“I see.”
Lerial is afraid that Sammyl is seeing more than is there. “You need to talk to the arms-commander. Alone.” He walks to the doorway to the bedchamber and looks at Rhamuel, who is frowning. “Commander Sammyl is here.”
Sammyl does not look at either Lerial or Norstaan as he enters the bedchamber and closes the door behind him.
“I’m sorry, ser,” Norstaan says, “but he wasn’t seeing what really happened.”
Sammyl has always wanted to see things his way. At least, that’s what Lerial has observed so far. “He needs to talk to the arms-commander. He doesn’t want to believe that matters were as bad as they were here.” Yet Lerial knows he likely could have managed matters better. He should have had messengers sent even sooner than he did. Should you have just gone to support Drusyn immediately? But that would have left Rhamuel without any senior officer to convey his orders. You didn’t worry about that at Luba … But there were others able to do that.
Lerial pushes away the competing thoughts. It’s too late now. You did what you did.
Shortly, the bedchamber door opens. Sammyl gestures for Lerial.
Lerial enters and closes the door.
Sammyl inclines his head slightly. “I was not aware that the arms-commander literally had no even field-grade officers present. I can certainly see why you felt constrained to remain here, Overcaptain.”
“That was one of the reasons I had the arms-commander request your presence,” Lerial replies. “Now that you’re here, you can provide that support and a more experienced viewpoint.”
“With that in hand,” Rhamuel says, his voice raspy, but conveying a certain dryness, “can we get on with deciding how best to handle the Heldyans?”
Lerial looks at the arms-commander. The circles under Rhamuel’s eyes are even darker, and Lerial immediately extends the slightest order-probe. He cannot sense any more wound chaos than before … and can only hope that Rhamuel’s condition will not worsen. Yet he knows of nothing else he can do. He wishes Emerya were closer. In addition to her healing abilities, she has other talents, besides undetectable concealment, he is certain. In any event, she is likely the only one in all Hamor who could do more for Rhamuel. But … he cannot do anything about that at the moment. “What is the situation near South Post?”
“So far, Drusyn is managing to hold the Heldyans to the area of South Point, but there are more flatboats landing every glass. They have close to four battalions there now, and at least one, and possibly two chaos-wizards there…” Sammy goes on to provide more detail, before ending, “It’s likely that they’ll attack early tomorrow. I would judge that the Heldyan force to the north will attempt to attack as well, so that we are engaged in two battles at once.”
“You’ve seen the force to the north, and you’ve heard Commander Sammyl’s summation of the situation,” says Rhamuel, wincing as he lifts his left hand. “Where do you think you and your men could be the most effective?”
“That’s a bit of a guess. From what I’ve seen and from what you’ve reported, the force to the north is the stronger, but they’re taking their time, likely so that they can mass overwhelming numbers. I’d like to see what we could do at South Point early tomorrow. If we can weaken that force enough…”
Sammyl nods.
“Either way, even if I have to support the Harbor Post on sixday, that will help Drusyn and buy some time.”
“To what end?” asks Sammyl.
“The more time we have, the more likely we are to prevail. It’s still spring. They can’t feed all those men by foraging, not in the north and not in the middle of a city. That means shipping food, and that takes more time. Let them attack, and give ground slowly. They’ll take more casualties that way.”
“This sounds familiar,” observes Rhamuel.
“If either of you has a better idea,” replies Lerial, “I’m certainly open to it.” Anything that doesn’t require Mirror Lancers doing something suicidal.
“You have some abilities in handling chaos yourself,” Sammyl says blandly.
“Some,” admits Lerial. “I can’t create chaos-bolts and throw them, but I can often redirect what is thrown at us. That’s if I’m not outnumbered by chaos-wizards.” He isn’t about to mention the use of order-chaos unlocking. That remains a last resort. He still recalls the times doing that has come too close to killing him and everyone around him. As it was, with the comparatively small unlocking he had done on the north shore road, he’d been light-headed for more than a glass.
“That’s why you think you can be more effective at South Point,” says Rhamuel.
“If they have fewer chaos-wizards there … and if … well … it might be possible to use their own chaos against them and remove one or both of them. It can’t hurt to try. That way…”