I took a closer look at the map, thinking back to the last time we had discussed the issue. "I take it you're all opposed to fighting outside of the city in this pass, or outside the forest." 'Silence… Right…' "And none of you are fond of setting up an ambush, or using wild monsters to our advantage either?"
Just a few growls were heard.
I let out a heavy sigh of my own as I raised my hands, trying to show I wasn't intending to make them angry.. "Fine, fine… I can work with this… But there needs to be a few changes. First of all, Elianara's men need to be on top of the wall, not in front of it… I really hope I don't have to explain that… Next, we need to expand the castle wall at the gate. Three days is enough for that, right?"
Al pulled out a more detailed map of the city and threw it on the table, handing me a pen. "What did you have in mind? It depends on the construction. We have dwarves here loyal to the crown, so it might be possible."
'Right…' I looked at it more closely. "We need a way for our cavalry to get back through the gates while we are in the middle of the fight… If they are left out to die that would suck. And since we are probably waiting for them to surround us before we charge, we need a path out too… We need ramps, ones too steep to climb. Our horses are all trained for combat on steep cliffs… And they are as hardy as we are compared to the average commoners, right? They should be able to sprint down those same ramps."
"Won't that just make it easier to scale the walls?"
"That's what they'll think… Phily, you said we have 15 fast war beasts… I take it that means we have 8 of those giant stone skin monsters?"
She started smiling. "Sure does."
"So it's a trap?"
"Dishonorable…"
'I'm about to just fight this guy anyway…' I sighed. "If the enemy walks into my spear, it's hardly my fault they got stabbed…" I grumbled.
Al waved him off. "Ok, what else?"
"Kasesh is filled with underground tunnels. It would be easy to use them to get far away from the city with the dwarves' help. We should all stay and help fight until things go south. If they do, I can lead the children out through the tunnels, but not before the fight."
They stayed silent, but none of them seemed to disagree outright.
"After our war beasts lead us down the ramps, they should be too disorganized to block a cavalry charge. Especially since they'll never expect our horses to be able to charge down steep ramps like these… At the front of the charge will be me and Fritz… I'll be riding with Mo, the head of the Alshadora family… Although she isn't an assassin. If the war beasts can help us get to the siege mage, even if she isn't out of power, I'll be able to stop her. Furthermore, I can counter any ice magic with my fire breath because of my draconic traits." I added a piece to the board, "Airish needs to be on this wall… As far as I know, he's the best shot with the heaviest bow in the nation… Much less the city. He needs to be on the wall facing this Hara girl. He can keep her distracted, no matter how far away she is. Even if she can somehow block his arrows, I doubt she could avoid them and disrupt the army at the same time."
I felt myself sweating, finally realising how nervous I was, so much so that it was leaking through and making my heart race even in my dragon form. "If… If we can manage all that we are doing, good… But if we have time, we should add a lip to the walls and cover them in oil or wood from the bay. We can set it on fire and make it much harder to climb the walls, at least for a while. And a second gate extended out from the main one by maybe a dozen feet. Even if they break through the first one, there would be a second one; they'd have to walk right under us to get in, too… Of course, we'd have holes in the floor and walls to skewer them if they tried. It's called a murder hole for a reason… Digging a moat and redirecting the river would be nice… Hold it in place with a dam, though, and then break the dam once they have people in the ditch. The rush from the water would probably drown a few if they were wearing heavy armor. That's kind of a lot for three days, though… How fast do dwarves work?"
They all stared at me in complete silence. Phily's jaw had dropped, but everyone else just had wide, slightly frightened eyes.
'I can't tell if this is a good reaction or a bad one…' "So… What's possible and what isn't…"
Al cleared his throat before calmly staring at the map. "The mote is just moving earth…. Which we would need to do to an extent to build the 8 ramps anyway… A second gate house with the uh… Murder hole… That might be a bit much… The problem is mostly confining so many of our men into a cramped space with no countermeasures against their magic…"
"Figures… How about the ramps, then? They would need to have holes at the bottom to let more water pass through, and hopefully, after our cavalry is back inside the walls, we can blow the ramps to make doubly sure the enemy can't use it."
"That we can do…"
'Wait, really?' "Sweet," I grinned.
He paused again, starting to look worried. "Alright, who's opposed?"
Of course, Elianara raised his hand. Bhaltair as well, and Phily...
"I get why Commander Elianara is opposed… But… What about you, too?"
Phily folded her arms. "Our horses may be able to get back up a ramp like this… But not the heavy war beasts… It's a one-way trip for them…"
"Ok… But… There are eight, and they are pretty invincible. With cover fire, can't we get them back to the gates and let them in?"
She looked around at the others. "You'd open the gates in the middle of a siege just for a few beasts?"
"I mean… If the plan works… We will have taken out their biggest threat, they'll be in too much of a panic to do anything about us opening the gate… And if they tried, they would have to go through all eight war beasts…"
She sighed. "I don't have a better plan… I'll go along with it…"
"And you, Bhaltair?"Tabernath asked, raising his brow.
"My reason doesn't matter… And neither I nor Elly here could beat her in a fight… Go ahead…"
I let out a deep sigh of relief. 'Nice… They're finally listening.'