When I woke up this morning, I was at my desk, with the completed battle plan laid out in front of me. I didn't go eat breakfast; I get queasy before a full-blown battle, so I headed to the armory. I selected my favorite weapons, the ones I'm most comfortable using, the Mossberg shotgun, my favorite saber, and a long Celtic-styled knife.
Now, I'm heading down the halls towards the portal room. I vaguely remember sending the battle plan to the students of wind last night, so unless Harry backed out on his offer, they should be there already. I think about how hungry I am, but I know that there will be food later. Mostly though, I think about Cade. I wonder what's happening to her, and silently swear that if Jason moved a hair out of place, I'd personally kill him. Anger burns in my stomach, scorching`the butterflies that normally would be there.
I reach the portal room to find Chris and Sandra waiting for me. Chris is a quiet guy, average height, dressed in kind of an emo style. He's got the long black hair and everything, but is supposedly a better fighter then Zander, and that's saying something. Chris is armed with a claymore, which for those who don't know is a massive Celtic sword, and a wide assortment of knives. I think his weaponry choice is because of his element: He doesn't really have what could be considered an element, because he can control metal of any kind.
Sandra is a smaller girl, petite is the word I guess, with short blond hair. She dresses like the popular kids at my former school, except that she's armed with a pistol and a spear. She's supposedly really smart, and can control electricity.
"Hi Jack" Sandra says cheerily.
I give a weak smile; The butterflies in my stomach are coming back.
"How are you so cheerful before a battle?" Chris asks in a quiet voice.
"You just smile a lot" I reply. I give a gesture towards the portal.
"After you." I say.
"Thank you" Says Sandra, walking stepping into the portal.
Chris grunts and walks in after her.
When we get out the other end of the portal, we come face-to-face with the students of wind. They're just kind of standing there in rows, like how I used to have to in boot camp. They're all facing a mansion, except it's definitely not an ordinary mansion. It has what looks like tar all over it, coming from inside the windows, and the tar stuff alone has made the mansion the size of a small castle, with towers and a wall around it. The works.
"Are we just gonna attack now?" I ask.
"You tell us" Sandra says "This was your idea, remember?"
I nod. Then, to the students of wind, I yell
"Whoever's in charge of you guys, get over here!" Several people come forward, and I explain my plan to them. Jason's basically a military genius, so he's hard to outsmart, but I have what should be a fairly adequate plan of attack.
"He'll have his soldiers out in force" I explain "So we'll have some people remain here, and fire long range attacks on that wall, and then the castle.
"Once the outer wall breaks" I continue "Only then will we allow soldiers to move in to actually fight. And even then, some are gonna have to stay here and keep up bombardment.
"As for the large group that will be moving in, a quarter of us will feint to the side, while a third attack the front gate. The best fighters will be in that frontal attack group. The largest part of our forces will be in a mass at the back of the mansion. But" I look up "This is important. The group at the back will stay there the entire time." The officers look up in surprise.
"Why would we keep the biggest forces from fighting?" One of the students of wind asks.
"Because, he'll be expecting a force at the back. When he sees small groups fighting at the front and sides, he'll know we're coming in at the back too. And if our forces are small enough on those angles, he'll focus the main part of his troops there, too, to counter the attack that won't come." I look up.
"That sounds...risky for the people at the front and sides."
"That's why only the very best troops will go there. There's tons of exits out of the front and sides, so the bombardment will have to seal up a few, but not too many. I'll be entering at the front gate, but as soon as I'm in, you guys need to get out of here. I don't want any students of wind dying. Any questions?"
No one said anything. Some of them were scratching their heads, shaking their heads, but no objections came up. Until Sandra said
"Chris and me'll go in with you."
"No way" I reply instantly.
"Do you really think you'll last a minute in there alone once there's no more people keeping the soldiers away from the indoors? You'll be overpowered in a few minutes at best."
"We'll send some soldiers in with you, and keep the distraction going." Said one of the officers "We're willing to help. That's why we're here."
I look around, then say "Alright, fine. If you wanna die."
With that, everybody started getting up. Before they could leave, I stopped them.
"Wait, who's in charge of bombarding the walls?"
"Me" Says a tall guy.
"Tell your men to aim for what looks like the strongest spots in the wall, but not at the cracks. The strong looking spots are actually the weakest."
The guy nods and walks off, towards the assortment of missile launchers and cannons.
I look at Chris and Sandra.
"You two ready?"
Chris nods gravely, and Sandra says
"Ready as I'll ever be."
I look at the dark walls. Cade's in there.
"Good. We're about to start."
A cannon fires the first shot.
I enter Fire castle quickly. I'm angry enough to punch a hole in the wall, if the walls weren't made of stone. I pass by everybody and go straight to straight to Mark, who's sitting down with somebody I don't recognize.
"I need Keleigh, Zander, Grace, and Jared."
Mark stares at me.
"Hello to you to. Why?"
"Jason kidnapped Cade."
He looks at my face for a few seconds, then shakes his head.
"Sorry, but I can't. They're some of our best soldiers."
"That's exactly why I need them" I say "If I'm going to get Cade back, I'll need to basically invade wherever Jason's hiding, and for that I'll need some of the best."
Mark shook his head again.
"Zander's visiting possible allies, Grace is helping out at Lurgeress Fortress, Jared is in a battle with Ares' army, and Keleigh is visiting contacts trying to get information. They all are busy now, but I can get all of them for certain in a week, except Jared."
"Well, what am I supposed to do!?" I ask him. Mark looks thoughtful, and says
"I can get Chris and Sandra to help." Those two are Mark's friends, and are supposed to be really good. But two people won't be enough. I'm just about to give up with reasoning and start cursing him out when the guy Mark was talking to says
"I could lend you some soldiers."
I look at him.
"Jack, this is the Martial commander of the students of Wind." Mark says.
"Harry Smith. Pleased to meet you." He says.
"He's here because I asked him to stop remaining neutral and help us. If he does, they can have their allies to help out as well."
"I've decided" Harry says.
"If this invasion succeeds, I'll join you." His eyes narrow.
"But if I have to lend you soldiers to do the invasion, I'll have to ask a favor of you, Jack."
I think for a second, and say
"How many soldiers?"
"How many do you need?"
"If they're really, really good fighters, twenty or so."
"Then I'll lend you sixty of my best."
I stare at him.
"Chris and Sandra will come as well." Mark says.
"When are you leaving?" Asks Harry.
"Tomorrow" I answer, and after thanking him, I leave the room.
I walk down the hall, wondering what kind of favor he needs me to do if he's prepared to give me sixty people as payment. It would have to be pretty bad. I head to the map rooms, and check out the Shadow Chart. It's basically a bunch of maps that show shadow activity everywhere. It shows activity with splotches of color, and those splotches can actually move across the map as the forces move. Usually, if it's just the shadow army, it's a light gray splotch where they're at, but Jason always looks like a pitch black splotch. Today, he's in Herolade, at an abandoned mansion. I check the blueprints for it from the library, and begin making a plan of attack. The whole time I'm doing it, I can mentally see the image of Jason and Cade disappearing. Then I refocus and get back to planning. Tomorrow, we attack.
