What would the Prodigy have done in this mess?
As much as Stella knew, Konrad didn't fight on the frontlines, either.
He would not use his magic until he had to face the enemy shamans or the Green Mage.
But he won. Big. And he took thousands of prisoners without losing any of his men.
At least that was all his soldiers talked about until now. So what was the secret?
"Do we have so few arrows left?" Stella asked, grasping at straws. "Did the previous battles already deplete our supplies?" Then it wouldn't be her fault, right?
She couldn't help but wring her hands as another volley took out a few nomadic spearmen.
That was the tenth.
Fourteen more, then the pressure on the shieldwall would mount even higher.
They got pushed back step by step. Everyone was alive, but tired and wounded, and—
Any more life essence she'd send their way, they would no longer count as human.
"Oh, we have plenty," Welf claimed, squeezing her shoulder. "Remember those slaves Konrad rescued? Half of them earn their bread by helping out the fletchers in Halaima now."
She was too quick to reach the wrong conclusion again.
Well, she had to be quick if she didn't want to argue with he voices all the time.
She still wasn't used to them being this quiet. But slaves? Rescue?
Was the Prodigy going around gathering his forces while she wasn't looking? Stella had no idea. But then again, until now, she was too busy trying to tame the spirits and herself.
"Then why didn't they bring more?!" Not the question she wanted to ask, but—
How else could she hold back the enemy without revealing her curse?
"It's tiring to fire volley after volley all day," the blacksmith said, scratching his head. "Holding a shield in the front row isn't the only tough job on the battlefield."
The moment he let go of her shoulders, dread and cold seeped into her body.
"These recurves are stronger than anything we had before," Bor added. "It'll take time to adapt."
Whether he bragged or complained, she couldn't tell.
"Once they go through the two dozen arrows, they need to rest. Or these hunters couldn't hit the side of a barn. And while we have plenty more, wasting ammunition would be—"
"Sure, but if we can't rotate our men," Stella argued. "Or at least keep theirs under fire—"
She let her voice trail off. Exhaustion was another thing she never considered.
A zombie army wouldn't get tired.
They'd fight until the last of them falls, but these were people. Human. She spent her life working against them, not with them. She executed commands, but to give her own?
And once she raised a single undead, the Church would be all over them.
Rather than saving this country, she'd plunge it into darkness.
Those bastards—she had no better word for her former masters—only cared about themselves.
Was a temple at risk? They'd rally thousands of paladins and hire mercenaries.
But to defend the borders? Intervening in wars was below the clergy.
Even if these nomads didn't pray for the saints—
"Don't worry, they'll have to eat soon," Welf pointed out.
It came so out of the blue that Stella could only blink.
"On the battlefield?!" she asked, trying to make sense of his claim.
"Anywhere," the redhead grinned. "They're no undead. They're tired and hungry like we are."
A shiver ran down her spine, thinking he might've read her mind.
His sister could, for sure, but this brute of a man?
No, but—he was there when she raised those zombies in Halaima. He fought them.
He knew of her curse and still held her shoulders until a moment ago.
"Konrad built solid logistics," Welf continued before she could lose herself in thoughts. "Eyna can keep that up even in her sleep. The nomads? They have to haul everything from afar."
And yet another thing she had no idea about.
But rather than feeling overconfident and ashamed again, it piqued her interest.
"Can we raid their supplies?!" she asked, eyes bright despite the battle still raging below.
"That's what my men've been doing," the blacksmith-turned-scout leader grinned. "Finding the enemy is only part of the job. I got reports of two destroyed convoys only this morning."
A sliver of hope.
"But if they lead the nomads back to the hidden trails, we'll be fu—"
"Come on, Bor," Welf interrupted the lieutenant. "They used to be your men. Trust them more."
"Hidden trails?!" Stella's eyes widened.
"We don't have the men to spare for a flanking maneuver," Bor said right away to clarify.
She didn't need any for what she had in mind, though.
While rare, zombies did appear in the wild now and then.
If she could send a few from behind, nobody would know it was her doing—
"And while they fight, we can't reorganise, either," the blacksmith noted. Was she so easy to read? He didn't spell it out, but looking at the spearmen below, it was obvious.
It was as if he told her they can't extract the corpses to give Stella the fodder she needed.
For a brute of his size, Welf was smart. Too smart. It scared her.
But it didn't have to be a human corpse. In fact, a monster would have been even better.
"Are there any—"
"Reinforcements," a messenger yelled, appearing behind them on the barracks' roof.
This time, it wasn't only Stella who turned with wide eyes.
"Ours or theirs?" Bor demanded before the runner could even speak. Like Welf earlier, he seemed to be out of breath, but his news could have been the difference between life—
"Twenty knights," the man—or more like a boy—panted. "Lady Helena returned."
They all deflated at the same time.
It was theirs, but only twenty?
Would that be enough to flank an enemy force this size?
"She's back already?" Welf asked, his face matching his hair color more than usual.
"Did they bring their lances?" Kade perked up, too. "Twenty knights could charge into the footmen and push them back enough to break their morale—"
"Even if they did, they'd be back tomorrow," Bor grunted, the least enthusiastic of the three.
"Um, ser," the boy muttered, unsure how to interrupt them. "She's asking about Lord Nimrod."
That was all it took for Welf's face to lose its color.
"Hmpf, sure," he grunted. "Why would she worry about me, when we have that stupid guy?"
Was that jealousy? For Konrad's twin?!
Stella didn't understand, but—she had already forgotten about the shaman. And she was the one bringing him here. Hold on. Why bother with corpses or monsters when they had him?
"Please, tell Lady Helena von Kasserlane that we have Nimrod Erwinsson," she said.
Her tone must have alarmed the others, because all three lieutenants stared at her.
"If she wishes to talk to him, she'd better hurry," Stella continued, her lips twisting into a grin. While she didn't remember her own duel with him, she knew of his talents.
Summoning a golem?
That was much better than risking an undead monster. They didn't have to go hunting, and could even say that it was another one of Konrad's miracles.
"He'll go for a daring flanking maneuver soon," she said. "We can only hope it all goes well."