The first attack was a hard one. We spent many weeks pondering it and pondering various plans if the main plan did not work. Finally, we settled on four plans for the first attack. Those plans were ever-changing, as they were meant to be. They couldn’t depend on one element always being present; if they did, then we would have to have near-endless plans. But when we heard of most of the cities joining the enemy’s side, we had to make a new batch of four plans, even though it did not make much sense for their men to like them allying with the cities. But we couldn’t wait for the inevitable insurrections to happen. We had to get some of the cities on our side. If we didn’t, we would certainly be outnumbered on the field. Currently, they could field about 35,000 men whilst we could field a little over that. But with four cities—four of the most major—giving their support to the enemy, they might be able to field about 50,000 at the very least. That would mean that we would be outnumbered by 15,000 soldiers at the very least. Wars were not won by numbers, but numbers surely helped to win them. Our only advantage currently was that we had calvary and they didn’t, but that could easily change and that they, apparently, had yet to actually finalize the alliance. We had elite fighters, but they also had that.

Luckily, we didn’t have to much in the way of convincing the cities to ally with us. We simply sent a word back to the king of Trandrangiak, telling him to gather his allies to send troops to help us. They rose to the occasion magnificently, gathering over 22,000 troops to send to us from over eight cities.

“…They will start to arrive in just under a month,” Ail’ujao said as I walked into a Council of War one afternoon.

“Good.” I said. “And they will all arrive in just a year?”

He nodded.

“Good.” I said. “And so now we’ve got most of the cities in the surrounding area on our side?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s move on with the siege.” I told them.

A collective gasp throughout the room. “What?”

“The siege will take a few months, allowing for their reinforcements to arrive while—” Yuio’cala started.

“—Our forces also get reinforcements.” I finished for him.

“But not enough,” Yuio’cala told me.

“No,” I said, “No, I think that it will be enough. However much that they can get, we can also get.”

“I don’t think that is how it will happen, but okay,” Yuio’cala said.

“No, I do,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed that I was arguing with this chief who probably knew much more about war than I could ever hope to know. “Because it is really now or never. I also say that we do the most unpredictable thing and try to attack where they will most hurt: the Stronghold of Glory, where our spies say is their commanding post. All we have to do is send our elite fighters in there to kill the leaders and we win.”

There was a murmur of how that would never happen, and how it would be stopped, or had to be stopped.

I silenced the murmur with a wave of my hand. “This is how it has to end. Besides, the Stronghold of Glory isn’t really that far from here. It can’t be more than a week’s marching. And besides, I have spoken, and what I have spoken is law.”

With that, I walked out of the room.

The rest of the day I pondered what I had done, what I had told them to do. Would it work? That was up to God himself, but I was tired of the chiefs never taking risks and always playing it safe. I knew from every story that I had ever been told by the tribesmen who had fought in a war that the way to win a war was not to take no risks, but rather, take risks that were thought over. That was what was truly the essence of the good battlefield commander. If they could just take risks then they would be able to win this war and win it fast. However, I wasn’t sure if I was taking the right risks. What I had said in that Council I had thought over for the past few days, ever since I had heard rumors of our enemies allying with the cities. But was that enough?

I was risking tens of thousands of lives, and what if I was risking them all in vain? What if what they fought, and what they died, to accomplish, would die with them? Who was I, rookie commander, to risk so many lives? I shouldn’t even be given the authority to risk any life except for my own.

It was at that moment that I almost went back to them and told them to stop with the order and that I was vetoing my own order. But I didn’t.

Because someone had to take the risks so that we could win. If I didn’t, then who would? I asked myself.

But I still couldn’t bring myself to feel fully justified in doing this. What if I was wrong? What if everybody died in vain? But it did not do dwell on such thoughts, I knew. I went to bed that night with tears. I was crying for the fallen, crying for all who would fall, but I was also crying for the future success that we could enjoy.

There was much planning that led up to the battle itself, and in that time, I tried to use it to brace myself for the coming battle. But none of it worked. When the battle came, with the chiefs blowing their horns to lead their troops, along with small reinforcements, it did not prepare me. I had convinced them beforehand to fight on the front lines, at least the chiefs who weren’t desperately needed in the strategy room at the moment of battle. The men were, in fact, invigorated by the chiefs being present in the battle, and as they left their houses for the final march, which took them from midnight to early morning, I heard whispers of the men saying that this war might finally be over. I smiled. Maybe they were right. Maybe this all would be over today, this one day. But, at the same time, I didn’t know how this battle would end. It was still totally possible that they would repel the siege and that we would be forced to retreat, but one way or another, this battle would be fought.

Some of the tribal healers had started using the mutated herbs on me in order to get me into fighting shape and it had actually started to work. I could almost use that foot again, and even though they said that it would take a week or so for it to fully grow back, they said that it was already good enough for me to fight with. But I didn’t need to be told that. I knew it! I could fight the enemy right now if I wanted to. Granted, it would be hard with the little limp that I still had, but it was now a totally feasible thing, me actually winning that fight.

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In preparation for the battle, I trained hard in secret with an instructor to hone my skills with the sword and spear should I ever need to defend myself with a sword or spear.

Maybe I could go into battle, I thought, grinning to myself, one day. It was just a wish but it was a great one. I mean, just the fact that I could really invigorate the men was encouragement enough, but actually being able to do something that felt meaningful… would be great.

Still, I knew that they would never allow me to do so. Sometimes, I felt like a figurehead, a way for the chiefs to unite the tribes under their authority. Maybe that was what it was, and maybe it was not. Hopefully, that was not the case, but it very well could be.

On the morning of the battle, the enemy awoke to the horns of battle blowing. For all that morning, we had been sneaking up on them, slowly but surely, making sure to be as stealthy as possible.

The enemy, even with them outnumbering us, was not ready. In the stronghold, we had left several traps that we could trigger. We had also destroyed the commander’s tower so that they could not see the battle as well without going into another tower, of which there were now two.

At that moment, we took full advantage of them being on the side of a mountain, and an eighth of our forces were on the cliffside, at which place they would throw down and catapult boulders to disrupt the fighting coming from the city. It was the perfect plan, except for one small detail: only an eighth of our forces were on the cliffside. We couldn’t take full advantage of being on top of them. This was one thing that I had allowed the chiefs to do. It would be a major risk, at least in their minds, if they were able to suddenly gain the high ground.

I was the only one to actually think that this was a risk. Others thought that this was a good thing; even Uno’sja, who was usually on my side with most things, objected to putting more than an eighth of our forces on top of the cliff. It was strange how that happened, for that was even much, in his eyes. I finally had decided to put myself on the edge of that cliff on the bet that I would not take a single scratch anywhere. They had allowed it with the caveat that I would have about twenty guards around the tent at all times.

And so as I watched the battle, I watched it with a sort of sadness. All was going to plan, but I could not be there to help it go to plan. I knew that I was mostly useless directing it, but I had insisted that the chiefs direct it from here.

We would not use our calvary in this battle, for although they had apparently helped us in many battles before, they would be useless in a siege like this. That made sense. You couldn’t just ride horses into a wall; that was something that really made no sense.

I had, though, insisted that the calvary be used if they were out on the field of battle and we needed a way to put them back into the city.

The general plan was to starve them out, though, and that was a plan that didn’t need calvary unless it went horribly wrong.

Which was exactly what happened.

We had forces placed around our forces to alert us and defend our own forces if we were attacked.

All of those forces were destroyed in the first wave. Even the messengers were slaughtered in the brutal bloodbath.

Unfortunately for my enemies, we saw all of that and were able to warn our soldiers about it, even though most of our messengers were killed.

We all watched it with horror as we all jumped into action, the chiefs starting to jump into action. I just tried to tear my eyes away from it, but I could not, at least not for a while. I felt in me a strange obligation to watch, even though I should feel an obligation to command.

Finally, I pulled myself away and saw the chiefs in a cold sweat, trying to plan everything.

“Why?” I asked. “What is happening?”

“They are circumventing all of our tactics—they must have known that we would come and try to lay siege to the city.” He said.

“Or maybe,” I said, “They were prepared.”

In the next few hours, I saw that exact thing. Now I knew that it was not a time for risks anymore and so I listened to the chiefs and offered ideas when I could, and directed them to do whatever the majority there agreed on, as there were only four chiefs there and so they couldn’t have a majority in the full council as four was a minority.

We were so engrossed in the planning that we did not hear the army coming up behind us, and our guards being killed.

Swish.

I looked up, expecting a messenger, but instead seeing a man in armor with dark hair, sword in hand.

Knowing that it would not be fast enough if I yelled, I unsheathed my sword and caught his blow just over Chief Hio’ujo’s head. He looked up to see swords crossing right over his head.

The man roared and tried to push the sword down into the chief’s head, but by then the chief had recovered. He thrust his sword up into the man’s groin. The man let out a cry like an injured animal, dropping his sword.

Now, I thought, thrusting my sword into his heart and taking it out as I saw more men rush in, this time almost hid by their armor.

“Surrender.” One of them said.

“Fine.” I said, dropping my sword as the chiefs did the same.

We were led to the enemy’s commanding tent where I saw Ani’sja, who smiled like he had a particularly tasty meal before him.

All of the chiefs were cloaked in white robes, all except for him, who was cloaked in brown robes. Most of them had faces that looked well-rested, almost like they had been rotating commanders.

Ani’sja walked up to me.

“You have been…a great nuisance,” he said, “But no more. This all ends here and now. You will command your troops to surrender, or we will kill you.”

The others looked at me pleadingly, as if hoping that I had some clever trick up my sleeve, but I had none.

“You must remember, I am the one who has command of your own mother.” He said, and my mother was revealed as she stepped forward, wearing loose black robes and a crooked smile.

“Please,” she said, “Do this for me. Do this for love.”

I was tempted to spit at her. I had never liked her, but instead I sighed. “Before I surrender, I want to know why.”

“Why?” Ani’sja laughed. “Oh, that is very easy, dear wife. You are the woman who has opposed me my whole time with my father.”

“Your father? He’s dead.”

“No, he was never dead,” Ani’sja told me, stepping aside to reveal his father, who kissed my mother. “He is alive as he was born.”

There it was. Blatant unfaithfulness, the very reason I hated my mother. And now I had a reason to hate him, too.

“You see,” He said, stepping closer to me, “He only faked his death to go over to our side. He is an honorable man, you see, and because of that he did not take the coward’s approach to go over to the other side by frequently disappearing and never telling anyone where he went. Instead, he is reborn again, a much wiser man.”

His hand was now touching my hair, brushing it from my face.

“I always loved you, you know.” He said, “Even when you mocked me. Even then I loved you.”

He grabbed me and kissed me, lifting me up. I heard a gasp and a roar from the chiefs as they saw this happening, but they were held back.

I struggled against him, but he held me in his firm grip even while I kicked. Finally, as he started to let me down, I kicked him in the groin.

He roared, letting me go, almost throwing me.

I rolled and took a sword off of one of the stunning chiefs as the other chiefs as Ani’sja roared. I fought the guards guarding the chiefs, freeing them. Now the other chiefs were in a ring around Ani’sja, the dumbest thing that they could’ve ever done as I had armed our chiefs.

“No!” Ani’sja roared.

“Go back!” I told chiefs, “Bring reinforcements!”

Once our chiefs heard this they ran as the enemy chiefs ran at them. I blocked all of them, switching forms quickly to confuse them even though it confused me too.

“I challenge Chief ‘Sja to a fight, whoever that may be!” I roared over it all.

The fighting stopped. If I struck at any one of the chiefs now I would lose my honor and would have no commanding power over my troops, even as the uniter.

“What did you say?” Ani’sja asked.

One of the chiefs whispered in his ear and he nodded.

“So be it.” He said. “I shall fight a woman; for they have no honor!”