Chapter 11: The siege of Madukat

Morning came, Moira woke up early and decided to call her knight leader to accompany her for a quick inspection on the western wall of Madukat. It has been on her mind for the entire night.

The siege last night did not last very long. In fact, it lasted only about half an hour or more and before long, the peace within Madukat was restored. However, that extremely short siege left a lasting uneasiness inside Moira’s heart. It was eerily unsettling.

Contrasting to Moira, Girout and even her supposed-to-be-wed husband the Warden of Madukat seemed to be well at ease when they learned that the bandits have decided to retreat after testing the wall of Madukat for half an hour with their siege engine. And the Warden, for better or worse, he managed to sleep through the night without even realizing that his city was besieged last night.

These men, Moira could not understand them. It was as if they had an absolute faith in the invincibility of the walls of Madukat.

As soon as Moira went down to the Inner wall, she immediately saw the terrible state of the outermost wall with her own eyes, and still could not quite believe it.

“What in the gods’ name could do that?” Sir Erik asked. His eyes literally bulged out of their wrinkled sockets.

What could cause such destruction?

Moira had no answer. She stood and stared at the large portion of the wall that had been carved out. It appeared as if the giants from the mythical stories that Moira used to hear from her wet nurse decided to make an enemy out of the wall of Madukat. Before long, she decided to go down to the outermost wall and see the evidence from up close.

As Moira walked through the battlement of the outermost wall, she heard the guards complained how they did not even see the shape of the besiegers within the night. She also saw a group of guards hurried a team of masons and peasants to mend the part of the damaged wall.

“Did the bandit somehow acquire a dwarven trebuchet or something? I can’t imagine how they could tear and do this much damage to a wall this thick and high?” Sir Erik mulled as he inspected the damage after factoring the guards’ experience of last night siege.

He then went to befriend with the guards, asking them question regarding the previous siege of Bloodbeard to see if the bandits really did possessed dwarven trebuchets or at least catapults. And he came back to Moira without a define answer. The guards only saw some magic casters siding with Bloodbeard during the siege last month but no major siege engine.

This has to be the work of magic, Moira did not vocalize her thought, just trying to search for evidences that support her claim. Moira didn’t see any burning damage done to the wall, and she crossed user of civilization magic from her list of suspects. Civilization magic users wrought damage on the battlefield with fire, wind, light and on the rare occasions, thunder, and the damage incurred on the wall looked like it had nothing to do with those four.

“Could this be the strong arm of Wonten that I have hearing about? Or even the mighty hammer?” Moira asked her knight captain, picking up a piece of rubble on the ground and playing with it inside her palm.

“No my lady, even if the entire temple of the Faceless God was to take part in this siege, they could not tear down this wall like that within half an hour,” Sir Erik replied, “And the guards would have spotted them.”

The old knight was no stranger to warfare and combat. He served Moira’s father as his personal guard and knight captain through the last years of the Hundred Year war. The old knight had fought through two of the most disastrous battles at the end of the Hundred Year war and lived to tell the tale. He was like an ancient relic of the past. It’s time like this that the old knight really shone, unlikely his usual nagging and rambling self which Moira could not bear to watch.

“Do you think that this is the work of a new magic? Or an ancient artifact or divine relic of some kind are responsible for this?” Moira pressed, staring at the part of the collapsing wall and battlement.

“I hope not, my lady, I truly do,” the old knight looked at Moira grimly, “Because if it does, I’m afraid that even this impenetrable Fortress will definitely fall. My lady, you are not safe here. Let’s go back to the manor and pack your stuff. We are leaving today,” he suggested.

“Today? I have not seen the entire city yet. And since the warden has provide us with that much hospitality, don’t you think that we should help him or something?” Moira asked, dropping the piece of rubbles she was holding inside her palm.

“If you are still his bride to be, I would have agreed to that. However, my lady, you are no longer his bride and thus you owe him nothing. Even if you left him to his demise, the people would not blame you. It was he who broke this marriage,” the knight captain said, knowing that Moira’s insistence with remaining at Madukat had little to do with her thought for the warden but rather her curiosity and thrill for battle.

“But…”

“No but my lady. I will not allow you to partake in this battle that is not even yours,” the old knight adamantly decided.

“Fine,” Moira dejectedly conceded with the old man for once.

When Moira and her knight captain returned to the lord manor, expecting to bid him farewell, the Warden was holding an audience to the group of inquisitors and paladins of the Kingdom of White Winter in his hall.

It’s appeared that they were lending their service to the Warden, hoping to rid his land of bandits as a payment for his hospitality. The Warden was truly delighted by such offer. He planned to host a party to welcome them to his rank, however, the men of White Winter declined, saying that they would only lend him their aid out of good faith and they had no wish to serve anyone else other than their gods.

The Warden was disappointed but he insisted them to partake in the party he hosted. In the end, the men of White Winter could only accept the Warden’s will.

As soon as the inquisitors and paladins left, Moira and her knight captain entered the hall. They bid the Warden farewell and hoped his campaign against the bandit would yield good result. The Warden laughed and apologized for the sorry state of his city, though Moira really doubted that he meant it. She asked if he has gone out and inspected the damage on the western wall and the fat man just laughed it off.

“This Fortress city of Madukat has stood tall for a thousand years. If it has stood for a thousand years, there is no reason for it to fall to some lowly bandit attack.”

And he laughed, stating that with the aid of the inquisitors and paladin, it would not be long until he could capture Bloodbeard and put his head on a stick for public to see.

The Warden insisted that Moira and her people would partake in the party he hosted for the inquisitors and paladins. Despite the knight captain adamantly refusal, in the end, they could not refuse the Warden’s insistence.

Moira wondered if the unsightly figure of the Warden was the result of his excessively wining and partying habit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The jocund flutes sounded and the drums pounded as the sun set. The hall of the Warden filled with the joyous sound of instruments and the fluttering steps of his dancing female slaves. The hall was packed with the guests of the Warden, men and women came from rich and powerful family from the neighboring region, Moira and her men as well the men from the kingdom of White Winter.

While she could not find any appetite with the greasy food displayed on the table, Moira was interested in the wine the Warden served, it was red and fruity, sweet, too tamed and demurred for her taste. She preferred the strong wine that served at the Serene Temple, it was strong and wild, it burned her throat every time she drained it down her lips.

The old knight Erik was not too thrilled of this party. He expected to head North with Moira and returned to Itos this evening, before the situation could turn for worse. He sat next to Moira, munching on the strings of beef fillet with a mouthful of onion ice corn soup. He did not touch the wine, not once through the length of the party. The man was such a party pooper, always. He hated wine, detested even the smell of it.

Then, the wine in Moira’s cup spilled. The bowls and dishes on her table were clanking and rattling. A dancing slave screamed, stopped the dance. The hall suddenly became silent.

“What’s wrong? Why are you stopping? You are embarrassing me before my guests. Play the damn music and start dancing,” the Warden commanded in his reddened face. He threw his golden goblet at the female slave who stopped the dance with her screaming.

Everybody at the party was alarmed by the shaking, everybody except the Warden. And then, that apparent crashing sounded came, filling the hall as it shook the entire building.

“The bandits come back for more,” said the old knight Erik, standing up from his seat and walking out of the hall.

“Wait Erik, I’m coming with you,” Moira quietly called to her knight captain, left her seat in a hurry as well before anyone noticing her absence.

“It is dangerous, my lady,” the old knight reluctantly said.

“You know what my answer is, so let’s not waste our time,” Moira replied and walked out the hall.

Those pounding noises came from the western wall. Moira crawled up to the battlement of the Great Wall to have a better look. The day was fading and the entire city was enveloping in the color of dusk, but Moira could still see for herself of how the outermost wall of Madukat was smashed into splinters and rubbles.

Boulders, that were at the size of a bison sailed through the air and smashed into the wall with such great force. Every time a boulder landed on the wall, a piece of the wall exploded on impact and crumbled apart.

“How did they shoot such large boulder? And at such length…”

Moira turned at Erik whose face darkened, his hand pinched his chin.

“Did you see where these boulders come from Erik?” Moira asked, her voice was almost drown by the pounding and exploding noises that overwhelmed the entire city of Madukat.

“Behind those hills, my lady,” Erik pointed his finger at the sea of hills to the western side of Madukat.

Moira trained her eyes to the direction Erik pointed her to and eventually, she caught the shapes of those boulders flying from beyond the shadows of the sea of hills.

“That has to be at least five hundred steps. What on Escana could shoot such boulders with such length?” Moira asked, a sweat flowed down her cheek.

“I don’t know my lady. Either some new dwarven trebuchets or worse…” Erik groaned, his fist clenched tightly.

After almost half an hour, that part of the wall where those boulders landed were complexly pried opened. Any army could walk through that without any trouble, assumed that they must swim through that deep moat that has been filled with water from the Sadanphon River this morning first.

The siege stopped, but Moira’s entire body was still shaking. She was not sure if it was the effect from the nonstop shaking she has experienced

From within the sea of hills, an army emerged, the setting sun behind them. They did not stand in formation but instead spreading their forces through the length of the western hills.

“That’s not four thousands like that bald fool Girout has said. This is twice that number,” Erik gritted his teeth and said.

What kind of bandit lord command as much as eight thousand men under him? How is it even possible for a bandit to be allowed to have an army this large?

“How do you know Erik?” Moira looked back and forth between her knight and the emerging army standing on the western side of Madukat. She wished that the old knight was wrong, that his eyes had grown dull with his years or his math had a serious problem.

“Do you doubt me, my lady?”

“No, I don’t,” Moira shook her head, cursing herself for agreeing to the party hosted by the Warden. She has doomed her men.

Fate is a cruel and sadistic mistress. She can be surprisingly generous but that is only to lure you into a false sense of assurance and fulfilling in life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as Bloodbeard spread his army of bandit around the city of Madukat, sealed off the north and south entrances, he sent riders to deliver his message to the lord of Madukat. One of them was a magic user who received the blessing of the goddess of wisdom and truth, Eogaill. The man conjured the spell “Echo,” loudening his voice to transmit Bloodbeard’s will to every man and woman inside the city of Madukat.

“Master Bloodbeard has a command for this city’s lord. Surrendering yourself and everything you own in this city by mid-day tomorrow, tell your guards to open the gate and allow Master Bloodbeard’s men to walk through. If you don’t comply to that, we will lay siege to your city again. And this time, we shall show no mercy. We will kill every man in this city, your women we will take as slaves and your head, my lord, we will put on the wall of this city for everyone to see what it means to incur the wrath of Master Blood Beard.”

Moira and her men were trapped within the wall of Madukat and the besieging bandits.