Fhentyl and Dainyl stood to the south of the way station, in the cool sunlight just past dawn on Quinti morning. The haze in the eastern sky was more pronounced and promised an even hotter and drier late summer day. In the time Dainyl had been in Tempre, almost all the grasses on the hillsides and rolling plains had turned gold, a harbinger of harvest season, less than two weeks away.
“We need barrels of oils that will burn, even tallow, fats, whatever we can get,” Dainyl said. “We’ll need all the sulfur and pitch that you can find. If you can find arsenic or other poisons, that would be even better.”
Fhentyl presented the quizzical expression that Dainyl was beginning to dislike.
“We need to get them out of there,” Dainyl went on. “That means making the place uninhabitable for them, or for most of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There are openings on the top where they had those lightcannon firing out through slits. Liquids can flow down through openings.”
Fhentyl nodded.
“Once the liquids are there, what happens if we use a skylance to turn them into flame? And if we keep pouring liquids down there? Remember, they’ve had to keep things sealed up somewhat. Fifth Company will use skylances to help seal anywhere that smoke is seeping out. After a time, it should get hard to breathe in there.”
The junior captain swallowed. “They’re alectors…and you’re going to treat them…like vermin?”
“They are vermin. They’ve fired on the Myrmidons of the Duarchy, and they’ve killed part of your company. Do you have a better idea, Captain?”
“No, sir.”
Dainyl could tell that Fhentyl was less than happy, but then, before the rebellion was crushed, more than a few alectors weren’t going to be happy. “Would you like to lead the first assault into those caverns on foot—without doing something like this?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you have any better ideas about dealing with them? We’ve had them holed up in there for a week, and more than half that time has been without a Table.” Which means they think someone is going to rescue them.
Fhentyl’s eyes shifted away from Dainyl, but he did not reply.
In short, you don’t like what I’m planning, but you don’t have any other ideas except wait and hope, and that isn’t going to work. Waiting would only magnify the problems Dainyl and Fhentyl faced, something that Fhentyl clearly didn’t understand.
“What would you do if another Myrmidon company attacked us?” Dainyl asked.
“Myrmidons shouldn’t be fighting Myrmidons, sir.”
“That’s true. But regional alectors shouldn’t be attacking Myrmidons, either.”
The other problem was that Fhentyl had become a captain so recently that, while he could conceive theoretically of rebellion and subversion, accepting either as a reality was proving extremely difficult for the junior officer.
“Yes, sir.”
Dainyl forced a concerned expression onto his face. “I understand. It’s a difficult situation, but we just have to make the best of it, and we need to get on with matters. It’s going to take all of today, and probably tomorrow to set this up.” That was optimistic, but Dainyl knew he was running out of time. Yet trying a direct assault, even with skylances and pteridons, would create horrible casualties, and might create exactly what the rebels wanted—riderless pteridons that they could coopt, one way or another. “Go ahead and start trying to gather the materials. Have the local factors and merchants use their own wagons to transport the barrels and amphorae to a staging point east of the complex. I’ll contact Captain Rhystan and have the Cadmians set up to receive all of that. We’ll also need nets and some strong canvas so the pteridons can lift them to the clifftop above the cave area.”
Fhentyl nodded reluctantly.
Dainyl refrained from mentioning that the rebels had no incentive to surrender. Fhentyl was having enough difficulties in accepting the situation.