Chapter 36: Inferno

“That right there is going to be one tough nut to crack.”

Jack winced as the words were said out loud by Art, but he couldn’t help but agree with him internally. At this very moment, Jack, Art, Greg, and Lindy were lying prone in a field outside of Kalmar, appraising the defenses of the Galician capital. It was close to late afternoon and already the sun was starting to descend on the western horizon, framing the city with an otherworldly glow.

Not much had happened since the anticlimactic naval “battle” from several days ago. Other than the fact that the Kalmar Task Force now made up an integral part of Jack’s fleet, the city of Kalmar was still in the hands of Eric Rosdahl, and by the looks of things, they were determined to hold onto it for as long as possible.

“What do you think, Lindy?” asked Jack. “You were headquartered in Kalmar for most of your professional career. You know the city better than anyone. What are your thoughts on this one?”

Lindy’s head shook from side to side as a difficult look appeared on his face. “Jack, I hate to say it but Art is right. Rosdahl can really make our forces bleed in taking the city if he really wants to. The long and short of it is that the city is an ideal defensive ground, and a lot of that is due to the fact of simple geography.”

“You’re talking about how the city rises in elevation the higher you get to the Castle, aren’t you?” asked Jack.

Lindy nodded. “Correct. Now we can rain mortars and artillery on the city all day long but the fact of the matter is that every building we damage will allow the defenders to swarm into the ruins and make their defensive position even stronger. Not to mention the fact that they will always have an uphill advantage that we will not.”

“Or the fact that they outnumber us right now,” added Greg. “We can hardly make an assault with our kind of numbers.”

“I’d rather not make an assault at all if we don’t have to,” said Jack. “I’d like to replicate the same success we had back at sea. I want us to look strong enough that we give the soldiers on that side some serious qualms about wanting to fight us.”

“We may not be so fortunate this time around,” said Art softly. “The men of the army are more closely linked to Eric Rosdahl than they were in the navy. The army is his playground. That’s not mentioning the fact that he’s been a tyrant for most of his rule, but generally he favors the army above all other things.”

“He knows which side his bread is buttered,” muttered Lindy. “As long as the army is there to protect him from the mob, he’ll reward them when he can.”

“And he generally has,” agreed Art. “I don’t think we’ll see a mass desertion the way we did with the navy.”

“Maybe not but I’m still betting we’ll see desertions,” said Jack. “To what degree it’ll be, I don’t know, but an all-out assault is our last option.”

None of the other three had anything else to say to that comment, and Jack supposed he didn’t blame them. There weren’t many options that saw Kalmar come into their hands with the city still intact and without a lot of bloodshed.

Even still, they’d come all this way just to force Eric Rosdahl out of power. There had to be a way to get him out of the city even if it was a defender’s paradise.

Jack and the rest of the commanders spent another half hour appraising the defense before he retired back to camp. The camp that they’d made was positioned on a small peninsula some distance from the city. The highlight of the position was that it could be defended by sea, which put Jack’s temporary lack of numbers in the best possible position. He also found it unlikely that Rosdahl would leave the safety of Kalmar so he wasn’t concerned with the possibility of an attack.

Despite the odds in front of them, Jack’s force was arguably in the best shape it had ever been in. He had his best soldiers with him—his crack regiments made up of Galicians and Javan marines—as well as having a full task force that now consisted of eleven battleships and twenty-one cruisers, amidst a host of smaller vessels too.

It was one of the largest naval commands in the world. The ships under Jack’s personal command now numbered close to half of the Javan fleet, the world’s largest navy. To think that he’d started this whole adventure almost two years ago with two cruisers and a destroyer was nothing short of overwhelming.

With everything going so right, it was his hope that ridding Galicia of Eric Rosdahl would finally allow them the freedom to take the war to the Swabians, that is, as long as such a task was still possible.

Jack didn’t dwell on it for very long. He took a meager dinner once the sun was down and answered some dispatches until it was time for bed. He soon crawled next to Abigail but as he did so, he noticed that Kat’s spot was empty. Since the bassinet was empty as well, it could only mean she was up somewhere with the baby, something that only barely registered in his mind. It was common these days for Kat to sleep in a smaller room so she didn’t wake the other two when John woke up to nurse.

“There you are,” muttered Abigail as he slipped into bed. She draped her arm around his chest and nuzzled her face against his shoulder. “I was beginning to think you’d never come to bed.”

Jack chuckled lightly. “You know it’s only nine o’clock, right?”

She nuzzled even closer. “Feels like it’s much later.”

“What time did Kat leave?”

“About a half hour ago, I suppose,” answered Abigail. “John started to fuss and she took him out of the room.”

Jack nodded without saying anything. As much as he wanted all of them sleeping in the same room for now, he was a little thankful that she took John out of the room when he started to cry. He had no idea how disturbing a crying baby could be to a regular sleep schedule but he’d gotten a firm lesson in it the last month.

“I hope she comes back here once John is settled,” murmured Jack as he got comfortable.

As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait long for Kat to return. He was sleeping for no more than fifteen minutes when he heard her enter the room and slip into bed with only a small amount of rustling. In that moment, Jack let out a satisfying sigh as he felt Kat’s arm wrap around him as the rest of her body pressed against his back.

Something felt oddly different though. She felt warmer if that was possible, and Jack was startled awake when Kat’s hand dipped low enough to start playing with his cock.

The sudden movement caused him to jerk and he turned around to find her wearing a playful look.

“What are you doing?” he whispered as she continued to play with him.

Kat grinned. “I would have thought that was obvious by now, my love.”

Jack looked over to see the bassinet was empty. “Where’s John?”

Her wandering hands continued to tease him. “Vera told me she’d watch him for the night. She wanted to give us a little privacy, and I gladly took her up on the offer. I figured we could have a little fun.”

Even still, he was tempted to block her hand. “Don’t get me all wound up. It’s not like we can have sex right now.”

That was technically true. It still hadn’t been a full six weeks since John was born and Kat wasn’t yet cleared for sex. Jack still had Abigail for that kind of need but it made things especially difficult since he couldn’t be intimate with Kat just yet.

Instead of stopping, Kat started to stroke him with a tighter grip. His body started to respond and Jack felt blood rushing south.

“We only have a week more to wait,” whispered Kat. “And then we can have sex again.”

“I’m not going to be hard for a week while we wait,” replied Jack. “Unless your idea is for me to stick it in Abigail while she sleeps!”

Kat started to giggle. “It’s a good idea but I was thinking something a little different tonight. Just because you can’t be inside my pussy doesn’t mean you can’t be in my body, Jack.”

With those words, Kat started to slide lower on his body, kissing her way forward. She took much of the blanket with her, not stopping until she reached the waistband on his shorts. They were already prominently tented and in one smooth motion, she freed his cock to reveal his full hardness.

Kat licked her lips as she looked at his full erection for the first time in months.

He nearly came as her hand gripped his bare skin. “You have no idea how much I missed you.”

Jack looked down at her. “It looks like he missed you quite a bunch too.”

“I think I like him even better now,” she replied.

“Why’s that?”

Kat smiled. “Because he gave us our baby. I’ll always be in his debt for that.”

Jack started to chuckle but that quickly ended when Kat started to stroke him more vigorously. She wasted little time in using her hands, and soon enough she popped the tip into her mouth.

Jack groaned as soon as he felt the wet suction of her mouth. Kat took her time, lathering the tip with affection before sliding down even further. Beside them, Abigail didn’t so much as stir at the slight shaking of the bed and the slurping sounds.

“Do you think we should wake her?” he asked, gesturing to the sleeping brunette.

Kat used her free hand to gently poke at Abigail. “Abigail, time to wake up.” She repeated the gesture a couple more times but it soon became apparent that Abigail was in a deep sleep.

Kat shrugged and went back to his cock. “It’s not like we didn’t try!”

Jack couldn’t fault the logic, especially as she started to pay more serious attention to sucking him. No longer obsessed with the tip, Kat’s lips began to slide lower and lower until she was taking a good portion of his cock inside her mouth.

The feeling was pure bliss. Kat always seemed to know how to put just the right amount of pressure to make it a pleasurable experience and this time was no different. She varied the amount of suction as well, applying differing amounts to different parts of his shaft.

It was all too overwhelming. The tipping point for Jack was when she settled her eyes on him. Seeing those beautiful sky-blue eyes look back at him while half his cock was down her throat sent him crashing over the edge.

With barely any warning, Jack began to spew a heavy amount of cum into her mouth. Kat took her time, swallowing what she could before having to unlatch to catch her breath. She didn’t stay away for long, and once she’d recovered, she went back to take the last few drops from his shaft.

Completely satisfied with herself, Kat kissed her way back up his body and settled in against his side.

“We haven’t done that in so long,” she said with a giggle as her hand settled against his stomach.

“No, but we need to do that more often,” said a still breathless Jack.

Kat continued to laugh softly. “I need to ask Vera to step in more often. Especially next week after the six weeks are finally up.”

Despite having just came, Jack felt his cock lurch at the thought of being inside Kat again. “We’ll bring on a dedicated nanny if it gives me enough alone time for that. I don’t care what it takes.”

She raised her head to look at him. “I can’t wait for that day too. And who knows? Maybe it might even be in the Castle at Kalmar when it happens?”

Jack didn’t reply to that statement directly. In a week’s time, could everything be different? Or would it still find them here outside the city?

As it turned out, Jack’s forces received another lucky break that next morning when Lindy brought news of the arrival of another defecting colonel. This new arrival was bringing with him his entire regiment, something that would surely bolster Jack’s forces before the final engagement.

“How did you find out about him?” Jack asked Lindy as they marched across the camp to meet the defecting colonel. “How did he get word to you?”

“Last night, one of my pickets found a man that was heading toward our lines while making no effort to conceal himself. He stopped when questioned and announced his regiment and his commanding officer, a name which I instantly recognized. Our men thought it might be a trap and asked that the commanding officer present himself to our camp in the morning with just a small guard as a gesture of good faith, which appears to be exactly what he’s done.”

“Does it sound like a trick to you?” asked Jack.

Lindy shook his head. “From Oliver? Not a chance. He’s a good officer but he’s nowhere devious enough to craft up a plan like that on his own. I figured I’d give him the benefit of the doubt at very least and I’d say this offer is genuine. Let’s hear him out though first, no?”

That answer was good enough for Jack and they made their way to the outskirts of camp where a broad tent had been set up to receive their visitor. Jack and Lindy were amongst the last to arrive, finding the room full of Galician soldiers from both sides. In the center of the room was a middle-aged colonel, and his eyes sparked with recognition on seeing Lindy.

“Lindy, how good to see you again!” exclaimed the colonel as he closed the distance between the two of them.

Lindy had no hesitations and embraced the man as he would a brother. “And you as well, Oliver. Crazy times we found ourselves in.”

The colonel now known as Oliver rolled his eyes. “You couldn’t be closer to the truth. We have much to discuss but first, I must know if this man right here is truly the person that’s started this whole conflict.” Oliver’s eyes settled on Jack finally as if appraising whether Jack could truly be capable of such feats.

“Indeed it is,” confirmed Lindy as his hand swept out toward Jack. “Colonel Oliver West, I’d like you to meet our king, Jack Kincardine.”

As was usual with the Galician people, Oliver bowed before Jack. “Your Majesty, I’m at your service. I didn’t believe the rumors at first however the evidence of your return has been too great to ignore. Finally, I couldn’t deny it any longer.”

Jack nodded in appreciation. “We’re glad to have you here, Oliver. Lindy tells me you wish to bring your entire regiment over to our side, and for that, you have my appreciation. It’s one less regiment that belongs to Eric Rosdahl.”

Oliver scowled at the mention of the Regent’s name. “I apologize for my growl, Your Majesty, but the Regent doesn’t have many friends left at this stage of the conflict. Things are getting difficult on that side.”

“What do you mean by difficult?” asked Jack.

“Honesty, I think he’s become completely unhinged,” said Oliver. “Don’t get me wrong, he was never entirely straight in the head, but he’s lost what remaining sense he has. He was fit for a straitjacket after the Kalmar Task Force deserted to your side.”

A small smile filled Jack’s face. “I quite imagine that upset him very much.”

“Upset him? He was ranting and raving for hours,” replied Oliver in an animated tone. “He rounded up the entire Admiralty here in Kalmar, at least those he could get his hands on. They’ve all been imprisoned because he believes they’re all traitors. That’s not to say what he would do to any of the remaining officers with you if he could get his hands on them.”

“He has no one to blame for it but himself,” said Jack. “He could have chosen to work with me instead of against me. It was his hand that caused this path and his hand alone.”

Oliver nodded. “Many of the men sympathize with your cause. More would do so had they not had their salary increased by Eric Rosdahl when you landed. He’s tripled the going rate for soldiers. If he can’t have their love on his own, then he’s not opposed to buying it.”

“Tripled it?” said Lindy incredulously. “Don’t let the men hear that. They might get ideas!”

“Not to mention what it would do to the Galician treasury,” said Jack, thinking longer term. “It would drain it fast, and even if we recovered Kalmar, we might be looking at the rest of this war through the lenses of empty coffers. Not a great position.”

“Another reason we need to end the siege quickly,” added Lindy before he turned to look at Oliver. “What’s the city look like? Are they really ready to defend it against us?”

Oliver nodded emphatically. “Like you wouldn’t believe. Rosdahl even has construction crews leveling buildings now to put obstacles in your path. He is obsessed with making the city impregnable and making you suffer more casualties than you’re willing to tolerate. But that’s not the worst part of it all.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “No? Then what is? What else is Eric Rosdahl up to?”

Oliver took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to be the one to say this but this is what we’ve come to. The Regent is now training units of sacrificial soldiers to attack your positions. He’s giving them grenades and training them not to use them until they can take out as many of your men as they can. He’s gone absolutely insane!”

“My men won’t follow that order!”

“Your men will do what I command them to do or I’ll find myself another general!”

The dueling words cut sharply across the room of the Galician Castle as Eric Rosdahl stared down his leading general. Despite being the commander of his army, the newly-promoted General Burke wasn’t an impressive figure, at least when compared to the former commander, the traitor Arthur Chapman.

No, Burke didn’t have half of Chapman’s resolve nor a tenth of his talent, but today of all days, Burke seemed to be willing to dig in his heels with the latest of Eric’s commands.

“Your Highness, there isn’t a force in existence that uses suicide attacks as a method of war any longer,” argued Burke, by now highly irritated at combating this same line from his regent. “Even the Andalucians no longer do it, which is saying something!”

“Well, maybe they would if their very existence was at stake,” shot back Eric. “Desperate times, General. We have a huge threat in front of us and every man needs to do his duty for Galicia!”

“My men will do their duty by fighting. It’s our job to make the other side die,” argued Burke.

“Death will find every man some day,” replied Eric. “And the best thing a man can do is to die for his country, no? Why can’t your men die for Galicia?”

Burke didn’t immediately respond to that statement, something that Eric counted as a win. There was no way that Burke could seriously contest it without sounding like a coward, something that he no doubt recognized. Even still, he wasn’t likely to give in on the main issue.

“My colonels put the well-being of their men very high,” said Burke, changing his tactic. “They will not ask them to consider suicidal charges just because you’ve ordered it.”

“Again, colonels can be replaced, as well as generals,” said Eric sourly. “It’s not your job to argue this point before me. Your job is to follow orders. It’s why I promoted you to be the general in charge of Kalmar, and you’re going to follow my orders one way or another. You can just as easily go back to being a colonel too.”

Burke opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Eric couldn’t help but smirk at seeing the final victory playing out before him. Thankfully, Burke knew his place in the hierarchy, and a simple reminder of how easily he could be replaced kept him from disruption.

Eric was determined that the general wouldn’t contest the issue any further. “You’re dismissed, Burke. Go defend my city.”

With heavy footsteps, Burke left the room a defeated man. Eric was pleased that he’d gotten his way but he still wanted to remind Burke how easy he had it.

After all, it’s not like Eric had asked Burke to be the one to sacrifice himself for his rule.

At least not yet.

With the general now gone, Eric turned his attention toward the rest of the room. He dared not look out the balcony of the Castle, where even at this distance, he could see the silhouettes of his defected ships and even part of the camp of the rebels.

No, instead, he’d rather think about happier times. Eric found himself looking up at the walls of the room itself, where various heads of big game animals adorned the otherwise barren room. He saw several prized bucks, two elk and even a bear—reminders of his favorite hobby and proof of his skill.

How he wished he could take his rifle deep into the Galician forest right now and wait out a stunning and majestic elk to add to his collection. He knew it was one act that would truly calm his tattered nerves and bring him some peace, something that was sorely needed right now.

Unfortunately, the universe seemed to be willing to add insult to injury to his situation right now. That was all the more demonstrated when Magnus entered the room and caught him staring at his trophies with a dreamy expression.

“It’s too bad we can’t leave the city right now,” said Magnus, stating the obvious ever since the rebel army landed. “Hunting would do you some good.”

Eric resisted the urge to slap the man but he certainly jumped down his throat. “Don’t you think I know that, you idiot! I know we can’t leave the fucking city!”

Magnus recoiled in fright and left the room but not before he took what remained of Eric’s mood with him. Positively fuming, Eric found himself stomping out of his trophy room and moving through the Castle, muttering obscenities under his breath as he moved.

Everyone was disappointing him. The level of failure in his underlings was absolutely astounding, and at times, Eric doubted whether he could really hold the city against determined resistance, suicide attacks or not.

The fact of the matter was that he needed an escape plan. He needed a way to escape Jack Easterbrook should the city not hold, but to that end, he was determined that if he didn’t hold Kalmar, then no one would.

To that end, a last secretive plan was hatched in the event he had to leave the city. It was secretive because only those in the upper echelons of his guard knew the full details, and they were at this very moment going about their tasks in bringing it to life.

Eric traveled through the Castle until he reached the lower levels, where the natural light from the outside was cut off after being so deep in the bedrock. Down here, Eric walked past the guarded entrance to a former storage room where he could view the operation in action.

At this very moment, the men of his guard were hard at work making the compound. It was a simple enough recipe, but the most important ingredient was one that Eric couldn’t even pronounce but he was told it was incendiary in nature. That seemed to be confirmed when he watched a demonstration the night before, which showed the compound ignite entirely after introducing a simple spark.

Eric had been impressed enough with the demonstration to order mass production, at least enough to use in strategic spots all around Kalmar.

For that was the final plan should the fall of the city seem inevitable. Eric would escape from the city with the help of his guard, carving out a path from the resistance while those dedicated members of the force would ignite the compounds scattered through the city.

He would burn the ancient city to the ground rather than hand it over to Jack Easterbrook. He would rather see it reduced to ashes alongside the forces of the king. And the common citizens of Kalmar? They could perish too if they were going to let the city fall to some outsider.

If anything the calamity of the blaze would allow him to sneak away from Kalmar with the city’s treasury and continue the fight for control of Galicia.

“How’s it coming down here?” he asked the guard in charge, who was right now overseeing the creation of the compound. “Are we on target with production?”

“On target and ahead of schedule,” answered the guard briskly. “I had another wagon load taken out twenty minutes earlier, bound for a mid-level target in the city.”

“Excellent,” replied Eric while clasping his hands together fiendishly. “Keep up your pace. I want a report before the end of tomorrow that most of this has been distributed to the city. I doubt it will take long before the rebels start attacking.”

“At once, sir. Of course.”

Finally, Eric had something to smile about. Thoughts of Kalmar engulfed in flames were almost enough to reconcile his recent failures.

Almost.

The next morning, Jack, Greg, and Art sat in an outdoor tent as they went over a map of Kalmar and its immediate environs. It was still cool for the time of morning and a light rain had just finished, leaving all the tents soaked with the aftermath.

The three men were once again discussing strategy but there was a chair that was noticeably empty—the one that belonged to Lindy—who was running late.

“It should surprise no one that using the fleet to take the city is out of the question,” said Jack as he gestured to the sea next to Kalmar. “I want to take the city as it is, not destroy it.”

“Not to mention we’d see civilian casualties in the thousands if it came to that,” said Art. “There’d be no quicker way to sour the people on receiving their king back.”

“Which is why I won’t even do it as a last resort,” confirmed Jack. “So whatever we come up with today will have work. And frankly, I’m leaning toward a siege rather than an assault.”

“A siege is probably our best option,” said Greg. “But we run the risk of creating misery within the city even there. Starving people aren’t happy people.”

“No, but at least they’ll be alive,” said Jack. “Which is more than we can say for the city if we bombard it. It’ll also create enormous pressure on the populace against Rosdahl to concede. They may even be able to force him to capitulate.”

“The only risk we run there is that there are more Galician Army forces out there, Jack,” said Art. “If we don’t wrap up the siege quickly, they could come to the city’s rescue. And it can take a long time for a city to exhaust its food supply in the process. We don’t have weeks to work with here.”

Art had a great point, and this was further illustrated when Lindy finally arrived at the meeting. He brought with him an out-of-breath Dustin, who had just gotten back from aerial reconnaissance judging by his attire. It wasn’t uncommon to see the two men together these days, as they’d struck a firm friendship ever since the two forces were joined.

“There you are, Lindy,” said Jack as he eyed the Galician colonel before finally looking at Dustin. “What’s going on?”

“Go on, tell him what you told me,” said Lindy as he gestured to Dustin.

“Jack, we have a problem,” said Dustin as his arm gestured to the south. “We have enemy movements to the south of here. Lots of them too, coming north to Kalmar just as fast as they can manage.”

“How fast?” asked an alarmed Jack. “Are they Galician Army?”

Dustin nodded. “Appeared that way. Who else would be out here after all? There’s a large host coming this way. My guess is probably in the neighborhood of ten thousand. I managed to fly near enough to them to get their direction and relative speed but I’m not sure if they saw me. The clouds this morning let me hide relatively well.”

“Rosdahl is bringing in more forces to crush us,” said Art. “He’s bringing in more regiments from the south to relieve his forces inside the city.”

“Very likely,” said Dustin. “And judging by their speed, I’d say they’ll be here in about a week’s time.”

“You’re sure about their direction?” asked Jack. “They’re definitely coming to Kalmar?”

Dustin nodded. “No doubt about it, Jack. They looked to be in a hurry.”

Dustin was able to give them a few more details but instead of leaving when he was finished, he was invited to sit with the rest of them as they discussed strategy.

“So much for a long siege then,” said Greg as he broke the silence afterward. “We only have a week to work with here. Even if they had nothing in the way of food stores, they’d get here long before the city went seriously hungry.”

Art agreed with him. “It almost puts an assault back on the table as the most likely course, with the navy as we agreed, but then again, it would make things that much harder.”

“It definitely makes it harder,” said Jack, still deep in thought. “But what other options do we have?”

“Are we even sure they would contest our control of the city?” asked Lindy. “Maybe they’re coming our way to join us? All we know is that they are trying to reach Kalmar as quickly as possible. It’s entirely logical that they could be coming to oppose Rosdahl just as easily as they could join him.”

That comment made everyone stop for a moment to think. Lindy was correct, and with the amount of defections that had come from the Galician side, it wasn’t an out of the ordinary thing to suggest.

“The only problem I have with that is that we can’t exactly ask them who they intend to fight for,” said Jack. “And until we have confirmation that they’re coming to our side, we need to treat them as an enemy force for our own protection.”

“So we’re back at step one then,” said Art finally. “Outnumbered in enemy territory with an impossible deadline. How do we proceed, gentlemen?”

No one seemed to want to answer that question directly. Everyone knew what had to be done as a likely first step but seeing as any potential step two was equally vexing meant a true stalemate in terms of strategy.