The King & the Stable Boy

LIII: Calm in the Streets of Ream

Y'all better be proud of me because I have not yet called William Winston or vice versa

-Jessie

Noah

"What time do we strike and how?" William asks those assembled, folding his hands over his mouth, looking at the map and the pieces we've placed on it critically.

We knew where the camp was located, what lied around it and where their placement of things was roughly, but thus far no one could come to an agreement on how to directly attack the rebellion and snuff it out for good.

"We go in at night. They'll be sleeping, it's our best bet." one general suggests

"No, we take a Trojan approach, gain their trust and send in an inside cohort to start the attack."

"No, it's best to take Cesar's approach, surround them, starve them out until their forced to surrender."

"We want to end this quickly and with little civilian casualties. That wouldn't work." Will says, shooting down that suggestion instantly.

Disagreements erupt across the board room as everyone suggests different different times of day and entry or caging.

"What direction is the highest hill?" Ramos' mate, Brandon questions.

The entire room fell silent at the sudden question.

"Northwest."

"Their base lies in a desert area. At noon, the sun is at its highest point. They'll be having lunch, or trying to cool off. They will be too exhausted at this point to notice us setting up catapults and canons. We set up them up on the highest hill, the blasts should be long enough to reach the outskirts of their camp. We give them time to scramble, make them panic a bit, then cease fire. During this time, we use witches to cloak our camps just out of line of sight at the top of these hills, we have our inside spies valiantly volunteer to check out the blast sight. We take in the prisoners from this party and then send the spy back bloodied to report that his team got killed and he was sent back as a message. The next day we allow a single one of our captives to escape, thinking he's heard our true plan, outing the spy and a fake time. They are prepared for us to strike at noon again, the strike never comes. Instead we have dragon shifters cause a dust storm at dusk and that's when we strike." the lord suggests.

"That would work." Roman says, looking impressed.

"How are we positioning for these projectile attacks, and what is our final placement to look like?" William asks. "Brandon, it was your plan, you're to head this, please, go ahead." My mate waves his hand across the table, letting the lord take charge of the mission.

"In all honestly, I'm open to input on this."

That's when the arguments erupted up again and I rubbed at my temples, feeling a migraine approaching.

"We should have the archers at middle ground and then the catapults and canons at the top of the hill." a general suggests, gaining a lot of support from others at the table.

"No, you idiots! If we are going to have archers they should be placed at the highest points not middle ground! We place our canons at the middle ground, the hang overs provide a good cover for our men igniting them. Have the archers ready to operate in waves at the top of the hill, then mix in our swordsman with the centaurs on the ground." I say, my frustrations growing at an increasing pace.

"I agree with Noah. If we want to be as tactile with this as possible, we must optimize the little resources we are putting into this battle as much as possible. Splitting our archers into three waves at the top of the hill so that those retreating can reload is best, having the canons at middle ground makes their transport easier and those on the ground are our most experienced. They'll be able to defend and distract enough so that the casualties on the other two levels are best." Ramos says.