All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 223: Draggin Your Feet

Chapter 223: Draggin Your Feet

Arthur stepped into the meeting room, his eyes quickly scanning the officers sitting and waiting for him. This was one of the rare military-only meetings he really should’ve been making a point of having more often. The only one from the castle present was Susan, and that was by necessity. Admittedly, her scouts were really the best in this area. A small force like hers was inherently limited in what it could do, but there were times when it excelled. He could only hope his would improve quickly enough to better leverage their superior numbers.

He kicked off the meeting with some introductions and a general summarization of their situation before waving her to the front. Susan had brought a few visual aids with her that she set up by the front of the room. A general map of the area, along with some pins representing the Scout's findings, were soon displayed before the group..

"Three days ago, we made contact. The military vanguard is still several days out from the edge of the forest, but we do believe they will fully regroup before heading into the woods. Out in the open plains, there is very little opportunity for ambushes and general sabotage, but we have managed to make some strides. While no actual sabotage acts have been committed, we do have their supply train schedule for the next several months, planned routes and backup mounts, as well as information about who is maintaining the weapons. Those are the major points. I will disseminate more details to those who need it."

The officers gave an approving murmur. The fact that they had all this information up front was going to be of great help when it came to slowing down the enemy’s approach. The siege preparations were going along swimmingly, but they could use more time. There were always more fortifications, always more traps, always more ambitious countermeasures they could lay. If anyone thought the castle was fully prepared for a siege, Arthur would call them a fool.

Susan continued to give more details about the kingdom army’s estimated time of arrival as well as certain landmarks that they could gauge their progress with. These were especially pertinent for the several-day march through the valley that would be required to even reach the settlement. Along those lines, she picked out specific unit commanders and gave suggestions of which ones would be best in various spots for ambushes.

Arthur was impressed by her devious mind. There was not more than a half mile where she didn't see an opportunity for a rather tricky ambush or act of sabotage. At this rate, the entire length of the five-day march through the forest would give the army real trouble. Especially considering that the narrow road would force even a massive army to be strung out, meaning they could not bring their numbers advantage to bear in any one particular spot. As long as the guerrilla forces they fielded could flow through the forest and hit from both sides, they could almost always outnumber their enemy 2 to 1 in the actual engagement.

This was a rather simple tactic, but the way Susan was setting up her plans for sabotage made use of it heavily. Arthur was glad he’d sent out forces days ago like she’d pushed for instead of waiting. Now, based on her information, they would barely manage to get out of the forest before the Kingdom showed up. Any forces they’d send out now would either be stuck in the valley or have to maneuver through the forests.

These were the forces they would have to rely on to intercept the kingdom’s supply trains, along with any sort of support that the kingdom would be trying to give the military during the siege; if they were successful enough in cutting everything off, they could peel away a large part of the force and give Arthur a chance to do more than just endure the siege. Or, they could basically end up forcing the enemy to siege themselves. Arthur doubted that a rushed army pushed to march through the winter would have anywhere near the amount of provisions the city and the castle had.

With the food production that Trent and his branch had managed under the guidance of Lord Void, the castle was set for almost two years and would be nearly self-sustainable in the near future. They just needed a little bit more influx of livestock before they had their own thriving ecosystem. As for water, there was no way to cut off the water supply through either the glacial runoff from the mountains or from ground wells. So, as long as they were independent in food, the only way to take them out would be through a direct assault. And Arthur was doing his best to make sure that was an unadvisable course of action.

After Susan finished her report, the lead engineer stood up and gave progress on the third ring wall. For each wall they finished building, they had started to build a slightly lesser wall in front of it so that they would be able to fall back to a more fortified position. By some miracle, they had managed to finish an entire wall spanning the perimeter of the forest, 250 feet in front of the first wall. It was a crude thing, but no less impressive for it. The third wall had begun construction, and the trees were being cleared.

He hoped to have at least a basic palisade the entire way. It wouldn't hold up for long, but it would give Arthur's men a place to make a first stand. Also, it would test the enemy's mettle, letting him see how they handled the conflict. Arthur didn't expect to hold that position for more than a half hour before they fell back to the second wall. But the second wall would have made most city walls look fairly normal. It was the third wall that they would have to hold for all their worth.

Not that the wall was anything to scoff at. That masterwork thing of melted granite would give even Arthur himself pause, even without the frankly absurd amounts of magic thrown on it. Apparently there was stuff on there the likes of which hadn't been seen for a thousand years. At least, that's what his engineers had said after the two young girls had worked on it.

Sometimes, it was hard to think of Miss Bee as the high priestess of Spot. The fact that Void's mouthpiece would be such a sweet little girl went against his every expectation. But that was nothing compared to her apprentice Maranda, who seemed even more out of place but strangely competent in understanding magic. Even now, Maranda still worked to fortify the positions while Miss Bee had other important things to see to.

---

Daedalus and I circled around the mountain after we had finally gotten away from the Snowmen. They had seemed to want to throw a feast of some sort, but we had retired and left them to their own celebrations. Neither of us really wanted to eat whatever they were going to cook up, and I was having trouble not cleaning up the settlement beyond what would be polite. I had, of course, gone through and resolved all of their waste issues, but I didn't want to offend them by rebuilding their muddy huts or completely upending their society.

They were acceptably grateful for my assistance and seemed to look at me in a new light when they realized the wonders of cleanliness. But it was a distant respect for my teachings, and I clearly would have to do more before they would trust me. Still, they started to give me a little bit more space to do my work.

The dragon and I chatted a bit about what the implications of the demon and dragon worship was for these people, but we quickly ended up revisiting the topics we'd already talked about, and we fell into silence. Each of us did our own computations, trying to figure out what we needed to do. Daedalus was sure something was wrong with the dragon art, but I was convinced the dragon in the depiction was supposed to be him.

As we rose higher up in the next mountain over, I saw a strange opening in the side of it and pointed it out to Daedalus. I flashed him an image of his own cave as I saw it from a distance.

Daedalus cocked his head inquisitively. ”You think one of my cousins is over here? I suppose that's actually pretty plausible. That would explain the details they got wrong, at least.”I resisted arguing. Even if the wall art was ancient or artistically rendered, he seemed convinced that no one would ever possibly render his image with anything but perfect accuracy. Besides, who would know those sorts of details about the dragon?

But the dragon seemed to think that anyone who'd even heard about him should be able to get his magnificence near perfection. If they had enough skill in whatever medium they were working with, at least. And if they didn’t, then why even try? It wasn't an argument I was going to win. Still, we made our way over there, mostly out of curiosity.

As we alighted before the cave entrance, my sensors registered a slight disturbance in the area’s magic energy. It was similar to the mountain we had just left, but still different.Clearly, this wasn't the source of the magic draining, but it wasn't too far off of it.

Daedalus let out a polite roar in greeting in case the cave was occupied before we even approached. “I wouldn't want to be rude. But hopefully if we're not waking someone up.” He shot a baleful glare in my direction. I know how annoying it is to be woken up by loud noises.”

I beeped indignantly. "Look, I apologized for that already. I didn't realize you were there."

He gave me a toothy grin, and I relaxed slightly. "But yeah, let's not lob any explosions at him."

An answering bellow came from deep within the cave, and Daedalus grinned. "Ah, one of my cousins is here!"

A white head poked out of the mountain and breathed a pillar of frost over at Daedalus, and Daedalus responded by breathing a jet of fire. The two breath attacks met between them and mingled before they both cut off suddenly, and Daedalus landed at the foot of the mountain. The white dragon launched itself out of the cave and slowly glided down, shaking the earth with its landing. Comparing the two, I realized Daedalus was significantly larger than this other dragon. He likely possessed about 30% more mass, even if the white dragon was longer from tip to tail.

"Daedalus! Big brother! It's been too many millennia." The white dragon greeted Daedalus, rumbling and shaking his head.

"Thucydides. I didn't think I'd see you again. You've been sleeping for, what, 10,000 years now?"

"Give or take. I had a bit of a fever a while ago and was just sleeping it off. Woke up a couple hundred years ago and have been trying to shake off the grogginess ever since." Thucydides shook his head and rumbled. "I think it was some dark elf curse after I ate of one of their princesses. I know I shouldn't do that anymore, but she just looked so juicy."

I looked between the two bantering dragons. "Dark elf? Princess?" I asked curiously.

I seemed to draw Thucydides's interest for the first time. "Why, Daedalus, have you brought a guest?"