“Othai, can you still not tell me about Genuda?” I slapped my forehead. “Let me rephrase- do you have anything you do want to tell me about Genuda?”

  “Not… really, my Lord. Although I can tell you that two hundred soldiers would not be remotely enough to conquer Genuda. Just the children alone would be enough to drown them in their spit.”

  “So… an infiltration team? Reinforcements? First batch of a much bigger army that will be forming up here?”

  “I really don’t know, my Lord. Two hundred soldiers is an odd sort of number.”

  “Eh?” I asked, intelligently.

  Othai looked confused too. “Genuda usually works in blocks of ten. Ten soldiers to a squad, Ten squads to a company. Ten companies to a regiment.”

  “It could be two companies. I can’t imagine you always send either a hundred or a thousand, no in between numbers.”

  “We don’t, no.” Her lips twitched. “Those units of ten only refer to the combat troops. A hundred pikes. A hundred crossbows. And so on. It doesn’t include camp followers, the supply wagons and other non-combat roles.”

  Still laying on her side on the sand, Othai started drawing little squares in the sand. Organizing them into blocks and lines.

  “And you never just send a block of pikes unsupported- they need crossbow support, or matchlocks, or, better still, cannons. They need cavalry support if you can afford it. I know of one old devil who put his entire company on horseback. They would rush to the battlefield, dismount, and form into pike blocks with crossbows in support and a few troopers for scouting, cleanup and maneuvers.”

  She shook her head slowly. “There was a group of four rich cities near each other that would decide who won their wars based on which bid highest- Whoever hired him, won.”

  “So two hundred soldiers is a strange number because there shouldn’t be an even number of troops regardless, and even if, for some reason, it was only the combat troops without any supplies, it would still be an unbalanced formation.” I concluded.

  “Yes. Potentially a company of pikes and a company of crossbows or something, but two hundred soldiers get hungry and thirsty fast. Where are the wagons with water and food? A canteen and dry rations won’t cut it for long.”

  “Maybe they are coming?” I asked?

  “Must be.” Othai nodded. Then shrugged. “Or something else is going on. Not enough information.”

  I nodded, thinking.

  “That guy you just mentioned- is he alive or dead?”

  “Died two hundred years ago. I’ve seen his tomb. It’s nice.”

  “Good, good.” I relaxed a little. Usually that would be a flag. Mmm. Maybe there would be an opportunity to get mounts for my Awakened?

  “Alright, we aren’t going to crack this thing sitting here. Rikka, go back out there and keep scouting around the guys on the beach. Let me know if they make a move, start setting tents, all that. Rache, follow their trail back the way they came and see if anyone is coming up behind them. Keep yourself out of sight- we want them to think they are all alone out here.”

  I looked around at Othai, Versai, and Mrs. Hungry. “As for us, let’s keep moving back. The more room we give them, the less likely we are to run into accidents.”

  A thought intruded and I slapped my forehead. But it was too late. Had I already given ‘orders’ to my scouts? I think I had. WHELP!

  “It’s at times like these I regret not majoring in profanity when I had the chance. Yeah, let’s pick up the pace and do a little scouting of our own. Mrs. Hungry, Versai, you push on ahead a bit. Othai and I will come up behind you.”

  The two nodded and scurried off. Versai wasn’t my idea of a scout, but she was quick on her feet. Mrs. Hungry had… hunting experience.

  Mrs. Hungry was going to do just fine. And in the event of unpleasant company, I had my knife, Othai, and her halberd. You have to respect a weapon designed by someone who looked at a catalog of polearms and said “Only kids make choices. A real man takes them all!”

  The sand dunes were tall, rolling things, topped by waving fields of tough grass. Even if we stood, the grass would completely cover us- it was that tall. I kept us low. Just in case.

  It smelled nice. I don’t know why I noticed that particularly, but it stood out in my mind. We were crawling around in the sand, pushing our way through the woody stems of the beach grass, and I kept thinking “This is a nice grassy smell, especially smelling the ocean in the background. I’d love to have a candle with this smell.”

  Maybe after all the horror and devastation, I was hungry for simple pleasures. I let my fingers run over the sand and felt it trickle through my hands. The sea came ashore with the sound of soft rushing. High above, the seabirds cried and turned in lazy circles.

  There would be war again, and soon. But just for one moment, I tried to forget it. Tried to just be in the present. One of my therapists said that if you were depressed, you were living in the past, and if you were anxious, you were living in the future. If you were content, you were in the present.

  Ten out of ten aphorism, even if I don’t think it holds up to scrutiny. Still. I kept crawling along, enjoying the beach, and waiting for my scouts to return. And then, with no notice whatsoever, I was back in the Throne Room.

  “Annoying.”

  “Tower Master?” Othai was with me, and looked a little disoriented.

  “You really have to keep the party together if you want to avoid spending a lot of orders on the expedition. It never really came up in the Gradden March Ruin Site, and I didn’t manage to completely grasp it at Hidden Moon Mountain. Though this time was more carelessness than anything. Damn it all. RACHE, RIKKA! To the Throne Room Please.”

  I drummed my fingers on the arm of my plush throne. Even if it was accidental, I probably would have done the same thing intentionally. Scouts are for getting information. We need information. The rest of us aren’t really suited for scouting. And as badass as Versai undoubtedly would be mowing through two hundred unarmored opponents, I want to understand the situation more before making a move.

  My scouts arrived- Rache by the stairs, Rikka via dramatic emergence from the shadows. Which remained eerie.

  “Report. Rikka, you first. What can you tell us about the soldiers on the beach?”

  Rikka nodded. “Two hundred men, all carrying long spears like Dora. They have long sacks tied to their backs, from which they pulled food and water. I didn’t see tents or other camping supplies, but it’s possible they have something. They were gathering firewood and resting, mostly.”

  “How were they dressed?”

  “Like Dora, but their pants were bright blue and their stockings were gold colored.”

  Othai hissed, suddenly looking intense.

  “Did they say anything about their plans?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Only that they were going to Genuda, and some villages where they would be staying. They didn’t say it directly, but from the way they kept looking out to sea, I think they were expecting a boat soon.”

  Two hundred people…

  “There wasn’t a dock or anything, right?”

  “No, my Lord. Just empty beach.”

  So they would be loading on to smallish boats, ones you could bring close enough to shore that the men could wade out to them. No way they were swimming anywhere with travel packs and twenty foot pikes. But small boats would limit how many people they could carry and how far they could travel. Maybe a bigger boat, further out at sea, and dinghies ferrying the soldiers over? That would make sense, but it’s just a guess. For all I know, magical paddleboards will turn up and they will poll their way over using pikes.

  “Rache?”

  “I let the filly run some twenty miles or so. There is a little fishing village nearby, but I didn’t see anyone there. No soldiers neither. Road looks pretty well used, though. Reckon that fishing village is pretty active. Or was.” There was an unusual note of grimness in her voice.

  “And further up the road?”

  “Farms, mostly. No forests or much in the way of trees at all. Didn’t see anyone on the farms either. I stopped when I saw a city on the horizon. Mmm. No other villages. Was one thing I did notice in particular. No cattle.”

  “Sheep, goats, chickens?” I asked.

  “None of them. And things looked a bit overgrown, like.”

  “Guess how long.”

  “Couple of weeks? Sorry. I’m not a farmer, Boss. Don’t rightly know how long that all takes.”

  Interesting. Veeeery interesting.

  “Was there a dock at the fishing village?”

  “No, boss. Just a load of boats all pulled up on the shore.”

  Very interesting indeed!

  “Any food in the village? Fish lying on drying racks, or carcasses picked over by birds?”

  “None that I saw, Boss. The farms looked pretty dug up too.”

  “Someone stripped the countryside of people and food. But they didn’t go to sea, because they would have taken the boats. So either the threat is coming from the sea, and they all moved inland voluntarily, or the city pulled them in, or… something else. But they aren’t patrolling it, so they aren’t trying to maintain control over the dirt. Just the people and food.”

  I looked speculatively over at my scouts.

  “And the lack of patrols and… you guys didn’t see watch towers or anything, right?”

  They shook their heads.

  “So they don’t care about getting advance notice of things coming at them. Either they have some means of surveillance that we can’t spot, or there is something uncommonly nasty going on. Maybe both.”

  I drummed my fingers and looked over at Othai. She had her professional mask on. “Cough it up.”

  “Pardon, my Lord?” Othai asked, like she didn’t know exactly what I meant.

  “Who are they? Clearly they have some relation to Genuda.”

  “NO! No, Sir they do not!” I think it was only her oath that saved me from a broken jaw.

  “Never forgive, never forget?” I asked softly.

  “These aren’t the traitors we refer to when we say that. But they are related to those people.” Thin lips, narrow eyes, knuckles turning white on her halberd- okay, even I can pick up those signals.

  “How so? Who are they?”

  “Freelancers. From Hosk. Hosk being an ancient enemy of ours.”

  “Freelancers… you mean mercenaries?”

  “Mercenary spearmen, yes, that is what that word means, my Lord.”

  “But even a mercenary company travels with all those things you said earlier, right?”

  “Yes. I have a lifetime’s experience in that field. Mercenaries absolutely do travel with a logistics team, even if they intend to forage and live off local supplies. Otherwise they will quickly become dead mercenaries.”

  I nodded at that. “Sounds like more than professional rivalry?”

  “Well, once you see the burnt corpses of a few dozen villages, it stops being merely professional. Especially when you see the care so many of the corpses received, prior to death. They even published fliers and pamphlets, sending them out to other villages and towns, making sure everyone knew what a visit from Hosk Freelancers meant.”

  Ah. Terror tactics and extermination. Lovely. Wait. Mercenaries-

  “And who is employing these mercenaries?”

  “The Traitors. And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “They are exterminating villages?”

  “Yes. People can flee or die. Those are their choices.”

  I usually think of bandits as being on horseback. Really relying on that maneuverability to survive. But horses have always been expensive, right? And there are mountain bandits and all that. I guess a mercenary company could work like bandits on foot. Seems like they would be easy to run away from, though.

  “So this lot would be shipping out to a bigger group somewhere else?”

  “Most certainly.”

  “And the surrounding villages and towns?”

  “Cleared out by them or other Freelancers.”

  “The city on the horizon is Hosk?”

  “Definitely not. Hosk is landlocked.”

  Ah. Interesting. “Could they have just wrapped up a campaign then?”

  “Maybe, my Lord, but if they had, I would expect them to have loot, and be much less disciplined.”

  Mmm. No signs of the monsters yet but I’m sure they are around somewhere. Speaking of things being around somewhere-

  I selected the other Relic Site, loaded up the same expedition team, then checked the button at the bottom right of the screen. The Launch Expedition button lit up.

  “One expedition per site per day. Sweet!”

  Anything I wanted to do in the Tower before setting off?

  Nope. I hit the button.

  We were standing on a parapet, looking down on some of the most beautiful, rolling farmland I have ever seen. There were tiny villages scattered far below us. A wide river snaked through the gentle hills, wrapping around the wall to the east. It was like a painting. Beautiful, warm, you just wanted to fall into it forever.

  It made my blood run cold.

  “Burned out villages, you said?”

  “Yes, Tower Master.”

  “This wouldn’t happen to be Genuda would it?”

  “No, Tower Master. It appears to be one of our… allies. Vassals would also be an appropriate term. Verton. About a hundred miles or so from Genuda. You see the Carro River to the east? It’s navigable by boats all the way to the sea. It’s Verton’s fortune. There is nowhere good to site a city on this stretch of coast, so merchants sail up the river to trade while other cities drag their wagons over here to meet the seaborn merchants. And the farming is bloody good too.”

  “Sounds amazing.”

  “It is. Genuda is better in most ways, but Verton is the food and logistics hub for the region. It’s why we made a point of… allying with it… a hundred and fifty years ago.”

  And why am I suddenly feeling a prickling of concern? Oh yes. Pattern recognition.

  “Have Hosk raiders come through before?”

  “Yes.”

  Ah. Well.

  I looked behind me, eager to see the city. And snorted. There was a goddamn wall of houses and the most “skybox” looking sky behind it I had ever seen. I had a feeling that if I climbed up there, I’d be looking out into the void.

  “Yeah, I am really starting to get a feel for things. Come on, let’s see if there is someone up here ready and willing to give us a quest.”

  “Pardon, my Lord?” Othai sounded puzzled.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m a little curious about how things will play out here.”

  Because if it was a straight siege defense, why would there be the other map?

  Further along the walls we found a hard looking man wearing a chunky gold necklace. I’m guessing he was the mayor or something, his clothes were sure fancy enough. He took one look at us and nodded. “You are the contractors, then?”

  “Yes, The Tower Company.” I immediately rolled with it.

  “Good. Ready to work?”

  “Always. However, a lot can change between when a contract is signed and the boots hit the ground. Could you explain the current situation, and what your most immediate needs are?”

  He snorted at that. “Fair enough. We know Hosk is coming. We have cleared out the foreign merchants already, but I suspect the damage is done. There were surely spies mixed in, and they know that our militia is… undergoing restructuring.” He slid Othai a look. She looked him dead in the eye and asked-

  “And Genuda Military Support?”

  “Is here. For a fee. One which we cannot afford to pay for very long.” She snorted at that and looked away. He turned back to me. “We need to get those damned farmers inside our walls, empty the villages of any food we can find, and burn the rest. It’s harvest time, of course.”

  I nodded. That’s when I’d raid too. It would also mean the farmers would be ruined if they had to abandon their crops. Meaning they won’t want to go. And if their farm houses and ploughs and all that get burnt? Well. It would be a few years at least before farming recovered around here.

  “Any sense of their numbers?”

  “None. But we have reports of at least twenty scouts on horseback, riding through villages and tossing out their propaganda. They usually announce their visits by launching flasks of burning oil onto roofs of homes.”

  “Lovely.” I tapped my finger against my lip, trying to get a sense of the countryside. “Anyone of note still inside the city walls?”

  “That you should speak to? Truso, the Genuda Military Contract Manager, Bocciati, who speaks for many of the local families, and Paset, the head of the Honorable Guild of Merchants.”

  Ah… the mercenaries, the mob, and the merchants guild. What a lovely bunch.

  “Anyone from the farms? Any village heads dropping by to ask about what should be done?”

  “Oh, wouldn’t my job be easier if they did.” The Mayor snarled.

  “Alright. So they have mounted scouts. How are we for horses?”

  “Not many. Talk to Truso and maybe Paset. Expect them both to charge a fortune for their livery services.”

  We were up on a pretty steep cliff, so we must be sitting on either a tall hill or short mountain, looking down on the countryside. Those rolling hills would block sightlines. There were fences of both the stone and wood varieties everywhere, and while there weren’t any woods, there were little clusters of trees here and there.

  In other words, high mobility on the roads, and practically none once you were off of them. Even if they burnt the fields, they would still have to get over, around and through the fences. Ambushes were possible… on a small scale. Because you couldn’t really bunch together enough people in the space available and expect them to be able to fight in the solid blocks Genuda military tactics called for.

  “New York isn’t part of New England. People act like it is, but it isn’t. You could roll all of New England up and they still wouldn’t add up to the population of New York. I mention this because New Englanders act like only they had the genius idea of hopping out from behind a wall to shoot people. And yet, when it came time to really put boots to behinds, where did it all go down? New York and New Jersey!”

  I paused, ignoring the looks I was getting. “Strictly speaking, some things happened in, like, Virginia or something. I’m assuming, here. Probably nothing important. The point is, this is a landscape we can work with. These are troops we can work with. These are enemies we can slaughter. And I’m working with a proven historical model here.”

  I rubbed my hands. “Let's get to it!”