The Storm Cometh
“Well, this is it,” Siabrey muttered. Long before her shimmering dress and tiara had been left behind, and her long blonde hair was now tightly bound in its normal single braid. Kelir clinked at her side, the black washazaki taken from Shivalas’ body rapping against the steel of her katana.
“As enormous as this wall is,” Shaun breathed quietly, “I don’t doubt the Countess could break through.”
The party started to mount the stairs on the inward side of the wall, bathed in a massive red glow as the sun setting gloriously behind them showered the white with crimson light. The climb seemed endless, and the view of the city from fifty feet up along the edge of one of the squat towers was magnificent. The view from the other side, however, left a great deal to be desired...
The killing fields, ran through Tess’ mind, as she leaned over the edge of the battlements, temporarily by herself as the others set about setting up the defenses.
Below them stretched the ravine the generals had described... it was bare of vegetation, save a scrub plant here and there. Mostly it was dried, baked earth, beaten down by the sun. Rocks peeked through cracks in the dirt, just below the surface.
The ground is so hard, there’s no soil to bury a man in his grave, Tess thought sullenly.
The ravine stretched some 300 yards away, at which point the whites of the cliffs that bordered the eastern edge of the city began. As the party looked up the sheer 300 foot rise, they could see small pinpricks of people still shuttling about, getting into position.
“A damn ugly place to die,” Tess heard a voice, and smiled as the voice of Harrapias carried over her ears. “You never contact me,” he smiled as she turned around, “none of you. I felt abandoned!”
“Greetings, Your Excellency,” Tess bowed with a grin. Harrapias had been one of her favorite priests of Hieroneous... while he was a High Priest, he was not nearly as stuffish as some she’d met. He gave her a nod and a grin, and joined her in leaning over the battlement.
“This is a primed killing field, Excellency,” she said after a moment. She turned, as he was nodding in agreement.
“They’re going to come from that way,” he pointed down the wall, towards the south, “the whole way being shot at from our walls. Once they get up here, they get pummeled from us, and from the cliffs.” He stopped his musings for a minute, before turning to Tess with a fierce grin. “I don’t think they’re have enough carts in the province to pick up all the orc and demon bodies.”
Tess smiled. “I doubt they will, Excellency.”
“This, is how you draw the bow,” Siabrey shouted towards the throng in front of her. She’d taken notice that while many of the non-soldiers manning the walls had excellent, if ancient, shortbows, few had any idea how to use them. On her section, at least, everyone had been gathered, and now several hundred eager students watched two masters, as Shaun demonstrated as she talked.
“You first pull back the drawstring, as far as you can. Hold it steady...” she continued.
Beside her, Elenya and Orion were teaching another group of commoners the basics of wall defense. No boards were left to build proper archer barricades on top of the battlements, but several nearby houses had been looted of tables, chairs, and other light furniture, and improvised protection was being set in place.
“...then, after you’ve sighted your target, then you release!” Siabrey called, and Shaun let loose a flaming arrow that hit his improvised target dead on... at 100 yards. “Of course,” Siabrey added with a smile, “your arrows will not be made of flame, but they can cause pain nonetheless!”
The noise of a throat clearing echoed behind Siabrey, and she turned to see a messenger clad in Imperial colors patiently waiting.
“Shaun, take over if you please,” she asked, before turning to face the man.
“Your Majesty,” he bowed politely, “Madame... Alisandra wishes me to inform you that she has changed the battleplan for her unit.”
Changed the dragon’s battleplan? Why? Siabrey’s mind instantly reacted. She let none of the anxiety through, as she motioned for the young man to continue.
“She said she shall post her troops up on the cliffs, and from there they’ll quote on quote, ‘rain hell down on the orcs.’”
Siabrey gave an entirely un-royal giggle. The language sounded like Alisandra, and what the dragon was doing became immediately apparent. This was the threatened area... and she was shifting all her forces here to launch a devastating surprise attack.
All we need to do is pin them here, against the wall... and her dragons can then have thousands of sitting targets... brilliant!
Several more hours passed by, as Siabrey made her official station on the top of the tower where the party was, and a constant stream of messengers came and left with reports and progress.
“General Diogenes reports scouts have sighted orcs 2 miles from the south wall. General Wynlis reports his bombards are ready to fire. Sir Santac reports that his people are, ‘ready for a scrap.’” Siabrey sighed as she finished reading the messages. She had previously had her feet propped up as she read the streams of notes, but now she took them back down and stood. A glance to the south showed the lightning was arcing very close... and it was very few seconds afterwards that thunder rumbled after each stroke. Siabrey glanced down at Kelir, which rested on the stool she’d been sitting at.
...When the shadows of the damned fight, when the whirlwind of fury comes, when souls are torn to everlasting death…there one shall stand... she looked at the last section of the Sylvan writing on the sword. Her father, what seemed like a lifetime ago, had told her what it meant.
Well... if there’s ever a ‘whirlwind of fury’ I think we’re about to be in the middle of it, she thought quietly to herself.
Don’t be so dour, Kelir’s voice came into her head. You’ll do fine, child. I’m a sharp blade. And you wield me... reasonably well, the sword said quietly, and Siabrey had to smile.
You understand sarcasm... Impressive, she thought.
I understand you... I think that’s far more impressive, Kelir rejoined.
“The troops are in position,” Shaun heard one of the officers that arrived soon after say. Siabrey nodded to him, as the man continued to talk... stating there were 20,000 on the city walls, prepared to defend Irulas tooth and nail, though only 10,000 of those were real soldiers.
20,000, at best... versus at least 60,000! Not good odds... not good odds at all, Shaun thought as he glanced over the rough fields in front of them in the growing gloom. With each flash of blue lightning, the ground before them shown white, as if snow laid there in pack. With each red flash, the ground glowed as if it was a sea of blood.
Then again... considering my life, he thought, looking at Elenya focusing on a spellbook, I’ve been a betting man. The sight of her caused his heart to swell with love and pride... just as much as it did with fear and concern. He’d tried to argue with her to stay off the battlements, but she was her usual stubborn self.
As she looked up and gave him a distant grin, he felt something wet hit his head, and other things slowly float down in front of his eyes. They were small... cold... and red...
What? his brain said, confused. Red snow? he squinched his nose, looking up, and realized that indeed, red colored snow was falling from the sky. Blood snow. Falling now in massive amounts.
“What is this abomination?” he heard a voice from on the wall call. A commoner. “Snow colored with blood!? Hide! Get away from it!” others called, and a rumbling began on that section of the wall which leaned closer and closer to becoming a panic.
“Hey!” Shaun dashed the few yards over to where the frightened men and women were. “Hey... look! Its snow!” he shouted, gathering some of the increasing piles in his hands.
“Look!” he said, as he rubbed it on his face. “Its just snow! Watch, I’ll make a snowman!” After a few minutes, he’d piled upon enough that a crude, lopsided snowman now leaned against one of the battlements. For added effect, he grabbed the helmet Elenya insisted he wear, and stuffed it on the snowman’s head.
“See! Nothing to be afraid of!” Shaun called as a few of the braver commoners snickered. From the other side of hte tower, he could distantly hear Siabrey claiming she’d eat some to prove it wasn’t bad. There was a few minutes of silence, before a loud voice cried in a lower class accent.
“The ma’ams nuts! T’ree cheers for da nuts Empress!”
The distant roar of a hundred or so voices cheering rumbled over the wall, and Shaun couldn’t suppress his smirk.
“Well, we do have one thing to fear... her,” he pointed as she leaned over the tower battlement.
The darkness of dusk rapidly began to fade even darker, and as the party reassembled on the top of the tower battlements, they heard it.
It sounded like a distant boom... a rumble. Not quite like thunder... more dull, with a pap kind of noise in front. It came from the south, and everyone’s eyes quickly went in that direction. From the far, distant southern ramparts, flashes could be seen, and a gloomy smoke pall began to rise.
“The bombards,” Tess said quietly. “The Countess has arrived.”
