Eighty miles from Kontia
Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi.
The march on Kontia necessitated a complex partition of my forces. Firstly, the Vanguard, numbering just over four hundred women, would reach the city first and would have the objective of establishing a blockade. I did not expect that they could maintain a total siege, But they would at least be capable of preventing goods from entering or leaving the city.
The Vanguard was made up of various Lepus who had escaped from the Imperial advance. A dozen tribes that in any other time would be at each other's throats for centuries of petty slights and grudges hastily organised into my army. They were not trained like the people of the Tanaoi, months ago they were not my people. Now they were.
Following behind the Vanguard was the main bulk of my army. Eight thousand women trained in sling and spear as well as the few elite wallbreaker companies I could train and supply. This force would arrive several days after the Vanguard and begin the siege in truth. If things went to schedule Kontia would have surrendered, or been destroyed before the last element of my forces arrived. The migratory camp itself.
Over thirty thousand people with a mix of various races and a huge amount of material to transport did not lead to consistency or predictability. All I could say was that they were moving fast enough to beat Zorzal's legion to Kontia, a feat of logistical brilliance that I could scarcely claim credit for.
There were some among the Lepus who made claims that 'Every Lepus from the elderly to the children were the equal of any warrior of the other races.' I know that this was nothing but delusion. While even a child might be stronger than many people of other races, a lack of coordination, discipline and fighting spirit made them far from an effective combatant.
Of course, I refocused myself, reaching the city was the easy part. Dealing with the Imperial Garrison promptly would be critical for the vitally important weeks that were to come in this conflict. I could not presume that the Imperials would foolishly offer me battle while their forces were disorganised and exhausted and thus I could not accept any single decisive battle with the forces at my disposal.
Even a victory could spell my doom if too many of my people were wounded or killed.
I would have to bleed the Imperials, skirmish by skirmish. A war of a thousand strikes, a strategy that my husbands had been surprisingly supportive of. On the subject of skirmishing. I approached the edge of a very temporary camp on the Imperial Road to Konita and led one of my Lieutenants, a commander in charge of one of the battalions that had been keeping Zorzal's forces from advancing too quickly and screening the Tanaoi migration. Into a tent well away from the highly sensitive and prying ears of her subordinates.
Lucia looked inordinately proud of herself as she presented me with nearly three hundred dead men walking. We observed the mass of restrained humans from a small tent that was enchanted to give some measure of privacy to the occupants. I only had three such tents in the entire encampment and all of them had been looted from Imperial Officers. They were tied together in a long chain using irons that the Imperials carried with them to capture Lepus for the Saderaian slave markets, prisoners taken from Lucia's vigorous rearguard action that, according to Lucia had resulted in the killing of thousands of Imperials and the maiming of many thousands more.
I glanced over to the giant of a woman in question as she spoke. Her mood was jovial as she passionately described one victory after another. Once her forces had been degraded well beyond any acceptable fighting capacity she had collected what she could transport and burned the rest. Pushing Imperial prisoners day and night to march at the pace of a wounded Head Hunting Rabbit. A pace that had killed several of the humans before they had arrived.
The survivors sat together at the side of a road without food, water or complaint. Likely simply grateful that they were permitted to rest for a time. There was some irony in the treatment, as it was not unlike what they intended to subject the Lepus too. But I did not feel any satisfaction at their plight, just a grim resolve to end this war no matter what the cost.
"And this was a General I slew personally." I bit the inside of my cheek as a rather ripe decapitated head was thrust out in front of her. "Look how handsome he was! I should have held back!" She let out a bellowing laugh that was somehow shared by a pair of bodyguards as I pressed the back of my hands against the small of my back and rounded upon my subordinate.
"How many of your girls are fit for battle?" I asked pointedly, catching Lucia off guard as she stuttered somewhat before collecting herself.
"I can form a full company, My Queen." She eventually settled on.
"I had provided you with six, three weeks ago." I pointed out as the giant squirmed under my gaze.
"If I were to field the lightly wounded I could form three and a half companies!" She said quickly. "In a few months the Battalion will be entirely recovered."
"Well it's a good thing we don't need them now." came a smooth voice from behind me. Lucia seemed entirely off kilter as Furea mocked her from the sidelines, his voice slightly muffled from the thick clothes that covered all of his skin save for his tattooed forehead and eyes.
"Enough." I snapped at my husband who gave a performative gasp before pressing himself into my side. I felt Tanya's heart rate quicken but was quickly able to put aside such base instinct. "You will know your place." I finished, looking away from his playful gaze and focusing on the task at hand.
Lucia looked at my husband for a moment as if unsure of herself before taking a moment to collect her thoughts and turning to me.
"I stand by my decisions in-" I held up a hand as Lucia clenched her fists and actually pouted.
"The magical items you have procured will be an invaluable asset in the war effort and you have performed well in harrying the Imperial advance. There are few under my command that can boast of victories that you have won. I do not begrudge you that. But I did not order you to bring me prisoners, I ordered you to break legs, cast out eyes, cut off fingers and send them crawling back to the Imperials. And to do so while preserving the lives and health of the women under your command. In this matter you are not meeting the standards I know you can achieve. You have not failed me yet, but I remain, Disappointed." Lucia seemed to deflate as I explained myself.
"How can I order my girls to fight battle after battle if all we accomplish is the disfigurement of the valiant and the beautiful?" Lucia asked. "You have already had us cast off so much of ourselves, we cannot devote ourselves utterly to Emroy as you command."
"I have done no such thing." I felt the familiar rush of anger as Tanya's blood ran hot at the accusation.
"But this war, where we run and bite at the periphery of the Empire. Where we strike at them until they weaken from loss of blood. This is the way of Emroy. War without honour, without limit, without end. The Imperials deserve nothing less and I will serve you in this until my dying breath My Queen, but asking my women to fight like this without offering them respite in the arms of our captives is... difficult." I stared dumbfounded at Lucia and looked back at the chained men. Starving, eyes empty and cold to the world.
Not for the first time I was baffled by the morality of my people. How was that better than wounding them to tie up Imperial resources?
The culture, the very thinking of the Lepus was alien to me even after almost thirty years of living in this body.
"I will consider your words Lucia, as of now your responsibilities are to rest your women and maintain combat readiness. You are also to process the prisoners, you may keep the nobles for ransom and to entertain your girls but the lowborn are to have their eyes put out and will be left behind."
"Understood Your Majesty." Lucia quickly stood to attention and performed a neat Gunbu salute. A slight bow of the head and her right hand bright up to the side of her head. It was an indulgence I supposed, to introduce something from my first life, even if it felt so distant now. I quickly matched her salute and she smiled at me, as carefree as ever.
A new salute was something that I had been trying to introduce for years but it was only now that the previous military salute of the Lepus, one that highly resembled an infamous salute in my first life, was quickly being rejected by my people due to its similarity to the salute used by the Saderaian forces. A moment later she was gone and I was alone with Furea.
"Have you read her report?" The obscured Lepus nodded his head at my inquiry.
"I have. She performed better than predicted in most of her engagements, but continued to operate well after over twenty percent of her forces were wounded. This led to each subsequent battle being more costly than the last. A failure cascade I believe you called it My Queen."
As I let out a frustrated sigh I spoke to myself more than anything "Perhaps I was too quick to promote her..."
"Who would replace her?" He asked rhetorically as I looked out at the prisoners once more.
"How many days do we have?" I asked Furea. He hummed to himself before rubbing his gloved hands together.
"Sixty days, perhaps less. Our numbers have expanded faster than our ability to procure supplies, the survivors from the other tribes did not bring enough food with them. In sixty days our grain... our bread runs out. And our food supplies will rapidly dwindle." I tapped my thigh as I thought about our situation.
"We will acquire more grain at Kontia." I pointed out.
"So long as they don't destroy the stockpile to spite us." He replied. "We can extend our supplies, if we cast off the chaff." Furea pointed out and I knew exactly what he was referring to.
"They are necessary." I stated, and dismissed his line of reasoning.
"We can find more, the Empire is full of humans and everything else. We would just need to kill the ones we have so they don't... talk." Furea said softly, pressing into my personal space as I quietly cursed Being X for giving me a body that reacted so acutely to his, and to the rest of my husbands advances.
"I won't do that. Killing them would be irrational." I dismissed him as he pressed his check to my breast, the top of his head touching my chin.
"You are carrying so many burdens, so many worries." He played his voice masterfully, knowing exactly how to carry his tone to my twitching hypersensitive ears. "The alternative would be rationing, that would be detrimental to the pace of our migration and the discipline of our forces." I felt his arms wrap around me as Tanya's body burned at his attention.
"It would be a violation of our social con-." He cupped my cheeks in his hands and pulled my face down to look into his sparkling eyes.
"They would not offer you the same kindness. And we cannot let the Imperials find out about the-."
"He's right, you know." As if a spell was broken I pulled away from Furea who turned to glare as Cato hobbled towards us. "The Empire cannot gain the secrets of your exploding powder. Were it be that the knowledge did not come from your people I would take great pains to deprive even the Tanaoi of such knowledge." Cato offered an unapologetic smile as he stopped well out of arm's reach of Furea with whom I rested a hand on his shoulder to keep him close. "If the substance existed in my mind alone I would cut my throat in service of all the thinking creatures of this world. For to deprive civilisation of the confidence of stone walls is a terrible sin." The old man said with utter sincerity.
"Begone old man. Your mistresses are speaking." Furea snipped and I squeezed his shoulder only for him to let out a soft gasp that made Tanya's heart flutter.
"I serve but one mistress boy and I come bearing dire news." At that I managed to push aside Tanya's base instincts and step forward even if the Lepus deep within Tanya still resisted rationality.
"What happened?" I asked directly as Cato pursed his lips in a thin line.
"Wyverns." He spoke softly and I felt my heart thunder in my chest as the Lepus within seemed to cheer with excitement. "Three of them."
I felt a grin form on my face as Cato took a step back.
"Perfect."