The Warden Threat
~*~
The eyes of each of the advisers shifted briefly to glance at Horace Barter. He consciously relaxed his posture. The understated signal sufficed to proclaim the floor open for discussion.
“Well, if no one else wants to speak up first, I will,” said the king’s military adviser, General Ramsfield. “I think it’s a safe assumption they’ve been secretly preparing their troops for some time now, and now that they know we know what they’re up to, they’re using our reaction to their actions to do it openly and claiming that they’re only doing it because we’re doing it even though we’re only doing it because we found out they were doing it first.”
His statement met with blank stares from around the table.
“Do you think you could break that down into a few more sentences for us, General?” suggested Horace Barter.
“Sure. It’s perfectly clear. They’ve been secretly preparing their own forces for some time and knew they wouldn’t be able to keep it secret for long. They figured our military exercises meant that we knew about their invasion plan, so they’re speeding up their timetable and using our defensive actions as an excuse to openly marshal their troops.”
“Thank you. That is somewhat better.”
“And it makes us look like the aggressor because they’ll be telling everyone that they’re only responding to our military mobilization,” added Edwin Howl, the Adviser on Foreign Relations.
“That doesn’t really concern me,” King Leonard said.
The advisers met his comment with stony silence. Horace knew many of them shared the king’s disregard for public opinion, and the more astute members of the group who did not sat silently biting their tongues, forcing themselves not to reply, ‘it should.’ However, even they admired the king and considered him a good leader. Horace agreed, for the most part, but the king could often be to diplomacy what a catfish is to mountain climbing. By temperament, the king preferred a more direct approach. This particular trait sometimes made many of his advisers’ jobs more difficult.
King Leonard addressed General Ramsfield. “General, you said you believed the Gotroxians have been secretly preparing their troops for an invasion for some time. Do you have some evidence for that?”
“Well, not exactly evidence. Not any actual intercepted dispatches or anything like that and no actual sightings of troop movements by our border outposts, if that’s what you mean, but it’s awfully suspicious that we haven’t since we know what they’re planning. I mean, they can’t be counting on this magic stone giant thing to do everything by itself, so they must be preparing their troops. Since we haven’t seen anything obvious, it only stands to reason that they are doing it secretly. And since they’re being so secretive, I think it’s safe to assume they are planning something especially aggressive.”
“So, you’re saying the fact we haven’t seen any obvious change in Gotroxian troop movements means they are secretly assembling their troops for invasion?”
“Yeah, they’re clever little buggers when it comes to doing stuff like that. I mean, we already know about the Warden thing they’re trying to use, so it’s obvious they’re up to something, and for things to appear normal when we know they’re not, well, that has to mean that they’re putting a whole lot of effort into hiding something really big.”
“Yes, I think I understand what you mean,” the king said. He took a moment before continuing, probably ruminating on the General’s reasoning.
“All right, anyone else? What about you, uh, Intelligence? What can you add?”
The man the king addressed took no apparent offense at his sovereign obviously forgetting his name. He should expect him to. He always did. What would be disturbing is if the king remembered it. Andre Turnaket apparently felt no compulsion to remind him of it and neither did Horace Barter. If it mattered to him, he would have recalled it himself.
“Nothing definitive,” the spy chief replied, occasionally glancing at some notes he held. We’ve had reports, more like rumors really, about the Warden, and we have a local operative at the site looking for suspicious activity. So far, we cannot confirm anything, but he hasn’t been there long. The reports we have had already, however, were from multiple sources, and they tend to agree with each other. This would normally indicate there is some truth behind them.
“What we do know is that the Gotroxians are storing military supplies in exhausted mines. This isn’t new, though. They’ve always done this. They could be adding to those or even training troops in some of the larger caverns. We really don’t know, but it is possible for them to hide a military buildup from us if they wanted to for a while.
“We also know they’ve increased the amount of grain they import from Eastfield. This could be for feeding troops or it could be totally unrelated. At the same time, they’ve decreased the amount of food they import from Westgrove slightly, though. This could be for purely economic reasons or they could be trying to reduce their dependence on imports from us.
“We are heavily dependent on Gotrox for minerals, especially iron and coal, and they have been slowly but steadily increasing the prices for such raw materials. This again could just be normal business or it could be an attempt to weaken our economy and make it more expensive for us to equip our military.
“One other thing, which may be worth mentioning, is that we know that they’ve been trying to learn about a new steel producing technology we’re developing here. Steel, of course, can be used for making weapons and armor. They’ve tried bribing some of the workers at the new steel factory being built, but didn’t succeed, as far as we know. That they are interested in obtaining this technology, though, is without question, and it does have important military applications. The bottom line is we’re really not certain, but there are a lot of things that, if taken together, could be interpreted to indicate something suspicious.”
“Something suspicious?” The adviser on Law and Enforcement almost shouted. His face flushed with righteous indignation. “It’s as plain as the beards on their hairy little faces! Those sneaky little stumpies are up to something. We just don’t know their timetable. They may have been planning this for years already and may not be ready to launch their plans for years to come. What does that matter, though? We have to act now. If we caught them before they’re ready, then so much the better. I think a preemptive attack against them is not only justified, it’s essential to preserve the peace.”
The king responded. “You are advocating that we start a war to preserve the peace, uh …”
“Adviser Woodcraft,” whispered Barter.
“…Adviser Woodcraft?”
“It’s they that would be starting it, Your Majesty. We’d just be shooting the first arrow. And if it’s to prevent an attack we know is coming, we’d be in the right regardless.”
“I’m not sure I can see it that way just yet, but I appreciate your input. Anyone else?”
A man at the far end of the table raised his hand. The Cultural Adviser’s lack of popularity with most of his peers showed on their faces. They considered him—peculiar. He associated with artists. He drank tea out of tiny cups with his pinky finger sticking out. He could honestly claim more popularity with the ladies than all the rest of them combined, although not romantically, of course. This would have been inappropriate for a couple of different reasons.
“Uh, yes, Arts, right?”
“Culture, Your Majesty. Courtney Goodfellow, Cultural Adviser. I know this may be out of my area, but it all just makes no sense to me. Why would Gotrox want to invade Westgrove? What could they possibly hope to achieve? We do a lot of trade with them and that benefits both of us. Our relations have actually been improving. We have a fabulous dance troop performing there now, and next month, a Gotroxian craft show is coming to Greatbridge. All this stuff about big magic statues and the rest must be either mistakes or coincidences. We can’t start a war because of that. The whole idea of a magical stone giant is just ludicrous, and there simply is no rational reason
for them to want a war.”
Several of the other advisers shot him looks of varying degrees of irritation. If General Ramsfield’s eyes had been a catapult, Adviser Goodfellow’s head would have been separated from the rest of him at his silky pink ascot.
“Wars are seldom rational but that doesn’t seem to prevent them from happening, I’m sorry to say,” King Leonard commented. He could not have been oblivious to the reactions around the table, but he pretended not to notice. “So what would your advice be?”
“Well, I think we should send someone there to talk it all out and clear up the misunderstanding. That’s really the only civilized thing to do.”
The king waited a moment to allow for comment before prompting. “All right. Anyone else?” After a period of silence long enough to indicate no one else intended to speak, he said, “Horace, your assessment please.”
Horace Barter analyzed the faces around the table in a way intended to leave the subject of his gaze with little doubt he could easily read their expressions and know the emotions and thoughts hidden behind their eyes. His own expression remained carefully objective.
“We have to accept the real possibility that General Ramsfield’s conjecture is essentially correct,” he began coldly. “The Gotroxians are planning to use our dispatch as an excuse to openly mobilize their forces. This is a fact regardless of their underlying intent. If the General’s assumptions about their intent are correct, Minister Woodcraft’s suggestion, regrettably, does have merit. At this point, Your Majesty, I would advise we continue with the mobilization but, as the honorable Cultural Adviser suggests, I would not dismiss the idea of sending a delegation to Kartok. However, before we do, I think we should wait for results from the intelligence probes we have sent out. We would want to begin any discussions with as much information as possible.”
King Leonard considered this for a moment. “Yes, that seems prudent. Thank you.” He turned to his chief adviser. “Horace, I’d like you to find an experienced negotiator and provide him as much background as he needs on the situation.”
“As you wish.”
“This meeting is adjourned.”
Chapter Twelve