the town, no prisoners, burn or destroy anything we can't take with us. Was that really necessary?
Dardas had his answer ready. In fact, he welcomed the opportunity to rehearse the speech before formally explaining things to Matokin.
It's simply a matter of long-term planning. While we're under orders to unite all the city-states under Felk rule, I don't relish the idea of fighting and taking casualties for every victory. Our
assault on U'delph may seem brutal, but it will serve as an example for any other city-states that consider resisting us. They will be more inclined to surrender peacefully and be assimilated rather than fight. Also, U'delph was an opportunity to demonstrate our ability to move through the portals those mages opened for us. That is an inestimable military advantage... and one I would like to have rumored about throughout the Isthmus, which was why I ordered a few of those citizens spared so they could propagandize for us, so to speak. I want the remaining cities to fear us, and what could be more frightening than an army that strikes out of nowhere and destroys utterly?
There was a longer pause before he received a reaction to this.
Again, I have to yield to your experience. There are subtleties involved here that I have never even considered.
There are indeed. Now, if there are no other pressing questions, I must turn my mind to other immediate matters.
Of course. Sorry to have bothered you.
Dardas managed to conceal his smugness until he was sure Weisel had withdrawn to the isolated recesses of his mind.
His aide returned, rather contritely, with his meal. The rations looked edible, and the portion was of decent size.
Dardas contemplated the portals he and his army had passed through. The magic was called Far Movement. How strange it had been to follow his troops through those narrow magical portals. They had passed through... through ... well, some
Magic and war. War and magic. Did he still feel there was something unclean about mixing the two? Perhaps. But he was a warrior and a leader of warriors, and if those mages could provide him such a weapon, he would gods-damned well use it.
Matokin did indeed know even less about the military than did Weisel, and Dardas was counting heavily on that fact. It made them both relatively easy to fool. Of course, that task was made easier because they were both operating on an erroneous assumption. They both thought Dardas was fighting this war to win it.
While Dardas was thoroughly enjoying his second chance at life, he had no intention of living it at the whim of a magician. He had been resurrected, but magic that he didn't understand was necessary to sustain him in this new life. Somehow, he had to find a way to wrest control of his continued existence away from Matokin.
In the meantime, he had to see to it that the magician did not become too successful and powerful. The surest way to achieve that was to sabotage his campaign to unite the city-states. Fortunately, Matokin had placed him in the ideal position to do just that.
The destruction of U'delph was sure to send a message to the Isthmus's remaining city-states, one they would have to act on: Join forces against the Felk, or perish.
Dardas smiled to himself and started in on his dinner.
AQUINT (1)
AS AQUINTS MIND forced itself into consciousness, the first thing he realized was mat he was lying under a bush. That momentarily puzzled him, even as he automatically noted and accepted that his
normal slow morning thinking was being further hindered by having to fight its way through the remnants of a haze of alcohol. He had gone through the process far too often not to recognize the symptoms: the dry mouth and the too full bladder, not to mention the dull ache behind his eyes that made his vision alternately fuzzy and jarring. All those sensations were familiar. But what was he doing under a bush?
He closed his eyes again and tried to force his whirling thoughts into focus. There had been a party ... not a party, a celebration. There were soldiers... he was a soldier now. That was right. In the Felk army. Sometimes he forgot. Sometimes he drank to forget. But last night there had been a party... a celebration after a successful battle. U'delph!
Like a bright, unwelcome ray of light, the name smote his struggling mind. Udelph! He had been drinking to forget. Now he remembered.
They had moved on U'delph through the portals that the magicians opened up right out of the air. Rumors had been circulating through the ranks about the powers of the army's mages, but this amazing ability had been kept from the troops until the last moment.
Aquint, like many others, had been frankly terrified to step single file through the narrow opening. The portals were like gaps in reality. Hah! That was
Thus they had completed the final several days' marching toward U'delph in a matter of mere moments.
Now they were camped just south of the place, and U'delph was no more.
Aquint forced the memories away to deal with more pressing matters, like emptying his bladder. He considered rolling onto his side and relieving himself where he lay, but decided against it. While he was no great advocate of cleanliness, uniforms smelled bad enough when you lived in them without adding urine to the bouquet. With a sigh that was almost a groan, he gathered his legs under him and pushed himself to his feet. He was by no means old, but he certainly wasn't a youth anymore, either.
The bush was actually a small clump of scrub that covered him to his waist as he stood. That gave him an illusion of privacy as he relieved himself, not that it mattered. There was little room for modesty in an army, and the soldiers—men and women—were used to performing their natural functions in full sight of each other. After a while, one simply didn't notice.
As he finished, Cat rose from where he had been sitting on the ground just outside the bushes and moved to his side. The boy's presence was no surprise to Aquint. Cat was always around.
'I figured you'd be needing this when you came to,' Cat said, thrusting a large earthen mug of water into Aquint's hand.
Aquint drained it greedily, then held it out for Cat to refill from his waterskin, which the boy did. Aquint drank another half mug before pausing and heaving a sigh of relief.
'Thank you, lad. That helps.'
Cat topped off the mug again, then restoppered the waterskin and sank smoothly back into his seated position. Aquint joined him, though he groaned slightly as he sat.
'Tell me, my young friend,' he said as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair, 'did we have a good time last night?'
Cat favored him with a level stare before his gaze returned to its normal pattern of scanning the immediate environs.
'I think you had enough fun for both of us.'
The boy always had a proprietary, vaguely disapproving attitude toward the older man. Rather than being offended, Aquint found it amusing.
'That's right. You don't drink, do you?'
'I'm a thief,' Cat said, bluntly. 'A thief has to keep his wits about him more than a businessman ... or a soldier.'
It was an old conversational argument between them. Stretching all the way back to the day they had first met.
Aquint had been running his freight-hauling business in Callah, with an unadvertised side in smuggling
