Chapter 54: Preparation (2)

Azula got what she wanted. War Minister Qin "upgraded" our Dragon-Mongoose Lizards. Now, a ballista was attached to the side of these beasts, exactly like those found on Fire Nation tanks. It should be recalled that these compact ballistae allow Fire Nation war machines to climb vertical surfaces.

Truthfully, this doesn't help them much in practice. The tanks are too heavy and slow, so the enemy often manages to damage the cable or the grappling hook itself, causing the machinery to plummet.

Azula initially wanted to install two ballistae on the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards, but War Minister Qin convinced her that this would be a useless waste of resources. In fact, a single ballista was enough to support a mongoose lizard with three riders climbing up a wall. Honestly, it was an impressive result. This was once again due to the animals' amazing efficiency. Thanks to the special structure of their paws, these riding beasts were capable of running on water. This same paw structure helped them temporarily hold onto a wall vertically. With the help of the ballistae, which significantly lighten the Dragon-Mongoose Lizard and literally pull it upward, this time became practically infinite.

We had to delay our departure for another week to teach Princess Azula's group how to properly use the ballistae and to make the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards crawl up vertical surfaces. Fortunately, there were plenty of mountains near War Minister Qin's base where we could train.

"I don't know why you need ballistae on mongoose lizards, as you haven't shared your plan with me, Princess Azula, but I wish you success," Qin said, bowing deeply. "I would also be pleased if you would return and witness the triumph of engineering genius! Soon, the special weapon will be finished, and we will breach the wall of Ba Sing Se! I invite you to witness this historical moment from the front lines with your own eyes. Unless, of course, you capture Ba Sing Se sooner, Princess Azula…"

The War Minister assumed we were preparing the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards for an attack on Ba Sing Se. Many actually thought so. Even Azula's friends. But the Princess had no desire to plunge into the swamp called Ba Sing Se, which had broken the teeth of many Fire Nation generals over a hundred years. There were easier targets. But they would still bring Azula the good reputation she needed so badly right now.

"Send me a letter when you are ready for your triumph," although a polite smile was on Azula's face, I heard doubt in her voice. She, too, didn't particularly believe in War Minister Qin's success. He, however, did not notice this. He thanked the Princess with a satisfied look.

When the Dragon-Mongoose Lizard preparations were complete, we set off to reinforce Azula's army. The current number of people was insufficient. Fortunately, we knew who could increase the size of the Princess's group. And the losses of this future reinforcement in the upcoming battle would mean nothing. Officially, they were already dead to the Fire Nation anyway.

Our march this time was different. We acted more discreetly. We tried not to leave any tracks. We constantly changed course, hoping to confuse the spies of the Earth Kingdom army, who we presumed were on our tail. We were lucky again, and we did not encounter any particularly difficult obstacles on our path. This may have been because we were traveling along less-traveled routes or even forcing the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards to run where no man had yet trod.

The most notable incident was that nine Dragon-Mongoose Lizards died en route. But again, nothing out of the ordinary. I thought we would lose a much larger number of riding beasts. They were simply poorly adapted to the cold. Once again, their natural habitat is the jungles of the Fire Nation, not the northern continent of the Earth Kingdom, where snow falls all year round. As far as I could tell, most of the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards died from pneumonia. Some of the regular soldiers who couldn't warm themselves with Firebending due to their lack of skill, and weak Firebenders also fell ill. But there were no deaths among them. By the end of our journey, everyone had recovered enough to participate in the upcoming battle.

The fighters who lost their mongoose lizards simply moved in with their comrades. The ballistae were removed from the dead animals and strapped to other fighters as a backup, in case the primary one failed. Fortunately, Qin's engineers showed us how to secure them properly. Although I could have managed even without their help, my status does not allow me to deal with such things. I am a Captain, after all.

Also, a spirit once crossed our path, but the squad managed to part with it peacefully. The spirit itself offered the truce in a perfectly normal human voice.

Due to all the maneuvers we executed to confuse the presumed scouts following us, our journey to the destination took a little over two weeks. If we had traveled in a straight line, we would have reached the required location in about six days.

That required location was situated between Ba Sing Se and Omashu, near the Serpent's Pass. A secret Earth Kingdom prison for captured Fire Nation soldiers was located beneath one of the mountains there. We learned about it relatively recently, after interrogating members of the Southern Water Tribe. They were delivering the benders and soldiers of the Fire Nation who lost to them to this very place.

Somehow, this prison remained unknown to the Fire Nation. Although the Southern Water Tribe members said that, according to the guards of the place, it had existed for more than ten years. And even by rough estimates, the number of prisoners in it is about five hundred people. What exactly was happening there was unknown to our captives. They already knew definitely more than necessary. The guards there are probably bored, so they chat with new faces, accidentally disclosing secret information.

When we were only a day's ride away from the prison, I decided to move ahead with a small reconnaissance team. We needed to confirm that the information received from the Southern Water Tribe members was true. Azula and the main group stayed behind to await the scouting results. This was also a rest for the soldiers after two weeks of riding Dragon-Mongoose Lizards. Riding these animals barely causes motion sickness, but after two weeks, an unprepared person still manages to bruise their backside. And the soldiers needed to be focused for the assault on the prison, not distracted by minor discomforts…

The prison's designer made a small mistake. He located it practically in a forest. Of course, the trees had been cleared for a hundred meters, but this still didn't prevent us from examining it in detail right from the woods. In this world, optics had been known for a long time, and various telescopes and binoculars were actively used.

There was another advantage to the forest's proximity to the prison. An advantage for us, of course. If the enemy had Earthbenders sensitive to vibration, they… simply couldn't detect us. Not everyone has enough sensitivity to reach into the forest, and those who can simply wouldn't distinguish us from the wildlife at that distance. It's a forest, after all. There's a lot of wildlife here. We ourselves encountered a couple of boars and a rat that was equal to or even larger than those boars in size.

Near the foot of the mountain, partially extending onto it, were ordinary-looking houses that seemed to belong to simple villagers. They were built without any frills. Clay walls and thatched roofs. There were no fences, except for pens for livestock, separating one area from another. There were small gardens. It seemed like an ordinary village in the Earth Kingdom. But there were a few "buts."

First, the number and size of the gardens did not correspond to the village's population. They were simply too small to feed fifty houses. The livestock was also a cover. It was not well cared for. That was immediately obvious. Secondly, a village simply cannot consist solely of muscular men who occasionally slip into military bearing out of habit.

If one glanced quickly, such camouflage probably would have worked. But we sat and studied this village for several hours, noting all the small details. Therefore, it failed to deceive us.

We managed to determine the location of the passage to the prison itself, which was inside the mountain. We also established the approximate number of opponents. A change of prison guards occurred. Some of the "villagers" went inside, while others crawled out of the hole. There were fifty houses. But it's not a fact that there are fifty guards. Just in case, I started assuming there were about seventy of them. We simply didn't know if all the guards had changed or if some remained inside the prison.

Unfortunately, we never saw the warden of this place. According to the Southern Water Tribe members, he was a strange man. The fighters from the Southern Pole initially mistook the local management for an enemy because he had a habit of occasionally wearing red armor with decorative flames. The guards babbled that their leader was a bender of exceptional strength. But they didn't specify anything else. It would be interesting to fight this "bender of exceptional strength" and see how good he is at Earthbending.

After sitting on the edge of the forest for a few more hours and observing the enemy, we retreated back to the position of our main forces.

"What do you say, Long?" Azula asked me when I came to her tent to report.

"It is definitely not a simple village. It could indeed be a prison. Our forces outnumber the enemy's by about two to one," I began with the main points.

After a while, when the report was finished, Azula took a minute to think, and then nodded.

"Good. We will storm this Earth Kingdom base. Even if there are no prisoners, there must be something interesting there. A mere outpost is not strategically advantageous to place in this location. And based on your description, the people resemble soldiers… As soon as your reconnaissance group has rested, we move out."

"We should move out a couple of hours later, though," I decided to slightly alter Azula's plan. She raised an eyebrow, asking why I thought so. "If we calculate the speed of the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards, we will reach the enemy base in the early evening. It is better to attack at night when most of the enemy fighters are sleeping. And it is advisable to cover the last kilometers on foot. There are over a hundred Dragon-Mongoose Lizards. Their weight is considerable, especially when our fighters are riding them. If we try to attack on the Dragon-Mongoose Lizards, we will simply alert the enemy to our approach in advance. There will be no element of surprise in that case."

"Very well, I understand," Azula nodded. "Inform me when the ideal time to move out will be."