Siege of Pailtar (30 page)

Kiana got up and spoke, “I want you all to know that I’m honored to be accepted as one of the Guild members to stay and defend Pailtar. Not all of you know me, I am Kiana Clairmont, daughter of Spencer and Lilliana Clairmont. My father, Spencer, was killed during the first mercenary attacks. Keyon Upton was my teacher and a family friend, also killed during the first mercenary attacks. I have lost much, and will be losing my home as will the rest of you, but I will not lose my mother. I know my mother is one of the most powerful magic users in Pailtar and it is vital that she stay and protect the walls while the rest escape. However, if she stays I stay, and if anyone tries to send me away from her tonight, they will end up with a magical dagger between their ears.”

Everyone in the room stared at Kiana. Finally, Randolf, the man who questioned her being there spoke up. “I guess that settles that. My apologies, Kiana.”

“Now let’s move on to planning for tomorrow. Everet, what do you expect them to do?”

“I expect that tomorrow the southern fleet will arrive,” said Everet. “ I would think that they will now know that the main gates will have been sealed off. Since they don’t have heavy siege equipment or the ability to use magic, they will focus their efforts on the walls. Without a full complement of archers the walls will be taken fairly quickly. Once the walls are taken, they will use their battering ram to create a new opening, likely through the new walls built around the gate. Once they have a new opening, the main forces will enter the city.”

“How do we slow them down?” asked Randolf.

“We abandon defending the walls. We place archers and those with magic where they can fire on soldiers as they come over the wall, but we don’t worry about them once they are over. We retreat further into the city, if any of the soldiers follow, we fight them, but we avoid any main forces. We harass and retreat, harass and retreat. The idea is that they never know how many are truly left defending the city. At the first sign of the southern fleet we leave the city, and head into the desert. Make our way to Balta.”

“So we just leave Pailtar to Meron? King Ganus wins?” asked Randolf with disdain.

“No,” replied Everet. “Why is Pailtar even a city?

“Because it is the closest bay to Venecia,” said a Guild member.

“What else?” asked Everet.

“Water,” said Lilliana. “Pailtar is the only place within three days with enough water to support a city. It’s wells are the reason Pailtar is a city.”

“Exactly. The harbor and the wells are why King Ganus wants Pailtar. From here he can launch his armies against Balta and Venecia. However, if something happened to the water.…”

“You want to poison the wells?” asked Randolf.

“Pailtar is already lost to us. Now we need to hope our next home can survive as well. Contaminating the wells makes sense, as does burning the docks. Don’t give King Ganus what he came for,” said Colby.

37

Pailtar

NATHAN COULD SEE THE BLACK smoke before they could Pailtar, the sun was barely rising and as it did the contrast between the dark smoke and the sky increased. As the Baltan fleet sailed into the bay, he realized that the army from Meron had reached Pailtar first. The battle for Pailtar was already underway.

“Sail ho,” came the yell from the crow’s nest.

Nathan moved to the bow of the ship to take a look. He couldn’t see anything, but the sailor up in the nest had a better vantage point, could see farther. Nathan walked back to where the Captain and Quinton stood. “How far away are they? I couldn’t see anything from the bow.”

“Peter has the best eyes on the ship, it’s why he’s in the nest this morning,” said Quinton. “What do you think, Captain, two hours?”

“Two perhaps less,” replied the captain. “But from the looks of the smoke, the troops crossing the desert have been here at least a day.

  Nathan nodded, poor winds had cost them a day and it looked like that day had been spent in battle by Pailtar.

“Most of the smoke seems to be coming from around the main gates. Perhaps they have not breached the walls yet,” said Quinton.

“If they haven’t they will. The army from Meron is too big for them to stop, and depending on how many ships are coming right now, we won’t be able to fortify Pailtar. Nathan, you and Sharon take a dozen of my sailors and board the Wandering Mistress. Take her into port and rescue as many as you can. I’ll leave the Wounded Dog and the other merchant ship in the harbor to defend the Wandering Mistress while you’re ashore. We’ll sail out and block off the Morthon fleet for as long as we can. You’ll have a couple of hours to find as many as you can. When you’re back on the Wandering Mistress, have the captain fly a red flag. We’ll know you’re done and we’ll disengage from the Morthon fleet.”

Nathan nodded, and left the captain and Quinton to go find Sharon. She was sitting with a small group of sailors sharpening swords. “Sharon, you and I are leading a party ashore to find out what’s happened, and get any survivors away. You know this crew better than I do, pick a dozen men.”

Sharon knew a dozen men couldn’t change the course of battle in Pailtar, so this was strictly a rescue mission. She turned to Valentine, “We’ll need fighters, but men with foot speed. We’ll be moving quick.”

Valentino nodded and stood up, he tapped two of the other men sharpening swords on the shoulder to let them know they were chosen, he then went to find more soldiers.

“Valentino is the best swordsmen on the ship and he is the first mate, he knows the crew far better than I. He’ll hand pick the best-suited men for the job,” explained Sharon.

Nathan trusted Sharon’s judgment and if she trusted Valentino to pick the men then so did Nathan. Nathan made sure his weapons were secure while he waited for Valentino to return with the landing party. He had his bow, a full quiver of arrows, a sword and dagger. He was well-equipped for battle. The rest of the landing party would have less weapons. Running with a sword or axe was much quicker than carrying as many weapons as Nathan had on him, but with his bow Nathan could provide cover for the other men and hold off anyone chasing them.

Captain Singleton had slowed down their ship so that the Wandering Mistress could come up aside them. The two ships were only a few yards apart.

Valentino and the landing party joined Nathan and Sharon at the side of the ship.

“Captain Singleton will bring the two ships together until they are almost touching,” said Valentino. “We will walk the plank and jump aboard the Wandering Mistress.”

Normally, Nathan might think this a crazy idea, but the morning seas were fairly calm and Captain Singleton was closing slowly enough that walking the plank wouldn’t be difficult. And with the limited time they had, getting aboard the Wandering Mistress as quickly as possible was important.

Nathan watched as Valentino sprinted across the plank and jumped onto the Mistress. Sharon went next. When she deftly landed on the Mistress, Nathan followed. His landing was not as soft as Sharon’s, but still he stayed on his feet. The rest of the landing party followed.

Captain Browne greeted them “Ahoy, there. Going ashore are we?”

“Yes. We’ll be looking for survivors. We’ll be filling the Mistress with any luck,” said Nathan.

“That’s what we’re here for. The Mistress has more cargo room than any other merchant ship in Balta. We’ll load as many as you find. If we’re not enough, the Fair lady is waiting in the bay.”

“Be ready, this might have to be a very quick load up.”

“Don’t worry, lad, I know what war is like. I’ll have us sails up the moment everyone’s on board.”

As they sailed closer to the docks, they could see no one. The area around the docks had been abandoned.

Nathan turned to Sharon. “We’ll split into two groups, and make our way through the middle of the city towards the gates. But stick to the middle streets, I want our groups close enough to yell at each other if we run into enemy troops.”

When the Wandering Mistress landed at the ports of Pailtar, the silence was strange and foreboding. Nathan and Sharon led their groups up the streets looking for signs of life, nothing could be found until they got closer to the walls. They could see Morthon soldiers climbing over the top of the walls.

“If they’re coming over the walls, they haven’t breached the gates yet,” said Nathan. “Someone is still fighting.”

Joel, one of the Baltan sailors with Nathan replied, “Maybe, but if they’re coming over the walls it won’t take long before the gates go. We better move quick.”

As they ran around the corner of a building the group ran into a group of Morthon soldiers. A dozen soldiers breaking into houses looking for loot or survivors, most of the soldiers seems content with looting as they had handfuls of jewelry or other prizes in their hands.

Nathan, lifted his bow and calmly fired into the closest soldier. The enemy soldiers caught in the open with their hands full of the possessions of Pailtar’s citizens were easy pickings for Nathan. By the time they dropped their prizes and prepared to fight, half were dead, the remaining soldiers were struck down by the Baltan sailors and Nathan’s bow. When the battle was over, Nathan and the sailors kept moving, time was against them.

Moving closer to the gates, Nathan and the sailors finally found residents of Pailtar. Members of the city guard were stationed behind a building, firing arrows at anyone that came over the wall. The city guards noticed Nathan and the sailors and waved at them. Nathan joined the city guards.

“Where is everyone?” asked Nathan.

A civilian standing with the guards answered, “Most are gone. A few remain to hold the Morthon army off as long as possible while everyone else escapes. Are you from Balta or Venecia?”

“Balta, I have a ship waiting in the harbor for your people, and the Baltan fleet is cutting off the Morthon fleet to buy us some time, we need to get your people out of here right away,” said Nathan.

“Okay. Thank you, friend, I’m Colby. Two blocks east of here are the rest of our people, grab them and head to the ship. We’ll meet you there. We have one last thing to do before we leave Pailtar,” said Colby.

“A pleasure to meet you, Colby,  I’m Nathan Stoneblood. Whatever you need to do, make it quick.”

Colby gave Nathan a strange look, “Of all the people to rescue us … Hurry and grab the rest. We’ll meet you at the docks in five minutes.”

Nathan didn’t know what to make of the cryptic comment from Colby but didn’t have time to ask what he meant by it. Instead, Nathan headed east to find the rest of the defenders of Pailtar.

…

Sharon and her sailors didn’t find anyone until they ran right into the middle of a battle. A group of Morthon soldiers had a group of Pailtar people surrounded. The fighting was fierce, as Sharon ran up,  she noticed that one of the Pailtar people was throwing magical daggers into Morthon soldiers, another woman was slamming soldiers with magical forces, and another woman had a bow and was firing from behind a swordsman. Others were fighting with swords and spears, the defenders of Paitar were holding their own, but more and more Morthon soldiers were joining the fight.

Sharon gave a fear-rousing war cry as she attacked two Morthon soldiers. She ducked under one's sword, slicing his leg as she went and then struck his companion. The soldiers behind the first two noticed Sharon, Valentino, and the other sailors and started to attack them as well. A soldier swung his sword down at Sharon’s head, she blocked the heavy blow and then struck back. The soldier was able to block her attack, but Valentino sunk his sword into the man, before moving on to the next Mothon soldier. Sharon and Valentino worked in symphony, so used to each other’s  moves they would strike and block for each other as they worked their way through the Morthon soldiers.

The combination of Valentino and Sharon was devastating. They could not be stopped. And then suddenly when it looked like they would turn the tide of the battle, an arrow caught Valentino in the shoulder. The blow brought him to the ground. Sharon, suddenly alone in a sea of Morthon soldiers, was in trouble. She bobbed and weaved, blocking the blades of the Morthon soldiers, but there were too many of them. Then she raised her sword to block a sword, another soldier's sword slammed against her belly. Sharon went down as the breath was knocked out of her.

38

Pailtar

NATHAN CAME AROUND THE corner in time to see Sharon being struck down. The heavy blow had not killed her. The magical spider silk armor she wore had protected her, but with the group of soldiers above her, she wouldn’t last much longer.

Nathan lifted his bow, preparing to fire when a swordsman bowled into the group of soldiers surrounding Sharon. He struck down the nearest man and put himself between Sharon and the rest. A young woman came up behind him firing arrows into the soldiers while another fired magical knives.

A woman helped Sharon up. She seemed okay. Relief flooded through Nathan.

Nathan lowered his bow and ran up to them. With the help of Sharon and her sailors the soldiers had been defeated, the few remaining ran back towards the wall.

“You okay, Sharon?” asked Nathan as he reached her. He couldn’t help himself, he hugged her.

Sharon nodded, “I’m good.”

Nathan turned to the lady holding Sharon around the waist for support., “We need to leave. We have a ship waiting in the harbor.”

“There are more of us, a couple blocks to the west,” said the woman.

“A man named Colby?” asked Nathan.

The woman nodded.

“He’s meeting us at the docks,” said Nathan. “Let’s go.” Nathan turned to look at the rest of the defenders of Pailtar. He was shocked when he noticed the man that had saved Sharon. It was the duke!

“Nathan,” said the duke.

“Duke Evollan,” said Nathan.

“Actually, I go by Everet now. New beginning and all that,” said Everet.

“Well, Everet, we can discuss those new beginnings later. Right now we need to get to the docks,” said Nathan.