Chapter 39

Year 163 – Fall – Quintus Mensis – 9th day

Avem, town of House Valmai, land of the Vale

The town council of the Vale was in the middle of a session when a militiaman entered the town hall and interrupted them.

The militiaman – “ROCK EDEN HAS ARRIVED!”

The Eagle of Vale then left the council and ran across the southern bridge. As he reached the southern gate, he saw them holding their banners fiercely. They were only 50, but they were all wearing the finest quality of plate armour and seemed to be veterans of the war with the East.

The Eagle – “OPEN THE GATE!”

The Eagle walked toward them to welcome the reinforcements. A man who seemed to be the higher in command came toward him.

The man – “I’m General Arnold from Rock Eden. May I speak to the Eagle?”

Ethen – “I am the Eagle! Welcome to Avem.”

General Arnold – “Oh, sorry. I would have expected better armour for a general.”

The Eagle – “House Valmai doesn’t have the luxury to live on top of a gold mine.”

General Arnold – “I suppose you are right. What is the situation?”

The Eagle – “They took the first wall, but we managed to fend off their raid at our second line of defence. They aren’t all finished yet, but soon they will have five counterweight trebuchets to take down our fort. Our fort is sturdy, yet each rock slowly damages its structure. We’ve been reinforcing it, but I doubt it will last more than a month.”

General Arnold – “Won’t they make more?”

The Eagle – “The Velika Forest has partially burned. They won’t easily have access to more wood, although they now have quite a few shelters for the winter since they took the northern district.”

General Arnold – “Five counterweight trebuchets aren’t so bad; you can still rebuild the wall during the hour they’ll take to prepare the next volley. Besides, they’ll need to find a way to cross the river with the drawbridge closed off.”

The Eagle – “That’s not the only problem. They also have some kind of monster in their rank. It’s a witch who’s probably using some sort of lost magic.”

General Arnold – “Have you seen it in action?”

The Eagle – “It broke my shield apart in a single blow, and General Thorkel of House Krain said it turned their castle gate into dust.”

General Arnold – “Breaking a shield in one blow is a phenomenal achievement, but the Krain could have invented this just to cover their pathetic loss of their own territory.”

The Eagle – “Possible, but if you see it, don’t fight it alone. Call for help.”

When the Rock Eden soldiers entered the main town, the Valmai soldiers were looking at them. Vatra was sitting on top of the castle wall when she saw them waiting in front of it. They wore armour of a similar fashion to the one worn by the silver-eyed girl, yet there were only so few of them.

Further in the north, the Kalator were using their newly made trebuchets. They launched a volley of rocks. The rocks flew over the fort as the Valmai soldiers alerted the citizens by screaming. Vatra raised her eyes toward the sky, alerted by their screams. Barely had she lifted herself that she saw multiple small boulders flying toward the inner castle. She quickly ran toward the stairway as the boulders crashed both on the inner walls and through the room of the stable. The turmoil of the impact made her lose her stability and fall down the stairs. One of the rocks tumbled through the stairway, following her fall. Both Ethen and Arnold ran toward her.

Ethen – “Are you all right?”

Vatra – “Yeah . . . somehow.”

All of them looked at the boulders that had landed near Vatra. They were about 200 pounds.

Further away, in the camp of the Silver Lining, Nelis was preparing his black powder. Lanaya was laughing while looking at the sky.

Lanaya – “Did you see that? They missed the fort by a mile!”

Owen – “They would have been better keeping those two trebuchets where they were. This way, at least two out of the five would have hit the fort.”

Jurren – “They were in reach of that preacher of Ira Arcum. Now they are behind houses so that they are fully covered, and this time, they won’t build a trebuchet. They won’t have the space within their walls.”

Nelis – “They failed like eight times with the first one to aim at the wall. Of course they’ll fail again.”

Lanaya – “I know. I just can’t get tired of it.”

Owen – “Here’s your tea.”

Aberfa – “Thank you.”

Jurren – “Is your powder finally dry?”

Nelis – “It seems like it.”

Lanaya – “It’s about time you test that prototype of yours.”

Nelis – “Yeah, I’ll go a little further away to try it.”

Nelis walked 20 feet south and placed a heavy piece of metal on the ground. It was a long metal shaft with an open cylinder the size of a palm on one side. The cylinder was open in the front but mostly closed in the back, aside from a small hole.

Owen – “Are you sure it’s far enough?”

Nelis – “Should be.”

Jurren – “That’s not reassuring.”

Nelis – “It’s far enough, don’t worry!”

He then placed some black powder inside the large hole before adding a little rope inside the back one. He scratched the limestone attached to his gloves and produced some sparks near the rope to set it on fire. He then ran to his friend before looking back at the large piece of metal. At that moment, Egmond was walking toward them, followed by Bjarne and Trygve.

Nelis – “DON’T COME CLOSER!”

Egmond – “WHAT?”

Nelis – “LIE DOWN!”

The three men barely had the time to drop to the ground when they saw a burst of fire and a large piece of metal flying close to four feet in the air before falling back to the ground.

Hearing the strident sound, the Kalator soldiers from around the camp took their weapons and went toward the explosion.

Egmond – “WHY DID YOU DO THAT? NOW WE’LL LOSE CRUCIAL TIME, JUST TO TELL THE ARMY EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL!”

Nelis – “I had to test it to make sure it was ready to use!”

Egmond – “Lanaya!”

Lanaya – “What?”

Egmond – “I’ll start a council meeting in an hour. Bring your sorcerer with you.”

Lanaya – “We’ll be there!”

Egmond – “Bjarne, you’re alright?”

Bjarne – “Yeah, yeah. I’m tougher than I look.”

The three of them returned toward their own army to handle the situation. An hour later, the Kalator had stopped their discord, and their council had been reunited.

Egmond – “We’re listening.”

Nelis – “We’ll need the throw to be really precise. If we want to destroy the structure of the fort, we’ll need for it to hit inside the fort. If it hits the surface, it will damage the fort, but its structure might hold. This fort is nearly three times as large as the gate of the Frey castle.

Trygve – “You want us to strike between the embrasure of the fort?”

Nelis – “Yes.”

Amund – “The battlements have large embrasures; it’s possible.”

Trygve – “How many shots do we have?”

Nelis – “A single one, but if we fail, there should still be a wide enough opening to assault the fort.”

Egmond – “But if we succeed, the fort will be gone is what you are saying?”

Nelis – “Indeed.”

Trygve – “It’s a really precise shot. Even if it’s aligned, at each shot, the trebuchet will slightly move. Striking the fort isn’t hard. In a few shots, we’ll have it, but reaching that precise gap is unlikely.”

Nelis – “Give us the control of one trebuchet for a few days, and we’ll be able to do it.”

Trygve – “You already have a smaller trebuchet.”

Nelis – “I want the one right in front of it. It’ll be easier to align the shot.

Egmond – “Fine, but if you fail to blow up the fort, the band of the Silver Lining will lead the charge against that fort. This way, your failure will mean a risk to you and not only to my men. You have six days before we make the assault.”

Lanaya – “Why six days? The wounded won’t have the time to heal by then.”

Egmond – “I don’t intend to make our wounded fight in the siege anyway.”

Amund – “What? Why?”

Egmond – “We’re lucky most of them survived, but I don’t intend to send them to their deaths. I’d rather have all the injured recovering during the winter so that we can face the Union with larger numbers.”

Mundric – “But what if we don’t manage to take the town?”

Atilos – “Nonsense! We could take their town any time we want. The question isn’t if we will. It’s how to do it with the fewest casualties possible.”

Lanaya – “So, we have six days?”

Egmond – “You have six days. If it can be done, then it should be more than enough.”

Atilos – “In six days, we could build some rafts made of timber to cross the river and follow Mundric’s plan of attacking the south.”

Mundric – “They’ll see us building these rafts.”

Atilos – “Not if we build them in the moat and only move at night.”

Bjarne – “I agree. If we can take their southern wall, we’ll block their escape and gather more wood at the same time.”

Egmond – “We’ll attack the south in five days. The next day, we will take their northern fort while keeping some of our own in the south to seal their escape.”

Ludger – “They have ships. We should try to take them as well.”

Egmond – “Then we’ll split into two groups. Mundric, Atilos, Lanaya, Varok, and myself, will assault the western side while Bjarne and Trygve will assault the eastern side and try to steal those ships. Amund and Brahmkal will stay north with the army.”

Bjarne – “We’ll take those ships.”

Amund – “When will the third trip of stones arrive?”

Trygve – “Don’t worry about it, My men are already mining there. In five days, we’ll have more stones than we’ll ever need.”