Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (48 page)

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Only the frequent small skirmishes,” Major Wylan said, answering Chancellor Vaen’s question of a moment before. “We win some, they win more. The situation suits them. They have enough troops in Seret at the moment to support a fairly major attack, but they have chosen to concentrate on fortifying their positions. They seem to have reached the limits of where they want to occupy, and while they guard that carefully, they haven’t attempted to expand further.”

Jolan, Vaen and Wylan were sitting in the Chancellor’s office for the informal meeting they held every afternoon. It gave them a chance to compare notes and brainstorm, although little progress had been made of late.

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The perimeter they’ve established seems to be driven by the range their planes can safely fly,” Jolan said. “To go farther they would have to fight conventional battles, where we have a bit of an advantage. They couldn’t rely on their planes to sway the outcome as they have done in the areas they now hold.”

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That might be about to change,” Major Wylan said.

Vaen looked at him sharply. “Why?”

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I just learned from my counterpart in Carta before coming here that Ale’ald has a plane on the ground at the northern occupied zone in Seret. They appear to be building a facility for the planes on this side of the river.”

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That will greatly expand the range of the aircraft, won’t it?”

Jolan nodded. “This isn’t good news. Now that they have the bridges in place they can bring more material across the river. They have also been using two of the steamships to freight heavy items across from Kimlelm. If they can get the planes and supporting equipment in place, they will be able to fly much more deeply into Seret since they no longer have to fly from the other side of the river. Once they have that capability, they will probably use the same attack approach using the planes to drop bombs from the air and push us back.”

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Will they be able to fly as far as Carta?” Vaen asked.

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I still don’t know the range of the vehicles. I need to see one to make that kind of guess. But, I doubt it. From the perimeter they have established, and the fact Carta is almost entirely surrounded by mountains, I don’t think they can get there. Belth, however, would be gravely at risk.”

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If Belth falls, they would have control of much of the northern shore of the river, and would have close access to the Kimlelm ports they now own,” Vaen remarked. “It would be much simpler for them to supply their troops.”

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It’s also a pretty straight road from Belth to Carta. With enough troops they would be in a good position to make such an assault,” Wylan added.

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Haven’t our spies learned anything about where the planes are launching from?” Jolan asked frustrated. They had been looking for several weeks now.

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We know the general area,” Wylan said. “That has been relatively easy because one can watch as they leave and return. The departures are quite obvious because the gliders use a booster that is quite noisy and leaves a smoke trail. But our enemy has been crafty about this. While they allow the people of Kimlelm relatively free access in certain areas, they have large areas that are completely off limits. Shoot-on-sight, as it were. The planes are coming from one of these areas, a small town called Balou. Ale’ald has completely taken it over. They have moved out all of the locals, and only select Ale’ald military personnel are allowed into the area. The area surrounding the town is heavily wooded, and once the planes disappear over the trees we don’t know where in the occupied city on the other side they are going. Since the woods are heavily patrolled by both troops and wizards, no one has been able to get inside to have a look and determine exactly where the planes are stored.”

Jolan suspected he could get inside. A combination of his undetectable shield-pair and the cloaking spell he’d gotten from Utar would make him almost impossible to locate. He knew that Vaen would object, but these planes were the major obstacle they faced.

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What about the boats and their command centers?”

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We know at least eight warehouses where they store the boats. No action has been taken since the boats aren’t being used at the moment, and we don’t want to alert them to our network until we are ready to do something about the planes. Same with their command structure. We could hit a few wizards, but we have been doing that. They seem to have an abundant supply, and why alert them until something important surfaces?”

If Ale’ald started locating the planes in Seret, Wylan’s people would know where they were which would possibly offer more opportunity to get at them, but Jolan wanted to find them at the source. It was unfortunate that neither of the occupied areas that Ale’ald had claimed had one of the portals hidden inside. Luck had not been on their side of late.

Jolan was sure that Ale’ald would hold a reserve of planes back in Kimlelm rather than commit the entire airforce to Seret, which would make taking back the river a difficult situation for as long as the enemy had planes. There had to be a limited supply of them, and if he could locate the airfield they could mount an attack at night while they were all on the ground. That way they might eliminate the entire fleet, at least for the moment. Until he could find out where they were being made, there was always the risk of more being shipped into the area.

He was about to suggest to Vaen that maybe he should take on a scouting mission when Tishe knocked and walked into the room. Vaen’s assistant wouldn’t have even let Tishe in unless it was important, so Vaen motioned for her to enter.

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I communicated with Shyar a little while ago,” she said without preamble. “She’s been making progress. I sense she expects to be able to free herself from the cage they are keeping her in before much longer,” she said looking at Jolan.

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That’s good news Tishe,” Vaen said, “but it could have waited a bit.”

Tishe shook her head. “I sent her a mental picture of the planes and tried to indicate our frustration with them. Jolan said he’d bet she’d have an idea if she were here. That’s why I tried. It’s maddening trying to communicate this way, but she got the idea. She has a suggestion.”

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Shyar sent you an idea?” Jolan asked amazed. “She is captive in Ale’ald and she is coming up with ideas for us?”

Tishe nodded and then hesitated. “She wants us to throw rocks at it.”

Jolan was speechless and Wylan burst out laughing. “Rocks? For Dragons sake. You must have misunderstood her. You said communication was difficult.”

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Not rocks,” Tishe said. “Big rocks!” She placed a large piece of stone on the table. It was a bit more than eight inches in diameter. “Like this, maybe a bit bigger. Not one or two at a time, but a whole swarm of them at the same time.”

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Isn’t the plane shielded?” Wylan asked.

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We don’t know how well. Probably not the whole of the wings and tail assembly. That would be stretching the shield pretty far. Most likely the main structure and the passenger compartment. Even if it is, it isn’t anchored. I’ve flown with Jolan. A small plane gets knocked around even by the wind. If a hundred pounds of rock suddenly slammed into the shield, it would knock the plane around pretty good. It might even tip it over. I’ll bet the plane isn’t shielded on the top. With two or three mages lofting these big stones at it, I’ll bet we could break it enough to make it crash. Jolan said these are far more fragile than the plane he and I flew in.”

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Tishe,” Vaen said. “I don’t know if I could throw rocks that high, even with magic.”

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I can,” she said. “I tried a little while ago. I went over to the cliffs, and tossed a pile like this into the air and out to sea. You’d be amazed how high you can throw them if you try.”

Jolan would have to try and see what he could do. He’d bring a couple of other mages along to try as well. An idea was starting to form. If this worked, maybe they could get a plane for him to look over and, even better, they might get a pilot. A pilot could be encouraged to tell them a great deal they’d like to know.

Tishe was the easy winner of the rock lofting contest. She could best Jolan by a wide margin, even though he had an additional boost provided by the magic amplifier. The rocks were thrown with enough velocity to go far higher than they could have reached with their magic directly. One other mage seemed to do quite well at the sport, and he was tagged as a likely candidate for the mission if they decided to go forward. Jolan also selected a couple of student mages who did reasonably well, even though their efforts would fall short if the plane were much above the usual drop altitude the enemy was using. The rest of the mages couldn’t put the rocks up high enough to do any good.

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The idea has merit,” Jolan said when the group had reassembled in Vaen’s office. “I don’t know how many times we can use it. Once they figure out what we are doing they will probably fly a bit higher, if they can. It wouldn’t take too much more altitude to be out of the range of all but Tishe.”

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You actually think there is a chance of bringing down one of the planes this way?” Wylan asked.

Jolan nodded. “Yes. They have a few weaknesses we can exploit. They can’t use lockdown for the shield they have deployed. That means enough force against it would cause everything inside the shield to be displaced. Tishe is correct that we might be able to tip the plane or possibly break something that is outside the shielded area. Depending on the abilities of the wizard on board, he may not be able to shield the whole aircraft effectively. With the very large wingspan this thing has, it’s a big object.

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It’s unlikely that the top side of the glider is shielded. To maximize strength, all the shielding effort would most likely be directed toward the threat. If some of the rocks are lofted above the plane and drop on it from above or the plane simply runs into them, the results could be what we are seeking as well. Finally, anything that causes the plane to lose altitude helps us. Because of the limitations, it can only regain altitude very slowly, if at all.”

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If you succeed, then what?” Wylan asked.

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We bring back as much of the glider as we can. That will give us a chance to examine it for weaknesses and capability. Both will help us to come up with a better solution to the threat. We should also have a pilot to question, which may be even more important at the moment. A pilot can be encouraged to tell us a great deal about their operations, including where they are based.”

Jolan had no misconceptions about the treatment the pilot would receive. No one on Gaea had any humanitarian restrictions provided for captured enemies such as existed back on Earth. The pilot would yield everything he knew, and would most likely not survive the debriefing.

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How would we work this?” Vaen asked.

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We could send in a larger force than usual. Something to attract their attention. We’d have to do it carefully, so something didn’t look unusual. Probably spread the effort over a couple of days to make it look more natural. Perhaps we could start moving in a large number of soldiers closer to the boundary. Make it look like we are gearing up for a major assault. Then a large group could start moving toward the occupied lands, maybe a thousand or so men. Based on recent experience, they would most likely send a glider to investigate, or to attack. We’d actually like them to try an attack as the gliders pass lower when they are planning on dropping the gas.”

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That’s going to put a lot of soldiers at risk,” Wylan said. Vaen nodded. “Do you need that many men?”

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We need enough to attract their attention and encourage an attack response. We also need to be prepared for ground troops being sent, although hopefully we can bring down the glider and vacate the area before they can engage us. It will depend on how proactive they are once they see the initial force moving into the area. They may preposition their own forces. We also need manpower to haul out parts of the plane. Some of the pieces will be large, but for the most part not too heavy.”

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I’m still concerned we are placing the men at risk.”

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We’d have a very large number of mages in the ranks. Far more than typical for such a force. Most of the mages would be tasked with shielding the troops against any deployment of the poison gas. Also from falling rocks. Only a few of us would be involved with launching the rocks at the target. We know this works, we just usually don’t have enough mages to do it effectively. This time we will be prepared, since we know what we hope to goad the enemy into doing.”

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Since the men have to be moving to make the “attack” look real, how are you going to be certain of having enough rocks at the time you need them?”

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We’ll have a number of men assigned to carry one large rock each in their gear. We can practice how this will work, but when the plane is spotted, pre-designated teams will stack the rocks in piles, ready for launching. I think I’d also have a dozen of the best riflemen equipped with coppered bullets. If we bring the plane lower, but don’t bring it down, they might have a chance of shooting through the shield.”

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How soon?” Vaen asked, convinced the plan had a chance. “We need to do something to dissuade continued use of those gliders. They have cost us dearly already.”

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End of the week,” Jolan said looking at Wylan for confirmation. Wylan had to get the troops in place and ready. Jolan only needed to show up with a few mages.