The siegemaster smiled his thanks to the youngest thoheeks, then continued soberly. “Thoheeks Bili be correct, lady and gentlemen. My calculations indicate that a minimum of ten thousand casualties will be sustained, should we be so rash as to mount the aforementioned attack. This figure includes both killed and wounded, and the largest percentage will be of course amongst the dismounted nobles who lead the two wall assaults-possibly as high a figure as five out of every six.”
“And what duchy,” put in Milo, “can afford to lose so large a proportion of its nobility?”
“Certainly not mine,” nodded the Dailee grimly. “I withdraw my endorsement. And when next I open my impetuous mouth, I give all here leave to stuff a jackboot in it”
The ahrkeethoheeks laughed. “I doubt me there is enough jackboots in all the Confederation to stop that void, Hwilee! But let us hear Sir Ehdt’s other schemes, eh?”
The siegemaster flexed his pointer, rocking back and forth on heels and toes. “The least expensive method, in all save time, is simply to invest the objective and starve out the enemy; but it might well be shearing time or later ere we could do such.
“Another method would depend principally on the rashness and gullibility of their leaders, as well as the acting abilities of our own troops. Under the proper circumstances, we could trick them into one or more sallies in force, thus wearing down their garrison. But I remember Major Vahrohnos Myros as a most cautious man, and I scarce think me he’d succumb to such a temptation.”
Milo remarked, “Oh, I don’t know, Ehdt-he showed some ruinous errors of judgment hi the course of that abortive siege on Morguhn Hall. I said, in the beginning and all along, that I think the man is slowly losing his mind. Such is the principal weakness of geniuses-and I don’t think anyone who knew him well, in his short prime, can deny that he was once a military genius.”
“But,” asked Bili, “how do we know that he is even directing the defense? After all, according to the tale those captured priests tell, he deserted his ragtag army on the night of the sortie, fled back to Morguhnpolis with his bodyguard and that wretched sub-kooreeos. What men would intrust their lives a second time to such a craven?”
Aldora’s voice was soft, but grave. “Oh, no, Bili, Myros is no coward; he can be brave past the point of recklessness. But he is … well, erratic. And he seems to take a perverse pleasure in turning, for no discernible reason, on every ally, of sooner or later betraying every trust. But never, ever, make the mistake of underestimating the bastard’s personal courage, my love, or his abilities, for he is an astute strategist and a crafty tactician.”
“And,” Milo added, “of the few rebellious nobles in Vawn-polis, he has the only trained and experienced military mind. From the reports we received from our agents within Vawn-polis ere the city was sealed, it was certain that the director of the defense was no tyro at siegecraft. And I find it impossible to believe that the Morguhn nobleman, Vahrohneeshos Drehkos Daiviz, who was named as leader in all those reports, could truly have been responsible for such brilliant innovations. But this same Drehkos-”
“Your pardon, my lord Milo,” put in Thoheeks Djak Tahmzuhn, youngest after Bili of the high nobles, “but I recall hearing my late sire speak right often of a Daiviz of Morguhn with whom he soldiered in the Middle Kingdoms some twoscore years agone. If this be him-”
“But it is not the same man, cousin,” Bili answered him. “That man was his elder brother, Hari, the present Komees Daiviz of Morguhn, hereditary Lord of Horse County of my duchy. Drehkos, the rebel, has never been out of the Confederation, seldom even been beyond the borders of the archduchy, and always avoided military experience like the plague. So, as the High Lord said, it were virtually impossible to credit so provincial and untrained a man with all that has been laid at his doorstep.”
“On the other hand,” Milo took up, “it is highly likely that so devious a brain as Myros’ would strike upon the stratagem, since his precipitate flight from Morguhn Hall no doubt cost him the trust and loyalty of the other rebels, of using Drehkos Daiviz-whom we now know to have long been his satellite and his spy among the loyal Kindred of Morguhn- as his public face, the mouth through which his orders come. Therefore we all must proceed, must lay our plans, on the assumption that the commander opposing us is as one of us, that he well knows the strengths and weaknesses of Confederation forces and will conduct his own resources accordingly. However, as he knows us, we also know him, know of his frequently overcautious nature, of his occasional indeci-siveness, of his penchant for turnabouts and betrayals, of his vanity and arrogance. Armed with such knowledge, we should be able to almost read the man’s actions long ere they’re performed and, with the services of a master strategist of the water of Sir Ehdt, as well as two such able tacticians as High Lady Aldora and Thoheeks Bili, when once we’re before those walls we should quickly gain the upper hand. This rebellion should be scotched by harvest time.”