A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

the purpose was destroying the magicians at Khartoo, there would be three columns burrowing their way deep into Maskum. They would end up within a day’s march of each other. A Sirlandian home militia was being raised as they met, and they would act as a shield on the eastern border against Maskum forces entering into Sirland. No one mentioned the naval operation, and that was what Trevor intended.

The less said about blocking the Khartoo harbor, the less of a threat that might seem to the enclave magicians. Trevor asked them much the same questions he had asked General Henkari. When they were finished, everyone had hashed out the invasion so that by the time the armies united around Khartoo. The allied forces would encircle the city like a tightening noose.

“Figure out what can go wrong,” Trevor said, “and come up with something to counter setbacks. I’ll be rotating around, but don’t rely on me. At some point, I may not be available.” Someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Can we come with you?”

Trevor turned to look into Win Fenton’s eyes. Behind him stood Glynna Bostik and Gorian Custik.

“Did you bring Siranda?”

Win gave Trevor a sad smile. “She asked me to damage a few Maskumite magicians for her and her father.”

Trevor slapped Win on the shoulder and looked at his two magical friends. “Do you think you can charge my sword and cuirass, so I won’t have to spend days catching up to you?” Trevor said to Gorian.

“It can be my contribution to the effort. I’m not very good with a sword, and I’m not too keen frying fellow magicians, but you can count on me for magic along with Glynna and Lissa.”

“I can do a bit of both,” Win said. “I’ve had a little training when I learned to do magic, but I’d prefer to use a sword and wear a fistful of charms as a defense against the Maskumites.”

“Don’t count on me!” Glynna said. “Gorian talked me into coming along to witness some history. All I’m interested in doing is writing a book after all this is over.”

“Then you can take notes as I explain our strategy.”

Glynna pulled out a portfolio from behind her. “I’ve already started to do that.”

“Stay here while I meet with someone else, and then we can work on getting everyone teleported to the other side of Jarkan,” Trevor said.

He and Lissa teleported back to Doford at Berry Port. The man had already begun to coordinate his part of the invasion while the strategy was finalized and communicated with the other two groups.

“Can you power me up?” Trevor asked Custik.

It didn’t take long for the magician to declare Trevor ready to go. He took Lissa first and then returned without a problem.

“That works well, but it is rather tedious,” Custik said, “but I can’t think of an alternative.

Trevor transferred Win next, and within an hour, Trevor’s friends were choosing horses at Henkari’s garrison, even though Trevor was a bit queasy from all the transfers.

Trevor took Custik and Glynna with him to Henkari’s conference room to coordinate with General Brightwork, Henkari, and Captain Azu Gindu, who was given the plainsmen’s command. The timing was solidified, following what Trevor had discussed with the eastern armies.

Trevor loaded up Snowflake with supplies and procured additional armor for himself and his friends, should they need it. The party joined the Brachian army as it headed west before turning south.

Trevor traveled with Potur Lott, who led one of the four Brachian columns that would snake their way through the mountains, joining up at a farming village not far from the western side of Khartoo. They approached the border with Maskum, where Trevor, Potur, and Lissa had once left the central artery south. Still, this time they were going straight down the road they had avoided, and hopefully, directly through the Maskumite guards manning the first checkpoint.

~

Once the armies began to advance, Trevor’s ability to move quickly from commander to commander was compromised by the changing positions, so Trevor consulted with Samar Doford in Berry Port and kept Prime Minister Crater, the head seer, and King Turgul informed.

Since the front was so broad, the Maskumites were caught with their forces in the wrong places, and allied armies moved without much resistance. Detecting the Maskumite troops became more critical as the columns plunged into Maskum.

Trevor finally decided so much magical traveling made little sense. In a few days, he would be able to ride between the columns heading toward Khartoo.

“Potur Lott’s force will head farther west to cut off the enclave’s retreat,” Trevor said to General Brightwork. “I’ll go with him and join with those breaching the western side of the enclave where there is no city, only a deep empty ditch mimicking a moat. It is time to send riders between the different columns to keep everyone coordinated and transfer forces to where they need to be.”

Brightwork nodded his head. The general’s final task was to enter Khartoo at its northwestern end. Potur Lott and Trevor would come in from the west, and the others would drive along the northern outskirts of the city, and then they would join forces and converge on the enclave. All of the leaders knew they would be fighting Maskumites on all sides as a worst case, but Potur Lott and others were convinced most Maskumites didn’t want a war in the first place.

Trevor would have liked to visit Samar Doford one more time, but the man should have been on a ship heading to join the Sirlandian fleet assembling a few miles off the bay at Khartoo. Everyone was on their own at this point, and there was little Trevor could do but continue traveling and fighting his way south to Maskum’s capital.

After a week of travel from Henkari’s garrison, the army paused to rest the soldiers