Chapter 4

Officer Gran offered a salute and turned to walk out of the office on hurried steps. General Ray allowed himself a slight smile as his gaze followed her out the door.

Perfect.

The junior aerial mage was a nubile young noblewoman with a winsome smile that could capture the hearts of many men, but his gaze wasn’t that which a man might bestow upon a woman who stoked the flames of his desire. It was a cool gaze with an equally cool smile. The look that one cast upon a useful pawn.

Too perfect.

Sometimes – be it in war, politics, business or romance – the world handed one incredible opportunities.

An official from the Sorcerous Kingdom had long been scheduled to arrive in the Empire under the designation of ‘Frost 19’. Whether it was a rider or the Frost Dragon itself, he couldn’t be absolutely certain. Seeing that this type of designation was officially used for the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Frost Dragon slaves, however, the true representative was probably whoever Frost 19’s rider was. The Imperial Air Service kept track of their flights in the same manner, so it didn’t feel out of place.

The submitted reason for Frost 19’s visit was stated quite plainly: they would be observing the condition of the Empire’s infrastructure, logistics and trade. If read by a Merchant or a regular citizen, this seemed quite benign. The more naïvely idealistic might even consider it to be a friendly overture; an effort to become closer with a neighbouring nation.

To a military mind, however, it felt like the Sorcerous Kingdom was testing them: attempting to provoke a response by flaunting their new relationship with the Baharuth Empire.

Show us your roads. Show us your lands. Show us your cities, industry and everything you do to uphold order and maintain security.

Show us your weaknesses.

This was what passed through Ray’s mind when he first had the documentation delivered to him by an aide. He hadn’t even known that it existed until being informed that an air patrol under his jurisdiction – the former jurisdiction of the Eighth Legion which was still undergoing reorganisation – had intercepted a Frost Dragon on its way over the border. The paperwork was submitted in such a way that it looked like any other piece of scheduling managed by the offices of the Imperial Air Service.

There was little chance that anyone else had taken special note of such an innocuous filing. Except for the fact that a flight control officer in Arwintar had to dig up the document in response to Officer Gran’s report. When it came to paperwork involving the Sorcerous Kingdom, everyone processed it as quickly as possible and filed it away, forgetting that they ever had anything to do with it. Now that it had resurfaced after some months, however, the imminent arrival was bound to draw attention.

He had to move quickly to take control of the situation, but his influence in Arwintar was frustratingly small and his clout as a Baron from the southeastern marches was even less so. He wracked his brain and twisted more than a few arms, trying to get ahead of the pit of vipers that was the centre of imperial power.

And then, a miracle happened.

Frost 19 had checked in at Engelfurt rather than flying directly to Arwintar. They would be staying for two days, barring inclement weather. In a frenzied move, he had sent Officer Gran – who was under his authority – and personally sent her out as an ‘attaché’ under the justification that she was ‘familiar’ with the Sorcerous Kingdom’s official representative.

He couldn’t be certain who else knew. The Imperial Army was a monstrous organisation where one could never be sure of interpersonal loyalties or who was whispering to who. Still, General Ray was reasonably certain that he had beat everyone else to the punch.

First, the report of Frost 19’s arrival went through Engelfurt’s command structure, which was still undergoing the slow transfer of personnel, authority and materiel to the Fifth Legion. As the interim commander of the remaining forces, General Ray had all reports related to Frost 19 delivered directly to him. Secondly, he had sent his pawn out on the back of a Hippogriff while everyone else had to rush their hand-picked agents overland.

To be sure, his competitors would still try, but he had gained a lead of days over his closest competitors – perhaps even a week. If he was lucky, the suggestion that Officer Gran was already familiar with the incoming representative was deterrent enough against any of the more forceful attempts at exerting influence over the situation.

Officer Gran was an ideal pawn, as well. She was the scion of a minor interior house, meaning that she should know what she was being sent out for and possessed of various methods to achieve his unstated objectives. As an officer in training fresh from the Imperial Magic Academy, she should still be nearly uninvolved in imperial politics beyond House Gran’s affairs, which were of no concern to anyone of true importance. If everything went well, Ray might very well have his foot in the door when it came to making connections with the movers and shakers of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

The office door opened. Ray was already rising to his feet before he could fully see who was coming in. Only one person in the Sixth Legion wasn’t required to knock before entering his office.

“General Gregan,” he offered a salute.

“Ray,” the Commander of the Sixth Legion held up a set of file folders. “It just got damn busy here – I was almost run over by a girl coming out of your office. You’ve caught wind of our new orders?”

“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway,” Ray replied with a tight smile.

General Gregan separated out one of the folders and tossed it onto Ray’s desk.

“Straight from the Field Marshal,” General Gregan said as he turned back out into the hall. “I’ve called in the heads. They should be here within thirty minutes.”

With a frown, Ray reached down and picked up the folder. There hadn’t been this much excitement since the reorganisation of the Imperial Army had been announced over the summer.

His lip twisted sourly at the memory. After clawing his way up through the ranks as an insignificant border Noble, Ray had been appointed as General of the Eighth Legion by the Emperor. Two years later, the Eighth Legion was disbanded. His only consolation was that he had ended up as a staff officer in the Sixth Legion, which hardly compensated for the influence, prestige and power that he had lost as Commander of the Eighth Legion.

General Ray flipped open the folder as he slowly walked around his desk. His steps stopped after going through the first half of the first page within. A smile slowly formed as he flipped through the rest.

He joined General Gregan in the conference room. Before long, the division commanders arrived, taking their places at a long oak table. Two of the Sixth Legion’s divisions were out on the southern border with their commanders, so an aide closed the door after the three in Arwintar had joined them.

“I’ll let you catch up before we start,” General Gregan told them.

Having read through the subject matter already, Ray spent his time gauging the reactions of the other officers. He could guess at what point they were in their reading as they went through a wide array of expressions. Overall, those who were disturbed and those whose disquiet had slowly been replaced by looks of anticipation were as he had expected.

“So this is it,” the commander across from him, Wurtz, said. “They’re actually making us do it.”

“The Sixth Legion’s orders were expected,” another commander stated. “We’ve been preparing for it since the summer, after all. But The Blister…if that goes sideways…”

“That’s the Second Legion’s problem,” Ray said. “If General Kabein can’t pull it off, none of us can.”

Ray didn’t give a damn about the Second Legion’s orders. The Sixth needed to carry out theirs and produce results.

“And if he doesn’t,” someone snorted, “I hope our Demon King next door is happy with the results.”

Idiot…

“General Ray is right,” General Gregan said. “General Kabein is stationed where he is for good reason. Discussing the Second Legion’s orders does us no good at this juncture – we have a job to do.”

Around the table, the staff heads of the Sixth Legion nodded slowly in agreement, expressions turning firm.

The Legions of the Imperial Army originally numbered eight: each responsible for their respective stations within the Baharuth Empire.

Arwintar was protected by the First Legion, whose General served as the Field Marshal of the Imperial Legions. The First Legion consisted of many of the Empire’s best Knights, including those of the Royal Earth Guard and the Royal Air Guard.

The Second Legion was stationed in the cities along the eastern circuit of The Blister in the northwest. The Third, Fourth and Fifth Legions garrisoned the Karnassus Marches from north to south. The Sixth Legion was responsible for the Wyvernmark and the Seventh Legion had been stationed in the Western Marches running along the Azerlisia Mountains. Ray’s Legion, the Eighth, once garrisoned the Katze Marches.

This all changed with the advent of the Sorcerous Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire’s face-heel turn from ascendant power to client state. The Empire had been shackled by an unsettlingly broad clause that legally obligated them to recognize the absolute nature of the Sorcerer King and his representatives. It was a menacing blade pointed at the throat of the Empire, and no one with half a brain believed that it was simply there for show.

After several months of nothing in particular, the first stroke of that blade descended upon the Imperial Legions. Despite appearing forceful and arbitrary to those unaware of the Imperial Army’s workings, it was quite sound from a military standpoint. The Seventh and Eighth Legions were to be disbanded and the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Undead forces leased to the Imperial Army. As many of those Undead were sufficient to devastate Legions single-handedly, one could hardly argue that the move had diminished the Empire’s ability to defend against its enemies.

With their bolstered forces, the disposition of troops in the remaining Legions shifted towards filling the holes in domestic security left behind by the two missing Legions. The change would not be enough to keep all of the Imperial Army’s forces formerly garrisoned at the borders busy, so the Sixth Legion had become a ‘detached’ Legion. To those keen to exploit opportunities, it was an army free to expand the Empire’s borders.

No one in Imperial High Command was blind to it, and so the Sixth Legion had been converted into the Baharuth Empire’s expeditionary force. It was a much-needed boost to the flagging morale of the Imperial Legions and, for the first time in the Empire’s history, the lowest-ranked Legion superseded the First Legion as the assignment of choice for promising new talent. With conquest came honours, and honours meant promotions, riches, and titles.

Three of the Sixth Legion’s divisions trained non-stop a day’s march north from Arwintar. The remaining two divisions were exercising along the southern border. Anticipation grew week by week as everyone waited for the Emperor to unleash them against a frontier left long untamed.

There were concerns in the political arena over this aggressive move, however. Some worried that their actions would upset the powerful City State Alliance in the east, giving them common cause against the Empire. Others thought that it might be used as justification by the Sorcerous Kingdom to impose punitive restrictions on an unruly member of their hegemony.

A solution for these concerns came quickly enough. The Empire would insinuate to their suzerain that they were ready and willing to expand their borders and thus bring more territory into the Sorcerous Kingdom’s sphere of influence. Then they would wait for someone on the Sorcerous Kingdom’s side to examine the notion and issue a response.

If they were sent out with the Sorcerous Kingdom’s blessing, worries over being punished would be nonexistent. Karnassus reacting by collectively moving against them was the best-case scenario. The Empire would be in a defensive war that they could not possibly lose with the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Undead forces and they would have clear justification to move against their neighbours to the east.

One might have questioned whether it was wise to manipulate the Sorcerous Kingdom for their own ends, and that person would be considered a fool by their betters. Not a single person believed that the Sorcerer King and his court of monsters were stupid enough to not understand what was going on. It was simply how the game was played; the unspoken dialogue between a subordinate and their overlord. The Baharuth Empire might have willingly chained itself, but they could ensure that their leash was long indeed.

As they reviewed the instructions and finalised their preparations, the Commander of the Fifth Division, Tilman, spoke up.

“Do we have any information on this ‘liaison officer’ that they’re sending along with the Undead?”

It was the question that was probably foremost in everyone’s minds.

“Who knows,” Wurtz waved a calloused hand absently. “There’s no name provided, so maybe they’re one of the Undead, too.”

“Intelligence reports say that Elder Liches serve as officials in the Sorcerous Kingdom,” Ray offered.

“Gods help us if so,” the russet-haired Commander of the Fourth Division, Schuler, groaned. “I already have headaches thinking about all of the howling from the Temples we’re going to have to deal with.”

“Never mind the Temples,” Tilman tugged at his black goatee, “we have all the Clerics and Priests in the divisions to consider.”

As long as they kept the Undead separate from the troops and away from population centres, Ray didn’t think there would be much of a problem. People tended to only complain about what they thought they noticed. If this ‘liaison officer’ was Undead, however, it would certainly raise some hackles in the army camps.

“Then,” Commander Wurtz looked around the table, “should we be relieved if they send a monster our way?”

General Gregan barely suppressed a helpless laugh.

“This liaison officer is going to be over with General Kabein first,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll have a lot of fun working out all the kinks while trying to deal with The Blister. Word of what happens out there is bound to come our way, and specific details will come before this liaison arrives in the south.”

Whatever happened; whatever they were, Ray would make sure he ended up on this liaison officer’s good side. He would be damned if he was stuck as a staff officer until another General retired. Rather than being the one on the end of the leash, he would get on the side of the one holding the chain. He had already gotten ahead with the rider of Frost 19 by sending Officer Gran, and he would personally deal with this other official when they arrived to advise the Sixth Legion.

“We have a month to get the divisions fully mobilised and set up at their positions in the Wyvernmark,” General Gregan told them. “This is what we’ve all been waiting for – I expect a hell of a show.”

As one, they rose from their seats.

“For the Empire,” General Gregan intoned.

“For the Empire,” Schuler echoed.

“For the Empire!” Declared Wurtz.

“For the Empire,” Tilman nodded sharply.

Ray smirked.

“For the Empire.”