Julia swept
up the steps to Aurelian’s command post, high on the eastern section of the
wall. She was accompanied by her little gaggle of assistants, provided
thoughtfully by Marthian. These were eager and very pious young elves keen to
serve Julia, but also fiercely loyal to the Proconsul. Several days had passed
now with twice daily inspections by this strange group, and Aurelian, if
anything, felt more uncomfortable dealing with them now than he did at the
beginning. It was bad enough having to deal with Perclivius. He sighed
invisibly – if he was being completely honest to himself, he didn’t find
Marthian that easy either, however much he loved her.
Aurelian climbed down the battlement to meet Julia on the internal
ramparts in the safest part of that section. He wasn’t sure whether he was
meant to bow, so he just nodded emphatically.
‘High Priestess, Greetings’ He said
Julia nodded back, with equal awkwardness.
‘General’ she said, ‘how proceeds the battle?’
Aurelian wondered briefly if Julia had actually looked over the
parapets and seen the ocean of kinaam.
He stopped that line of thinking immediately; it seemed almost like treason.
‘The walls are secure and the enemy is taking many casualties. Our main
concern is the siege machines that they are building’
The initial part of this siege, like the last two, had involved
attempts by the Tlaxacans to send sappers under the city walls. However, once
again this proved impossible; as the walls were Dwarven Magic built and they
went down just as far as they stretched up.
Once this line of attack had been given up thought was put into going
over the top. For the last two days the human carpenters in the Tlaxacan army
had been building huge ladders which were clearly intended for scaling the
ramparts. There had also been an attempt to build catapults, but they required
a lot of timber, and forests with large enough trees were quite a way away.
‘Are you equipped to deal with such an assault?’ asked Julia.
‘Yes’ replied Aurelian ‘but throwing back the ladders will cost a lot
of lives and resources. It is the sort of thing that we might do successfully
three or four times, but after that… who knows’
Julia looked extremely concerned. She pulled the hood of her cloak
further back so that her face was more visible.
‘We must make sure that that doesn’t happen, then’ she said, nodding in
sympathy.
Aurelian felt a surge of anger.
Well, of course he thought, and
how do we do that?
Julia didn’t seem to notice any annoyance on his face,
fortunately. She just carried on.
‘I’ll leave an assistant with you so that she can warn me
‘Yes, I’m happy do that’ he agreed, uncertainly.
‘I will need some warning…’ she indicated
Aurelian was certain that he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure
what question he could ask that would yield a useful answer. He just nodded
again.
‘And keep under shelter’ she commanded
‘I beg your indulgence, High Priestess’ he mumbled, ‘but why?’
‘Because you will not want any extra casualties, I’m sure’
‘How will we …umm… defend the walls?’ he asked.
Julia looked at him witheringly. She then seemed to be either too
frustrated or too confused to continue on that tack.
‘How are relations between you and Perclivius?’ she asked, eventually.
The General considered this.
‘He’s put himself in control of strategy’ he said flatly, ‘he’s left
tactics to me’
She smiled.
‘Good, I’m very pleased that you have sorted things out. Even the
Proconsul seems to have found a way to work with him’
Aurelian wondered whether that was some kind of cue for an input of
praise. Whether it was or not, he wasn’t inclined to give it.
‘Possibly, High Priestess’ he said, ‘I’m not really in a position to
comment. I’m just keen to get on with my job’
‘Of course, General’ she agreed; then hesitated momentarily.
‘Is everything satisfactory, High Priestess?’
She looked directly at him. He was struck by what a determined elf she
clearly was. But also that, every now and then, she gave the impression of
being completely out of her depth.
‘I must continue my tour’ she said, gathering herself together again,
‘I must go and talk to the Dictator and the Proconsul’
‘Yes, of course’ he said, ‘I hope that your day goes well’
Julia swept back down the steps, leaving a very young and eager elf
behind. Aurelian smiled at the assistant. She smiled shyly back.
‘I’ll inform you when you need to take a message to the High Priestess’
he explained.
She nodded.
Aurelian sighed very softly and then turned back to his extremely close
study of tactics.
***
The civilian
and the military arm were in council in the Dictator’s Office. Marthian sat on
one side of the heavy oak table and Perclivius on the other. They were only
meeting because Marthian needed to establish exactly how many military mouths
there were to feed, and how to deal with the growing number of casualties. He
had not wanted to meet at all. For the last two days he had claimed to be at a
series of military planning meetings.
However, Marthian thought these meeting very unlikely, unless they had
been the kind that specifically excluded the commander of the army. Finally she
had pinned him down. She loathed meeting him, of course, but she felt that she
had little choice.
‘Do you have those manifests?’ she asked, briskly, not wanting to
extend the meeting five seconds beyond what was strictly necessary.
He glared at her. He was sitting bolt upright with his arms crossed
across his chest.
‘What manifests?’ he asked, ‘did you mention these to me before?’
‘I have sent you several notes. They are the lists of serving personnel
for catering purposes and lists of the injured for the hospital’
He waved her away.
‘That’s the General’s job. He must have that paperwork’
‘I’ve checked. He definitely doesn’t’ she explained, ‘he says that you
took them from his offices when you moved headquarters’
‘I’ll look into it’ he said and stood up to shoo her out.
‘Do you want your troops to be fed and healed?’ she asked, not moving
from her chair.
‘Of course – but I have higher concerns’
‘Yes? And what are they?’
‘I am planning a grand strategy’ he indicated, ‘something to
revolutionise the battle. I can’t be involved with every detail of pettifogging
accountancy’
‘Then just delegate someone to find the manifests for me. I assume that
you have been keeping track of casualty numbers?’
The Dictator remained standing and continued to stare at the door
meaningfully.
‘Again, that’s a job for your husband’
He laughed, enjoying the joke again – he’d made it many times.
‘Yes and his assistants and mine have been trying to get the most
recent figures together. But there’s still a gap’
‘At a time like this, only rough figures need to be collected. I’m sure
that the General’s work is good enough’
‘So, are you wilfully refusing to provide me with the information?’
‘Wilfully, Proconsul – of course not. I just don’t think it’s as
important as you do if we lose count of some soldiers down the back of a filing
cabinet’
Marthian’s mouth was set into a straight line. She kept control with
considerable difficulty.
‘How do you inform the next of kin that their daughter or son has been
injured or has died?’
He looked confused by the question.
‘And if we don’t know that
someone has been killed then we may waste a lot of time looking for them’ she
pointed out.
‘Details’ he exclaimed dismissively, ‘that’s what you’re for, and you
seem very good at it. I suppose women’s domestic experience perfectly suits
them to these sorts of questions. But,
of course, it’s the ability to rise above of the details that makes the male
brain so suited to strategy’
Marthian looked round at Perclivius’s highly decorated, renovated
office. She noticed that some of the fine china that he was using had clearly
been pilfered from her palace. On the wall were huge strategic maps of the
region, with Ortia about the size of a sovereign. They were beautifully drawn,
at least.
‘Yes, you really are very good at certain things, Citizen Perclivius’
she said slowly.
‘I don’t have to listen to your snide remarks, Mistress Marthian’ he
snared, ‘I am Dictator’
‘Oh really, are you collecting titles?’ she growled back, ‘I have two
other suggestions: Malingerer and Bully!’
He narrowed his eyes and stabbed his finger at her.
‘I still have the power to throw you into prison… I can still have you
executed’
Marthian smiled coldly.
‘You had your chance’ she said, ‘but now I’m afraid that you’re stuck
with me’
Perclivius raised his arm and, for a second, she thought that he was
going to strike her. But then Julia swept into the room. Perclivius’s arm
dropped down to the level of the desk and he turned to greet her. Marthian rose
too.
Julia examined them both quizzically.
‘Is everything going well?’ she asked.
Dictator and Proconsul nodded reflexively.
‘Good’ said Julia, failing to notice the tension in the air, ‘let’s get
down to business…’
***
Aurelian
watched the construction of the siege engines on and off for the rest of the
day and then into the first half of the next morning. The little messenger elf
stayed close by, never saying anything, but eager, if required, to do her
job. Aurelian kept Gaius nearby, too,
and sent him off on tasks to and fro.
By this point the Tlaxacans had constructed about thirty giant ladders,
just outside the range of any bow shots. They were rough and ready structures,
but they would require a lot of effort to repel. The whole thing was made worse
by the thought that this might well be the first wave of an endless repetition
of attacks. In the end, one of them would get through.
‘Gaius’ said Aurelian, ‘I think they’ll be on us in half-an-hour’
Gaius stood to attention.
‘That seems likely sir, yes. Shall I alert your captains?’
‘Yes. Do it and come straight
back here’
Gaius bowed and ran off along the battlements. He was following a well-rehearsed plan of
action. They had practiced such siege
manoeuvres many times.
Aurelian watched as the unwieldy
ladders were raised up and then dropped down on the twenty or so kinaam who would
carry then to the wall. Most of them would be ablaze in quick time – Aurelian’s
archers were adept with flaming arrows.
Aurelian saw the messenger elf out of the corner of his eye. He’d
forgotten all about warning Julia. Of all the things to have to do at this
point… He turned to the messenger.
‘Time to deliver your message, elfling. Tell the High Priestess that
the enemy will be attempting to storm the gates almost immediately.’
The messenger got up eagerly and ran off down the steps. It must be good to be happy in your job,
thought Aurelian, absentmindedly. Then he turned to the troops in his section,
walking round and checking that they were all steeled for the assault and that
the equipment was ready.
Ten or so minutes later Gaius reappeared. He looked slightly
distracted, but this was hardly surprising. This was the first time that the
youngeer of the army had had to deal with sort of conflict. However, his distraction
seemed to come from within the city.
‘Sir – what is that?’ he asked, pointing towards a cloud that had begun
to grow in the sky above the Lady’s Quarter. It was like a summer storm cloud,
except that it was much lower and confined to a very narrow band.
Aurelian stared at it, uncomprehendingly.
‘Something magic, I’d say’ he said. He shielded his eyes with his left
hand.
‘For good or ill?’ asked Gaius.
‘I really have no idea’ answered Aurelian. He stared back at the crowds
of kinaam who were marching towards
the walls lifting their giant ladders.
‘Anyway – we must concentrate on the direct threat’
The archers had begun to fire their burning arrows directly at the
ladders. Every time one struck a dozen kinaam fell on the arrows and attempted
to extinguish them. However, at least one ladder had been stopped completely,
the fire running up one side and preventing any further movement.
Aurelian was distracted again by the odd cloud. Now it had expanded outwards, but had hollowed
out in the middle, so that now it was a ring of tall black clouds. As he
watched, torn between the two focuses of crisis, the ring expanded out over the
walls, so that the bank of black clouds covered the whole perimeter from ground
to sky. No-one could see a thing. Aurelian’s mouth went completely dry – was
this it? Was this some magic that would prevent his defenders from responding
to the ladders? What could they do? For a moment he felt like he was falling
into a dark pit.
Then he remembered.
‘And keep under shelter’ Julia had said.
Damn, he thought, wrong again.
He shouted very loudly at Gaius and at anyone else who could hear him.
‘Get everyone under cover. Find cover! Find some cover! Gaius, all of
you, tell everyone that you can’
The soldiers on this part of the wall either crouched down under the
protected parts of the battlements or ran to tell their companions to hide.
Everyone could now hear the scrape of the ladders against the wall. Then it
rained like it had never rained in the city before.
The sky around the circumference of the wall, in a band about a hundred
feet across, opened up and the rain came down in a continuous sheet. The kinaam
who were halfway up their ladders were toppled over instantaneously and fell
back on the creatures below. The torrent
continued, turning every inch of the wall into a huge waterfall. Everything
below the waterfall fell away and slid back into the mud. Many of the
ladder-carriers and climbers drowned in the temporary moat that had formed
around the city; the others ran back through the quagmire, covered in water and
mud. Many were trampled by their faster
companions.
After about three minutes of this, the rain stopped as abruptly as it
had begun. The top of the wall now had vast pools of water stretching across
from tower to tower. A ragged cheer went up from the bedraggled elves, who had
now reappeared from their sheltering places. Aurelian looked down on the retreating
Tlaxacans, most of whom were up to their waists in mud.
‘Bare arrows! Fire at will!’ ordered Aurelian. Hundreds of flameless
arrows arced through the air. Very few
of the struggling Tlaxacans made it back to their base.
Everyone was soaked to the skin
but they were all smiling. This was a really unexpected boost.
‘Praise be to the Lady!’ shouted Aurelian and everyone chanted her name
in unison.
When this was over Aurelian turned to Gaius, frowning, despite the
temporary victory.
‘Two things, Lieutenant’ muttered Aurelian.
‘Yes sir?’
‘First – please could you go and ask the Proconsul where we might
possibly find a lot of buckets and
mops’
‘Of course, sir’ said Gaius grinning discreetly.
‘And second’ continued Aurelian, ‘keep reminding me that in the future
that I must pay closer attention to what the High Priestess is trying to tell
me’
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