“I visited Alamar,” nodded Marak. “The Sakovans need our help.”

“What do they need?” asked Lord Patel.

“I am not sure yet,” sighed the Emperor, “but at the very least we must house thousands of their people here in Khadoratung. I have ordered my fleet to begin bringing the Sakovans in by ship.”

“How many thousands?” asked Lord Faliman.

“A lot,” shrugged Emperor Marak. “Alamar will probably be attacked in the morning. Right now the only road out of the city is clogged with evacuees. They are going to use fishing boats to ferry the people to Tanzaba. My ships will pick them up there and bring them here. We must create a temporary city for them.”

“I have thousands of people working on the trenches,” frowned Lord Quilo. “I do not know how much time we have to finish the work, but I would hate to lose any of them. Can we afford the manpower to build a city? Can the Sakovans help with the labor?”

“The Sakovans will be mostly women and children,” Marak shook his head. “The male citizens are staying to fight.”

“We could use the armies of the clans in the Imperial Valley,” suggested Lord Chenowith.

“Not for long,” replied the Torak. “Those armies will constitute the bulk of our defense. I want to leave the frontier armies on the frontiers in case Vand has surprises in store for us, such as landing in Zaramilden and bringing his armies over the Kalatung Mountains. Our first line of defense will be the clans inhabiting the eastern coastal region. The armies of the Imperial Valley will be the second line of defense. By that time we will know what Vand’s strategy is, and all of the clans of Khadora will join in.”

“Do you still plan on holding to a scorched retreat policy?” asked Lord Kiamesh. “Because if you do, food is going to become scarce, especially with thousands of Sakovans relying on us.”

“The Motangans will be the ones starving to death,” countered the Emperor. “If we start starving, we will have lost the war.”