Wartorn: Resurrection Read Free Page B

would be the ones most likely to notice the changes in the "Lord Weisel" they had known for years.
    Even now, after only three campaigns, Dardas was overhearing murmured comments, most of them expressing pleasant surprise as to how effective a battle leader the previously discounted Lord Weisel was proving to be. Apparently there had been no small measure of protest and concern when Matokin had named Lord Weisel as the commander of the army.
    It seemed Weisel, who affected pretenses of military aptitude, was traditionally indecisive and easily confused. The critics were pleased to admit the error of their misgivings, however, as the army was now functioning with superb efficiency.
    Weisel was one of the few Felk lords who was
not
also a mage. Matokin had otherwise surrounded himself with wizards.
    Dardas himself took little pride in his successes to date, however. The campaigns had been simplicity itself, child's play to one of his expertise and experience. In his former life, he had driven an army nearly across the width of the Northern Continent and, evidently, into historical legend. He had outmaneuvered, outdesigned, and crushed his enemies. Those had been
real
campaigns. He had also waged them without the help of magicians.
    He was unaware of exactly how Matokin had originally gained control of the city-state of Felk. He had not been summoned back to life until the mage had settled on his grand plan, which was to unite all me city-states of the Isthmus under his rule.
    At that point, Matokin had evidently realized that he needed someone with more military knowledge than was available to him to organize and lead the army, and had settled on Dardas as the most likely candidate. Dardas the Conqueror. Dardas the Invincible. Dardas the Fox. Dardas the Butcher. In his day, depending on who spoke, his name was said in awe, respect, fear, or loathing, but none would contest his devastating effectiveness in the field.
    Of course, if Matokin had researched Dardas a bit more closely than simply reviewing his legendary string of victories, he might have thought twice about his choice.
    The first campaign in this current war had been to overthrow Felk's neighboring state of Callah. There was no great challenge there for Dardas, as mere had been no open hostilities between the two city-states beyond border dispute skirmishes for many tenwinters. Callah was totally unprepared for an attack of the magnitude that Dardas had leveled at it, and fell in less than a quarter-lune.
    The second campaign, against Windal, was even easier. Windal had failed to see the forces of Felk as a threat, assuming that die battle between Felk and Callah had been nothing but a personal dispute between the city-states' respective leaders. As such, they neglected to make any decent preparations, and when confronted by Dardas's army, now swollen by the assimilation of the surviving Callahan troops, they fell within a matter of days.
    An even battle when one side was unprepared, and an-other when his forces outnumbered his opponents by nearly two to one. Nothing noteworthy there. Certainly nothing requiring a general of Dardas's unique talents. Any competent field commander could have managed as well. Of course, it was just as well that Matokin hadn't realized that, or Dardas likely would not be enjoying his second chance at life.
    Of course, things should get a bit more interesting now, particularly with the annihilation of Udelph. The Isthmus's remaining city-states stretching to the south would no longer assume their own safety was guaranteed or that their usual defenses would suffice, since they were likely adequate only to repel skirmish-like onslaughts. Dardas was curious to see what his future enemies would come up with to try to halt him.
    No, armies didn't change much, and so it didn't ultimately matter mat he was leading these Felk, and not his own people. It didn't matter that this was die Isthmus, not Northland, though how puny a strip of land this