Crack!
Boom!
The shallow valley beyond lit up as bright as day for a moment and it revealed a telling tale. Massed columns of troops and flanking cavalry brigades were moving quickly through the wet night in the direction of Kingdom Pass. The Attorgrons had arrived.
What a different tale it would have been if they had been able to join the fight and had attacked us from the rear. As it was they had almost disrupted our retreat, which would have been disastrous for us. Renewed hope surged within me at how I saw the Creator's hand stretched out in divine providence on behalf of our cause. My optimism wasn't shared by the others though.
"What's the matter? Can you not see how the Creator is fighting for us?" I asked the assembled group of friends around me.
Rolf spoke up, "It's not that. The Creator is clearly at work on our behalf I can see that, but look at how many of them there are Roric! That army numbers more than our entire Valley Lander force put together and there not even the main body of the army! They still outnumber us by at least four to one! We have no tricks left to throw at them. How can we hope to defeat such a force as they still field in open battle?"
I decided to share more of the plan with them, "Your lack of faith does not become you Rolf. It is not so grim as you believe, as everything is not what it appears to be." I had their attention now, "The army you see before you is mostly a slave army. They number close to two hundred thousand men, but one hundred and fifty thousand of them are slave warriors. Only the cavalry are regular army and there the least experienced soldiers that the Attorgrons have. They were only sent along in order to keep the slave warriors in line and for appearance sake. The Attorgrons distrust the Zoarinians motives, as to what happens after they have jointly eliminated us. They kept their most loyal and best trained warriors behind to defend their cities in case the Zoarinians turn on them after their done with us. They view the slave army as expendable and unreliable, which their right in believing partially. My uncle was in contact with their slave leaders, when he found out about their inclusion in the battle plan, they reached an agreement of sorts. If we can make a convincing case for victory they will switch sides and join us in the fighting. After the fighting they have asked for and will receive refuge in the Valley Lands as free men and be given land of their own. After the war we will bring pressure on the Attorgrons to release the families of the warriors to them under the threat of invading them if they don't. But we have to make a compelling case that its worth throwing in with us or they won't join us and if that happens then yes things are likely to turn out very grim indeed."