The Top of the Mountain - Part 7

They'd managed to get a few hundred men up, and given time, they would have managed to bring a few hundred more. But now that the enemy had retreated entirely, all the way to the mountaintop, all the barricades that they'd set up were next to useless. It was just as easy to send the men the long way around.

"Hmm… What do we have here, I wonder?" Karstly said. "Three thousand, do you suppose, Samuel?"

"Indeed, that seems an appropriate estimate, my Lord," Samuel said. "I would reason that we lost perhaps three hundred or four hundred men advancing to this position. Not the most weighty of losses, all things considered."

He spoke those words within earshot of Gordry, and the man had to grimace, even as he agreed. "I must admit that I regret my earlier words, General. I was too impassioned, even for a soldier. I will take any punishment that you see fit."