When
The grand camp outside Rock Fortress blazed with lights, buzzing with noise and activity.
Butler Boris and old Father Ballek hurried out to receive them upon being notified by the guards.
"How are things on the outer wall?" was Lorist's first question, asking about the wall's defenses.
Father Ballek answered, "My Lord, no worries. Yesterday the Cames family's forces only launched two attacks, and after being repulsed they didn't attack again. They set up camp about a league from our wall and only finished settling in by evening. Last night was quiet — no alarm signals came from the outer wall."
A league was a unit of length on the Galentea Continent. It was said that during the earliest Elven Age, the basic unit of length was the mag — the distance between two horses when Elven light cavalry lined up in formation. Later, during the Age of Magical Civilization, magicians changed mag to gem. One league equaled one thousand gem. Two thousand years had passed, and although these units from the Age of Magical Civilization had carried through to the present, their names had undergone considerable abbreviation: gem became simply mi, and league and li now meant the same thing.
Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. "Why is the camp so lively?"
Butler Boris said, "My Lord, we're building wooden shelters."
"Wooden shelters?"
"Yesterday, the Kennemas family's longbowmen used plunging fire to inflict heavy casualties on our first wall's defenders.
"Master Siroba? Can his idea really be trusted?" Lorist was skeptical.
Butler Boris and Old Father Barak shared a laugh. Butler Boris said, "My Lord, we discussed it thoroughly and found no issues with the plan before adopting it."
"What if the enemy uses fire arrows to burn these shelters and launches an attack while the smoke obscures the defenders' vision?" Lorist asked.
"It's fine. Once the shelters are built, we'll coat the outside with a thick layer of blue clay, which will make fire arrows completely useless against them. There's an added benefit too — rain and snow won't affect the first wall's defenders either," Old Father Barak explained.
"Very well, carry on then. I'll go ahead to the forward walls and take a look." Lorist remounted and rode toward the front wall.
…
Orvigs stood armored against the wall of the room, snoring lightly. But his sleep was vigilant — the moment Lorist stepped inside, his eyes snapped open.
"Go back to sleep, don't mind me." Lorist patted the standing Orvigs twice on the shoulder. "You've worked hard."
"My Lord, I'm fine. I just slept for over two hours. I only went out for a patrol, saw everything was fine, and came back to sleep again…" Orvigs said stubbornly, his bloodshot eyes wide.
Lorist didn't press him. "What were the exact casualty numbers?"
"My Lord, those two squads of longbowmen from the Kenmais Family were absolutely devastating. They launched arcing shots at our first wall from over three hundred meters away, and the arrows came down like rain. Our guards had nowhere to hide at all. One squad was wiped out in less than a quarter of an hour. The dead weren't too many — just twenty-seven, all hit in vital spots. The rest were wounded. I sent another squad in with shields to pull them back, and ended up with another thirty-plus casualties. Thank goodness we were all wearing iron armor, or the losses would've been far worse…"
Orvigs carried on at length, recounting the previous day's battle. "We pulled back to the second wall. The Kenmais soldiers seized the opportunity to climb onto the first wall, and then they were completely stumped — all they could do was hack away at those three massive iron gates connecting the two walls with their swords. From inside our positions, we opened fire on them with the city-defense ballistae. The first wall was crawling with enemies, and often a single bolt would skewer two or three of them. Before long, the attackers who'd made it up were in total disarray and fled back down in short order."
"That Viscount Kenmais is both foolish and ruthless. He had the first few soldiers who fled back beheaded in front of everyone, then ordered a second attack. This time they got back up on the first wall and hauled the siege ladders up too, trying to climb even higher. But I had a few dozen men up there holding the line — every one who came up was cut down — and the city-defense ballistae below kept doing their work. This assault lasted a bit longer than the first before they ran again. The bodies left on top of and below the first wall numbered two hundred and fifty-nine. Factoring in the wounded, I'd estimate the Kenmais Family's total casualties at around four to five hundred."
"That Viscount Kenmais still wouldn't let it go, but the soldiers below seemed to be getting restless — they even drew swords on each other. After quite a commotion it finally died down, and he led his forces off to set up camp over there. I had old Balak take a team of laborers to collect all their fallen soldiers' corpses. The plan was to haul them to the rear for burial. But come evening, a messenger came over from their side demanding we return the bodies. So I had the men strip them bare and send them back — saved us the trouble of burying them…"
Lorist was speechless. The big-bearded Orvigs truly lived up to his bandit origins — stripping corpses was second nature to him.
"Did our guards suffer heavy losses in those two attacks?" Lorist asked.
"Almost none. They couldn't get past the gates, and even after retreating, their crossbowmen had already been suppressed by our ballistae — they posed absolutely no threat to us. The only nuisance was those two squads of longbowmen who kept raining arrows on our positions after they fled. But I'd come prepared. Everyone who went up carried a large shield, and hugging the wall they were well protected. Except for one poor soul who stuck his foot out and caught an arrow, nobody else was hurt."
…
Old Balak led the laborers up onto the wall. The wooden shelters they needed to build were quite simple: first, erect a round wooden post every three meters along the first wall, then connect them with square wooden frames on top, and finally lay planks two fingers thick across the frames. The planks extended one meter beyond the wall's edge and angled slightly downward. The laborers up top, secured by safety ropes at their waists, would spread a thick layer of blue-green clay over each plank as they laid them down.
Lorist went inside to check and found that the wooden shelters didn't affect the field of fire for the wall-mounted ballistae. He then climbed up to the rooftop platform on the wall and saw many laborers constructing a steeply sloped A-frame wooden shelter up there. Old Balak explained, "The shelter up here has to withstand winter snowfall — it needs a steep angle so the snow will slide off. The ones below are mainly for convenience, since it's hard for anyone to get up here."
Lorist nodded, then noticed the pair of crossbow master craftsmen — father and son — inspecting a wall-mounted ballista, and walked over.
Several arrows were still embedded in the ballista. They must have been from the covering fire that the longbowmen from the Kems family had unleashed after their second attack force retreated, as Ovikis had described.
"What happened to this ballista?" Lorist asked.
"Oh, my lord, this ballista is practically useless now. Look — these arrows are specially made from the old Imperial era. In sieges, the longbowmen would arc their shots specifically to target defensive equipment. The arrowheads are square-shaped, like small shovels — heavy heads that gain destructive force when falling from above. You can see the ballista took four hits and has four small cracks. A few more shots might hold, but on the next one the whole thing could shatter and injure the crew..." Master Fardin replied.
"Sigh..." Lorist sighed. Between this wall and the first, all fourteen wall-mounted ballistae had been written off without firing a single bolt. They were simplified versions, sure, but losing so many was still a massive blow.
The nearly thousand laborers worked fast under the cover of night, and by the time dawn broke the shelters were essentially finished. This was mainly because this stretch of wall was only seventy or eighty meters long, and all the materials had already been pre-fabricated at the camp outside the walls, requiring only assembly — so naturally it went quickly.
Over at the Kems family armed camp, the unusual activity on the wall had been spotted. Two small squads of longbowmen hurried out of the camp to a position three hundred meters from the wall and began looting their bows in high arcs. The first and second volleys of arrows peppered the shelters thickly. On the third round they switched to fire arrows, but the thick layer of blue-green clay on the planks smothered the flames — each fire arrow lodged, burned briefly, and extinguished itself.
Before long, a knight in splendid armor rode out of the camp with several dozen attendants, came to the front of Pendraig Castle, surveyed the scene for quite a while, then trotted over to the longbow squads and conferred with them at length. In the end, he returned to camp looking utterly helpless.
Lorist thought to himself, *That must be Viscount Kems.*
The two squads of longbowmen, having achieved nothing, followed Viscount Kems back to the camp. Old Balic ordered the laborers to continue working — this time applying blue-green clay to the round wooden pillars and plank canopy roof erected along the first wall. He sent a few laborers up to collect the intact arrows and had the spots struck by arrows patched over with fresh blue-green clay.
Viscount Kems did not send out any more troops to attack that day. The camp was in complete disarray.
By evening, Paul Bince and Cedacamp arrived at Pendraig Castle in carriages, bringing a company of the family's soldiers. Lorist finally let out a sigh of relief. Pendraig Castle was now as solid as iron.
That night, the Kems family did not launch a raid, either.
The following day at noon, three armies of several hundred men each arrived before Pendraig Castle and set up camps adjacent to the Kems family's encampment. Old Balic recognized the coat of arms on one of the banners — it belonged to an old territorial noble of the Northland, a certain Count Spencer. Had the
The other two were identified by
The coat of arms on yet another banner was a golden three-petaled flower. Steward Boris chuckled — this one had originally been a court noble who married a very beautiful wife. Then his wife took up with the Second Prince, and out of a sense of compensation, the Second Prince enfeoffed him in the Northland while keeping his beautiful wife back in the royal capital...
Everyone burst out laughing. Steward Boris said the matter was quite well-known in Windbury, the royal capital. Plenty of people remarked that trading a beautiful wife for a hereditary territory was a fine deal. As a result, all manner of men began bringing their sisters, daughters, and wives, seeking every opportunity to gain an audience with the Second Prince and turning the atmosphere of the court into utter chaos.
On the morning of the third day, four more territorial nobles arrived with armies of several hundred men. This time, three were old Northland lords and one was a newly enfeoffed noble.
—to use our armies as cannon fodder for the siege?
Before Lorist could figure it out, he spotted yet another large force approaching from the distance — many wagons, many people and horses, probably over two thousand strong, though their banners and flags were a mess and hard to make out.
However, this group didn't camp beside the Kennes family's encampment. Instead, they chose a flat stretch of land off to the side and set up their camp there. The spot they picked formed a triangle with the Kennes family's camp and Pegasus Castle.
Lorist found this group rather strange. Beside him, Jim laughed. "Now this is interesting. There'll be some fun to be had."
"What do you mean? Jim?" Lorist asked.
"My lord, that's a battlefield trading caravan, organized by merchants. They're neutral — they don't take part in the war. They show up near the battlefield for two reasons: first, to do business, selling provisions, weapons, and other supplies, though the prices are naturally a bit steep. Second, they buy war spoils from the victors. Their camp also offers food and drink, women, and gambling dens. It doesn't matter which side you're from — you can go in and spend your money as long as you follow the camp's rules. No need to worry, just have a good time. And see that Blood Moon banner over there? That's the Blood Moon Mercenary Company, one of the three great mercenary companies of the Kingdom of Iberia. They're on equal footing with the Flying Feather Mercenary Company. But the Flying Feather Company is gone now, so only two great mercenary companies remain."
"My lord, notice how the Blood Moon banner is planted the highest — that means the safety of this battlefield caravan is under the Blood Moon Mercenary Company's protection. Anyone who attacks that camp makes an enemy of the Blood Moon Company. Mm, the Blood Moon Company loves doing business with battlefield caravans. Word is they hold a large stake in the caravan themselves. Below the Blood Moon banner, there are one, two, three, four mercenary company flags — meaning four mercenary companies within this caravan can be hired by either side in the conflict. Let me see... Sharp Spear, Night Bat, Cromwell, and Five Swords — all old acquaintances," Jim said excitedly.
"Are those four mercenary companies very powerful?" Lorist asked.
"On par with us, really. They just have more people — all four companies combined only add up to about six or seven hundred. If Haojkis and I had gathered over a hundred men back in the day, we could've established a mercenary company too. Blame it on Haojkis insisting we pick only trustworthy companions, so with our sixty-some people, we could only form a mercenary squad," Jim replied.
Lorist thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think Viscount Kennes would hire them to attack our castle?"
Jim shook his head. "Not a chance. Even if Viscount Kennes wanted to hire them, they wouldn't agree. Attacking our castle would be suicide. Not a single mercenary company leader is stupid enough to order his men to assault our sturdy walls. At most, they'd accept contracts for escorting supplies or scouting enemy movements."
"Hmm, then go make contact when you have time. Find out what the Kennes family has been up to these past few days, sitting tight like that. I imagine they'd have people visiting the campaign merchant companies' camps for entertainment — pick the right moment, buy them a few drinks, and see what you can get out of them," Lorist ordered.
"Yes, my lord."
…