“So, Pantros,” The king said, “This is all your fault?”
“My fault?” Pantros replied, “I wouldn’t go that far, Your Majesty. The events that brought about the Vulak invasion were in motion long before I became involved. From my understanding of things. When I came into possession of the Nightstone Key, I have only brought about the best possible outcome so far.”
The king appeared thoughtful for a moment. Kehet was curious what a Nightstone Key was but felt it would be a question to ask later, if the answer didn’t come on its own in the meantime.
King Allaind said, “The Nightstone could certainly produce a far larger problem than a Vulak Army if it were in the wrong hands. No one wants to deal with the denizens of Hell. Do you have the Nightstone with you?”
“I do, Your Majesty.” Pantros pulled a pouch from his shirt and produced a very large dark, glowing gem. “I don’t know who I can trust with it, I should assume I can trust you but I was hoping to make it to Vehlos and see the Archmage about it.”
“I can have the Archmage come here,” The King said. “He’s not a subject of mine, but for him such travel is trivial. I’ll have to get a Sorcerer over here to send the message by wind, but he should be here by this time tomorrow. Until then I’d have you keep the stone and I will move you to more secure quarters than the guesthouse.”
“Why do I have the sinking suspicion I’ve just been placed under arrest?” Pantros asked.
The King smiled a little. “The cells below the palace are the most guarded place in the city. The rooms are quite nice since we only use them for nobility when they get into unpleasant circumstances.” The king motioned to two guards. When they approached, he instructed them, “Keep this man under close watch. Let nothing happen to him. He will be staying below in the big cell, but he is to be allowed to go anywhere on the palace grounds, under close guard. His name is Pantros; treat him as a noble.”
“The King of Thieves, Your Majesty?” one of the guards asked.
“The same,” The king said.
“The thieves have a king?” Kehet asked.
Several of the people in the room chuckled. “No.” It was Sheillene who explained, “It’s a fictional title describing his prowess, not his relationship to the other thieves of the world. There are only two kings in this room, you and His Majesty. I apologize I don’t know your particular address.”
“I’m a prince, not a king,” Kehet said. “I don’t know my address. Some call me Majesty, if you insist on using one with me, that will do, but I have no need for such things. Just a couple weeks ago, I thought of myself as simply Charles the blacksmith’s apprentice. King Allaind has met me before and I’ve met a few others who have known me over a thousand years ago. They just call me Kehet. I suppose you may do the same.”
Three of the King’s Generals joined them and, after introducing the officers to Kehet and Sheillene’s friends, the King moved the meeting to a planning room. A table with a model of the kingdom stood in the center of the room. It was enchanted to always represent the current view of the kingdom and it could be enlarged to focus on a specific spot, but only the king could control it.
The king spent several minutes silently moving the perspective of the model around. Views of several Vulak groups passed across the tabletop.
Malithe, a general with blonde hair so long she had to tuck it as a loop in her belt, spoke out, “They’re not terribly organized.”
Kehet asked, “They don’t look like more than a bunch of Vulak moving in towards the city, but can we be sure they are not acting in coordination?”
“We can’t be sure,” Bryan said, “but, they don’t share any banners or markings. Whatever is causing them to share a goal does not have a complete grip over them.”
“I suspect even they do not know the scale of the invasion,” Malithe said. There are no map tents, no intense planning, just moving as quickly as is reasonable, towards Melnith. There are already a couple thousand just beyond bowshot. The siege has begun.”
“So, how do we prepare?” The King asked.
“Have everyone start hoarding water,” said Shera, a general with silver hair cut above her shoulders. “Fill every barrel in the city. They will try to damn the river upstream of the city.”
“Amateurs,” Bryan said. “The Vulak are amateurs, so they will probably try to cut off the water. A better strategy would be to dam the river downstream of the city, flooding is far more devastating than forcing us into rationing our water. How soon do you think it will be before they start defiling the river upstream?”
“They won’t,” The third general, a bald man named Wun, said. “They need the water as well if they have any plans to stick around for more than a couple days. But, if they do, I understand the touch of a Unicorn’s horn will purify water. I imagine the Unicorn God can purify quite a bit of water.”
Kehet knew that what the man said was true. He didn’t remember learning it, but he somehow just knew. Kehet nodded, agreeing. “I could purify a few leagues of river. Defilement is not a threat to us.”
“Do we know how many Vulak are coming?” The long-haired general asked. “Maybe we should send some soldiers outside the city and take the Vulak down as they arrive.”
“How big is the Abvi Army?” Bryan asked.
“I’ll let Malithe answer that as well,” The king said, nodding to the long-haired general.
Malithe Nodded, “I am the senior ranking general in the city. There are two hundred and fifty thousand Abvi in the city and a few thousand others. Of those, one in ten is part of the militia reserve. We don’t have more than a handful of regular army here. Most of our forces are in border keeps and patrols.”
“And they didn’t report this invasion coming?” Bryan asked.
“We got two reports of Vulak movement,” Malithe said. “We sent reinforcements to those posts. We haven’t heard anything from the other posts along Vulak territories. That’s not unusual to go a season or two without communication, but seeing the size of these forces, it’s not a good sign.”
The king spun the view on the table and sped through the countryside to view a stone tower. Nothing seemed out of place, but nothing moved. Kehet couldn’t see anyone in the view.
“There should be two dozen soldiers at that post. At most, ten would be in the tower, out of sight. There should be three manning the parapet.” General Wun said.
“I know that post well,” Shera said. "The Vulak would have come through a pass three hundred paces north."Let’s see the pass, if you would, Your Majesty.
Before the scene reached the pass, Kehet could see the fate of the Abvi was not good. Several bodies, both Abvi and Vulak littered the ground around the opening of the pass.
“The Vulak are in a hurry,” Shera said. “They don’t leave their dead to rot in the sun, but though I see three Vulak dead for every Abvi body, it looks like the Vulak won the fight.”
“Why do you say that?” Pantros asked.
“The Abvi have had their ears removed,” Shera said, he voice seething and low with sadness. “Vulak take ears as trophies. Some of them survived to claim the ears.”
“Let’s see,” The King said. He scrolled the scene, following a trail left by the Vulak. It took him several minutes, but when he stopped, everyone in the room gasped. Thousands of Vulak marched in a column toward Melnith.
“I don’t think meeting them outside the gates is a good idea,” Bryan said. “I think we need to prepare the walls, get arrows up there along with anyone who can pull a bow. How many trebuchets are in the city?”
“Why would we have siege engines in a city?” Wun asked.
“They’re particularly handy for throwing oil soaked bales of hay at the enemy,” Bryan said. “Or pitch, or even rocks.”
“Barbaric,” Malithe said.
Marc stepped forward and said, “I too would prefer a toe-to-toe fight. When it comes down to win or lose in battle, it’s one thing to fight honorably and die honorably for yourself. When you’re fighting for the lives of everyone in the city, is it really the honorable path to fight only with your own honor in mind? There will always be lines of honor and morality that no soldier should cross, but having trebuchets aimed at enemy soldiers is not of those.”