The royal entourage occupied an area within the main siege camp. It was surrounded by an additional palisade and closely guarded at all times by the Royal Guard. They were familiar with all of the servants and did not allow any strangers inside without explicit permission. Today, they were on an even higher alert than usual.

  The army’s commanders met in the strategy tent to make plans for the upcoming battle. Varre, Hakon, and Elvira were present too, ready to weigh in with additional advice.

  The tent was large enough to easily fit a couple dozen people. A large table was set up in the middle, with a crudely drawn map of the area prepared by Banbury’s scouts over the last few weeks.

  “The rebel forces have left Quendon and are on the way to Tresannes as we speak,” Baron Gregory began his report, “we expect them to arrive here in two days.”

  “Are you absolutely certain?” Varre asked, “what happens if Clement decides to hurry and gets here tomorrow instead.”

  “Our scouts need time to deliver new reports of course, but if he does that, we will know well ahead of time,” Gregory replied, “he’d need to march deep into the evening tonight. If he did that, we’d know by tomorrow morning, your majesty.”

  “He won’t do that,” Count Jan added, “there’s no point in rushing things. Tresannes will survive for much longer. Clement would just be exhausting his forces for no reason.”

  “Alright, fair enough,” the king accepted the explanation, “so the battle will happen in two days, then. Where will he come from?”

  The baron leaned over the map and started pointing out the various locations. “We are here, in Tresannes. As you can see, there are three roads leading out of it. The Eastern one leads to Banbury. That leaves us with the South and Northwest.”

  “I see that Quendon is West. A little Southwest perhaps,” Varre commented.

  “Indeed, your majesty,” Gregory nodded, “right now, the rebel forces are moving along this road. Straight to Tresannes.”

  “The Southern road is the most obvious choice,” Jan added, “and the only possibility if they do want to attack tomorrow after all. But they can easily switch to the North here, at this crossroads. Or, they can do so in one of these villages later. The backroads will be a little slower to move through, but it will be possible.”

  “Fortunately, our brave scouts are patrolling all of these routes. They’ll rush back to us as soon as they spot the traitors coming. We’ll know well ahead of time, your majesty” the baron said proudly.

  “We’ve also occupied all of these villages,” the count pointed out, “and the troops there are ready to evacuate as soon as the enemy approaches. We can’t possibly miss Clement coming, if he switches to the Northern side.”

  Varre straightened up. “Good. Then will we meet them here? At the siege camp?”

  “I would rather avoid that,” Jan replied, “our fortifications are taking up much of the empty space. That doesn’t leave much room to maneuver. Besides, we still don’t know exactly how many enemies are hiding in Tresannes. I don’t want us to be attacked from both sides.”

  “What? Why?” the baron protested, “our soldiers are ready to fight! We can crush the traitors in a single battle here! And we have the advantage in numbers either way. Clement has only two thousand men!”

  The count glared at him. “Are you absolutely certain of that number?”

  “My scouts delivered consistent reports over the last weeks. We know how many peasants were removed from these villages and are confident in our work,” Gregory argued, “we’re not amateurs. We might be off by a few hundred sure, but Clement can’t just conjure up thousands of soldiers from thin air!”

  Jan crossed his arms. “And what if he had two and a half thousand infantry, but he left one thousand of them in Tresannes? The other one and a half are travelling with him right now. We will turn most of our forces to face Clement’s approach, and then the army hidden in Tresannes will sally out to strike us in the back. We’ll be hemmed in.”

  That shut the baron down. He squinted his eyes, but couldn’t come up with a counterargument. Varre decided to break them up. “Alright. Then what do you suggest Count Jan?”

  The senior commander relaxed his stern expression. “We will fight the battle away from the city. In one of these villages here,” he pointed out, “or just outside, in the fields. We have more room to maneuver there. And we’ll be several miles away from Tresannes. We can station some scouts to watch the city, and if they see any movement from the inside, we’ll have hours to reposition and defend our rear accordingly.”

  “Sensible,” the king agreed.

  Gregory with his stung pride, didn’t want to give up just yet. “What about our siege, huh? Will we just abandon it? The defenders can move out and bring in more food from the outside while we prepare for battle hours away!”

  “What food?” Jan countered harshly, “the whole area is deserted! All the grain is either in Tresannes already, or the peasants took it with them as they fled. We can just go straight back to sieging them after the battle.”

  “Hopefully, if they see us beat Clement, they’ll surrender this time for real,” Varre said, “I don’t mind making the same offer again. This damned war’s expensive enough as it is. I don’t want to waste months sieging that city if I don’t need to.”

  “I can respect that decision,” the count replied, “but I don’t think it’ll end with one battle alone. We’ll manage to overwhelm the rebel army, sure, but most will retreat. I’m afraid we’ll have to chase them all the way to Quendon and siege that, to truly end the war.”

  “I agree,” Captain Hakon chimed in, “now I haven’t met Clement many times myself, but I trust Marna. If she says that he’s cautious, then he is. And why would a cautious man like that go into a battle he knew he couldn’t win?”

  “Any suggestions Jan?” Varre asked, “how would you fight from his perspective.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The senior commander took a few moments to think it over in silence. “If I was in his shoes, and I knew that I didn’t have enough men, I guess I’d focus on avoiding an open battle. I’d hole up in castles, force the enemy to siege me, and wait until he runs out of money, food, and supplies. Then, once he gets desperate and morale is low, I’d bring my troops together again and try to draw out a battle. On my terms.”

  The king tapped his foot on the floor. “It doesn’t sound like that’s what he’s doing, is it?”

  “No. He’s rushing to relieve Tresannes for political reasons. Cities don’t resist sieges as well as castles. It should have surrendered as soon as we showed up,” Jan scratched his chin.

  “Keep in mind, that he might still be trying to spark that civil war. Not just beat us here,” Hakon added.

  “Then what? Is he hoping that losing here will help somehow? Or does he plan to spark some massacre? Would people really support him if he just loses a battle to save his honor?” Varre started pacing around the room.

  “There certainly are ways to beat a larger army in open combat. Attacking us from both sides, when we are unprepared would be one way to do it. But I won’t let that happen,” the count promised.

  “What about magic then?” the king looked to Elvira.

  “Are you talking about Tobias, your majesty?” she asked.

  “Yes. Assuming he is in cahoots with Clement, could he turn the tide of battle?” the king inquired.

  “No,” she replied bluntly, “he may have been the Court Mage to you, but to us at the guild, he was just a senior mage. He could be stronger than me, I’ll admit. It’s not like we ever dueled. But he wasn’t the Archmage for a reason. And even Kadmos couldn’t take on a whole army by himself. At least not hundreds of knights at a time.”

  “Your majesty, don’t forget what happened when he fled the castle,” Hakon added, “he might have bested two Royal Guards, but he did so from a distance. He knew he couldn’t handle more. Wizards are strong, but they’re not invincible.”

  “Exactly,” Elvira nodded, “even if Clement managed to hire some rogue wizards, we have guild trained mages of our own. It won’t be enough.”

  “And I suppose no one else has any ideas?” Varre slowly looked at every commander and advisor gathered in the room, but everyone stayed quiet.

  Finally, Jan spoke up. “All we can do now is prepare for the battle as best we can. Maybe Clement has underestimated us. Maybe he has some ace up his sleeve. The only thing we can do now though is make sure our cards are stronger.”

  With that, the meeting was adjourned. New scouts were dispatched to explore the surrounding areas in detail and map them out. Even Count Jan left the siege camp, together with a few other commanders to investigate the closest villages.

  Though they focused on the South, the most likely approach for Clement’s army, they didn’t neglect the North either. The officers tried to find the best location for battle. Thousands of people needed a lot of space to move around in. The site shouldn’t give the rebels any advantage, but on the other hand, if it was too disadvantageous, they could refuse the battle and move on somewhere else.

  The best possible location was one that appeared fair when looked at from Clement’s side, but provided the loyalists a tangible advantage. A few decent enough candidates were identified. Each several miles away from Tresannes, on the two endangered roads.

  The next day, at least one of the open questions was finally resolved. Clement’s army did not push themselves into a forced march. They were going to make it to Tresannes tomorrow.

  The scouts kept up their reconnaissance, but it was becoming increasingly dangerous. As the rebels approached, they sent out patrols of knights trying to hunt down isolated outriders. A few lost their lives already and a couple more came dangerously close. Their jobs were becoming increasingly dangerous, but that was yet another signal. Clement was coming.

  The afternoon brought yet another revelation. One of the occupied villages on the way to the Northern road encountered a large rebel force. They had to evacuate. Though some of the scouts on the Southern track still saw signs of the enemy force, Jan read that as just a diversion. The real army was going North after all and they would make it to Tresannes tomorrow.

  Throughout the evening, the besieging loyalists began making their play. The wagon train was secretly packed up and prepared to move out early in the morning tomorrow. The final location of the battle was selected, around one of the villages in the North, and the day that would determine the outcome of the war was quickly coming.

  Everyone was agitated. After almost a week of sieging, the soldiers were beginning to get a bit anxious. They’ve entered these rebel lands anticipating a battle, and now that it was coming, the atmosphere was getting stressful. Fortunately, the morale was still high.

  In the morning of August 25th, the siege camp was suddenly abandoned. The defenders of Tresannes were no doubt wondering what must have happened, but they weren’t given any time to react. Varre’s army moved in an orderly fashion, in combat formation, with two infantry columns protecting the delicate wagon train and followed the road North.

  Just as Jan ordered, small teams of scouts were stationed on nearby hills, watching over the city. For now, the gates remained shut, but as soon as they opened and any force was spotted leaving Tresannes, a message would be dispatched to the main army. Depending on the size of this new enemy, more units could be dispatched to better defend the wagon train.

  Varre’s forces arrived at the location of the battle around noon. The soldiers started to arrange themselves into a battle formation to receive the enemy. Some of the reserves meanwhile, worked on securing the wagon train. It carried vital supplies of the army, as well as all of the noncombatants and support equipment. It had to be protected.

  As the army waited, the commanders kept going over the reports and carefully studying Clement’s position on the map. Village after village was evacuated, as the enemy forces moved closer. The rebels should arrive in just a few hours.

  Slowly, new reports began to pour in. A second force was still seen travelling on the Southern roads. The scouts who saw it were sure that this was the main attack. Other outriders were certain about the North.

  “What do we do?” Varre asked, “is this just a diversion?”

  “Maybe they split their army in half,” Jan theorized, “but they’ll be hours away from each other. They won’t attack us from behind. And if they try, our scouts watching Tresannes will notice.”

  “Should we move back to the city then? Maybe they want to sneak by us and reinforce it,” the king said.

  “I doubt it,” the count replied, “if they just wanted to resist a siege, why would they draft the army in Quendon? Why not gather everyone here in the first place, if they wanted to hold the city as a last stand?”

  With no clear conclusion in mind, the army decided to wait. Just in case, the soldiers prepared to move out again, if needed. Either to reposition to defend the rear, or to meet the real army approaching from the South.

  Over the next hours, more and more reports kept coming in. The scouts were certain that thousands of soldiers were moving up the Southern roads, but others kept seeing enemy forces on the northern path. But as their speeds diverged, Jan started to realize that he may have made a mistake. Finally, the scouts assigned to watch Tresannes confirmed the worst possibility.

  Clement’s army had chosen the Southern road after all. They appeared over the horizon and would be by the gates within the hour.

  Varre’s army immediately packed up and moved to meet them. The situation wasn’t terrible. If the traitors reinforced the city, then the siege would simply resume and the rebellion would end with a single strike. If they were going to combine their forces with the guards of the city, they’d meet on an open field and fight there. The loyalists still had the advantage in numbers. They may have been duped for now, but it changed little in the end.

  As things stood, Varre’s army was about three hours away from Tresannes. Far enough to be react in time to sudden developments, but also not close enough to stop the enemy from making their play. They marched quickly, hoping to catch the rebels before they finished with whatever plans they had.

  Then, scouts assigned to watch the city delivered a new, unexpected report. Clement wasn’t going for Tresannes at all. He avoided the city and headed straight for Banbury.

  The siege would take months. The loyalists would catch up to them and crush the rebels before that.

  As much as I'd like to, I cannot keep up a fast pace forever.

  That's why, I want to get you a bonus chapter this Sunday!

  So for now, we are decreasing to six chapters a week, and we will see what happens next weekend.