The Radiant War

Chapter 4a

"We need a thousand times as much!" said Lanier.

"Yes, I know that," snapped Pavok. "Connery, one of the geography guys, says the best place to get the stuff is Jonwell." He strode over to the map on the far wall of the War Room, stabbed a finger at a spot in the east of the country. "Nice and far from the front line. The Carrowmen will have to take Marboll before they can strike out towards it."

"So we just have to worry about the balloons," said Lanier. "We need incendiary rounds to defend the place where we'll be making the incendiary rounds, and so far we have a grand total of fifty."

"We used up pretty much our entire supply defending Marboll against eight Radiants," said Kinley, "and they're apparently able to send hundreds when they want to."

"Any sign of a mass movement of Radiants?" asked the King.

"Not yet," replied Amberley, "but the place they're most likely to come from is Wilterland, and that's pretty barren country. There might be a force on its way already and we wouldn't know until it was right on top of us."

"So let's get some spotters down there, with pigeons. Tell them to send a bird back the moment they see anything." Amberley nodded and made a note of it in his notebook.

"While we're on the subject," said Minister Larren, "I can't stop thinking about the way the Radiants behaved when they attacked us. Are we agreed that the Radiants that attacked us were just regular Radiants? They weren't soldier Radiants or anything, I've got no idea whether there is any such thing. They were just Radiants that happened to be in the city when they received an order to attack us."

Leothan nodded. The same thing had occurred to him. "All but one of them died," he said. "Even after the first two or three had died, the others continued to attack, knowing they were probably going to die as well. The one that survived didn't flee to save its own life. It left when it realised it no longer had any chance of killing me or my daughter. If it had still had a chance, I'm pretty sure it would have died in the attempt as well."

"They're willing to sacrifice themselves," said Amberley, nodding. "They don't have the same sense of self preservation that we do."

"Is this relevant?" asked Pavok. "We can study Radiant psychology when the current crisis is over."

"Understanding your enemy is the first step to defeating him," replied Amberley. "We've been assuming that they think more or less the same way we do, that their motives and world view are more or less the same as ours. I don't think we can assume that any more. Their minds may be as different as their bodies. Understanding in what way they're different may suggest a strategy for dealing with them."

"Look into it, will you?" said Leothan. "Get the psych warfare boys to work on it. Not quite what they're used to, but maybe they'll relish the challenge." The Field Marshall nodded and made another note in his notebook.

The King went back to the map. "Is there any realistic chance we can win this war?" he asked. "With our better equipment we thought we were about evenly matched against the Carrowmen alone, but with the Radiants helping them?"

"If we can take the Radiants out of the war, we can still give a good account of ourselves," said Amberley. "Some of the men have been arming themselves with bows and arrows, tipping them with burning tar. How effective they'll be I have no idea."

"Radiants have to come close to cast curses," mused Larren. "The question is, how close do they have to be to cause an earthquake? The eight that attacked the city were all pretty low to the ground, but that may just have been so they could attack the palace. If they have to come low to start an earthquake, they'll be vulnerable to attack from the ground."