The Chesian Wars (A Griffins & Gunpowder Collection) Read Online Free PDF Page B

canvas was wet, but at least he was out of the rain. He hung his jacket and hat on a peg, unbuttoned the top of his shirt and sat in front of the small fire that his men had set for him. A steward slipped into the tent and set a pot of coffee over the small fire and then disappeared.
    Vladik had never considered that his orders would be so much trouble. If Dmitri had set patrols ahead of him, Vladik would have been able to take his time in reaching the valley. His troops could have re-established camp before the worst of the storm rolled over them, and he would be high and dry waiting for morning and the storm's passage. Instead, he was huddled beside a fire, trying to dry himself.
    He stood at the entrance to his tent while he waited for the coffee to brew and lifted the tent flap to look out on his army. The tent city had gone up with a quickness that astonished Vladik. Small fires had sprung up throughout that city as troops tried to warm themselves, or cook a meal, or both. Flashes of lightning illuminated the plains and Vladik could see the horse lines and the clustered wagons at the center of the tent city.
    "Sir, riders!" one of his sentries announced as half a dozen men rode through the tents toward his own. The riders wore thick, hooded cloaks to keep the rain out of their eyes.
    The figure leading the others could only be one man: he sat ramrod straight in his saddle and rode with the confidence of someone that had spent his entire life around horses. If he was nothing else, Dmitri Vallas was an excellent rider. It had been the one redeeming quality that Vladik had been able to find about the man.
    When he finally came to a halt in front of the commander's tent, Vladik could see mud caked on his subordinate's once immaculate uniform. His face was dirty and a trace of blood clung to his right ear. His face was twisted into an angry scowl.
    "Why did you stop?" Dmitri demanded as he dismounted.
    "Good to see you are unhurt, General," Vladik said. He stepped aside and held the tent flap open to invite his subordinate inside. Dmitri said nothing, but stepped past Vladik out of the rain.
    "I will not suffer that again," Vladik said as he pulled the coffee pot out of the fire. He poured each of them a cup and then sat on a folding wooden chair. "What is your report?"
    "I've lost two full brigades and a third is in tatters, but the enemy has not pressed their attack since I left. They had brigades armed with rifles on the hilltops, but they withdrew in the early evening, likely due to ammunition."
    "Are your estimates on the enemy strength solid?"
    "Of course they're solid," Dmitri said. "Two brigades of soldiers entrenched at the end of the valley, armed with muskets. Another brigade on either side of the valley and at least half a brigade of mounted infantry."
    "Any artillery?" Vladik doubted the estimates of his subordinate. The Jarins, at the last report, counted less than seventy thousand soldiers in their standing army and would only be able to muster another thirty thousand by calling their militias. A full division of soldiers in the right place at the right time would have left vast swaths of their border undefended, and unlike Dmitri they were not foolish enough to think that no one was looking at them.
    "Thankfully, we did not face artillery," Dmitri reported. Vladik's suspicions were confirmed: the Jarin presence had been dumb luck. If they had known where he was going to make the crossing from Chesia, they would have sent artillery.
    "That is fortunate," Vladik said. "To answer your earlier question, General, I stopped because the conditions demanded it. My men have been marching for most of the day, either in blinding heat or torrential rain. The ground has turned to mud, the air is too thick to breathe, and there is no light. I have medical camps set up for the last eight miles with thousands of troops under rest for exhaustion."
    "Sir, my division is being devastated. We need reinforcement!"
    "If you hadn't