In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) (26 page)

“There are two divisions of wolf riders, but they are organized differently: Spearmen (a misnomer – as with our infantry, they wield
naginata
), of whom there are ten battalions in each division; archers, who add five battalions to those ten, and a reserve force of mixed units and specialists totaling about another thousand Dwarves for each division.

“We have just two divisions outside of the infantry and the wolf riders: A division of engineers, archers and artillery officers, and the recently created Llama Riders corps.”

Maelgyn, who’d been a bit surprised at the complexity of El’Athras’ “summary,” looked a little startled at that. “I’ve heard you were experimenting with Llamas as cavalry, but a whole division?”

“The Llama Riders are still untested,” El’Athras admitted. “The Wolf Riders are our elite forces, but finding Dwarves who are strong enough and disciplined enough to be proper warriors, but still small enough to ride our wolves, makes finding sufficient numbers difficult. Our new program didn’t have the same size requirements, so it filled out quickly. It requires less skill with your mount, but I fear it will not prove to be as effective as we might have wished.

“At any rate, the Archer and Llama Rider divisions are quite similar to each other. The Archers are organized more like the Infantry, only with some battalions replaced by medical, logistic, and heavy artillery units. The Llama Riders are just like the Infantry, but they have a set of twelve battalions as their base instead, plus their specialists. They have the only mounted engineering company in the world, and that brings them to thirteen thousand strong.

“The result is that we’re actually quite a decent standing army of a little more than one hundred and twenty thousand Dwarves,” El’Athras concluded. “Which means my ‘province’ controls the largest army in Svieda right now, at least in terms of sheer numbers. Those numbers don’t tell the whole story, though, since not all of our troops are really useful in this war. I figure we have maybe sixty thousand Dwarves of any value to the Sviedan cause, at best, and all sixty thousand of them are specialty forces.”

Maelgyn nodded slowly, trying to grasp what he was told. He’d need to refer to the papers in order to recall all of that, however. “Even that is more than I expected. But how does this affect my travel plans?”

“I am assembling a force to send off to the war,” El’Athras explained. “Mar’Tok’s borders are essentially secure now. We are protected on the South by the ocean, on the North by mountains that are impassible to any not of Dwarven blood, and on the West and East by Svieda, so I judge that the infantry I must leave behind to maintain order will also be sufficient to guard our homeland here. They will also have the support of the Clan Guards, our version of your militia, who number about five thousand soldiers in total.

“With that in mind, I intend to send both divisions of Wolf Riders, the Llama Rider division, the Artillery, Engineers, and Archer’s division, and four of the specialist brigades from the infantry out to fight Sho’Curlas: Two for combat engineering and one each for logistics and medical. And I believe that Gyato also intends to send the battalion of infantry he brought with him – another twelve hundred Nekoji – with my armies, while he only takes his personal guard into Sopan. Most of his remaining forces are required to defend his homeland, but he may be able to send for another battalion of his soldiers, if you think it necessary. With that in mind, I was wondering how many of my men you want in Sopan, and where I should send the rest.”

Maelgyn raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to send a large force with me. It might be mistaken for an invasion.”

“We’ll be traveling under a flag of truce,” El’Athras reassured him. “And we’ll be very careful. So, how many of us can you use in Sopan?”

“I’m not sure,” Maelgyn said, considering. “Before I decide, I could use whatever intelligence you have about Sopan’s own forces. My last few years of education have kept me away from my duchy or even from meeting my generals firsthand.”

El’Athras frowned. “Do you need me to breakdown what’s in your own army?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, you probably know better than I,” Maelgyn grumbled. It wasn’t exactly politic to rely on El’Athras’ spies for an assessment of his own military abilities, but he really had no choice. “My father kept me away from learning much of anything about my own duchy. He believed I had ‘more important things to learn,’ first, and that I’d find out everything I needed to know when I got there. I’m aware we’ve got a significantly larger army than the other provinces. We’ve five and a half divisions of regulars, plus another division and a half of specialists. Also, the eighty ships of the Third Fleet are in ports in Sopan, and I’ve been hoping to use them to break the blockade of our major coastal ports.”

The Dwarf lord nodded. “Aye, all that’s true.”

“That said, I don’t know the breakdown of each division, I don’t know who most of my generals are. On the civilian side, I don’t know what my regent is like, and I haven’t even
met
the Baron’s Council or seen what the Senate in Sopan is like.”

El’Athras shrugged, shuffling some papers on his desk to find the right one. “As far as we know, your generals are untested. Your regent has been ruling ably in the years since the old regent retired, and your Baron’s Council is as good as any other in Svieda – it has its good leaders and its awful ones. The senators in your province are elected diplomatically every ten years, and so tend to reflect how things are going in Svieda during the period they were elected. The last election was two years ago, and things were moving along well then, so mostly they just maintain the status quo. As far as the breakdown of your armies go, well, they’re pretty standard for Svieda.”

“In other words,” Maelgyn said, “Sopan is pretty average, right?”

“Not quite,” El’Athras noted. “Sopan is the only Sviedan province which has had potential enemies on all sides, so it maintains a much more rigid state of alert and a more diverse training regimen than most. And while your generals lack experience in large campaigns, most of the Sopan standing army has seen battle at one point or another. Nothing major – skirmishes with smugglers, Merfolk mercenaries, and ‘resistance’ fighters of defeated border kingdoms who have turned brigand, for the most part – but most of the army has seen small action in that way. It won’t compare to the sheer fury of a pitch battle between roughly equal sides – which, unless I miss my guess, you have yet to experience yourself – but it has served to give them some taste of battle.”

“Well, given my lack of experience, what do
you
suggest I take with me into Sopan?” the Sword Prince asked petulantly.

“Don’t take that tone with me, boy,” El’Athras warned. “You may now, technically, rank higher than me, but I’ve got nearly two hundred years more fighting experience than you’ve had, so I’ve got the right to call it as I see it.”

Maelgyn drew back, abashed. “My apologies. I suppose that having two centuries of fighting experience would make any Human’s seem insignificant. With that in mind, for now I’ll look to you as my key military advisor. But then why ask me to make the decision? Why not make it yourself, or at the very least just give me some options to decide from?”

“Because you need to learn, somehow,” the Dwarf said, “And the best way to do that is through experience.”

Maelgyn quickly studied the papers in his hands. He discovered the true numbers of each unit in both the Dwarven and Sviedan armies broken down in even more detail than the brief “summary” El’Athras had given. In the end, he came to the conclusion that he didn’t really need any additional soldiers in Sopan. In fact, he had more there than was really needed, since the Mar’Tok and Caseificio borders were now reasonably safe. He’d thought that might be the truth even before he’d started reading the papers, but now it was confirmed.

The end result was that instead of moving new forces in, it would be his job to take Sopan’s armies to the front. It would take quite some time to organize and march them even as far as Largo, traveling overland. The sea may not be pleasant, even with the advances in navigation and ship construction the Sea Dwarves had evolved and passed down to the rest of the world, but at least traveling by sea took less time than marching over a difficult mountain pass like Mar’Tok. However, every Dwarf or Nekoji with him would increase the difficulty of shipping armies back into Svieda.

“Actually,” Maelgyn said, “I think I’d like it if you instructed most of your and Gyato’s armies to set up a rally point nearer the front lines, but which can be reached by ship. Take them east, to... to... oh! How about to a small riverfront town called ‘Rocky Run.’ My wife’s foster father is there, and possibly another military officer I wanted to meet with, as well. I suspect that, under a flag of truce and with a letter of introduction from myself and my wife, your armies could wait there for a few days while I determine how many of Sopan’s own forces can be spared to join them. Rocky Run will not be able to support the army alone, but the time your forces are waiting could be spent in building the town up as a military encampment, perhaps establishing a bridge to speed the transport of soldiers and equipment eastward. Take the time to establish supply lines, a temporary headquarters, and whatever else might be needed for when Sopan’s contribution to the war effort arrives. We probably need some time to adjust our formations to best incorporate my Human and your Dwarven armies together before sending them to the front, and that would make an excellent staging area.”

“But—” El’Athras started, though stopped when Maelgyn raised his hand.

“I need no reinforcements in Sopan, but I would nevertheless take representatives from both your and Gyato’s armies as an honor guard, and I’d like you to accompany me. Large enough to be impressive, but not so large that my people will view it as a threat before they learn of the new treaties. Say... about a score of Gyato’s infantry. From you, I think three packs of Wolf Riders, one each from the three different brigades. I’ll also want two platoons each of combat engineers, Llama Riders, and Archers. And... I think I’ll take Spearmaster Wangdu, yourself, Doctor Wodtke, my wife, and El’Ba’s son Tur’Ba as well. I’d prefer Gyato accompanied me as well, but someone needs to lead the bulk of the army – meaning the rest of his regiment and whatever you’ve determined Mar’Tok can spare – to Rocky Run, and set up camp there.”

The Dwarf grimaced. “Gyato will be displeased. He wanted to be with you when you arrive in Sopan.”

“I’ll talk to him about it. I need someone I can trust with the leadership of the main force,” Maelgyn noted, “And someone who can handle any diplomatic incidents which may occur. That leaves either him or you. Gyato’s not military, but he has been raised to rule and probably knows a thing or two about leadership and diplomacy. He’s also a Nekoji, and therefore will almost certainly have the ability to keep up with any army without additional training. I’ll take his second, the female Nekoji with him at our earlier meeting, into Sopan as his representative.”

El’Athras sighed, but nodded. “I wanted a show of strength from Gyato and myself to allow the people of Sopan to see how valuable an ally we are, but your plan has its merits. Very well, I will make the arrangements. Even with the army already mustered, it will take us a day to get everything set up, but by morning your escort should be ready to leave. I’ll have llamas prepared for you and your wife.”

“Thank you, El’Athras,” Maelgyn said, then hesitated. “May I ask you an entirely unrelated question, sir?”

“You’re my boss now – don’t call me sir,” El’Athras shot back sharply. “And of course you can ask a question. I just reserve the right not to answer.”

“Euleilla is a commoner,” the Sword Prince began, “And commoner-royal marriages, as I’m sure you’re aware from your association with Uwelain, generally aren’t very popular in Svieda. There’s a chance that, when the news gets out about our marriage, we’ll have riots in the streets.”

El’Athras raised an eyebrow. “Aye, that’s possible. My read on things is that it’s unlikely, given the current crisis with Sho’Curlas, but I wouldn’t call it an impossibility.”

“Well,” Maelgyn sighed. “How do you deal with it? I mean, you had to expect that your relationship wasn’t going to be very well liked when it comes out to the public. Euleilla and I are going to have to learn to deal with this same kind of trouble, as well. I just want to know... how do you manage to keep it from being too much of a stress on your relationship?”

“I’m still not quite sure,” the Dwarf said wistfully. “The best advice I can give is to ignore what you can, and laugh at the rest. Truth be told, you’ll have that same stress no matter who you marry or take as a lover – you’ll always have to worry about whether the public will like them or not. So what if your wife has the additional disadvantage of being born a commoner? I’m honestly not sure why that would make any difference, anyway.”

Maelgyn frowned. El’Athras made it sound so simple, but he knew better than that. If he didn’t defend himself in the court of public opinion, the chances were that his enemies would paint a picture of him to the uneducated masses that could lead to rebellion.

“I was hoping for a bit more,” he finally said.

“I can’t give you more,” the Dwarf said. “There’s no advice I can give which will be of any help to you. You’ll have to try and solve some of these issues on your own, friend Maelgyn, but I believe you are up to the task.”

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m not as convinced as you seem to be,” Maelgyn sighed. “I’m not sure if the people of my province would have given me an easy welcome even if I
wasn’t
showing up married to a commoner. I can only guess how they’ll react now.”