War of Dragons (44 page)

"What?" Jude exclaimed loudly. "Have you gone completely mad? That's over five thousand girls to take in. Have you any idea what that would cost?"

John ignored him. "I didn't bring them back here just to let the Blues catch them again. Do you accept this offer?"

Gul laughed, all hostility having evaporated. "Do you have the authority to make this happen? This man doesn't seem to think so."

"He doesn't," Jude replied firmly. "Come on now, we've taken up enough of Gul's time."

"I have no authority of my own," John agreed. "But our laws are clear. We are obliged to take the girls in if they request a safe haven. We might not be able to join in fighting this war—not legally—but we can still play a part."

"But young man, that's over six thousand refugees!" Jude pointed out. "We've never had that many in one go. We were going to struggle with just the foreign girls."

John shrugged, caring little for Jude's objections. "The law puts no limit on how many we have to take in. But I would have thought it would be more than that. You may wish to evacuate children from all of your border towns.  After all, there's no point rescuing all these girls if we're going to let them just catch a new batch. Theo will be able to help you arrange this. All I ask is you move the girls away from the border first thing tomorrow morning. The children can accompany them if you wish and then you can forget about the problem of protecting them as well. I'd suggest moving them all to somewhere near our border perhaps. These three can manage it from there."

Gul laughed and rose to his feet. "John, I like the way you do business. You have a deal." John shook his outstretched hand before turning to Theo, who was gawping at him in amazement. He opened his mouth as if to respond, but no words came out.

"Our responsibilities are clear," John told him. "There's no point in leaving this job half done. If anything, I suspect our laws oblige us to make this offer. Either way, it's the right thing to do and it's going to happen now whether you like it or not."

"Thank you, John," Jude said coldly. "You'll be heading back in the morning, won't you?"

"No he won't!" Theo spluttered. "This is his idea; he can help implement it."

John shrugged. "I had hoped to go back to Immigration House to see my friends, but I guess one more day can't hurt."

"Are you sure you want him to stay?" Benjamin asked dubiously. "He's only been here for five minutes and he's burdened us with this huge task. I dread to think what he'll have committed us to if he has a whole day."

Theo nodded, smiling at John. "He made this mess; he can help us deal with it. I wouldn't count on it being just one day's work either. I suspect you've just given us many years of work, but we'll have to see. Go on young man, I know you haven't eaten yet, we will speak after your dinner. We have a lot of work to do."

John nodded and excused himself before leaving the tent.

"What's the joke?" Gul asked, noticing Theo's smile.

Theo shook his head. "No joke, not really. John's right, that's all. He's just a sixteen-year-old boy, and has a better sense of right and wrong than any of us. We were shying away from a difficult and trying task, but he wouldn't let us. It just struck me as amusing. Gul, please excuse us; we have a lot of work to do…."

Chapter 23 - Planning the defence

"It's bad," Lord Robert announced to his fellow members of the Council. The Commander of the Southern Armies was presenting his report, which consisted of the commanders of each of the armies, the head of military intelligence and the representatives of each of the eight noble houses. Half of the nobles were absent, as was Lord Lance, the Commander of the Northern Army. "They've begun attacking and ransacking villages to the north of Black Rock. We thought they might skip over them and come straight here, but they're being thorough. They're doing so using overwhelming numbers and are taking no chances. Our dragons don't stand a chance and are being evacuated from anywhere that can't be defended."

"As was expected," Lord Daniel stated gloomily. The Commander of the Eastern Principality had little to be joyful about since the fall of Obud. "They won't attack us here in Furnace until they have cleared the way. They can't sneak in as they did to attack us before, but they are clearly nervous of attacks from behind."

"Then you should attack them now!" Lord Oscar cried shrilly. "Rather than cowering here in Furnace, you should lead your troops on the counterattack!"

Lord Daniel regarded him with contempt, cursing the day that Prince Henry's father had elevated this fool's family to being a noble house, making him a Lord and placing him on the Council. "Cowering here in Furnace? I was in Obud when they attacked, commanding my troops. What were you doing? What support did we get from Furnace?"

"Lord Oscar, with the size of the Blue Army, a counterattack would be fatal," the Prince replied in a rather bored tone, ignoring Lord Daniel's response. "Their troops would be better used defending their capital, which is where they are."

"Along with their brave King," Oscar declared proudly. "Unlike the Princes, all holed up in the West." The rulers of the three Principalities that had been attacked had been evacuated to the Western capital in advance of the first attack.

"Not true," Prince Gerald responded quickly before Robert or Daniel could react. "I am here, am I not? I'm not ruler yet, but I'm here in my grandfather's place, along with a number of our forces."

The young Prince was popular in the Council, and was present as a guest, as technically Lord Jeremy, the Commander of the Western Army, was there in place of Prince Carl. The number of troops sent by the West was quite small, the remainder being sent to guard towns bordering the areas now held by the Blues.

"A very noble act," Prince Henry agreed, "although a few more of your troops would not go amiss. Come, Lords, tell us, what more do we know?"

"Perhaps I should answer that question, as head of military intelligence," Lord Karl replied. "Through Lord Richard, Prince Cornelius's representative in Lord Lance's absence, we've been given a clear picture of the state of the North, and it is the one ray of hope. Newcastle stands firm, having successfully survived the initial attack and the Blue Dragon Army appears to have taken very heavy losses during that defeat, and we believe it will be some time before they are able to mount a second major assault on the city. Sadly the rest of the North did not fare as well. The Blues divided their numbers, attacking Newcastle and Oldcastle simultaneously and Oldcastle fell quite quickly with substantial losses, as the North had not evacuated as many of their residents as the East or the South."

"Which perhaps explains why we in Newcastle stood firm when Obud and Black Rock fell," Lord Nicholas suggested smugly. Lord Nicholas was the head of one of the two noble houses in the Northern Principality and owned much of Newcastle, but couldn't really claim to have had anything to do with the success of the defence, having been in Furnace when the Blues attacked.

"Inept leadership helped," Lord Richard replied quickly, eager to avoid annoying the other commanders. "Lord Lance himself said that the attack was badly led by the Blues, continuing with a plan that had clearly not worked, leading to far higher losses than they needed to sustain. We had a degree of fortune not shared by Lord Robert or Lord Daniel."

"Quite," Lord Karl agreed. "As I was saying, Oldcastle has fallen and as far as we can tell, the Blues have control of all land to the east of Oldcastle and are attacking settlements close to Newcastle. They're having some success, but Lord Lance is keeping them at bay for the time being."

"The East is another matter and it is here where the Blues have concentrated their forces. Obud fell swiftly and although we were fortunate enough to evacuate all unable to fight before the invasion, and to use the tunnels under the city to evacuate those that managed to retreat from the air, we still sustained considerable losses. Considering the size of the forces lined up against us, it is very fortunate that our losses weren't much higher. Lord Daniel may have lost the city, but the Blues lost a lot of their dragons and he managed to save a large proportion of his forces."

"That'll help a lot with defending Furnace," Prince Gerald commented. "Here is where they'll be defeated, and then we'll retake Obud."

Lord Daniel nodded, smiling politely at Prince Gerald, but lacking any conviction. Losing Obud was hard for him to bear and it was even harder to see how it could be recaptured.

"The rest of the East is in the process of being overrun," Lord Karl continued. "The Blues have launched a series of attacks against villages and towns around Obud and all have fallen. My intelligence officers report that Obud itself is not being used itself, but a site to the south-east, where the Blue Dragon Army is amassing."

"That's good news," Prince Gerald said. "Obud should be easy to recapture if they're not concentrating their forces there."

"Alas, no, it is far from good news. They have only chosen another location as Obud is too small for their number. They are clearly preparing for a second wave of attacks, which, if my officers are right about their numbers, will sweep away all resistance in the Eastern Principality, clearing the way to Furnace."

"He's right," Lord Daniel admitted. "I've just come from the town of Two Rivers, near the north-east of the Eastern Principality. Thousands of dragons have fled there from all over the Eastern Principality, and a number of them have corroborated that report. I've given the order to evacuate Two Rivers; I doubt it will be safe for long. The only problem is where to send them."

"The West," Prince Gerald replied quickly. "We will take them in. You can be assured of that."

There was a brief, awkward silence as the commanders exchanged looks. "Prince Gerald," Lord Jeremy began, "perhaps this is a matter we should discuss before committing ourselves. We have no idea of the number of refugees that need accommodating and as you know, we've always had a rather strict policy regarding immigration into the west."

"Ah yes, the beauty contests," Lord Daniel commented sourly. As the safest, richest and most developed Principality, there had been a continuous flow of applicants for permission to move to the West, and that had been the case for many years. Unfortunately, the selection process had developed a reputation for selecting immigrants based on looks. A reputation, which was never denied, and appeared to have a solid foundation.

"Nonsense," Prince Gerald replied. "Normal rules are suspended during a time of war. Make it so. I will take responsibility; my grandfather will agree, I assure you."

"Are you sure about that?" Lord Jeremy asked, clearly uncomfortable with this concession. "He's always been very clear on this matter."

"All he cares about at the moment is finding his granddaughter," Prince Gerald replied. "I will have no problem convincing him that this is the right thing to do."

The Council members nodded sympathetically. "Has there been any word regarding the young princess?" Lord Daniel asked. "Or your daughter, Lord Robert?"

"Nothing other than the note Arthur left," Prince Gerald replied. "I find it hard to believe that he would let her do something so reckless, and even harder to believe that she would choose to do so."

"It's that
boy's
doing," Prince Henry added. "I never trusted him. He'll have talked her into this."

"Not according to Arthur's note," Prince Gerald replied. "She left John with little choice."

"Considering Crystal's last year, I had no reason to be surprised," Lord Robert added. "My only consolation is that she might be no better off here."

"They may be successful," Prince Gerald pointed out. "That boy is unusually resourceful. We could do with some assistance in this war."

"Well I wouldn't count on Brown Dragons," Lord Nicholas replied. "We don't know them and they don't know us. Even if they make it there, I can't see why they'll help us."

"For the time being, we will have to assume they won't be helping us," Lord Karl concluded, returning to his report. "Moving on to the South—"

"We know the situation there," Prince Henry interrupted, his irritation undisguised. "What are we going to do about it?"

Lord Karl nodded. "They outnumber us many times over. Facing them outside cities would be madness, and doing so near a city is little better. Our only hope is to try and single out smaller groups and turn the tables on them. I understand the West had a particularly successful outcome when the Blues sent a thousand dragons to attack one small town on the Western border, only to find it was defended by ten thousand.

"None escaped," Prince Gerald declared proudly. "The town's population was only a few hundred; they never expected to find so many of us waiting for them."

"Just repeat that ten thousand times and we'll win the war," Lord Nicholas sneered sarcastically.

"I'll take any victories we can get," Lord Robert said. "However small. They're slowly claiming all of our lands. Anything we can do to stop them should be considered."

"Provided we don't throw away our troops," Prince Henry argued. "We need to be able to defend Furnace when the attack comes."

"We won't throw them away," Lord Robert replied. "Lord Daniel, I suggest we try a similar tactic. We both have many troops that escaped with us; rather than spread them thinly I suggest we group them together, in sufficient numbers to wipe out the raiding parties they encounter."

"How long will that work?" Lord Thorne asked. "A day or two at most? And then you will have conceded all of your lands to them and at some point they'll work out what you're doing and send a large enough force to destroy your troops."

"We will lose those lands anyway," Lord Daniel argued. "Furnace is where we will be able to make a real stand; if we can chip away at their numbers while we retreat, that will make defending Furnace much easier."

"Yes, the plans for defending Furnace," Prince Henry began, changing he subject. "Have these changed at all?"

"Not at all," Lord Karl replied. "If the Blues thought Newcastle was difficult to attack then they will have a real surprise when they come here. We could repel an enemy twice our size here. Prince Gerald is right; here is where we'll defeat them."