Chapter XXXI

“Ardal!” Val called out in the middle of the night, “Get out here now! We have to talk about your woman!”

Several of the men from the construction crew Ardal had worked with dragged Galia towards the ruined house Ardal had been staying in. He'd thrown a few cloths and linens over the gap in the roof to make somewhat of a tent out of the wreckage. It kept the rain out well enough, but still allowed the cold air and the noise from outside in.

Ardal brushed aside the burlap sack, which stood in substitution for a door, rubbed his eyes and said, “What do you want at this hour? What could possibly be so important that you have to wake me?”

“Look!” Val shouted, loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood, as he forced a slip of paper into Ardal's hands.

“This seriously can't wait?” Ardal asked before a yawn.

“Read it!”

Ardal rolled his eyes and brought the slip of paper closer to the nearest lantern. He lit the lantern, unrolled the paper, and read.

“If you have found this and are a loyal follower of the Agalmite faith you must know that demon-worshipers have taken over the city of Bogeid. They have been preparing to defend the city against a siege, and have been constructing some unusual weapons for it. If you know of any Arxian troops going to take back Bogeid you MUST get this message to them. I'm not sure exactly what they have planned, but I know that you must avoid approaching the city with the sun in the sky. You must approach either on a cloudy day or in the middle of the night. Furthermore, do not attack the main gate, as they seem to be counting on an enemy army to do this. The western-most wall of the city is still weak, attack from there.

“-A Friend”

“This wench will be the death of us!” Val said. “We caught her tying that letter to a sparrow's leg.”

“If you caught her then she can't very well be the death of us, can she?” Ardal said. “Her attempts to warn the Arxians failed, that's all there is to it.”

“She was trying to get us all killed! We can't trust her!”

For the past few days Galia stayed in what was left of the temple, it seemed only fitting. Ardal had told her she was free to go, leave whenever she wanted, but she'd chosen to stay in Bogeid. Every day she healed the wounded survivors. Ardal had largely kept his distance from her, realizing that there was not a chance that she'd want him any more, not after he'd helped burn Bogeid nearly to the ground. Now even giving her space seemed to be a mistake.

“So we'll make her leave,” Ardal said. “If she's not in the city with us she won't be a threat.”

“That might have been an option a few days ago, but not any more,” Val said. “Now she knows what we've been working on, and can warn our enemies! Certainly we can't risk them finding out about the west wall! No, Ardal, your woman must die!”

“You have no right to make that decision!” Ardal said. “She'll stay with me from now on. I'll keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't try to send out another letter.”

“You'd better make sure!” Val said as the other construction workers threw Galia on the ground in front of Ardal. “Because if I find another one of these letters, or see any more hints that she's trying to help the Arxians, I'll slit both your throats!”

Once Val and the construction workers had stormed off, Ardal ran over to help Galia to her feet. Galia pushed his hand away and rose to her feet herself, glaring at him. Ardal shook his head at her, “What were you hoping to accomplish by warning the Arxians and making sure we lost the battle?”

“That I'd see some justice in this world,” Galia said.

“You think the Arxians will bring justice?” Ardal snorted. “Look around. Most of the people in this city are part of the rebellion now, yes, but how many do you really think had a hand in the Wet Fire incident? Most of them had nothing to do with it, and just took advantage of the situation. Some of these people want nothing to do with the rebellion. You think the Arxians are going to discriminate? If they heard even one story of what Val and his men did here they'll slaughter us all!”

“You say 'Val and his men' as if you weren't one of them!”

“I wasn't!” Ardal said. “I never placed any Wet Fire anywhere! They wanted me to scatter some throughout the temple's basement, but I didn't. I wanted you and the children to escape!”

“And that makes you a saint,” Galia said. “Because it's not like you could have done anything to stop them.”

“They had the Wet Fire already planted! There was nothing I could do by the time I found out! I know you don't believe me, but it's true! All I could do was minimize the casualties.”

“You saved a few lives and let hundreds of others die. Good job at that.”

“You know what, Galia? You want to hate me? That's fair enough, but don't you dare pretend to be any better than me! How many years went by that you didn't do anything about Sir Gilad or the Inquisition? How many innocent people died under your watch? And all you did was save a few lives will hundreds died! So go ahead, be angry, hate me, but don't pretend that you're any holier! As far as I can see, the only difference between what you did and what I did was whose people suffered!” Ardal pulled aside the burlap sack over the doorway and pointed inside the wrecked house. “Now, find a spot to sleep and stay there. The Arxians will be here by morning.”

At first Galia was indignant at being yelled at as if she were a little girl, and she wanted to protest, tell Ardal off, but realizing what a predicament she was in she obeyed. She found a spot on the floor made soft by the ashes and made that her sleeping space as she spread a blanket over it.

“Now don't you dare try to do anything stupid again,” Ardal said, going to his room. “Next time my protection won't matter.”

What did Ardal know? Galia shook her head. He was so ignorant the way he jumped to conclusions about her. The very night that he and his friends set fire to the city she was about to become a bishop, gain the power she needed to do something about Sir Gilad and the Inquisition. Had the attack never happened she would have been able to fix everything, possibly without any bloodshed, certainly without destroying the city in the process.

Then again, she had been there for years, and had only started writing to Bishop Tahan in the past year. For years she'd done very little to stop the Inquisition, watched as Sir Gilad crushed anyone even suspected of being a rebel, or even of not truly having converted. She'd even thought the cruelty somewhat necessary at first, necessary to root out those who would do the Arxians harm. She'd let it all go on far too long, only saved a few people here and there when she felt that she “could.” Come to think of it, what made Galia so sure Ardal could have stopped Val and the other rebels even if he had reported what they had planned? All that might have done was make them act sooner. Furthermore what Ardal and the other rebels did was in response to the cruelty of Sir Gilad and the inquisitors. They couldn't have known Galia was about to fix the problem peacefully. Galia's head swam with these thoughts all night, as she drifted off. Next thing she knew, she was jolted awake by the sound of loud bells and yelling, with blue skies overhead.

“This is it!”

“They're coming!”

Galia could hear the Nihilite rebels all shout as they ran around and grabbed whatever weapons they could get their hands on. Most were equipped with poorly and hastily constructed bows and arrows, a few others with tools found around the city that could be used as weapons. Galia pushed herself up off the ashen ground and walked out into the city streets to watch the battle, or to see as much as she could, anyway, since she wasn't allowed on the tops of the walls. Which was silly, really. What were they afraid she was going to do? Shout out that the west wall was weak and hope that the Arxians heard her over all the other noise?

Val and several other Nihilite rebels dragged out a strange-looking device. It looked like a large mirror, but it was bent into itself, the reflective part of it concave and coming to a narrow spot. With it they carried what appeared to be a very large magnifying glass. “Hurry!” Val shouted. “Get this to the top of the wall!” Several other rebels ran up to the top of the wall with stands on wheels, and they began to construct the strange device on the spot.

Further down the wall Ardal watched the approaching enemy through a spyglass. “I don't think they have any geomancers,” he said, “Though they may be armed with cold-iron weapons.” With the Inquisition still in Nihilus there were few paladins stationed out there, most of them unable to stomach the cruelty of the inquisitors. As a result, the Arxian army in Nihilus largely relied on the Inquisition's enchantments on their weapons in case they were forced to fight daemons. Still, soldiers armed with such weapons could not cast holy spells, which meant that they had to get up close to attack daemons. Ardal looked through the spyglass again. “They're approaching the tripwire!”

Out in the field, one Arxian soldier, marching in time with the others and in time with the beat of the drum, glanced down at the ground in front of her feet. She'd been advised enough times to keep her eyes on their destination, rather than on the ground. The idea was that as they got within a certain range the enemy would likely loose arrows on them, and they would have to be ready to raise their shields in defense. However, something on the ground caught her eye. In the tall grass there was a glint of something, the sunlight hit it just right. It was some sort of metal string, like one often saw attached to a fishing rod. Just as she saw had noticed it someone further down the line stepped on it, and she saw the line disappear further under the grass. There was a clicking sound, followed by several other such sounds. From under the tall grass black smoke shot into the air. All around her soldiers began to cough and double over on the ground, and then she felt the black smoke fill her lungs. It was as if her throat was filled with hundreds of tiny needles, and her lungs on fire. She coughed and hacked to get the smoke out. She coughed so hard her gut felt like it would split, and the last thing she saw was the blue skies over head as she crashed onto the ground, clutching her throat and chest.

The Nihilite rebels cheered as the black smoke choked out their enemies. Galia could only guess at what had made them all so happy, and she cringed just imagining how many Arxian soldiers had just died.

“Now burn 'em!” one of the rebels shouted.

“Yeah, burn 'em!”

“They're not in range yet!” said Val as he adjusted the concave mirror and magnifying glass. It was then that Galia realized where she'd seen that kind of mirror before. Often-times such a mirror was used in combination with sunlight to start fires. It didn't take her long to deduce what such a large mirror, coupled with a magnifying glass, was likely to do.

“Charge!” the Arxian commander said. The infantry broke into a full run, doing their best to either hold their breath or limit their breathing as they ran through the black smoke. It was hard to hold one's breath, though, while running, and several soldiers choked on the gas and fell to the ground. Other soldiers hadn't seen them fall and tripped over them. They crashed to the ground and gasped as they saw the grass coming towards their faces. Their sudden, reflexive gasps brought the poison into their lungs, and they choked as their comrades had. In short time the infantry lines were broken, and the soldiers on foot were a total mess. Seeing what was happening to their comrades, the rest of the footmen turned and ran.

The cavalry still charged at the city, though. They pulled with them wagons, drawn by horses, with battering rams in the back and soldiers to operate them. With the black smoke in the way the cavalry had to circle around, slowing down the charge. Those on horseback drew their crossbows, prepared for the shot. They used their legs to steer their horses in the right direction.

“Loose!” Ardal shouted, and the archers on the wall rained arrows down at the approaching cavalry. Arrows struck horses and their riders and threw them to the ground. The soldiers in the wagons with the battering rams raised their shields and blocked the incoming missiles.

Typically if you charged at your enemy with the sun at your back it gave you an advantage. Whenever your enemy looked at you the sun was in their eyes, and they would have trouble seeing you. Indeed this tactic had already paid off some, as none of the archers on the walls had successfully been able to aim at anyone in the Arxian cavalry. Sure, their arrows hit, but not with the accuracy they could have if the sun hadn’t been in their eyes. However, in this case Xaphan's invention, manned by Val, was about to rob them of the advantage the rising sun gave them and turn it into their greatest liability.

The Arxian commander, as he spurred on his horse, turned the crank of his crossbow, ready to fire as soon as he was within range of Bogeid's walls. Suddenly, there was a bright, white light coming from the walls of the fortress. It was blinding in his eyes, and he did his best to shield them. To his horror, however, the brightness quickly turned to heat, heat so intense that he felt the hand he'd held in front of his face burn, which caused him to instinctively pull it away. Then the light was focused on his face, and his own soldiers watched in horror as their commander screamed while his hair caught fire and his face melted right off the front of his skull. His helmet turned red hot, the steel grafted to his skull, and he fell from his horse.

Val turned the mirror and the magnifying glass together, next aiming it at the wagons with the battering rams. In mere seconds the wagon wheels caught fire. Soldiers jumped out of the burning wagons, only to find themselves fall into the path of the solar weapons the Nihilite rebels were wielding. Their flesh burned under the intense heat, and they boiled in their own sweat within their scalding-hot armor. Val cackled loudly as the soldiers who were supposed to man the battering rams turned tail and ran. A handful of them, still blinded from the sunlight reflected in their faces, ran straight into the poison smoke that still lingered in the air.

“Retreat!”

“Flee!”

The Arxian soldiers had succumbed to total chaos without their commander, and so began to run. Again more arrows were loosed on them. The arrows clanged and broke against their armor, though they occasionally found a weak point. Many other arrows hit their horses. As they fell, injured by the arrows, the horses threw their riders face-first into the hard ground.

Val continued his massacre of the fleeing Arxian soldiers with the solar-powered weapon Xaphan had taught him how to construct. Their armor couldn't protect them from the rays firing from this device.

The Nihilites cheered. Ardal cheered with them, though he was uneasy about the idea of cheering after seeing such a horrific sight. Yet again he watced people burn and scream. He told himself he was cheering not because of their suffering, but because he and the people of Bogeid would survive another day. He was cheering because they'd driven back a much stronger army, one that should have been too much for them to handle, and they did it without suffering a single casualty.

The guilt struck him even harder, though, as he looked down at Galia. She hadn't seen even a single second of the battle, and yet she looked utterly crushed. Undoubtedly even from where she was she'd heard the screaming of the soldiers who'd been burned. She even watched on as the children of the village cheered along, the same children she'd been raising were now full of glee at the sound of people dying horrid deaths.