Corvayne raced towards Ebolt. The coastal city was built on a rise above the floodplains of a river that had carved huge canyon marking the northern boundry of the High plains. The plateau he had been flying over dropped away, and the hard packed dirt had become a proper road flanked with yellow grass waiting for spring. Right now Corvayne had more then a few carts, donkeys, and people people bowed over with luggage under him, a snake of animals people and goods all trying to get away from Ebolt.
The city fit paintings he'd seen of fortresses that had grown into cities. A sizable keep had been placed on a hill, and a ring of walls with a few extensions provided it and part of the town defenses, sloping down to where the docks pushed out into a broad ocean. Corvayne was a little surprised that there were walls at all, given that there had been an incredible artifact that repelled invaders north of town. Maybe the walls were build when it was someone else's keep, and post empire was where a large part of town was outside protection grew from.
The town had a pretty good view of the coast and the surrounding lands between it and the steep mountains that rose to flank the river. From what Corvayne saw, it looked like an army could follow a road around the keep, but it seemed that it came down to bridges and fords if they wanted to press pass Ebolt. One bridge, the biggest and likely strongest one, was in the middle of town and had been built to handle multiple carts rolling over it, side by side. It had been there a long time, made of the same dark stone as the walls. Possibly the majority of fortifications were entirely blocks cannibalized from the high plains. He saw another bridge just north of the city that was stone work and something like a three section arch. Finally, a wood bridge further up stream that had stone and mortar bases on sandbars to support it.
The Princess, right behind him, was still not comfortable at the speed he was going, nor was she ready for him to slow down mid-air as he tried to assess what was the most likely results of the incoming army, as well as where the defenders were.
“Bell, how far is The Empire's wall from here?”
“What?!”
Corvayne leaned forward a little, and felt her lean with him. He couldn't see what she was doing, but had a guess. “Open your eyes. Please.”
“We're too far up!”
Spears pulled her hover-bike over to them, the back almost comically loaded up with gear. Next to her, Reaper's bike slowed to a crawl as well. Spears was willing to fight with them, but Reaper had stated he wasn't sure about killing people who hadn't done anything to him, and Corvayne had given him a pass to just help carry stuff that Mosh had been cooking up for them anyway.
“Bell. I need to know more about this area. If not from you, someone who's going to be trying to set up the defenses.”
“Hmmf. Fine! Get me closer to the ground!”
Corvayne managed to glance behind him. “You have to open your eyes to tell.”
He mentally blocked out Spears laughing. Wasn't anyone else concerned about the army headed their way? He sighed and took them down a few feet. “Okay, where to?”
“If there's a commander, he's in the keep.”
Corvayne wanted to hit himself. That seemed pretty obvious. “Right. I'll go look right now.”
Bell started to protest and he just said, “Hold on.” over her, as after all this was more or less a favor to her. That and an attempt to buy enough time to do the stupid quests now instead of adding on retaking a pile of dirt from them. He aimed for a high balcony, one a good hundred feet up, with the assumption that landing on top of a keep with an imperial princess was good enough for entry at whatever table of power he needed.
He saw a guy in expensive clothes and a nice looking red cape surveying what was likely going to be the battlefield, so he pulled up next to the fellow which caused the man to turn then startle and call, “Guards!”
He sounded pretty theatrical when he spoke. The man's face was pretty red, and he looked stressed. Shakespeare mode might help? Corvayne did a little bow in his seat. “Peace milord, and apologies for any rudeness. May I introduce her Imperial Highness, Princess Bell.”
Bell was about to stand up so Corvayne quickly pressed his hands into her legs to stop her from doing something that would cause her to fall. She jabbed her thumb into his side but cleared her throat and spoke in her usual haughty tone.
“Indeed. I assume you are Lord Kerrington, whom is in charge of Ebolt?”
The same sort of complex emotions the soldiers had shown when faced with the princess played the lord's face before he remembered his station and bowed to her. “Princess, I am pleased to see you and saddened that I could not give you a proper greeting due to circumstances, and I bear you ill news on top of that, you're-”
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“Stop. Stand up. I want you to tell this man everything you can about the situation. He is my chosen general-” Wait, Princess. What? Corvayne had only signed up to do some booby traps, maybe take out the leader of the entire operation if there was a good clean shot at it. “-and as skilled a warrior as could be imagined, a fighter on par with my own father, His Eminence himself.” What was up with the weird quiver in her voice when she said that? Corvayne then saw that the lord of the castle was looking at him like a man sinking in quicksand might consider a rope, and he knew he was in trouble.
First, he'd try to level with the man. “I cannot save this city. What I can do is slow their army down, forcing them to either advance slowly or stop them dead for a few days while they determine what they are facing.”
“A warrior like yourself would be worth a thousand men, assuming of course you did not use some sly slight of hand to trick our courageous princess.”
[[Understanding]] helped translate something he might have taken at face value: 'I don't trust what the princess says because I know who she is. Got anyone else?'
Corvayne nodded. “I would have brought Miss Undine along, but she had left for another adventure. I trust she spoke true when she said she was unable to properly assess me because my 'Advancement' was too high.”
The man let himself have a ghost of a smile. “My word, it's good to see her grow so reliable in our darkest hour.”
Translation: 'Why the hell are you here with HER then?' or 'How in the nine hells did she convince someone like him to ferry her around?'
Banter aside, the man made room and gestured, and Corvayne set his bike down on the tower then turned and held a hand up. Spears and Reaper set theirs to float as Corvayne stepped out from the balcony into a dinning room that was being refit into a war room, as evidenced by silverware piled in a corner, a waiters cart holding figures, and someone pulling a map out of a hand-powered dumbwaiter.
Lord Kerrington took a gloved finger and jabbed at the map unfurling. Corvayne could see a thick black line where his finger was.
“The Prince fell and with him the wall. That was 2 days ago. Reports from the troops fleeing ahead of the breach suggest that the first opposition could be as soon as tomorrow at midday. Given that the Raven's troops are mostly irregulars, many of them chased after our men and ended up over extended. That gives me hope they will not be well organized, but more likely it means we'll have attackers staggering into our lands aiming to pillage before the main forces march along the beach.”
“Are there ways around this city? Like, mountain passes, or areas where they can enter then exit the canyon?”
The man drew his finger along a wavy line. “There's a bridge over here that would let them circumvent our city entirely to roam across the high plains.”
“Was. I destroyed the stone bridge.”
“Good. Even with earth shaping, half the bridge being gone might buy us months, and it could be an opportunity for us to pick off the mages and engineers his army has hired or conscripted that are working on the project. There is a pass here and here, but both them are exhausting trails and at this time of year. Right now every path would alternate between ice and mud. You could march men through single file...”
“But a few locals with spears could hold them up for weeks, or longer if they also take out their bridges.”
“I had runners going out to the villages asking them to obstruct those paths, and sent a few of the men who are keen to earn a larger commission for their widows and orphans.”
Bell broke into the conversation. “You should have promised them glory.”
Kerrington shook his head. “Your Majesty, glory is for winners. This is us buying time for the empire to evacuate it's most loyal citizens and prepare for large scale battles at the cities across the high plains.”
“And give up this territory?”
Corvayne put a hand up. “The high plains is too much land to cross casually with an army. There's barely anything to eat, it's broken up by streams that chill soldiers and make them more likely to get sick, and the locals have been secretly arming themselves with magic items out of The Source for centuries. If you lose sight of the stone lines you can walk for days and not tell where you've gone. It's freezing down here, and worse up there with the endless whipping winds. I think our plan is to cause some chaos and take out the bridges north of here. I use my tricks to blow up siege weapons and anyone smart enough to put them together. If they can't breach the walls, then good luck trying to dig through mud to attack the foundation. I don't see many trees around here, either, so making new weapons means they have to roll all the way down the coast from wherever this Raven guy is operating out of.”
Kerrington shook his head. “The numbers I've been hearing are estimates of a million troops. I wouldn't be so sure he's going to stop, but you are also right that I wouldn't go tromping across the plains unless it was summer. I suspect The Raven's goal is just to take my city. He can carve his chunk out of the empire later.”
Bell turned on him but the lord held his hand up. “Your father is getting older. Too old to teleport every time something happens. If he's sitting on anyone else who can channel the artifacts, now's the time to roll them out. Otherwise, it hardly matters which side of our empire buckles first.”
The Princess was about to argue or point out that saying so bluntly would be grounds for treason, but she stopped. It stood to assume that Kerrington saying what Hari knew months ago about the empire hardly mattered.
“No aces on the table? Then we must defend our lands... as we did before we joined the Empire hundreds and hundreds of years ago. With steel, stone, and cunning.”
Corvayne looked at the map, and then looked up. “I have the sum of the situation. I will attempt to buy your fleeing citizens time. Do you have plans to sunder your northern bridges?”
Kerrington nodded. “A damn shame about it, since we were hoping to build another. The wood one will burn, and I have dispatched men to destroy the second one with elbow grease. Should they wish to cross our little river, they will swim or have to properly answer our walls. That's assuming they don't have scores of mages to throw at the problem.”
Corvanye looked at the man. “Do you?”
“A few old spell slingers and a few army mages who made it off the wall. Good for earth works and a few fire balls, but little else.”
Corvayne nodded. “Then, put them to use shoring up your defenses.” He hefted a bag full of his own explosives and the unused bombs from the engineers. “I'm going to go work on tipping the scales back in our favor.”