At the Queen_s command

The Mystrians had worked day and night digging trenches and moving their cannon forward. They'd gotten to within eight hundred yards of the fort. They controlled the battlefield, but the glacises prevented them from hitting the walls. That would require them to be two hundred yards closer. Vlad imagined that du Malphias would use his cannon to discourage those efforts.

Owen found the Prince first. "Yes, Highness?"

"What do you know of Rivendell's doings?"

The younger man shook his head. "Not much. The diners started working yesterday after their hangovers eased. Everyone else was kept away. What has he done?"

"He's undone us all, I am sure." The Prince nodded as the Kessian joined them. "Come, gentlemen. Lord Rivendell requires a visit."

Von Metternin's eyes tightened. "Rivendell has taken du Malphias' bait?"

"I believe so." Vlad had been afraid of trickery ever since the invitation had been extended. Rivendell's contempt for du Malphias would blind him to whatever the Laureate sought to hide.

The Norillian commander assumed du Malphias was every bit the gentleman he was. Since Rivendell would never stoop to trickery, he assumed that du Malphias would likewise eschew deception. Rivendell and his subordinates would accept the Laureate's word that things were as they appeared to be. They would note things of interest within the fort, and think themselves far cleverer than their host for having gotten inside to take a look.

They just would never imagine that what they saw was exactly what du Malphias wanted them to see.

As they marched, Vlad glanced toward the fortress. In no time shot and shell would shred the green, grassy expanse between camps. It would destroy the men fighting their way across it. Though Prince Vlad had never witnessed warfare on this scale before, he'd read enough and talked to enough men, that he had no trouble imagining the bleeding ruin Rivendell's foolishness would foster.

"I cannot let Rivendell's folly kill men." Vlad stared at the soldier blocking the entrance to the tent. "Stand aside, soldier."

Stone-faced and silent, the man remained rigidly in place.

Owen slipped past him and slashed through the tent's wall with his Altashee obsidian knife. "This way, Highness."

Owen stepped aside as Vlad passed through the slit. He had never seen that level of resolution on the Prince's face before. Count von Metternin followed him, then Owen squeezed through. The tent had been divided into three parts, with the largest-Rivendell's headquarters-taking up nearly two-thirds. The smaller two areas were centered one around a bunk and the other a small dining table.

Langford abandoned the map table around which Rivendell and three other colonels had gathered, moving to intercept the Prince. "You should not be here, Highness."

Vlad stopped him with a glare. "Your saying that is precisely why I must be."

Rivendell's head came up. "Leave us, Highness. You, too, von Metternin. Colonel Langford, place Captain Strake under arrest."

"What deviltry are you up to, Johnny?"

"This is a military matter, Highness. I command you to leave."

The Prince hammered a fist on the table. Colonel Thornbury jumped back, giving Owen a glance at the map. Rivendell and his colonels had altered Owen's original survey map significantly. They'd placed a small sheet of paper over the central stone roundhouse and had drawn flowers and a tree upon it. The gun emplacements remained correctly positioned, but instead of four cannon at each, they'd only placed two. Beside the barracks buildings they'd made notes indicating that only battalions of the Platine Regiment were on station. Other notes indicated that a hundred civilians functioned as laborers.

"What is this travesty?"

Rivendell's nostrils flared. "It is the proper map of La Fortresse du Morte. We were given a complete tour. It is woefully understaffed and vulnerable. We will press our attack today and destroy du Malphias."

Vlad stared, his mouth open. "What did he do to you in there?"

"He offered brilliant conversation on military strategy. He fully understood that for a defender to be successful, he must have at least a third of the attacking force's numbers under arms. He remained confident that he would be able to hold us off, but he lacked the resources necessary to do so."

The Kessian studied the map. "You show two cannon at each battery."

"That is how many there are, sir, no more."

"But you show a pair at each battery, including the lake wall. Cannot du Malphias just transfer those cannon to the north wall?"

"He does not have enough personnel to operate them. Six batteries of four, with four men each to serve them. This places one of his battalions at the guns, leaving only two more to man the walls-and he has a great deal of wall to cover."

The Kessian frowned. "He will strip men from other walls to defend."

Rivendell shook his head. "We keep Thornbury's cavalry in reserve as a threat to strike at a weak point."