Once they had gained some distance from Lord Ghol, who continued to fall further behind, Ilthur spoke again. “You’ve chosen quite a short sighted employer, Commander.”, he said.
Commander Cardon shrugged. “He’s mostly just been a waste of time, but he pays. Until we hit this wall, any pile of men holding weapons could have conquered the villages he wanted taken. It was easy money until a week ago. In another month and a half we’ll find someone else to work for, probably.”, Cardon said as he gestured to the rubble of what used to be the wall as the crested the hilltop.
The rubble had been arrange and stacked into loose breastworks in some places. In other places large piles of it remained which Thequen figured would be too difficult to climb over. A handful of places had relatively flat spaces where one might be able to march through properly, but these were already being plugged up and fortified with rubble.
“Looks like they worked non-stop.”, the guy with the shaved head said.
“Right.”, Thequen said.
“Entertain yourselves, while I get us some defensive spells up. It wouldn’t do for us to be pin-cushioned by a volley of arrows before we have a chance to talk to whoever is in charge.”, Ilthur said. Then he held his staff over his head with both hands and started to chant an incantation, his words a quiet, raspy whisper.
“Cody, by the way.”, the broad shouldered, shaved head guy said.
“Thequen.”
“Ariana.”, the blonde woman said.
Commander Cardon remained silent as he watched the defenders continue their work. The group lapsed into an awkward silence as they all looked toward the town. Lord Ghol finally crested the hilltop, his entourage in tow. “They’re rebuilding!”, he grumbled.
“They are unusually determined to hold on to their homes, it seems.”, Commander Cardon said.
Ilthur’s chanting stopped mid-incantation. Thequen watched as Ilthur clutched one hand tightly closed around his staff, a glow of purple mana leaking out from between his fingers. “Now then, shall we approach?”, he said.
“You didn’t cast?”, Thequen asked. He was pretty sure Ilthur had not. The effect, whatever it would be, should be accompanied by at least the feel of mana in the air and some kind of visual or noise.
“Why should I loose it unless we are under threat? Didn’t you learn how to hold in whatever passes for Mage training in this day and age?”, Ilthur said as the group started to pick their way across the battlefield.
“Of course I did.”, Thequen muttered. Their group fell silent as they moved through what little bare ground was left. There were plenty of dead still on the field. It was terrible footing and it stank fiercely.
“I think we’ve come close enough.”, Commander Cardon said. They were perhaps a few hundred paces from the ruins of the wall and the defenders had at this point definitely noticed their approach. There was some commotion among a group of them and then three people climbed over the breastworks and approached. Two of them wore heavy armor like the soldiers that Thequen had encountered yesterday, the last wore loose, drooping robes dyed red, which made going over the wall somewhat difficult. The came close, but stopped about twenty paces away. “We wish to parley!”, Commander Cardon said loudly as he moved to the front of the group.
Cody leaned in toward Thequen. “Mind the archers, eh?”, he whispered.
“Right.”, Thequen said. He kept his eyes on what was going on at the wall. There he observed that there were a few squads of men with bows milling about, their bows strung, but not otherwise ready to be put to use.
The man in robes turned to his two men and they seemed to discuss for a moment. Then he walked another ten or so steps toward Thequen and the others. “I am priest Liriss, devotee of the Yurth, the Great Flame. Whom then, do you serve?”, he said.
“I am Zafar Cardon, mercenary captain employed by Lord Ghol. He seems to serve no one but himself. I would like to offer your town the chance to surrender peacefully.”, Commander Cardon said.
“Surrender? Hardly. This Ghol of yours, does he answer your prayers?”, Liriss said with a chuckle.
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“What? No. He is a man. A local lord. Your neighbor, in fact. Surely you’ve heard of him, at least?”, Commander Cardon said.
Liriss shook his head. “I do not live near here. The Flame called, and I and my brothers answered the pleas of the people in her stead. That is all. Tell your Lord that we will accept his surrender if he falls to his knees publicly and worships Yurth. Whatever magic your company worked to ruin our walls are nothing compared to the Great Flame’s powers.”, Liriss said with a wry smile his palms upturned.
“I think he’s just a little cracked.”, Thequen whispered.
“True believers are less rare than you might think, if you’ve grown up in within Ghol’s little slice of the world. Most are normally… more reasonable though.”, Ariana whispered.
Thequen remained silent. He was not about to admit that he had grown up here and that this was as far as he’d ever traveled from his hometown. The only things of note in Ghol’s little province were the Academy, which produced passable mages, and quite a few grain farms. In theory this entire land was tied to the kingdom of Greria but there was so little oversight from the Capital that this little corner of the kingdom might as well be a tiny independent nation. Thus the casual little wars like this one, in an attempt to absorb one’s neighbors.
“I suppose negotiations are at an impasse then. I will relay your refusal to Lord Ghol and inform him of your faith.”, Commander Cardon said hesitantly.
“Of course. Good day to you and your entourage, Commander. See you on the battlefield later today, perhaps.”, Liriss said as he bowed slightly from the waist. Liriss twirled, red robe flaring out a little as he spun around, then made his way back to his two man escort. They walked back toward their defensive line.
“I suppose we head back then. That was… not what I expected. Anyone ever heard of this priest or this Great Flame thing before?”, Commander Cardon asked.
Cody, Ariana and Thequen exchanged looks. “No ideas then?”, Cody said.
“I have not, but I have my suspicions.”, Ilthur said.
“Do tell.”, Cardon said. The group turned and made their way back across the field. Ilthur’s hand held his staff, and the light of withheld mana and his held spell still leaked from between his fingertips, trailing off his knuckles as he walked. Thequen had been trained on how to hold a spell like that, but he’d never seen anyone do so for so long while walking and talking.
“Just a few hours ago I said the Tower required new mages, because we would soon be on the brink of war. Well, war has come sooner than expected, perhaps. I will know for certain if this Yurth reveals itself. It may be one of the first beings who has stepped up to fight and ascend to godhood in the absence of the Old God.”, Ilthur said.
“Pardon me, Ilthur, I respect your powers as a mage, having seen your spellwork first hand, but this all sounds awfully like a fairy tale sort of myth to me.”, Cody said.
“Experience will sort out myth from real, and fact from fiction. I would love it if I were in fact just a paranoid old man, you know. I won’t try to convince you further.”, Ilthur said with a shrug.
The group ascended the hill on the far side of the battlefield. Here Ilthur paused and pointed his staff up into the air. “Can’t hold this forever. It shouldn’t have much an effect.”, he said. Then he discharged whatever defensive spell he had prepared, but not need. A shimmering wave of purple mana swirled into the sky, where it formed a rough dome overhead for a moment, then faded into nothingness.
“What was that exactly?”, Ariana asked.
“Best I could think of off the top of my head. A barrier that would disintegrate arrows, swords, and so on.”, Ilthur said with a shrug.
“I suppose I’ll go inform Lord Ghol of their refusal. And come up with some kind of plan of attack for this evening.”, Commander Cardon said as he started to march down the far side of the hill toward camp.
Thequen glanced back toward the breastworks. “Commander, I think you might want to see this.”, he said. Cardon turned back and looked. All along the defender’s line in the distance men in the same red robes as Liriss had appeared among the infantry. They waved their arms, whatever words they might have spoken were lost over the great distance between Thequen’s position and the breastworks, but the effects were plain to see. About three fourths of the defenders climbed out and over the fortifications and formed loose ranks on the field in front of the town. A few hundred fighters in total, split into chunks of twenty or thirty men per unit, each now led by a red-robed priest.
“They’re going on the offensive?”, Ariana asked.
“That’s-- We had them outnumbered three to one yesterday and the odds are only against them now.”, Commander Cardon glanced over his shoulder to the warcamp. The warcamp. Situated at the bottom of a hill and backed by a forest, with no defenses of any kind.
Thequen watched as each priest moved among the ranks, touching the soldiers with one hand while making wide arm gestures with the other. Each man touched started to glow as though his skin were like molten iron. Some of the soldiers collapsed to the ground.
“What shall we do then, Commander? This was not part of your earlier plan.”, Ilthur asked.
“I won’t ask you to run, old man, but everyone else, go! Spread word in the camp, get as many fighters as possible to this hilltop!”, Commander Cardon said. Thequen spared one last glance toward the enemy. They were sprinting across the field despite their heavy armor, leaping over yesterday’s dead, weapons out, their ranks broken. The red-robed priests all clustered near the breastworks and seemed to be talking among themselves.
Thequen turned and ran toward the center of camp, with Cody and Ariana right behind him. “We’re under attack!”, he shouted as he reached the first group of tents, where a group of ‘off-duty’ mercenaries were clustered around the remains a firepit, talking and laughing.