We all listened intently as Castile was going to voice our salvation. The company had a lot of faith that she would have a plan up to this point. Castile paced slowly, “We will be stationed at the Trader’s Gate if the enemy marches on the city.” Some men groaned at this announcement. The Trader’s Gate faced the assembling Bartiradian army. It would be in the path of the attack.
Castile silenced everyone with a wave of her hand, “Mage Gregor and myself will be in the gate’s tower. We are going to be countering the Bartirdian mages. The company’s archers will be with me; everyone else will be stationed inside the tower on the ground floor. If it looks like the walls might fall, we will retreat to the inner city wall. We will move to defend the orchard gate with the upper city and citadel guards.” This got some grunts of approval. Not having to sacrifice ourselves at the Trader’s gate.
“If the inner city wall is in jeopardy of falling,” she continued, “we will retreat to the Citadel. If the Citadel is going to fall, we will jump to the aqueduct and use it to vacate the city. Last night, we hauled up planks to bridge the section of the aqueduct that was collapsed by the Bartiradian mage,” she finished.
No one seemed upset with the plan, even though it sounded like many things could go wrong. Our primary objective as men of the company was keeping Castile alive. If she died, we would be under the command of the nearest mage. That would be Gregor if he was still alive at that point. That would probably be a bad thing.
Castile let her words sink in before continuing with some scorn in her voice. “Duke Tiberius plans to ride at the head of his army from the City of Caranhagan and rescue us. He will march when the Bartiradians launch their first attack on the walls of Macha or in seven days’ time from today.” Everyone present had already heard the plan but not the details.
Adrian stepped forward, “When you report to the wall today, I will give you a tour of the gate tower so you can be familiar with it. I will also go over the retreat route to the inner city walls. Same groupings as yesterday.” I groaned as I volunteered for the first watch yesterday.
It was not long before I was walking with Adrian, Konstantin, Pavel, Regis, and Malcolm. I fell in beside Konstantin and asked, “How was the patrol? No one mentioned anything at breakfast.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Konstantin grunted, “We searched a few houses. Didn’t find what I was looking for.”
I was silent, waiting for him to tell me what he was searching for. When he did not elaborate, I asked, “And what were you searching for?”
“Missing people. There is something in the city taking them and probably killing them. We were investigating the houses of the missing people. It is probably a shapechanger of some type. With fewer people in the city, the disappearances are more noticeable.” Konstantin walked on unconcerned.
“What did you find in the homes?” I inquired.
“Nothing. They were all abducted in the streets. Usually sneaking around in the evening. The city guard lost the two men investigating two nights ago, so Castile was asked to help. She sent me. I think the child that Kolm was chasing on the rooftops might have been the monster. It moved too fast to be human.” Konstantin elaborated.
“There is a monster in the city?” I sounded kind of shocked.
Konstantin huffed, “When isn’t there a monster in a city? We don’t have the Truthseekers or the Legion Hounds to investigate, so it is up to me.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})“Legion Hounds?” I asked.
“The trackers of the Legion. It is usually a squad of four to six legionaries that specialize in tracking beasts, runaway soldiers, and missing legionaries,” Konstantin explained. “I was a Hound for a while before joining Castile’s company as a scout.”
“What about the Truthseekers? I have never met one,” I asked, trying to learn a little more.
“They have mastered a spell form in the clairvoyance magic affinity. It lets them discern when someone is telling the truth. Some mages also learn the spell, but the best Truthseekers always imprinted the spell form on their aether core.” Konstantin patiently explained to me.
“Do you have any spell forms?” I asked the warrior.
“You don’t ask a man that, Eryk. But I do have two. You need at least one to become a Hound, and no, I am not going to tell you what they are.” Konstantin said lightheartedly.
“I do not see how that is fair. You know mine already,” I joked back, trying to tease it out of him.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})“Do I?” Konstantin had a serious tone. “I know you have a magic box, but is that all you have, Eryk? You don’t offer up secrets if you do not have to. Telling you I had two spell forms could have been a lie. But now you think I have a secret or two up my sleeve,” he smiled.
We walked for a while, and I decided to guess at one of his spell forms, “I already know one of your spell forms, Konstantin,” I said casually. “You can move objects.”
Konstantin skipped a step and was silent as we walked, not responding. As the wall came into sight, he asked, “It was the door I opened? I think that is the only time I used my spell form in view of anyone in years. Damn, Eryk. Sometimes, you surprise me for being a country boy.”
We reached the base of the tower, and instead of climbing up to the wall, we went inside. Castile and Adrian were inside the tower talking quietly. They must have come here while we were gearing up after breakfast. Adrian noticed us, and Castile climbed the stairs in the tower.
Adrian began his lecture, “The crates over there are the arrow bundles. If you are not on the wall, you are runners for our archers. Our legion archers only!” Adrian spent a few minutes at the crates, “These arrows on the left are the junk arrows. The arrows are imperfect, and we will use them for trash attacks. These on the right are the best arrows we have and are with a black and white stripe near the notch,” he pointed out the paint markings.
He moved to the other side, “These casks are sugar lemon water. You will fill the canteens of the archer in the tower from them. We still have to source our food from the Legion Hall. Either Delmar or I will send runners.” There was a heavy table with seating for sixteen people; that was the only furnishings in the tower room.
Before he headed upstairs, Adrian told us about the retreat route, “If the wall is going to be taken, we will escort Castile to the Legion Hall first and grab prepared supplies there and then retreat to the inner city walls.”
Pavel asked, “Do we really have time to stop for supplies?”
Adrian smiled at the man, “Never been in a city being overrun? Once the walls are breached, forming their army inside the city will take time. The regulars also have dozens of barricades planned and prepared to slow their advance through the streets. We will have time, and only a few of the invader’s forerunners will reach us while we stop.”
Pavel said, “That sounds like you plan to have the enemy within the walls.”
Konstantin answered for Adrian, “If they want to breach the city, there is not much we can do to stop them. At least, now that we lost Durandus. Our job is to hold out long for the Duke to arrive.”
I muttered, “That sounds like a terrible plan.”
Adrian mimicked me, “Agreed. But we will work with what we are given and do our service to the Empire.”
We climbed the stairs to the tower and found Castile staring out across the deserted buildings toward the army in the distance. Adrian asked her, “Anything new?”
“No, still just five mages, but there has to be more in their camp. They are blocking me from getting closer,” Castile sounded annoyed.
Adrian turned his attention to us, “So here are our fourteen archer positions and the barrels where you refill their arrows. Castile will be in this tower, and Gregor will be in the tower on the other side of the gate.”
Pavel and Regis in our group checked out the field of view, and I walked to the parapet and looked out on the field. I was surprised as the army looked twice the size as yesterday, and I counted six—no seven griffons in the air over their camp. I missed some of what Adrian was saying and didn’t realize it when Castile suddenly stood beside me and said, “It is impressive. The might of an army of men. But one mage with enough power could bury that army in a heartbeat.”
“Great, so we are not going to have to fight then,” I said hopefully, but I knew she was not indicating herself.
“No, there will be a fight. The Emperor himself is the only mage in the Empire who could end that army. His mastery over void magic is the most frightening thing I have ever seen,” Castile murmured as she continued to study the enemy.
I boldly asked, “Why did you let our company get trapped in this city?”
Castile didn’t respond immediately, and I thought I had offended and angered her. Adrian was leaving, and my squad was heading out onto the wall for their watch.
When everyone was gone, Castile answered my question, “Mages are not as free as you believe us to be. We can not deny an order by the Emperor or any Duke. That is why I take the most desperate missions—at least that way, I can somewhat control my fate.”
“It does not seem like fighting here in an unwinnable battle is controlling your fate,” I offered in return and was expecting a harsh rebuke.
Castile tensed slightly. “No battle is unwinnable,” she said softly, and I do not think she was referring to the army gathering outside. She turned, and we made eye contact. “It is all how you go about fighting the battle. Perhaps one day you will understand that, other worlder.” Castile turned and walked down the tower’s steps, not saying another word. I was too stunned to say anything.
Regaining myself, I spun to make sure no one had overheard her call me an other worlder. No one had been close, and she had said it softly. When did she learn? Did Adrian and Delmar know too? Konstantin had not figured it out, or he would have turned me into his Praetorian Guard master. I wanted to follow Castile and ask her questions, but Konstantin was already calling for me to come and enjoy the hot sun.
I joined them on the wall. I needed to find some time to talk to Castile alone in the future. I looked out over the wall—hopefully before the Bartiradians killed me.
