Liar King (Tower of Babel Book 2) Read online

  "Slow." The other man responded. "Their outriders ran us off as I said, but the column is only moving maybe four or five hexes a turn."

  Cayden considered that for a moment. “Their cavalry is as fast as yours?”

  "Yeah," Vilerat confirmed. "Stone horses too, so I don't see why their infantry would be any slower. "

  “Then they're moving at the speed of their slowest unit.”

  “Bingo.” He made a comically awful finger gun in the camera's direction. “My guess is siege units. It'd pretty much have to be if they want to take any of the big cities.”

  “Assuming they keep to the same speed, and your troops manage to slow them down, that puts them at Islo in what, four days?”

  The reply came after a moment of calculation. “Maybe five depending on route and terrain. I think there is enough difficult stuff between here and there that it might slow them down.”

  “All my men will be back in the city by midday. We'll leave immediately.” Cayden replied. “Should put us at Islo in time for the party.”

  "Assuming the Iron B-" Vilerat started to say, interrupted by a somewhat nauseating shake of his cameraman's head as he was reminded that at least one of her men was on the call. "Assuming the Captain of the Islo Watch lets us into the city."

  “We'll contact her directly, but with numbers like these, she's going to have to see reason.”

  “You'd think so...”

  "Now who is being a pessimist," Cayden smirked.

  "Hey, pessimism is like paranoia. It's only a vice if they aren't out to get you."

  Chapter Seventeen

  Day Seven – Evening Turn

  Resources – F – 540 +20, Z – 530 +25, M – 205 +5, I – 460 +20, P +40, R +10

  Completed – Lower Township Repair VI (New Specialization Unlocked), Upper Township Repair III

  Cayden heard the argument in the depths of the city garrison long before he saw any of its participants. An older building slightly offset from the Ducal Palace in the center of Islo, its stone corridors hadn't been built with privacy in mind. Even normal conversations echoed through its walls. To say nothing of the one-sided shouting match taking place as the stern-faced thirty-something Toy Soldier ushered him into the waiting conference where Dinah Asch, their leader, was engage in a livid conversation with her ostensible allies.

  "Absolutely not," Vilerat growled, his usually pale face blotched and ruddy with fury.

  "This is not a negotiation," Dinah responded without emotion, her back to the doorway.

  “No, you're right. What you are asking for is capitulation! Which is why I'm saying, absolutely not.” He continued, pounding his fist on the table before jerking the other one in Cayden's direction. “Cayden, please tell me you're not going along with this!”

  At that, all eyes turned to Cayden and his party, though only two of the room's dozen occupants were faces he recognized. Judging by the expressions on the majority, he had more enemies than friends in the room, even with Celia, Michael, Silver, and Sarah in tow.

  "How about we start by telling me what I'm supposed to be opposed to," Cayden said brusquely. It was a petty jab, but Asch had spent the last three days refusing his calls in favor of an in-person meeting, so he was in a somewhat petty mood.

  “Nice of you to join us at last, Field Marshall.” The Israeli soldier scowled, her tongue positively dripping with sarcasm at his title.

  Celia bit on that particular bait before Cayden could rise to the occasion; her voice strung through with annoyance. "We did try and inform you that we would be running late."

  “I'd heard. Something about a sub-tomb?”

  “On your side of the river. Yes.” Celia said pointedly.

  It had been one of two such tombs that had added nearly an entire day to what should have been a three-day journey. Neither had posed anywhere near the threat that the first one they'd discovered had located, but each had required a halt to the march a deployment of the troops and a delve into the dungeon in search of a relic for Azazi. In total it had been worth a full two levels, putting Cayden and his companions on the very cusp of level twenty-five, with only five more levels to his next skill and mastery point, but it had been a frustrating delay all the same.

  “We've had to keep our eyes focused to the west. For rather obvious reasons.” Dinah said curtly.

  Silver raised an eyebrow at that. “Even so, wouldn't you want to be sure your line of retreat is open?”

  “Oh, we haven't even gotten to the nonsense that is her plan.” Vilerat scowled.

  “We'll get to that, I'm sure.” Cayden's voice was as cool and conciliatory as he could make it as he continued. “For now, how about we start at the top.”

  "Yes, of course." Dinah waved to an empty spot around the War Frame that dominated the center of the small conference room. "We were just discussing the disposition of troops."

  “You mean your usurpation of command.”

  "Rat," Cayden said softly. He understood the man's anger, days of zero communication had put his teeth on edge as far as this meeting went. But the soldier already saw him as a child. If he acted out or took this as anything less than serious, they'd get nowhere fast. "Dinah, if you could-"

  “Captain.” She corrected him, her steady gaze holding his as she spoke. “Captain Asch. If you would.”

  “Ah. Captain Asch, if you could bring us up to speed?” Cayden replied, doing everything in his power to keep from treating her official title with the same disdain she had treated his given one.

  It took only a few waves of the Captain's hands for her War Frame to retreat from the close in view of Islo to a more general view of the whole surrounding area. She was good with the device, probably better than Cayden was, if he was honest, her hands working over it like a maestro directing an award-winning performance.

  “De’Arnise fell almost immediately after it was put under siege, as was expected.” As she spoke, Cayden couldn't help but notice the discoloration of her right hand, a mass of white scar tissue tarnishing her olive skin at the joint between thumb and forefinger. “The keep did not survive more than a single turn, but it did tell us two things.”

  “The enemy has an abundance of siege equipment, and they are willing to hold their entire advance for a turn to employ it rather than take slightly higher losses throwing themselves at structured defenses.”

  Asch spat Michael with an annoyed stare, one the other man happily shot back, before she continued. "Shortly thereafter, Crossroads keep was taken. This time didn't make the same mistake they made at De’Arnise. They encircled the entire keep, preventing the token forces left to hold it from retreating."

  "Which is a tip-off of a different sort." Cayden nodded.

  “How so?” Dinah inquired.

  He had to bite back a scathing reply about how he'd sent her a message regarding this very topic, choosing instead to repeat himself. "It lets us know that they learn from their mistakes, but they have sort of inherent weaknesses. Makes me think of the Buggers, more than anything."

  The captain's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she looked to a similarly confused aide for clarification. “The Buggers?”

  “You know, the...” Cayden started to say, before realizing that she did not know. "Ender's Game. Orson Scott Card. The enemy was an insect race called the Buggers." He explained. "In the latter third or so, they get a weapon called the Little Doctor, that can destroy the enemy as they cluster together. In early battles, the enemy was sloppy, with big weaknesses as a result, but they clean them up the more they are exposed to the weapon."

  “You think it was an intentional weakness?”

  To that, he could only shrug. "This is all a game. If the Developer just wanted to kill everyone on the floor, he could have just had the event change the air to acid. Vilerat killed a scouting party with ease; then the enemy scouting parties started having mounted backup to counter him. They run troops away, and the next time the Wardens encircle them. Makes sense."

  Tha
t much seemed to get through to her. “So what are you suggesting?”

  “I'm not even sure.” He confessed. “Other than that we shouldn't necessarily jump at the first chance we get to exploit a weakness. If the Wardens clean up their strategy every time we find a weakness, then we need to absolutely abuse that weakness on the one chance we've got it.”

  "An interesting thought." The grudging admission seemed to visibly pain her as she directed their attention back to the frame. "I have a small number of scouts out watching the Warden forces as they advance. And as you can see, the head of their column is barely a day's march from the city."

  Calling the thing a column almost felt wrong to Cayden as he studied the frame. He'd imagined a snaking, single file line going back into the distance, but apparently, once they'd left the forested area to the west of De'arnise they had formed into a double thick marching order six hexes long, a line that bulged to three hexes across at its middle.

  It was all new to him, of course, because the Captain couldn't be any more bothered to share data than she was to pick up the phone.

  “Each hex contains roughly a full division of about a thousand enemy soldiers, with a small vanguard of several hundred extending out roughly six hexes ahead of the column itself.” She indicated a much smaller smattering of enemy banners just ahead of the mass of the Warden army. “We're still blind, composition wise, regarding the units in the column. The two sieges suggest they've got a sizable number of ranged units, but that the force is primarily infantry. Less than a thousand mounted soldiers in total.”

  “And the blob in the middle?” Silver drew attention to the elephant in the room.

  "Siege equipment, along with what we think is the general command staff," Asch explained. "If they have any magic casters, we expect they'd be there as well."

  “So Vilerat's initial estimate was off?” Celia asked after some basic mental math.

  Asch dipped her head grimly. “Our estimate is eleven to twelve thousand, including the van and rearguard.”

  A quiet murmur rumbled through the room before Cayden asked the obvious. “If the column's head is a day away from the city, then we can expect the siege equipment here no later than the following afternoon, with a full attack as early as that evening. Does that sound correct?”

  “It does.”

  “Then how can we help.”

  Asch met his gaze steadily as she replied. “You can turn over control of all of your forces to me.”

  "And there it is," Vilerat said, striking the edge of the table once more.

  “In the words of a wise man...” Cayden began, doing his best to push down the anger welling inside of him. “Absolutely not.”

  Though she might have been expecting it, Asch didn't take the refusal well. “Then you should take them and go back home.”

  “Because that is rational...” Came Sarah's muttered grumble.

  "More than." Dinah shot back before Cayden could make any apology for the insult. "I cannot conduct a defense of this city when a number of its soldiers are outside of my chain of command."

  "With respect, Captain, can you afford to defend this city without us?" Cayden asked. "Between the three of us, we have about six hundred men. Twice what you have."

  "Twice what I was given." Asch corrected. "Perhaps you haven't been expanding your forces the way I have, but the Islo guard is up by over a thousand armed men, paid for by emptying the Duke's coffers and two thousand citizen militia."

  Cayden caught Sarah stiffen out of the corner of his eye at that, and he reached out in spite of the setting to press his open palm against her wrist in a calming fashion. She'd spent much of the walk from the Inn to the barracks ranting about the citizen militia. To hear her tell it, the militia amounted to nothing more than walking civilians into the arms of their enemy as arrow catchers and cannon fodder, and Cayden couldn't disagree with the assessment.

  “The militia is an entirely different matter I had meant to speak to you ab-”

  "Here for an hour and second-guessing my commands. Is it any wonder I don't want a teenager in charge of a third of my defense?" The soldier said scathingly.

  “Here for an hour and I find out that you're planning on throwing barely armed civilians into a meat grinder. Is it any wonder we don't want you in charge of our men?” Cayden shot back angrily. This was not going the way he intended. “I know this is hard for you Toy Soldiers to grasp, but this is a game, not reality. How effective do you think a Level 2 Artisan or a Level 1 Shopkeep is going to be exactly?”

  “If we are going to hold this city, sacrific-”

  “You cannot hold this city." It was all he could to speak the words with some measure of calmness, rather than yelling them into her face. "What exactly is your plan? Captain Asch?"

  "Defense, in-depth strategy using the field, as well as the city's two main districts. With the defender's advantage, we should be able to cause significant enough casualties to-"

  “Not your defensive strategy.” Cayden interrupted once more. “Your plan to actually win the event.”

  “My plan starts by holding the city.” Asch snarled. “I have my players out scouring the countryside for any hint of the item that caused all of this mess. When they find it-”

  “If.”

  “-we will return it. Until then we should be able to endure any siege.”

  "Even with the help you are rejecting, you are outnumbered ten to one by an enemy that doesn't care about their casualties." Silver cut in, her words as angry as they were incredulous. "What makes you think you can survive that any longer than De’Arnise."

  “And you have a better plan, I suppose?”

  “Do you even read our messages?” Celia complained.

  "Observe her," Cayden said, jerking a thumb at Silver as he tried to get his anger under control.

  “I don't see-” Asch started, before realizing the futility of trying to argue the point. “Skill Use: Observe.” She intoned, then, a moment later. “Oh. My.” Surprise dotted her voice, quickly smothered by skepticism “But she'll just be taken off floor as soon as her death timer expires.”

  Cayden shook his head. "No, she won't."

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Sarah?” He asked.

  “Command: Login. Desdaemona.”

  Cayden waited a few seconds until the level forty callout appeared over Sarah's head. "The event is glitched." He explained. "Or rather, it uses a specific sort of flag that can be exploited. It only checks player levels when it is first triggered."

  “How long until the timer wears off?”

  “Twenty-two days.”

  Fury flashed across Dinah's face. “Well you know, maybe if we wait long enough they'll just die of old age while we are at it.”

  “You've had eight days to search.” Cayden retorted. “Have your men found even a hint of the missing item? Do you even know what you're looking for?”

  "I won't sit here and be lectured-"

  “I'm not trying to lecture you.” He insisted. “If we are smart, we can do both. Your men can spend the next three weeks searching, while we do our best to drag this war out long enough for Silver to come back into her full power. But we can't do any of that if you decide to go full Alamo on us.”

  "As I recall, the defenders at the Alamo held off the Mexican army for two and a half weeks," Asch observed.

  Cayden looked to Silver, then to Celia, and finally Sarah. Each shrugged in turn, with no more idea about the validity of the comment than he had. “Bad example. Waco?”

  “Fifty days.”

  "You get the idea," Cayden grumbled.

  “But you continue to ignore mine.” She replied sharply. “Your plan relied on me holding this city as long as possible, does it not?” At a sign of assent from Cayden, she continued. “Then I need access to as many men and resources as you can spare.”

  “And we are willing to give you those. Under our command.”

  "If they are under your command I cannot use them!"
The soldier retorted. "I cannot create a battle plan that relies on your soldiers holding a defensive position if I cannot be sure that your men will be there when the situation turns grim."

  “My plan also relies on keeping soldiers and civilians alive as long as possible, and retreating them as necessary.” Cayden shot back. “Have you even begun evacuating the city?”

  Asch's chin tipped up, her jawline setting. “Between the militia and those I require for production-”

  "They are civilians," Cayden said sternly.

  “They are Elan.”

  “What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Sarah's voice was thick with venom as she pushed her way forward to draw face to face with Dinah.

  "It means they are NPCs." If Asch was intimidated by the difference in levels, or even in height, she didn't let it show. Her acne marked face, always an angry red drew a deeper color still as the two locked eyes. "I have a duty to my men, and them alone. If I have to expend-"

  "Expend?!" Sarah shouted, the blue-haired monk near the verge of violence before Silver laid a calming hand on her shoulder.

  “You know that those civilians would do more good in Sunè or Bastion.” Cayden pressed. If the morality argument had failed, perhaps a utilitarian one. “Once the fighting here starts-”

  “As I said before, this isn't a discussion, nor a negotiation.” The captain said at last. “If you aren't willing to turn your troops over, then you have no argument in good faith." Asch drew herself up to her full height, her eyes turning to one of her guards. "We are done. Escort the Field Marshall and his retinue out of the city."

  Chapter Eighteen

  Day Nine – Morning Turn

  Resources – F – 600 +20, Z – 605 +25, M – 235 +5, I – 520 +20, P +40, R +10

  Research Complete (Magic) - Academy.

  “So how'd they do?” Silver asked, her voice preceding her as she struggled with the closed tent flap.