The Knights of Alcea left their ale on the table and walked out the door. The stranger was still visible several blocks away. He appeared to be strolling aimlessly, and the Knights mounted their unicorns.
“I thought all of the Doors were guarded by fairies?” asked Wylan. “Why didn’t they warn us of his arrival?”
“And how would they know that we were there?” asked Sheri. “They are monitoring the Doors, not the common room. No doubt one of them is carrying word to Tagaret as we speak. Where is Twerp?”
“I sent him to Tagaret earlier today,” answered Wylan. “Although there was not anything to report, I wanted him to see if there was any news from the other Knights. He will be back soon. I will have him direct the Door fairies to report any usage directly to us.”
Sheri nodded and turned her unicorn towards the northern gates. “We had better use the northern exit from the city just in case the stranger sees us.”
Before they had gone a single block, Twerp glided down out of the sky and landed on Wylan’s shoulder.
“What is the news?” asked Wylan.
“Not much,” answered the fairy. “There was a late winter storm in Cordonia, and that is making it hard to get the Cordonian army into Targa, but there is not much else to report.”
“Nothing from Lanoir?” frowned Sheri. “Was Bin-lu able to neutralize the black-cloaks down there?”
“They haven’t heard yet. They had expected a report last night or this morning, but it had not arrived by the time I left Tagaret.”
“Bin-lu is capable,” stated Wylan. “He will succeed. Twerp, we are going for a ride north of the city to allow the enemy to enter the city. I want you to tell the fairies watching the Doors to report directly to Sheri and me before going on to Tagaret. We just had a Federation soldier walk through unexpectedly.”
“As you command,” saluted the tiny green man.
* * * *
The six Federation soldiers moved quietly through the woods of Lanoir. They were confident about bagging some game as they were excellent archers, and they moved with a stealth that most soldiers would envy. The well-coordinated group used hand signals to communicate, although they did not communicate much as the light of day was fading. A sudden rustling of the leaves caught their attention, and the leader of the group signaled for silence. Each man immediately halted and pivoted towards the distant sound, arrow nocked and ready for a deer to come bounding through the trees. What happened next was totally unexpected.
Bowstrings sang out from every direction, and four of the soldiers crumbled to the ground. The two remaining soldiers immediately dropped to the ground, their survival instincts demanding that they seek cover. For a moment, silence claimed the forest. Not a creature stirred. No birds chirped. Nothing made a sound. When the final bowstring snapped, the sound was like a clap of thunder on a clear night. The death gurgle of one of the two remaining soldiers sounded abnormally loud and lengthy. The sixth and final member of the team shivered with fear. He wanted to rise and flee the woods, but he could not move, his fear paralyzing him in place. He tried to remain invisible in the night, breathing shallowly even though his lungs ached for a gulp of air. Time slowed, seemingly stopping all together, as he waited for something to happen. Eventually sounds began to return to the forest. Night birds sang once again, and squirrels scurried up and down the trees. Whatever wraiths had inhabited the forest and shot arrows into his friends, they were gone.
The soldier gulped air greedily and slowly rose to his knees. The forest was darker than when they had entered it. He could not see the bodies of the first four men struck down, but he could see the last, and the arrow sticking out of his forehead. A tremor of revulsion rippled through the soldier and he turned and ran towards the camp.
* * * *
General Kolling was irritable. His legs were tired from walking, and he felt filthy. Road dust and sweat had turned his hair into a dense, tangled mat, and had made his uniform unbearable. He gritted his teeth as he felt the grime under his uniform clogging his pores and irritating his skin. He longed for a bath and headed straight towards the large tent that he could see in the distance. So he was more than a little upset when Colonel Ednor stepped in between him and the tent.
“We have problems, General,” stated the colonel.
“Tell me something I don’t already know, Colonel,” snapped the general. “I am already four hours late arriving in camp because there is not a single horse left alive in this entire army. I want a bath drawn immediately, and I want a meal served while I soak off this grime.” The colonel’s mouth opened to speak, but the general was not done. “And tell me why I did not have to pass any fortifications on my way into camp. This is only our second day in this country and already I am seeing laxness that I absolutely will not stand for.”
“There is no food,” the colonel blurted out.
The general stood staring at the colonel with a confused look. It took a few moments for the words to sink in.
“No food? What are you talking about?”
“The cache was empty,” stated the general. “There was not a lick of food left. It is all gone.”
“How is that possible? The first day’s cache was as it was supposed to be.”
“I do not know how it happened,” admitted the colonel, “but it was discovered when the first regiment arrived.”
“Send out foragers immediately,” ordered the general. “I will not have my army starve to death.”
“That is exactly what I did,” the colonel responded. “That is why the fortifications were ignored. I felt that obtaining food was a higher priority.”
“You do not send an entire regiment out to forage,” berated the general. “While I agree with your priorities, you have enough men to do both.”
“If it was simply foraging, I would agree,” frowned the colonel. “The foragers are being killed.”
“Killed? Who is killing my men?”
“We do not know,” the colonel said softly as some soldiers walked by. “I started by sending out teams of six men, figuring that the rest of the men could start on the fortifications. It didn’t take long to realize that we had a major problem. Each team of six men was attacked by unseen foes. In each and every case, one man returned alive, not a scratch on him. All of the survivors speak of an eerie attack, arrows flying from invisible archers. Not a single man will admit to having seen the enemy.”
“Preposterous,” scowled the general. “How can experienced hunters go into the woods and be killed without even a scent of the enemy. I don’t believe it.”
“I do not have an answer to that question, General,” conceded the colonel, “but I improvised as best I could. I started sending out whole squads. The men were not attacked, but neither did they come back with any game. Twenty men marching through the woods is not the way to hunt if you are depending on quickly caught game.”
General Kolling stood staring at the trees for a long time. Colonel Ednor remained silent, knowing that the general was formulating a response. Eventually the general sighed wearily and spoke with exasperation in his voice.
“Order my bath drawn, Colonel, and tell General Gertz to join me as soon as he arrives in camp. Pull all of the men out of the forest and put them to work on the fortifications. I want a double guard this evening, and no one is allowed to leave the encampment without express permission from me.”
“If I pull the hunting parties,” frowned the colonel, “the men will have nothing to eat tonight.”
“The men will go hungry this night,” declared the general, “but I will not risk being attacked without our fortifications built. In the daylight tomorrow, men will be assigned to forage as we march towards Ongchi. Then we shall see exactly who our enemy is. Once we have determined that, we will annihilate them.”