Colonel Nyack stretched his arm upward to halt the 5th Corps of the Empire of Barouk. Behind them on the snow-covered Cordonian road, the 14th Corps of Ertak also came to a halt. General Ross and General Haggerty had been riding together in the middle of the two armies, and they glanced at each other questioningly.
“It is too early for the vanguard to be making camp,” frowned General Ross. “I am going forward to see what the problem is. Join me.”
The two generals rode past the halted columns of soldiers until they reached the vanguard. Colonel Nyack sat astride his horse waiting patiently.
“We are an hour short of camp,” stated General Ross. “Why have you halted the column?”
The colonel waved his hand towards the distant hill. “Something is not right here, General. There should be a farm here, but it is gone.”
The two generals turned and stared at the level area before the distant hill. Snow covered the landscape, but it was certainly not deep enough to hide a farm. General Ross turned and gazed at the path before the column of soldiers. That land was also snow-covered and unblemished.
“Are you sure that we are on the road to Kantor?” asked General Ross. “It was fall when you were here last. Things will look different when everything is coated in white.”
“I am sure,” declared the colonel. “I know the features of this land. There should be a farm right here.”
“Bah,” scowled General Haggerty. “The very fact that the farm is not here disproves your words about knowing this land. Have you gotten us lost?”
General Ross turned to General Haggerty with a stern, disapproving expression on his face. General Haggerty immediately lost his scowl and looked away from General Ross, seemingly losing interest in the conversation. General Ross calmly returned his attention to the colonel.
“How do you explain the lack of a farm?” General Ross asked Colonel Nyack.
“I cannot,” frowned the colonel, “but the barn was quite large. Even if it collapsed under the weight of winter snows, the debris would still be visible. Something in not right here.”
“Were there other structures?” asked General Ross.
“A three-story farmhouse with a stone chimney.”
“Take a squad and investigate the farm,” ordered General Ross. “Return when you are satisfied.”
The colonel nodded and called for a squad to form around him. The soldiers rode off into the snow, and General Haggerty returned his attention to General Ross.
“I do not understand why you indulge him so,” complained General Haggerty. “We are wasting valuable time standing here.”
“Colonel Nyack is an extremely talented officer,” General Ross responded softly. “He is well aware of the need to maintain our schedule. He would not halt this column for a trivial matter.”
“But farms do not just disappear,” retorted General Haggerty. “The colonel is merely mistaken in his recollection of this land.”
“I will be the judge of that,” countered General Ross, exerting his authority as the leader of Force Cordonia.
“I would expect no less,” frowned General Haggerty, “but the lack of a farm is hardly a significant factor in our conquering of Cordonia. The more likely problem is that we are not on the Darcia-Kantor Road at all. This whole blasted land is covered by snow. We can’t tell a road from a gully, and if we are lost, we will need as much daylight as possible to find the hidden cache of supplies. We cannot afford to dally here while your favored colonel tromps around in the snow.”
“You also had a colonel visit this land last fall,” replied General Ross. “Send him on ahead to verify the hidden cache.”
General Haggerty watched as Colonel Nyack and his men started returning towards the column. He shook his head. “That would only waste more time. It would seem that Colonel Nyack is already coming back.”
The two generals sat silently waiting for the colonel and his squad to return. The colonel ordered the squad to halt when they neared the column. He continued onward and approached the generals.
“There is no sign of a farm,” Colonel Nyack said softly. “I cannot explain it, General, but something is dangerously wrong about this whole situation. I thought it odd that the inn was deserted when we came through the portal this morning, but that could be explained away by a number of possible reasons. There have been a few other irregularities along our route, but they were not significant. The lack of a farm here is most disturbing. I do not think we are where we are supposed to be.”
“You mean we are lost?” quipped General Haggerty.
“No,” the colonel replied adamantly. “I know exactly where we are, but this land is not the land that I visited in the fall.”
General Haggerty opened his mouth to offer another quip, but General Ross’s glare forestalled his words.
“Colonel, take your squad forward to the campsite. Verify the cache and return. I will lead the column behind you, so leave a well-marked trail.” General Ross waved dismissively at the colonel and turned his attention to General Haggerty. “General, send a couple of plainly-dressed men back to Darcia. I want a report on both portals, and I want to know what the people of Darcia are doing. Specifically, I want to know if our presence here has been reported to anyone.”
* * * *
The squad leader led his men stealthily northward, away from the Barouk-Ongchi Road and the safety of the encampment of the 9th Corps and the 25th Corps. He was tired of only catching small game, and one of the men had seen a small herd of deer in the distance. As he approached the small glade where the deer had been spotted, he gave the signal to halt. The twenty Baroukan soldiers stopped and listened. The forest was deathly still, and no deer were in sight. Still, the thought of fresh venison whetted the appetite of the squad leader. He signaled his men to fan out and surround the glade. If there were deer in the fringe surrounding the glade, his squad would get them. Of that he was sure.
The squad leader waited patiently for his men to get into position. He could not see any of his men, so signals were out of the question. He based his movements on time alone, and when he felt enough time had passed for all of his men to be in position, he stealthily moved forward, arrow nocked and ready to strike a killing blow. He proceeded slowly through the trees, pausing frequently to listen for any sounds of movement. Occasionally, he thought he heard sounds of his immediate flankers moving towards the glade, but he could not be sure. The sounds had been faint as he would have expected from his men. They were, after all, professional hunters.
Eventually, the squad leader reached the glade. It was empty. He sighed with disappointment at not finding any deer, although there was evidence of their recent passage. As he waited for his men to join him, the squad leader wondered if he should try tracking the deer, or return closer to camp and settle for rabbit and squirrel. He debated the pros and cons for a moment before his brow furrowed. Suddenly aware that he was alone, he wondered what was keeping his men. They should have arrived around the same time as he did. With a shiver of nervousness, the squad leader softly called out to his men. No one answered. He called louder. Still no response.
Shaking with fear, the squad leader stepped into the trees. He moved slowly, swiveling his head constantly in an effort to detect any movement in the forest. He detected nothing, but he soon came across the body of one of his men. The soldier was dead, his throat slashed from ear to ear. The soldier’s sword was missing. The squad leader stowed his bow and arrow and drew his own sword. Turning parallel to the glade, he moved cautiously through the trees. A little while later, he came upon another body. He, too, had been taken by surprise and his sword was missing. Fear overcame the squad leader, and he bolted away from the body.
Running as fast as his legs could carry him, the squad leader raced towards the Federation encampment. As he came over the crest of a low hill, the sun reflected off something. The squad leader instinctively threw himself to the ground. For a moment, he lie panting, waiting for an arrow to slam into his body, but the killing blow never arrived. When he regained his breath and a small bit of composure, he sheathed his sword and raised his head to peer down into the valley. In a small clearing at the bottom of the hill, dozens of dancing lights beamed towards him. The squad leader frowned in confusion. He realized that the sun was reflecting off of something metallic, but he could not see past the dazzle to identify the object.
Fearing enemy soldiers, the squad leader eased back over the hill and then set a course perpendicular to the one he had been traveling. When he had traveled far enough to alter his angle to the sun, he crept back up to the ridge and peered down into the clearing. His jaw dropped as he stared into the clearing. The metallic objects were swords stabbed into the ground, but that was not what caused the squad leader’s heart to throb like a galloping horse. The swords were arranged to form an arrow pointing directly at the Federation encampment. The squad leader counted the swords, and the message became clear. His entire squad was dead, and their swords were used to show the squad leader the way back to his camp. The enemy wanted him to survive. They were taunting him. The knowledge that his life had been spared did not ease the man’s fear. The squad leader rose and ran towards the camp, hysterically screaming of an attack.
* * * *
General Kolling and General Gertz sat in the large command tent, a squad leader standing before them.
“The portals are gone,” reported the squad leader. “Both of them were cut out of the walls and taken away. The men left to guard them are dead. There were also soldiers watching both places. I think they were meant to trap anyone coming back to the portals, but we detected them and avoided them.”
“There is an enemy army behind us?” General Gertz asked in alarm.
“No.” The squad leader shook his head. “They appeared more like a city guard than an army, and there were not many of them. I think my squad could have defeated them, but my mission called for information not bloodshed.”
“You have done well,” stated General Kolling. “I have no further orders for you at this time.”
The squad leader saluted and turned to leave the tent. When he opened the flap, the distant shouting was clearly heard by all.
“Find Colonel Ednor,” ordered General Kolling before the squad leader could leave the tent. “Have him discover the reason for the shouting and report to me immediately.”
The squad leader acknowledged the order and left the tent.
“So we are stranded here in Alcea?” asked General Gertz.
“I think you are drawing too wide an inference from isolated incidences,” replied General Kolling, “but there is a possibility that you are correct. We know that the portals in Barouk have been seized, but I also noticed that they were not simply destroyed. I have to wonder what use the Alceans would have for such portals.”
“To send their armies into Zara?” General Gertz asked in alarm.
“I do not care for Tauman personally,” frowned General Kolling, “but I would not want to lead an uninvited army through those portals into his domain. The 1st Corps would decimate the Alceans as they tried to get through the portals, plus they would be abandoning their homeland for the armies of the Federation to pillage and plunder unopposed. That strategy makes no sense to me. They have something else in mind.”
“What could they possibly have in mind?” scoffed General Gertz. “If they know that we are here, they must also know about the other armies all over Alcea. No one could be so foolish as to mistake their inevitable defeat for anything else. Their easiest path is to surrender. They cannot even put a scratch on the armies that are amassing around them.”
The tent flap was pulled away and Colonel Ednor entered the tent. General Kolling waved the colonel forward.
“The camp is in a bit of an uproar,” reported the colonel. “One of our squads decided to forage a bit deeper in the forest than we have been doing. Only the squad leader returned alive.”
General Kolling sat unmoving, his face emotionless, but General Gertz scowled in disbelief.
“They dared to attack us in daylight? How many of the enemy died before the lone coward returned?”
“The enemy remains unseen,” reported Colonel Ednor. “The entire squad was destroyed without a sound. The only reason the squad leader returned is that the enemy allowed him to.”
“Preposterous,” scoffed General Gertz. “The squad leader should be hung as a coward for all to see. We must make an example out of him.”
“How does he know that they allowed him to flee?” General Kolling asked calmly.
“They took the swords off their victims,” answered the colonel. “They stabbed the stolen swords into the ground to form an arrow pointing the way back for the squad leader. They seek to drive fear through our entire camp, and I think they are succeeding. The other foraging teams are finding excuses not to venture out of camp.”
General Kolling sighed and nodded. While the other two men watched wordlessly, the general unfolded a map of Lanoir and spread it out on the table. After a few minutes of silence, General Gertz could no longer hold his tongue.
“What are you looking at the map for? There is only one road between Barouk and Ongchi.”
“Indeed,” General Kolling responded, “and the enemy knows we plan to march along it. That has given them knowledge of the terrain before us that we do not possess. I will not do what the enemy expects me to. Colonel, I want you to identify the fishermen among our ranks. If we abandon the road for the next few days, we can travel along the coast. That will protect one flank of our armies, and it will also give us an opportunity to harvest the sea instead of foraging in the enemy’s forests.”
Colonel Ednor smiled and nodded. “I will see to it, General.”
“And find a way to calm the camp,” General Kolling continued. “If we need to make an example of the errant squad leader, you have authorization to proceed, but I am hesitant to combat fear with more fear. That should be a last resort.”
General Gertz stared at the map and shook his head. “We cannot follow the shoreline all the way to Ongchi. It would add many days to our journey.”
“True,” conceded General Kolling, “but we can follow it for a few days before we have to return to the road. I expect to build up a larder that will eliminate the need for excessive foraging. I will not let a handful of the enemy disrupt our schedule.”
* * * *
On the Coastal Highway south of Caldar, General Omirro and General Barbone stood watching the tents being disassembled. Colonel Verle rode up to the generals and dismounted.
“We are breaking camp?” asked the colonel.
“We are already half a day behind schedule,” replied General Omirro. “We must leave now if we are to eat tonight without foraging.”
“We are going to have to forage,” stated the colonel. “Colonel Pineta led some men south to search for any horses that might have headed that way. When he was in the vicinity of tonight’s camp, he thought to check the cache. It is gone.”
“Gone?” gasped General Barbone. “Why didn’t Colonel Pineta report that directly to me?”
“He is still searching for lost horses,” explained Colonel Verle. “I promised to carry the report here for him.”
“I was afraid of that,” sighed General Omirro.
“You were expecting this news?” scowled General Barbone. “How could you possibly suspect such a thing? The location of the cache was supposed to be secret.”
“Our enemies are not impotent,” retorted General Omirro. “In fact, they seem to be rather clever.”
“If you find them so clever,” snapped general Barbone, “perhaps you can enlighten me. Why don’t they just attack us if they know where we are?”
“They will,” replied General Omirro, “but not yet. They seek to slow us down first. They want the 10th Corps and the 22nd Corps to be tired, hungry, and in poor spirits. When things look like they can’t get any worse, they will attack.”
“Do you really expect the Sordoans to come full force against us?” asked General Barbone.
“I do not know,” admitted General Omirro. “I think that depends on whether they know about the other two prongs of the attack. If they are ignorant of those other armies, they will attack us with everything they have. That would prove to be a disastrous mistake for the Sordoans, but it will also mean great losses for our two armies. We need to be prepared for such an eventuality.”
“We could send men back to the portals,” suggested General Barbone. “We could have Tauman’s 1st Corps attack and hold Caldar and send supplies behind us. That will eliminate the need for foraging.”
“There are two problems with that plan, General,” sighed General Omirro. “Tauman is still holding Camp Destiny as a precaution against the Alceans sending troops to Zara. He will not allow his army to enter Alcea to seize Caldar.”
“And the other problem?” asked General Barbone.
“I do not expect the portals to be whole,” answered General Omirro. “If the enemy knows we are here, I suspect that they know how we got here. They will certainly have destroyed the portals to prevent reinforcements. Colonel, did you send men back to the portals as I requested?”
“I did,” replied Colonel Verle. “I have not yet heard back from them. They are already overdue, but I advised great caution with the portal in the city. I did not want to draw undo attention to the existence of the portals.”
“Wise.” General Omirro nodded. “Did you instruct the men to inform Tauman of what happened here?”
The colonel nodded as the tent flap opened. A captain entered the tent and saluted.
“The portals are gone,” reported the captain.
“Gone?” asked Colonel Verle. “Do you mean destroyed?”
“No, Colonel. I mean gone. The portals were removed. There is nothing left at either place except large holes in the walls.”
“Then we are stranded here?” questioned General Barbone. “How are we to return to Zara?”
“Without provisions.” General Omirro nodded. “As for returning to Zara, we have a war to win before that question requires an answer. We need to get this army moving now.”
* * * *
General Ross and General Haggerty rode to the side of the column and halted as they saw the rider heading towards them. The 5th Corps continued to march past them. The rider reined in his horse and stopped alongside the generals.
“Darcia doesn’t exist,” reported the captain.
“Doesn’t exist?” frowned General Haggerty. “Do you mean that the people have abandoned it?”
“No, General,” replied the captain. “I mean that the city is no city at all. It is fake. The buildings have no interiors. In fact, the farther one gets from the inn, the less complete the buildings are. Some of them are merely facades supported by rough beams, and the construction is recent.”
“What about the portals?” asked General Ross.
“Gone,” reported the captain. “They were ripped out of the surrounding walls and taken away.”
General Haggerty shook his head in confusion. “I cannot understand what is going on. Our supplies are missing, a farm is missing, and now we learn that the city is fake. I do not understand it.”
“I will not claim to understand it either,” commented General Ross, “but I do understand the implications. This place that we are in is not Cordonia, and wherever it is, we are stranded here.”
“How can it not be Cordonia?” asked General Haggerty. “Even your Colonel Nyack says that the land is known to him. It has to be Cordonia.”
“Does it?” frowned General Ross. “Why?”
General Haggerty’s mouth opened, but he could not find the words to express himself. General Ross sighed anxiously and continued.
“We marched our armies through magical portals, General. Now, I do not claim to understand magic any more than the next man, but if such devices are capable of taking us to Cordonia, why do you find it hard to believe that they could just as easily take us somewhere else?”
“How can you remain so calm?” scowled General Haggerty.
“Because hysteria solves nothing,” General Ross sighed. “The next thing we need to discover is where in the world are we? The snow attests to a northern clime, but we can’t even be sure which continent we are on. We need to proceed with extreme caution. We are expecting to face the six-thousand men of the Cordonian army, but that may not be the case. We might be facing an even greater army.”
“Could we merely be in a different part of Cordonia?” asked the captain.
“That is possible,” mused General Ross. “Ask Colonel Nyack if he has any star charts for Cordonia. Perhaps that will illuminate us.”
The captain saluted and rode forward in search of Colonel Nyack. The generals watched the young officer leave and then rejoined the column.
“How will we ever return to Zara?” General Haggerty asked softly.
“There are many questions to be answered,” General Ross responded. “We know that someone built the fake Darcia to trick us, and I suspect that they were Alceans. My first question is whether the other two prongs of Force Cordonia were similarly tricked, and if so, where are they in relation to us?”