Chapter Eighteen

Aftermath Part II

MELODY

The Exonian colonel looked a little surprised that this foreign young woman knew how to speak the language of a faraway kingdom. But it didn't faze him for long, with animosity quickly replacing shock. "It doesn't matter who I am." He grunted.

Time to take the direct route then. "Do you know why I'm here?" Melody asked.

"I know why you're here." The colonel said spitefully. "Leader of the weak minded. Given to compassion. You're hoping that I'll tell you what you want to know if you show me a little kindness."

Very astute. Melody glanced back at Anna, who gave her the raise of an inquisitive eyebrow. The Queen of Arendelle appeared to be following what they had been saying so far, though she wasn't prepared to engage in the conversation with her very poor command of the language.

"Well, you're not wrong." Melody turned back to the colonel. "We are all human beings, after all. Nothing's stopping me from showing humanity, even to an enemy who tried to destroy us."

"Destroy you?" The colonel spat. "You were the one who tried to take Turnsheim."

"After the Imperial Horde occupied it in the first place."

"And what's that to you? Poking your nose where it doesn't belong on this side of the continent. This land is ours."

"It doesn't belong to Exon." Melody kept her voice calm, even as she felt herself losing a little patience. "The Turnsheim people deserve to be free."

The colonel snorted. "And what do you know about freedom? Answering to your Confederation of the North? It is we Exonians who are truly free. Free and willing to serve Her Imperial Majesty to our dying breath."

Melody felt disgusted, but she decided to press on. "So I'm assuming you won't be telling me what I want to know?"

"And what? Now you resort to torture like the rest of us common ruthless types?"

"No," Melody set her jaw. "No I won't." Then that meant a dead end. Because she wouldn't stoop so low as to command the soldiers to belt out torture in the hope that the Exonian would eventually cave. No. She had to be better than her enemies. Otherwise what was the point of fighting to free the continent if she was every bit as horrible as the enemy?

"I'll tell you what you want to know." The colonel smirked unpleasantly.

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Because I want you all to march head on into another battle and lose. We have the numbers and Hydrech will be ready for you all this time."

That's what Hydrech must have thought last time, Melody wanted to say, but decided against it. There was no use in heckling the man. Not when she was this close to getting what she came for.

"Hydrech took the rest and retreated to the City of Korynes." The colonel said. "He is regrouping with fresh forces, large enough to face your precious Coalition this time. He will be ready."

"Thank you for your cooperation." Melody said flatly. "You've been a great help to us."

He laughed and then coughed unhealthily. "You don't know what you're dabbling in, child. I pity you, for you cannot see the truth."

"And what truth is that?"

"That there is no stopping the Imperial Horde. The Exonian Empire will dominate this continent for a thousand years, and then a thousand more." He grinned placidly and then lifted his voice. "May Her Imperial Majesty reign forever!"

"Alright, that's enough." Disgusted, Melody stood up from her chair and the wood screeched loud against the rough stony floor of the interrogation room, causing everyone present to wince. She turned to the nearest soldier, switching back to English. "Please get him out of here. Have his wounds cleaned and take him back to his cell. No need to be rough."

"Yes, Your Royal Highness." The Queen's Guard soldier saluted, and motioned for his comrade to aid him in escorting the Exonian prisoner out.

"What did he say?" Anna asked as the colonel was taken away.

Melody exhaled irritably as if she had been in a long discourse - somewhat actually - and ran a hand through her dark hair. "These Exonians. Loyal fanatics steeped in their radical beliefs. Maddening."

"Did he tell you where Hydrech has retreated to?"

"Yes. But only because he believes that the Imperial Horde will crush us next time." Melody said. "Hydrech and his remaining forces are headed for the occupied city of Korynes."

"Moving further east." Anna concluded. "Retreating back closer to Exon where they can regroup with reinforcements from the rest of the Imperial Horde."

"Right." Melody said.

"This is good. Now we know where Hydrech is headed, we might be able to convince the Confederation that we need to rethink our strategies." Anna looked pensive. "Come on. Let's find Kristoff and get back to the exchange in time for the meeting. Maybe this time it'll finally go smoothly the way we want."

ANNA

Unfortunately, Anna would later find that she was wrong. The Confederation members would be as difficult as ever. To start with, King Uxzas of Molcorra was nowhere to be found. It was widely thought by the remaining representatives that he had gone off somewhere by himself for a couple of days to mourn the loss of his dear friend, the fallen Field Marshal Gregor Cicero.

It had been confirmed after the battle that Cicero had gotten too close to the action, and had been blown away by a very well placed nine pound cannon ball from the Exonian artillery at the front face of the city wall. That would never have happened if Cicero had stationed himself far behind the line to watch the battle. After he had been killed, the rest of the attacking Molcorran brigades had descended into chaos, and no one had taken charge of the mess, which meant no reinforcements.

The Xerflorians, commanded by Horatio, had managed to hold their own but didn't succeed in breaking through the Exonian line by the eastern wall. The only ones who had achieved their goal were the Arendellians and the Danish, who had broken through under Frederick's decisive command and turn of the tables.

And now, it was being discussed as to who should take over as overall commander of the army. All the generals from the various armies of the Coalition were present, standing in a line around the table behind the noble representatives. Most of them were made up of lieutenant generals, the rare few four-star generals being Frederick and two others from Xerflorn.

Nine in total, they all stood smartly, dressed in their ceremonial uniforms for the official meeting, their various coloured uniforms crisp and straightened to perfection. Two of them looked much too old to still be in command. Others were relatively young, with one of the lieutenant generals even appearing to be in his early thirties. The remaining were made up of middle aged men who had seen enough battles to earn their rank through experience and competency.

Coughing, Duke Helmsley broke the silence and glanced around inertly at the rest of the Confederation members seated around a long table in one of the old exchange buildings' function rooms. "Seeing as how King Uxzas isn't here with us, I suppose we will have to proceed without him."

At the table sat Anna, Melody, Prince August and Marquess Horatio, all of them nodding in agreement at Helmsley's suggestion. Anna hoped that he wouldn't seize the opportunity to declare himself as interim head of the Confederation, seeing as how he was the oldest among them. Thankfully, he didn't, since he was more of the sort that believed in doing things by the book in the Confederation. Still, he could be a pain to deal with sometimes.

"I think our first order of business should be to address the elephant in the room, which is why all of you are gathered here today." Prince August acknowledged the generals lined up neatly behind the representatives. "We shan't waste any more of your time, since you all probably have a lot to attend to now that the battle is over. The Coalition is in desperate need of a new commander, and we're here to decide on one."

"God rest poor Cicero's soul." Helmsley shook his head. "He was a good man."

Anna looked at Melody who was seated beside her. Melody returned her gaze with a tiny nod. Prior to the meeting they had both discussed and agreed on who ought to lead the Coalition.

Horatio cleared his throat exaggeratedly. "Of course." He waved at his own two Xerflorian generals who were standing behind him in their yellow and black uniforms. "Might I first present my two faithful generals? They haven't failed on the campaign thus far, as I'm sure you all will agree and testify. We maintained control during the latest battle as well, even though the Coalition lost Marshal Cicero.

"And of course, besides these two, there is always myself." Horatio said unabashedly. "I am the commander in chief of the Xerflorian army, after all."

Anna suppressed a snort. "You gotta be kidding me." She whispered to Melody.

Duke Helmsley blinked. "Would anyone else like to make their petition?"

"I do." Anna said, waving a hand at Frederick who was standing at attention behind her. "General Frederick Valquerson, overall commander of the Arendellian and Danish forces. I'm sure you all know that it was he who saved countless lives from being lost in the Exonian ambush yesterday morning. He was able to turn the ambush into an advantage, and broke through the Exonian ranks, winning us the battle."

"I agree." Melody added. "Without General Frederick, we likely would have lost. The Exonians are smart and cunning, and we need someone who can think the way they do. And no one knows that better than General Frederick. After all, he is the only one to have encountered Marshal Kane on the battlefield, and successfully repelled the Imperial Horde at the Battle of Arendelle earlier this year."

Prince August nodded and spoke up. "I support their decision and nominate General Frederick Valquerson as the new overall commander of the Coalition. He will be capable of leading the Coalition to victory over the Empire."

"Looks like it's three votes out of five." Anna glanced around the table. The pompous Marquess Horatio was looking rather subdued, while Helmsley himself didn't look happy either. Since King Uxzas wasn't around to sway the vote, it appeared that Anna would win this round.

"Very well." Helmsley finally said after a tensed pause. Anna knew that the pompous noble had a thing against Frederick who had made attaining high ranks in the army possible for commoners. He regarded Frederick with disdainful eyes. "I sincerely hope you know what you're doing."

"I do, Your Grace." Frederick answered respectfully and in the proper military manner he usually did.

Helmsley nodded and looked at Anna. "The honour is yours, Your Majesty."

Anna swelled with pride, and turned in her seat so that she could face Frederick. "General Frederick Valquerson, you shall be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal effective immediately. You are now in overall command of the Coalition. Do you swear to lead the combined armies for the rest of the campaign, however long it shall last?"

"I swear, Your Majesty." He said, and gave the tiniest hint of a grin when Anna winked at him genially.

"Very well. In addition to this promotion, I'd like to officially name my husband as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Coalition. I understand that it is usually the monarchs that carry out this role, but my husband is far better suited to the job than I am. Therefore, I will be delegating this to him and he will be working closely together with the new Field Marshal to lead our Coalition in the days ahead." Anna finished and glanced round with bated breath. Thankfully, no one opposed her.

"It's official then." Horatio said sourly, scowling at the generals standing around the table. "You are all dismissed." Then turning back to the rest of the representatives at the table, he put on an irritable tone. "Shall we move on?"

"Our next order of business," Melody said. "Will be to address our next course of action."

"Ah, yes." Helmsley drawled. "We all agree that we want this war to end as soon as possible, yes?"

Everyone around the table nodded. It would be absurd not to.

"Then, I suggest that we take action and break camp by tomorrow morning." Helmsley said. "We need to pursue Hydrech and his forces in the hopes that we can cut him off before he can reach his reinforcements."

"Hang on, Your Grace." August said. "We don't even know where the Imperial Horde was headed after the battle."

"Actually, we do." Anna said cautiously.

Helmsley frowned. "Pardon me, Ma'am?"

"We managed to attain actionable intelligence that Hydrech has taken his forces and fled east to the occupied city of Korynes, where he intends to regroup with fresh troops." Melody informed them.

"And where, might I ask, did you get this actionable intelligence from, Your Royal Highness?" Horatio asked in a subtle condescending tone.

"We learnt this from one of Hydrech's senior officers among the Exonian prisoners." Melody said boldly. "He revealed to us his commander's plans."

"And did you perhaps stop to consider that he only told you that to mislead you?"

"He made it very clear that he wants us to find Hydrech and the Imperial Horde, so that we can die at the next battle."

"Then all the more we should depart from Turnsheim as soon as possible." Helmsley said. "The best move now is to cut Hydrech off before he can reach Korynes and regroup with more reinforcements from Marshal Kane."

"Agreed." Horatio had taken on a blatantly antagonistic tone towards Melody and Anna. "He's only a day ahead of us at most. We'll be able to attack the rear of his column and crush them all before Hydrech can deploy into line."

"I know you have a taste for wanton destruction," August glanced at Horatio, who scowled back. "But we ought to at least think this through logically."

"We know that the Imperial Horde moves incredibly fast. Faster than any other army on the planet." Anna said. "Do you really think it's wise getting into a race with them? We shouldn't risk hurrying after Hydrech only to find that he's already safely at Korynes. If he is, he'll have the advantage and ambush us on a much larger scale this time. It'll be a massacre."

"With all due respect, Ma'am, I think you're not considering the big picture." Helmsley said irritably. "We need to end the campaign before harsh winter sets in and the lands are covered in snow." He jabbed his finger in the direction of east. "Out there, it's probably already started snowing in Exon, and we aren't going to be able to break their forces in time if we dawdle."

"Look, I know we all want to crush the Empire once and for all." Anna said. "But is it really a good idea to force a march when our men haven't fully recovered yet? The troops need time. If we force them into a death march, they won't be as efficient if we run into a trap."

Helmsley and Horatio both looked like they wanted to continue arguing, but August beat them to it. "Either way," he said in a firm voice. "It's a moot point."

"Oh?" Horatio regarded him jeeringly.

"How so, Your Royal Highness?" Helmsley sounded displeased.

"We cannot leave without King Uxzas." August pointed out. "We'll have to wait for him to return, whenever that might be, before we can carry on the march."

"You have a point." Helmsley said grudgingly, after considering for a long moment. "Very well then, we will have to wait for His Majesty to return. In the meantime, we should dispatch light cavalry to scour the surrounding villages and towns to look for him."

Anna glanced at Melody, who gave her a tiny grin in satisfaction. She herself heaved a silent sigh. At least we have this battle won for now. That'll give our troops some time to recover.

###

"You sure you don't want to give yourself a break?" Melody asked. "It's late."

"I'll be fine." Anna settled back behind her desk in her makeshift room. The stack of paperwork was still waiting for her, and it wasn't going to go away by itself. Actually, she could just get Hayley or Kristoff to get it sorted for her, but that wasn't an option on the table.

"We just had a long session with the Confederation." Melody said. "You should probably call it a night."

"You should get some rest." Anna rounded on her. "Touring the brigades all day is no joke. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'm used to late nights."

Melody looked like she wanted to say something else to convince her, but probably decided that she wasn't going to win this argument. Instead, she settled on a small sigh. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then."

Anna waved to her friend, who saw herself out while still looking deep in thought. As the door creaked and clicked shut, Anna poured herself another glass of the diluted Turnsheim wine and took a long sip of it before taking a fresh file from the stack she had left untouched. Dipping her feathered pen tip in a small tray of ink, she set to work reading the list of names again before signing off at the bottom.

There was another knock at the door, and Anna looked up. Who could it be this time? Surely not one of the Confederation members? Surely not Horatio. "Who is it?" She called out in a loud voice.

"Me."

Kristoff. She heaved a sigh of relief. "Come in."

The door creaked open and her husband slipped in with a fresh bottle in hand. He waved it as he crossed the room, and set it down on the table.

"I brought us something." He said. "Something from a local tavern. It's actually pretty good."

"Thank god." Anna tipped the remaining contents of her glass outside the window. "I was getting sick of drinking this diluted nonsense."

"Ahh, hold on." Kristoff held the bottle out of reach as Anna moved to take it.

She sighed. "And what's the catch?"

"I heard you made me the new Commander-in-Chief of the army and the Coalition. So as the new Commander-in-Chief, my first order is for you to leave the paperwork to me, and we'll share this nice bottle before bed. I'll have Frederick and his staff settle the rest of the paperwork in the morning." Kristoff said in a tone which denoted that there would be no further arguing about it. He waved the bottle. "Deal?"

Anna relented and closed the file, making a show of putting down her pen with visible vexation. "Fine. Deal."

"Good." Kristoff began pouring her a glass of decently thick orange liquid. Then, he drank from the mouth of the bottle.

She took a sip of the drink, and swallowed it with satisfaction. Ah. This was so much better than the stuff she had been drinking. "What is this?"

"I don't know. The bartender said it's a local recipe by the southerners. Pretty good, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She took another sip and set down her glass. "So I'm guessing you've heard about Frederick too?"

"I've been out of the camp today. I Just got back but news travels fast." He smiled. "Field Marshal Frederick Valquerson. Has a nice ring to it."

"Frederick's replacing Cicero as commander of the Coalition." Anna said proudly.

"Yeah, I'll have to congratulate him myself first thing tomorrow."

The two sipped the exquisite alcohol in silence, enjoying each other's company in the moment.

"I got word," Kristoff suddenly said out of the blue. "About our friends."

Ah. No wonder Kristoff went to get a nice bottle. Anna felt herself dreading what she would hear next. "What did you hear?"

"Frederick's intelligence operatives intercepted reports from the Task Force." Kristoff explained slowly. "Elsa and the others were spotted in Turnsheim by the Blue Wolves while trying to break into a Confederation prison facility."

This was one of the rare times that the Blue Wolves had managed to spot the Warriors. So far, her sister and the rest had done a marvellous job of staying elusive and out of reach. But not this time apparently. Anna swallowed. "And?"

"They managed to free the sorcerers there, but were then chased. The reports stated that the Blue Wolves managed to fire off a lethal round that dealt a mortal wound to one of the men. A young man with elemental abilities."

Jordan. Anna opened her mouth, but no words came out. Finally, she managed to gather her thoughts amid her distress. "Is…is he…"

"I don't know," Kristoff looked grim. "The reports didn't say."

It was killing her not knowing what had happened to Jordan, if he was even still alive. Anna took a deep breath, and then gulped down the rest of the drink in her glass, trying to drown out her shock with the fiery feeling at the back of her throat. "What about Elsa and the others?"

"The Blue Wolves are still in pursuit, last we heard." Kristoff pursed his lips. "They know where Elsa and the others are hiding, and the ground is shrinking beneath their feet. Their reports said that they'll follow up after they've captured the sorcerers."

"They're going to catch our friends." Anna repeated, her face growing white.

Kristoff nodded, a defeated look plastered across his face.

Hell. "Is there anything we can do?" Anna asked, but she already knew the answer to that. They couldn't do anything to jeopardise their relationship with the Confederation by breaking the treaty. She silently cursed at Uxzas for making their lives so much more complicated.

"I don't think so."

The two of them sat in silence for some more time, both pondering their current predicament. Later, they climbed into the comfortable bed, and settled down. In spite of the coziness and the warmth, Anna's mind still continued to whirl, and her heart lurched in her chest. She couldn't stop thinking about her sister and friends.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Kristoff finally said. "I'm sorry. I just thought you deserved to know before you heard it from someone like Helmsley. I promise to try and find out more tomorrow morning from our spies."

"I'm worried, Kristoff." Anna admitted, snuggling up to him. She rested her head on his broad shoulder and sighed. "I'm worried about Elsa and our friends. What happens to them if they're caught?"

"They've faced bad odds before and come out on top. They can do it again."

But even that response which was supposed to spark hope felt weak, and Anna was sure Kristoff knew it too. This time felt different. Normally she would've pegged herself as an optimist, but this time she had a very bad feeling about it, a premonition that kept her awake for far longer than she would have liked.