In The Welfare Of War 💔{ON HOLD}💔

3. Strategies

Repressing a heave, Jace looked at the map on his bed, and asked with a very imperious tone: "Where are we?"

As he was expecting it, Bane was the one to answer him with assurance: "At the border of the Garroway Kingdom."

Jace nodded, his brows furrowed as he was trying to think of the best strategy to apply next. The other men in the tent stayed silent while Jace started pacing, his hands in his back.

"We should divide in three group for a couple of days or more. One to take care of the remains of the mercenary keep and bring anything that could be useful to us. One to gather food and supplies in the forest. One to scout around the mountain and see if it's a safe path for us to go."

Jace stopped his back and forth throughout the tent and looked at the map once again before assigning a group to each of his adjuvant. "Lewis, you'll be in charge of the food. Kyle, you make sure that everyone is dead and stays dead. And if there's a fire still alive, put it out. Maybe you should bring Bane with you, he knows better than us how to handle the fire powder and its consequences. Check if any horses have survived, we're running out- and gather weapons as well, Arrows mostly. As for Blackthorn —"

"Can't I trade with Lewis?" He interrupted his General before being assigned the task of scouting the mountains. Jace frowned a little with surprise by the vehement tone his Adjuvant just used, but Lewis explained without having to what this was all about.

"No! Keep your damn cursed mountains to yourself!"

Jace restrained himself from rolling his eyes, not believing that two of his commending officers were scared by some silly legends about haunted mountains. It was a common knowledge that mountains were supposed to be possessed by vengeful spirits that had once been women; but it was also common knowledge that soldiers were not supposed to be scared by silly old women tales.

When /blackthorn opened his mouth to reply, Jace lost a little his temper and cut short on their banter: "Enough! I did not ask you here to blabber on who is most scared of some bloody old legends. You will do as told, and if you cross the path of a vengeful spirit, then you will have my sincerest apologies."

His adjuvant looked down, shame slightly plastering his face; and when silent came back to the tent, Jace turned to Bane and asked: "How far are we from the Garroway Kingdom?"

Bane seemed surprised that Jace addressed him, but then, he looked deep into Jace's golden eyes, to make him understand what he couldn't say out-loud: "Several miles. I have been told that the summer castle isn't far from the mountain, and ... well we can see the mountain from here."

Jace nodded, but before he could think any further about the information Bane just gave him, Blackthorn gave his point of view: "I think you were the target of the raid we suffered, General."

"I think so too. And I intend of thanking personally King Luke for the luxurious month of vacation he gave me," Jace replied, but Blackthorn shook his head and continued:

"I don't think it was King Luke. We kept a rather close watch on that keep, and no messenger was sent. If we are really several miles away from the Garroway Kingdom, they would have sent a rider, not a bird. Plus we were left alone. If King Luke had orchestrated your capture, he never would have left soldiers that close to his borders."

"It's ridiculous, Blackthorn. Who else than King Luke would want to capture one man alone? Especially that man?" Bane reasoned, which didn't make Blackthorn waver one bit from his theory.

"You know as well as I do that our Kingdom is not safe from attacks of others. The General is a well-known swordsman, tell me just of one King who wouldn't want his sword."