Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (40 page)

“
Do you plan on sending troops through the portals?” Dibon asked.

“
Not at the moment, but eventually that might change. I would think that would not happen until the enemy has learned we can use the portals. But we can send sabotage teams through. Find a ripe target, and we send a team with the means of taking it out. Make the hit, and slip away without a trace. The potential to damage and discourage their efforts is incredible”

“
What happens when they learn of the portals?”

“
They will obviously start trying to figure out how they are used, but as far as we know that knowledge is limited to a few people and we have only found it in Ygooro,” Jolan said, taking over the discussion once again. “Knowing the function of the portals doesn’t mean they can start using them. Some of our flexibility will be lost, since they will realize how we have been getting our people into place. They might start guarding every portal they have, which would take a lot of man-power. Even that will hurt their efforts. We will adapt when that time comes, depending on what they know and how they react. Hopefully it will be some time before they finally figure this out.”

“
Are there any immediate issues to be resolved before putting this plan into action?” Vaen asked.

“
It would be useful to survey the portals out there,” Jolan replied. “We have maps that show where portals are located, but they are not very precise. We also have lists of some of the portals, with the destination names recorded. When a portal is activated, the name as it will be listed in the selection menu is shown. That specific name is required if a portal is to be controlled remotely. I would like to send a couple of teams to map out a number of portals in key locations.”

“
What kind of teams?” Ward asked.

“
The team would require a mage who knows how to activate the portal as a minimum. We can activate a portal at random in an area if we have a list of the names for that area, then send someone through, but even then it would be useful to scout the area for other portals and choose the best locations. Randomly popping out of portals increases the chances someone is going to observe us, and let the secret out. Since a mage with the activation knowledge is required, that means some of our existing people need to be used unless we want to further spread the knowledge, which I don’t recommend.”

Vaen nodded in agreement. “You said something about Ronoran and Luzoke the other day when we talked.”

“
I was thinking of Ronoran and Asari as one team. They could map out a set of portals in Seret, especially in the areas where Ale’ald is likely to invade. A second team might be Luzoke and one of Major Wylan’s men. He has a man I’d like to later put in charge of the non-sniper assault teams. He is very good, and would help provide support for Luzoke. I’d send the two of them into Kimlelm, behind the lines, so they would have to be more careful. Luzoke can hardly be matched with the power of his shields and beams, and Wylan’s man is a real terror with the semi-automatic rifle I brought from Earth. I wish we had more of those.”

“
When would you start these probes?”

“
Assuming we get agreement today, they’d start tomorrow. We don’t have much time, and I suspect Ale’ald is already positioning its forces. We can expect the situation to have changed significantly over the winter. For one thing, I suspect Ale’ald’s forces in Kimlelm will now have the means to communicate back to Cheurt much more quickly.”

“
Why is that?” asked Dibon.

“
I’m sure they have the telegraph system by now.”

This caught a couple of them by surprise.

“
They had to know what we had since they started interfering with the lines. Despite our efforts to remove or destroy equipment when they approached key locations, some of the items had to have been captured. This would give them examples. Whether they have been able to build their own, or have just scavenged some of ours, I fully expect they have run lines back to Cheurt and the controlling wizards over the winter. Their system probably isn’t nearly as extensive as we have, but we should start assuming that information exchanges will now take them days rather than weeks.”

There were a number of questions on the plan, but eventually everyone was satisfied and agreement was unanimous that the approach should be followed. That meant Jolan would be making a trip to Seret to inform Tomas of the changes so their Queen could be informed. Vaen and Dibon had the undesirable task of bringing the rest of the Council into the small group who knew of the portal system and their planned usage of it, although there were certain aspects of the project that would remain unsaid.

With that order of business out of the way, Jolan turned to the second reason for the meeting.

“
I want to address some of the rules of engagement and how Angon is fighting this war. Some of what I have to suggest I am certain will meet with instant approval, but some of my suggestions are going to raise concerns that need to be dealt with. Gene and I talked a bit about the war while we were still on Earth. He made several suggestions, and now that he is here we are in a better position to try and put them into place.”

“
This is a simple kind of automatic weapon,” Jolan said as he slid another drawing onto the table for the group to look at. “I said earlier I would like to have many of the semi-automatic rifles like the one I brought from Earth. Buris and his team have looked it over carefully, and could probably duplicate it. A bigger problem is the ammunition. Special powders are required to allow it to continue functioning without fouling and jamming. It is uncertain how long it would take to develop the powders and ammunition in addition to the new weapon. Too long to be useful in the current war effort he thinks.”

Buris nodded his agreement.

“
However, Buris and Gene have already made a test version of one of these. It uses the same ammunition as our original Sharps rifle, but shoots hundreds of times faster. On Earth it as known as a Gatling gun. This design functioned quite well with the black powder we are currently using in the locally manufactured ammunition. It is not particularly accurate, but we expect Ale’ald to bring their troops across the river when they invade Seret. All of the ideas present serious problems for them. These guns can be moved into place quickly, and a number of them would have a devastating effect on large concentrations of troops trying to come ashore.”

“
Another device to slow their advance, both in terms of crossing the river and in other engagements, is this device. It is known as a Claymore mine. It is particularly nasty in that it fires hundreds of balls, each about the size of a bullet. It can be triggered remotely, although we have limited capability in that regard, or by soldiers tripping a hidden trigger wire. A single device can kill or wound dozens of the enemy. Gene tells me he can make the primary explosive, something we call TNT, without too much difficulty. It remains to be seen how quickly these can be produced in any quantity. Believe me, once a few of these have been activated, the enemy will approach new areas far more cautiously.”

“
Gene and Buris are also working on a possible modification to the sniper rifles we brought from Earth. They are very effective as they are, but only two things put the snipers at risk. Since they do not use magic, the enemy wizards can attack them only if they can see or hear them. The men have been trained on how to be silent and invisible. They are quite good at both. But the rifles still make noise. At the distances they operate, the noise is almost non-directional making them hard to locate, but the modification we seek is to add a suppressor to the rifle. This would reduce the sound to be all but inaudible at the targets. It would allow the sniper to fire multiple shots, in many cases before the enemy realized they were under attack, and even then there would be nothing to direct their attention to the location of the hidden snipers. We have drawings of a relatively simple and supposedly very effective design. Buris will see if one of the rifles can be modified as we hope. If it works, some of the other rifles will be similarly modified.”

“
These matters don’t seem particularly controversial,” Ward observed.

“
Perhaps not. But some other ideas are. We need to stop playing fair. I want behind the line teams to cause major disruptions to the enemy. That means attacking facilities as well as troops. Creating the explosives and hauling them to these targets is a concern. Many times a single mage could do with a bit of magic what would take many men, a great deal of effort, and hundreds of pounds of explosive.”

“
You know it is against our principles to use magic on non mages.”

“
Your policy is silly, to put it bluntly.” Jolan thought he saw a brief smile reach Vaen’s lips.

“
You are willing to kill the enemy, but you are setting restrictions on how you do it. Your arguments about the old war are simply unsupportable and misplaced. In the first place, that war caused massive damage because mages and wizards were targeting each other, not because they were targeting the common folk. Yet you have a policy that allows the use of magic against the wizards. Don’t you see a problem here?”

That argument aside, the serious damage that occurred then is very unlikely to be repeated. Wizards and mages of a level high enough to command the destructive spells of that time no longer exist. Neither side could bring the forces to bear that could cause such damage. I want Major Wylan to have assault teams that are formed from snipers and mages; mages that can and will use magic to inflict major damage on the enemy. This isn’t a game. We need to win. It will save the most lives in the long run. Besides, would we rather Angon soldiers die, or those of the enemy. Bluntly, that is going to be the choice. I know I won’t get agreement on this today, but it is something we need to decide on soon. The war will be coming our way, and delaying a decision will only find Angon isolated and forced to fight on alone.”

The room was silent. Jolan knew he had the support of Wylan, Buris, and Vaen. For Ward and Dibon it was a dramatic change in what they had been taught all their lives. More importantly, such a policy would have to pass the full council and win the approval of the Queen. He didn’t know the outcome, but felt the ultimate direction of the war would depend on his ability to use magic as needed.

Dibon spoke first. “Jolan, you know I have long been a friend and supporter of yours. Not too long ago you were new to these lands, and now you have come to a point where it is you who are suggesting to us we need to rethink our basic beliefs. Please understand, that I find this a bit surprising and perhaps a bit presumptuous.”

“
I’m sorry Dibon. I appreciate that you have been a friend since the first day I came to the Council, but I thought about this a great deal while I was on Earth gathering items to support this effort. It would be tragic if, after all the effort and planning, and all the special support we have been able to gather from my world, the war was lost because of misplaced idealism. I cannot choose for the people of Angon, but you need to think this through very carefully. This is no longer an academic and hypothetical issue that can be viewed from a scholarly position. This is reality, and it is coming your way faster than you realize. The future of Angon and the Settled Lands may well depend on how this simple issue is decided. I think I know how your King would have chosen, but with the new Queen, I suspect her decision will be heavily guided by the recommendations of the Council.”

There wasn’t much else to say. Jolan had planted a few seeds. He would have to see how they grew. He knew Vaen would be using her influence to bias the decision his way, but some of his ideas flew in the face of hundreds of years of policy. He suspected it would take a couple of scares in the war before they finally caved on the final matter.

“
You didn’t mention the pungi stakes,” Gene said as they walked back toward the College.

“
It wasn’t necessary. I talked with Major Wylan about their deployment, and that is something he can do without consulting with anyone here. With the spring grasses so long, and our expectation that Ale’ald will try and land thousands of soldiers across the river, they will be in for a particularly nasty surprise. A few encounters with the fouled stakes will slow their soldiers. If we can get the Claymores soon enough, the two surprises will be a real deterrent to their moving into Seret.”

It took several days for any decisions to be made. Vaen had told Jolan it would, but he was still surprised that they could spend that much time fooling around with something so basic and so critical to their very existence. He could see why Vaen had neglected to step down from her leadership post over the years. For as wise and powerful as these people might be, they could be pretty blind about anything that affected their beliefs.

For the past two days Jolan had been experimenting with some of the knowledge he had been given from Oscar’s two
pairing-crystals
. Up to now there simply hadn’t been time, and he wondered if there might be something particularly useful or applicable to the present situation. The ability to hold onto spells that he was presently unable to use against an advancement in level or to pass to someone else was a useful trick. He had a couple of spells still lurking in the back of his mind from the knowledge he’d extracted from Cheurt, but he hadn’t known how to perform the task of storing unusable spells intentionally. He could now do it easily with any spell, although teaching the trick to someone else would probably mean another session with the transfer crystals. He’d tried to explain the extremely simple and obvious technique to Luzoke with no luck. Even the extremely quick and clever Tishe had thrown up her hands at his explanation of the technique.