The Foolhardies 183 The Night Before

"Come in," I called.

I had just finished reviewing the reports sent to me by our kobold spies in the region. Things were looking dire by the second.

Varda entered the tent and strolled over to where I sat at the head of the wooden expedition table we lugged around whenever we sortied.

"You look more troubled than when I left you, Commander," she noted as she sat on the seat to my right with her feet dangling just an inch above the floor.

"War's starting early," I said before pointing to the scattered papers on the table. "The skirmishes along the borders of the Westersand desert have stopped…"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Varda asked.

I shook my head. "It means they're unnecessary now… both sides are pulling back to get ready for the big one."

Varda tapped on the table with her fingers. "How big are we talking, Commander?"

"Reports from the Council say that the Sunspire Dominion is bringing two-hundred thousand to the battlefront," I sighed.

Varda whistled appreciatively. "And how many does our Western Army have now?"

"At the moment," I checked the troop sheet on my desk, "One hundred and twenty thousand… We're expecting another forty thousand reinforcements from central so we'll probably end up at a hundred and sixty thousand, give or take…"

"That's forty thousand less… it's not a small number," Varda noted her eyes widening slightly at this revelation.

"No… it isn't," I agreed. "So… what's the word on troop count, supplies, and morale?"  

Varda rifled through the bundle of papers in her hand and pa.s.sed me the one that held squad numbers.

"Besides the fifty soldiers we left to guard Hoodwink Tower and our casualties from recent battles, all of our original five-hundred members are accounted for," Varda reported. "We've received a hundred and fifty reinforcements from the Eastern Army too… From what I gather, they're new recruits of Fort Darah."

"Vardoom and Thors should have sent a few veterans too," I reminded her.

Varda took a second to look through her notes before nodding her head. "Yes, there are a few veterans among them. Dwarven artificers and warriors from my uncle's legion."

"Good…" I nodded approvingly as I knew we needed more experienced soldiers in the unit. "Orryn was also supposed to send reinforcements…"

"Yes, the chancellor is sending fifty volunteers from the palace guards as well as another fifty magicians from the Shärleden's Magician's Guild… A hundred bodies total," Varda explained. "But they aren't here yet. I expect they'll meet us en route to the army's designated gathering grounds."

"A one-thousand-man commander who's short a thousand men, huh," I chuckled softly to myself. "Guess we'll just have to make up the difference later on…"

I tapped a spot on the map that was laid out on the table. It showed a bird's eye view of the Westersand region complete with locations for all known oasis in the desert. It even included notes on alternate routes that weren't known to conventional travelers.

This map, which was one of the three we'd received from the Pilgrimage during our trip to the Undercroft was a treasure trove of information. It would certainly prove useful later on.

"The rally point's the oasis Verania stole from us," I scowled. "They're calling it the Folkor Oasis now…"

"We'll win more oases in the war, Commander," Varda a.s.sured me. "You can name them all Dapper if you like."

The confidence in my quartermaster's voice was heartening to me especially since I was still a little worried over the story Aura told me and Luca.

"Zarz' with the unit?" I asked.

Varda looked through another piece of paper in her hands. She nodded and then said, "He's at the rear of our supply line along with the new toys you had him design for, um," she looked through her notes, "siege warfare…"

Varda raised an eyebrow at me.

"Expecting a lot of sieges in the desert, Commander?" she asked in almost joking manner.

"You'll find out soon enough, Quartermaster," I chuckled. "I a.s.sume the supply line's secure?"

As it was Varda's number one responsibility in the unit, she was all confidence when she gave me the thumbs up. "All good, Commander… we'll be stocked even if the army isn't thanks to our merchant friends."

That was rea.s.suring to hear. In a war with this many soldiers, an exclusive supply line for the unit wasn't a bad idea. At the very least, it meant we wouldn't need to rely on Garm's hand-me-downs if it came to it.

There was one other thing to discuss with Varda, and so I asked how unit morale was holding up.

"You should come see the men for yourself, boss," she answered.

"Alright, I'm due to do rounds in a bit, but before that could you send Nike, Fila, and Vans over… I need to send a few messages out tonight," I said.

"Roger, Commander," Varda said, saluting me the way fairies do here in the Fayne.

---

Later, after I'd given instructions to the three sprites to send messages to Darah, Al Sheridan, and Kallista, I went out of my tent in search of Luca.

I found my brother with his men trading stories and telling jokes while most of them were gathered around a large bonfire.

Luca's Ravagers was the oldest squad in the unit, many of them survivors of our very first campaign against Azuma. They were veterans of one major war and several battles despite being deployed almost always at the front. A gathering of humans, elves, pixies, and dwarves also made them the most diverse squad in all the Foolhardies. They were also a pretty tight-knit crew.  

The Ravagers saw me approached and welcomed me over with mugs of rock beer. Luca scooted over and made room for me on the log he'd been sitting in. And it was only then that I noticed Pike, who wasn't part of the unit, sitting on his other side.

I rolled my eyes at the pair of them, which many of the men noticed, prompting them to tease their squad leader about fraternizing with another unit.

It was very fun to watch Luca and Pike squirm under the gazes and jokes of his men, and I found the mug of rock beer in my hand was extra tasty because of it.

"Are you two even a couple yet?" I whispered into Luca's ear.

The word couple made my brother's eyes widen in obvious embarra.s.sment, and it was a while before he was able to stutter, "W-we're just friends, Dean… Jeez…"

Seeing the scowl appear on Pike's face, I was almost certain that she didn't think that was the case. Luca was such a clueless kid. Not that I was any different.

A while later, Aura came and picked me up as Varda had asked her to make sure I complete my rounds and not get stuck with just one group for the whole night.

We had tea with Aura's Mage Hand squad. And it was the first time I got to really chat with most of it members. Apart from Donar, Varda, and Ty, I didn't really know much about the rest.

Strangely enough, Ty wasn't actually with his squad, and when I asked Aura about it, she said, "He must be with Azuma right about now."

"Azuma and Ty together?" I asked as it was a very weird combination.

"Tiberius asked Azuma to train him because he wanted to do more than just be a magician… he wanted to be able to fight too.... I believe his term was Eldritch Knight?" Aura said with a shrug.

It was just like Ty to use such a gamer reference. An Eldritch Knight was a Dungeons and Dragons cla.s.s that was a mixture of fighter and wizard. As it stood, Ty was already overpowered. I wasn't sure I wanted him to become even more imbalanced than he already was.

"I've got to see this," I said smiling.

Aura and I made our way to Azuma's Immortals, all of whom were viseres who'd worked for Azuma when he was our enemy. But although there was still a little friction between their squad and the rest of the unit, we'd learned to trust them to watch our backs. They were that capable.

Azuma's second-in-command, a guy named Leeroy Junkines, informed me that his boss had gone a ways out of camp to train the chosen one.

"How far away?" I asked.

"Far enough that your friend going berserk won't endanger the camp, Commander," Leeroy explained.

With Ty and Azuma out of the picture, I spent a few more minutes toasting the Immortals good health and fortune in the upcoming war. It was the least I could do.

Aura and I spent the rest of that night checking on the rest of the squads, and it seemed they were all in high spirits.

In fact, many of the Talons were already drunk when we dropped by. It got me worried about how they were all acting more and more like Qwipps especially whenever Pike wasn't around.  

Qwipps offered me another drink which I couldn't very well refuse, and after another toast with their squad, we moved on to Ashley's s.h.i.+eld Squad.

Like Luca's troops, Ashley's squad was a diverse group of elves, humans, and satyrs. They were also the most tight-knit group in the entire unit. They had to be. After all, a single member in the unit who couldn't sync with the rest meant a weak link in Ashley's s.h.i.+eld wall, which I relied on heavily in battles.

I toasted their good health as well, and at this point, I was starting to feel a little tipsy myself. That feeling would escalate rather quickly after I toasted Xanthor's squad, Thom's squad, Thor's squad, and finally, Edo's squad.

At that point, I was on my way to pa.s.sing out and having a really good dream, but could you blame me? At sixteen, I'd only recently started to drink and fairy spirits were not for the faint of heart.

You might be wondering why the unit was even drinking while it was marching on to a new war, but that had a simple answer. Now was the only time we could drink. Tomorrow night, we would be entering Garm's territory and would need to be on our guard despite still being in Trickster land.

I gave my unit one last night off so that they could bond, drink, and be merry one more time before we got to the serious business of warmongering. I just didn't expect I'd get drunk to the point that Edo, under Aura's recommendation, had to carry me back to the command tent.

Just remembering it the very next day was embarra.s.sing. Even more embarra.s.sing was the fact that aunt Lena caught me in bed while I was nursing a hangover. To say that she was furious was an understatement.

It didn't help that Ty arrived a few minutes later to pick me up for school looking battered and bruised.

Aunt Lena sat us down and lectured the two of us on sneaking out of the house, getting drunk, and into fights in the middle of the night. If only she knew the truth. Perhaps then she'd have grounded me for life. Thankfully, she decided a month of ch.o.r.es and staying home was punishment enough.

And while she stomped off to the living room to call Ty's parents and inform them of our apparent misdemeanors, Ty and I grinned at each other like nothing was wrong.

"Um, being grounded on Mudgard doesn't actually prevent us from getting spirited away to the Fayne, right?" he asked.

"Duh," I replied, smacking him on the shoulder for good measure. "We've got a war to win."