by Emery, Ben
There was a brief silence, and Attais’ chin dropped to his chest.
‘Thousands dead, just to prove a point,’ Placatas spat, recalling what they had overheard of the extermination of the veterans from Epi’s discussion with Alarum.
‘Aye,’ Draiden agreed, equally disgusted. ‘Apparently there had been grumblings for weeks. Rural and the Order had been circulating stories of your treachery, General; your part in the murder of Villanus. When the five of you fled Caldoa, you were all branded traitors. Of course, few believed it to begin with, and none in Legio at all. Once they started making a big enough deal of it, Rural sends in a thousand of his palace guards in the middle of the night to torch the place. No one will have dared speak out against the king after a display like that.’
‘These survivors,’ Galarus enquired, ‘are they still here?’
Draiden nodded. ‘A few; most continued east after they got here, but there’s five still in town, all of them veterans themselves. They joined the defence as soon as the Legions arrived.’
‘So Rural is here after all,’ Miran chipped in.
‘Just beyond the gate,’ Draiden confirmed. ‘All ten thousand of them from what I can tell. Plus at least another five thousand Vahc from the looks of it. I tell you, I was surprised to see those two armies side by side.’
‘How are you keeping them at bay?’ Galarus was astounded that such a large army had not overrun the defences already. ‘How many men do you have here?’
‘Two hundred and thirty six,’ Draiden said precisely. ‘Plus the five veterans makes two hundred and forty one; mostly farmers and such, looking to defend their homes. A hundred are the town guard, led by the chief here.’ He clapped the older, fatter, armoured man on the shoulder as they walked. ‘The rest have fled east, to warn the Cities of the invasion. Thought you were the vanguard when you turned up. As for how we’re keeping them at bay? We closed the doors!’
‘You closed the doors?’ Galarus repeated, surprised.
‘Bloody idiots turned up without any siege equipment. They never figured they wouldn’t be able to just stroll through. But after what the veterans told us had happened, we weren’t about to just lay down for them.’
‘They’ve not tried to attack yet?’ Jaxon asked.
‘Not really.’ Draiden scratched his chin with his one good hand. ‘There’s a point at the northern end of the wall where the battlements have crumbled, and an old herder path worn into the mountain that leads up to there. It’s a steep climb, but they’ve sent a couple of scouting parties up that way. We’ve been ready for them every time. They can only fit three, maybe four at a push, side by side up there; easy enough to defend. But they’ve been building ladders and rams for a few days now; once they’re finished, they can hit us everywhere. It’ll be a different story then.’
Galarus thought for a moment. They had arrived within the shadow of the western wall, and he gazed up at the mountainous obstacle Rural would give anything to overcome.
‘We need to get up there,’ he said. ‘Have a look at the view from the top.’
Chapter Sixteen
King Rural stood in his tent, accompanied by General Boreas, the ten lieutenants of the Legions, and, to one side, away from the Caldoans, Alarum the Bastard. The delay outside of Valgaard was one he had not anticipated. Who in their right mind would have predicted a garrison of two hundred would stand up to an army numbering more than fifteen thousand? The whole situation had irked him. Intimidation and bribery had not worked; the defenders even refused to receive a messenger now. They would pay dearly for their opposition to the throne. He had, initially, planned to leave Valgaard unscathed after passing through it, but no longer. The Vahc were thirsting for battle and the spoils of war, and he would turn them loose without mercy.
He exhaled loudly as he leant over the maps and battle plans laid out on the square table in front of him. ‘Where do we stand on the siege equipment?’
‘Almost ready, your highness,’ Boreas informed him. ‘It should be finished by the end of the day, ready for use tomorrow. Twenty rams and well over a hundred ladders at the last count.’
‘Excellent,’ Rural replied. His overlooking of the need for such things so early in the campaign had angered him, at no one more so than himself. They had been fortunate enough that there was a small wood only several miles to the south, of which little now remained. ‘What of the mountain pass?’
‘It would lead us to the northern section of the wall, but they defend it heavily. I have posted fifteen hundred spearmen at the base of the path, ready to attack on your order. If we assault the walls simultaneously, weight of numbers should easily carry them through.’
‘Good. And the Vahc, are they ready?’ Rural asked of Alarum.
‘We’ve been ready for days,’ the warlord replied bluntly.
‘Very well,’ the king ignored his subordinate’s slight. ‘The hordes will lead the assault on the wall, and the spearmen will take to the pass. Who are their commanding officers?’
‘Lieutenants Haedering, Lindea, and Einoth,’ Boreas spoke the names as the respective men stepped forward, the latter being the disgraced Remolan’s replacement.
‘Do not relent, Lieutenants,’ Rural instructed them. ‘Press hard and the defenders will crumble beneath our might. I expect to be within the walls by nightfall.’
A chorus of “yes, your highness,” filled the tent.
‘Now,’ Rural continued, ‘to the matter of the rest of the army…’
He was interrupted by a guard entering the tent extremely sheepishly, having been told not to disrupt the meeting for anything but the most important news.
‘What is it?’ the king snapped.
‘Umm…’ the guard struggled to find his voice. ‘There is something you should see, your highness. Up on the wall…It looks like…reinforcements…’
Rural’s face drained of colour in an instant. How was it possible that reinforcements had arrived? His planning and timing had been flawless. There was no way an army could march from one end of the world to the other in so short a time, unless Maeoraph had failed, but that was just as unlikely. He stormed out of the tent, the officers at his heels, and stared up at the top of the wall. The guard handed the king a spyglass in order for him to see anything from this distance. Through the magnified glass he was able to make out the newcomers. There were certainly more men up there, and not the ragtag garrison they had seen before. There were too few of them to be an army, perhaps forty, but there were a handful of them dressed entirely in black armour. Those few sent shivers down his spine for reasons he was unsure of. They were an unsettling sight to behold. What was more, in the company of these soldiers, stood, very clearly, a pair of Wandeer, their snow-white hair visible against the black stone.
‘Prepare for battle at first light. Inform the men that these “reinforcements” are just another rabble. Farmers, not soldiers. They will be swept aside like the others.’
The lieutenants saluted and dispersed, Boreas sauntering back to his own quarters.
‘Alarum,’ Rural called the Vahc leader to him. ‘Your men have trained with those crossbows?’
The warlord nodded.
‘Cover the top of that wall in bolts as soon as the attack begins. Thin their numbers as quickly as possible.’
Alarum nodded again, and left without a word. The king remained, staring at the high walls of Valgaard. He had seen a face, through the spyglass, barely distinguishable from where he stood. One of the men in black armour; an impossibility. Rural shivered, and pulled his cloak tighter about his shoulders.
‘Bloody cold,’ he grumbled to himself.
The cold had had nothing to do with it.
Having taken in what they could from atop the wall, Galarus and the rest of the group were invited back to the nearby quarters of the captain of the local guard; the portly individual who had greeted them at the eastern gate, and who had been introduced to them as Haegan Brier. The archers had been granted the freedom
to find themselves accommodation by Captain Brier, since the vast majority of the houses within Valgaard had been vacated in the face of Rural’s armies. Miran, meanwhile, joined the General to discuss preparations for the imminent battle. The archer would be relied upon heavily, Galarus himself being entirely inexperienced at commanding any form of ranged troop, and oblivious to the capabilities of the men from Crimstone.
‘How are your men equipped?’ the General asked of Brier, once they had all settled around a rectangular wooden table in the captain’s office.
Brier shrugged. ‘Basic armour and weapons; swords and spears mostly. Some of the farmers who have joined lack even that. I’ve seen more than a few carrying pitchforks and rakes as weapons.’
‘Don’t you have any extra supplies in store?’
The captain shook his head. ‘Some, but not enough. With the volunteers, the town guard has doubled in size. We can arm and armour maybe a third of them.’
‘Vedeon,’ Galarus turned to the Wandeer. ‘Any chance you can make up some weapons in the daylight we have left?’
The Flameweaver thought to himself for a second. ‘Perhaps. Given a forge and the materials required I could add maybe thirty swords.’
‘That would be of great help!’ Brier said happily. ‘There’s a forge on the other side of the valley; tools and materials should have been left there by the smith that fled.’
‘The tools will not be necessary,’ Vedeon replied, to which Brier looked perplexed.
‘Excellent,’ Galarus continued. ‘Captain, if you station the more poorly equipped men at the gate to brace it against the rams we will take care of the wall. My guess is they will send the lighter infantry up the ladders first, pressing the attack as quickly as they can. The Vahc and the macemen I imagine. The spearmen will most likely take the mountain pass. They will be slow, but difficult to engage evenly on the narrow ledge.’
‘I will deal with them,’ the behemoth offered.
‘Some of my men can provide support,’ Miran added. ‘The rest will focus on the men coming over the top and thinning the ranks at the base of the wall.’
‘We can deal with the defence of the wall itself then,’ Galarus agreed. He turned to the Wandeer again. ‘I am unsure of how best to use you, Vedeon.’
Vedeon grinned slightly. ‘Fear not, General,’ he said. ‘Despite common belief, the Wandeer are not pacifists. We will join you on the wall. All we will require is shields, and I can fashion them myself.’
‘You keep saying “we,”’ Coran pointed out, a hint of concern in his voice.
‘I will be joining the battle too,’ Isella said softly from her father’s side. ‘I have my own armour. You need not fear for my safety.’
Coran blushed at the accusation, but said nothing.
‘We will be glad to have you with us.’ Galarus was certain of that. ‘For now, we must set to strengthening the gate and preparing the defences upon the wall. How cold does it get at night?’ he asked Brier, who was taken aback slightly at the odd question.
‘Umm…below freezing.’
‘Good. We’ll need buckets of water brought to the top of the wall. Collect large rocks, farm equipment, and so on. Anything light enough to throw over the battlements but heavy enough to do some damage on the other side. Get everyone to work; we do not have much of the day left.’
Having issued orders to his men, Galarus, with Draiden’s direction, went looking for the surviving veterans of the Ninth. Under his insistence, Attais joined him. The handful of refugees had holed themselves up in the armoury, several levels below the captain’s quarters. There they had taken it upon themselves to sharpen what few weapons they had stockpiled, and knock out the dents in suits of armour as best they could before handing them over to volunteers. Each still wore the garb of legionaries, seemingly having had time to prepare themselves for the defence of Legio, yet escape with little else. At the sight of their General, their dour faces lit up, and all five of them were on their feet and greeting him within seconds of his entering the small, gloomy room.
Attais recognised each of them as friends of his father. Though their names escaped him, Galarus easily remembered, greeting them warmly as though it were only days since they had last met; Tanyan, Jara, Kaorad, Whaering and Follert, he called them. Once their reunion with the General had concluded, as a group they offered their condolences, assuring Attais that his father had saved not only their lives, but those of the other refugees that had fled beyond Valgaard.
‘I didn’t see him fight that well when he was in the Legions!’ Follert had said, still in awe of the memory of Dagier’s final battle. ‘He threw himself at those guards like a man possessed; told us to get everyone out, while he held a dozen of them at bay at once.’ He looked down at the ground. ‘We should have fought and died with him.’
The other four veterans lowered their heads in agreement.
They shared several more accounts of Attais’ parents’ deaths, each more impressive than the last. From what they said, Attais gathered that his mother had also joined the defence of Legio, standing at her husband’s side bravely, until the pair had been cut down by sheer weight of numbers. It was an incredibly unsettling feeling, but the young legionary felt slightly better for knowing the fate that had befallen his family, and for the courageous manner in which they had faced it.
Eager to return to the task of fortifying Valgaard, Galarus instructed the veterans to continue preparing what few weapons and pieces of armour they could for battle, while he and Attais took to assisting the garrison. They each worked as long as the daylight would allow, though some laboured on longer by the light of torches. As requested, buckets of water were hefted up to the wall, and poured at regular intervals down the steep decline of the mountain pass, in the hope that it would freeze overnight and prove a treacherous climb for any wishing to advance that way.
Although heavy wooden crossbars lay across the gates, it was unknown how long they would stand firm against a determined battering ram. Further lengths of wood were wedged between the gate and the frozen ground, and carts rolled onto their sides to brace the thick doors against impact. Makeshift barricades were constructed; one, in a semicircle, around the inside of the western gate, that could be manned and defended easily should the attackers break though. Others were placed on the pathways cut into the mountainside that led to the top of the wall on either side of the valley, behind which archers would be stationed, to afford them extra protection.
Rocks and other heavy objects were piled up behind the battlements to serve as projectiles, among them some remarkably deadly looking pieces of farm equipment; blades from ploughs, hammers, rakes and even a broad yoke meant for cattle.
‘That should just about do it,’ Placatas panted, setting down a particularly large rock atop the wall, as Coran and Attais joined him and the General.
‘Gate is secure too,’ Attais added. ‘And the barricade’s firmly in place around the inside.’
‘Good work,’ Galarus said, his gaze fixed on the thousands of campfires sprawled out below him, flickering like stars on the open plains.
‘General?’
Galarus turned around to see Isella had joined the four of them.
‘Might I gather you all in the captain’s quarters?’
Galarus nodded, and the soldiers accompanied her back along the wall, and to the small building high up on the mountain slopes that Brier had offered them as a base of operations. Vedeon, Miran, Jaxon and the tribesmen were already there.
‘Something wrong?’ Placatas asked, seeing everyone looking just as confused as he as to why they had been assembled here.
‘I have a gift for you all,’ Isella said, simply, ‘for no other reason than I desire to give you one.’
The soldiers looked around at each other, largely curious as to what a Wandeer Flameweaver would provide as a gift.
‘I have noticed,’ Isella continued, ‘that you are all afflicted by the cold in this place.’
Indeed, d
espite being indoors and under several layers, a few still shivered or held cloaks tightly around themselves. The warmth from the tiny fire that had been lit in the corner, and the torches on the walls, seemed to be lost almost instantly.
‘That is why I have made you these.’ She produced a handful of necklaces; a braided leather loop, from which a smooth, cut, black stone hung. The surface of it seemed to dance in the light of the fires. ‘They will help somewhat.’ She handed one to each of the assembled, and they were promptly put on.
As Attais slid his over his head, the stone came to rest upon his chest. It was warm, but a warmth like he had never felt before. In an instant, all cold was banished from his body, and it felt like he was standing on the low plains of Alloria once more, the summer sun beating down upon him.
‘This is amazing!’ Coran beamed.
Everyone else appeared to be thinking the same thing. Even the behemoth, who, despite the frigid winds of the mountains had deemed it unnecessary to comport himself in anything more than his armour and bare skin, smiled fondly at the Wandeer girl.
‘They will keep you warm as long as you wear them, but not overheat you,’ Isella explained. ‘At the very least, the cold will be one less thing to worry about.’
‘Thank you, Isella,’ Galarus said, for all of them. ‘A most thoughtful gift.’
Isella bowed her head slightly, as to say that the General was most welcome, before he turned his attention to the rest of the room.
‘It would appear that we are prepared for tomorrow. At least, as well as we can be. Our place will be on top of the wall, though I would ask Miran to situate a handful of archers at the lower barricade.’
Miran nodded in agreement.
‘The defence of the gate will be left to the men under Brier’s command. It is unlikely they will breach the gate anytime soon, even with the rams, so the heaviest, if not all of the fighting, will be with us. This is our only chance to hold off Rural’s armies until the Cities can re-direct their own forces. Stay close to each other, keep your guards up, and we’ll all see sunset tomorrow. Get some rest tonight; Brier’s men are taking the watch. At dawn, we will be ready for them.’
