replied as the official opened his door. “I’m happy with my bed. But I think you need a bigger army in a hurry.”
“ That’s not news,” Menard said, standing in his doorway, apparently impatient to return to his work there. “But it’s impossible to address. There is no more money available.”
“ If I deliver five thousand golds to you tomorrow, will you pay your back pay to the army, and then hire every man in the city as a short-term mercenary? If you can give Major Perry a thousand more archers next week, we can beat the Conglomerate,” Alec said in a quiet, but forceful tone.
“ If you can deliver five thousand golds tomorrow, I’ll have you married to the Countess by the end of the week!” Menard replied, starting to step into his office. “But there isn’t that much cash available in all of Krimshelm. Take your fantasies and go help the Major,” he answered, and he closed the door behind himself.
Alec snorted in angry disgust. He breathed deeply to calm down while he walked away; he reflected as he climbed the steps that perhaps if he were confronted by a stranger who offered wealth and riches, he would be just as cynical.
Back in the dining hall he sat down by himself to eat, when Macon the page came running in to join him. “I heard you burned the Conglomerate fleet! Was it exciting? Dangerous?” the boy asked.
Alec grinned at his youthful enthusiasm. “Why don’t you and I go practice with swords, and I’ll tell you about it,” Alec suggested to the young boy.
“ Can we? Really?” Macon asked, bouncing in his seat.
“ We can, but we need to go now, because the sun will set soon and it’ll be too dark,” Alec told him, and the two of them raced off to the practice hall.
Alec fitted Macon with a practice pad, then gave him a wooden sword, and soon they were moving through the traditional motions that had been drilled into Alec as a young member of the Guard in Goldenfields. “When will we start stabbing and slicing?” Macon asked after he grew bored with the repetition.
“ You seem to be learning fast, so maybe only another year,” Alec told him with a straight face, then laughed as the boy’s jaw dropped.
“ You teach a different way than I learned,” Perry said, standing behind Alec. “Page, you’re dismissed. Alec, come with me,” he turned and walked away.
Alec unstrapped his own pads and put them away, then went to Perry’s office, where Harbin stood waiting. “So you had an adventure and tweaked the Conglomerate’s tail, did you?” Perry asked.
Alec studied the man, then used his Spiritual powers to grasp the emotional atmosphere in the room. Perry was angry, and Harbin was worried.
“ We gather information about them, and slowed down their prospects of attacking Krimshelm,” Alec replied.
“ I don’t think you slowed them down. It sounds to me like you forced them to attack us,” Perry replied. “You were told to go observe, not launch your own bloody war.”
“ The only reason they’re here is to attack. We didn’t force them to do anything they’re not going to do anyway,” Alec replied. “The Conglomerate isn’t going to spend the money to ship thousands of soldiers up here, and then just ship them away. They were going to attack. Now they’re going to attack more slowly, with less equipment, and with more fear in their hearts about what we can do to them.”
He stood still and awaited Perry’s reply. “That’s all absolutely true,” the officer surprised Alec by agreeing after several seconds of silence. “But we’re still never going to have the forces to defeat them. Now they’re just going to be more angry when they do win. And they will win in the long run.”
“ If I can get the money to hire new archers, to set up an ambush, would you put them in place at the canyon we scouted?” Alec asked.
“ I know the road, and the canyon is the right place to do it, but there isn’t that kind of money around, so your ‘what