The Foolhardies 184 A Perfect Plan

The two armies were gathered on opposite sides of a wide stretch of desert spanning miles apart. And although we were far away from each other, both armies could see the horizon beyond was tinged with the color of our enemies.

"So that's what a line of two hundred thousand soldiers looks like," Luca noted.

"Yep," I agreed. "Don't chicken out now, Luca…"

"As if," he countered. "Don't go dying on us when you meet Garm, Dean."

"As if," I fired back at him.

We b.u.mped fists afterward.  

I left Luca and Aura in charge of the unit while Varda, myself, Jensen, and a few aides made our way to the rear of the army where a command post had been set up in the place now called Folkor Oasis.

"You have to hand it to Garm… he really knows his way around fortifying a fairy fort," I whistled.

Varda nodded wordlessly.

I couldn't blame her because one couldn't look at the sight before us and not feel like it had just taken your breath away.

The low hill whose southern slope my team and I had once climbed all the way to the top was now a well-defended position with layers upon layers of twelve-foot walls that crisscrossed around the hillside. Each wall had a gate placed in positions that were at nearly opposite ends of the gate before them. Twenty-foot towers with mounted trebuchets rose near each gate and at other locations along the walls.

Gazing up at it from below the hill, I couldn't help but recall an image of the white city of Gondor that I'd seen in the cla.s.sic Lord of the Rings trilogy.

"It's Minas Tirith," I whispered.

"What was that, Commander?" Varda asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing… Let's get this over with."

We joined the line of soldiers making their way through the first gate, and it would be much, much later when we'd finally reached Garm's command tent on the hilltop. It was just outside the circle of stones that marked the entrance of the mana pool's garden.

I noticed the heavily armed guards that barred the way into the circle stones, and thought that Garm had that place locked tight. It was the right thing to do as mana pools were obvious temptations even for the most loyal of soldiers.

Guarding the outside of Garm's tent was the bearded dark-skinned satyr who'd given me att.i.tude at the entrance to Jester's Court many months ago.

"Yo, One-Hundred-Man Commander," I said in greeting. "It's been a while."

The satyr's eyes widened with recognition when he saw me. He scowled at first, but after noticing the s.h.i.+ny new officer's badge pinned to my chest, he begrudgingly gave me a salute.

"Ah… I see you haven't changed, One-Hundred-Man Commander," I said with emphasis on his rank. And it was only after I was done taunting him that I decided to acknowledge his salute. "I'm here to report to Great General Garm."

"Apologies, Commander," he said in a high-and-might tone that suggested he wasn't at all apologetic that he was barring my way again. "But Lord Garm is busy with his generals at the moment. I will let him know that you dropped by."

If the rest of Garm's officers were as pompous as this b.a.s.t.a.r.d, then I at least knew what to expect. It was going to be a real challenge working with these kinds of people.

"I'm here for the meeting…" I pointed a thumb at my chest. "I've been a.s.signed as one of the army's strategists."

Disbelief flashed across the face of the stubborn satyr, but his eyes darted down to my officer's badge, the round bronze s.h.i.+eld that was proof of my promotion, and sighed as if he couldn't believe my meteoric rise along the ranks.

The honest truth, I didn't quite believe it myself. Nevertheless, I stood my ground and waited for his brain to calculate the odds of denying me entry as opposed to just giving in.

It happened sooner rather than later, and it was with an obviously heavy heart when he stood aside to let me pa.s.s.

"Wait here, Varda," I said before stepping forward. "I'll be back."

"Way to think positive, Commander," Varda encouraged.

Her remark reminded me that Garm had tried to kill me once already, and without Grimthorn watching my back now, there was a chance that I wasn't coming out of that tent on my own power.

I sighed, and then pulled the tent flap open so I could walk in.

"Excuse me, Great General," I called as I stepped into the interior of the tent and sent its inhabitants a proper salute. "One-Thousand-Man Commander Dapper reporting for duty!"

There were three of them gathered around a wooden expedition table that was quite similar to mine. Garm was the biggest of the trio but the other two seemed cut from the same cloth.

The fairy on Garm's left was female. She was a dryad who seemed to have been cut out of an ancient redwood. She was that tall although she wasn't as thick as the other two.

The fairy on Garm's right was a friendly, and I don't mind admitting I was glad seeing him there. It was General Redbull.

Redbull was the only one who returned my salute. He welcomed me into the tent without a care for the scowl his boss had just given him.

Garm crossed his thick arms over his barrel-like chest before turning his icy stare on me.

"If it isn't Darah's little spy come to spy on us, my friends," Garm scowled.

Despite the enormous pressure sent my way, I held my ground. I knew better than to try and run when facing off against a wild beast or three.

Redbull guffawed rather loudly, earning him a raised eyebrow from both Garm and their dryad companion.

"I'd use him even if he was here to spy on you, Lord Garm," Redbull said unabashedly. "The boy's got a good head on his shoulders. I've seen it first-hand."

"I'd prefer if the head was no longer attached to the shoulders, Redbull," Garm said in what was obviously an open threat at my life. Then he bristled visibly. "But I don't need Darah giving me flak for it… so let's see just how capable this runt is."

Garm nodded to the dryad and she stretched out the map they'd been pouring over when we arrived.

"Come here, One-Thousand-Man Commander," the dryad called while beckoning me over with a green-nailed finger.

I walked over to the table and took my place at the opposite end of where Garm sat which I judged was just out of reach for the greatsword hanging on its rack behind him.

"I am General Llewellyn, chief strategist for the western army," she said, pointing to herself and then the map on the table. "What you see before you is the theatre of war for this current campaign."

I glanced down at the map and nodded.

"As you know, this desert is fraught with peril and it can only be navigated by making use of the oases scattered in the region…" She pointed to several spots on the map. "There are a total of ten oases between us and the Sunspire Dominion's army."

My eyes searched General Llewellyn's face, and unlike her boss, I found no hostility there. Only a genuine curiosity for what I might say. That was a relief as she might actually pay attention to what I had to say instead of dismissing me off-hand the way Garm already has.

I spent a few moments acting like I was observing the map although I didn't need to as the Pilgrimage's map was much more detailed. In fact, I knew that there an eleventh oasis in this region, one to the southwest that had been hidden by a powerful illusion courtesy of the Pilgrimage.

Of course, I kept this information to myself.

No, I only pretended to look at the map while my eyes darted across the table toward the other doc.u.ments lying around. I saw only a few and none of them were of any significant note.

"Well?" Garm called from across the table. "What does the new strategist think?"

"It would have been nice if there was a large central hill here," I pointed at the very center of the map. "That would have made this battle much easier."

"There is no point in thinking about what isn't there," General Llewellyn chided. "Think only of making use of what is there."

I knew that. In fact, I already had a plan in mind, but it would require fracturing the army, and I said as much.

This caught everyone's attention, and I suspected this was something they were also considering.

"Why make ourselves smaller when we're already facing a much larger army?" Llewellyn asked.

I pointed my finger on the spot that marked the dominion's forces and traced an eastward path through the desert.

"There's no way such a large army can manage to cross this desert properly," I noted. "It would be different if we were fighting on the plains but not only is sand hard to march on, but the Westersand Desert is notorious for its sinkholes."

Garm scowled, Redbull guffawed, and Llewellyn just urged me to continue.

"Neither side will win if we march blindly toward the center… the best plan is to split into smaller units and secure the oases between us and them," I said pointing back at the locations she had pointed to earlier. "It should be half and half, I think."

"Half and half?" Redbull asked.

"At least half the army will split up into smaller units to quickly claim the oases on our side of the battlefield," I pointed to the four oases closest to us. They were positioned to our north and south, two to each side. "The other half should quickly advance toward these oases on the western end…"

I pointed to four oases closest to the enemy's position. They were also positioned to the north and south of the Dominion's army and were also two to each side.

"If we manage to secure these eight oases before they do, then we'll effectively have them trapped in a cage of our making," I reasoned. "We'd be able to attack them from the front and back this way."

"The boy recommended the same thing you did, Llewellyn," Redbull guffawed. "But you didn't think to suggest that last part."  

"Because it would be difficult to claim those western oases under desert conditions," Llewellyn explained. "And the enemy is no doubt thinking of a similar strategy of securing their side first."

I nodded in agreement.

"Sure… but we can at least trick them into thinking we managed to take the furthest most oases," I pointed at the two oases closest to the enemy. "This will force them to spend time to try and reclaim these spots while we secure our actual targets…"

I pointed toward the two oases right after the first two.

"If we have these two then it'll mean the enemy will have a difficult time advancing forward even if they deploy a similar tactic to ours… they'll be forced to try and reclaim their side first which will most likely open up the center, giving us another path forward," I finished.

"It would be a perfect plan if it was doable..." Llewellyn noted. But how would we manage to send a unit that quickly across the desert?"

"It can't be done," Garm interrupted. He leaned toward the table and glared at me. "There's no point suggesting a plan that can't work, human."

I thought it was ironic that he ridiculed me for being human when he was half-human himself.

Still, I enjoyed shaking my head at him and point out that he wasn't entirely correct.

"I've got an idea for that, general," I said grinning.