Chapter Ten
True to his word, Cole put Guy to work immediately after they moved out; they would work on the road, in General Cole’s carriage. The General’s ‘carriage’ was a famously uncomfortable converted supply wagon. This was not because Cole couldn’t get or have a real carriage – plenty of generals did. Rather, Cole often explained, he had a subdued taste (untrue), and preferred its durable simplicity (marginally true).
But for the supply wagon, it was all of Cole’s design. His sitting cushions and cot bedding lined the hastily-added bench seats nailed to the high wooden sides. A crate of mis-shipped winter uniforms made for a little table in the center, covered with bright red scrap flag material. The lamp in the center had a very secure oil supply, and a decorative base dented by the nail driven through it (all other arrangements had either led to the cloth roof burning away, or suddenly unconsciousness passengers). The ‘walls’ were covered in maps, their tops distorted by the curve of the roof, and marked over by so many different plans the terrain underneath could hardly be read. Though the wagon was salvaged, Cole had designed the undercarriage and leaf springs himself; all but the back right wheel held admirably steady.
Cole put all of his guests of rank over the back right wheel. Another general had described Cole’s carriage as a coffin set adrift on a sea of rocks. Cole did not get many traveling companions.
Guy sat across the table from him, his spot so familiar that his legs had by habit taken up position to brace him against unexpected bumps. Cole sat on the steadier side, so he crossed his legs, a map spread over them. They had broken their fast in the carriage, reviewing the promised night logs, which had proven just as bad as Nika had intimated. Privately, Cole wondered if they weren't worse. These were, after all, only the reported incidents; how many more went unreported?
The logs, however, were a secondary concern; their primary goal, as he informed Guy, was to try to figure out what Nika was plotting. All of their clues, thus far, pointed to the need to figure out what he had been doing during the war.
Guy chose his questions carefully, so he did not ask ‘what makes you think there’s a plot?’ but, “What clues?”
“We have a series of questionable events, and several direct suggestions” Cole said, because regardless of Guy’s tact, his other question was as clearly written on his face as the bit of breading from his breakfast stuck to his cheek. Perhaps Guy was so fastidious in public because the minute he engaged with a problem he became a mess.
“Why was Nika alone when he was captured? Why did he orchestrate his surrender so carefully? Why has he refused to speak specifically on the circumstances of his entering – or prosecuting – the war, except to take responsibility for it?”
Guy scratched these questions into his largest notebook – the one in which he took notes on campaigns, Cole was curious to note.
Guy reviewed the questions, holding up a finger as they addressed each one.
“He evacuated High Command so they could continue to fight or High Command was never there with him.”
“Comid High Command was a strategic mess before Nika got involved,” Cole replied. “It’s possible, but he’s undoubtedly one of their more valuable assets if continuing to fight on any scale is the goal. Our intelligence has always been behind as regards the Comid Hierarchy, but they placed a very high probability on the High Command, if not the whole Hierarchy, being there. This is in part because they are obviously a centralized authority, and though they still hold considerable territory it’s increasingly isolated – if they don’t move in force with their military they risk not being able to fight through to reach their territories and potentially being picked apart by individual conquests. It’s also logistically complicated to spread out authority as far they would need to, and as far as we can tell Gaius guards power very jealously.”
Guy put out a second finger. “His stated reason for orchestrating his surrender so carefully is that General Hammerlyn hates him and he wanted to survive, which is kind of what anybody wants to do.”
“Not in this case,” Cole said. “Death in the field would be preferable to almost all of the proscribed punishments for treason. Hammerlyn does hate him, though I’ve always assumed it was… less specific hatred than Nika suggests it is. If what he says is true, then there is some purpose to his surviving for trial.”
Guy paused to write this new question down, then raised a third finger. “That last supports part of the third question – his survival and responsibility for the war are tied together. I can’t guess on this question, but…” he glanced up from his notes to Cole, but quickly looked away, “…the simplest answer would be because he is responsible, and when he entered the war makes no difference.”
Cole nodded. “Good. Now the clues: any number of other generals – Durante in particular – would have kept him alive after his surrender and been a less painful a reunion. He asked for me because he needs me for something.” Though he said this, Guy saw nothing at all change in Cole’s expression, he simply continued with his list of clues.
“He has very heavily suggested we investigate the Battle of Kinsael. He reminded us of Yorik and warned us about Hammerlyn. His speech revealed that he isn’t well-liked by Comid officers, at least, though honestly it’s never been his greatest skill to get along with people. Last night–”
Guy’s ears turned red, the scratching of his pencil on the paper giving a little hiccup.
“– he gave me a list of other battles to consider, during all of which he suggests he was on the battlefield personally, including: repeating Kinsael, adding Merrywood, and Til Amach. His youngest brother died at some point during the war, most likely in battle, though he again refused to indicate any specific battle or cause of death.”
Guy looked up again, eyebrows bunched. “Youngest brother?”
Cole nodded again. “Nika has seven siblings, both parents living. His father fled the persecution in Geron, during which flight his first wife and their newborn daughter died. His mother is Midraeic, born in Ainjir. Two daughters from the first marriage survive, Nika has one full-blooded older sister, then a younger sister, a set of twins, boy and girl, and finally Abban, younger than Nika by something like eight years – I can’t remember exactly. Paciano, the older twin boy, was likely too sick to fight; he’s been sick all his life.”
Guy was so focused on these details, he forgot to start writing them, instead moving towards the edge of his seat, desperate to speak.
Which made sense; Cole knew what he was going to say.
“What if they had his family?” Guy asked. “Couldn’t they make him fight through them?”
Cole paused, but he had already considered this. He shook his head. “I hadn’t expected his family to be involved, that’s true, he tried to get them to leave before the war started. But the idea has issues. While he was communicating with his family, they were not communicating with him. His father disowned him during Third Year for his relationship with me. It seems plausible to me that his family entered the war on the Comid side voluntarily, perhaps without informing him. He could have gone to try to persuade them not to, and been captured that way, but it would be an incredible mistake to try to leverage Nika’s family against him. They are dear enough to him that he might enter the war for their sakes, but he would annihilate who or whatever threatened them. I can’t begin to tell you how thoroughly he would punish whoever was foolish enough to attempt to make him fight against his will. I doubt even Comid High Command would survive having Nika on their side against his will, and pissed at them. I think fear of that is partially why Durante and the Academy Council let him leave after graduation at all.”
“Oh,” Guy said weakly, but he spent several silent moments still churning over the idea.
Cole let him – it was something like his specialty, or, at least, something which resonated with him. The Comid policy of kidnapping and coercion had started early, and taken a long time to unravel, and Guy had been instrumental in unraveling it. Guy defended Captain Briar before High Command, just after Cole’s promotion to the Executive track. Though they thought that through treachery, Briar had managed to lose them an entire battle, he was so unremarkable and low-ranked that High Command had not believed his defense that he was forced into it. Guy, then a just-made lieutenant, had managed to gather enough evidence – while in the field, no less – to prove that Briar had reason to believe the Comids had his family, and his actions, though critical, could not be blamed for the loss of the whole battle.
Of course, Briar was still executed as a traitor, but in concession to Guy’s defense, he wasn’t tortured first. Their tactics revealed, the Comids hung the bloody bodies of Briar’s wife, son, and daughter from the walls of the nearest township.
However masterfully he had done it, and however important the information gleaned, and regardless of the fact that he had been ordered to – defending a traitor tainted Guy. Cole snatched him with little resistance from his superiors.
Finally, as if waking, Guy went back to writing his notes. Cole waited for him to catch up.
“So, Guy,” Cole said, when he looked up from his notes. “Your job is to figure out when Nika entered the war, as precisely as possible.”
Guy deflated, then looked at the all of the boxes and envelopes and collected papers Cole had stuffed in to the narrow corners of the wagon, and deflated further. “But you… you’re the one who figured that out in the first place.”
“A guess,” Cole said.
“A guess?”
“You will make my guess not a guess.”
Guy deepened his frown, then sighed and started rifling through the nearest sheaf. “What will you do, sir, if I may ask?”
Cole smiled, gesturing down at the map on his lap. Guy leaned over to look.
“The Capitol?”
“Another thing Nika let slip last night was that he already had an invasion plan for the Capitol. He said even I couldn’t beat it. So I’m going to try to guess what it was, and beat it.”
Guy crunched his brows together, looking skeptically at Cole.
“It’s hard to tell what is a clue or not. But if that plan is back with Comid High Command, we could be fucked, and I wouldn’t want all your work on Nika’s wartime history to go to waste.”
Eyes slightly widened, Guy nodded slowly. “Th-… thanks, sir.”
“Think nothing of it,” Cole replied. “Let’s get to work.”