Rut-ki and Colonel Wu-sang stood observing the entire conversation in silence. The Knight of Alcea watched both of the Federation officers closely, trying to peer into their minds based upon what she was seeing and hearing. When the last two questions were asked, Colonel Rotti turned to Rut-ki.
“What do you have planned for the other armies?” he asked. “Do you really have a chance of surviving the coming battles?”
“I am not willing to share such information,” answered Rut-ki. “I will say this much, though. Generals Ruppert and Hanold will soon walk into a trap, and like you, they will have a choice to make. They will surrender, or they will perish. I hope that they choose to surrender, but either way, they will no longer be in this war. As for Kolling and Gertz, they are walking towards Ongchi. They have no horses. They have no food. They have no black-cloaks. Their foraging parties are constantly being harassed, and they are behind schedule. They will not arrive at Ongchi by the thirteenth day. I will say no more about it.”
Colonel Rotti glanced at General Somma and found him grinning. He nodded at the general and smiled back before returning his eyes to Rut-ki.
“I made a request of you a short while ago,” Rotti said. “You told me that the general’s life would not be in danger, but we both now know that those words are no longer true. I make my request once more.”
“Do you suddenly agree with the general’s views?” asked the Knight of Alcea.
“I do,” replied the colonel, “and I apologize to you for once more underestimating you. If those men can be saved by surrendering, I will endeavor to help General Somma talk them into it.”
“While you keep him safe?” grinned Rut-ki.
“While I keep him safe,” echoed the colonel.
* * * *
General Ross looked up as the tent flap moved aside. He motioned the black-cloak forward and waved him towards a chair across the table. Baku silently walked to the chair and sat down.
“Have you discovered anything useful?” asked the general. “Are we any closer to discovering where this Cordonia is that we are in?”
“No,” reported the black-cloak, “but there are developments to report. We have lost three more mages, one from the 19th Corps and two from the 20th Corps.”
“Are you sure that they are dead?” asked General Ross. “Is it possible that they found something and decided to stay there and investigate it?”
Baku frowned. “Anything is possible,” he sighed, “but I am growing concerned. That is now nine of my people that are missing. I could understand one or two of them doing something stupid, but not nine of them. I think something is hunting them.”
The general’s forehead creased as he considered the words used by the mage. He found it curious that Baku used the word something rather than someone, and the reference to being hunted signified a creature of some intelligence. The general had no idea what kind of power it might take to slay a black-cloak, but he knew that Baku was upset, and that concerned Ross.
“Perhaps you should start having your people patrol in pairs,” suggested the general.
“I have already issued that order,” replied Baku.
“What else do you have for me?”
“There have been people in this land before,” answered the black-cloak, “although it may have been years ago. One of my men was searching beyond the West Mountains and found some old stone fire rings. There were also trees with obvious hatchet marks on them, but the marks were overgrown. He thought they might be as much as twenty years old.”
“Nothing more recent?” asked General Ross.
The black-cloak shook his head.
Far to the east, among the peaks of the West Mountains, two Alcean Rangers sat in the shadows, gazing out over the vast plains of land known as Cordonia in their Universe.
“The black-cloaks are traveling in pairs now,” reported the corporal. “That is going to make it impossible to continue killing them without being detected. I think we need to start teaming up ourselves. No one man can get off two arrows quickly enough to kill two black-cloaks.”
Captain Steffen nodded silently as he watched the sun sliding towards the distant horizon. When he eventually spoke, it was with a tone of contemplative hesitancy. “The problem is much worse than that Kojar. In this sector, they have not only paired up, but one of them remains high in the sky while the other swoops down to investigate. No archer will be effective against such a wary stance as the higher one will be beyond an archer's range. We have hurt the black-cloaks considerably, and they are not used to feeling vulnerable. Killing the remaining fifteen mages will require new tactics.”
“What are you thinking?” frowned the corporal. “Surely, you do not plan to raid their camps at night while they are sleeping? There are only ten of us.”
The captain shook his head, but his eyes sparkled as if a sudden thought had come to mind that pleased him. “We still have the dragon. If the attack was timed correctly, a Ranger could kill the black-cloak who swoops down to investigate, while the dragon snares the mage flying high in the sky.”
Corporal Kojar shook his head vigorously. “Dragons are forbidden to eat humans,” he protested. “King Arik would not be pleased if we ordered Kinelli to abandon that directive. The dragon is here solely to scare the Federation soldiers.”
“Kinelli would not be attacking a human,” Captain Steffen replied with a slight smile. “She would be attacking a bird. Besides, she need not devour the black-cloak. All she has to do is kill it.”
The corporal thought for a moment, but he still appeared to dislike the idea. “There is only one dragon,” he pointed out, “and ten of us. That would require Kinelli to spend a great deal of time in the air traveling from one of us to another. She would surely be spotted and tracked, and her travels would eventually reveal our locations.”
“We would have to abandon all of the other posts and concentrate on one area,” replied the captain. “As wary as the black-cloaks are now, they will start plotting where their people go missing. They will then spend more efforts investigating that particular sector.”
“Yes, they will,” agreed the corporal, “but that may not be to our advantage. They may end up sending more than just two mages to investigate. Remember, while we can kill the black-cloaks easily in their bird forms, just one of those mages in human form could kill all of us quickly. We have no mage of our own.”
“Then we must choose the battleground carefully,” replied Captain Steffen. “We will need a steep canyon with ample hiding spots among the vertical cliffs. We will lure the black-cloaks down into the canyon so that even if some of them remain high in the sky, they will be within range of our arrows.”
“That just might work,” mused Corporal Kojar, “and if one remains even higher, Kinelli can take care of him. I will search the West Mountains for just such a location.”
“No.” Captain Steffen smiled with a sparkle in his eyes. “Find us a spot in the Boulder Mountains. The black-cloaks continue to search ever farther from their base camps. If we can lure them far enough away from the Federation soldiers, they will not have time to return to camp each day. At that point, they will be forced to set up their own camp for the night.”
“Leaving us with an opportunity to sneak into their makeshift camp and finish them off,” grinned the corporal. “Either we lure them into a canyon of no return, or we strike while they are sleeping. Either way, they all die. I like it, Steffen.”