Captured Imperial Encampment

  Major Lucia, Commander of the 4th Tanaoi Battalion.

  I paced around the Imperial tent, filled with books and velum missives and reports. Great chests that a more civilised people would fill with treasure but the Imperials filled with papers that had long since served their uses. I sighed, sitting at a chair and table far too small for me and hunched over a letter spttered with the watery Imperial ink.

  I preferred the Ink bricks that Her Majesty created. With them you only added enough water to wet a brush or quill rather than tiny bottles that tipped over at the slightest push. I licked my lips and pinched the tiny quill in my hand, leg bouncing as I carefully scrawled the letters onto the paper.

  A line of writing done, I set the quill down and got to my feet and began to pace once more clenching and unclenching my hands and easing the tension that filled my gut whenever I had to write something. I gnced over at my Queen, her eyes closed and ears twitching now and then as she shifted in her sleep. Her mouth opened slightly as she drew in breath.

  I felt something like awe and failed to resist the compulsion to stalk over to her cot.

  She seemed so at peace, totally at odds with the intensity she showed at every waking moment. I found myself reaching forward to brush a lock of hair from her face before pulling my hand back as if it had touched fire as Tanya began to blink herself awake with a frustrated groan.

  “Good afternoon your majesty.” I said, raising to my full hight as she squinted up at me.

  “Major, do you have a report for me?” She said, reaching for a water skin with boiled water inside as she liked it.

  “After you were put to bed we managed a full headcount, we suffered six hundred minor wounded and two hundred killed or seriously wounded.” She nodded along as she took long sups of her waterskin. “Of the enemy we scarcely managed to kill one thousand of their number, what few captives were taken were offered to our ensved Sisters to exact their right of reprisal.” Rightfully so. May their blood fortify the spirit of the living. “We have failed to shatter their horsemen in the field my Queen. I beg for your forgiveness but they still outnumber us.”

  “Forgiveness is unnecessary, inflicting casualties to their cavalry forces was never a priority objective and was never reasonably within our capabilities.” She drummed her fingers on the desk and took up the report I was working on with an unreadable expression.

  “The Imperials will just regroup.” I stated.

  “Yes.” Her sharp eyes flicked to me. “They are a well trained and mobile formation. Highly motivated due to being the sons of veterans and merchants. The Equites will rapidly regroup but we have accomplished our objective. The baggage train is captured and thus any operations in the area the Equites engage with are diminished, they will grow hungry and unable to act soon enough. They can push south to reinforce the city but by the time they arrive they will be starving and exhausted.” Tanya hummed quietly as she considered the matter.

  “Or they could push north to rejoin the main Imperial force and thus cast away any advantage gleaned from their rapid advance.” Tanya continued. “Or perhaps they will go east and raid the various Imperial settlements and smallholdings for grain and meat. Perhaps they will even gather enough to continue to operate but that will take time and we will have moved on by then.” I considered her words and found little fault in them. Our Queen had a queer mind for war that befitted one so blessed by Emroy, there were few who could cim not to love the thrill of battle and bloodletting but Emroy was beyond such things.

  The Mad God represented war in its totality, from the raiding of farms to the stockpiling of warchests, to the recruitment of soldiers and the marching of thousands across endless battlefields. Emroy was the God of war in all of its forms. I could not hope to understand the pure form of war itself just as any who do not dedicate themselves totally to the worship of Duncan could understand the secrets of Steel and Mithril.

  There was a dangerous and enticing madness behind the deadly calm of our Queen. One that had taunted my dreams and nightmares since the day she had drank from her sister's skull and cimed the Tanaoi in its totality. She had not gloated or celebrated nor had she wept for the lost life and Storge. She had simply concluded her first conquest, war itself, without condonation, without condemnation.

  She cocked her head at me as I stared into her eyes and I quickly looked away, face burning with shame, perhaps. I quickly returned to the subject at hand.

  “But these are the threat to our fnks as you have said many times before? Is it not wise to force battle again. To do away with these Equites now and not be harried by them ter?” She nodded and drank again from her waterskin as I spoke.

  “Perhaps it would be best to remain here and destroy in detail the Cavalry, but it will require time and many women to do so. Most casualties in a battle are not in the battle itself, but in the routing of an enemy, as they run they are cut down or surrender. except in the cases where Lepus do battle of course.” I grinned at that, it was quite true that the Lepus fought more fiercely than most. It was not uncommon for Lepus warbands at odds with each other to sy each other to the st woman in battle. Humans, Orcs and especially Goblins however would skirmish until their spirits were overwhelmed and flee if just a few of their number died.

  “With their horses many can flee the battle before they are cut down.” I stated.

  “Exactly.” Tanya agreed. “Their mobility prevents us from getting any single conclusive battle. It is best that we move on as quickly as possible, we will take the freed Lepus to the migratory encampment and integrate them among our number before marching on Kontia... Enya must be made aware that her blockade of the city must continue for perhaps as much as a week longer without support.” She again began to drum her fingers upon the table.

  “Can we not send a company or two ahead to Enya? With the horses we have captured we can furnish two full companies with two horses for every woman.” I pointed out.

  “That is a fine idea.” Tanya nodded. “It will perhaps require a reformation of two companies... Bring to me any woman who has ridden a horse, I intend to inspect the equipment we have captured.”

  “As you will, my Queen.” I offered her a salute and received one in turn as I set about her orders. Gd to have an excuse to be done with the frustration of writing.

  Captured Imperial Encampment

  Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi.

  By my reckoning we had done well in the battle. The total estimation for the enemy forces numbered around twelve thousand cavalry. At least eight hundred of them had been killed with a few hundred taken captive during the battle itself and more had been killed into the following day as my army secured an area of roughly ten miles around the encampment to forage from. I was unfortunately unable to capture the commander of this force and the captives did not have any important intelligence to share so I had provided the captives to the freed Lepus sves to do with as they pleased.

  I had been indisposed for around fourteen hours due to exhaustion brought about by Mana deprivation. Even now my reserves were limited, yet another stark reminder that I was not half the mage Degurechaff had been.

  Putting nostalgia out of my mind lest I weep for ck of chocote in this life I turned instead to the loot taken from the camp and from the dead and captured Cavalrymen. Such an inspection had required that I travel through the camp to the tents that had been earmarked for the loot to be stored and sorted at.

  It was rather uncomfortable to see Lepus bow at my passing or weep with joy at a mere nod. But I had seen the traumas inflicted by the horrors of trench warfare on the minds of young men. When someone is so beset by an uncaring grim reality any hope becomes such a balm to the spirit that it would often overwhelm otherwise rational people. What the freed Lepus had suffered was not the same, but the damage done to them was simir.

  When I reached the camp stockpile I was impressed with the quality of the traveling equipment and the amount of supplies the Imperial force had brought with them on the backs of the Lepus sves but then again this force was no doubt made up of Equites.

  They were the equivalent of the middle css in Saderan society, sons of wealthy merchants and veterans who had enough money to purchase their own equipment and thus receive a better posting in the Legions then a normal Plebeian as well as greater pay. I understood that they each had three or four votes each due to their social css in the Imperial ‘Democracy’ The Equites were also possessed of a fearsome reputation in the Empire as very competent fighters who had impressive discipline.

  I did not know the truth of such cims but I did not doubt that they were well trained and a capable formation. More Lepus had died in the battle then I would have liked even if the result was better than expected. If the Wyvern Knights had actually managed a strafing run of my army I doubted that the casualties would number less than a thousand.

  On the subject of the Wyvern Knights. While the Wyverns I had killed were being butchered for meat, scales and bones the corpses of the Knights themselves were also recovered and dragged back to camp. They had died when their mounts crashed into the earth, unfortunately damaging their equipment but what was recovered was rather interesting.

  The Wyvern Knights were not cd in armour, but cotton, leather and furs. Bundled up enough that moving in such clothes would be awkward. They even possessed crystal goggles sealed with wax making them look more like arctic explorers than ‘knights’. They also possessed a half face mask with a rge cut gemstone pulsing with arcane energies that would rest over the mouth.

  I had assumed that it would be a form of oxygen generating stone to allow the Knights to operate comfortably at higher altitudes but instead an examination of the enchantment showed that the stone did little but draw in as much air from one end as possible, heat it up slightly and push it out the other end.

  I was unsure what the exact intention of the mask was and neither of the Knights were exactly in a state to inform me themselves. One of the masks was broken regardless and I could not think of a use for the second but it would no doubt hold some monetary value. A stone that would pull in air from one half and push it out of the other had a dizzying number of use cases and while the rune had been cut into a gemstone for a good reason, if I had the right materials I could likely copy the design at the very least.

  The Knights were also draped in chains that they would use to attach themselves to their Wyverns and to the long nces that I could only presume were used against other Wyvern Knights. In truth the equipment they possessed was interesting, with several maps and writing implements that would be added to my collection. But there was little else of practical use. The weapon they employed was obviously the Wyvern itself and they would do little except fill the bellies of my army.

  The Equites on the other hand were quite the prize. Their armour was not uniform but all of them were possessed of chain or pte chest pieces with enchantments and a steel sword. Several of the pieces had been utterly destroyed, most notably the people struck by cannonball had their armour’s enchantments fail so utterly that the crystals stabilising the enchantment had burst and were worthless.

  As I left the tents holding the looted goods I found that Lucia had arrayed four hundred women from a dozen companies in front of me. I doubted that so many of the Tanaoi knew how to ride and care for horses as they served more as food for Lepus than a beast of burden. But I inspected them, casting off the younger soldiers who were clearly lying gloryseekers. With the remaining three hundred Lepus who I had no doubt had many who were not honest about their experience with horsemanship I fitted them with the best of the Equites armour. Steel and chain pte, two horses each, steel bdes and enough grain to st two weeks for women and their mounts.

  They were formed into brand new companies and sent out to ride at full speed to Kontia and support Enya’s blockade and inform her of the events she was not privy to.

  With Enya’s reinforcements attended to I turned to the task of readying the camp to be picked up and to return to the main migration. It was not a simple thing to relocate over eight thousand Tanaoi soldiers and another six thousand freed Lepus sves that had already been marched half to death. It would take me days at the very least to rejoin the main camp and to then move them south to Kontia together.

  I ordered my officers to assemble all of the over eight hundred sergeants in the army. Moving this many people would begin and end with them after all.

  Defeating the Cavalry force had offered us time, I did not intend to waste it.

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