{"id":400,"date":"2010-12-13T18:01:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=400"},"modified":"2010-12-13T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:01:09","slug":"breaking-an-empire-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Breaking an Empire #11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tCarnage ran rampant as they crossed the fields, the dead and the dying scattered about in clumps and bunches, where a force from one side or the other had surrounded and cut away an incursion. Most of the piles here were Lianese soldiers, their bodies gouged by sword blows and left to rot on the field. Taflen sighed, knowing that this field would gain a name, a curse, among all of those from the coast, and that curse would build and multiply against the invaders. Oh, the fear might help in the short run, but over a longer period, it would turn to vicious resentment. The corpses would foul the fields with plague and with anger, and leave of this place a ruin, and that Bhreac Veryan would revel in that bitter taste. Fear had ever been their weapon to keep in line the subjugated people, and Taflen looked around, seeing just where that led.<\/p>\n

\tBack within their own lines, Rhy found a cutter, and dragged him across to see to the wounded in the squad, patching up the gashes that covered Gwyth, and removing the arrow from Rhocas’s leg. Rhocas screamed as the arrow came out, and with it a bright well of blood, flowing once more as the bolt no longer blocked its path. Cleansing herbs were stuffed into the wound, and white cloth bound about. \u201cHe’ll be able to walk again in a few days, it won’t hinder him that much.\u201d With a nod, the cutter set off for the next screaming soldier<\/p>\n

\tLlof lifted the recruit to his shoulder again, and they continued on their way back to the campsite, where they rested that evening. Rumours flew past, and Locsyn and Gwyth disappeared to go retrieve them, returning an hour or more later with news of what had happened that day on the field. Locsyn spoke. \u201cFairly simple day of combat today, all told. They charged the centre, and didn’t have enough skirmishers to the wings to prevent us curling around and cracking them like a nut. They’ve fled in poor array back to Miath Mhor, and we’ve got chasers after them. Won’t catch too many of them, but enough to harass the bastards until they get back to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cNot looking forward to that.\u201d Rhy answered. \u201cMiath Mhor isn’t fortified, which is good news for us… kind of. We’re going to have to go in and fight street by street, building by building, if we want to capture it. Perfect for ambushes, bleeding out our superior numbers in tiny fights all around.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tThe other soldiers looked aghast at the notion, and Rhocas went pale once more. Llof rose up, turning to go and tossing a comment over his shoulder. \u201cBurn the city. No more ambushes.\u201d Llofruddiwr then disappeared into the dark night. With that grim thought dancing in their heads, the other five soldiers looked at one another, and fell to arguing the merits. \u201cWe’d survive the battle a lot better, and hurt them besides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnd all the supplies, the food, the wealth. You want to throw that all away?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cDead men eat no food, spend no coin. I want to stay alive as long as I can, and dying in a horrible city engagement the first siege isn’t it. No, we burn them out and let them starve as well. We’ve got enough supplies, been foraging as we made our way down to add to them. Break them at this city and we’ve got them for the rest of the campaign, too scared to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnd if it makes the Lianese too angry to flee, too scared of our mercy to surrender? Then we fight a battle against the desperate, and that goes poorly, for they will trade life for life until annihilation, and down here, they’ve got more lives. Bloody streets are better than burned ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe argument raged on into the night, until Rhyfelwyr gestured for them all to go to bed. Rhocas had passed out long ago, the pain in his wounded deadened by the herbs. Gwyth just rolled over and fell asleep, unmindful of the wounds he had taken this day. The others soon followed suit, although Llofruddiwr had still not returned. He was a dark one, but maybe the best fighter Rhy had ever seen, and so was permitted his quirks.<\/p>\n

\tThe morning saw the trumpets calling out to meet the dawn, and groggy and mealy-mouthed, the soldiers of Glanhaol Fflamboethi stretched themselves, veterans all this day. To the sound of burning logs and popping joints, a warm breakfast was served, and the army gathered itself once more into the march formation, outriders spreading far and wide, all in double strength this close to Miath Mhor. There was no fear of an ambush on this day, just precautions against the unlikely possibility of one. In the eyes of those who had fought but one time, this was to be an easy campaign, where the enemy would fight once, flee, and then the city would crumble in surrender. Older heads worried, for it was an ill sign to them that the campaign had begun so easily. They preferred difficulty, even disaster, the first battle, for from them on, things could only get better. Not this. This meant a stiffening of the spine, a reorganization, a building antipathy, and so the veterans feared Miath Mhor, and all that it meant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Carnage ran rampant as they crossed the fields, the dead and the dying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[34,7],"tags":[32],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-6s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":407,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=407","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":0},"title":"The Year in Review","date":"December 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This has been a rather busy year for me, both with regards to writing and with life in general. However, I'm here to focus just on the writing, and so here's a rundown of the top 10 posts for the year. Wheels of Desperation - A continuation of a short\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=561","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":1},"title":"A Broken Giveaway","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Now, you may not have noticed because I've been fairly quiet about it, but Breaking an Empire came out late last week. It's a novella that details much of the backstory of Bedwar Barthu Dirio, and the war that built the kingdoms seen in Tarranau. I absolutely adored writing it,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Breaking-an-Empire-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=82","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":2},"title":"Breaking an Empire, Part #8","date":"April 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The first time in two months I've written on this short story, and as part of The Four Part Land. It feels very good to get back into the flow of writing in my favorite setting. Here is another 1100 words for Breaking an Empire, bringing the total story to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=381","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":3},"title":"100 Posts of Solitude","date":"November 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"And I'm still here and still writing away happily. It's been over a year since the blog was started, and in that time I've managed 100 posts (this is actually the 101st). The time in between has been quite a journey for me as a writer, doing multiple edits on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=405","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":4},"title":"Breaking an Empire #13","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The thirteenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. \u201cWhat's got into him?\u201d Gwyth and Locsyn joined\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=411","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":5},"title":"Breaking an Empire #15","date":"January 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The fifteenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Two days later, their turn came in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}