Chapter 36

Year 163 – Fall – Quintus Mensis – 4th day

Avem, town of House Valmai, land of the Vale

During the night, Vatra woke up to the sound of a scream coming from far away. She grabbed her sword and ran outside. The screams weren’t close; they were coming from the northern side of the river.

They are fighting!

Vatra ran back into the jail and quickly geared up. Once she was fully armoured, she left the jail and jogged through the main road until she reached the northern fort. No one was at the drawbridge. Vatra crossed it and walked up to the fort to see further away.

Where are they fighting? Are they not? But I heard screams . . .

Hardly any soldiers were on the western side of the wall. They had retreated to the southeast of their position.

A soldier – “Hey! You! What are you doing up here?”

Vatra turned around. A soldier of the Frey was there.

Vatra – “I . . . I’m . . .”

The soldier – “You’re hiding?”

Vatra – “I’m seeking Ethen!”

The soldier – “Ethen?”

Vatra – “The Eagle of Vale!”

The soldier – “So you came up here?”

Vatra – “I sought the Eagle, I have a report for him, but I couldn’t find him! I went up here to have a better view! Do you know where he is?”

The soldier – “He’s with General Thorkel. They are trying to organise the counter-attack with the trebuchet.”

Vatra – “I see. I’ll be going then!”

As Vatra passed by his side, he grabbed her by the shoulder.

The soldier – “Hold on, have I seen you before?”

Vatra – “I was on guard duty on the wall yesterday.”

The soldier – “No. You look like the girl who got arrested the other day!”

Vatra took a deep breath.

Vatra – “Are you accusing me of treachery?”

The soldier – “I’m saying you look like her!”

Vatra pushed his hand away and turned toward him.

Vatra – “You seek our help in our land. We let you sleep in our homes with our beds and feed you with our food, and you dare to accuse me of treachery? In the middle of the night when we can barely see our faces? The shape of my head looks like someone else’s?”

The soldier – “Eh . . . I mean.”

Vatra jabbed her finger in his face while looking at him right in the eyes.

Vatra – “If you want to accuse any girl with dark hair, how about you come with me and find the Eagle? I’m sure he’ll be pleased to waste his time with that pettiness of yours.”

The soldier – “I just mistook you for someone else. It really takes a girl to get mad about that.”

Vatra – “I’ll be going. I have more important matters to attend to.”

She looked to the west, and once she spotted the trebuchet, she jogged toward it. As she got closer, she understood what was happening; many large rocks had crashed into the wall. One of them had crushed someone. Blood was splashed all over the rubble. Tens of men were wounded from the many impacts. The Eagle was helping his men move a rock all the way to their trebuchet.

Vatra – “My Eagle!”

Ethen turned his head around a few times and spotted her.

Ethen – “Keep pushing!”

He walked to her, baffled.

Ethen – “What are you doing here?”

Vatra – “I heard screams. I thought they were attacking.”

Ethen – “I wish they were attacking.”

Vatra – “So, they aren’t?”

Ethen – “No, they resumed launching rocks in the middle of the night, so we can’t see them come from the sky. We’ve evacuated the western side of the wall except for a few scouts. If they send an assault, we’ll know, but for now, they are just keeping us awake. As long as we don’t see their trebuchet, we can’t attack it. We’ve launched three rocks in its general direction, but I think we’ve missed all three.”

Vatra – “Can I help?”

Ethen – “Not really. Go to sleep. I want you to be alert and awake tomorrow.”

Vatra – “You should sleep, too.”

Ethen – “I’ve slept two hours. I’ll be fine. I’ve had much worse.”

Vatra – “Where do I seek you tomorrow?”

Ethen – “Either on the wall if they are attacking or I’ll be building a second trebuchet if they aren’t.”

Vatra – “Then I’ll be going.”

Ethen – “Sleep well. It’s a siege. It won’t end tomorrow.”

Vatra left and carefully waited near the fort to make sure the guard wasn’t there anymore. A short while later, she walked through the drawbridge and entered the town again. She walked all the way to the jail and reopened the door. It was warmer than outside, but it smelled of moisture. She walked down the stairs, which were illuminated by the two candles. Her stress had run off, and a rush of fatigue reached her. Barely had she lay on her bed when she fell asleep.

Later in the morning, as the shades of sunlight were barely reaching the horizon, Atilos left for his morning walk. Following the river shore to the west, he saw a few stones marked with blood. Atilos looked at the sky to contemplate the first light of dawn. The sky was cloudier than usual. Atilos crouched and stroked the grass. It was dry.

Atilos – “No morning dew, eh?”

He looked around. No one followed him. He walked to the blood-marked stone and dug into the dirt beneath it until he reached a bag. He opened it and saw five golden coins with the Union stamp hammered on them. The bundle was joined by a letter. He took the 1,200 Utos and the letter before burying the bag back into the ground and leaving the area as he continued his walk.

Later, as the sun fiercely rose in the sky, Atilos moved his eye patch to cover his left eye from the sunlight. He then walked toward the crucified prisoners while sharpening his dagger. The Kalator were moving their trebuchet back to safety.

Trygve – “You went for a walk?”

Atilos – “Yeah, but I haven’t found any prey.”

Trygve – “Hunting during a siege is harsh.”

Atilos – “Especially with a burned forest.”

Trygve – “What do you think of the sky?”

Atilos – “It’ll rain either tonight or tomorrow.”

Trygve – “If you had to guess, which one?”

Atilos – “I’d guess tonight. There’s no morning dew.”

As he reached his destination, Atilos took a wooden stick he had left nearby the many crosses. He poked the prisoners’ heads one after the other to figure out which ones were alive. Three of them had died of hunger and were rotting under the sunlight. When Atilos found a living one, he dropped the stick and held the prisoner’s leg while slicing a large lump of flesh with his dagger. The man yelled out in pain in a coarse voice before losing consciousness. Atilos walked to his bird while cutting the lump into pieces of fresh meat. Atilos released a small whistle, and his bird woke up.

Atilos – “I’ve brought breakfast!”

His bird was looking at him with anticipation. Atilos threw a small piece above Dusk’s head. In one swift move, Dusk clapped his beak onto the flesh pieces and swallowed it right away. Atilos untied his leg, and Dusk flew up to his shoulder.

Atilos – “You see this city? It will be ours soon.”

The two of them looked at the city, warmed by the rising sun.

Atilos – “You know what, Dusk? I think the day has arrived.”

Once Dusk finished eating his meal, he stretched his wings and looked at Atilos.

Atilos – “Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Atilos raised his arm, and Dusk perched himself on his hand. Atilos then launched Dusk forward, and Dusk kept soaring upward for thousands of feet before gliding in a large circle. Atilos walked toward the large tent, which had been set up for the war council. As he arrived, Ludger was already there, looking at the sky.

Ludger – “It will rain tomorrow.”

Atilos – “No, tonight.”

Ludger – “No, tomorrow morning.”

Atilos – “I think we should attack today.”

Ludger – “Tell it to the council.”

Atilos – “I’ll do it, but I’d like to know if you’ll support my proposal.”

Ludger – “Probably.”

When all the members finally arrived, the sun was still rising.

Egmond – “It’s been two days since we arrived, and we still haven’t done anything.”

Trygve – “We wounded quite a few people last night with the trebuchet, and I would expect that many of their soldiers stayed awake.”

Egmond – “True, but so did a few hundred of our men.”

Varok – “A siege is supposed to take a while. The Frey castle was taken by black magic, not by a conventional siege.”

Egmond – “About that, Lanaya, when will he be ready to use it?”

Lanaya – “In about 6 to 10 days, depending on the moisture of the air, but if the air gets damp due to the rain, it could take longer.”

Amund – “A single trebuchet won’t be effective. We’ll need his black magic.”

Trygve – “Not effective? Have you seen those breaches in the wall? There’s like 12 of them.”

Amund – “If you replace a well-made wall with a large boulder, it is still blocking the way.”

Varok – “Besides, they’ve already begun filling the breaches with dirt and wood.”

Egmond – “True, but it looks messy from afar. I’d bet it’ll be easy to climb when we attack.”

Trygve – “Well, it’s way better than what all of you accomplished together since we arrived.”

Egmond – “Trygve, we aren’t demeaning your work, but your men are tired and we are running low on stones.”

Trygve – “New stones will arrive within three days.”

Atilos – “No, they won’t. It’ll rain tonight, so they’ll be stuck in the mud. They’ll arrive in four days at best. We should attack today.”

Egmond – “Explain yourself.”

Atilos – “It’s been two days since we arrived, and it’s getting cloudy. They’ve been on watch all night long, and they are tired. They have to watch the sky to avoid getting splattered by large rocks, and they probably believed we’d attack during the night. Some of them have been watching soldiers they knew slowly rot away. Waiting is tiresome, much more than it seems. I’ve noticed quite a few of them sitting on the wall this morning. They won’t be able to fight to the best of their ability. They’ve begun to think that we’ll wait for a conventional siege. Once the rain falls, the ground will get muddy, and we won’t be able to attack for days. They’ll have the time to sleep. They’ll be stronger.”

Mundric – “True, but a siege takes time. We can always wait for their rations to go low; they’ve allowed too many refugees into their town. These mouths will either empty their reserve or turn against them if they starve. We’ve brought pigs and cattle, as well as all the food supplies of the Frey, Rust-Fell, and Tree-Fall. We can last nearly all the way to the beginning of the new year. I don’t think they’ll last that long.”

Ludger – “In fact, we have enough for about 137 days worth of food, which would lead us to the sixth of Octavus Mensis, so we’ll be a month short from the new year.”

Mundric – “We’ll still have enough to pass winter. We can wait!”

Atilos – “We don’t have wood to build shelter.”

Varok – “No, but we have charcoal all around the ground. We could collect, build our shelter underground, and heat ourselves with it. We don’t have a clock to attack.”

Egmond – “True, but I’d rather take Avem before the winter. Don’t forget we’ll have to fight the Union next year. I want to let my men heal from their wounds after the siege.”

Trygve – “My men are too tired to fight.”

Egmond – “They won’t have to. Now, before we began the assault, I’d like to hear any proposals for alternative plans of action.”

Mundric – “We could wait for the night and cross the river before the rain arrived. They won’t expect an assault from the south during a rainfall.”

Atilos – “The mud would make our assault really hard and we won’t be able to bring our provisions. It’s way too risky.”

Bjarne – “I say we take their wall.”

Lanaya – “I don’t like the idea of going south and leaving our resources behind.”

Varok – “Their soldiers are fatigued. They’ve been on the lookout for two days now. Their morale is definitely not as high as when we first arrived.”

Egmond – “Ludger, what do you think?”

Ludger – “Our men will fight harder if they believe in the task.”

Egmond – “Then it is decided; we’ll attack today. I want our soldiers to move in a shield formation to the east gate to protect our archers. Once their attention is on our strongly armoured infantry, our militia will breach their defences at the west gate.”

Bjarne – “I don’t want the militia to be ladder carriers.”

Lanaya – “I’ll go with the militia. We’ll take care of four ladders.”

Atilos – “I’ll go with them; we’ll take four ladders as well.”

Egmond – “The rest of you will come with us to the east. If you’re unable to break in, don’t waste your life. Either join forces with someone else or retreat temporarily.”

The soldiers then prepared themselves for the battle. Gearing up and setting in formation.