The Severed City

by Christopher Mitchell

  Several of the council of eight spoke to each other in different languages, some angry, others shaking their heads.

  ‘This girl?’ said the Holdings man sitting next to Howie. ‘You expect us to believe that she’s a fire mage?’

  ‘I don’t care what you believe.’

  ‘Chief Killop,’ the Kellach man said to him. He was the tallest at the table, towering over the others. Next to him was an old Kellach woman. ‘I am Duncan, chief of the Plateau Clan. Have you come to atone for your sister?’

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I don’t know what she did. I’ve heard the stories, but until I speak to her in person, I won’t judge her.’

  ‘She has been condemned by the king of the Holdings,’ the Kellach man said.

  ‘And what is he to me?’

  ‘He is the lord of this world,’ the Holdings man at the table said. ‘His word is law.’

  ‘You saying it doesn’t make it true.’

  Howie raised her hand. ‘Please,’ she said, ‘this is a meeting of friends. We all fought on the same side today. To ease your mind Chief Killop, let me say to you that you were correct in your earlier assumption. The alliance is indeed here to free slaves. We have already freed them in their thousands, as we have advanced down from the Plateau.’

  ‘You’ve freed Kellach Brigdomin?’

  ‘We have, wherever we have found them, although I admit they’ve not been as numerous as I’d been led to believe.’

  ‘Rahain is a vast land,’ Killop said, ‘and my people are scattered to its four corners, working in the mines and fields. Many have died.’

  ‘Two hundred thousand were transported here during the war. How many would you estimate remain?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Our troopers are entering the Rahain capital city as we speak,’ Howie said. ‘Once we control the government, we will issue orders to enforce emancipation throughout the Rahain Republic, and send soldiers to anywhere that disobeys. You have my word on this, the word of the council.’

  Killop nodded.

  ‘Now,’ Howie said, ‘will you join us in the alliance?’

  The room stilled. Killop glanced at his companions.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I will take the clan back to our city. We’ve done what we came to do.’

  Chapter 29

  Regime Change

  Rahain Capital, Rahain Republic – 20th Day, Second Third Winter 505

  It seemed as if the entire city was on fire.

  Smoke choked the tunnels, and billowed through the vast caverns, searching for exits in the scorched ceilings. Marble statues lay broken in blackened fragments, statues that had stood for thousands of years, or so Agang had been told. Mobs of the lower Rahain classes roamed the aristocratic districts, hunting for those who had been their masters just a day before. Alliance soldiers let them pass unmolested, and stood aside from the acts of cruel retribution. Fighting was still going on, in the central government area, and in several lower cavern systems deep under the heart of the mountain, but the battle for the capital was over. Nearly eighty thousand alliance troops were occupying the great city, but it wasn’t enough to maintain complete control. The mobs ruled the parts the soldiers couldn’t reach.

  Agang had followed his regiments into the capital, through the ruined archways gatehouse where, he had been informed, the King’s Combined Battalion had held out for sixteen days, under the command of the Holdings mage Benel, a name already being whispered in tones of hushed awe by alliance troopers. He had opened the tunnel through the Grey Mountains, and now he had secured the entrance into the capital. Of the audacious hero, there had been no sign when Agang had passed through the gatehouse. Benel had pushed on into the city as soon as the back of the Rahain army had been broken on the plains outside the entrance.

  Benel wasn’t the only one the army owed. Agang had been impressed by Killop, the rogue Clackdomyn chief. Without the destruction of the terrace artillery, he doubted the alliance would have been able to pierce the Rahain lines. Agang’s leading regiments had been mauled by ballista bolts and great boulders had wiped out dozens of his warriors at a time. It had been the one moment of the entire campaign where Agang had seriously contemplated failure. He had lost over a thousand warriors before Killop’s child-mage had set the terrace alight, and it had only been with the utmost self-control that he had kept his face steady when he had encountered the giant Clackdomyn chief standing over Lomecht. His impulse to embrace the barbarian, kiss him, shout and cheer, he had kept in check, aware of the hostility towards Killop from the warriors in Lomecht’s regiments.

  His commander was still furious. He had been humiliated in front of his own men. He wanted revenge, and he wanted Agang to make sure he got it. It had been Lomecht’s companies that had suffered most from the artillery bombardment, and he had seen the massacre of the Rahain prisoners as his due reward. Agang had kept him to the rear of the invasion of the city, bringing Mandalecht’s fresher regiments through the gatehouse first, where they had been directed onward by the Holdings officers who had taken command of the half-demolished entrance.

  The battle had raged through the night, but the hearts of the Rahain were already beaten, and many had surrendered, or thrown down their weapons and fled. Loyal forces still held out in pockets, and some had escaped into a network of narrow service tunnels that stretched in a web between the main routes, sniping at alliance troopers from above, and then scuttling off before anyone could get to them.

  Agang and Mandalecht passed the remains of a barricade halfway along a wide tunnel. Bodies of slain Rahain lay scattered on the ground, and a fire crackled away in a guardroom to the right.

  ‘Not far now, Chief,’ his commander said.

  ‘How many defenders are left?’

  ‘There are a few hundred in the main cavern ahead,’ he said as they walked, a guard escort flanking them. ‘Most are inside the senate complex. It was built to be defensible and the Holdings have lost a few troopers trying to get in. We could just burn it to the ground, but General Harkin said that they want the building as intact as possible.’

  Agang snorted. ‘For Laodoc?’

  ‘Seems so, Chief.’

  They passed by a line of injured Sanang warriors, groaning and bleeding on the tunnel floor. The hedgewitches had been pushed to exhaustion, and several warriors would die before the mages would recover enough to begin healing again.

  The tunnel opened up into the greatest cavern Agang had ever seen, so vast he reckoned the entire mass of Plateau City could fit inside. He stopped, and gazed up at the enormous buildings. Two dominated. The larger, to the left, had a series of overlapping domes piled upwards, and was ringed with battlements and towers. The smaller one was about the size of the Holdings king’s palace, and had dozens of slender spires reaching up to the cavern roof. Around them were wide streets, laid out with edifices that would have been the grandest to adorn any city, but here were lost among the profusion of built stone.

  ‘The heart of the Rahain Republic,’ said a voice next to him.

  He turned.

  A Holdings officer was approaching through the ranks of Sanang warriors formed up in lines by the exit to the tunnel.

  ‘It’s quite something, Lord Agang,’ he said. ‘Monumental, in fact.’

  ‘Indeed, General Harkin,’ Agang nodded, ‘though I’ve seen ants do something similar.’

  The general raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I assume that’s the senate building?’ Agang said, pointing at the largest structure.

  ‘It is,’ Harkin said. ‘Our forces have it surrounded.’

  ‘Then what do you need us for?’

  Harkin pointed at the lesser of the two great edifices.

  ‘I would be most obliged if you would deal with that building there,’ he said. ‘The chambers of the City Council. It would save me from having to look over my shoulder after I order the advance on the senate. Once you occupy it, you can use it as your headquarters.’

 
‘All right.’

  ‘Good chap,’ Harkin said. ‘It appears to be lightly defended, maybe even abandoned, but you should watch your step in there all the same, my lord.’

  Agang frowned.

  Harkin saluted. ‘Time to oust the Rahain government.’

  He turned and strode with his two officers back towards the senate, where thousands of Holdings troopers were assembled.

  Agang nodded to Mandalecht, and the Sanang regiments were soon on the march. They followed a wide boulevard through the centre of the cavern, past high-pillared mansions and official buildings, then took a junction leading to the smaller of the two great complexes.

  The streets were deserted, and the buildings untouched and abandoned, except for one that stood out. Down a side street, a large mansion had been gutted. Its windows were smashed and burned out, and its walls blackened. A squad of Holdings troopers stood outside, smoking in a group. They eyed Agang’s regiments with suspicion as they passed.

  ‘Are you in need of assistance, troopers?’ Agang called, walking towards them.

  ‘No thanks, my lord,’ a sergeant replied.

  ‘What is this place?’

  ‘The old Holdings embassy, my lord. Snakes burned it out long before we got here.’

  ‘And the ambassador?’

  The sergeant shrugged. ‘No sign.’

  Agang nodded, and caught up with his regiments, as they neared a walled courtyard before the city council. Mandalecht had halted them before the main gates, which were lying open. Inside the courtyard, wagons and crates sat about, as if someone had been disturbed in the act of leaving.

  ‘Looks deserted,’ Mandalecht said.

  ‘Send a few companies round the perimeter, and secure every entrance,’ Agang said. ‘We’ll take one regiment in through the front door.’

  His commander tilted his head, and began issuing orders to his officers.

  A line of heavily armoured warriors were sent up the wide steps leading to the main doors, while others filtered off to each side. The last of Agang’s warriors entered the courtyard, and the great gates were closed and guarded behind them.

  Mandalecht raised his arm, and the lead warriors burst through the front doors, and raced inside. Four further companies were sent in after them, each running up the steps and into the building, a minute separating each wave.

  Agang glanced up at the monstrous senate, the high domes of which were visible over the walls of the council’s courtyard. A low rumble of noise was coming from that direction, and he guessed that Harkin’s troopers had launched their attack.

  Mandalecht coughed, and Agang turned. They went up the steps, and through the glass and steel doors, and entered the council chambers. Lamps had been lit along the marbled corridors and stairways inside, and Sanang were posted at each junction.

  ‘No one encountered so far, my lord,’ an officer called to him.

  ‘Keep searching,’ Agang said. ‘Every floor, every room.’

  ‘Yes, Chief.’

  Agang and Mandalecht walked on, staying on the main central passageway, which led to another set of doors, these ones thick and strong.

  ‘Locked, Chief,’ a warrior said. ‘We were just about to force them open.’

  ‘Proceed.’

  Agang stood back as a squad of warriors moved ahead of him, carrying a larger-than-life statue of a Rahain noble. They charged at the doors, crashing the head of the statue into the timber beams. They creaked but remained firm. The squad moved back, and charged again.

  On the fifth charge, the head of the statue disintegrated, and the doors burst open. The squad dropped the decapitated marble nobleman, and rushed inside, Agang hastening to follow them.

  They entered a great hall, with stone benches lining the curved walls in a large semi-circle, opposite which was a high platform with a desk and ornate seat.

  Sitting alone on a bench high on the left was a man. He raised his head as the Sanang warriors ran in, and lifted his hands to show he was unarmed.

  Agang halted the warriors, and strode to their front, approaching the Rahain man.

  ‘Who are you?’ he asked in Holdings.

  ‘I am Ziane,’ the man said, staring down at Agang, ‘a councillor of this city.’

  ‘Where are the others?’

  ‘Gone. They knew what you did to their colleagues in Tahrana City. I however, could not bring myself to leave. The world has turned upside down, and I wanted to be here to see its end.’

  ‘Your evil regime has been destroyed,’ Agang said.

  Ziane arched his head and laughed. ‘Coming from the Sanang, that is funny,’ he said. ‘Lectured on evil by those who behead children. What suffering, pray tell me, has the Rahain Republic ever inflicted upon the peace-loving Sanang?’

  ‘You had designs to rule the world.’

  ‘I hope you find the Holdings king a fairer master.’

  ‘He’s not our master,’ Agang said, ascending the steps up to the bench where Ziane sat, Mandalecht a pace behind him.

  ‘I hadn’t expected this meeting to be quite so amusing,’ Ziane smiled, ‘but there you have it. Things don’t always happen the way you expect. Our tunnel for instance, we built that with high hopes, yet it turned out to be our undoing, allowing the Holdings to flood our land with their barbarous allies.’ He glanced up at Agang. ‘You chose a side, my Sanang lord. Between the two mightiest powers in this world, you chose the side that had invaded you, and desecrated your land. I know you will come to regret your choice, and that pleases me. I curse you, that when you fall, you will remember these words. You are a fool, and you have doomed your people.’

  Agang opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as Ziane leaped to his feet and drew a knife.

  Mandalecht reached past, shoving Agang aside, but Ziane turned the blade on himself, slicing through his own throat in a jagged rip, blood spraying and pulsing as he collapsed to the floor.

  ‘Get him out of here,’ Agang said, pushing himself upright, his eyes fixed on the bloody corpse at his feet, ‘and send word to the regimental officers. I’m setting up base in this chamber.’

  Warriors came up to the bench, and carried the man away, blood dripping down the stone steps and across the marble floor of the hall.

  Agang sat.

  ‘Take no account of the bitter last words of a broken man,’ Mandalecht said, a finger scratching the eyeless socket hidden under his patch. ‘Once we’re home, we can put all this behind us.’

  ‘I can’t wait to get out of this land of tunnels and caves,’ Agang said. ‘Laodoc and the Holdings are welcome to it.’

  Mandalecht’s regiments took over the City Council complex, setting up guard posts at each entrance and billeting rooms to allow the warriors to rest. Apart from Ziane, no one else had been discovered anywhere in the dark forbidding building, although there was much evidence of a rushed departure.

  Atop a tall slender spire, Agang watched as the Holdings assaulted the nearby senate. From the sounds and cries it seemed they were having a harder time of it that his own soldiers had experienced in the council. Out in front of the great edifice, groups of Rahain had been sorted. Wagons were already taking away those identified as mages by the Holdings priests, while others sat in the square, awaiting their fate.

  ‘There will be no mages left in Rahain at this rate,’ Mandalecht said, arriving at the top of the stairs.

  ‘Maybe that’s the idea,’ Agang said.

  ‘I’ve had word from Lomecht. He’s arrived in the cavern and is bringing his regiments and the civilians here.’

  ‘Good. When Hodang arrives, tell him to set up in the council chamber. And send Chane up here.’

  ‘Yes, Chief.’

  Agang waited, alone, and watched as a steady stream of Rahain prisoners were led out of the senate by armoured Holdings troopers.

  When Chane arrived she coughed gently.

  ‘My lord,’ she said.

  He kept his gaze ahead, not wanting to look at her when she was dres
sed as a soldier, with armour and weapons.

  ‘What does this mean?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m sorry, my lord?’

  ‘Drop the act, Chane.’

  ‘What act, my lord?’

  ‘You’re doing this to punish me. Sometimes I wish I’d never freed you. I don’t like you as a dumb warrior, I preferred you when you spoke your mind.’

  ‘You put me in the guard, my lord.’

  ‘Well forget that for a moment,’ he snarled. ‘For now, talk to me as Chane, I command it.’

  She paused for a second, then reached up and unclasped her helmet, letting her long hair tumble free. Her face was smeared in grime, and she stank of smoke. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘What does what mean?’

  ‘This!’ he cried, waving his hand at the senate. ‘We’re watching history. Aren’t we?’

  ‘The Rahain Republic has stood for thousands of years, and they’ve never once been invaded in that time. Yes, I’d say that we’re witnessing history. The old order is falling before our eyes.’

  ‘Do you trust the king?’

  She raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I trust him to act in the interests of the Holdings realm, and in the interests of the church.’

  ‘So your answer is no?’

  ‘Are you worried that he’ll betray you?’ she said. ‘He’s invested a lot in this alliance, publicly, so I don’t think he will suddenly turn on you. But I don’t know what the church whispers in his ear.’

  ‘I will be king.’

  She smirked. ‘I doubt that’s what they’re saying.’

  He snorted. ‘You know what I meant. No matter what the Holdings intend for the ruined land of Rahain, I will lead our warriors home as king. For that to happen I must stay close to the alliance. I must say and do the right things.’

  ‘Look,’ Chane said, pointing at the senate, where an enormous standard of the realm of the Holdings was being raised over a high dome. The troopers packed into the square below raised their longswords and cheered.

  ‘It’s done then,’ Agang said. ‘History.’