The Fire Queen

Chapter 16

The operation was due to be carried out in two weeks. Uther and his men arrived in Allendale with horses and armaments. Their forces would be split in two: a force of fifty, led by Uther, would enter the city from the east and ride up the hill to the palace, the remainder of the battalion would split into two squadrons of twenty five men each who would join the Okwari and the bandits and enter the city from the south and the west. Before the three squadrons moved on the city I would fly over it with Myra, distracting the queen's forces and creating an opportunity for the squadrons to enter and catch the queen's forces by surprise, throwing them into disarray and making it easy for us to overwhelm them. I had worked on the plan with Uther, whose knowledge of the city's defenses and of military tactics proved invaluable. It was his idea for us to launch a blitz attack on the city to compensate for us potentially having fewer numbers than the queen and the syndicates had inside the city. By catching them unawares and targeting key locations we could prevent them from consolidating their forces and mounting a counterattack. The syndicates operated out of six primary buildings. Upon entering the city our targets would be those buildings as well as the controls for the entrance gates. Cyrus suggested that, given the level of discontent among the citizens, we should make an announcement during the operation of what was taking place to rally them over to our side, and he suggested that the mayor, with his eloquence and commanding public speaking voice, would be the perfect person for it. The mayor, who, as an avid student of history, was fascinated to see with his own eyes the end of one era and the beginning of another, agreed to be a part of the operation and fulfill the role of delivering the proclamation of the commencement of the reign of Alegra Luthera.