“Excuse me?” Walkyr blinked, and Maigwair snorted.
“Zhaspahr’s suggested that the reason Hanth isn’t receiving as much new equipment and as many additional men as their other armies is to convince us Dohlar’s a purely secondary theater in Cayleb and Stohnar’s eyes. As he sees it, the fact that I’ve told him they obviously do regard Dohlar as a secondary theater, based on exactly that logic, only strengthens the possibility of it’s all being an elaborate ruse. And one we’ve clearly fallen for, of course. We’re supposed to discount the threat on our southern flank—just as I have—in order to ‘concentrate disproportionately’ in the north until High Mount’s ready to punch through the Tymkyn Gap and either hook south to join up with Hanth and finish off Dohlar once and for all, or else continue southwest to Dairnyth.”
“To Dairnyth,” Walkyr repeated.
“Actually, that might not be as far-fetched as it looks at first glance,” Maigwair said more soberly. “Oh, I’m not ready to sign onto the notion that they’ve deliberately starved Hanth of men and weapons as part of some deep-seated deception plan. Eastshare’s too smart for that, and even if he wasn’t, Cayleb and Stohnar definitely are.” He waved one hand in a dismissive gesture. “But that’s not to say they wouldn’t be just as happy for us to come to the conclusion’s Zhaspahr’s suggesting if they really do have any ambitions beyond simply neutralizing Dohlar. Because the truth is that if they could surprise us there, and if High Mount could get all the way to Dairnyth, we might have some serious problems. Particularly given the situation in the Gulf.”
Walkyr cocked his head, and Maigwair stopped toying with his scepter and let his chair come upright again so that he could brace his elbows on his desk and lean forward over it again.
“At the moment, their navy’s still operating fairly circumspectly in the Gulf,” he said. “Their commerce-raiders are inflicting a lot of pain, and the hit our logistics are taking is nothing to sneer at, but they haven’t reacted as strongly to the Kaudzhu Narrows as I’d anticipated they would. Yet, at least.”
“You think that’s about to change?”
“I’ll be Shan-wei-damned surprised if it doesn’t change … and soon,” Maigwair said grimly. “We’ve lost track of at least some of those ironclads they used on Desnair, for example, and Cayleb Ahrmahk’s not the man to let what happened to his navy go unanswered. Taking back his people before they could be handed over for Punishment was a pretty emphatic first step in that direction, but I absolutely guarantee you that after what happened in Hahskyn Bay, those frigging ironclads are headed for the Gulf of Dohlar. If they haven’t gotten there already, they’ll be arriving soon. And when they do, what do you think will happen to the Royal Dohlaran Navy?”
“The term ‘splinters’ comes rather strongly to mind.” Walkyr’s tone was even grimmer than Maigwair’s had been, and the captain general nodded sharply.
“Of course it does. Whatever Zhaspahr may think, Thirsk’s navy will fight to the death. You and I both know that. I only pray to God and the Archangels that Rahnyld—or his Council, at least—has the sense to realize they can’t fight those steam-powered ironclads and get their galleons the hell out of their way. But whatever they do, Charis is still going to control the entire Gulf. I don’t even want to think about what that means for our logistics in the long term, but the short-term consequences could be just as catastrophic and a hell of a lot faster.”
“I can see it’s being inconvenient as hell,” Walkyr said with a frown. “And I agree that it’d be a frigging disaster in the long run.” He very carefully avoided words like “inevitable defeat” even speaking only to Maigwair, but they hung between the two of them. “I’m not sure I see the immediate catastrophe potential, though.”
“No?” Maigwair showed his teeth in a thin smile. “Well, consider this scenario. We’ve been anticipating that the new troops being raised and trained in Chisholm would be deployed to their existing armies. But what if they send the new troops east from Chisholm, instead? What if they use their control of the sea to send a hundred thousand or so brand-new troops across the Gulf and through the Gulf of Tanshar to the Bay of Bess … just about the time High Mount’s leading regiments take Dairnyth and offer them a city with damned good port facilities down on our southern flank? Usher and Jhurlahnk got hammered at Aivahnstyn last year, and they don’t have anything like our ability to raise and equip new divisions. Much as I respect both Earl Usher and Prince Grygory, I think it’s … unlikely their remaining militia could stand up to Charisian regulars.”
Walkyr shuddered at the very thought, and Maigwair gave him a wintry smile.
“Right now, we’ve got Tayrens Teagmahn watching Tymkyn Gap, and Dohlar’s still holding Alyksberg, but he and the Alyksberg garrison have barely a hundred and twenty thousand men between them. If High Mount got through the gap, they’d never be able to stop him. Especially since we still don’t have Teagmahn’s riflemen fully equipped with St. Kylmahns, far less all the artillery he’s supposed to have. The first wave of new guns is on the way—or will be in the next few five-days—but they aren’t there yet because we’ve been giving such priority to the northern lobe of the front.”
“I know,” Walkyr nodded. “But isn’t Brydgmyn supposed to reinforce him?”
“As soon as he can, yes. Or that was the plan, anyway.”
Bishop Militant Ahrnahld Brydgmyn was the designated commander of the Holy Langhorne Band. Among the other painful lessons the Imperial Charisian Army had taught its more backwards students was the advantage of organizing armies into corps. The use of that heresy-tainted term was, of course, anathema in the eyes of Zhaspahr Clyntahn and the Inquisition, so Maigwair and Rainbow Waters had settled on calling their corps “bands,” instead. The Holy Langhorne Band consisted—or would consist, eventually—of a total of eight divisions, two of them mounted. Because AOG divisions were so much smaller than Charisian divisions, Brydgmyn’s final strength would be around sixteen thousand men, plus artillery (when and as it became available), only about the size of a single Charisian division. That was still a powerful force, however, and about the largest Maigwair felt a single headquarters could realistically control at the operational level, given the AOG’s current inexperience with the corps concept and the limits of its commanding officer’s communications. So far, the new approach seemed to offer a lot of promise, but the Army of God was still figuring out how best to make the entire notion work. It was going to take a while for the new band commanders to master their responsibilities.
At the moment, only three of Brydgmyn’s divisions were anywhere near ready for deployment: the reconstituted Holy Martyrs, Rakurai, and 1st Temple Divisions. That was barely fifty-seven hundred men, none of them mounted and less than ten percent of them experienced veterans. Just as bad, perhaps, Brydgmyn was almost as new to his present job as most of his men were to theirs. He was only thirty-two years old, and he’d been a major less than two years earlier. His meteoric promotion was one more consequence of the AOG’s need to rebuild after its catastrophic losses in Cliff Peak and Mountaincross and an indication of how deep Maigwair was reaching for the senior officers he required.
Fortunately, Brydgmyn was smart, competent, and loyal, although he wasn’t fully trusted by the Inquisition. It would appear Wyllym Rayno suspected—not without some reason, perhaps—that Brydgmyn’s fierce loyalty to Mother Church was somewhat stronger than his loyalty to Zhaspahr Clyntahn. But however smart he might be, he was still very much in the process of learning his new duties. In fact, Maigwair had been almost relieved in some ways that his additional divisions would be slower than anticipated in joining him. The bishop militant could use that time very profitably learning to manage his present, considerably smaller force. At the same time.…