Chapter 30
At dawn, Arlong’s civilians began clearing out of the city. The evacuation proceeded with impressive efficiency. The civilians had been packed and prepared for this for weeks. All families were ready to go with two bags each of clothing, medical supplies, and several days’ worth of food.
By midafternoon the city center had been hollowed out. Arlong became a shell of a city. The Republican Army quickly transformed the larger residences into defense bases with sandbags and hidden explosives.
Soldiers accompanied the civilians to the base of the cliffs, where they began a long, winding climb up to the caves inside the rock face. The pass was narrow and treacherous, and some heights could not be scaled except by using several stringy rope ladders embedded into the rock with nails.
“That’s a rough climb,” Rin said, looking doubtfully up the rock wall. The ladders were so narrow the evacuees would have to go up one by one, with no one to aid them. “Can everyone make it?”
“They’ll get over it.” Venka walked up behind her with two small, sniffling children in tow, a brother and sister who’d been separated from their parents in the crowd.
“Our people have been using those hills as hideouts for years. We hid there during the Era of Warring States. We hid there when the Federation came. We’ll survive this, too.
” She hoisted the girl up onto her hip and jerked her brother along. “Come on, hurry up.”
Rin glanced backward over her shoulder at the masses of people moving below.
Maybe the caves would keep the Dragons safe. But the southern refugees had been ordered to occupy the valley lowlands, and that was just open space.
The official word was that the caves were too small to accommodate everyone, and so the refugees would have to make do.
But the valley provided no shelter at all.
Exposed to the elements, with no natural or military barriers to hide behind, the refugees would have no protection from the weather or the Militia—and certainly not from Feylen.
But where else were they going to go? They wouldn’t have fled to Arlong if home were safe.
“I’m hungry,” complained the boy.
“I don’t care.” Venka tugged at his skinny wrist. “Stop crying. Walk faster.”
“This battle will take place primarily in three stages,” said Vaisra.
“One, we will fend them off at the outer channel between the Red Cliffs. Two, we win the ground battle in the city. Three, they will try to retreat along the coast, and we will pick them off. We’ll get to that stage if we are miraculously lucky. ”
His officers nodded grimly.
Rin glanced around the council room, amazed by how many faces she’d never seen before. A good half of the officers were newly promoted. They wore the stripes of senior leadership, but they looked five years older than Rin at most.
So many young, scared faces. The military command had been killed off at the top. This was rapidly becoming a war fought by the children.
“Can that warship even get through the cliffs?” asked Captain Dalain.
“Daji’s familiar with the channel,” said Admiral Kulau, the young navy officer who had replaced Molkoi. He sounded as if he were deepening his voice to seem older. “She’ll have designed it so it can.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Eriden said. “If their warship even starts depositing troops outside the channel, then we’re in trouble.” He leaned over the map. “That’s why we have archers stationed here and here—”
“Why aren’t there any back-end fortifications?” Kitay interrupted.
“The invasion will come from the channel,” Vaisra said. “Not the valley.”
“But the channel’s the obvious avenue of attack,” Kitay said. “They know you’re expecting them. If I’m Daji, and I have a numerical advantage that large, then I split my troops and send a third column round the back while everyone’s distracted.”
“No one’s ever attacked Arlong from land routes,” Kulau said. “They’d be eviscerated on the mountaintops.”
“Not if they’re unguarded,” Kitay insisted.
Kulau cleared his throat. “They’re not unguarded. They’ve got fifty men guarding them.”
“Fifty men can’t beat a column!”
“Chang En’s not going to send a full column of his crack troops round the back. You have a fleet that big, you man it.”
No one spoke the more obvious answer, which was that the Republican Army simply didn’t have the troops for better fortifications. And if any part of Arlong warranted a defense, then it was the palace and military barracks. Not the valley lowlands. Not the southerners.
“Of course, Chang En will want this to turn into a land battle,” Vaisra continued smoothly. “There they have the sheer advantage in numbers. But this fight remains winnable as long as we keep it amphibious.”
The channel had already been blocked up with so many iron chains and underwater obstacles that it almost functioned as a dam.
The Republic was banking on mobility over numbers—their armed skimmers could dart between the Imperial ships, breaking up formations while the munitions crews shot bombs down from their cliffside stations.
“What’s the makeup of their fleet?” asked a young officer Rin didn’t recognize. He sounded terribly nervous. “Which ships do we target?”
“Aim for the warships, not the skimmers,” Kulau said. “Anything that has a trebuchet should be a target. But the bulk of their troops are on that floating fortress. If you can sink any ships, sink that first.”
“You want us in a fan formation at the cliffs?” Captain Dalain asked.
“No,” said Kulau. “If we spread out then they’ll just obliterate us. Stay in a narrow line and plug up the channel.”
“We’re not worried about their shaman?” Dalain asked. “If we clump our ships together, he’s just going to blast our fleet against the cliffs.”
“I’ll take care of Feylen,” Rin said.
The generals blinked at her. She looked around the table, eyes wide open. “What?”
“Last time you ended up stranded for a month,” said Captain Eriden. “We’ll be fine against Feylen—we have fifteen squadrons of archers positioned across the cliff walls.”
“And he’ll just fling them off the cliffs,” said Rin. “They won’t be more than an annoyance.”
“And you won’t be?”
“No,” she said. “This time, I can fly.”
The generals looked as if they were unsure whether to laugh. Only General Tarcquet, sitting silently as usual in the back of the room, looked mildly curious.
“I built her a, uh, flying kite sort of contraption,” Kitay explained. He made some gestures with his hands that clarified nothing. “It’s made up of some leather wings with rods, and she can generate flames hot enough to levitate herself using the same principle that lifts a lantern—”
“Have you tried it?” Vaisra asked. “Does it work?”
Rin and Kitay nodded.
“Wonderful,” Gurubai said drily. “So, assuming she’s not mad, that’s the Wind God taken care of. There’s still the rest of the Imperial Navy to deal with, and we’re still outnumbered three to one.”
The officers shifted uneasily.
It was easier for Rin if she compartmentalized the battle to simply dealing with Feylen. She didn’t want to think about the rest of the fleet, because the truth was there was no easy way to deal with the fleet. They were outnumbered, they were on the defensive, and they were trapped.
Kitay sounded far calmer than she felt. “There’s a number of different tactics we can try. We can try to break them up and storm their warships. The important thing is that we don’t let that fortress get to the shore, because then it turns into a land battle for the city.”
“And Jun’s forces won’t be so formidable,” Kulau added. “They’ll be exhausted. The Militia isn’t used to naval battles, they’ll be seasick and dizzy. Meanwhile our army was designed for riverine warfare, and our soldiers are fresh. We’ll just outfight them.”
The room looked unconvinced.
“Here’s an option we haven’t considered,” General Hu said after a short pause. “We could surrender.”
Rin found it disheartening that this wasn’t immediately met with a general outcry.
Several seconds passed in silence. Rin glanced sideways at Vaisra but couldn’t read his expression.
“That wouldn’t be a terrible idea,” Vaisra said finally.
“It wouldn’t.” General Hu glanced desperately around the room. “Look, I’m not the only one thinking it. They’re going to slaughter us. No one’s come back from a numbers disadvantage like this in history. If we cut our losses now, we still come out of this alive.”
“As always,” Vaisra said slowly, “you are the voice of reason, General Hu.”
General Hu looked profoundly relieved, but his smile faded as Vaisra continued to speak.
“Why not surrender? The consequences couldn’t possibly be so terrible.
All that would happen is that every single person in this room would be flayed alive, Arlong destroyed, and any hope of democratic reform would be quashed in the Empire for at least the next few centuries. Is that what you want?”
General Hu had turned pale. “No.”
“I have no place in my army for cowards,” Vaisra said softly. He nodded to the soldier standing beside Hu. “You there. You’re his aide?”
The boy nodded, eyes huge. He couldn’t have been older than twenty. “Yes, sir.”
“Ever been in battle?” Vaisra asked.
The boy’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Yes, sir. I was at Boyang.”
“Excellent. And what is your name?”
“Zhou Anlan, sir.”
“Congratulations, General Zhou. You’ve been promoted.” Vaisra turned to General Hu. “You can leave.”
General Hu forced his way through the crowded bodies and left without another word. The door swung shut behind him.
“He’s going to defect,” said Vaisra. “Eriden, see that he’s stopped.”
“Permanently?” Eriden asked.
Vaisra considered that briefly. “Only if he struggles.”
After the council had been dismissed, Vaisra motioned for Rin to stay behind. She exchanged a panicked glance with Kitay as he filtered out with the others. Once the room had emptied, Vaisra closed the door behind him.
“When this is over I want you to go pay a visit to our friend Moag,” he said quietly.