Chapter 34

Year 163 – Fall – Quintus Mensis – 3rd day

Avem, town of House Valmai, land of the Vale

Vatra was still sleeping near the front of the jail when the sound of a rat woke her up. Vatra grabbed her blade and slashed it toward the rodent, missing it by a few inches as it ran away between the iron bars.

Vatra – “Is someone there? Show yourself!”

Vatra looked around yet saw no one, aside from the rat further away in the jail.

What was that voice? Was it just a dream again? Let’s focus on something else . . .

The air inside the jail grew more disgusting by the day, and she could barely handle it. Vatra went on the wooden pot to take care of her needs before restarting her training with her sword. A moment later, the jail’s door opened, and Ethen came down the stairs with a bucket of water, a brush, and a grey soap made of ashes and tallow.

Ethen – “Vatra? You’re awake?”

Vatra – “Yes, my Eagle, what time is it?”

Ethen – “It’s still dawn.”

Vatra – “There are rats now.”

Ethen – “Well, you won’t have to share their company when you’ll be outside.”

When I’ll be outside?

Vatra – “Wait, so you’re releasing me?”

Ethen – “Well, not exactly. The siege has begun, and it will last for days. The soldiers are wearing their armour almost all the time, so if you’re on your own, it will be harder to tell you apart from the other soldiers. Besides, I’ll give you a key to the jail, and you’ll still have to sleep with the rats. Just don’t sleep near your food, and you should be fine.”

Ethen placed the large wooden bucket of water on the ground and opened the door of her jail. He dropped the brush inside the water and gave the soap to Vatra.

Vatra – “Thank you.”

Ethen – “I’ve talked to the lord; no one will search for you, but discretion is required. I’ll be back in an hour with your gear.”

Vatra – “But Thorkel will recognise me with my armour.”

Ethen – “He’s been informed, and as long as you stay unrecognised, he won’t do a thing. All we need is the common people not to know, so I’ll be using your other name to refer to you. For now, and until new orders, I’ll be calling you Varla instead of Vatra.”

Vatra – “Why Varla?”

Ethen – “It’s close enough that if I call you Vatra by mistake, I’ll be able to correct myself without raising suspicion. Besides, most people were not there; they heard a spy got arrested, but they don’t know who Vatra is. Just don’t bring too much attention to yourself and you should be fine.’’

Vatra – “Yes, my Eagle!”

Ethen – “I’ll be back later. Take your time.”

The Eagle then left the jail, leaving Vatra to her intimacy. Outside of town, the Kalator were preparing their third launch. Their trebuchet had been built during the night, and the small hill of dirt was hiding the soldiers who were manoeuvring the large siege engine.

Egmond – “No . . . Missed again!”

Trygve – “Give us time. We’ll get it. Eventually . . .”

Egmond – “I don’t doubt you will, but if we are to intimidate them, we need those rocks to kill someone. It won’t happen if we keep missing those walls.”

Trygve – “Well, the wall is less crowded already. They know what we’re doing.”

Egmond – “But we only have one trebuchet.”

Trygve – “We’ll hit the wall soon enough, and we’ll keep throwing rocks during the night as well. Just make sure we don’t run out of stone.”

Egmond – “Bjarne told me you brought hundreds.”

Trygve – “For both the mangonels and the trebuchet. But the rocks for the trebuchet are large. If we launch a rock every two-thirds of an hour both day and night, we’ll run out of rocks within three days.”

Egmond – “I’ll tell Brahmkal to gather more stone with 200 men.”

Slightly up north from the Trebuchet, Atilos and his men were placing five wooden crosses in a line above the hill, slightly to the north of the trebuchet. They then excavated a hole into the ground in front of each of them.

Atilos – “Place them there.”

Silas – “You’re sure it’s safe for us?”

Atilos – “Probably not. So dig while looking at the wall. If any of you see something, tell us.”

Silas – “That’s reassuring.”

Atilos – “You’re afraid?”

Silas – “I wouldn’t go that far.”

Danovic – “Well, I am and so should you, but we have mail hauberk, which Egmond’s horse didn’t have. We should be fine. Isn’t that right, Atilos?”

Atilos – “It sure is.”

Further to the east of the Kalator’s encampment were located both the Silver Lining and the merchant following them. They had set their camp near a large rock coming out of the ground. The ground had been cleared of ash to set up camp. A fire pit had been made using the charcoal hiding among the burned wood. Owen was cooking a stew, while the others were waiting for orders.

Leo – “Are we going to attack today?”

Owen – “I don’t think so.”

Jurren – “No.”

Leo – “Why?”

Nelis – “It would be foolish. They have a large wall, probably more than a thousand soldiers, and they are ready to fight. Charging them now would be like asking to die.”

Leo – “But they won’t leave, so we’ll have to attack eventually. Why not now?”

Nelis – “Well, we have time. We have a trebuchet launching rocks at their wall. If a rock that size fell on you, you’d be squashed before having the time to realise it. Your life would be over. They are on the watch, ready to dodge the next rock. Every day, their stamina will be drained as they stand on the wall, while ours will stay just fine. We have no wood for shelters. We need the wall on our first attempt so that we can scavenge its wood. My black powder ain’t ready yet, and when we attack, we’ll need a safe environment for the wounded.”

Jurren – “Besides, even if we don’t fight, we get paid, so if it takes two months, it’s even better.”

Nelis – “Yeah, there’s also that.”

Leo – “What do you mean by a safe environment? Like a fort or something?”

Nelis – “It’s usually better to attack before a rainfall, so the ground will turn muddy and charging will become impossible for a few days. Then we’ll have the time to take care of our wounded.”

Leo – “So, we just wait here?”

Nelis – “Like the calm before the storm.”

Jurren – “Pick up your sword, we’ll do a little sparring. Anyone who wants to join in is welcome!”

Leo – “Now?”

Jurren – “Yes, now.”

Further up north, Lanaya and Alphael waited in Egmond’s tent for his return.

Alphael – “This is taking a long time; I don’t like it.”

Lanaya – “We’re starting the siege; it can’t be avoided. If he wished for our death, we’d already know it.”

Alphael – “Oh, but I’m not afraid. I’m annoyed by this lack of punctuality.”

Lanaya – “What did you expect from a lord? He’s used to giving orders, not following them.”

Alphael – “Knowing why someone is lacking manners doesn’t excuse their lack of it.”

At that moment, the Kalator lord arrived. He placed his fur mantle on a pole before sitting on his chair at the other side of the table.

Egmond – “Lanaya, I hope this encounter will go better than our previous one.”

Lanaya – “Aren’t I forgiven due to the heroic act I’ve achieved by saving your life?”

Egmond – “The fact that you stand here today should be, by itself, a proof of my leniency.”

Lanaya – “Oh, really? How lucky of me to be in such pleasant company. I see myself rejoicing!”

Egmond – “Let’s talk coins and Utos. I’m quite curious about you, mister.”

Alphael – “Alphael! You can call me Alphael.”

Egmond – “Right . . . So, Alphael, I’ve been told that you were carrying a large amount of gold with the intention of spending it on our slaves.”

Alphael – “Your information is accurate.”

Egmond – “Now, we do not have any slaves at the moment.”

Lanaya – “There’s plenty available in Avem.”

Egmond – “True, but if we intend to capture them, it would mean risking my men. Why would I ask them to take more risks when I could simply take your gold from you?”

Lanaya – “If you even dare to try, you’ll lose far more in the process than what you’d be taking.”

Egmond – “Be careful with your words, Lanaya; my patience has its limit.”

The two fighters glared at each other, ready to draw their weapons.

Alphael – “If I may, I would like to answer your request by a proposal.”

Egmond – “You may proceed.”

Alphael – “Before anything, while I have no doubt about both of your fighting skills, I would probably get cut apart as a casualty, so could we keep it civilised?”

Egmond – “Let’s follow your friend’s advice, Lanaya.”

Lanaya – “It would be for both of our interests, indeed.”

The two of them took a slow breath.

Egmond – “What’s this proposal of yours?”

Alphael – “I travel every year to the East to sell spices, gems, books, and many other things before walking back south, but bringing too much gold brings a lot of unwanted attention, which forces me to hire more and more mercenaries every year.”

Egmond – “Get to the point.”

Alphael – “I would like to establish a trade route with you, king of the North.”

The Kalator lord burst into laughter.

Egmond – “King of the North, eh? Trying to please with words, aren’t you?”

Alphael – “Well, once you take the Vale, you will be ruling the northern side of the Union, and since you most likely aren’t part of the Union anymore, it makes you the highest in the hierarchy, doesn’t it?”

Egmond – “Except I won’t own the Northeast.”

Alphael – “The Northeast isn’t as far north as the North of the Union.”

Egmond – “That is correct, I suppose . . . but I’m not really into these titles. As for the trade route, it certainly would be of good interest, but what makes you think we’ll have slaves to sell next year?”

Alphael – “Since you’ll be at war with the Union, I suppose raiding their village won’t be too hard, and you’ll need a good contact with the East if you ever want to buy their supplies.”

Egmond – “You’re starting to pique my interest. Keep talking.’’

Alphael – “I am ready to pay for every slave you can get from Avem during this siege. I will then return to the East and travel south to sell them. Next year, I will come north again. To buy more slaves, if you have captured any and when the need for supplies will rise, I could act as a good diplomat for the East since I know them quite well.”

Egmond – “And why would you do that for me?”

Alphael – “Well, I’m a merchant; I have a price, and I can be paid in many ways. From the look of it, the ground won’t bring anything for now, but next year and the subsequent ones, once the soil will have nourished itself from the ashes, surely, I’ll find something of interest. Oats, hops, wheat, fishery, or even ales if you produce any.’’

Egmond – “Alright! What is your offer per slave?”

Alphael – “Well, it depends on their conditions. I would like to see the stock before judging.”

Egmond – “How about 80 Utos per slave?”

Alphael – “That’s far too much. I would hardly go beyond 20 Utos per slave.”

Egmond – “Twenty? You must be kidding. You’ll sell each of them for 10 times that amount.”

Alphael – “Well, I will have to pay for their food, and many of them will die in travel. Besides, I doubt you will sell them to the Union. Maybe for the nobles as ransom, but you definitely won’t sell them the farmers and I don’t think you can afford to feed the slaves either. If you sell them to me at a low price, you’ll get money and avoid the need to kill them all, which means you might be able to negotiate a peace treaty before the end of your siege. And while we are at it, keeping some of them alive won’t be hard since many won’t take part in battle. Once you’ll have killed their soldiers, which you most likely will, those who didn’t fight will still be alive, so it won’t make your siege harder to spare them.”

Egmond – “You’re quite greedy.”

Alphael – “No, I’m giving a reasonable offer to a reasonable king.”

Egmond – “How about 60 Utos per slave, and I’ll give you one month of food supply per slave.”

Alphael – “Thirty per slave, and their food supplies for 20 days.”

Egmond – “Fifty per slave, and their food supplies for 20 days.”

Alphael – “Thirty-five and 10 days of supplies.”

Egmond – “Forty and their food supplies for 10 days.”

Alphael – “If they are wounded, it will lower their value.”

Egmond – “And if I make sure their wounds are healed?”

Alphael – “If they are missing limbs, I won’t buy them.”

Egmond – “Of course. I’m talking about light wounds. Do we have a deal?”

Alphael – “If their wounds look too severe, I’ll buy them for 10 Utos.”

Egmond – “Accepted.”

Alphael – “I also want to borrow the required ropes to tie my slaves together.”

Egmond – “Only if there’s no further request.”

Alphael – “Then we have a deal!”

Egmond – “Good! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a siege to attend to.”

Lanaya – “It’s been a pleasure!”

Egmond – “Oh, Lanaya, you know what would be a pleasure? If you could ask your sorcerer to make something to stimulate the soldiers operating the trebuchet. That would be a pleasure.”

Lanaya – “May I ask why?”

Egmond – “We’ll keep launching rocks the whole night.”

Lanaya – “I’ll give him a word.”

In the darkness of her jail, Vatra was cleaning herself. Once she had finished and was about to put her clothing back on, she noticed that they now felt dirty, so she cleaned them as well. At that moment, she heard the sound of the door being unlocked, so she picked up her sword and went to the side of the jail to hide. When the door opened, Vatra noticed Ethen coming through the door with a pile of clothing.

Ethen – “Varla?”

Vatra – “Yeah?”

Ethen – “I’ve brought you a new set of clothing, armour, a bow, and 10 arrows.”

Vatra – “Leave them on the ground; I’ll come outside in an instant.”

Ethen – “Oh, I see . . . Umm . . . I’ll go back to the front. Cross the northern drawbridge and seek me at the west side of the lowland. I’ll be near the large pile of wood.”

Vatra heard the jail’s door closing, and she looked toward the entrance to make sure no one was there.

Sigh . . . I shouldn’t be so frightened . . .

Vatra geared up, and a quarter-hour later, she opened the door of the jail and walked outside. She was dazed by the light of the sun piercing through the few hovering clouds. The warm sunrays heated her body as she closed her eyes and lifted her face towards the sky. She felt like a lotus emerging from the water to face the moon. She felt a shiver through her whole body as she breathed slowly.

The air . . .