“No harm will come to you,” the woman continued, “and you will be allowed to return to your men if that is what you wish, but you must go alone.”
“Tell this Bin-lu to come out here,” retorted the general. “I will guarantee his safe return.”
“That is not the way this game will be played,” countered the fairy. “Your position is not safe, and Bin-lu is no fool. He has no need to endanger himself.”
“Then I guess Bin-lu will have to do without any conversation,” snapped the general.
“What do you mean when you say that our position is not safe?” asked Colonel Mayne with alarm. “Is some other calamity coming our way?”
“It is not my place to discuss such things,” answered the fairy before refocusing on the general. “I will report your refusal to parley to Bin-lu. Farewell.”
“Wait!” called the general. “I did not refuse to meet with Bin-lu. We were merely haggling over the location. Tell him that I will think about it.”
“As you wish, General Ruppert,” replied the fairy just before she darted up into the sky.
“What was that creature?” asked one of the nearby captains.
Neither the general nor the colonel responded. The two high officers stared at one another for a moment before the colonel spoke softly.
“I do not think it will hurt to talk to them. If you will allow it, I will go in your stead. You can gauge their intent by how they treat me.”
“They think they are in a strong enough position to demand our surrender,” scowled the general. “There is no other reason for their desire to talk to us, and you are not in a position to fulfill their desires.”
“And you are not inclined to?” asked the colonel.
“Why should I? I have twenty-thousand men at my back. At worst, we can just sit tight and wait for the flames to die down. Then we will crush whatever men Bin-lu has assembled behind him.”
“We do not know the size of his army,” mused the colonel. “That alone might be worth the parley. If he only has the men atop the cliffs, our victory would be assured.”
“That is a valid point,” the general agreed. “Come, we will both go talk to Bin-lu.”
“But she specifically said for you to come alone,” objected the colonel.
“No tiny woman is going to dictate my actions, nor is any Lanoirian. You will accompany me. Send word to General Hanold to remove his men to safety and await my instructions.”
The colonel nodded and grabbed a man to serve as a runner. He gave the soldier the message and directed him to deliver it to General Hanold personally. When that was done, the colonel joined General Ruppert and walked along the shelf to meet with Bin-lu. When they arrived at the end of the fire, Bin-lu stood at the edge of the road. A short ladder had been placed down on the shelf to facilitate the general’s return to the road. The general climbed the ladder, followed by Colonel Mayne.
“I see that you have chosen to bring Colonel Mayne with you,” Bin-lu said in greeting. “That is acceptable. I am Bin-lu.”
“How do you know my name?” the colonel asked with a puzzled expression.
“You were here last fall,” answered Bin-lu. “Did you really think we would not be paying attention when an enemy scout was sent to reconnoiter his attack route? Come, I have a tent set up just around the bend in the road. We can talk there.”
General Ruppert halted and turned away from Bin-lu. He gazed back along the road to see what the Lanoirian could see from his vantage point and shook his head in despair. Bin-lu had a fairly good view of the Federation vanguard, and he would undoubtedly be able to anticipate any attack before it was launched. The general saw a large pipe climbing the face of the cliff and he gazed upward to see where it led. He could see nothing. He turned and followed the Lanoirian, Colonel Mayne falling in by his side. As they rounded the bend, the scope of the Lanoirian force was revealed. Thousands of Lanoirian soldiers stood ready for battle. The general’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he said nothing. Bin-lu led the Zarans into the tent and ordered refreshments for the Federation officers. The lone guard left the tent, and Colonel Mayne’s hand moved towards the hilt of his sword.
“I have brought you here to save your lives, Colonel,” Bin-lu said without turning around to face the Zaran. “It would be a shame to kill you for dishonoring my hospitality. Please leave your sword sheathed.”
Bin-lu walked around the small table set in the middle of the tent and sat down. He waved towards the chairs opposite him as an invitation for the Zarans to sit.
“Are you a mage?” asked the colonel.
“I am not,” Bin-lu smiled thinly as he pointed to a shield propped up against the tent wall. “I saw your reflection in the shield.” Turning his gaze to the general, the Knight of Alcea continued, “General, I have managed to put your armies in a position of great danger. I have not destroyed your armies because King Arik would prefer not to kill your men. I am authorized by the king to accept your surrender. In return for your men giving up their weapons peacefully, I promise to have your men cared for until such a time that they can be returned to Zara. Will you accept these terms?”
“You have burned a road,” scowled General Ruppert. “Nothing more. While I give you credit for delaying my march on Ongchi, you have hardly won this battle. Allow me to offer you the same terms. Surrender your forces to me, and I will see that you are well treated.”
“I had heard that you were stubborn,” retorted Bin-lu, “but I also heard that you could be a reasonable man. You are in no position to haggle. The 13th Corps and 26th Corps will surrender or die. That choice will be made here and now. Let me explain your situation more fully to you.”
“Please do,” scoffed the general.
“I have seven thousand men massed at each end of your column,” declared Bin-lu, “and I have another thousand atop the cliffs. All of them have an ample supple of arrows, and I am sure you will admit, a decidedly superior position on the battlefield. We could cut down thousands of your men before a single one of them got off that shelf in the ocean. Why suffer your men to die when it is all for nothing?”
“That is your point of view,” shrugged the general. “The fact is, my men are not in danger at the moment. While they may be standing in a decidedly inferior position, you cannot approach them without giving up your superior position. Your men, Bin-lu, will have to enter the sea to attack me. Are you prepared to do that?”
The general had not expected an answer, and certainly not a frank one, but that is exactly how Bin-lu replied.
“My men will not get their feet wet, General. The men at the ends will not even make a move to attack you directly. I suspect that you think you can just wait the fire out, but you had best think again. There is enough oil in the vats up on the cliff to keep the fire burning for days, but it will not burn that long. While our engineers have taken every precaution to keep the bamboo pipes from burning in the flames, they could not shield them completely. Within hours the bamboo pipes will fail and thousands of gallons of oil will flood onto the road. So many gallons will dump so quickly that the oil will breach the small berm we built to contain it. I do not think I have to tell you what will happen to your men when the burning oil starts spreading over the surface of the sea.”
Colonel Mayne gasped. Suddenly the words spoken by the tiny flying woman made sense. “How much time do we have?” he asked.
“I cannot say accurately,” answered Bin-lu as he rose to his feet, “but we are wasting precious moments here. I will let the military minds of the Federation discuss this among themselves. Let me know when you have made a decision.”
Bin-lu exited the tent leaving the two Federation officers alone. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
“We have no choice,” Colonel Mayne eventually said. “Everything he said was true. The Alceans have bested us.”
“The choice is not yours to make,” snapped General Ruppert. “It is mine, and I will not stand in disgrace when General Franz takes control of Ongchi.”