Chapter 50
Our first campaign brought protests from the captains. I wanted to attack the garrison at Orleans and capture what was an Oldlander stronghold, a port city that brought in the Emperor’s Imperial soldiers and supplies. Take that city and we cut off reinforcements and resupply lines to Blackfin. He would be forced to live off the land, which he could easily do but this meant his men would spend more time feeding themselves than fighting.
My plan was simple; I was going to transport my army of two regiments numbering nearly 900 men to the swamp surrounding the town’s east side. No one would expect an army to approach what was thought to be impassable but Laioli had shown me a vehicle called a swampcat that rode on a cushion of air above the water and reeds. Capable of carrying forty men each, they were swift and silent, running on something he called nuclear fusion. We would be able to approach the town quietly and quickly. The boats were able to reach speeds of 50 miles an hour.
The men had practiced piloting the airboats on the open water of the great Lake near the city of Southland. It was a huge body of water with a tide and surf equal to the ocean. Covering an estimated million acres, it took nearly 4 days to cross the boundary between the Borderwall and Newlands to the south. There were only a few sparse settlements on its shores, mostly real dyed-in-the-wool mountain men who weren’t afraid of either the Elassai or the lack of civilized contact with the Newlanders. I wasn’t worried that they might see us. In fact, many of them had joined our Army.
I picked a baby moonlit night on which to launch. The night was cool, heading on towards fall. We loaded up the men, our gear and weapons around midnight expecting to hit the garrison at Orleans around 2 AM.
The men were quietly excited which made me nervous – war was no fun, there was nothing exciting or glorious about men dying, being cut to pieces or blown to bits. I surveyed the line of 42 aircats straddling the banks of the river Aarh that fed the swamps surrounding Orleans. It looked like an army, an amphibious one. I hadn’t met all the officers but those in charge had spoken to Laioli and been given their orders. He kept track of us and the situation by special lenses we wore in helmets designed for such use. Most of the men had taken to the technology with an ease that astonished me. I had thought such wonders would have frightened the Newlanders.
Yet, that was left to me. Right before we entered the marshy woods that surrounded the outskirts of Orleans, I stopped the convoy, told them to close their helmets, which blocked off their hearing and sight, waiting until I had confirmation that all had obeyed me. Only then did I send forth a call using the Dracule’s glamour.
Creatures far and wide heard my call and came. Creatures that both worlds had never seen or heard of before. They came in herds, flocks and in swarms. Wyverns, harpies, demons, slithern and weres, all eager to do my bidding until their numbers nearly equaled our own. Strange creatures that would have torn your worst nightmares to pieces yet lay down at my feet as if they were my pet dogs. I gave them orders and they slunk, crawled and flew away to spy and wreak havoc on our enemies.
We parked the aircats on the very edge of the swamps where the town dumped their garbage. No one was around to hear the muted, almost noiseless fans of the airboats and from the actions of the slithern, I knew nothing had seen or heard us approaching. The slithern were creatures half boar-like and half-serpentine, rare and rarely seen beyond the Borderwall. Even there, they were rare, solitary creatures both feared and shunned for their vicious snaky natures. And best of all, they were voracious diggers and I had set them to undermining the parade areas of the tower garrison with tunnels as well as a backdoor into the heart of the tower for us.
Half of our force went into the middens; the other followed me into the tunnels. We crept our way through dirt and moisture following the trail left by the slithern.
We communicated by the devices in our helmets, which also gave the others the ability to see in the dark. I had no need of such a device, with my thirst for blood came enhanced night vision.
It was a complete rout. They never saw us coming, we caught most of them asleep in their beds and slaughtered them to the last man.
I thought my bloodlust was unquenchable but these Newlander soldiers made me sick at the sight of all the gore. I fed until I was sated and satiated; I did not even care about the looks my men and Arianell gave me. The more I fed, the stronger I became and the more removed I felt from those around me.