Herald of Steel

Lord Parker once again visibly frowned upon hearing General Achillas's suggestion.

"How do you suppose we send a spy in? And how do you suppose Linda escapes on her own?" The lord quickly chewed out, the tone harsh and dry, clearly showing he was not a fan of this idea.

And neither was really Achillas.

Which was also exactly why he made it.

He of course knew that if they could have done such a thing, they most likely would have tried it already. So given that they had not, well that means this was not feasible.

With his attack, Alxx had put the mansion under lock and key from the inside, while Lord Parker in retaliation also put it under siege from the outside, thus inadvertently resulting in no one being able to leave or enter the premises.

Of course, there might be some obscure hidden ways to enter and exit the place, as there was no way Alxx would be able to keep an eye on every inch of the captured grounds given the enormous size of the area, but that did not also really matter in the long run.

All the important 'nodes', such as the main entrances to the mansion, granaries, stables, servants' quartes, and most significantly all, the vital 'prisoners' were under heavy supervision.

So even if a spy did manage to sneak into the grounds, he would not have even a ghost of a chance of getting to meet his intended target.

This means there would be little point in sending him in the first place.

And for General Achillas, who was mostly aware of such restrictions that was kind of the point.

To show Lord Parker that although they were trying their level best, there was no way to inform Miss Linda to escape or any chance of her fleeing on her own.

In that way, he could keep hanging Lord Bernard's plan in limbo and stall indefinitely, using the mother and son's lives as a convenient excuse.

However, although this was the ultimate plan, the general outwardly appeared very ruminative, stroking the beard on his cheeks as he often liked to do as he pondered.

And soon he managed to come up with an answer that might placate his lord.

Thus turning his stocky head around, he posed, "How about this my lord?"

"We can have one of our men row out in a small boat from the Great Harbor sea in the middle of the night. Normally, he would be detected, but this time we are in luck. We can use the fog that settles in every night as a cover to sneakily approach the Royal Harbor."

At this point, Achillas paused, his eyes flashing a cunning light, as he went to reveal the depth of his consideration,

"Now docking there might be challenging given Alxx has likely strengthened his guard there. So I propose that once he gets close enough, our man jumps the boat and swims to shore, wearing something like a waterproof leather coat to shield himself from the freezing waters."

"Then once on land, he can quickly discard the heavy coat into the water and change into a typical servant's outfit."

"With this new identity, he will be easily able to sneak into the mansion. And after all that, he will just need a bit of luck, and he will be able to get an audience with my lady. Viola!"

As Achillas finished, he had a very pleased tone to his voice, his eyes sparkling.

To be frank, even he did not think he would be able to come up with something so sublime so quickly.

And thus hearing it, Lord Parker was forced to contemplate it.

On the surface, it sounded quite good and certainly feasible.

But as the young lord shifted through all the bling and shiny junk to try and find the concrete ground on which Achillas's scheme rested, he soon found numerous flaws hidden within.

Small, micro flaws, which were not a big deal in itself, but when added together became enormous, to the point it threatened to collapse the whole proposal.

Flaws such as how was the spy they would send supposed to navigate the waters when the entire surrounding would be, according to their own plan be blanketed by impenetrable fog.

Sure, with the fog, the legionaries around the docks would not be able to see the spy approaching, and thus be unable to raise the alarm.

But in the same vein, the man also would not be able to see where he was going.

Which then naturally gave rise to the next query- how was he going to know he was close enough to abandon his boat and start swimming?

Sure he might try to navigate by using the bright lights coming from the mansion, but the mansion and docks were quite a distance away.

So if he did that, without any way to judge the distance, the whole thing would be a shipwreck waiting to happen.

And even if two side by side miracles were to occur, the spy would hardly be out of the water yet, pardon the pun.

Because after getting overboard, his sloshing around in the water in the dead of night would be very likely to be heard by the guarding men, as winter nights tended to be very silent, almost pin-drop silent.

People generally avoided going out at night all year round, and this would reach extreme heights due to the bitter cold, as well as the prevalence of hungry beasts on the hunt for any prey, as their food supply became somewhat dried up in this time period, with most critters choosing to stakeout the chilly months in hibernation and in well in dug nests.

Thus sometimes the nights would be so silent that people could even scare themselves by the sound of their own footsteps as they walked.

All of which meant that if a grown man were to swim quickly in the water, the splashing sound would very likely alert any sharp eared men nearby.

But let's say he can even avoid getting caught here.

For example- the man chosen for the task was the best swimmer in the world and hence could silently drift with the waves, using only his body to slowly propel forward, thus managing to stealthily land on the beach.

Even if all that were to successfully happen, well that would only be the end of the first part of his mission.

The second and arguably much more daunting tasks would still remain.

The first of these would be disposing of the coat.

Yes, even this mundane piece of garment would pose a troublesome problem.

Because throwing it into the water would risk having it float back to the shore by the ebbs and tides of the waves, and if they were unlucky, it could perhaps even catch the eye of an observant guard.

Which could then easily start a manhunt.

So the more prudent option would be most likely to bury it, but that would require time and effort, thus increasing the risk of detection by any nearby patrol.

And speaking of patrol, that would be the second problem the spy would face on land, as he would have to learn to avoid them.

And learn to avoid them almost blind, both literally as depending on the intensity of the fog that day, the man even might not be able to see the legionaries coming, as well as figuratively, as he would not know their regular routes beforehand.

And if somehow caught, it would be highly unlikely that the man could talk his out of the pickle.

Sure he might have the dress of a servant, but such a well built man, fit man would hardly look like one.

And even if he did, how would he explain his presence there?

Alxx had put a total curfew on the place at night and a mere servant would have never dared to break it.

Especially not when he was so far away from the mansion, and so uncomfortably close to the docks.

Thus if that were to happen, the man would surely be immediately questioned on suspicions of being a spy and then have his body searched for evidence.

This would be a disaster for Lord Parker, as then it would not take long for Alxx to discover the letter.

This letter would also not be able to be hidden too well because it would need to be properly waterproofed.

And although waxing it might work, ideally it would need to be put in a waterproof pouch to guarantee its intact survival.

And where were you going to hide a large pouch so that it wouldn't be detected by a group of men who might as well strip search you?

The answer is most likely- Nowhere.

And even if the man could miraculously avoid all these obstacles and successfully infiltrate the mansions, well there still remained the tiny inconvenience of actually meeting his target, Miss Linda, who was kept under twenty four seven surveillance and denied access to any outsiders.

How was the man supposed to overcome that?

As they say, the devil is in the details, and as Lord Parker discussed many of these problems, it was soon deemed unfeasible.

This of course suited Achillas perfectly fine.

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