Fostering Faust 2, page 10
part #2 of Fostering Faust Series
“Mistress Anna will take care of it when we get back. She’s very generous,” Valeria said.
Sylvia and Valeria went into their own private discussion about clothes.
“What do you think, Two? I feel like they’re looking pretty broken,” Alex asked, glancing over to his bodyguard. “Might be time to throw a punch.”
Carla grunted, then handed the telescope to Nannie.
“You should ask the Numberless,” Carla said, glancing further down the line.
Quinn stood there surrounded by her house guard. She often sought him out and spoke with him at great length. The lessons he was giving her in leadership and ruling were being taken to heart. She’d even warmed up to him slowly. Today she was giving him some space for the arrival of his troops.
“Maybe,” Alex said.
“They’re ready,” Nannie growled. “Hungry, thirsty, and they’ve had to start killing their precious horses to eat ’em. That or watch them starve to death.
“You’ve strangled the life out of ’em. And not like how Three likes it.”
There was no malice in her words.
She just teased her in a friendly way. Didn’t she?
Valeria glanced up from her conversation with Sylvia, only to make eye contact and smile at the big woman.
Who immediately smiled back at her.
“Not everyone likes it as tenderly as you and One do, Five. Though I do envy the time he spends cuddling you afterward,” Valeria shot back.
Nannie turned a faint red, then laughed it off and looked back to the fort.
“Yeah, yeah. I have my needs and that’s cuddling—you have yours,” Nannie said. “Crush ’em, Master. Your plan worked.”
Alex wished he was as confident.
The enemy had certainly taken losses, but they’d also gained more. Their light cavalry was sitting at about a thousand strong, and their conscripts still boasted eight thousand.
He was outnumbered almost four to one.
“One, can you have one of your girls fetch me Drew, and then Arthur after he leaves?” Alex asked.
“Of course, Master,” Riley said immediately, her head turning to the rear of their viewing post.
His previous plan had brought him to this moment in time.
Everything up to this point had been well within his expectations, in one way or another.
The fact that it had been was one of the reasons he was nervous.
“Sire?” Drew asked, coming up from behind.
“Drew. I need you and the cavalry to take up a position and a mission for me,” Alex said.
“Of course, sire,” Drew said, his tone immediately shifting.
“I want you to run them down. Put yourself in a wedge, pack your people in tight, and run them down,” Alex said, then indicated the enemy force. “They’re not even carrying spears, or anything to stop a charge.”
“Gladly, sire. I’ll do it immediately,” Drew said. The sound of his horse turning and galloping off was swift.
“He’s been waiting for that order for a while,” Sylvia said.
“Of course he has. He’s a military man. It’s the right course of action. But they were too fresh before this.
“Too ready. Now they’re hurting. In more ways than one,” Alex said. “Drew will just blast and smash through them without resistance.
“They’ll fall back to the city and regroup. Maybe firm up their numbers, send out the light cavalry to try and harass Drew, or just retreat for the day.
“Sire?” Arthur asked, coming up behind Alex.
Turning in his saddle to address the man, Alex thought on how he might take this.
“Drew is going to run a charge down their throats. It’s likely the enemy’s light cav is going to come out to play.
“I want you and the light cav we have out there to provide Drew with the ability to get out safely. If they’re stupid enough to get close enough that you can engage them without fear of the conscript mass joining, do it long enough that Drew can get in there.
“Otherwise, don’t engage. Especially with that mass of peasants. Well, unless they don’t go anywhere and their light cav doesn’t help—then just rain arrows on ’em.
“Questions?” Alex asked.
Arthur thought on that for a moment, then shook his head.
“I understand, sire. Hit and run, skirmish, no engage,” Arthur said.
“You got it. A final note, though—if you see it, take the initiative. Be flexible,” Alex said.
Arthur saluted, wheeled his mount, and went racing off.
“He’s not terrible,” Valeria murmured.
“Yes, he doesn’t look at us as less than human like the other one does,” Sylvia agreed. “That one seems to view women derisively.”
Alex didn’t comment, but he knew Matthew wasn’t doing his best work. Nor was he being exactly kind to the peasantry.
In a private discussion with the man, Alex had promised that if he had one more report of civilians or citizens being mistreated, he’d have someone executed.
So far, there hadn’t been any more issues.
Though I wonder if it’s in my domain to execute a mercenary commander. Technically we’re not in Imperial lands.
Do the laws I hold to still work here? Or are they the queen’s laws?
Or could I have her have him killed?
Something to consider.
“So, uh… why didn’t they just… come take Fis’Er during this whole time?
“They kinda sat down right there and took a shit, and haven’t left,” Nannie said.
“What little he has in the way of supplies are all in that city. The moment he steps out of his fortified little bit of land, we’ll have the opportunity to ruin it for him.
“Honestly… there’re many things he could do to actually stop us. Or maybe even beat us. He’s just… not doing any of them,” Alex said directly.
“But you planned for those things. Right? I mean, you wouldn’t be out here if you hadn’t,” Nannie said.
All of his Numbered were looking to him now.
Turning his gaze to Nannie, he smirked.
“I had plans on how to react if he didn’t do what I expected or wanted, but that’s about it. I can’t plan for his actions, but I can plan on how I’d react,” Alex said with a shrug. “People are interesting and insane creatures.”
Nannie frowned at his words, her brows drawn close together. Slowly, her head turned back to the fort.
“I understand, Master,” Valeria said, her voice very soft at his side. He hadn’t realized it, but she’d somehow exchanged places with Riley. The other woman was now in a deep conversation with Sylvia. “It’s how you treat us all differently. It’s in how you work to break us all down and build us back up as well. You plan your reactions to what we’ll do, but not to the details of what we do.”
Smiling at Valeria, he quirked a brow.
You want a confirmation, do you?
Well. You’re not Sylvia, so this isn’t a game. You genuinely want to know.
In your head, you have no self-worth or value. Whether your desires, or your background, you don’t “deserve” kindness.
The idea of being given tender treatment fills you with dread.
So let’s answer your question with how we’ll start to fix you to serve me better, while breaking Riley further.
At the same time, we’ll be giving you exactly what you want.
“Want to help me break One a bit more later? She only needs a touch more work to be where I want her right now.
“I need her to watch someone else be truly loved, instead of her. I need to make love to one of the Numbered with her watching, and bathe them in attention.
“Deep, loving, desperate attention. For a while, too. As if they were the love of my life, my wife, and the mother of my children.
“You said you wanted to help? To become my tool? Here’s your chance.”
Valeria turned pale and blinked several times. Alex could practically feel her discomfort.
It matched everything he’d been thinking of her personality.
Then she slowly nodded her head a bit.
“Yes, Master. I will help. I want this,” Valeria said.
“Grand. Now, let’s focus on this first. Things might change and we’ll need to react.
“Rix may have screwed up so far, but that doesn’t mean he always will. If I were him, I could still make this work.”
Chapter 9
Drew’s cavalry were coming around the far side of the fort and the hill. The noise was ungodly, but it seemed as if the enemy didn’t even notice. Or didn’t care.
Cantering around the side, angled for the middle point of the massive group of peasants, Drew’s cavalry charged.
The rattle and clank of armor, weapons being cradled, horses pounding—suddenly, this was all the noise in the world.
Alex could feel the thrum of it all the way out where he was.
At the same time, Arthur and his people were moving at an easy trot in Drew’s wake. They were there mostly to play gatekeeper.
“You really think you could win if you were in this position?”
Looking to the speaker, Alex found Sylvia beside him. Valeria was now keeping Riley busy.
Nannie and Carla were discussing something by themselves. They had no real interest in war.
“I do. First off, it isn’t as if Rix didn’t know we had heavy cavalry. It was very well established, and his spies would have told him that,” Alex said.
“Spies?” Sylvia asked. “We’ve eliminated those, I thought. Valeria and her two people caught them.”
“We eliminated some, sure. To assume an enemy doesn’t have even an inkling, though, is folly. Especially with these wide-open fields, telescopes, and people who view us as an invading force.
“But, back to point. He knew. If it were me? Long, long, spears. Lots of them. Have those poor fools carry them everywhere, just in case. That simple bit alone would have prevented this,” Alex said, pointing to Drew. “Or at least greatly diminished the threat of it.”
Drew was just now carving through the heart of the enemy formation. His riders were pushing through as if the enemy were no different than a weak river crossing.
“Ok, what about the fact that you took away his water and supplies for their horses?” Sylvia said.
“The supplies. Easily fixed by breaking off a chunk of that number out there and moving to whatever city Alanna is holding. She doesn’t have that many soldiers. Or going to the city before that and creating a new hub. Rix didn’t even try. He just gave up.
“And the water? Pull out the corpses, boil the snot out of everything you draw after filtering it through a cloth with crushed charcoal bound up in it.
“Then boil it again just to be sure, followed by another filter. Then barrel it. Continue until you have enough stocked up. It sounds stupid, but it’d work.”
Alex frowned. He’d only looked into water filtration at all because his company had briefly explored options on how to let people drink while logged in.
He’d scrapped the idea far down the road. In the end, they couldn’t insure proper maintenance of the plumbing. If something went wrong, it would destroy the equipment and possibly kill the occupant.
Fat lot of good that worry did me.
Till now, I suppose.
“Far as I know, Rix had the bodies pulled out, people drank without boiling it and got sick. Now no one wants to touch it, even though it’s easy to care for,” Alex said.
It was surprising to him they hadn’t known how to treat the water correctly.
Then again, one couldn’t expect every civilization to have the same knowledge as another.
Drew’s people blasted out through the other side. Moving freely as if they were just going out for a ride.
There was no mistaking that he’d taken a few losses, though. It was unavoidable. Things happened.
“What about right now—how would you fight this?” Sylvia said.
“What, the cavalry charge? Probably run into the city as fast as possible. Dig in, defend. With the numbers I have, I could make it a bloody ugly thing if it went to street fighting.
“Then I’d fix my water, get my supply chain up and running, and try to kill the opposing general with an assassin,” Alex said. “Though I think Rix doesn’t have any competent people under him. I think when he purged the old king’s commanders and lieutenants, he did himself a disservice.
“There’s no one there to command that unruly mob.”
The gaggle of poorly trained, badly armed, and almost unarmored men and women seemed to collapse on themselves. Pressing closer and closer together.
“Arthur, if you’re a man of any sense, you’ll see this as a perfect time to fire into them,” Alex said. “They couldn’t be any closer packed. Almost no arrow would miss.”
Arthur’s troops rode along sedately.
“It would seem Arthur doesn’t share your thoughts, Master,” Sylvia said.
Sighing, Alex wished he had a better way to relay a message to his commander.
Drew cleared the field and began winding his way back to Alex’s position.
The light cavalry jumped forward suddenly, apparently satisfied that either the heavy cav was safe or they had noticed the enemy clumping up.
Oh?
Wheeling into a slow, angled arc, they moved toward the enemy forces.
Pulling up short, the riders began firing en masse.
“If I don’t misunderstand, Master, what you’re saying is… this battle was honestly over before it began,” Sylvia finished.
“It was only ever a battle to Rix. It was just an uncompleted plan to me,” Alex said, then turned to Sylvia. “Sometimes people are caught well before they notice.
“Not everyone is allowed to walk free from the trap, Four.”
Sylvia met his eyes, then gave him a smirk.
“I will never agree to that. I’m sure I could have figured out a way on my own, Master. You just didn’t play long enough,” Sylvia said.
“Uh huh,” Alex muttered, looking back to the field.
“Count?”
Looking to his other side, he found Quinn had walked her mount up to him.
“Yes, Quinn?” Alex asked after making sure none of her guards had followed.
She was frowning out at the field below, her eyes watching his troops.
“Do you think this’ll be over? Is this the end of it?” she asked.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Really comes down to whether they’re willing to give up or not. I doubt those conscripts are liking their lot in life right now.
“If Rix can’t secure their loyalty, this’ll end quickly. If he can, it’ll continue.
“This’ll become an anticlimactic surrender or a bloody grind to the end.”
“They should surrender because I’m the queen. There should be no other consideration,” groused Quinn.
“Rebellions rarely respect the governing bodies they’re attempting to depose,” Alex said with a shrug. “Though if you like, you could always send some of your people into the city. They could start working on the idea of surrendering.
“When that mob of people goes back home, they’ll find little joy in their worlds.”
“What? Why didn’t you suggest this previously?” Quinn asked. “Or why didn’t you do it yourself?”
“My people wouldn’t blend in very well,” Alex said, dismissively. “As to why not before this—because there was nothing for the desire to surrender to hold on to. There was discomfort before this, sure. But no actual fear of losing. They believed we were just heathens, and they had the superior numbers.
“They’ll have that fear of losing everything now.”
Arthur and his unit continued to fire into the enemy ranks. Arrow after arrow after arrow.
***
The unruly mob of combatants had fled into the city. Those who could carry friends did so.
Those who had no friends nearby, or couldn’t be carried, were left in the field.
Alex made a great show of collecting the wounded, caring for them, and sending them to a safe place to recover.
Those he was able to patch up and considered walking wounded, he sent back to Shishish. They’d serve much better than spies or Quinn’s people to speak about what the “outlanders” were doing.
Alex was sitting in a small office inside the fort outside Shishish. Ever since Rix’s army had fled into the city, they’d not come back out.
For anything.
It’d already been a week since that had happened.
Sighing, Alex tapped the envelope in front of him. Then he shifted it a bit to one side.
“It won’t become something else just because you don’t like it,” murmured Leah, appearing next to him.
“Hey,” Alex said after making eye contact with her. He looked back to the unopened envelope.
“Indeed,” Leah said. Leaning up against the wall, she looked bored. Dressed in her normal black and red leathers, she had the look of a thief.
The pretty goddess raised a brow at him. Her tawny-colored hair had grown out a bit longer since he’d seen her last. Though her dark emerald eyes were the same as ever.
“What’s up?” Alex asked.
“Bored,” Leah said.
“Ah. Well, you could help me with this letter,” Alex said. “I imagine it’s going to be a lot of angry vulgarity put into flowery speech on the part of the duchess.
“Probably starting or ending with the fact that I wasn’t there to receive her.”
“Close enough,” Leah said with a shrug. “She showed up with a marriage contract for you.”
“Oh? Huh. That’s a bit further along than I expected, honestly. I thought she’d still be working for position with the rest of her supporters,” Alex said, frowning.
“I could tell you how she did it, but it’ll be more fun for you to find out later,” Leah said. “As to the letter… not much to say about it. She just wants you to report in to her as soon as possible.”
“With lots of flowery cursing.”
“Yes. A great deal of that,” Leah agreed. “I must admit, though, I didn’t come entirely out of boredom.”
