3
Feb
This piece is set in the near future of The Four Part Land, shortly after the events in Chloddio.
An arrow flew past his face, leaving him staggered. He drew and fired, a distant scream confirming his aim. He was safe here, mostly, standing atop the battlements while his foes sought to climb them with ladders and break them down with rams.
He shook his head and chuckled. A month ago, his army had attacked theirs, out in the badlands east of the city. And now here they were, sitting outside the walls of his city. That had sure been a turn in the wrong direction.
He stood, aimed, and fired, cursing as his arrow skipped off the armour of his foe. Damn stuff was good. Not as good as what he wore, but good enough. More importantly, there were a lot more people in their armour than there were in his. If it wasn’t for the wall spanning the mouth of the valley, then this would have been over a long time ago. Even now, it looked like it would be over soon enough.
A woosh flew overhead, and he stumbled to the ground, face red. Fireballs. Earth-damned fireballs. Another and another, splashing across the buildings inside the city wall. The structures steamed for a minute, then went out. Firemages would have had more luck if everything here wasn’t made of bare earth and stone. Might be the only city in the world where there was no wood used in the construction of anything.
The pop of rocks against armour.
Oh good, our mages aren’t cowards after all. There just aren’t enough of them, like everything else when you compare us to them.
Still dazed from the near miss, he leant over the parapet and fired straight down. Then again. A shattering sound made him drop back down behind the wall. Two dead. He’d need to do better than that. They all did.
A crunch, and then shouts.
Shit.
He dashed along the wall to the main gate, one panel hanging open, hinges broken. Armoured footsoldiers were swarming through the gap, held for the moment by the reserve troops. He fired wildly, arrow after arrow plunging down.
Slowly the mass was forced back. He grinned. Best heavy infantry in the world, right there. Armour a foot thick, and the skulls to match.
To replace the broken gate, stones were brought up, and piled higher and higher, sealing it with rubble. He turned and surveyed the plains beyond the wall, the seething mass of soldiers who wanted to kill him, destroy his city. He chuckled.
“Well isn’t this the life?”
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