Chapter XLIV

“Everything's ready, your Excellency. As soon as the other commanders see your banner moving in towards the capital they'll begin the march with you.”

“Good,” said Jachai. “They all know what to do. We'll get in close enough to use trebuchet and then rain boulders down on the city to start. Decimate the city walls, destroy the buildings on the city outskirts. We’ll cause so much destruction those inside the city will be too terrified to do anything but surrender.”

“There is another issue. The commanders are worried about your recent alliance with the Inquisition. They've been asking what the price of this alliance is.”

“Tell them what I told you last time someone asked me this question,” Jachai responded.

“That they're our only hope to win the war?”

“Aye,” said Jachai. “Once we've breached the walls they'll summon angels to fight by our side. Even the geomancers in the capital won't stand a chance against that.”

“After the bombardment are we to move into the city immediately and storm the streets?”

“No. Every day we'll bombard the city from a distance. We'll also cut off all food supplies to the city. After about a week those inside the city will be so demoralized and so hungry that they'll surely surrender, and once we're within the city walls and surrounding the castle Aryn will have no hope of survival or escape.” Jachai relished the thought of making that whelp pay for her insolence, especially her “Please consult the enclosed book in future correspondences” comment she'd made after reading his letter. This was what happened when you allowed a commoner to sit on the throne. If Arx suffered this false Queen's reign to continue soon none of the common-folk of Arx would think they had to obey the kingdom’s laws.

Jachai left his tent, clad in his full plate mail, with the visor of his helmet up and a sword both on his hip and at his back. He mounted his horse and rode out in front of his army. All of them were gathered and ready for the siege of the capital, each a disciplined soldier, most with extensive battle experience. The rising sun gleamed on their plates of armor, and they stood in perfect lines, making the Grand Duke proud to lead such a force.

“Soldiers!” he called out. The murmuring from his troops came to a sudden stop and they prepared to listen to his speech. “All of you know me. I've shed blood with a member of each of your families, held some of them while they died in our battles against the enemies of Arx. We have all fought for a common vision, the vision of an Arx that is free and prosperous. A vision of an Arx blessed by God.” Jachai pointed at the capital city. “In that city lives a Pretender Queen, one who would see out vision destroyed! She has ignored our rights, broken our laws, and even invited foreign armies to come into Arx and help her keep her throne. Is there any doubt that she is no friend to Arx? If she were of King Melech's own blood I would fear that our cause was treason, and would not be here, but this is simply not so. Her father is a peasant who betrayed the late King Hadar and had relations with his wife. He’s a peasant who conspired to overthrow the very foundations of the noble houses by planting his bastard, common daughter on the throne. Arx is suffering its greatest threat since the Nihilite invasion sixteen years ago, but this time we do not face annihilation; no, the threat is far worse than that! We face the danger of Arx changing, transforming into something grotesque, unrecognizable! If Aryn had her way she would have foreigners deciding our fates, and a breakdown of the social classes which would cause utter anarchy! We cannot allow this! We must remove this false Queen from power and restore Melech's line to the throne! Our beloved Queen, Mahla, will join us soon, with reinforcements. Until that time, let us make ready the capital city for her arrival! Do not break! Do not retreat! Do not fear! Our cause is just!”

Jachai' soldiers all cheered loudly once his speech was finished. Jachai nodded to all of them, and then turned to face the city, lowering the visor over his face, “FORWARD!”

Jachai's army began its march towards the city, and the sound was like a great earthquake rumbling throughout the land. The wheels of over a hundred trebuchet squeaked as they rolled forward, and from the city the soldiers on the walls could see the dozens of banners. Each banner bore the crest of a noble house, closing a noose around the city.

“You must speak to them!” Aryn told Milo. “Please! They respect you! You're a legend!”

“And you're the Queen of Arx,” Milo countered. “They need to hear that their queen is standing with them.”

“Milo, I've never made this kind of speech before!” Aryn said, pacing the room and clawing at her temples. “Mom told me you helped Hadar write his speech on the day the Nihilites attacked the capital!”

“My heart's not in it,” Milo said, his voice hollow and his eyes downcast. It made sense, really. Since Sarahi left for Caelum Milo had spoken very little, obviously worried for the woman he loved. “Just say what's on your heart, Aryn. You have a good heart. The people will listen to you.”

“You're their hero!”

“You're the Queen. You may find that they love you more than you think. They wouldn't be here, ready to fight for you, if you weren't.”

Aryn could see that there was no convincing Milo, so she left her room. She left Milo to continue to sit on her bed and worry, as he had been for hours. She just hoped that by the time the enemy came to the city he'd be ready to fight.

The peasant militia, given that they had so little actual combat experience, had been assigned to operating the trebuchet within the city. The enemy would likely be launching boulders at them from outside of the city, so they wanted to be able to counter this. The trebuchet were set up on rooftops, and those operating them were advised to fill each shot with small rocks, the size they would use in a public stoning. Since they weren't trying to knock down walls they needed to have more stones spread out, so that there was a greater likelihood they’d hit enemy soldiers.

The regular city guard, the paladins, and the Western knights were assigned to protecting the walls. They had ballistae set up on the walls to fire upon approaching enemy soldiers, should they charge the wall, cauldrons full of boiling oil and tar, and longbows. Geomancers stood with them, ready to do what they could to either instantly repair the walls or redirect incoming boulders.

Traps were set within the city. Since there simply weren't enough trebuchet on the rooftops for all of the militia soldiers to man Aryn had them hiding in alleyways, in some of the houses and shops, and otherwise in any place they thought would make a suitable ambush when the enemy breached the walls. Yes, “when” the enemy breached the walls. It was inevitable, really. They would just have to make sure to wear them down enough before they arrived.

The bells rang as Aryn stepped out into the main square of the city. The guards on the walls reported seeing the enemy banners on the horizon. Over two-hundred-thousand soldiers were marching towards a city defended by ten-thousand actual soldiers and seventy-thousand militia, at best. Aryn knew that her people would be terrified, and understandably so. For them to win the battle ahead would truly be an act of God. She knew it was up to her to encourage them, to dissuade their fears and fill them with hope and courage, and so she climbed the side of one of the taller buildings, using the ladder set there, and called out to her loyal subjects.

“Hear me! Listen to me! The army approaching this city is the army of Grand Duke Jachai, and all who support him. I won't lie to you, they outnumber us more than twice over. This army does not respect your rights as human beings, as people of Arx, or of the West. When Countess Yael murdered common children for her own twisted pleasure they would have had me do nothing. Why? Because they didn't care about the children, they were only common anyway. When Marquise Husam kidnapped children from Sabura they would have had me do nothing then as well. Why? Because they were only foreigners. Then, when Mahla, their professed 'Queen,' hired an assassin to murder my husband, Prince Paolo of Uvino, again they would have had me do nothing? Why? Because she is of royal blood, and therefore above the law in their eyes. I tell you, no one is above God’s Law, and no one is so low that they are below its protection!

“I am the Queen, but, as many of you know, my heritage comes from the common-folk as well. Milo is my true father, not the late King Hadar. My enemies would have you believe that this makes me an illegitimate queen, a pretender. They claim I am no queen because I am not a descendant of Melech.” Aryn would have liked to tell them that she was, in fact, a descendant of King Melech, but Livana had warned her not to tell anyone about the books of prophecies under the Grand Cathedral. “But who decided Melech's line was royal? I tell you, it was God! God makes kings, mere blood does not! God has seen fit to make me Queen, through his Church, through the Arch-Bishop! What's more, you yourselves have made me your queen, through your elected Chancellor! I am the queen YOU chose! Yes, you who decide that the favor of the common people, and not simply military might, makes a great leader, chose me! There is no higher honor than to know that you chose me.

“So, we stand here today, ready to fight in this great battle, not just because we don't want a murderer on the throne of Arx, but because we fight for an idea. The idea that you, the people, have a say in who rules over this kingdom! The Grand Duke? He couldn't care less what you have to say about who should rule this kingdom. I would have gladly stepped down a long time ago if I knew it was what you wanted, but when I see you all standing here, ready to fight for me, I know that this is what you want, and to my last breath I will fight to protect your right to decide your own fate! The will of the common people will not be ignore, and justice will be served to all, whether they be lord or commoner, whether they be Arxian or foreigner.

“The army that marches to destroy this city and all that it stands for outnumbers us, but we have one far greater than they on our side, and through his Church he has made his will known. Stand with me now, people of Arx and of the West, and I shall stand with you!”

The militia soldiers, the paladins, and the Western knights all cheered as her speech finished, and rushed off to their posts, ready for the battle ahead. After hearing those words they knew they had to make absolutely sure the city did not fall.

. . .

Jachai's trebuchet got within range, and he ordered them all to stop. Phase one of the battle was about to begin. “Load trebuchet!” he shouted. His soldiers loaded large boulders into the trebuchet, rolled them into place. “Get ready!” Commanders passed the order down the line, repeated Jachai's words, until trebuchet surrounding the city were all loaded and ready to fire. Jachai heard a sound of something loud whipping through the air in the distance. Straining his eyes he could barely make out the image of thousands of tiny rocks flying through the air towards his army. “Fire!” he shouted.

The levers were pulled and the trebuchet all launched their payloads. They hurtled the enormous rocks through the air. The first trebuchet, at the beginning of the circle, was aiming low, and every trebuchet after that was set to fire just a little higher than the one to its left. They could gauge how high they needed to aim based on that and adjust accordingly, but in any case some part of the first volley was bound to hit the city.

“Shields up!” Jachai shouted at his soldiers as the rocks drew close. Several of his soldiers held tower shields and kite shields up to block the incoming barrage of stones on their shields. They stood in front of those who either didn't have shields or couldn't get to them in time. For the most part this tactic worked, but there were some rocks which hit the shields just right so that their impact through the steel broke the forearms of the soldiers behind said shields. Some rocks flew low and struck Jachai's soldiers in the shins or ankles and broke their legs. Some flew just high enough to catch the soldiers in the head, and their helmets provided little protection against stones hurtling towards them at that speed.

The boulders Jachai's soldiers had launched hit the city in waves. They crashed into the walls in front, struck rooftops of shops and houses within the city, and, in some cases, fired right over the city and on past it. Geomancers on the walls raised their hands as the stones drew close and, with many of them chanting in unison, managed to re-direct the stones into the field in front of the city. They’d be obstacles for the invading armies to climb over when they arrived. A few boulders struck the castle in the middle of Aius, Aryn's castle, breaking apart the walls there. It was clear now, Aryn thought, once the city walls fell the castle walls wouldn't be much help.

“Reload and adjust aim!” Jachai called out. Immediately his soldiers began to reload boulders into the trebuchet in preparation for the second volley. They soon found they were at a disadvantage, though, as handfuls of small rocks were easier to load into trebuchet than large ones. Another volley of fist-sized stones hit them, this time completely by surprise. Faces were smashed, armor crushed, and soldiers knocked off their feet as rocks hailed down out of the sky. “Fire again!” Jachai shouted. Those who had taken cover in time scrambled to get to their trebuchet for the next volley and release boulders at the capital.

This time far more boulders struck the main walls of the city. Soldiers on the city walls screamed as the ground gave out from under them and they toppled off the walls. The geomancers scrambled to redirect whatever they could, but they couldn't stop every boulder from getting through. They did what they could to repair the walls, but the enemy was clearly doing more damage to the walls than they could fix.

The militia soldiers manning the trebuchet within the city began to load broken pottery into their trebuchet. They launched the pointed shards at their enemy along with the fist-sized stones. Then they loaded bottles of lamp oil. They lit the bottles on fire and then launched them at their enemies.

“Raise shields!” Jachai called out again as two more volleys from within the city rained down on them. This time, however, the broken pieces of pottery shattered, and shards slipped through the spaces in between his soldiers' plates of armor. The bottles full of lamp oil smashed against the shields, and the fire spread and caught several of Jachai's trebuchet on fire. “Fire again!” Jachai shouted, and more boulders rained down on the walls of Aiu.

“Stagger the volleys!” Aryn called out within the city. The militia soldiers manning the trebuchet took an extra moment to figure out what she meant by that, but when they deciphered her meaning they all began to do just that. They waited until their neighbors had launched stones at the enemy, waited an extra second, and then launched their stones at the enemy.

“Raise shields!” Jachai called out again as a volley of stones flew at his troops. They raised their shields to block the incoming rocks. As soon as the bombardment stopped, they lowered their shields again, only to have fist-sized stones smash into them. They were caught completely off guard and cut down in waves. The soldiers assigned to operate the trebuchet were all smashed to oblivion when the rocks hit them by surprise, and more bottles of lamp oil set the trebuchet on fire.

“Fall back!” Jachai called out. “Leave the trebuchet behind!”

By now most of Jachai's trebuchet had been reduced to useless splinters, trash. He would have to force his troops to retreat, resume the assault of the city in the morning. He'd been forced back for now, but the siege of Aius was far from over.