"Though, I have been thinking about something," Halig mumbled, his mouth completely full of pork.

He swallowed hard and pointed a finger toward the distant silhouette of the rebel city. "How the fucking hell do this people eat on this frozen rock? We brought massive transport ships full of food from City Titan. What do they have?"

Erik took a bite of his bread, "They don’t have farms, that is for sure. The ground here is solid ice. To feed thousands of people every single day, they must be fishing or hunting for food."

"There are no wild animals in these pine forests..." Torstein noted, "We marched through the woods for hours and didn’t see a single deer or boar. If they are hunting, they are starving."

Halig’s eyes widened in realization. He looked over his shoulder at the massive, dark expanse of the frozen lake. "Then they are eating fish! They must be cutting holes in the ice every morning to drop their nets. The lake is their only real supply of food."

"..." Erik nodded, "With that giant hole in the center freezing over with paper-thin ice tonight, the lake is completely compromised. But that doesn’t solve our main problem for tomorrow."

They cannot just sit on the beach forever... They have 1,400 musketeers and a limited supply of food.

If Erik orders his men to march directly at those walls, Halfdan’s archers will shoot them to pieces from the high watchtowers before the muskets can even do any real damage.

"We can take a few people..." Halig suggested, leaning forward. "We send a small group of our fastest men. They run halfway across the lake, shout some insults at the walls, maybe throw a few rocks at the gates. We make them really angry, and then we run back! We make them chase us right over the thin ice in the center!"

As such, Erik shook his head slowly, taking another bite of his hot pork. "It won’t work. You think my uncle is a stupid? If he sees ten men running at his massive city, he won’t send his whole army out to chase them. He will just send the war dogs, or a few dozen archers to shoot them in the back. A small bait won’t pull the big fish out of the well."

"Then we don’t cross the lake at all." Torstein offered, "Maybe try another way to go from the other side? We could pack up the camp tomorrow morning, march our men all the way around the outer edge of the lake, and attack the city from the base of the volcano."

"Too slow..." Erik countered, tossing his empty wooden skewer into the fire. "The snow around the edges of the valley is easily waist-deep. It would take us an entire day just to march around the water. During that time, Halfdan’s men would just sit in their warm watchtowers and shoot arrows down at us while we struggle in the mud. We need a fast, decisive victory, Torstein. We need to break their spirit in a single strike."

Afterward, a heavy silence fell over the three commanders.

"What does my uncle want more than anything right now?" Erik muttered to himself, his brow furrowing.

"He wants us dead..." Halig laughed dryly. "He wants to chop our heads off and throw us into the water."

"No... he wants more than that." Erik whispered, his blue eyes suddenly widening. "When they ambushed our scouts in the forest, they were too terrified of the muskets to take them. They thought the guns were cursed magic. But today... Halfdan saw how they work. He saw us pouring black sand into the tubes. He saw the fire."

Torstein frowned, completely confused. "So? They still don’t have any black powder of their own."

"But they know it is a weapon now, not magic!" Erik said. He jumped up from the boulder, pacing back and forth in front of the warm fire. "Halfdan is a warlord! If he defeats us, he doesn’t just win a battle. He captures 1,400 muskets! He captures our transport ships! If he kills us, he suddenly has the power to sail back to Norway and fight Ragnar on equal terms!"

"I got it!" Erik suddenly cheered, slapping his hands together. "I can make Halfdan’s army chase us! I can make every single man in that city run out onto the ice tomorrow morning!"

Halig stood up, wiping the grease from his beard. "How the hell are you going to do that? Are you going to politely ask them?"

"No!" Erik grinned, "We are going to give them what they want. We are going to give them the Iron Kingdom."

Torstein stood up, "Please, explain..."

"We are going to pack up this entire camp. We are going to look disorganized. We are going to look terrified. And then... we are going to start marching our men back up the snowy slope, heading toward the transport ships." Erik explained, "If we pack up our camp and start marching back to the boats, what will he think?"

"But Erik..." Halig pointed out, looking out toward the lake. "If they charge across the lake, they will hit the new ice in the center. They will fall in."

"Exactly..." Erik cheered, throwing his arms wide open. "We just let their own greedy, heavy boots break the new ice. The lake will swallow them whole, and we won’t lose a single man."

"It is a brilliant plan, King Erik." Torstein said, a genuine smile finally breaking through his serious expression. "I will tell the battalion leaders to prepare the men for a fake retreat at first light. We will make it look as messy and panicked as possible." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Make sure they leave some heavy crates behind," Erik instructed. "Make it look like we are dumping weight so we can run faster. Sell the lie, Torstein!"

"Yes, my King!" Torstein saluted, turning around and jogging down the beach to spread the orders to the rest of the resting army.

"You really are a sneaky bastard, Erik." Halig chuckled.

Erik turned his back to the fire and looked out over the dark, quiet expanse of the frozen lake one last time before getting some sleep.

But as Erik stared into the freezing darkness, a sudden, heavy gust of wind blew down from the towering volcano, carrying a strange, unnatural sound across the ice.