Chapter 3: Strategies (3,8K)
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General Jace Wayland, protégé of King Valentine.
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Jace was having the best nap he'd had in weeks, when he was shaken awake. Instincts persuaded him to grab the small dagger he always kept on his person, swift as lightning and hold it against Lieutenant Lightwood's throat. For a moment he sat, suddenly alert, his blade pressed against the stiff Lieutenant bobbing Adam's apple, breathing heavily. Then, realizing who it was, he relaxed and fell back onto the pillow. Tiredly, he rubbed his knuckles over his face to erase any traces of sleep and got up.
"How long did you give me?"
"A couple of hours. I can't let you sleep more. All the men are ready to leave and waiting for your orders."
Jace shook his head, removing the crick in his neck and said:
"I'll sleep more tonight. Just give me ten minutes to freshen up. Meanwhile gather the Adjuvants in my tent, as well as Bane."
Without checking if his Lieutenant had understood his order, Jace left his tent and went straight to the stream to splash his face with cold water. For a couple of minutes, he squatted, listening to the cool, gushing water trying to figure out his next move. His capture hadn't just slowed down his mission, but had offered him a whole new perspective.
As he walked back through the camp, he noticed the small amounts of cooked food, which surprised him since there was wood not even a couple of miles away. Jace also noticed the sullen mood of his soldiers, and gathered that his month of captivity had been hard on them as well. The lack of action and purpose had taken its toll on them.
When he entered his tent, five men abruptly stopped their conversation, and turned to him. Jace noted the yellowed map lying on his barely-occupied bed..
There was Bane and Lightwood standing one next to the other, Bane looking preoccupied, staring into space. Jace's three adjuvants were standing in front of the politician and their Lieutenant. Jordan Kyle, Simon Lewis and Mark Blackthorn.
Jordan Kyle was the first man that Jace had taken under his command. He was the same age as Jace, but was taller and far more impressive on a physical level. Kyle was a brute on the battle field. He was not far from the 7 feet of height and the 220 pounds of mass. But his physical advantages were not what made Jace choose such a man to be under his command, it was Kyle's devotion to his troops on the battlefield. Kyle liked to be on the field, so much that he almost refused the rank Jace gave him. He liked battling his enemy, as much as saving his brothers in arms. He was a brute on the battlefield, but Jace knew for a fact that he was a sweetheart otherwise. The apple of his eye, Maia was proof enough of that.
Simon Lewis had been chosen for his unflinching honesty. Lewis was a man who liked to understand, and he never hesitated in asking questions to Jace concerning a mission he did not understand. Jace liked the fact that one of his soldiers (adjuvant in this case) never took his word for blindly and made sure to agree with what he was about to fight for. Unfortunately, both Jace and Lewis knew that he would never be more than an adjuvant. His vision was declining, and though Jace was the only one aware of this, they both knew that this shortcoming would always stop him from being at the head of an army. Jace kept the secret, and did all he could to prevent the humiliation of being retrograde, but there was only so much time before it got out.
Mark Blackthorn was another story. He had to fight his way into the army, and even more into Jace's. Neither Jace nor the General Graymark wanted Blackthorn in the army. Blackthorn was the sole heir of an eminent family that was specialized in spies. He had been raised as such, to take on the legacy. Jace had to admit that having someone trained the way Blackthorn had been was a considerable advantage. He knew about things that most people didn't and always looked at things in a whole different approach. But they all knew that when the time would be needed, Blackthorn would have to take on his legacy.
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."
"Have you been offered anything?" Bane asked Jace with temper, clearly not believing that Blackthorn could be the slightest right.
"My point exactly. They wore him out. The General is known to be extremely loyal to our King. Before buying his sword, they would have needed to break his spirit."
"Who cares? The General is no longer a prisoner. You can linger on all this political nonsense when we'll get back home," Kyle intervened, rolling his eyes to prove his disinterest on the topic. Jace slightly nodded approval, though he was as curious as Kyle to know who sent the mercenaries after him.
"You're dismissed," He said to the men in his tent, turning his back to them as he bent down to gather the maps that were on is bed. But as the men started to leave, an illumination came to him, and he stopped Bane: "I need you to stay for a couple of minutes, Bane. And Lightwood, tell the Mute to fetch me something to eat before we leave."
The officers left the tent, while Bane stayed with Jace; but Kyle stayed a second more than necessary, his eyes going from Jace, to Bane, to Lightwood. Jace rose an eyebrow at his Adjuvant, who remained stoic before finally leaving the tent. Jace waited to be sure that the tent was closed, to face Bane and inquire: "Have you already been to the Garroway Kingdom?"
"No."
"But the Mute has," Jace said for the foreigner. It seemed obvious to the blond man that the politician was voicing what the girl had told him earlier when he spoke of the location of the summer palace. Jace barely looked up to watch Bane nod, his eyes trying to understand the maze that were maps to him.
"The Mute was the one who knew we were heading in the wrong direction?"
"The Mute always knows way more than he lets to believe," Bane said, the ghost of an ironic smile lingering on his lips: and just at this moment, the Mute entered the tent with a bowl of fruit, and a gourd in her hands. Jace looked at her from head to toe, trying to see through her disguise now that the sun was on his side. But as usual, Jace only saw a frail and small Mute in front of him.
As soon as he took possession of the bowl of fruits, Jace viciously asked the girl: "Where are we?"
With satisfaction, he watched the young girl slowly take off the scarf covering her mouth, while he drank the fresh water from the gourd. He knew that very few people knew how to read maps. The King had tried again and again to explain this knowledge to Jace, but it had all been in vain.
"Camp is here, in a no-mans-land," The girl said after briefly looking at the map, and accentuating her words by pointing somewhere on the map. "The Garroway Kingdom starts where the Seelie forest stops -it's the forest we can see from here." Then she distanced her index and thumb, showing a permitter on the map as she kept going: "It's roughly fifty miles, give or take a few. The summer castle should be approximatively here, with the mountain protecting it from Northern invasion. From where we are, and if we cut by the forest, a rider alone can be there in two to three days if he doesn't ride fast."
Jace took in the information, keeping his surprise of her knowledge for himself. Briefly, he looked at Bane, who was already leaning to whisper something in the young girl's ear, but all she did was frown and shake negatively her head at whatever he told her.
"How long would it take if two riders go full speed?" Jace asked, his eyes on Bane to analyse his reaction. The girl didn't even look up, her eyes still on the map as she confidently affirmed:
"Two days. You would need to let the horses rest a little. If you leave now, you could be at the summer Palace before sundown tomorrow."
"But he won't leave now, since no one can show him the way."
The girl shrugged, showing that she knew perfectly what Jace had been implying all along and she said, resting a comforting hand on Bane's cheek: "Mags, this is not something I wish to fight on once more. We have orders, and they need to be followed, no matter who gives them."
Jace ticked a little at the crystalline sound of her voice before he cut short any protestation from Bane: "We're leaving in an hour. Be ready. Nothing heavy, we're not going to fight, just to see what we're up against."
"Angel, please ..." Bane started to plead, but the girl mercilessly shook her head, placing her scarf back on her mouth as she firmly said: "You heard the General. I have to go get ready."
The girl left without even looking back at Bane, and Jace saw in the foreigner's eyes worry mixed with love. But those emotions did not last long as the politician looked back at the General with determination as he threatened: "She better come back with you in one piece."
"Oh. So now, she's a she, is she?" Jace shot back, a cocky smile on his lips that Bane did not appreciate the least in the world. He seemed about to retort something less than friendly, when he deploys breathed through his nose, and looked in his clothes to give Jace a sealed letter:
"This is from our King. I was told to give you this when we would get close to the Garroway border."
Jace took the letter, keeping his emotions to himself while Bane walked to the entry of the tent. Jace had no idea what the letter might, though he hoped that King would give clearer instructions than the ones he gave him before leaving. Bane was about to leave the tent, when he stopped himself and turned to Jace, hesitation gleaming in his eyes:
"I am serious, Wayland. She can be very sneaky, especially when she has an idea in her head. I don't know what the King had told you, but you lead us to believe that King Luke was not going to survive your arrival to his Kingdom. If you are not sure toward this ending, make sure that she understands that a regicide is not in our best interests."
"Bane ... Why did you bring her, if you fear that she won't survive this mission?" Jace asked, curious to know why Bane allowed himself to take such a risk. It was obvious that the two had a very deep relationship, and Jace would have even suspected that the young girl was Bane's daughter if Bane hadn't been a foreigner.
Bane chuckled with dark humour, before saying with something that sounded like disbelief: "If I had any say, she wouldn't have come on that ridiculous mission. She brought herself here, because just like you, her first wish is to serve her Kingdom.
Jace nodded, knowing that this was the principal quality he always asked any of his soldiers. Bane left the tent, his cloak billowing behind him, leaving Jace to his thoughts and the letter. Not knowing what to expect, Jace slowly peeled the royal seal away and pulled out the worn-looking parchment.
Jace,
If you are reading this letter, you must be arriving toward the Garroway Kingdom, your head still probably unsure of what you should do concerning our last conversation. I know that I let you leave without clear orders on what you should do once you will meet King Luke, and rest assured that it is certainly not because I have no faith in you.
It is just that, sometimes, it is better to not let all the pressure of a mission rely on just one man's shoulders. Especially when this man happens to be someone I care deeply about. But that doesn't mean that I don't trust that you will take the right decision when the moment will come. I am sure that in due time, you will take the right decision for the sake of our Kingdom, because you know that the difference between a tyrant and a King is the same as what dissociates a hero from a monster-
"Compassion," Jace finished. This had probably been the first lesson that the King had taught Jace, how compassion was what was making a man, a man. But now that he was reading the short letter that his sovereign had written for him, Jace still did not know what he was supposed to do.
If he was following his instincts as a soldier, he would not show King Luke any sort of compassion, and end his life as swiftly as possible. it was what would be best for the Kingdom. Sure it might alienate a few other Kingdoms against the Morgensterns, but King Luke was not a man that would ever want to reason with any representer of the Morgenstern Kingdom.
To be honest, Jace did not know what started the war between the two Kings, but he knew that King Luke held a grudge very intense against King Valentine. For a very brief second, Jace considered the idea of summoning Bane and Blackthorn so they could completely debrief him on what they knew concerning King Luke, but he thought better about it, and decided that he would ask them when they all meet back after their respective missions. He didn't want to go that close to the summer Palace of his foe, with new opinions that might cloud his judgement.
As he left his tent and made sure that everyone was getting ready for their right assignment, Jace could hep but think at the first time he went on a mission for his King, and came back victorious.
"You seem worried, my King," Jace pointed out as the King sat on his bed. Jace had come back from his mission two days ago, and already then, Jace had thought that the King seemed more worried than usual.
The King kindly smiled to Jace, and patted the bed next to him for Jace to sit; and when Jace did so, King Valentine explained: "It happens, you know. I am getting too old to see people I care for going away, and not being sure of their return."
"I am a General. You shouldn't worry that much for me," Jace reasoned with a small smile, and the King had the same smile when he answered:
"Parents tend to have this habit to worry for their children, Jace."
Jace did not reply, perfectly aware of the King's feelings toward him. Instead, he told the King about his travel and how he conquered the Pangborn Kingdom. The King attentively listened, but when Jace started explaining his strategy of war, the King gently cut him, telling him:
"You know, Jace, there are other ways to win wars. Ways that don't require blood being shed."
Jace indulged himself with a small smile, before reminding his benefactor of something very vital in this logic: "I am not a good politician, Sire. You know very well that I would make a fool out of you, if you were to send me as a peace emissary, and not for war."
"That's only because you never gave much interest into politics. If you stayed at the Palace, I could teach you all the subtleties of that subtle art; and I wouldn't worry that I will never see you again."
Jace uncomfortably scratched the back of his neck. This request from King Valentine was something really recurrent in their conversations. Especially since he became General. But Jace never managed to accept the proposition that the King constatantly made to him to live with him at the Palace. Somehow, it felt wrong to Jace. As if he was invading a step too much in the King's life, even if he knew that the King would gladly see him make this step.
"You could order me to come with you at the Palace," Jace cautiously said, his eyes wary on the King, who indulged himself a little smile, shaking his head as he stated:
"Or I could learn to worry less, and stop trying to stop your dreams of conquering the world."
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💚Your thoughts and opinions are always welcomed💚
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~ So, I hope that you are ready for a cool war story, with action and romance in it, because yeah ... I love romance, in case you didn't notice.
~ And, now, question time:
' 1. What do you think of the relationship between Jace and the King?
' 2. What do you think of the three Adjuvants?
' 3. What do you think of the girl's lack of involvement toward Jace yelling at her?