The Ravens of Carrid Tower

by David c Black

  Dokra rode West to find Citalley and crush the last shred of resistance before he could extend his dominance over the whole kingdom. Travelling with him was a most precious cargo.

  The general had been furious when he entered the Palace, finding the Queen dead, Nathanial locked in a tower and no children to be found. The boy’s absence had been reported and accounted for, but not the Princess, Dalia.

  "Dalia."

  The Princess looked up from her seat next to an attractive young soldier who had found himself quickly recruited into her service.

  "We need to talk." Her brother continued.

  Rising without a word, she followed her brother towards a building Citalley had converted to the Kingdom’s new headquarters. The town was being used as a rendezvous point for everyone in the western side of the realm to converge on. Riders had been sent out in all directions with orders for all subjects to evacuate their homes with as much food as they could carry and join the new King. Citalley had worried that his people may not have listened to his orders and just flee into the forests away from danger. He was wrong. The people of Dror answered and every day thousands of men, women and children, animals and carts could be seen slowly streaming down the hills of the valley towards the town. They would stand with their king and the sight of them took his breath away.

  "Yes?" Dalia asked.

  "They're coming."

  "It's too quick Citalley, they must be scouts."

  "No, they are coming. I voiced the same objection to scout and he made it clear. They march in strength."

  "What will you do?"

  "Fight them, what else."

  "Citalley..."

  "On our terms. I'm not going to make it easy."

  "We have to move, brother. Somewhere safer."

  "Yes, we will. Once everyone has arrived. But you are going now."

  "Me? Where?"

  "Riam and then Carrid. I'll give you some men. He..." Citalley said pointing in the direction of Dalia's favourite bodyguard "...Can come with you. But I want others too.”

  The bigger and scarier the better.

  "Captain Tielli will escort you with however many soldiers he sees fit."

  "I'm not going anywhere!" She shouted, pushing him away.

  Citalley grabbed her arm, responding so quickly as to make it clear, in no uncertain terms that the he had little patience to debate the issue.

  "Citalley you're hurting me!"

  "You will go!"

  "Okay." She said, rubbing her arm. "I'll go. But why? I want to stay with you."

  "Because. Because we're all going to die here. Every one of us. Fadius is right, we can't both get killed. We are Drorea. Our name. Our family. You must go to Carrid Dalia and represent us there. The Assembly will have sent help by now and when they retake the Kingdom you will be Queen.”

  "We can all go. Brother please, let's flee together. We fight another day."

  "The Naru are in the gulf. If we cross in numbers they will cut us down, I’d rather die on Drorean soil than drown out there."

  "Then we both go, now. Alone. Sneak past?"

  "No! I will not. I will stand with my people."

  Dalia burst into tears and something inside Citalley broke. He held her, comforting his sister. He fought back his own urge to cry. Not for himself, not for the fate that was to come. It was the desperate hope that she would make it to safety. Citalley knew he would be killed soon and the young Prince had come to terms with it. He never was the optimistic type, perhaps as history will paint the picture, justifiably so. He had forgiven his mother.

  Citalley suspected his reign would be measured in days and all he had left was this young woman, weeping uncontrollably in his arms.

  She must survive.

  After a time Dalia managed to recover some composure and Citalley leaned out of the tent, calling to the Princess’s guard.

  "Lieutenant! Find Captain Tielli and bring him here. You're needed too."

  "Err... Yes, your Highness.” The young soldier jumped to attention. “I’ll go now." Said the flustered soldier who then began awkwardly half-running to find the officer. Before rounding the bend, he tripped on a tent’s guide wire launching himself forward. His feet danced the ground in a futile effort to gain balance, each time hopping slightly forward before gravity finally toppled him into the mud. He nervously looked back, scarlet faced as he pushed himself up onto his feet. A dozen or so soldiers began laughing and Citalley caught his sisters eye with a wry smile.

  "Is he okay? Right in the head I mean?”

  "He's terrified of you."

  "Me?"

  "Who would have believed it."

  She stepped back and after wiping her eyes stared up at her brother. “Tielli should stay with you. We can trust him and the army needs him more than I do.”

  “I want him to go with…”

  “No.” She interrupted. “I’ll do what you say and leave, but Tielli stays here. He’s the most competent officer you’ve got.”

  Citalley bit the corner of his lip and winced while considering the decision. “Fine.” He finally said, knowing that she was right.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Ja Deist

  Kellick was pleased with the citizens of Ja Deist. Less so with the city’s officials who had responded badly to his soldiers dismantling of their buildings. The city was technically within the Republic of Carrid’s borders, but being so far from the capital, had been largely left alone by the Assembly. Some of the most angered city nobles had sent birds back to the tower in protest at their virtual occupation by the Rangers. More than a few appeared to fly south. All had been either shot down by sharpshooters on the walls or snatched by Mak’s patrolling falcon that he had released in the sky above Ja Deist before leaving. They wouldn’t allow a living thing from leaving the city.

  It was obvious to all within the walls that some kind of trouble was coming, but Kellick had prohibited his officers from confirming any details. Despite this, it took the Raven's less than a few hours to know what kind of situation they were in.

  Probably sooner than that.

  Once his orders had been issued to the non-comms, any soldier worth his steel could work it out. An attack from the south was coming. Who else but the Shaa. The Ravens had not pushed the Captain or any of the officers that hard for the reason of their silence on the matter. They trusted Kellick. They knew he would talk if he could. They knew he was not happy.

  As the Captain made his rounds around the city to monitor the progress on the fortifications, he walked past a group of Rangers and townsfolk working on a large four road junction. They had already barricaded up the entrances to the square and were starting to dig up the rock hard yellow earth into a huge straight edged pit. Lines of men and women passed buckets of excavated soil away from the hole towards the intersection’s southern entrance, where it was dumped in the space between gabion frames that had been staked together across the wide thoroughfare. A couple of ravens stood on top with hoes and bent spades packing the dirt and rocks down and directing the flow of fresh soil.

  "Sir?" One of the ravens called out to him as he walked past. They were far enough apart that the soldier’s voice carried aver the square.

  "Yes?" He called back.

  "I know we're just making this place ready for winter and all Captain, but if there was a chance we were attacked. By someone. How many do you think they would bring?"

  Kellick paused at that and looked round at the seventy or more figures staring back at him.

  "I would imagine in that situation corporal, they would come with two hundred thousand. Maybe more."

  Kellick watched the instant reaction on the group. Every single one had returned to their work, hammering, cutting and digging twice as hard and fast as before. Before the day was over that exchange would be relayed to each ear in the city. Every time the message was passed, the numbers told would inflate a little until it was generally agreed that at this very moment half a million cannibals were racin
g across the desert towards them.

  I probably shouldn’t have said anything.

  Kellick had almost finished the construction on the outer ring of the cities defences and had begun coordinating the work on the streets leading to the main square. An exercise he repeated was placing himself in the mind of one of the first few fanatics to climb over the battlements. It helped him to make sure there was nothing he was overlooking. Flaws in his plan.

  He will have his blood up. By this point our men will be retreating, appearing to flee back into the streets. He will wait for friends. Too high to jump, the first groups will search for a way down. If any of them are perceptive they will see that the ring road running along the walls inner side has been blocked. Almost every street entrance has a stone wall as high as the flanking buildings. Every window and door boarded over. ‘But there, look there. That wall hasn't been finished yet. They escape there.’

  Pushed from behind the invaders will find themselves in difficulty. Projectiles rain down upon them forcing them to find cover. They are trapped between the outer wall and buildings linked together with newly constructed stone work. They will discover the gaps. The 'unfinished' walls and rush on masse deeper into the city. We can fire on them from the inner walls and buildings relatively safely, until the Shaa brings his own archers and slingers onto the battlements. They will have the height advantage then and we will have to pull back along the roof tops using planks to cross the buildings, then drag them back to prevent anyone else following. Then they are in the streets…

  Main Street was long and wide. High buildings with majestic columns and arches towered over either side, their curved balconies extending out to cast shade on the road. Carpenters hammered boards over doors and windows while above them on the roof, children raced around stockpiling a variety of scavenged projectiles from bricks and rocks to broken pavestones.

  Once the horde enters Main Street or any of the major roads, it’s my hope that momentum makes it impossible to turn back.

  Kellick had built four small walls across the street just shorter than a man’s height. On top of each wall he had fixed metal spikes at angles with cement.

  It's not designed to stop them, rather crush and maul the front of the pack. The faster they rush over the walls, more will be caught, pressed into the spikes. It won't be long before so many are dead that the horde can climb over the bodies like a foot bridge, until they reach the next one. All the while, we will be raining hell from above into the mass of bodies.

  After crossing the four walls they will reach another barricade. Taller, but not as tall as those blocking the side streets and no spikes this time. They need to think their best chances are forward. Over that wall and... yes. Down into a massive spiked pit similar to this one here.

  Still not big enough though, it won't hold more than a thousand or so.

  Kellick was confident that once the Shaa had breached the walls, it would play out like this. For a while. The deeper into the city they came, the wider they would spread and the more losses Kellick's Ravens and citizen soldiers will take.

  The harder it will be to contain them. We have nowhere near enough men to hold more than a small area of the city. They will surround us within hours and then it's over.

  His fear was that the Shaa may have a half competent officer who could see preparations had been made and decide that to follow the obvious routes into the city was unwise. Time and numbers were both to their advantage and they had the walls.

  If an officer shows restraint and holds them back. Consolidates his position on the wall and uses our own defences to hem us in, then we are finished. Their archers on the high battlements can push us back while they secure buildings along the outer ring. Smash the welded gates, open up a secure supply line and coordinate the attack from inside. They cannot be allowed to do that.

  Kellick heard some cheering coming from a few blocks west of him and looked across to the two men carving wooden spikes out of what looked to have been split roof beams. They shrugged their shoulders in response to his questioning look and the Captain left them to it while he investigated.

  He rounded the corner and saw a pair of odd-looking men. The taller of the two was dressed in a long black leather trench coat with a dark undershirt while the other looked more flamboyant, wearing a fitted pale brown tailcoat with matching vest and high waisted pants.

  They look like they have just left a tower salon.

  It took Kellick a few seconds to know what he was looking at before Azon suddenly appeared near them, dropping a few inches to the ground, struggling with a large chest.

  "I couldn't take them all in one trip." The monk said smiling at the Captain.

  Mages

  "We heard you needed some help." The trenchcoated man said.

  "We do at that mage. I hope you brought some tricks."

  "Azon has, he jumped with us into the vaults."

  "You stole from the committee?"

  "Only the best stuff." Quipped the mage in the three-piece suit.

  Great, so if we survive this I’ll have that to answer for that too.

  Kellick rolled his eyes, feigning disapproval before saying "C’mon, I need you two to tell me what can be done with that box."

  "Oh, a lot Captain. A lot."

  The monk and the two mages followed Kellick down the road towards the four-storey building he had requisitioned for his command centre. The Ravens in the street started talking excitedly amongst themselves. The citizens helping them seemed lost for words. No idea what they had just witnessed. Men appearing out of nowhere.

  Before Kellick had the chance to take a seat, the two mages had sat and three-piece put his feet up on a beautiful hardwood and coffee table, grinning widely.

  Azon's right about these mages.

  "So, is it true? Trench coat said.

  "Is what true?"

  "Two hundred thousand of the Shaa's finest?" The other replied.

  "Yes."

  "Good" Both mages said in unison glancing at one another with apparent amusement.

  "Good?" The Captain said raising his brow at the mages before locking eyes with Azon.

  "We thought the monk exaggerated to get us here"

  "What is your name, mage?"

  "I'm Locke.” Three-piece said, “and this is my brother Harlon."

  "And I take it you are here unofficially."

  "That's right. On the republic's unofficial business." Locke said

  "Like always." His brother finished.

  "What did the committee say?" Kellick asked, directing the question to Azon this time.

  "We told him not to bother." Locke interjected before the monk had time to reply. "By the time they even agreed to think about it, much less discuss, we'd have missed the party."

  "You found them first?"

  "I've known these two for cycles, Captain. Found them exactly where I expected them to be, stealing from nobles in Lloyd’s tea house."

  "Gambling!" Harlon objected.

  "Don't play fair though, do you?"

  "Depends which rules you..."

  "Enough." Said Kellick, raising his voice slightly. "Fine, you're both welcome. Needed actually, to tell you the truth. What has Azon already told you so far?"

  "The Shaa's mopped up every sole in the desert and they’re coming here to kill us." Harlon said.

  Then Locke cut in "And we can't ask for help neither, because we aren't meant to know he's coming."

  Kellick gave Azon a look that suggested dissatisfaction, before the monk said, "they aren't as stupid as they look, sir. They haven't shut up with their questions ever since I found them."

  "Seems a bit odd doesn't it, asking us for help and not the Assembly." Harlon said examining an ornate bone quill he had found on a desk near him. "Or Adderock for that matter. Is Azon lying to us? We ask our selves."

  "Or is there something else?" Locke added.

  "Some secret?" Harlon continued.

  "Conspiracy, mayhap?"

 
"Well, we had to see for ourselves didn't we."

  "And the box?" Kellick asked.

  "Show him what we got Locke" his brother said.

  "Right, well..." Locke said flipping the latches and throwing open the case before arranging the items on the table, using one of the smaller containers to push Harlon's feet off the table and onto the floor. The mage handled the vessels far too roughly for Kellick's liking, seeing the delicate vials and jars of mineral grains.

  These mages have lost their minds, too much time around that stuff probably. They're mad.

  "Most of this stuff in the big jars needs to be mixed and bottled into projectiles. Handheld stuff."

  "But what does it do?"

  "Ahh, well this stuff here." He said lifting a large jar filled with what could otherwise be considered blue sand, "is basically explosive. Not like black powder though. Much more..."

  "...Potent" the other cut in.

  "Don't have much there"

  "Need to mix it Captain. If we lit this half the city would be a smoking hole."

  "Put it down then." Kellick said looking anxiously at the candles in the room. "Mix it with what?"

  "Depends what you want to do with it."

  "You tell me what it can do mage and I’ll decide what we will do with it."

  "Right you are, er Captain. So, the blue stuff goes bang."

  "Big bang" the other said gleefully.

  "We can put it in barrels and fill them with rocks and nails. Anything sharp really. Now this red stuff is different, burns incredibly hot."