The other man nodded. “I will make certain they are carried out. Give me command of two squads equipped with diapson-powered explosives and you will have no reason to worry.”
They talked further, but the greater part of their plan was now in place. Dresch was grateful to Croix for thinking of the possibility of Skaar airships, but chagrined at his own failure to think of it first. He was reminded that Murian Croix was the logical choice to succeed him when he retired. Edeus Pressalin was too unimaginative and hotheaded to ever be first commander of the Federation army. Croix had always been better suited for the position.
At the same time, he didn’t want to retire until he was ready. But what if he was incapable of realizing when it was his time? What if his age was already catching up with him and he couldn’t see it? If Ketter Vause took notice of his failure to consider certain obvious possibilities, he might be forced to step down more quickly than he had planned. And he didn’t like thinking that the choice might be made for him.
After his subcommanders had departed, he retired to his quarters to stand at his desk where maps of the Mermidon and its north and south banks were spread before him and studied them intently. Given that the Skaar had annihilated two Troll tribes and the entire Druid order, anticipating what they might do once their army faced his was important. Their small numbers—somewhere around a thousand, the reports said—did not suggest they would risk a full-blown assault against even a single Federation company, let alone two. They would be woefully outnumbered in unfamiliar territory. Moreover, the reports received so far indicated they found antiquated weapons—blades, spears, bows and arrows, and the like—adequate for modern battles. Which made no sense. Flash rips and rail slings, combined with cannons, would cut them to pieces. There was no reason to believe they would chance so much by launching an attack on a superior and better-equipped force.
On the other hand, they had somehow gotten through Paranor’s considerable defenses—past walls and gates and wards of magic—to destroy virtually all the Druids within the Keep. They had essentially wiped the Druids and their order off the face of the Four Lands. Even Druid magic had not been enough to stop them.
It was troubling beyond words.
Dresch stepped away from the maps. He was going to have to be very careful in the days ahead.
* * *
—
The Federation command had arrived to establish camp across the Mermidon from the Skaar at midday of the previous day—a day after Ajin herself had returned from Arborlon. Now, as twilight was approaching and the Federation soldiers were once again preparing to settle in for the night, the Skaar princess stood with Kol’Dre on a rise to the north, less than a mile across from the other encampment, studying its impressive sprawl. The smells of cooking drifted in on the back of a warm south wind, and the shadowy figures of the soldiers were visible as they passed between tents and patches of firelight, busy at their tasks, seemingly heedless of the Skaar advance force.
Ajin was satisfied to leave it that way. She wanted them to think little or nothing of what the Skaar might be up to—less still of any potential danger. They should lose interest as routine and familiarity blunted the edges of their caution. She wanted them overconfident. They would begin to decide that nothing was going to happen, that this was a preventive action and the Skaar were doing exactly what Ajin had told Ketter Vause they intended to do. The Skaar had arrived and taken a defensive position, and any difficulties with the Federation would be settled by negotiation—by words rather than weapons.
After all, theirs was the strongest army in all the Four Lands, and what sense did it make to offer a challenge with so few aggressors? The Skaar numbered less than a thousand, and the contingent of Federation soldiers dispatched to keep an eye on them numbered more than twice that. Plus the Federation had warships and advanced diapson-crystal-powered weapons. Alone in the middle of enemy territory and facing a seasoned command, why would the Skaar even think of tempting fate by provoking an armed response? Only a fool poked a sleeping bear with a sharp stick.
An old bromide. But Ajin had never been one for bromides.
Yes, she wanted them confident and complacent for a few short hours. And then she wanted them angry and confused. Because frightened, confused men made mistakes.
“Are you ready, Kol’Dre?” she asked him. He had arrived back in camp the same day she had, albeit a bit later.
“Of course,” he answered impatiently, a hint of reproof in his voice.
“Patience in all things. It was you who taught me that. Now, then, I want it done while they still think nothing is going to happen.”
He nodded. “Are you sure about this, Ajin? Once we do this, there is no going back. They’ll respond with everything they’ve got—and we don’t have the full army behind us yet.”
Ajin considered for a moment. It was a risk, striking at them like this. A big risk. But if they succeeded—which she was certain in her Ajin fashion they would—it would leave the Federation hierarchy deeply unsure about what it could expect its army to achieve in an all-out battle against the Skaar, and open up new possibilities for negotiations.
“If you do what you are supposed to, we won’t need my father’s intervention. By the time my father arrives, I will be in complete control of the situation. He would never consider dismissing me then, even with Paranor lost. Sten’Or will look like a fool.”
“Sten’Or has his ear, Ajin,” he said quietly. “Your father’s man, his spy in your camp. I wouldn’t be so sure of this.”
She gave him a look. “My father’s man? I don’t think so. The pretender’s? Most definitely. Besides, things might not be entirely as Sten’Or believes them.”
She skipped right past any attempt at an explanation. “I am entrusting you with our future, Kol’Dre. Am I right to do so?”
His look was dark and angry. “How can you even ask me that?”
She shrugged. “Because I worry. Too often you have to play the chameleon, Penetrator, and even I am not always sure of your true feelings. That girl, the one at Paranor. Allis. She caught your eye, didn’t she? You thought I didn’t know, but I did. I know everything about you, Kol’Dre. I had once thought you loved me. Now I wonder.”
She watched him squirm—just as she had intended. “I do love you!” he insisted. “You know I always have. But it is hard to feel as I do and know it will never come to anything. So, yes, I was tempted. But it was only momentary. I killed her in the end, didn’t I? I know where I belong. I know who my people are.”
Cleverly said, Ajin thought. But how truthful was he being? Did even he know? Time to offer him an inducement. “There are other ways you can be with me,” she said quietly, offering him a glimmer of hope.