Chapter 204: A Paranoid Man

Hans walked up next to Voss. He was still gripping the sword.

"General..." Hans whispered. He made sure Brandt was not close enough to hear. "You are full of horse manure. This mountain is angry. We should not be here."

Voss looked up at the peak again. The low rumbles were getting louder. Voss did not know if the mountain was going to fracture right now, or in three days.

He had zero control over the situation. But he was emotionally and entirely invested in getting his men home.

Dying in a sweeping pile of boiling alpine mud was definitely not on his to-do list for the week.

"Listen, Hans," Voss chuckled. He tried to ignore the heat from the falling gray ash. "That is why we are going to secure that fortress, get the pass locked down, and then get the out of this valley faster than a greased pig running from a butcher."

"A greased pig," Hans repeated. A smile finally broke through his dirty face. "I like that plan."

They began to walk up the snowy clearing. They followed behind the line of prisoners.

Though Voss was proud of his victory, the sight of his dead men made his stomach churn with a sense of failure.

They were supposed to be in control thanks to Konrad’s advanced weapons. But they were just men. They were freezing and breaking like everyone else.

Voss stopped and knelt next to the frozen body of the young Jaeger who had held onto the mace with frozen fingers. The boy’s eyes were still open, staring at the stormy sky.

"I am sorry, kid," Voss whispered. He reached down and closed the boy’s frozen eyelids. "You did not deserve to die in the ice. I will get your share of the silver to your mother, I promise."

They reached the top of the snowy slope and marched down the narrow rocky path between the tall pine trees.

The trees were still heavy with snow, but the gray ash was now covering the pristine white powder. The forest was eerily silent. The mountain rumbles were muffled by the heavy trees.

Reischach’s rebel mercenaries were marching in silence. Their heads were bowed.

One of the rebel leaders, a tall Austrian knight with a scarred nose, looked over at Voss as they marched.

He looked at the Jaegers with their charcoal uniforms and iron rifles, then he looked back at the burning, impassable gorge.

The rebel leader stopped marching. He forced the Swabian guards to push him. He looked directly at Voss. His face was full of pure confusion.

"You did it, General Voss," the scarred rebel said. His voice was rough. "You used your Swabian fire to blow up the entire mountain trail."

The prisoner asked Voss again, "But General... if you blew up the only road through the peaks just to bury the Spanish... how will any of us return to our homes? The pass is blocked."

Hans and Brandt both stopped walking. They had been so focused on the victory, the explosion, and the mountain, that they had not stopped to process the most basic logistical reality of their situation.

Four thousand Swabian soldiers. Five thousand prisoners. Thousands of women and children in the fortress. And not a single open road was left out of the freezing valley.

Voss looked at the scarred Austrian knight. And then, he threw his head back and laughed. "You think I blew up my only road home just for a flashy trick without having a backup plan? Have a little faith!"

Hans blinked. He lowered his stolen sword slightly. "You... you have a backup plan? Because right now, I am looking at a burning rockslide and an angry mountain, and I do not see any hidden trails in the snow."

"Of course I have a plan!" Voss grinned. He held up one finger. "First of all, look at the gorge. Yes, I vaporized our three traction engines and blew a huge crater into the Spanish host. But the explosion only collapsed the narrowest part of the trail. The boulders are heavy, but they are not glued together."

"We have an entire forest of tall pine trees right here," Voss pointed around them. "We have thousands of strong men. When the fire on the rocks dies down, we simply drag the timber to the crater. We cut down some trees, build wooden bridges over the gaps, use steel levers to move the boulders, and boom! We have enough space to march home!"

"Okay," Brandt nodded slowly. The color finally returned to his cheeks. "Clearing the rocks is a solid strategy. But what if the damage is too severe? What if the gorge is wholly collapsed?"

"Then we move to the second plan," Voss smiled. He held up a second finger. "We brought forty carrier pigeons with us. They are sitting safely in their warm cages back at our lower supply camp. I just need to write a tiny note saying, ’Hey Konrad, I secured the mountain pass, but I blew up my artillery to kill ten thousand Spaniards. Send the engineers.’ We attach it to a bird, and it flies straight back to Augsburg in a few days!"

Hans let out a sigh. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Thank the Maker for those noisy birds."

"And even if the pigeons freeze in the sky," Voss continued. He held up a third finger to the crowd of listening prisoners. "King Konrad is a paranoid man. We are his elite vanguard. If his expensive rifles just vanish into the ice and he does not hear from us for a few weeks, he will not just sit there. One way or another, the Swabian army is coming back to this valley with shovels."

Though the Jaegers and the prisoners felt a wave of relief wash over them, Brandt was still doing the hard math in his head.

"General," Brandt said quietly. He stepped closer so the prisoners would not hear his concern. "Clearing a mountain pass with crude tools will take a long time. Sending a pigeon takes days, and waiting for Konrad to gather a royal engineering corps and march across Bavaria will take even longer. We are not leaving tomorrow."

"Yeah," Voss muttered. He kicked a rock into the snow. "That will take some time. We might be stuck here for a few weeks. Maybe a month if the winter storms hit the peaks."

"A month?" Hans groaned loudly. He threw his hands into the air. "I am going to turn into a block of ice, General. You promised me a quick campaign!"

"Stop whining," Voss laughed. He shoved Hans forward to get the march moving again. "We just conquered a fortress, did we not?"

"We will just sleep in the Baron’s warm feather bed until Konrad picks us up. Now keep moving!"

Afterward, the line of people continued their march through the forest...