"The Draugar War: Opening Salvo"

Genre:	Fantasy
Length:	Novella
Summary:	This is a spinoff from my story, 'The Two Year Emperor'; High Marshal Albrecht Löfgren arrives for a simple troop inspection, but ends up having to lie to High Command, pretend to kill several thousand legionnaires, and—oh yes—fight off the end of the world. Ah well, looks like it's Tuesday.

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Excerpt

"So, do you think these guys will be better or worse than the 9^th were?" Sstha asked with fatalistic amusement, glancing over at Kadja. The massive snakewoman was so tall her head was nearly level with Kadja's, despite the human woman being on horseback.
"Definitely worse," Kadja grumbled. "I've had reports of these guys running black market supplies to half a dozen different cities...and it's not even well concealed. Not only are they stupid enough to be selling off standard issue gear, but they aren't even good at hiding it." From her snort, it was unclear if she was more upset about the existence of the black marketeering or the poor quality of the black marketeering.
Albrecht smiled to himself; knowing Kadja, it was probably the poor quality. The young woman had grown up as a miner before coming to the capital and fighting her way into her current job as his aide de camp, spymistress, and overall commander of his personal guard. In that past life, she'd been known to get a bit...creative about procuring supplies. And about the concept of 'property ownership', at least when it came to other people's property. She was unlikely to balk at a little black marketeering.
"In fairness, they are garrison troops," Albrecht said. "I don't think 10^th Legion has been assigned outside the Pass in fifty years. And, according to the records, they haven't had an inspection in thirty, so things are probably pretty bad."
"You know parking them here was a mistake, Albrecht," Sstho growled. Unlike humans, snakepeople males were typically smaller than their females; where Sstha was eight feet of blocky muscle, Sstho was a foot shorter and greyhound-lean, with a tail that was longer and slimmer—a whip, not a club. He was also the grumpier of the two by far.
"Troops need to be rotated often," Sstho lectured. "Can't have them parked in one place for so long or they rot. They could have been sent down to the southern border, give them some time in the heat inside of constantly freezing their tails off in this ridiculous snowy hell." He looked up the trail to where the snow covered the mountaintops well above them, then sniffed in disgust.
Albrecht fought to suppress a grin; he'd been Sstho's teacher in military affairs and being lectured in his own words was...ironic. If he were talking to a human he would have said 'teach your grandmother to suck eggs, why don't you?', but that was very inappropriate when talking with an oviparous species.
"Hmm," he said instead, nodding and pursing his lips as though considering a great jewel of wisdom. "That's a good point, Major. I'm glad you brought it to my attention. Thank you."
"Idiot," Sstha said, rapping her brother on the head. The snakeman ducked away from her knuckles and glared at her.
"Speaking of troop rot," Kadja said, eager to head off the incipient sibling squabble, "shouldn't we be seeing some sentries by now?"
Albrecht frowned; now that actually was a good point. They'd been climbing the gentle slopes of Bear Mountain for two hours, and weren't more than twenty minutes from the Pass itself.
"Maybe they're having the skinwalkers do aerial reconnaissance?" Sstha suggested doubtfully. She scanned the sky carefully, but there were no birds in sight that could have been shapeshifted scouts.
"Ten marks says the lazy idiots are just lounging around playing dice," Sstho predicted.
"I'll take that bet," Albrecht said. "Cards is more likely." The snakeman glared at him and grumbled quietly.
Bjorn Halvarsson, the officer in direct command of Albrecht's personal guard company, came riding back a few minutes later. Bjorn was a Major, making him overranked for command of a reinforced company such as Albrecht's guard. More importantly, he was overranked to be riding around personally managing field operations; even after twenty years as an officer, he still couldn't lose the habits of being Command Sergeant Bjorn Halvarsson, senior drill instructor at the Union of Anundjå Military Academy. Albrecht had long ago given up chiding him about it, though; even if he was sometimes too hands-on, he did his job brilliantly.
Somehow, even after a two hour trail-ride up a dirt path, Bjorn's uniform was utterly pristine; even the creases were still razor-sharp. There was a discreet betting pool among the company as to whether Bjorn would manage to keep his uniform clean even in the swampy ground of the Pass; Albrecht had fifty marks on 'yes'. The amazing thing was that many of the bettors had had Bjorn discreetly scanned for magic over the years, and it had been conclusively shown that his uniform did not have a dirt-repelling charm.
"We finally met some sentries up ahead, High Marshal," Bjorn said, seeming disgusted. "They were playing cards on duty."
Without looking, Albrecht held his hand out to the right. Sstho looked disgusted, but dropped ten marks in his palm.
"How'd you know?" the snakeman grumbled.
"The Pass is half swamp and half gritty rock," Albrecht said. "Lousy terrain for rolling dice." Sstho shot him a disgusted look but said nothing further.
"When are you going to learn not to bet against him, little brother?" Sstha whispered. "You never win." Her brother glared at her and grumbled something under his breath.
"What was that, Major?" asked Albrecht with an air of casual interest.
"Nothing," Sstho grunted.
"Sounded like 'jerkass cheating officers'," Sstha said helpfully. "I'm sure that wasn't it, though. Very disrespectful; it would get him put on report."
Bjorn cleared his throat significantly. "High Marshal, the sentries...?"
Albrecht smiled and turned his attention back to his officer. "I assume you've detained them?"
Bjorn nodded crisply. "Yes, sir. They're being held by First Team. Second and Third Teams are spreading out to look for other scout posts, and I've held Fourth through Tenth just up ahead."
"Excellent," Albrecht said. "Thank you, Commander." As always, he had to suppress a smile at the punctillious military courtesy Bjorn insisted upon. Turning to his command group he nodded and swept an arm grandly forward. "Shall we? I'm sure that the Legion Commander will be delighted to see us. Let's not keep him waiting."
"How do you want to play it, sir?" Kadja asked.
Albrecht pursed his lips in thought for a moment, then nodded in decision. "I'd say full surprise inspection with plenty of shock and awe. Kadja, take Sstha and two teams; go roust the Legion Commander. Bjorn, take two teams and Sstho, you handle the auxiliaries. Send a team to inspect the defenses at the north end of the Pass and one to inspect the main camp once everyone is out. I'll keep the rest with me as a guard group and take up station on the east slope. Remember, shock and awe, people; we're playing by desert rules."
The orders were met with four sets of predatory grins; 'desert rules' meant they could be as vicious as they wanted. Desert rules were fun.

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