Chapter 28 - Careless Commanders

James was late. He hurried to the hall. General Brewer and his commanders would be waiting for him right now.

"I'm sorry for the delay" he rapped as he took the seat reserved for him. He scanned the people present. They were eight including General Brewer.

"Your Highness, these are the six commanders of the six garrisons of Darnley Kingdom. They all have fine warriors with umatched skills" General Brewer stood up. He was obviously going to introduce them one after the other.

"Commander Ruck from the right controls the garrison......" he wanted to continue the introduction as James had thought.

"General Brewer, I don't think that is necessary owing to the situation on ground" James interrupted him.

"Yes sir" General Brewer sat down.

"I think why we are gather here right now is known by all of us here" James looked round at everyone.

"Actually, if it is about the army marching in from the south. I will say this sitting is not really necessary" Commander Walsh grumbled.

"And you are" James was annoyed by the way he broke words out.

"I am commander Walsh. I am in charge of the fourth garrison. The garrison that has never failed to deliver" he introduced himself boastfully.

"Why would you say this sitting is not necessary?" James queried.

"Of course, only a handful soldiers marching to their death is all I see. I don't need an army to face them. All I need is twenty men that are training under my watch. They won't spend an hour with them" he laughed loudly. Some of the other commanders joined him.

"Stop laughing!" James slammed the table.

All of them kept quiet but not long later, they started mumbling to each other.

"I say,keep quiet!" James yelled again.

"This is not a war to me but I just don't know what to call it. Foolishness at its peak?" Commander Craig looked round.

The other commanders giggled.

"Two hundred men moving towards our kingdom is sheer foolishness. They know what and where they are coming to. Let's just play with them. We don't need a lot of planning or assist from any garrison" he concluded.

"You command the south gate garrison?" James asked. He was already feeling odd among them.

"South gate is one of the stations being watched over by me. I am Commander Craig" he bowed slightly and started laughing as he lifted up his head.

"I have now realized all of you are the same. You are all making one mistake which you shouldn't. You are experienced warriors. You must have heard not to underestimate your enemies" James paused.

The commanders had kept quiet. They were obviously listening to his words.

"This is the thing,I already told General Brewer. My father is sick and I am to assume his position until he would be fit to continue" James paused again.

"I am going to lead this war myself. I can not entrust this to any of you. You are all careless. I will not let your carelessness write a bad story on my name. I will lead the attack" he finalized.

"Yes, no one has problem with that. You are just afraid because you don't understand war" Commander Craig berated him.

"Yes, I do not understand war but I am well versed in politics. The King's sickness is what these enemies are capitalizing on. While they deceive you to be weak. You will be surprised" he elaborated.

"We will fight on your side or anywhere you want us" General Brewer supported him.

"The General has spoken" Commander Walsh giggled.

"Tomorrow, when they are here. We will know who is right and who is wrong" James knew they didn't heartily accept his proposition.

Their belief would surely change. He would make sure he proved them wrong.

"There is nothing to worry about, Commander Ruck. You can sleep with your wife tonight. The heir to the throne is going to protect you tomorrow" Commander Walsh joked while the others laughed. It seemed they had ignored James.

James felt bad that he wasn't shown enough respect but there was nothing he could do to change that until tomorrow.

"I will sleep with my wife of course. You know,I always wonder how you could command a whole garrison despite always getting the beating of your life from your wife. It is crazy, Walsh" Commander Ruck gave his comeback.

The commanders were only having fun. They had forgotten James that was present there with them.

James walked out slowly.

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"You now move up and down freely!" Michael stated as he saw Julia. She was coming into his chambers, few hours after she left


They didn't use to meet frequently like this. He smiled to welcome her.

"Don't you like it this way?" Julia stopped. "Your brother has become more occupied with his mission and he is already celebrating his victory" Julia explained what had given her needed chance to visit often.

"His victory?" Michael sought explanation. "In the war?" he asked.

"No. His victory over you. You are the only thing stopping him from becoming the next Alpha King and it seems he has gotten you out of the way. Except if you have found how to change the course of his story as you said" Julia knew he must have come up with something all this while.

"I don't know what to do to stop him yet" he gave her a disappointing response.

"You don't know?" she scoffed. "You're kidding right?" she smiled.

"I am serious, my Lady" he said politely.

"The war is already here and he has decided to lead the war. I just don't understand what he was going to achieve with that" Julia expressed her cluelessness.

"He wants to become the favorite among us. That is his plan" Michael said confidently. He seemed very sure of that.

"And then maybe you should face the war on his side. At least, both of you will share the praise" Julia suggested.

"That is going to be a little hard. He represents the king. I must be where he wanted me to be" Michael moaned. He was obviously thinking that was not going to be possible.

"You have to try, Michael. You will need to be convincing in a way he couldn't resist" Julia moved closer to him to whisper words of encouragement in to his skull.

"I don't need to that. That is giving him an opportunity to take my life. Going out there into the midst of two opposing armies that he controls. I will have no chance" Michael dismissed the suggestion.

"Then we are going to sit and watch with our hands on our laps as he executes his plan to the end" she said with a voice of defeat.

"No. We will keep looking for what we will do. And we have only one aim. We will steal his glory. We let him do the work and we take the reward" Michael laughed maniacally.

"We take his reward?" Julia couldn't get anything from that. "And you think that is possible?" she was confused.

"I trust you to find me a way to do that. You just have to listen more. Watch more and get more secrets" Michael urged her.

"There is nothing else to watch or listen to. Everything has already fallen in place" she moaned remorsefully.

"It is time to watch for another source. He has a friend that he trusted with his life" Michael asserted.

"That's Harold" Julia retorted.

"You should look for what you can get from him" Michael blurted out.

"Get secret from Harold?" Julia believed that was going to be harder as she wasn't very close to him. And Harold was already extra careful.

"It will be easier,once you know what you are looking for" he maintained.

"And that is?" Julia gasped.

"How he is going to win the war singlehandedly" Michael revealed finally.

Julia tried to think about it. That seemed impossible unless there was some outside help or the enemies would retreat.

"They will retreat, the enemies. I think his presence is just going to scare them away" Julia proposed.

"No. That will be an easy win. James will not carry out all this plan to achieve something he can not boast off" Michael contradicted.

"Then, he is going to fight an army who will fight back, singlehandedly and he will win them?" Julia capitulated.

"He has gone beyond our thoughts. Do you think he employed sorcery only to make the king sick. No. He is also going to use that in the war" Michael giggled. He was really thinking that he had unraveled the mystery.

"I will try my best" Julia promised.

She only promised. She didn't know how she would come by that.

"I trust you. You will take us to our destination which is the throne. We will sit beside each other and rule over the kingdom of Darnley" he said slowly with a lot of joy as she moved closer to her.

Michael and James were not so different, she thought. They easily became happy over expectations.