Alutar: The Great Demon (33 page)

“King Boric?” echoed the colonel. “I know of no such king.”

Mitar smiled at the colonel. “King Vlador had a fatal accident,” he said. “Boric was his cousin and has been coronated. Whether or not you are familiar with the new king, your army is not welcome here.”

“So you say,” scowled the colonel. “I am not in the habit of taking orders from a bandit. My army will march to Calusa and determine the truth of the matter for ourselves. You would be wise to keep your bandits out of our way.”

“I am no bandit,” Mitar replied. “I am Colonel Mitar Vidson, Commander of the Alcean Rangers. As you will discover sooner or later, Alcea and Karamin are allied. I am sure that you are also aware that the Federation and Alcea are enemies. That makes your army an enemy of Karamin, and we will not allow you to proceed without penalty.”

Colonel Rhio stared at the men before him, wondering if what he was hearing was true, or if this man was trying to bluff him into turning his army around. He quickly decided that it did not matter. He had five thousand men at his back and there were not that many soldiers in all of Karamin. No one could stop him from riding into Calusa.

“You have delivered your threat,” Colonel Rhio said menacingly. “Now get your flag and your men off the road. I will return to the head of my army and order them southward. If you are still here when my column arrives, we will not honor your flag of truce. You have been warned.”

Colonel Rhio turned his horse to leave, but Mitar’s voice rang out behind him.

“You have had your first white flag, Colonel,” the Ranger said loudly. “You will be given two more chances, but be forewarned. There will be no fourth flag of truce.”

Colonel Rhio ignored the words and rode back to the column. When he turned around to lead the column, the Rangers and the flag were gone. His first order was to separate one company from the column and order them to precede the vanguard. He then ordered one squad into the forest on each side of the road to act as flankers. Confident that the Rangers would not be able to snipe at the column, Colonel Rhio started the army moving southward. Unknown to the Federation colonel, his flanking squads did not even last an hour. The soldiers were picked off silently with myric quills, and their horses were taken far away from the Calusa-Waxhaw Road and then released.

Three hours after the meeting under the flag of truce, Colonel Rhio’s column passed through a section of the road where ridges rose on both sides of the road. As the column passed though the trough, hundreds of arrows rained down on the Federation soldiers. The Federation column immediately fell into a defensive position, but no second volley came. The attack was already over. Companies sent into the woods to ferret out the attackers found no one. Colonel Rhio was incensed. The quick raid by the Rangers had cost him eight hundred men, including all of the black-cloaks assigned to the column. He also learned that the two squads he thought were guarding his flanks were no longer a part of his army. They were missing.

The words spoken at the first flag of truce had somehow made their way through the ranks of the Federation soldiers, and the colonel’s men began whispering about the Alcean Rangers as if they were ghosts. For the rest of the day, the Federation soldiers rode with a constant edge of nervousness running through the column. Men constantly scanned the forest for any sign of the Rangers, and more than one false alarm caused panic among the troops. Eventually, Colonel Rhio called an early halt to the column, hoping that the break would allow him to restore order to his troops and build their confidence for the continued journey to Calusa. He ordered a defensive camp established, and set a demanding sentry schedule for the night.

Nugget flew through the West Woods of Karamin and landed on Mitar’s shoulder.

“The camp is very secure,” reported the fairy. “I counted forty sentries surrounding the site.”

“How are they arranged?” asked Mitar Vidson.

“In two rings,” answered Nugget. “There is an outer ring of twenty men and then an inner ring of twenty. The rings are shifted slightly so that each man in the inner ring is between two men on the outer ring. I don’t think even a Ranger could get into the camp.”

“We will see about that,” smiled Mitar. “How far away from the camp are the sentries?”

“Pretty far,” replied Nugget. “I would say that the inner ring is around one hundred paces from the sleeping men. The outer ring is probably another hundred paces out from the inner ring.”

“That is a mistake,” noted Randi Witzak. “His outer ring should be closer to the inner ring. The men will lose sight of each other in the dark.”

“Every defensive plan has a weakness,” Mitar commented dryly. “We will exploit each weakness we find. Do the sentries appear alert, Nugget?”

“They are,” nodded the fairy. “They are also scared. I heard them calling us ghosts.”

“We might be able to take advantage of their fright,” suggested Jami Witzak. “If we just forget about the sentries and shoot past them, the sentries will probably bolt and run rather than counterattack. We could kill another five hundred or so before the camp is organized to defend itself.”

“I do not intend on killing the entire column unless we have to,” frowned Mitar. “I think just killing the forty sentries will produce the effect I want. Nugget, I am going to need two more fairies. Can you go to Calusa and get them for me?”

“It will take me two hours,” frowned the fairy. “Are you sure?”

“I am sure,” answered Mitar. “I want to let the camp have a change of guard before we attack anyway. Two hours will be fine.”

Nugget saluted and leaped into the air. Randi and Jami looked at Mitar questioningly.

“I hope you have a good plan for taking out the sentries,” frowned Jami. “While they did post the men too far apart, double rings are awfully hard to penetrate without waking the camp. We are likely to suffer some losses this night.”

“Not if things go according to plan,” smiled Mitar. “We aren’t going to penetrate the rings from the outside. We are going to attack from the inside.”

“What?” balked Randi. “How do you plan to get a hundred men inside their perimeter?”

“I don’t,” grinned Mitar. “It will be just the three of us inside the perimeter. The rest of the men will be outside the outer ring.”

“You are crazy,” gasped Jami. “You want us in between their sentries and the camp? How do we get in?”

“The fairies,” answered Mitar. “They will levitate us down inside the inner ring. Then while the fairies distract the inner ring, we will use myric quills to tear it apart. As soon as the inner ring is destroyed, our men will take out the outer ring. When that is done, we walk out of camp and prepare for tomorrow.”

“It just might work,” mused Randi, “but if we are already inside the inner ring, why settle for just the sentries?”

“King Arik wants the body count kept low if possible,” answered Mitar. “It was not an order, but I would like to oblige him if we can.”

“You really think you will get Rhio to surrender?” asked Jami.

“Possibly,” shrugged Mitar. “It is certainly worth a try.”

“So we just have to wait for the fairies to return then,” stated Randi. “Then we will see if your plan really works. Perhaps a nap is in order.”

“Actually,” smiled Mitar, “I have a task that needs to be completed before the fairies return. I want to leave a note on each body. We might as well get started on them.”

* * * *

Mitar Vidson felt his feet touch the ground. He bent his knees slightly as the fairy cancelled the levitation spell. He moved silently to the nearest tree and placed his back to it. He gazed up at the canopy and smiled. The night was dark and there were still two hours to go before the moon rose. He let his eyes rove over the encampment to see if anyone was awake, but as the fairies had promised, everyone in this area was sleeping. The Ranger reached down and pulled the reed from the small quiver at this side. He carefully selected a quill and fed it into the reed, numbers ticking off in his head. He turned and looked around the tree and sighted his first target. He waited patiently.

Suddenly, Colonel Rhio appeared between the two rings of sentries. He appeared to be inspecting his defensive rings, and he nodded to the men on his left, the men of the inner circle, as he passed by. The inner sentries’ eyes followed the colonel until he was out of sight, never noticing that the colonel’s footsteps made no sounds. Indeed, the outer circle was totally unaware of the colonel’s inspection. Mitar waited until the sentry on his right lost interest in the colonel. When that happened, Mitar moved up behind the sentry on his left. He blew a myric quill into the man’s neck and quickly stepped forward to ease the body to the ground and removed the quill. Pulling a note from his pouch, the Ranger leader stuffed it in the sentry’s mouth. He then faded back and moved to the left, refilling his reed as he snuck up on the next sentry. Six sentries later, Mitar came upon a body with a note stuffed in his mouth. The inner circle was gone. Mindful of the numbers ticking in his head, Mitar reversed course and headed toward the rendezvous point. Randi and Jami were waiting for him when he arrived, and he nodded silently to his fellow Rangers.

As the three Rangers waited silently for the numbers to play out, Mitar tried to find the outer sentries. The night was truly dark, but he managed to find two of them. The others were too far away to see. As the numbers dropped to zero, Mitar watched the two sentries of the outer ring drop to the ground at the same time. He nodded appreciatively and walked out of the camp with Randi and Jami right behind him. Within an hour, the moon was rising and the Rangers were back in their camp, bedding down for the night. At about the same time, the Federation camp was undergoing a changing of the guard. The first shouts of alarm woke the camp.

Once the Federation camp learned that there was no enemy to fight, the campfires were stoked to life and torches were lit. Colonel Rhio sent men in every direction to learn the full extent of what had happened. When the first man reported in, the colonel was not pleased.

“I am not sure how the men died,” the captain reported. “I could find no wounds on any of the bodies in my sector, but I did find this.” He handed one of the notes to the colonel.

The colonel frowned as he read the note. “Where was this found?” he asked.

“Stuffed in the mouth of one of the sentries,” answered the captain. “It has the men really shook up, Colonel.”

“Then perhaps you should not have shared it with the men,” scowled the colonel. “Surrender or die? Did you not stop to think what effect this note might have on morale?”

“I didn’t share the note with anyone,” the captain replied as he handed more of the notes to the colonel. “There was one of these notes stuffed in the mouth of each sentry in my sector. I assume that the other sectors also had notes. And you are right about the morale, Colonel. The men are scared, and rightfully so.”

“Rightfully so?” snapped the colonel. “Are you going yellow on me, Captain?”

The captain stiffened. “Colonel, my record speaks for itself. I have never shied away from a fight, I do not intend to start today, but the truth is what it is. The Rangers managed to steal into our camp and assassinate forty sentries while the rest of the camp slept. Why did they stop the attack at forty? We know from the attack yesterday that they must number at least one thousand. Why didn’t they kill us all? They certainly had the opportunity.”

Colonel Rhio stared at the captain for several moments and then sighed and shook his head. “They wanted to scare us, not kill us.”

“Understood,” agreed the captain, “but why?”

“To get us to surrender, of course,” answered the colonel. “I suspect that we will see another of their white flags in the morning.”

“I have no doubt about that,” nodded the captain. “But why seek a surrender from an army you could easily destroy? Something is going on that I do not understand.”

“Perhaps you should join me when they offer the white flag,” the colonel offered facetiously. “Then you can ask them yourself.”

“I think I will take you up on that offer,” the captain replied seriously. “I wonder if they will answer the question when it is put to them.”

* * * *

As expected, the Federation column saw the white flag less than an hour after breaking camp. Colonel Rhio and two soldiers rode forward. The captain hurried after them and joined the group. Colonel Rhio noted the captain’s presence, but he did not bother to berate the man.

“We meet again, Colonel Rhio,” greeted Mitar Vidson. “You are a hard man to convince. Are you ready to surrender?”

“What game are you playing?” snapped the colonel. “Do you really expect me to turn my army over to you?”

Mitar sighed and shook his head.

“Why are you seeking our surrender rather than killing us?” asked the captain.

Mitar raised an eyebrow at the question. “I do not think you would believe the answer,” he replied sincerely, “but your surrender is my goal. I would prefer not to kill all of your men, but I am prepared to do so if Colonel Rhio remains adamant.”

“I will be the judge of whether I believe you or not,” scowled the colonel. “Tell us the reason.”

“Very well,” Mitar replied evenly. “The Federation is being manipulated into war by demonic forces. These forces seek to cause the tears of millions in order to resurrect Alutar, the Great Demon. I believe that he is called Balmak in this land. King Arik has stated his desire to gain the surrender of Federation forces rather than kill them, but he also understands that victory must be achieved, one way or another. During the War in Alcea, we were forced to kill 65,000 Federation soldiers, but we also captured 175,000 men. Now that the War in Zara has begun, we are finding that we are being forced to kill more than we care to. I am trying my best to spare your lives to please my king. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

“That is nonsense,” scoffed Colonel Rhio.

“Then you tell me what my reason is,” retorted Mitar Vidson. “I could have destroyed your camp last night. Surely, you must know this. Tell me why I didn’t.”