On the way back to Metzre they encountered a decreasing number of refugees. Some had been on the road since the night before and didn’t know anything about the fighting being over. But as the day went on, fewer and fewer came and they spoke of decreased fighting, but beyond that they were pretty vague.

From their stories, though, Metzre had not been burned to the ground, levelled, or flattened. Some spoke in hyperbolic terms about personal loss, and it was clear that the fighting had not left the place untouched. But as the stories spread there was less and less trouble herding the civilians, as Major Kanni had put it. They were all eager to get home.

As night approached, the town came into view. It looked unchanged from a distance. No columns of thick smoke could be seen, and the castle still stood. The lowering light of the sun did catch that the flag flying over the castle was not the Metzre family crest, but an Imperial eagle.

That was enough for Delta. She pulled the cart over to the side, and just got out of the way. The rest could make it home themselves. They watched them file past, all eyes eagerly forward. A few did take the time to notice them and offer thanks.

The rearguard caught up with their position, mostly comprised of the Amazon mercenary recruits. “Did we leave anyone behind?” asked Delta.

“A few carts broke down”, said the senior most. “With us ahead, and the others at the other end, they were happy enough to take their chances on the causeway. It’s not an easy thing to get on from the swamp side.”

“Best we camp here”, said Delta. “Just in case someone gets ideas and tries to go down the road.” She looked to the town and back. “Will you join us? Or do you want to find where quarters are in town?”

They discussed it themselves for a while. The consensus was to take their meal here, and then see what the quarter situation was in town.

So, they lit a small fire in the middle of the road and broke out what food they had left. They swapped some information on what campaigns they had been on, and who paid the best and who to avoid.

“Are you going to join up?” asked Aella after a while, the leader of the Marauders. “You’d get a commission, no problem.”

“I’m not sure that’s what I want”, said Delta. “I didn’t ask for the commission I have.”

“Yeah”, said Aella, “they don’t promise not to split you up. But there’s talk they’re going to re-institute one of the three Amazon armies.” There were general murmurs of enthusiasm from the rest. “They’ve been disbanded for a hundred or so years, but they think they might even be able to find the original standard.”

“That sounds exciting”, said Delta, without a lot of sincerity. “But we’re not Amazons.”

Aella waved them off. “It’s a state of mind.” She leaned closer. “The point is, that there will be lots of room at the top. Some of the mercs who joined early have risen pretty high. Some are even in the inner circle.”

Delta shrugged. “Rising through the ranks isn’t really my goal.” She nodded towards Zipper and Gwen. “I’m happy with my crew. I might round us up to a full six. If we find the right people.”

“I have to admit”, said Aella, “the pay sucks. But it’s regular. Same with the food. We hit some short times a while back. They weren’t happy times. So, I’ll put up with the pay for a full belly and something to do.”

Zipper couldn’t contain herself anymore. “Doesn’t this whole ‘conquer the world’ thing bother you?” she said, exasperated. “I mean, it’s clear nonsense. It’s a fairy tale. Don’t you feel you’re being led on?”

Aella looked at her, considering, as if the question had never occurred to her. “I guess it might be. But, for now, that’s above my pay grade.”

“What about when it isn’t?” asked Zipper. “Say you rise up to an officer in this new Amazon Army”, she wiggled her fingers. “Then it will be your job to sell that nonsense to new recruits.”

The Amazon looked a little annoyed now. “After the Amazon armies revolted, they marched three times around Romitu city, and no one would say ‘boo’ to them. Who’s to say we won’t do that again?”

Delta put her hand on Zipper’s arm. “Let’s just leave it at that”, she said. “Right now, I’m pretty good with our flexibility. I’ve met a lot of the troops, and they seem good people. But I don’t know what the man at the top is like.” She nodded towards the town. “I’ve met Count Metzre. He’s not bad, for a noble. But his men are cacamas.” She used a goblin insult she had come to like the sound of. “I’m not ready to pick a side.”

Aella seemed a bit insulted that their General would be considered alongside of the Avenio Count. But she didn’t pursue it. They chatted about some inconsequential things a bit longer, and then decided it was time to see if there was a mess tent in town with a second dinner.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Fanatics”, said Zipper, when she was mostly sure they were out of earshot.

“Is patriotism not just a color of fanaticism?” asked Delta, semi-rhetorically.

Zipper grumped a bit more, but let it go. After a while she asked, “What’s the real reason we’re camping out here tonight?”

The fire had burned down a bit, and Delta busied herself adding a few more sticks of the ones they had scavenged. “I guess I’d like to first see the city by day.”

“We’ve seen it already”, said Zipper. “It’s not that scenic.”

“I want to see how they have conducted their war”, said Delta. “I want to see what approach they took to it, where they attacked, what damage they did and did not do.”

“And you don’t want to just ask someone?” said Zipper, less testy.

“That’s right”, said Delta. “They didn’t tell us anything about this. Or the refugee camp before we were doing it. They’ve made a lot of plans. And they haven’t told us about them.”

“They’re not going to tell us about them”, said Zipper.

“That’s right”, said Delta. “They’re not. So, the better I understand their plans, and how they plan, the better plans I can make for us.”

“Huh”, said Zipper, poking at the fire in her turn. “I’m glad I wasn’t the tallest one on that field when we met.”

Gwen was alert and watching the conversation. It wasn’t clear how much she understood, but she was following it back and forth. “Blow wind leaf”, she said. “Know direction good.”

Delta smiled and nodded. “Best I can. Best I can.”

There was very little traffic on the road that night. But just enough to justify them guarding it. They rose at first light, packed up their camp, and made their own way to the town.

Delta set them going in a wide arc around the outskirts of the town. The road to Bourger started out to the west, before curving north to the causeway. There was some detritus of things dropped as people repacked after the scramble from the town, but no other signs of fighting.

Following the shaggy perimeter of outbuildings outside the walls along the north was pretty quiet. There was very little to be seen, and not even a guard on the wooden plank bridge over the river. Towards the east, there were more signs of fighting. A barricade had been thrown up over the main eastern road out of the town and a few guards were there. The mercenaries identified themselves to the guards, who waved them on in whichever direction they wanted.

Signs of the battle picked up as they rounded the edge of the city to the south. There were the remains of barricades, some of which were burnt out. A few houses had been pulled down and there were a number of people clearing rubble.

“This looks like the main thrust of their attack”, said Delta. She stood in the rack and ruin and looked up and down. “They came in from over there, near the commerce gate, and just went straight for the castle.” She paced alongside the cart, towards the city walls.

A wide section of the wall on the southern side had come down. There was a wide pile of rubble and collapsed houses on either side. It looked as if they had been burning at some point but had been put out since.

“Martius”, swore Zipper. “What can take a whole wall down like that? What sort of magic do they have?”

Delta shook her head. “Sappers”, she said. She pointed at a number of hoardings that had been set up around a hole in the ground, not far from the collapsed section. “Dig down. Get under the foundations. Shore it up with wood as you go so it doesn’t come down on you. Then, when you have undermined the section you want, fill it with brush and fire it. The supports burn away, the cavity collapses, and the wall comes tumbling down.”

They moved closer to it. There were a few guards around the hole, who nodded to them, but didn’t budge or indicate they could get closer. They turned to the left, aiming for one of the actual gates in the wall, which would be easier to get the cart through.

“Magic”, said Delta, when they moved past it. “But not how you think.” She glanced around to see who was close enough to hear. “First: you couldn’t sap that length of wall in two days. Not with a battalion of Dwarves. Second: no spoil heaps. Unless they were extremely tidy and walked the dirt all the way out of town, or used it as fill for a ramp, I didn’t see any sign of what they dug out.”

“I would not have spotted that”, said Zipper. “I’ve never worked a siege. Never heard any interesting stories about them.”

“Engineers love sieges”, said Delta. “It’s where they get to shine. One came through the village and my instructor made me listen to him go on about this sort of thing for hours. I didn’t appreciate it then. But I do now.”

The guard at the gate was more directing traffic than questioning people, so they got through with no problem. “What I don’t get”, said Delta, craning her neck around to look at the state of the gatehouse as they passed through, “is why they bothered. The wall isn’t in good condition. They probably could have pulled it down in several other places.”

“I’d say they were trying to impress people. By if it takes a siege geek to spot how impressive it was, that doesn’t make sense”, said Zipper. “Training?” she suggested, after a while.

“Could be”, said Delta. “Although that would be awfully arrogant. In any military campaign I’ve heard about the commanders always take the lowest risk, highest chance of success option. Lives and resources are scarce in time of war. You don’t have the luxury of taking a long view.”

“That’s been bugging me for a while”, said Zipper. “They have no supply chain. Where’s cook get all that food from? They aren’t pillaging the countryside for it like normal. And I haven’t heard any troops involved in schlepping it all the way from Bright or some other conquered territory to here.”

“They’ve got magic water bottles”, said Delta. “That would really change things if they had magic bread baskets.” They had come around the front of the castle. The invaders had taken over the outbuildings as their own headquarters, but the building was largely undamaged. The imperial flag flew from the highest battlement, but the Count’s own arms flew from the next highest.

“An orderly rearrangement of fealty”, said Delta. “Do you know what gives me most pause?” Zipper shrugged. “The refugees. There were barricades to the west, they came from the south, they all took the east road. They knew that was going to happen. They planned for it and set up tents for them at the other end of the causeway. How many steps ahead does this guy think?”