‘You get ten as well, Larissa,’ Bridget said. ‘You’re in charge of trapping and hunting.’
‘What’s new?’ she said, rolling her eyes.
Bridget smiled. ‘And everyone else works for me.’
‘What will we do with the Rahain?’ asked Dyam.
‘Put them to work like everybody else,’ Killop said. ‘The only team they’re not allowed to join is Larissa’s. I don’t want them outside, in case they’re tempted to run.’
‘They wouldnae leave now,’ Draewyn said. ‘They’re happy to be alive, and still amazed we didnae slaughter them.’
‘I won’t be putting any in my team,’ Dominic said. ‘Even if I was sure of their loyalty, which I’m not, they wouldn’t know what I was telling them to do.’
‘That’s not true,’ Bridget said. ‘Most of them learned our language from the children.’
‘You mean they could understand us the whole time?’
‘They’ve never hidden the fact that they know our language,’ Bridget said. ‘You just assumed.’
‘Oh well,’ Dominic muttered, ‘at least they know what I think of them.’
‘Don’t be a prick, son,’ Draewyn said. ‘The Rahain were slaves just like us.’
‘They haven’t broken their word to us,’ Killop said. ‘Let’s give them the freedom of the city, under the same rules as everyone else. Kalden, make sure they don’t get harassed.’
‘Aye, Chief.’
‘What will you be doing, Chief?’ Dyam asked.
‘I’ll be taking a squad out into the hills,’ he said. ‘Locate our next target. I counted on the map at least half a dozen mines and labour camps in the area. Once I’ve scouted the route to the first, I’ll send back someone to summon the reserve for a raid.’
‘Should we not take more time to settle in?’ Brodie said.
He shook his head. ‘No. We’re going to attack every camp we find, and free every slave.’
‘The Rahain ones too?’ Bridget said. ‘Like we talked about?’
‘Aye, even them.’
An old woman knocked at the entranceway.
‘Sorry for interrupting, boss,’ she said, ‘but everyone is gathered and ready.’
‘Thanks,’ he nodded. He looked around the table at the faces of his captains, knowing that many of them desired to hide away in their new home, and find peace.
‘Let’s go,’ he said, rising. ‘It’s time to found our city and name our clan.’
Brodie smiled. ‘And then get drunk.’
Chapter 13
Invested
Outside Plateau City, The Plateau – 21st Day, Last Third Summer 505
‘I want to go home,’ Chane said, flicking the ash from her smokestick into a mug by the bedside.
Agang stretched out on the mattress next to her. ‘Technically speaking, this is the closest you’ve been to your home in two years.’
‘The Holdings is not my home any more,’ she said. ‘The Beechwoods, and Broadwater. They’re home to me now.’
‘Do you miss the great forest?’
‘I do,’ she said, her smile fading, ‘and I hate being here, seeing what your army has done.’
‘You knew what was going to happen.’
‘I could picture battles, soldier against soldier, but the slaughter of farmers and their families, innocent civilians?’
‘We’re doing no more than your army did,’ Agang said, ‘and they invaded four times, not once.’
Chane raised an eyebrow. ‘The Holdings army did nothing as bad as some of the things I’ve seen B’Dang’s men do.’
Agang frowned.
‘And you said we would be heading back by now,’ she went on.
He shook his head. ‘That was the original plan. I meant it, I wasn’t lying to you. But the warriors have collected virtually nothing from this raid so far. No gold, no treasure, a mere handful of slaves. It’s not enough for them. If the Plateau had been as settled as you told me it was, then the men would have had their fill, and we would be marching home right now.’
He turned to her, propping himself up on a pillow.
‘All the farms and villages we’ve passed through,’ he said, ‘have barely provided enough to keep us supplied on the march. Summer has almost ended, and their capital city is our last chance to get our just rewards, and still make it home before winter.’
‘But Agang,’ she said, her eyes pleading, ‘you’ve done enough. You’ve proved to the Holdings and the world what the Sanang can do. You destroyed an army of Holdings heavy cavalry in open battle, a feat the Rahain didn’t manage in twenty years of warfare against the Realm.’
‘I’ve made up my mind,’ he said, pulling back the blanket and getting to his feet, ‘and I’d prefer not to talk about it again.’
Chane lowered her eyes, glowering in anger.
He dressed, putting on the underclothes that would go beneath his armour.
‘Good luck today, my beautiful Agang Garo,’ she said. ‘If I could have one wish, it would be that you would allow me to fight alongside you.’
He smiled. ‘Your days as a warrior are over, Chane. You’re much too delicate for the blood and shit of the battlefield.’
‘You’ve never seen me in battle,’ she said, her face hard. ‘My lord.’
‘No,’ he replied, walking for the exit, ‘and I’ve no desire to. War is not for women.’
He opened the canvas tent-flap, and stepped outside.
Black-clad guards on either side of the door jumped to attention as he walked into the warm morning air. The sky was blue, and although autumn wasn’t far away, he knew it was going to be another humid day on the Plateau.
He gazed around, and then he saw it.
Plateau City.
Agang and his army had arrived the previous evening, after the sun had set, and they had seen the lights of the capital in the distance, but this was his first glimpse of it in daylight.
His mouth dropped open for a moment. He quickly re-imposed calm onto his face, but his mind was spinning. He had never imagined such a city could exist. How proud he had been of Broadwater, how arrogant of the fact that five thousand people lived within its walls, yet now he realised that he could fit the whole town into the Holdings’ new capital many times over.
It was enormous.
Walls as high as those on the great frontier ringed the sides of the city he could see, with strong tall towers, from which green, silver and gold pennants flew in the breeze. A dome of incredible size was visible over the walls, with wooden cranes clustered around it in attendance. On the city’s right side, the wall ran alongside the edge of the huge body of water they had first seen a few days previously, the Inner Sea as Chane called it. The waters by the sea wall were busy with ships, some sailing, others bunched into groups as they anchored out from the harbour.
‘Have you ever seen anything like it?’ Badolecht said.
Agang turned and saw his mage approach, walking next to Hodang and Echtang.
‘Never,’ Agang said.
‘What do you intend to do, my lord?’ Hodang said.
‘We will keep to the plan, Hodang.’
‘But, my lord,’ his chief minister said, as he stared at the city in the distance. ‘How? Those walls are impenetrable.’
‘We shall see,’ Agang said.
He nodded to a pair of servants, who came forward with his armour. He stretched out his powerful arms, and took a wide stance as the two men strapped him into the steel plate, freshly polished and shining in the morning sun.
‘Scouts are back, my lord,’ Mandalecht said. ‘They report no Holdings forces anywhere in the vicinity, outside of the city.’
‘Right,’ Agang said, ‘let’s see if the King wants to come out and play.’
Agang strode through the ordered ranks of his soldiers, his officers and the allied chiefs following. They reached the front line, and kept walking. Behind him, a herald raised the standard he had brought all the way from Broadwater: a red tree o
n a white background.
Ahead, the massive northern gates of Plateau City lay two hundred yards away. Agang joined the wide paved road that led to the gates, and approached.
He looked up at the great walls as they grew closer. The battlements were lined with enemy troops, gazing down at the twenty thousand warriors he had brought from Sanang.
Agang halted, just out of bowshot.
‘Come out!’ he called to the walls in the Holdings tongue. ‘Come out and prove you are not cowards. Prove you are more than thieves and murderers, who ravaged the Sanang lands for four years. Come out and face justice!’
A fresh breeze blew up from the sea to their right, and swept over the coastal plain, sending the Holding flags fluttering.
‘I am Agang Garo,’ he cried, ‘and I will have justice.’
No response came from the walls.
Agang waited a few moments then turned to the others by him. ‘We tried.’
‘Damn cowards,’ Drechtan growled, ‘but just as you predicted, my lord.’
‘If I were behind walls like that,’ Mandalecht said, ‘I’m not sure I’d come out either.’
‘We should attack the gates,’ said B’Dang. ‘Batter them down, and ravage the city.’
‘You’re welcome to go first,’ Agang said. ‘We can all stand and watch as they slaughter you from the walls.’
B’Dang bared his teeth at Agang as he turned and began walking back to the army.
‘Mandalecht,’ he said, ‘move your regiments to cover this side of the city. Ditches, rampart, just like we discussed.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Everyone else, gather your forces, we’re going to encircle the city and bring it under siege.’
His officers ran off to their units leaving the allied chiefs standing around him.
‘A siege?’ B’Dang cried. ‘You want Sanang warriors digging ditches like slaves? We should be fighting.’
‘We’ve been through this,’ Agang said, getting angry. ‘We tried to engage them in battle. That failed.’
‘Then we need to assault the walls,’ B’Dang said.
‘We encircle the city first,’ Agang said. ‘If we see any weaknesses, then I’m open minded about an immediate attack. But if the walls are all like that,’ he pointed to the front gates, ‘then an assault would be suicide.’
He pushed his way through the chiefs, and strode towards where he could see Lomecht organising the four regiments under his command.
The officer saw him coming, and the ranks of soldiers set off when Agang was level with him.
‘Fucking B’Dang,’ Agang said.
‘He’s not the only one, my lord, who would like a crack at the walls,’ Lomecht said.
‘You weren’t at the frontier last summer, were you?’
‘You left me in charge at Beechwoods, if I recall,’ his officer said, frowning.
‘The only reason I have an army today,’ Agang said, ‘is that I refused to persist in attacking that wall. My first and only assault cost the lives of five hundred soldiers in twenty minutes. I watched my warriors fall, amid a blizzard of crossbows bolts. I will not do so again.’
Lomecht nodded, his face lowered.
They reached the corner, and saw the eastern side of the city for the first time. There was a great tower where the wall turned, with high battlements, then the wall stretched south, just as high as before, before ending after several hundred yards. Below the wall at this point, there was the beginning of a large, raised earthen rampart, which curved in a wide semi-circle, first away from the wall, and then back towards it.
‘Do you see that?’ Agang said. ‘Maybe their wall isn’t complete. Come on. I want our men in front of that rampart before the allies catch us up.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ Lomecht said. He turned and called out orders, and the warriors of his four regiments quickened their pace. Behind them, Agang could see thousands of his allied warriors following, B’Dang’s force in the lead.
As they ran, Agang scanned the land ahead. Where the rampart ended, he saw the course of a river flow. Agang halted halfway along the front of the great earthen bank. Behind it, he could see the wall turn away west, running in a continuous line to another, older wall which turned south to the edge of the river.
‘The wall is unbroken, my lord,’ Lomecht said, ‘but it looks like they threw up that middle section in a hurry.’
‘Then what’s the point of the rampart?’ Agang said.
There was a low rumble and Agang looked up. Hundreds of figures were appearing from the other side of the rampart’s earthen slope. They reached the top and stood there, with swords, spears, shields and bows, waiting. Like the Sanang, their skin was pale, and they were tall, taller than any of Agang’s people.
‘Who are they?’ Lomecht said. ‘They’re not Holdings.’
‘I’ve heard reports of a race of mountain giants from the far south,’ Agang said. ‘Some scouts even claimed to have seen them. The Clackdomyn.’
‘What the fuck are they doing here?’
‘Truly, I have no idea.’
There was a great noise from behind, and Agang turned. Behind the stationary ranks of his own soldiers, the allied warriors were running towards the river at the far end of the rampart. As the warriors began to splash through the wide ford, Agang noticed another section of wall on the far bank, standing isolated and alone. Between the abandoned wall and the river was a long, wide strip of land, occupied by hundreds of tents and huts. Thin plumes of smoke rose from chimneys and campfires, and there was a blur of movement and faint cries of terror as the people there began to see the approaching danger.
B’Dang’s forces were first to cross the river, and they turned to follow its bank towards the mass of tents. In their way was another rampart, lower than the one that ringed the Clackdomyn, and bereft of any defenders.
‘Stay here, Lomecht,’ Agang said. ‘I’m taking a company across the river.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Keep your position unless the Clackdomyn assault you,’ Agang said. ‘Do not attack first.’
Lomecht nodded as Agang rushed off. He gestured to a young captain to gather his men, and they ran to the rear of their lines, joining the mass of allies surging towards the river. Agang reached the bank, his boots ankle-deep in the water. The ford was long and wide, and already churned up by the thousands of warriors crossing.
Agang heard screams, and knew that B’Dang had reached the tents between the abandoned wall and the river. He sprinted now, pushing others out of his way, until he reached the top of the low earthen rampart, which gave him a view down to the sea.
The main walls of the city ran along the opposite side of the river, and a large gatehouse had been constructed above the water, over a wide bridge. Its gates were open, and he could see Holdings people streaming through in a panic, fleeing into the protection of the city.
At the other end of the camp, B’Dang’s forces were ripping their way through the lines of tents and huts, slaughtering any in their path. The Holdings peasants were trapped between the abandoned stretch of wall, the river, and the sea, and other Sanang allies were rushing into the narrow strip of land, to join in the carnage. On the walls of the great city, the eyes of countless Holdings troopers were looking down at the massacre of their people, and where the city walls ended, thousands of Clackdomyn were lining the river bank, watching, their faces grim.
Agang stood motionless, and said nothing. He guessed there must be at least ten thousand Holdings civilians between the wall and the river, and though they were fleeing through the open gates as fast as they could, he knew the majority would be slaughtered by his allies in a blood frenzy, led by B’Dang D’Bang.
He turned, and began walking back to Lomecht’s position, his company following after him.
‘A good first day, my lord,’ Drechtan said as he entered the command tent. ‘We have cleared the eastern bank of enemies, and surrounded the city.’
‘The Holding
s camp had nothing worth taking,’ Badranga said, walking in with the other allies, ‘but the boys had a good run out. We guess about three thousand Holdings made it through before the gates were closed. The remnants were still being put to the sword when we left.’
Agang frowned from his elevated chair, his officer and advisors beside him. ‘Where is B’Dang D’Bang?’
‘My lord,’ Drechtan said, halting before his chief and bowing his head, ‘he has occupied the coastal tower at the far end of the abandoned wall, in order to hold that flank.’
‘That,’ Agang said, ‘or he guessed my anger at him.’
‘Anger, my lord?’ Badranga said.
‘He attacked the civilian camp without orders.’
‘But, my lord,’ Drechtan said, ‘didn’t you say that we should attack if we saw a weakness in the enemy’s lines?’
‘We did hear you say that, my lord,’ Badranga said.
‘Slaughtering civilians gets us no closer to the inside of Plateau City,’ Agang said, staring down at his allies. ‘We could have captured them, and demanded a ransom from the King for their return. B’Dang D’Bang should have waited for orders.’
Badranga and the other allies glanced at each other.
‘You have brought us this far, my lord,’ Drechtan said, ‘what do you now command?’
Agang paused, suppressing his rage.
‘We dig in, from the sea where Mandalecht is positioned, all the way to the ford,’ he said. ‘On the far bank we will hold the abandoned wall, and rebuild the rampart between it and the river.’
‘Then what, my lord?’ Badranga asked.
‘Once our lines are secure,’ he said, ‘we will send out raiding parties to the east and south, raze every farm and village to the ground, and strip the land. A city this size is fed by its hinterland, so we shall destroy it, depriving them of supplies. We’ll starve them out.’
‘And how long will that take, my lord?’ Drechtan asked.
‘That depends,’ Agang said, ‘on whether the Holdings King pays us to leave. I intend to demand ten million gold sovereigns from this realm, as a just compensation for their crimes. If they pay us this sum, along with the horses and wagons to transport it, then we will leave their land.’
The Magelands Box Set Page 62