by V. M. Sang
Pettic and Natas climbed up to the top of the wall. As soon as they appeared, one of the gold figures stepped forward.
'Hear me, citizens of Smithtown. You're in violation of your duty to the cities. It's your duty to supply us with whatever goods we require. If you do not do so, we will take the necessary steps to take the goods. That will not be pleasant and your ringleaders will suffer the greatest penalties. We'll return tomorrow in order to collect our orders. If they're not here, then prepare for trouble.'
Having said that, they turned round and left.
Pettic and Natas turned back to the town. A large crowd gathered in the streets near the gate. Natas spoke and told the citizens what the prince had said.
A man called out, 'We won't give in. Not now. We've come too far.'
A murmur of agreement came from everyone else. Pettic sighed. He thought perhaps in the face of reality some of the people might back down and want to give in, but no, all were still in accord.
That night, everyone met in the tavern. It was crowded and even the street outside was full. The whole population wanted to talk about what was about to happen the next day.
Much to the tavern keeper's chagrin, and Pettic and Natas's delight, few of the assembled citizens wanted to drink. They all wanted to have clear heads for the coming day, which they thought would surely bring fighting.
The next morning, soon after the town woke, the sentries on the wall called to say the aerials were arriving. There was Prince Ignormoran leading about fifty soldiers, all armed with long, wicked-looking swords. The party stopped before the gates and the prince called out.
'Hoy, Smithtown. We're here to collect our dues.'
There was no answer.
He called again.
Still no answer.
Then, a third time. This time he said, 'You're being given a last warning. Bring out our goods or take the consequences.'
Still no answer.
The prince then left the soldiers and went back to the ropes. He tied himself on and was hauled up.
Queen Kelle of Faoor read the letter that had arrived from Hrondir.
'I don't believe this,' she said, screwing up the letter in annoyance. 'How dare they?
'What are you talking about, mother?' asked Princess Eloraine. She took the letter from her mother and smoothed it out.
As she read it, her eyebrows rose.
'I see why you're angry,' she said, 'but you won't get anywhere by venting your anger on a letter. The people you should be angry with are the groundlings.'
'Send for the ambassadors of the other cities,' snapped the Queen. 'This must be discussed.'
An hour later, four ambassadors sat in the throne room of the palace on Faoor, waiting for the Queen to arrive.
They had all been in the throne room before, but it never failed to impress with the carved columns down each side and the dais with the beautifully carved and gilt throne standing on it.
The windows that ran down each side had stained glass scenes of historical happenings on Faoor and on the ceiling was a fresco showing the five cities flying above Aeris.
The ambassadors did not have long to wait. Queen Kelle entered with her eldest daughter, Princess Eloraine. The pair made their way through the bowing ambassadors to the throne where the Queen took her seat and the princess sat in a smaller, but no less elaborate chair to the Queen's right.
The ambassadors sat at a gesture from the Queen. She looked at each of them in turn and began to speak.
'I received a letter from the King of Hrondir this morning. There's a problem with the groundlings. They're refusing to send us the goods we ordered.'
She paused as the ambassadors gasped and began to murmur among themselves.
'It seems to me that we must teach them their place in the scheme of things. None of the cities has enough soldiers to do this alone. We must bury our differences, at least for the time being, and tackle this together.'
There was a murmur of agreement.
'I think we need to do two things. First, we must lay siege to each of the towns. This will stop them from getting food and any goods they may need. They'll give up when they get hungry and start dying.
'Second, we must find out who is behind this. It's very strange that this has happened all of a sudden when there has never been any sign of it before.'
The Queen stood and walked down the steps to where the four ambassadors sat. She looked each one in the eye before continuing.
'I command you all to send birds to your cities and tell them of this. Then we can plan and co-ordinate our descent to the ground.'
The Queen turned and, followed by Eloraine, left the ambassadors in a state of shock. They quickly recovered and, after a few minutes discussion of the information the Queen had just given them, each one left for his or her residence to comply with the Queen's wishes.
It took several days for the messages to get to the different cities and the replies to get back to Faoor, but every one expressed horror and agreed they must act in unison.
The messages from the other cities told of rebellion in the other towns. It was not just Smithtown that was refusing to send up goods, but every single town on the ground. Even the farms joined. They were abandoned and the stock and crops left to fend for themselves.
This was serious. The cities did not produce anything and if there were no food, then they would starve. They were, to all intents and purposes, under seige themselves. This must be resolved as soon as possible. Although the farms were unguarded, the aerials could not gather the food themselves as they had no skills in killing and butchering animals, or harvesting crops, milling flour and the many other things done by groundlings.
Princess Eloraine had been thinking. There had never been any unrest by the groundlings before. What was different now? The only thing she could think of was Pettic.
They assumed the stranger was dead, but suppose he was not? Could he have something to do with this? She wrinkled her brow as she sat in the window of her room thinking.
Perhaps Pettic had got to Smithtown after they had left. When he saw what they had done in beating the smith, perhaps he decided something must be done.
He claimed to have come from another world. Suppose he really had? If his world were organised very differently from Aeris, perhaps what they took as natural, was not so on his world. Perhaps there were no creatures who were, like the groundlings, barely human. If so, he would not be able to understand that fact.
These thoughts were very difficult for Eloraine to contemplate and she closed her eyes and sighed. She picked up a book to try to take her mind off such disquieting thoughts, but the thoughts would not go away.
Chapter 15
Birds arrived from the other towns to Smithtown. It seemed that Hrondir had sent messages to all the cities, and they agreed to put aside their differences and join their armies together to teach the groundlings a lesson.
Shortly afterwards, a huge black cloud floated down from the city hovering above. It quickly resolved itself into hundreds of soldiers with a few bronze leaders. They landed and made their way towards Smithtown where they spread themselves around the town. The siege had begun.
For the first few hours, not much happened. The soldiers patrolled round the earthworks and occasionally one of the bronze commanders walked past the gates. They seemed to be looking to see if they could find a way into the town, but they did not succeed. If they had true flight they could fly over the walls, but they did not, so they were limited to walking round and round.
The townspeople, and the farmers who came to take refuge, watched to see what would happen next. Not much, it seemed. The aerial soldiers continued to walk round and round until eventually they stopped and formed groups.
Pettic watched with interest to see what they might do. Eventually, they erected tents in neat rows and lit campfires. They had some groundlings with them. These slaves began to cook food for the soldiers, who settled down to eat.
Pettic frowned
as he saw the aerials throw food in the direction of the groundlings, just as if they were dogs. How could people treat others in this way?
He turned away eyes blazing. These aerials thought they had a right to treat the groundlings in just any way they wanted. It would serve them right if the same thing happened to them.
A couple of days passed and still nothing happened. Boredom began to set in inside Smithtown. The smiths were still making their wares, mainly weapons, but they could not send the arrowheads to Arrowville nor receive arrows back. As they had not actually used any yet, they still had a full complement. That was not a problem.
Then one day the aerials sent their slave groundlings to cut down some trees. The people of Smithtown watched from their earthworks, brows furrowed. What were the aerials going to do with trees?
As they watched, it became clear to Pettic what was happening. They were building structures. Tall, wooden structures.
Pettic called to Natas who was about a hundred yards further down the embankment.
'Hey, I know what they're doing.'
Natas came running up.
'What?' he asked.
'They're building towers so they can launch themselves over our defences. We should try to destroy them before they manage to finish. Get rags and soak them in oil. We can light them and burn the towers.'
This kept the townspeople and farmers busy. They brought out all their old clothes and the children tore them up into pieces. Then they soaked them in the vats of oil that some of the men heaved over to the square. Women tied the oil-drenched rags to arrowheads and gave them to other children who ran to the ramparts with them.
Pettic and Natas organised the archers. They were not much as archers They had not had a great deal of practice, but they could mainly shoot straight and many of them would be able to shoot well enough to pick out a large target.
Boys came round with torches, each boy stopping by one group of archers. Every archer lit an arrow and, at the command from their leader, let fly. Many arrows missed, some hitting the builders, which they all regretted, but enough hit the wooden towers to set them alight.
A cheer rose from those who could see what was happening and the message soon reached those congregating in the town square and cheering erupted.
'Well, that's taught them,' said one old smith as he lowered his bow.
'Don't be so sure,' Pettic told him. 'These aerials are clever. As clever as we are, even if they don't use their brains much that I can see. They'll come up with something else.'
Sure enough, the aerials did not give up. They sent their slaves to chop down more trees and began to build more towers, but this time out of arrow shot. When this news got through to the townspeople, they groaned.
'They'll need to bring them nearer, though, won't they? They can't glide into town from that far away,' said a boy who was listening to his parents' conversation.
'Well, I suppose that's true,' said his father, looking at him and scratching his head. 'We can destroy them when they move them then.'
That was not to happen. The aerials built the towers much higher than the originals. Even so, the people of Smithtown were dubious as to whether the aerials could get enough height to glide over the earthworks and moat.
To their surprise, the aerials did not move the towers. As they watched from the earthworks, Pettic and Natas saw the aerials lighting fires between where they had built the towers and the walls of Smithtown. Natas turned to Pettic, a frown on his face.
'What are they doing?' he asked the young man. Pettic ignored him and turned to the messenger boy who was sitting stroking Cledo.
'Go and tell all the archers to come to the walls immediately. Oh, and take Cledo with you. I don't want him hit by a stray arrow.'
'But what are they doing?' reiterated Natas.
Pettic turned to him.
'Building thermals,' he said as he raised his bow in readiness.
Sure enough, as soon as they lit all the fires and they were burning well, aerials climbed the towers. They launched themselves from the top. As they glided, they steered themselves towards the fires and as they passed over them the rising hot air gave them lift. In this way they gained enough altitude to get over the earthworks and moat.
Natas had gone to the other side of the town leaving Pettic in charge of the gate side. The young man looked at his archers and checked the piles of arrows at their feet. The boy had come back from his errand and stood ready to run for more arrows if it looked as though they would run out.
'Nock an arrow,' called Pettic. 'On my call, let fly, but not before.'
The aerials were getting closer but were still not in range. One over-anxious man released his arrow and it fell far short.
'I said, wait until I give the order,' shouted Pettic towards him.' That's one arrow we don't have any more.'
The men and women on the earthworks held their nerve. They all longed to release their arrows. It seemed the aerials were getting too close. Surely they would be over the ramparts any minute.
'Take aim,' called Pettic, 'Now loose.' A cloud of arrows flew into the air.
Many missed their target, inexperienced as the shooters were, but some got through and hit aerials. None of the aerials were killed, but a couple had their membranes torn and plummeted to the ground, one landing in the moat where she flapped about until she disappeared under the water and did not resurface.
'Now, fire at will,' shouted Pettic and arrows flew through the air. Some of the aerials landed short and began to run back to their camp, but some made it over the ramparts. They landed in the streets of the town.
Men and women with swords patrolled those streets. The aerials drew their own and grouped together to move in. They, however, did not know the town and the townsfolk did. Sometimes they were attacked from behind, sometimes people ran in front of them and they charged after them only to find their prey had vanished.
One aerial ran into a child who had somehow got separated from his parents. The aerial raised her sword but Cledo, trotting down a side street looking for Pettic, saw what was about to happen and leaped at the woman. He grabbed her arm just before it came down and, growling, he worried it like he worried his toys at home. Her membrane tore and she screamed. A townsman heard that scream, came up behind and brought his smith's hammer down on her head. Her scream was cut off short. The smith, recognising the child, picked him up and, patting Cledo on the head and praising him, carried the child back to his home.
Soon every aerial who had got into the town was dead and the attack from the towers stopped. The townsfolk patted Natas and Pettic on the back and carried them, shoulder high, to the town square.
Natas stood on the steps leading to the town hall's main doors.
'Well, that's one battle won, I think, but I don't suppose it'll be the last. Go and get yourselves some rest and be ready for another one tomorrow.' He stepped down and walked over to Pettic.
'How long do you think this will go on?' he asked.
'I really don't know,' said Pettic. 'We can hold out until our food's all gone, but what then? The aerials, too, have a food problem. I suppose they have some stored in the cities, but how much can the cities spare for the troops on the ground? Everyone will start to get hungry and I think it just depends on who has the most food stored.'
Natas looked at the ground. 'I suppose we ought to ration what we have. That won't be very popular'
'No, but essential. I expect the people will understand.'
Natas then sent a cryer round the town asking all citizens to bring out what food they had. They could keep one day's food in their houses but all other food must be brought to the square to be stored. A ration for each household would be given out every morning.
People began to bring their food immediately. Most saw the value in what was being done, but, of course, there were a few who brought it reluctantly and even a few who tried to hoard some. This was unsuccessful in the main because their neighbours gave them away.
&n
bsp; That evening, people ate the last of the food in their homes and went to bed expecting to be hungrier in the following days.
All evening and well into the night, Pettic and Natas catalogued the food and decided just how much each person required. Small children and babies would not be allowed to go hungry, but everyone else would be expected to pull in their belts.
There were, surprisingly, few grumbles at the amount of food given out the next morning. Wives took what they had been given and used their ingenuity to prepare appetising meals, but even so, people went to their stations on the battlements not feeling as full as on previous days.
Pettic saw several of the aerial commanders going into one tent and deduced they were holding a meeting. Then one came out and went to where the city had hovered to let them come down. He took a device and did something, but Pettic could not see what, nor make out what the device was. He could see it had a gem in it, so it was probably a magical device.
The commander did not have to wait long, perhaps half an hour at most, when a city appeared overhead. He held onto the ropes they dropped and was hauled up.
'Now what's going on there?' he wondered.
The commander, whose name was Varen, went immediately to the royal palace. He asked for an audience with the Queen. It was indeed Faoor where he had arrived. He was admitted immediately into the Queen's private quarters.
He bowed as he entered, and the Queen beckoned him forwards.
'You have a report for me, I think,' she said.
'Yes, your Majesty,' Varen replied. 'We attacked the smiths yesterday. We thought if we got the slaves to build towers we could glide over the walls and take the town.'
'A good idea. How did it work?'
'The first towers the smiths burned with fire arrows so we built more out of arrow range. Then we built fires to create thermals so we could get over the walls from a greater distance.'
Haren shuffled his feet and looked at the ground.
The Queen watched him carefully noticing his discomfiture.
'How did this attack go wrong then?' she asked.
Haren raised his eyes and met hers.