“Any trouble?” asked General Fortella.
“None, Force Leader,” answered General Whitman. “If there is an enemy army in the area, they are remaining unseen.”
“There is no enemy army between us and Tagaret, Whitman,” stated General Fortella. “The only thing between us and our objective is eight long days of marching, and we will begin that momentarily. I sent a messenger to you early this morning with details of our formation, but I will go through them again now just to be sure we are clear on everything.”
“I received the message and understand it, General,” stated General Whitman.
General Fortella ignored Whitman and continued, “My cavalry will be the forward scouts and vanguard. The 24th Corps cavalry will be our rear guard. Inside those extremes, the 2nd Corps infantry will precede the 24th infantry. Both black-cloak contingents will ride together in between our two armies. Their presence has an adverse effect on the soldiers and placing them between the two armies will be the least disruptive place for them. The 2nd Corps will be responsible for erecting the camps. The 24th Corps will be responsible for disassembly, policing the grounds, and foraging should it become necessary. Do you have any problems with these instructions?”
“None whatsoever, General,” replied the Aertan.
“Good,” General Fortella smiled tautly. “Then we shall get along just fine, Whitman. The 2nd Corps will be setting the pace, and we will not slow down for stragglers. Make sure that the 24th Corps doesn’t linger too far behind. You wouldn’t want to be left isolated in enemy territory.”
General Whitman swallowed hard as General Fortella turned his horse and started ordering his cavalry to move out.
Chapter 19
Day Seven
Two unicorns glided low over the Sordoan forest until they came to the coastal ridge between Pontek and Trekum. With powerful strokes of their massive wings, the unicorns rose up the western slope of the ridge and glided to a landing on the long, narrow crest. Tedi and Natia glanced around to get their bearings as scores of dwarves dropped their hammers and picked up their axes.
“Get back to your posts,” growled a surly dwarf. “If you don’t recognize Knights of Alcea when you see them, you need to report to a healer and have your eyes checked.”
Natia stifled a giggle as the surly dwarf approached the Knights of Alcea.
“You’re a mean one now, aren’t you, Kroto?” greeted Tedi.
“It’s the only tone some of these miners understand,” laughed the dwarven magician. “If I wasn’t here watching over them, they would probably be splitting open a keg of ale.”
Natia glanced around in amazement. For as far as she could see in each direction, dwarves lined the crest of the ridge. Near each dwarf were two types of metal spikes in the ground. The larger type was very wide, and it tapered off as it got closer to the ground. Those spikes had been driven into the rock very close to the far edge of the crest. The smaller type looked like a large chisel except it had a hole bored through the top. The smaller spikes were sunk into the rock farther away from the edge of the crest and each one of them had a large coil of rope alongside it. One end of the rope had been passed through the hole in the chisel and tied in a knot. Kroto smiled when he saw what Natia was looking at, his large mouth splitting his broad face with a toothy grin.
“I think you’ll be needing to talk to Prince Darok,” said Kroto. “You’ve no doubt come to watch the show. Follow me.”
Tedi and Natia dismounted and followed the dwarf mage. For several minutes they marched past the waiting dwarves, and Natia shook her head in amazement. Natia tried to count the number of dwarves that they passed, but she lost count when Kroto quickened his step.
“I’m sorry to point and run,” apologized Kroto, “but I need to get back to my station. The call may come at any moment. Prince Darok is just ahead. Keep going.”
“What is going on here?” Natia asked Tedi.
“I am not entirely sure,” admitted Tedi, “but Alex said we should see it. I gather it is some scheme that Alex and Prince Darok hatched up last fall.”
The Knights of Alcea continued onward until they came to a cluster of dwarves. Prince Darok was in the center of them, so the Knights of Alcea waited patiently for the gathering to break up. The wait was not long. Prince Darok clapped his hands with an air of finality, and the group of dwarves scattered, some of them racing past Tedi and Natia. The dwarven Knight of Alcea spotted Tedi and Natia and waved them to him with a sense of urgency. The gypsies ran to his side.
“So, you’ve come to see what evil lurks in the minds of dwarven sappers, eh?” chuckled Prince Darok. “You are just in time then.”
“What is going on?” asked Natia.
Prince Darok grinned broadly. “Take a wee peek over the edge, lass, but don’t be obvious about it. We don’t want to be tipping our hand just yet.”
Tedi and Natia both moved closer to the edge and peered down. Natia gasped. Several hundred paces below her, a huge Federation army marched along a thin strip of road at the base of the cliff. Beyond the thin strip of road was the Sordoan Sea. The army stretched as far to the left as she could see, and a fair distance to the right as well. Tedi pulled Natia back from the edge, and they returned to Prince Darok.
“General Gattas?” asked Tedi.
“And General Montero,” nodded Prince Darok. “Below is the 6th Corps and the 15th Corps in their entirety.” The dwarven prince turned slightly and pointed to his right. “If you can see that very last dwarf standing on the crest over there, he is waiting for the tail end of the army to pass him. When it does, he will give a signal to me. At the appropriate time, I will give the signal to attack.”
Natia looked again at the coils of rope next to each dwarf and frowned. “There are twenty-thousand men down there, Prince Darok. How many dwarves are up here?”
“Two-thousand,” answered the prince. “It’s hardly a fair fight.”
“I’ll say,” frowned Natia. “That’s ten-to-one odds. Are you sure this is wise?”
“It’s ten-to-one in our favor, lass,” laughed Prince Darok. “Lord Zachary did say that each dwarf was worth one-hundred men, didn’t he?”
“That was to scare the Spinoans,” scowled Natia. “You can’t possibly believe the lies he told the enemy.”
“Ah, lass,” Prince Darok sighed with mock offense, “your words slay me. And here I thought King Arik thought highly of the dwarves.”
Tedi started laughing, and Natia whirled to face him, anger building at his levity. Before she could verbally lash out at her husband, she felt Prince Darok’s large hand on her shoulder. The dwarven prince was also laughing.
“I apologize, Natia,” chuckled Prince Darok. “I shouldn’t be having fun with you on such a serious occasion. We have no intention of merely jumping off the crest to fight the Federation. Let me explain.”
Natia turned to stare at the dwarf, her face clouded with confusion.
“Down below,” Prince Darok began, “the Federation army stretches out for over two leagues. They are indeed a formidable foe if my men met them on the battlefield, but that is not how the battle will go this day. I have had my sappers working on this ridge for almost half a year now. The entire face of the cliff has been undercut. When the signal is given, two-thousand dwarves will raise two-thousand hammers over their heads and bring them down on two-thousand metal wedges. When they do that, the face of this cliff will shear off and drop on the road below.”
“Won’t they have time to flee?” asked Tedi.