention with all the scouts, messengers, cavalry, and knights moving about the countryside. But our primary target is the queen."
"Just another harebrained scheme," Tegan scoffed.
"It'll work," Sina countered. "He's pulled it off before. Fifteen hundred seems daunting, but we'll only need several hundred."
Grant appreciated Sina's backing. This operation didn't require elaborate subterfuge. A few days of hard riding and some tactical combat could transform the entire scenario.
“We can’t take hundreds,” Grant explained. “Dominick can’t lose the battle against the queen and needs our best soldiers. We remain compact and infiltrate their ranks. The element of surprise outweighs brute strength."
Dominick seemed less than convinced.
"It's a double victory," Grant turned and faced the young prince. The weight of his campaign pressed its burden on his shoulders. "We could defeat her armies and force her to flee, leaving the path to the capital clear. Alternatively, I could capture the queen and compel her to surrender. You ascend to the throne."
"Those odds are preposterous," Catrin interjected.
"That's why they enlist us to achieve the impossible. I can't envisage a better time to take this gamble," Grant countered.
"Then capture the queen," Dominick commanded. "Let's take the crown from her head.”
60
SHIPMENT
"I can't believe you left Tegan in command," Ez said, crouching behind a low stone wall.
The queen's procession crawled along the royal highway, heading northeast from the capital. The contingent comprised fifteen hundred personnel, including soldiers, courtiers, and attendants, accompanying a multitude of wagons, carriages, and horses. The ostentatious spectacle of royalty moved at a languid pace of less than ten miles a day, resembling a carnival procession more than a royal entourage.
Two days after departing from Dominick's preparations for battle, Grant, Ez, Jafran, Jakar, Rienne, and a small cavalry unit trailed the extensive convoy. Over the past two days, they had observed the queen's forces and learned their basic security protocols.
"Mercede still leads the Arcane Mercenaries," Grant pointed out. "What's your concern?"
"Evidently, there are thousands of other mercenaries involved. I thought you despised her," Ez responded, her gaze straying over the wall to observe the troops swiftly surveying the countryside before returning to their duties of protecting the queen's tents.
They had established their hideout over a mile from the main road, using farm lanes to trail the slow-paced convoy. Jakar's expertise ensured they remained well outside the queen's guards' patrol zones, allowing Ez to confidently spy on them from this distance across the open fields.
"We may have been at odds over everything for the past decade, but I certainly wasn't going to place Torben in command again. Did you have a particular noble in mind?" Grant asked, ignoring Jafran's cautionary glance. Ez had her muskets and pistols at the ready.
“Yeah, any of them," Ez replied curtly. "What are your thoughts on those rear wagons?"
Grant peered over the stone wall. The patrol had already returned to establish the camp, and they appeared blissfully unaware of the mercenaries' proximity. Reports suggested a significant confrontation imminent between the queen's amassed forces and the prince's defiant nobles. The queen's destination was a well-guarded secret.
He glanced at the sinking sun to ensure he wouldn't inadvertently signal the queen's convoy with his spyglass. Confident he wouldn't be detected, he extracted and extended the tube. Dozens of wagons were stationed at the end of the encampment.
"Which ones, Ez? I'm viewing through a narrow tube," Grant said.
"The three surrounded by thirty guards."
Grant leaned over the wall again, resting his elbows on the stone to stabilize his view. Three wagons were distinctly separate from the rest and heavily guarded. Workers were unloading other wagons and carts to transport goods forward, but these three were untouched.“Good eye,” Grant said and handed the spyglass over to Jafran.
Ez huffed in response.
“The boxes are the right size for weapons. Some look wide enough for crossbows, others for swords,” Jafran said.
“Why crate them?” Rienne said. “We know she’s not expecting our little raiding band, but keeping weapons in boxes while traveling seems odd.”
“That’s what caught my attention. Can you see those markings?” Ez asked.
It was Grant’s turn to shake his head. He couldn’t steady the spyglass to make out markings on the boxes. Ez waited for him to lower his device and ask.
“You know none of us can see the markings,” Grant said. “What’s on them?”
“Two markings, actually, which makes it more interesting. The first is the bear on all fours. House of Treningham, right?”
Rienne nodded. She must know the heraldry of every family in every nation. Grant didn’t doubt she was right.
“The second is a red star.”
Grant pulled in his breath. It might be the latest incarnation of the unholy alliance between the Order of the Star and Queen Fraunces.
“We have to capture those wagons,” Grant said.
Jafran gestured for Grant to pass him the spyglass. His gaze methodically scrutinized the soldiers and sentries congregating around those particular wagons.
"We have to assume the Order of the Star is here, armed with weapons specifically engineered to defeat us," Jafran said. "They won't all be stowed away in the crates."
“Don’t give me that look, Grant Gwydian,” Ez said. "If we assault those wagons, the entire convoy will know we’re here. We go after the queen like we planned.”
“Leaving wagons loaded with StarTouched-killing weapons in the queen's hands is not an option," Grant said.
“If we capture the queen, we get the weapons,” Ez said. "The queen is the primary target."
“The order could ride off with the weapons while we occupy the queen,” Jakar said. “We’d never know.”
"We can take that risk once we've secured the queen," Ez suggested.
Grant knew they all made valid points. The queen was indeed their primary target, but the opportunity presented by the order protecting her with additional weapons and supplies was too valuable to ignore. They all harbored a shared dread of the potential consequences should those weapons land in the hands of the Tul or another enemy.
The burden of command couldn’t be shared with his friends. They would accept his judgment on assaulting the wagons or ignoring them to reach the queen first. Both could lead to dark consequences for Grant, the StarTouched, and Dominick’s revolution.
"We secure the weapons," Grant declared, raising his hand to preempt Ez's protest. "We need to understand what they have in place to protect the queen. Whether it's weapons like those that struck you and Catrin or shields that suppress our powers, they are too dangerous for us to pass. However, our mission does not end with the securing of the wagons. We continue to advance, using the ensuing chaos as cover to target her carriage."
"I haven't spotted the queen's carriage, Grant," Ez said.
"It's up ahead," Jakar clarified. "She's positioned at the head of the column, surrounded by her guards."
"Has anyone seen the church accompanying her?" Rienne inquired.
Jakar shook his head. "I only ventured far enough to figure out their direction."
They bided their time until darkness cloaked the land before initiating their assault. The strike team left their horses with a solitary sentry, opting to launch their attack from the shadows.
The queen’s sentries were complacent, their gaze rarely straying from the comforting warmth of the fires, leaving them blind to anything beyond their meager circle of light.
Grant and his team stealthily approached, closing the distance to a mere ten yards from the guards, quietly observing their nightly routine. Soldiers occasionally stirred, adding fuel to the fire or attending to nature's call. None of them bore the emblem of the Order of the Star.
At Grant's signal, the mercenaries descended upon the guards. Knives glinted eerily in the dim light of the fire, and Ez refrained from firing her weapons, instead joining the others in wielding a dagger.
They moved as a unit, identifying targets and accepting the surrender of soldiers emerging from their sleeping bags and crawling out from under cloaks. They showed no mercy to those reaching for weapons, and eight fell without sounding the alarm. The others quickly understood the unspoken message.
Surrender was a far more favorable option than death.
Using ropes from the wagons, Grant restrained the fifteen who surrendered and the four wounded soldiers who pleaded for mercy. He couldn't risk any of them regaining their courage and alerting their comrades, so they improvised gags to ensure their silence.
"Jakar, select four of your men and ride these wagons away from the column," Grant ordered.
Ez swiftly pivoted towards Grant. "Our team is already too small for this operation. You can't send Jakar away with the wagons."
Jakar held his silence as Ez stomped over to confront Grant.
“Let me destroy them," Jafran offered. "Esmerelda has a point. We won’t have the numbers to engage the bodyguards if we dispatch five soldiers. I can utilize the heat of the fires to incinerate these crates."
"I don’t like that idea either," Ez said. “We shouldn’t split up.”
Grant could see her logic. Jafran obliterated Gornick's earliest experiments and blood samples in Semturm, and he could manipulate flames to achieve extraordinarily high temperatures. Given the right conditions, even steel could be melted.
“Let’s see what we have first,” Rienne suggested. She hoisted herself onto a wagon and wielded a sentry's sword to pry open the lid of a crate. Wood creaked and then splintered under the applied pressure, and a loud ping echoed through the night as the sword tip snapped under the unusual strain.
The mercenaries huddled around the opened crate, revealing a complete case of crossbow bolts stored in quivers, ready to be issued at a moment's notice. Rienne and two other cavalry soldiers wielded axes to dismantle the remaining crates, uncovering swords with darkened edges possessing the same properties as the bolts and shields capable of nullifying the abilities of the StarTouched.
The queen was prepared to confront the StarTouched with the church's materiel support. Grant’s hunch was right—they couldn’t leave this gear behind with the StarTouched gathering to face the queen’s army.
Jafran had to destroy them. The command sergeant’s power flared, and the nearby flames transitioned from a playful orange to a steady, intense blue.
Grant had to give his friend time to destroy this cache of lethal weapons and a score to settle with Tytus Gornick.
But first, he had a queen to deliver.
61
ORDER
"Captain, we have guards doubling back," Jakar warned, unsheathing his cavalry saber. He maneuvered so that the fire was at his back and subtly moved away from the circle of illumination.
“Order of the Star,” Ez hissed as she pulled her musket off her shoulder.
“Coming to check on their wagons?” Grant whispered. The question hung in the air unanswered as they moved into position, intent on buying Jafran some time to obliterate the weapons.
They all understood that if the order was indeed on its way, they were likely already armed with weapons designed to eradicate the StarTouched. Their covert raid was on the brink of exposure, and perhaps Ez had been right about going after the queen first.
Now was not the time for second thoughts. Grant hunkered down, adjusting his grip on his weapon. The order would realize something was wrong when they reached the fire.
“StarTouched,” Jakar hissed between his teeth in warning.
Grant tilted his head to look back at the cavalry officer. Jakar's Touched ability was a closely guarded secret within the Arcane Mercenaries and instrumental in their campaign strategies. Jakar could detect the presence and power of StarTouched, a crucial piece of information he relayed to Grant and his command team.
"How many?" Grant mouthed.
The Order of the Star slowed as they approached the wagons. Had they sensed something wasn't quite right?
Jakar shook his head. “Too hard to tell. It’s mixed feelings, and they’re everywhere.”
Grant snapped back toward the approaching order. They were on to something as two drew swords, and the remaining two conferred with each other.
The fire. Jafran’s powers raised the temperatures to be hot enough to melt steel, and the cooking fire looked nothing like the average campfire. The order was alert.
One turned and darted toward the front of the column. The others readied shields and swords.
Grant motioned to Jakar and Rienne to take position near him while the other cavalry soldiers moved to flank the alert knights. Ez didn’t have a line of sight on the fleeing soldier and held her fire. The right thing to do was to buy more time for Jafran to finish his job.
In hindsight, she should have taken down the runner before he could alert the others. But Grant had no time for regrets and emerged from his hideout alongside Rienne and Jakar.
"Hail, good sir. Might I have a moment of your time?" Grant called out, ensuring the flame was at his back. They were clear targets in the fire's glow, but he hoped the backlight would prevent the order from recognizing them.
"Identify yourselves!" one knight demanded, maintaining his defensive stance.
Grant didn't have sufficient knowledge about the capital to make a reasonable assumption and couldn't pass off as a member of the queen's entourage. He readied himself to bridge the distance and plunge into battle.
“Foot soldiers from Sir Willard deGray, sir,” Rienne responded from Grant's right, gently pulling on his sleeve to keep him quiet and his sword sheathed.
“DeGray is up with the vanguard,” the knight said. The questioning tone concerned Grant, but the guards didn’t rush forward to attack immediately.
“Sent us back to check on the rearguard,” Rienne said, offering a theatrical shrug. “Doesn’t pay enough to ask questions. Just doing what we’re told.”
“What’s with the fire?” the second knight pointed his blade toward Jafran’s frantic work.
Embers spiraled skyward as a crossbow string twanged and snapped in the inferno. More weaponry clattered and joined the rest in the pyre as Jafran exploited the precious moments.
The guards were close enough for Grant to catch the expression of the knights. They crouched behind their shields and closed their formation.
“Where is the rearguard?” the leader asked.
“Look, lying by the fire,” the third said.
“Surrender,” Grant ordered the trio. “We’ll be generous if you lay down your arms.”
