We reached our camp outside Quantum Fortress midmorning as if we hadn't slept in each other's arms the night before. When we arrived soldiers took our horses to feed and water them and Cisco and I headed into the camp.
My soldiers had mixed feelings about Cisco which I pretended to be unaware of. Was he a spoiled prince who was given opportunities of leadership because of his birth rather than his skill? Or was he a cold-blooded killer and master strategist who they were lucky to be allied with? I heard both ends of the spectrum and everything in between.
There was one point everyone agreed on: when Cisco and I worked together, we made things happen. People debated which of us was chaos and which of us was order and precision. We seemed to alternate, and in equal measure.
As we passed, soldiers saluted. I asked one to inform Sanna that we had arrived. Once we reached my private tent Sanna was already there.
"Grand General," she said as she saluted. But as soon as Cisco stepped into the tent, her face fell. "You brought —"
Not wanting to hear about any of her distaste for Cisco — all they did was bicker when they were together — I cut her off. "The Crown Prince of Espazota? Yes." It was best for her to remember that Cisco outranked both of us.
Cisco smiled down at her with a sensual smile I would be jealous of had I not known it was all a disguise. "Hello, Sanna."
Sanna scowled. "It's General Poplar, Your Highness."
Cisco grimaced and passed me a glance. "You and Lura are cut from the same cloth." Unlike most others, Sanna's grit actually wore on him, but I wasn't sure why. Cisco could seemingly resist any derision from any source, except Sanna.
"What has been going on here?" I asked, interrupting what would surely devolve into an argument.
Sanna's focus narrowed back on me. "We've been putting pressure on Sharlot— capturing more Vydonian soldiers and executing more hostages. Cutting off food supply while smuggling provisions in for our soldiers. She has been executing hostages as well, but we've managed to trade some of our hostages for key players she's had on the execution block."
"How are our soldiers' morale, and how are Sharlot's?"
"Our people inside the fortress are quietly hopeful — they believe in their Grand General. Vydon's confidence is weakening as we achieve small victories within and outside of Quantum Fortress. But we are mostly at a stalemate. We can't tell if Sharlot is waiting for your return because she believes you went to fetch Baruuk, or if she is demoralized because her attack doesn't even warrant the presence of the Grand General or the king. She's clearly here to negotiate, not claim anything that doesn't belong to her."
"Not a bad spot to be in, but could be better," I said, sinking into the chair behind my desk. It was just about what I'd expected.
"What will our next move be?" Sanna asked.
I interlaced my fingers before my face, my elbows resting on my desk. "It's been four days. Her time has run out."
Sanna's stare sharpened. She knew what was to come, and she revelled in it. Though the task seemed large and complex, for me it was simple — hit Sharlot with unrelenting waves of pressure until we wore down her forces.
With my superhuman powers, I could take out her patrols and slowly filter in and out key fighters who would do immense damage. Once they were worn down, we'd send weaker soldiers in larger numbers to take out the stragglers. And then, once her soldiers were decimated, I would escort her back to Vydon.
"The battle begins tomorrow at dawn. We'll spend the day solidifying our plan of attack. Arrange a meeting of the generals. We'll begin the battle with the execution of the rest of the hostages."
Sanna struggled to hide her smile as she saluted. "We're glad to have you back."
Cisco sat in the chair opposite my desk once she left. "And so it begins." I shrugged, staring absentmindedly out into the camp. "The question is, how will you turn this battle into a breeding ground for revolution?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I've been asking myself that question since we left the palace."
The rest of the day was spent refining our plans and running drills. The legion fed off my energy. If I was confident in our plan and ready to execute it with deadly precision, so were they.
That day, I felt both confident and ready. If there was anyone who could bring out the worst in me, it was Sharlot. She was persistent, relentless, petulant, whiny, but still managed to rival an army led by a supernatural human.
The longer I served as Grand General, the more I saw what worked and what didn't in Baruuk's army. Sharlot's soldiers were bigger and stronger than most of us, but we outmanned them three to one. Vydon dedicated copious amounts of time and resources to training specialized units for different tasks. Baruuk trained all of his soldiers to fight fast and dirty. I often compared our two armies to a wolf and a pack of rabid dogs.
I had already begun to shape Baruuk's army. It began when he had me handpick elite soldiers as my personal legion. We were a unit almost perfectly in sync on most occasions. If I could groom the rest of the kingdom's soldiers to form specialized forces, we would be unstoppable.
If I had to place Espazotan soldiers into the analogy, I'd compare them to a bobcat. At first they looked cute and cuddly, but that was the danger, because they were actually efficiently deadly. Not much muscle, but plenty of finesse.
As the moon sank below the horizon, and the birds heralded the new day before the sun arose, we began our first assault.
The alarm bells rang throughout the fortress as I carried the front line over the moat and onto the fortress's wall. I closed my eyes to hide their glow, since that could clue the enemy into my location. I didn't need to see to use my powers anyways. Closing my eyes helped me stretch out the fingers of my mind and feel the world surrounding me and my place in it.
The faint echo of death sounds — groans, tears, splatter and stabbing — followed the sounds of clashing swords. As my front line quickly and quietly eliminated the patrolling soldiers along the wall, the warning bells fell silent. There were no Vydonians to sound the alarm. But the damage was done — they already knew we were there.
To my left stood the Crown Prince of Espazota. Though he was a prince without an army, he stood proudly beside me. But this wasn't the first time he'd fought solo along with my legion. I'd traveled to Espazota alone on many occasions to support his forces. When it was just the two of us, we worked in sync like a sword and shield.
"Second line, ready?" I cried, my voice raw from calling drills the day before.
"Yes, ma'am!" The soldiers behind me cried.
I nodded to Cisco, to confirm I was ready. Our armor clinked as his arm banded around my waist. There were two layers of chainmail, two sets of armor, and half a dozen daggers between us, but somehow I felt a shock like lightning shoot up into my chest from where his hand rested on my stomach. "Ready?" I asked, needing to know he had a solid grip on me.
"Ready!"
As soon as he said the word we shot upwards, my mind's grip on his body firm. The stars seemed so much closer as we flew upward and across the moat. I dropped Cisco's body just inches from the walkway along the wall and we launched into the fray.
Cisco beheaded an enemy soldier with the first swing of his sword. Blood splattered on his face, he turned to me and grinned. "I'm having fun already," he gloated, then struck another soldier so hard that he dislocated their shoulder through their pauldron. The force with which he attacked was in part due to his behemoth size, and partly due to the sheer number of drills he ran in his down time.
There was a reason I referred to his army as a cat — there was an elegance and grace to the way he moved. He growled as he cut off the soldier's dislocated arm at the elbow. With their sword arm missing, he dealt a killing blow, sliding the tip of his sword deep into the soldier's neck.
I observed this all as I killed or maimed just as many soldiers. It took minimal effort to pick off Vydon's front line. Sharlot had a tendency to place those she viewed as expendable on the front line. The only clue that I'd exerted myself was my quickened breath.
My soldiers surrounded me as we cleared the wall of Vydonians, just as more Vydonian soldiers reached the top of the wall. They shielded me from the Vydonians' attacks so I could focus my energy on carrying the second line onto the wall. I carried them almost a dozen at a time. My mind's strength and dexterity had been honed over the course of fourteen years of intense training. I hadn't even hit my stride yet.
I couldn't believe how many Vydonian soldiers Sharlot had fit inside the fortress. It was like entering a colony of ants. They filled the fortress courtyard to the brim. They must have been sleeping outdoors, because there was no way our soldiers and theirs could all fit within the fortress itself.
It was not just luck that the second line were archers. They lined the wall of the fortress and shot into the crowd within the courtyard. The Vydonians' shields were up, but they were exposed enough to allow their archers to take aim at us. Shields were an easy barrier for me to overcome.
"Shields!" I called, and Cisco and Sanna angled theirs to block any arrows that aimed at me as I looked down the wall. My mind tore entire swaths of shields from the Vydonian's grip, and as they did, Sanna cried, "Fire!"
Cries of victory mingled with cries of agony as my soldiers' arrows sunk into warm flesh. I continued to swat shields out of Vydon's hands, but that meant that their archers had full mobility to shoot with accuracy.
"Target archers!" Cisco bellowed as some of my legion ducked behind shields. A couple of my legion's archers took arrows to the neck — one of our armor's few points of vulnerability — but most were protected by their own shields. I tried to ignore that those who were most likely dead were comrades and friends.
As I stepped over one of my fallen soldiers, I recalled the drawings his children sent him to help with his homesickness. A chill ran through me, puckering my skin into goosebumps.
Don't think about it, Lura. Not now.
There would be time for remorse later, but it would do me no good in the midst of a battle.
Once most of their archers were taken out, I sent the front line down into the courtyard to pick off stragglers as my archers prepared for another wave of Vydonian soldiers to filter into the courtyard from within the fortress. But as we waited for more soldiers to come, a deep horn groaned thrice.
"Surrender? Already?" Cisco said. I could hardly believe it myself. My soldiers on the wall finished off the Vydonians who had flooded the wall as the surviving Vydonians parted to allow a single figure through the fortress's front door. A figure I recognized instantly. I perked up just at the sight of him.
The only likable person in all of Vydon jogged out of the front door of the fortress with arms raised. He was lightly armored in leather with a metal breastplate, but he wasn't there to fight.
"Willum?" I gasped. My first crush ran out of the fortress, hands raised and ready to face the Grand General.