Throughout the initial phase of the Bebman-Eregnor conflict, I had been posing as a mercenary captain, with one of my student magi – now an adept in her own right – acting as my Lieutenant. Much of what I did with my forces was military, though I did use my ravens for reconnaissance and the occasional targeting of some spells. I claimed to be independent, working for both sides, but at a crucial moment, I switched sides, from Begma to Eregnor, helping to win the war and gain their independence. Then of course I claimed I had always been on their side the whole time.
Meanwhile, under the guise of having to meet with employers and negotiate terms, I frequently got away from my troops, leaving my second in command in charge... showing up as ‘Myself’, Mordred of Rebma, junior diplomatic negotiator under Florimel of Amber, trying to help find a way to resolve the situation peacefully. I had placed two of my other students openly, working as War-Magi the whole time directly under Benedict, using many of the spells I had first created during the Corraline campaign.
Once Eregnor was independent, it was Florimel, at whose behest I was acting as mercenary in the first place, who told me that Benedict needed me for the second phase – taking Eregnor’s independence away from them again. I ‘retired’ from the Mercenaries, giving them over to a trusted subordinate, leaving him my erstwhile ‘second-in-command’ to assist him in the transition period for a few months. As far as my once-time troops knew, I was now somewhere far away, counting my money.
So, Amber was waging war on Eregnor. The main phase of combat was now over, but there was still a very strong resistance in the cities. They were fighting an unconventional war, and the resistance forces seemed unwilling to surrender - not surprising, as they just fought a war for independence and were understandably reluctant to give up what they had won at such cost. All attempts to infiltrate the resistance had failed, and the Queen had called upon me for assistance.
I had been assigned the task of tracking down the head of the resistance and exterminating them. The best way appeared to be a single strike against the leaders of the main cell, while they were meeting. My track record, familiarity with Eregnor (from both my diplomatic and mercenary activities), as well as my 'special' abilities made me ‘perfect’ for the job, according to Florimel. After almost a month of work, I had identified a few people who were most likely to be the ringleaders of the resistance. I also was pretty positive that I had located their base of operations. It was thought that they had stockpiles of weapons, including a few of Guild design, there.
Dara had left the operation in my hands, and then assigned a military unit under the command of Prince Brennus to aid in the assault. Brennus apparently fought very well in the war, and his unit was one of the most effective on the field. It was widely thought that he would be the one to take control of Eregnor once the city was captured. While our previous interactions left me with a great reluctance to deal with him in such close proximity, I was told that he was actually well suited for this type of operation, and – more importantly – that it was non-negotiable with the Queen.
I was in charge of the operation, but had no military rank for the duration, being ‘outside’ the armed forces this time. Brennus would be in charge of the soldiers. It made for a tense and potentially explosive situation. I could pull rank, but it wouldn't be a politically wise move to pull too much of it. Brennus had much more ‘pull’ outside of this operation, being of the nobility. Further if the mission failed, since I was in charge and Brennus effectively outside of the range of censure, I would probably be blamed, not him. I was not going to be delegating command of this to him, or anyone. My blade would be applied as thoroughly as my spells.
There were three figures who needed to be killed or taken captive. The Queen had little preference, but clearly alive was better for intelligence purposes. Two of them were men, one a woman. I did not know their names, but had seen them through the eyes of my ravens. They were all quite fanatical and it was a very safe assumption in my opinion that they would rather die than talk. In which case, dead might even be preferable to alive, as it was possible I might be able to work magic upon their corpses, in order to get information this way.
The base of the Resistance was in the basement of a large office building, formerly the Ministry of Agriculture. It was placed in the midst of a hotly contested area of the city. Any large force moving towards it would suffer serious casualties or worse, as the resistance apparently had access to explosives. The assault would need to be quick and efficient, as they were known to have escape routes. The few previous attempts to capture the leaders had been utter failures, as the leaders seemed to have an almost supernatural knack for getting away. The resistance within the base was expected to be relatively light, perhaps 20-30 fighters.
I had worked all it out previously – and it had taken some doing, particularly the magical requirements. There were so many factors to take into consideration…
The 'I belong' spell was easier to cast and harder for them to resist; 'you don't see me' was harder to cast and easier to resist. On the other hand, "you don't see me" would get us past a lot more barriers than "I belong". "you don't see me" was a much more powerful spell. If a guard didn’t want to let anybody by, or just a very select list, then "I belong" wouldn’t do us much good, while "you don't see me" might. I was really going to have to come up with some decent names for these spells sooner or later. It was something I was terrible at, tending to stick to short descriptive phrases for Spell Identifiers. My students had each made up their own over the years, but the need for codification and standardization was now there, with the newer students coming up and getting ready to start casting these spells on their own at the Academy.
As for how many I could cover, less than 5 would be easy; 5-10 would take a bit of work (and essence); 10-20 a lot of work (and essence); 20-50 a huge amount of work (and essence); and any more than that – I’d have to think seriously about sacrificing an eye for the cause… Since a troop of 50 Amber soldiers going through resistance territory would be noticed, even if they managed to survive the trip, everyone would have known about their movements far in advance.
One good point was that I would be able to cast all of the spells while maintaining my connection with the ravens, so long as I cast the longer and more complex version of the raven spell. Location was also an issue. It was a good hike through resistance controlled areas to get to the base. I could cast the spells through the Ravens, from afar, but I preferred to put a bit more essence into each of the spells and cast them ahead of time, so they’d last for the 5-6 hours I deemed sufficient to cover the time needed to complete the mission.
I would be using a fair bit of essence to cast these spells – and it could not be all my own, for I’d be too tired for the mission after a day of blood letting and spell casting. Thus I would be using stored essences and some gathered essences. For the slow-acting confusion spell, from a point as close to liberated territory as possible, I’d be casting through my ravens to pinpoint it better. I would not cast anything using my own essence until and unless I needed to - within the building itself. I was still still reserving the darkness spell as an ace in the hole. It would only take me about an hour, as it was not as hard as the ‘confusion spell’ – which would only affect the resistance fighters; so I’d be working on people instead of the environment.
Still, all Brennus really had to do was to show up and do as I told him, when and where I told him – and provide the cannon fodder. For in reality, I’d be greatly surprised if anyone but ourselves survived going into this building…
A strategy planning meeting was called, for myself and Brennus - nobody else was expected. Benedict wanted this mission to be top secret and didn’t want anybody who couldn’t be trusted 100% to be even aware of it. I had gathered that this meeting might have been hastily announced to Brennus, so that others wouldn't be able to arrange any eavesdropping. This made me think about the trustworthiness of those under him, but then I had met one example of his people at Corraline and not been terribly impressed.
The rising sun had not yet caused Eregnor to reach the scorching heats that had dominated it of late. The base of operations for the Royal Army of Amber was already buzzing with activity. The former Congress Building of Eregnor, which was formerly the meeting house of the city when it was controlled by Begma, was located in a well defended and controlled portion of the capital. I was in the building early that day, getting my materials ready, waiting for word that Brennus had arrived and gone to the room where we were meeting. A few minutes after he did so, I followed.
I entered the small room on the second floor where the meeting was to take place, seeing that the curtains were drawn. No guard stood watch outside the door, though the building always had a unit on patrol immediately outside. The room was lit by a large brass lantern, rather than sunlight, and there was a smell of dog hair in the room. Brennus was there, dressed in black and red – once the colors of the dead King Eric, now those of his regiment; black cloak, black trousers with red trim, and a black tunic with a design embroidered on the right breast.
These were the colors he had chosen. When asked in the past, he had been heard to explain that black was for his father Corwin, red for himself, but no more information was forthcoming. His clothes were, as usual, of good quality - but showed signs of wear and tear; his only real ornament was the clasp of his cloak, fashioned in the form of a domino mask done in black and red. He had unclipped his cavalry saber and positioned it point down, leaning it upright between his legs so it would be easily reached. He’d taken a seat, planting his booted feet wide so that he was sprawled into the chair with head thrown back upon the headrest, his hands clasping the ends of the arm rests. His eyes were closed, but I knew he’d heard me come in.
Wondering idly what exactly he was trying to convey with this ‘pose’, I nevertheless played along; I stopped, cleared my throat slightly to announce myself, and said...
"Greetings, Prince."
Brennus opened his eyes. As he sat up he took his saber in his left hand, grasping it by the scabbard just below the hilt. I suppose this was meant to inform me that he was now prepared to draw his blade and attack me at a moment’s notice. Ignoring it, I waited. He demonstrated his lack of surprise at seeing me, smiling and then nodding before standing up and responding. Thus far he was as transparent as he had been a few decades ago. I could only hope he was a better military commander than he was at subterfuge.
"My greetings to you Magus... Are we early, or is everyone else late do you think?"
"It is just us, to the best of my knowledge."
Brennus raised an eyebrow. No doubt signifying ‘something’ – I missed it. At least he listened, as I stepped a bit further into the room, remained standing, looked about the room idly and asked...
"How many do you think you can bring to this effort in the way of people?"
He ignored my question, for one of his own.
"Interesting, I think I may have been misinformed - or perhaps I misunderstood. I was expecting an intelligence officer to be here to brief me, us. That wouldn't be you by any chance would it?"
At this point he chose to… perhaps ‘register a complaint’? At least that is what I think he was trying to do. Either that or he was indulging in some sort of petty one-upmanship that I had no interest in… He re-clipped the saber to his weapons belt and glanced at me as he did so – no doubt signifying something. His continued readiness for combat? Well at least his posturing was a tad more subtle than it had been at Corraline. He wasn’t standing with his feet braced, his arms on his hips akimbo and his cloak flung back – bah – it sounded like one of those dreadful romance novels… He continued, finally answering me.
"As to your question, I have a regiment of cavalry at my command, they are available as per Benedict's orders."
That would be worse than useless. Cavalry? They’d not make it halfway to the site before getting blown off their horses. I needed my mercenaries, maybe some sneak thieves or intelligence agents, spies and assassins, elite hit-squads. I did not need a troop of inbred nobles who were most likely unwilling to get their expensive hand-tooled riding boots dirty. This was not looking good. Still, it was as it was. I continued the conversation for form’s sake, if nothing else…
"I am possessed of what Intelligence we do have. Though spotty, it is the best we can get for now. As to your cavalry, i do not think that their mounts will be of much use in this operation. How good are they at this sort of thing - that being going into an enemy stronghold in disguise, acting as members of that force and fitting in while getting as close to the center as possible, and then striking through anything and anyone in their way to get the leaders before they can be warned and escape?"
Brennus grinned.
"Given those criteria, not very, but my men are good soldiers, veterans to a man and loyal. Given the type of operation you mention I can call upon as many or as few men as you wish from my own or other units... Perhaps a mixed group might suit, infiltrators to gain access and a group of heavier assault troops as back up in case things get hairy."
He paused for a second, thinking before he continued, as a faint spark of hope returned to my gloom-filled outlook – he almost sounded intelligent...
"How secure is the planning of this operation, you'll obviously be aware of the rumours of spies in our forces? Who else will be privy to the details?"
I answered his somewhat strung-together questions in turn, at the same time throwing him a bone, so to speak, saying…
"I'll leave the choice of who to pick and how many of which kind up to you. You'll know your people far better than myself. We'll hash out a plan between us and then you can decide based upon what we have."
I grinned a bit in turn, then continued...
"As to who knows about this, there is you, myself, and Benedict, that I know of... well and of course the Queen. Other than that, unless you have spoken to others or heard from them regarding this, there is nobody."
I let me own expression get more serious, aware that I must be very clear with this one – he’d not be picking up subtle un-spoken clues like Caine or Florimel might....
"One thing - this happens tomorrow night, so we must be quick and we must make sure we get it right the first time. No second chances on this, and it is a big one."
I waited for Brennus to process the information and respond, with any questions he might have, before beginning the briefing I had prepared. Brennus nodded and smiled, then looked over at two of the chairs in the room. My guess must have been the right one – throw him a bone, smile a bit, and he was happy – a bit like a dog. Hadn’t I had the same thought decades ago at Corraline? Oh yeas – and his pack of inbred lapdog nobles following him. It was all coming back now. He spoke…
"Shall we sit, might as well go for what comfort we can, especially if there are a lot of details to be sorted out. I do have some questions, mainly relating to simple matters such as the enemy's location, their numbers and so on, but I'll save those until afterward if you have no objection since you may well answer some or all of them during the briefing."
Again, almost a sense of reason and… sense. Perhaps he was just the sort that took a very long time to mature and was just now beginning to grow into the promise of his breeding. I nodded my agreement, went and sat down across from him, and began...
"I have some old blueprints of the building, where the resistance leaders are meeting. There are probably some changes that I do not know about however, which have been made since then. I am pretty confident that I have managed to figure out the room where they should be centered in – though of course I could be wrong. I’ have found only a few of their bolt-holes - they are amazingly good at hiding their secret routes. I am sure there are escape hatches that I do not know about. I cannot say where they might be on this floor-plan, though I do have a few educated guesses about where they may have dug tunnels – where they might lead to is another question entirely. The resistance is operating with an amazing strategic ability it seems. Especially as it concerns escaping and sneak attacks.
"The building is probably not fully occupied, as much of it appears to be abandoned. Also, there have not been enough people entering it to fill it fully or to properly guard the entire structure. This gives us the possibility of infiltration – something I’ll get to in a moment – and keeping some of our forces in those less inhabited sections. The room I suspect the meeting to be in is quite large, as it was formerly an archive, and I can almost guarantee they will have a tunnel in the far corner of the room for escape purposes. There is a long corridor, with guards stationed outside the room and along the corridor. This corridor is the real hindrance tour plan, as it is long enough so that the guards can give a shout and let the people in the room get away in plenty of time.
"It is imperative that we find a way to eliminate all three of these leaders, and we’d love to have their bodies to display later to the rebels as proof of their deaths, so no tales of their miraculous escape and survival sprout up to boost resistance morale. My resources have lost the resistance leaders before, once they were out in the city proper. They have numerous underground passages and will often travel from building to building. Further, the area where the base is located is not firmly under our control, and any units moving through there is very likely to come under attack. If they escape the base, it is a good bet we will not catch them anytime soon."
I looked up, aware I’d given him a lot to think about, then asked...
"Any questions so far?"
Brennus shook his head, saying...
"Not just now, as I said I'll leave questions for the end. Please continue."
Was he trying to imply I hadn’t heard him, or that I was willfully ignoring his earlier words by this reminder? Ah well – if he thought he could ingest it all at one go, then that is what he’d get. Nodding once again, I continued...
“Now, as to the possibility of disguise and infiltration… The rebels seem very good at identifying spies, which is one of our many obstacles in this. I can cast a short term effect that will give a very small number of people the aura of 'You know me, but don't know my name, - I belong here'. This will not work to get them past a very tightly guarded check-point, where only a tiny subset is allowed in, but would get those people into the base probably. I would of course need a bit of physical material from each of those involved in the spell… a snip of hair, nail paring, drop or two of blood, etc. Though this is not what powers the spell – that comes from me – it is necessary for the target of the spell to be ‘identified magically’ to the spell workings, else they will not be affected.
“I am considering a more complicated spell in addition to this, for an even smaller group – possibly the two of us alone… This would project a different sort of an aura, one that said, ‘I am not really here, not important, look somewhere else’. This might give us the edge we need to get along that corridor and into that Chamber, particularly if there is some sort of a minor distraction in the outer chambers at the time…
“All of those who go in will be bestowed as well with a ‘see/think clearly’ spell, ahead of time, as – just before we enter, I’ll cast my final spell, the one that slowly and increasingly distracts and confuses those within. It should be barely noticeable at first, taking as much as two hours to achieve its full effects, but by the time we get deeper in it will be stronger and should aid in our attempt to infiltrate the central chamber through that long and guarded hallway."
Mostly just to see if it would annoy him, I paused again, asking...
"Observations or recommendations?"
Brennus frowned slightly. Perhaps he was having second thoughts about his earlier statement…
"Well, you've answered one of my questions already, whether you'd be coming along. I'm going to back track on myself by asking a couple of questions before you finish."
Brennus paused, collecting his thoughts. I sighed inwardly and again prayed to the Unicorn above that this not be the one picked to head this land after we won it. He’d lose it again within months. But soft – here came his questions…
"Firstly, you say you can cast your spell of... 'recognition' for want of a better description, on a small group, how small a group, or rather what is the upper limit? Secondly, given my original suggestion of a backup assault force and the rebels' ability to spot intruders, how feasible is it that such a force could get into the general area unobserved, let's assume fifty men for the sake of argument? I'm thinking we may have to go in without back up."
Sheer genius on his part to realize this finally! My annoyance was getting perilously close to anger. Realizing this, I stopped myself. I was going to have to work with him and if I was already making sarcastic comments about him within the first five minutes, things would go downhill. Giving myself a mental shake, I resolved to make a better effort and be very, very clear with him. Much rode on this, and I stood to suffer far more than he if things went awry…
"I can cast the spell upon 50 soldiers, but it would be quite noticeable for a troop of fifty to be traveling through this area. 20 is a much easier to handle number. I think we could have some of your troops posted further outside the area, with one of my people as a liaison, to pull them in once we have begun. If they were mounted, and had sufficient force, it would be feasible, but extremely costly in life.
"The base of the Resistance is in the basement of a large office building, formerly the Ministry of Agriculture. It is placed in the midst of a hotly contested area of the city. Any large force moving towards it would suffer serious casualties or worse, as the resistance apparently has access to explosives. The numbers we will have to deal with inside of the base is expected to be relatively light however, perhaps 20-30 fighters.
"What do you think?"
That was the right tack. Bring him into things a bit, make him feel a part of the planning, though I had everything already pretty well mapped out. Rather than get annoyed at him, I needed to play him, so he’d do exactly as I wished. I had not time or leisure for doubts about his capabilities right now.
"I think I'd best hear everything before I make any comments or suggestions. Please continue through to the end."
Yes. Some part of him understood, even if he’d never admit it, that I was in command here and dictating events, while he was merely my hand, the instrument I used to implement my plan. I gave it all to him, in the short and simple form…
"Very well. Scenario one, is that we all gain access, and mingle with those in the outer chambers, dicing, eating and drinking and so on, and then, after an hour or so, a few of us attempt to gain access to the inner chamber. The guards of course will turn away those who are only covered by the ‘I belong here’ spell, but you and I, covered by the more effective one, should be able to slip by. Once we have done so, our troops outside should cause some sort of a commotion – nothing major, perhaps a squabble over cheating at dice, but sufficient to further distract the hallway’s guardians. Hopefully this will enable us to get as close as possible to the chamber itself.
“At some point, the spell covering you and I will no longer be able to hold up, or those within might realize they are being affected by my slow-effect spell and try to escape. After this, it becomes an all-out rush, with you and I breaking into the meeting, and our troops following us along the hallway, hopefully drawing those guards off our backs. From then on it is self-evident what we are to do.
“However, should this not work, and we deem it to be necessary for us to gain an additional advantage, I can do a bit more once within to hedge our bets…
“I will only have time to cast one spell, one of darkness that is as tightly focused on the hallway and central chamber as possible. This would be our cue to rush in, as our ‘see/think clearly’ spells will protect us from this as well. It will take about an hour, and would be very difficult to pull off, as I need to be somewhere unobserved by the enemy for that entire time. There are abandoned rooms, and we could possibly act as if we were all exhausted and merely seeking an unoccupied room to sleep in or something like that…
“Even so, we’ll need some distractions – perhaps two teams – the sleepers and the gamers? One crew goes with me to find a place where I can cast me spell, hopefully keeping it under wraps, while the other goes with you to mingle with the general guards and start up a dice game or hand out food and drink they have ‘liberated’ from the oppressors or some such. Meanwhile, my slow-acting spell should be working on them.
“Suppose, a few moments before I have completed the casting of the spell, one of those with me lets you know of this, and you get as close to the guards as you can. When the darkness falls, you and yours rush in, making straight for the central chamber. I and those still with me will follow as soon as we can, causing as much mayhem in the outer rooms as possible as we go through, though I will make joining you at the point my first priority. Since, by this time those within should not only be confused, but blinded, I think we can achieve this goal, even if we have to follow them down their escape holes a ways.
“Regardless of which of these scenarios we use, one thing remains unchanged. Our entire goal must be to get into that central chamber and eliminate the leaders before they can escape. The Queen has said she wants them dead or alive, but has made very little of the distinction."
Brennus listened in silence, intent on my words. As I finished he nodded and pursed his lips.
"Very well, I will summarize my perception of the information you have given me in a moment if I may, just to be sure I haven't missed anything. Before that however, a question. How do we get out? We will have what, ten, twenty men? We'll have killed the rebel leaders, hopefully, but the entire rebel force will be on our backs. Even with a coordinated attack from outside to distract them I can't see how we'll get our men out alive. Have you an escape route planned for instance?"
"I have a few thoughts, yes - but would more than welcome whatever ideas you might have..."
Brennus smiled and nodded. Then, sitting back he looked at me appraisingly- almost as if he meant for me to think he was judging me or confirming an opinion of me. I wondered where he’d seen that done and by who. It must have been effective, having an impact upon him, for him to try it on me…
“I’ve heard some great things about your doings over the last few decades master Mordred, and it is apparent that your skills are held in high regard by the crown... It has been how long since Corraline? Fifty, sixty years Amber time? Well, I just wanted to let you know that I have no axe to grind in this operation and a failure in this mission is not something I’m interested in. I'm sure you'll be of similar mind in that regard - it certainly isn’t the time or place to let personal feelings get in the way, especially feelings from half a century ago.”
He paused here, watching my reaction. Hmm. I guess he hadn’t been able to tell from my completely business-like manner and the total absence of any sort of ‘personal’ tone whatsoever that I was already acting upon that assumption – that bygones had no place here. Not that I’d really changed my opinion of him much, but this needed doing, and he was the tool I’d been given to do it with. Still, since he was fishing, I’d bite. Else, we’d never get the thing done. I simply nodded, my expression grave for his benefit, indicating I understood the gravity of what he was saying and how important it was, and said...
"Agreed."
“With that said, perhaps I should summarize what I believe I’ve heard? Briefly then. Our mission is to penetrate territory held by the rebels and kill or capture the leaders of the revolt, who are to attend a meeting there tomorrow. The said territory is defended with the aid of Guild weaponry including explosives which has been used to devastating effect on Amber’s forces already. Once within the rebel zone we will then enter a defunct government building, for which we have out of date plans, have no definite information on where the meeting of the leaders is to take place, or on where any guards may be stationed, other than a possible final guard in a corridor outside the room where the meeting may be held. Again we have no information on where any lookout positions might be, any signallers, or of the location or size of possible rebel forces that could be called in support once our assault begins. We have no confirmed figure for the number of defenders that will be in the building itself, although you postulate a defence force of twenty to thirty rebels. We on the other hand can effectively take in a maximum of twenty men, although we will have the advantage of disguise provided by your own arcane means, which will, or should, allow us to enter without coming under attack. Am I correct so far, if I’m off beam in any way please let me know?”
To his somewhat pessimistic reprisal of the situation, I replied...
"In essence, you are correct, though a month of undercover and intelligence work has made me relatively confident that we can upgrade most of those 'no idea's' to the status of 'a pretty good idea'. As I said before, I do have a few ideas as to backup and escape, but I would be interested in hearing what your take on the matter is..."
Brennus nodded in turn, saying...
"I had no intention of disparaging your intelligence efforts; I am merely stating things as I see them at present. My take on things is generally along purely military lines."
He paused here. At first I thought he wanted me to pat him on the back and tell him how wonderful I’d heard he was in military matters, but then he glanced at me sidelong and smiled. Was he trying to charm me? Indicating that a month of effort on my part – and that of Benedict as well, mind you – had resulted in something that wasn’t really up to par ‘along purely military lines’ was not the way to go about it, if so. He continued…
"I am playing devil's advocate you understand, if you'd feel better about it exchange 'we' for 'I'. As in '...I have no real information...' and so on. But, as I was saying taking a purely military approach, I would generally eliminate enemy lines of communication as a first objective, secondly, remove any guards on the periphery covertly, each man killed is one less to worry about after all, and then launch an assault on the primary objective. That's in a typical situation, in this one we have access to your magical abilities which will provide an excellent means of entry and of confustication. My real concerned is that I don't know enough about the building's layout and troop positions etcetera."
I very carefully let no sign of the huge inner sigh – my second in almost as many minutes – show. He had not been listening. Very well, I’d spell it out more clearly…
"Understood. Unless they have some Guild device capable of providing such, there is no means of communication into or out of the building other than a runner. To the best of my knowledge, there are no peripheral guards - none outside of the building itself. There are - again to my best estimation - as many as 30 likely to be inside. A few outside the meeting chamber, more in the hallway leading to the chamber, and the rest in the more common area closer to the entrance to the building."
As I mentioned each area, I made a point of clearly indicating their location upon the blueprints. Continuing…
"We cannot eliminate any of this general group within the building, without alerting the others, unless - once inside - we are able to lure a few of them off and deal with them. Still, we must be wary of setting off any alarm. As soon as an alarm is raised, the leaders will be gone. Our foremost goal must be to get as close to them as possible, by any means necessary, before they know of it.
"Regarding knowledge of the interior and the troops, I know they have not had any large-scale machinery in there, so modification will be minor - other than escape tunnels which are underground. Exact placement of troops - well this is why I wish to get us inside surreptitiously, so we can do some sort of reconnaissance in person and alter our plans accordingly."
I paused for a moment, and then continued in a sober tone. It was time for him to realize how serious this really was…
"You speak of getting our men out alive. I am not sure we can guarantee this. The mission we are discussing is the Queen and Benedict's final attempt, after trying everything else. We are going to have to go in, semi-blind, to what may be a disadvantageous position, and do what must be done. If we have 20 plus ourselves, and they have 30 plus their leaders, I believe it can be done - albeit with heavy losses on both sides - these are fanatics. I am confident I can take care of at least three of them, I will assume any of the men you pick are at least as good as 1 and a half of the enemy, and - though i have never seen you wield your blade - I doubt you'd have gotten as far as you have without having some reasonable ability with it."
“I can cast my ‘mistaken identity’ spell upon another score of soldiers, who can begin to filter towards the site once the time draws closer to our moment of attack. Any more than this, and any sooner than just before we make our move, and I am afraid we’ll alert the locals. They’d have to come in twos and threes… They can be signaled when we do attack, and then rush from their places outside the building and in the near vicinity to back us up.”
“We can have a division of your cavalry stationed further outside the boundaries, perhaps very obviously making a patrol, as if it were intended to be a show of force to intimidate the local resistance fighters. This may draw some at least of the enemy outwards from the center, to observe, or guard against a foray, or even just to throw things and make taunts. If it looks like we need the help, they can be signaled to make a stab inwards towards the central meeting, drawing still more of the enemy onto them. This would need to be a feint, or they’d be slaughtered, of course, but still it must look as if it is real, so they’ll have to fight as hard as they can and push as hard as they can, taking some casualties before calling it off and beating a retreat. Even the retreat should be slow and orderly, so they continue to keep the attention and energy of as many of the foe as possible.”
I looked to Brennus.
"Any other ideas?"
Brennus seemed almost distracted as he spoke, obviously deep in thought.
"Skill with the blade is not the question here Mordred - may I call you Mordred? Skill in command is."
It seemed almost as if he didn’t know what he was saying – first he worries we’ll be outnumbered, so I stroke his ego and tell him he and his men will do fine. At which poinbt he turns around and says he is worried about leadership. Was he implying that he did not trust my leadership skills? It was certain he wasn’t worried about his own – not this arrogant pup… Well, I’d not let myself react to the slur – if intended as such it was. Instead, I listened as he continued, for he looked a bit confused. He shook his head and said…
"The rebels have no perimeter guard, no look outs to speak of outside of the building, and no communication system to call for reinforcements? I'd have expected more of them, this smacks of incompetence!... Very well, I have men from the Cobra squadron in mind for this mission. As you'll know they're all excellent fighting men, and trained in commando style warfare and such. If they can mingle with the defenders whilst we move on the leaders they may be able to take out a good number by virtue of surprise before the rebels can fight back. I also think the secondary backup group of twenty is a good idea, they could perhaps be stationed outside as a safety net so to speak, should any rebel defenders make a run for it, that should prevent word getting out. I'll have to think on the diversionary patrol, it will need to be quite large to draw the rebel's full attention."
I simply nodded, shrugging when Brennus asked if he could call me by name, indicating that it did not matter to me one way or another. To me he’d always be ‘Prince’, or possibly ‘Prince Brennus’ – he’d insisted on titles, and that is what he’d get. The Cobras? Why should he assume that I know any of ‘his’ men? Was this another of his slightly more subtle than previous ways of puffing out his chest? And Where did they come from – he began saying that he had a division of cavalry; had he forgotten about these until now, or just ‘neglected to mention them’? On the plus side, I was glad to see he was troubled by the rebellion’s lack of coverage for this meeting…
"I agree with you, regarding the apparent lack of organizational sense on their part. The best I have been able to gather is that they seem to be hoping small and secretive would help them avoid notice. I do not think we can have the second force 'stationed' outside in any organized sense... they need to be scattered about in twos and threes in seemingly random configurations or the spell will be useless to disguise the fact that something is happening. I'll find a way to signal them.
"As for the diversionary force, I'll leave that up to you."
There – best to throw him another bone, lest he get too worried or uncomfortable. Perhaps if I managed to shpeherd this Princeling through this mission successfully Benedict would give me someone else to work with next time.