The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Thirty-Two

Never, before, had Olrick been in ameeting that was so tense.

Itwas really uncomfortable, to the point that Olrick could barely stand to be inthe room. At first, there was the usual sound of side chatter before itstarted, albeit a little more nervous than it normally was. The second Raulwalked into the room, however, the side chatter stopped entirely. There weren’tany mutterings under people’s breaths, jokes being told, nothing; Monbrandtdidn’t even complain about the ever-tardy Admiral Kylar.

Afterabout ten minutes of horrid silence, General Polain stood up and cleared histhroat. He was wearing his finest silks, worthy of the highest-ranking membersof Jotiese society, and he wasn’t the only one: he’d required every militarycommander that would be there to wear their finest military dress to themeeting, an order none of them challenged.

“Thankyou, everyone, for coming,” he said. “I’m afraid that Admiral Kylar has someother business to attend to at the moment, so we’ll get started, and he canarrive when it’s convenient for him to.” Though Polain kept himself calm andcomposed on the outside, Olrick could tell that he was pissed about Kylar’sabsence from such an important meeting: his posture was even more rigid than itusually was, and his face was emotionless as he did his best to cover up hisemotions.

Polainlooked over at Raul. “I would especially like to welcome General Raul totoday’s proceedings. It’s comforting to know that the men of the Gisken armywould like this conflict to end peacefully as much as we do.”

Bull! Olrick knew that Polain was justrehearsing the courtesies that had been knocked into his head in Jotai for mostof his life, but it pissed him off to hear that, even if he knew that it wasn’tgenuine. The Giskens didn’t want this to end peacefully; all they were doingwas keeping up the image of being chivalrous enough to try and get a peacetreaty to Mirinia, which, after nearly ten years, still hadn’t chosen a side inthis war.

Raulacknowledged the rest of them with a nod of his head. Like the rest of them, hewas dressed in his finer clothes: a dark blue doublet with silver buttons overa fine linen shirt, brown pants with the legs tucked into leather, knee highriding boots, and a fresh, white bandage over his eye.

“Pardonme if this is inappropriate, but why isn’t Queen Marion conducting thismeeting?” Raul asked as he looked over at Marion. She was sitting next toPolain, quietly glaring at Raul as she drummed her fingers on the sleeves ofher long, elegant, white dress. However, Olrick doubted that her anger wasentirely meant for Raul; she’d been really pissed at Polain for making her weara dress and not letting her take her sword to the meeting. “She’s of age tolead this country, isn’t she?”

“I’mafraid not,” Polain said. “Coronation age in Caitha is twenty, and she stillhas a month until then. I would much rather show her how these meetings proceedright now then have failure possibly be her teacher.”

Damn it, Polain! He shouldn’t havementioned that to Raul; now, not only did he know that Marion wasn’t in chargeof the country, yet, but that Polain was until her coronation next month. Raulnow knew more about their power structure than they knew about the Giskens’,and there was no doubt in his mind that the Gisken bastard would try andexploit it somehow.

Olrickmade a mental note to get more guards on Polain and Marion; knowing Raul’strack record with peace conferences, he’d probably send some of his men to killthem to decapitate the government before his men marched on Semata.

“Now,let’s get started,” Polain said as he sat back down. “How much have youconsidered a peace treaty, General Raul?”

“Alot, actually,” he said, scratching a place behind his ear. Olrick filed thataway for later too; that was probably a tell of his. “My men grow tired of war,and I feel that, soon, it may become the only way to resolve this.”

He’s lying. Raul’s voice was stiff withfalse courtesies, the same ones that every noble he’d ever met had gottenpounded into their heads since birth. Judging by the looks on Silas, Eza andeven Marion’s faces, they saw right through it, too. He was fairly certainPolain did, too, but his face remained neutral.

“Then,what terms are you willing to accept?” Polain asked. “Personally, I would liketo see my men return to their families after this conflict is over.”

“I’mnot sure that I can guarantee that, general; I’m sorry,” Raul said. “Most ofthe men in the invasion force are veterans of the Kurzhian campaign. They tendto see enemy soldiers as… less than human. I’m afraid that I’m not sure that Ican take away that instinct from them, as your Commander Olrick sadly learnedfor himself.”

Olrickbegan to rub the shoulder Raul had ordered Blair to dislocate. Every part ofhim wanted to call him out on his lies, but he didn’t; he didn’t want to ruinthis one chance they had to end this peacefully. Even Eza looked tense, likeshe was just barely hanging onto her calm demeanor.

“You’retheir general,” Marion said as she continued to glare at Raul. Gods, that was apoisonous look in her eyes; Olrick knew her pretty well (he’d practically grownup with her) and even he was a littleunnerved by it. “I’d think that your men would follow you to the ends of theearth, if you were half the general the rumors say you are.”

Theblood drained from Polain’s face in horror when he heard that; saying thingslike that went against everything he’d been taught and had tried to pass on toher. “Princess Marion, please don’t make me regret bringing you to thismeeting!”

“It’squite alright, General Polain; I can’t think of anyone of noble birth whowasn’t brash at this age, including myself,” Raul said with a dismissive wave ofhis hand. It looked like he was trying to be the bigger man. “In Gishk, membersof the military who surrender to their foes are not thought of well; they’rethought of to be less than dogs, really. Because of this belief, my men tend tobehave quite barbarically when confronted with a surrendered force. As much asI would like to, I don’t think I can just remove something as deeply rooted as that.I apologize if you don’t replace this acceptable, Princess Marion.”

Olrickcould see Marion tense up. Raul oversimplified things for her, as if she were achild. She hated it when people did that, especially when people that were herequals theoretically did it.

Raullooked back at Polain. “What other terms of surrender would you like todiscuss, general? I hope that there are some that would be possible for me toagree to.”

“Ifwe do end up surrendering to you, we want you to leave our civilians alone,”Eza said. Her Kurzhian accent with its rolled r’s and dark l’s began to showthrough her developed Caithian accent, the way it did when she was reallypissed. “No plundering, no razing, no raping, no killing; everything your mendid to the Kurzhians won’t be acceptable here.”

“Youspeak as if what happened there was acceptable to me in the first place,” Raulsaid stiffly. “I swear on my honor, if I catch any of my men doing anythinglike that, they’ll be sent right to the stocks, where they belong.”

Whathonor? Just in that first week of the invasion, Olrick saw him order somehorrific things: Milo’s and his father’s deaths, the burning of a small costalvillage; as far as he was concerned, any “honor” he might have had left afterhis other campaigns had been left on the southern coast.

Therest of the meeting went on in a similar fashion. Raul seemed cooperative andquick to agree with the terms Polain wanted, but Olrick’s instincts told himthat there was something horribly wrong with all this. There was something inthe way he said things and looked at all of them that didn’t sit right with him.It was almost as if, as he was talking to them about peace, he was planning allof their demises. He was imagining what Polain’s last words may be as hepublically executed in Jotai in the political purges, the half-assed escapeattempt Eza might come up with in order to keep herself from being sent back toKurzh, how horrible of a way Silas would meet his end at the hands of hisMirinian country men, how long it would take Olrick to die in a labor camp. Thesmile in Raul’s eye told him that he would really enjoy seeing all of theirdeaths.

Oncethey were done and had scheduled another meeting for the next week, Olrick,Eza, Silas and Kylar, who was back from the military duty that kept him fromattending the meeting with Raul, met in the lord’s alcove, waiting for Elise tocome back with more intelligence for them. Kylar wasn’t in the greatest ofshape: his clothes were cut, he had a bleeding gash over his eye that wouldalmost certainly leave a nasty scar, his light brown hair was disheveled everywhich way; he looked like he’d been through hell and back, but he still hadthat boyish grin on his face and overwhelming confidence in everything he did,as if the Mirinian admiral had just gone on some sort of adventure in anothertown.

“ThatRaul is pretty nerve racking, ain’t he?” Kylar asked as he pulled a flask outfrom his pocket. He began to swig as Silas snorted.

“Noshit,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “Besides, how the hell wouldyou know? You were off taking names most of that damned meeting!”

“Speakingof which, what happened in Jastan?” Olrick asked. “Was that tidbit ofintelligence useful for you?”

“Useful?”Kylar scoffed. “That city’s still in Caithian hands, thanks to you bastards!I’d give whoever your source is a few extra drams; we wouldn’t want to losethem.”

“That’sgood to hear,” Olrick said. “Our source should be coming, soon, actually. She’sbeen a little worried that what she’s doing might not be worth the risk; she’llbe glad to hear that.”

“She?”

Asan answer to Kylar’s question, the door opened and Elise walked in. She waswearing a simple, white serving dress with a white apron tied around her waist,just like the other female castle staff wore, and her blonde hair was tied in atail behind her head so it wouldn’t get in her way as she was working. She hada small piece of paper in her hand, just like she had a few weeks ago, whenshe’d copied the letter that had saved Jastan down during the ball.

“So,this is your mysterious source?” Kylar asked. The sound of an unfamiliar voicenearly made Elise jump out of her skin. She quickly bowed when she saw Kylar;it seemed that, despite the fact that he looked like some vagrant off thestreet, she knew who he was, if just vaguely. “On behalf of the city of Jastan,thank you for what you did.”

Elisefrowned in confusion. “Jastan?”

Olricknodded. “It’s the second largest port in Caitha. That report you got fromRaul’s room mentioned a possible attack on it, so we sent a few of our shipsand troops up there to defend it. Thanks to you, the city’s still under ourcontrol, and we have a little over 1,000 lest Giskens to worry about.”

Olrickcould see her swell up with pride a little. He knew that she’d be happy to hearthat.

Silasnodded at the piece of paper in her hand. “What life saving information do youhave, now?”

Eliselooked down at the piece of paper in her hand, then held it out to him. “I’mnot sure. I think it has to do with troop movements.” Eza took the piece ofpaper and began reading through the letter.

“Youspeak Gisken, too?” Kylar asked. Elise shook her head.

“Justenough to recognize a military report from a diplomatic one, sir,” she said. Sheturned to Silas. “That’s the original letter, by the way; a soldier walked injust as I’d closed the door, so I couldn’t copy it down like I did last time.”

Red flags went up inOlrick’s head. Had Elise been discovered? “And he didn’t seem suspicious?”

“He thought I wasthere to change the linens and dust the room.” Olrick sighed, relieved as everyoneturned toward Eza, who looked like she was finishing reading the letter.

“Whatdoes it say?” Silas asked.

Ezalooked up from the letter, her face its usual, stony mask. “The Giskens aremoving west from some costal town to join up with some Jotiese troops, who’vebeen working on invading the eastern portion of the country.”

“So,the Giskens have invaded every inch of coastline we have?” Silas asked.

“That’show it seems,” Kylar said, pulling a large, rolled up piece of paper frominside his coat. When he unrolled it and set it down on the table, Olrick sawthat it was a map of Caitha.

“They’reusing the same strategy they used in Chastia and Espa, both of which had smallarmies like us,” he continued as he began to trace the outline of Caitha withhis finger. “They’re taking a risk by spreading their troops fairly thin, butby encircling us like this, they’re forcing us to spread our troops eventhinner, if we want to keep them at bay.”

Kylar circled thelower part of Caitha, where Semata was. “We’ve been doing a fairly decent jobat keeping them at bay down here, where we know exactly what’s going on, butthe Giskens basically have free reign in the north.” He began to circle thenorthern part of the map. “They’ll probably be climbing through the Rayal Passwithin a month.”

For a minute or two,nobody spoke. The possibility of a Gisken take-over had hung over everyone’sfor almost a month like an executioner’s ax, but hearing Kylar’s estimate onhow much longer Caitha had left to be an independent country… it hit Olricklike a fist to the stomach. Eza looked bitter to know that her adoptive homewas about to suffer the same fate as her birthplace, Silas looked solemn toknow that he would have to go back to Mirinia soon, Elise looked terrified bythe prospect of living under Gisken rule; nobody in that room wanted to facelife under the Giskens.

“What are we going todo?” Elise asked herself. “Is our army capable of fighting them off?”

“Not the way thingsare going right now,” Silas said. “They’ve got their hands full just trying tokeep them bottled up down here; the way I see it, our best option is to get theMirinians on our side within the next few weeks.”

“Andlet’s be honest: that isn’t exactly going to happen,” Kylar said. “Mirinia’ssitting pretty the way things are right now; being a neutral arms supplier in awar as long and massive as this one is quite profitable, as it turns out.”

“So,we’re screwed?” Olrick asked as a pit began to form in his stomach. Could theyreally be so close to defeat after all the pain and heartache they went throughto keep the Giskens at bay?

“Don’tbe such a pessimist, my dear boy,” Kylar said, giving him a hearty slap on theback. “Mirinia isn’t our only hope ofsurvival.”

Silasnodded. “Technically, Abunaken is still neutral; the ones in the Gisken armyare just sell swords.”

Olrickfrowned, folding his arms over his chest. “Are you suggesting what I think youare?”

“Allwe need to do is hire about 50,000 Abunaki mercenaries and import them overhere,” Kylar said, as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. “It’s fool proof!”

“That’snot going to work,” Eza said flatly. “Not only would it take longer thanconvincing the Mirinians to help, but Polain would never go for it; it tooklong enough for him to agree to us training our mage recruits in their power, forgetabout an entire army filled with them.”

“Thenwe’ll just have to go over his head,” Kylar said. “We’re doing it with thiswhole spying on Raul venture; why not with this?”

“Keepingthe activities of a few people secret is one thing,” Olrick said. “Keeping anentire army secret, though… that’ssomething else entirely. The only way this could work is if Polain were toagree with it, something he isn’t going to do in time.”

Kylarlooked over at Eza. “Looks like you’re going to have to fire up those femininecharms of yours if we want to last the year.”

Ezalooked around at everyone, then sighed, shaking her head.

“Ifthe country really depends on my ‘feminine charms’, we really are screwed,” shesaid.

“That’sthe spirit,” Kylar said, taking a few swigs from his flask. Elise gave him aweird look; it seemed that after just a few minutes of knowing who he was,she’d already decided that he was crazy.

“Inthe mean time, we need to get more intelligence in the north and the east,”Silas said. “I’ll see if I can’t recruit some of the boys at headquarters to dosome more work for queen and country.” He looked over at Elise.

“Doyou feel comfortable going back into Raul’s room any time soon?” he asked. Elisefound herself nodding.

“Whenwill he be out of his room, again?” she asked.

“Asyou probably already know, there’s been rumors going around the castle thathe’s going out to explore the city with Polain,” Eza said. Elise nodded; she’dheard all about it from the kitchen staff while they cooked General Raul’ssupper a few nights ago. “An awfulidea on Polain’s part, but it at least provides us with an opportunity togather more intelligence, ourselves. We’ll let you know if they turn out to betrue and when he’s gone.”

“Inthe mean time, make sure you get this back to Raul’s room as soon as you can,”Olrick said. “Hopefully, it isn’t too late to get it back before Raul’snoticed.”