Chương 64: Messenger

Lord Ceonwin stepped back and said, "Come in." Sir Fihail and a young Dupe in a leather riding tunic stepped in. The Dupe was panting.

"My lord, I bear a message from Sir Egric. I come straight from Oschester." Technically, I'd been dismissed, but I moved to the corner and stood there like I belonged, hoping to fit in. I wanted to know what the urgent message was. Sir Fihail and Ceonwin stepped into the room, and the messenger passed a leather pouch to Ceonwin. Lord Ceonwin took the pouch and opened it, then pulled out a sheet of parchment. His eyes swept over it, his expression darkening with every second, before he reached the bottom.

He slammed the letter down on the table, then leaned over his maps.

"My lord?" Sir Fihail asked.

"Orcs have overrun Oschester. They've breached the curtain wall, and Sir Egric believes that the orcs will have penetrated the inner fortress by the time I receive this letter. He's most certainly already dead." I gulped, then cautiously stepped closer to the maps. My eyes scanned over the parchment sheets until I identified a city slightly northeast from us.

Judging by how large it was, and by the faint drawing of a fortress, Oschester was one of the largest cities in Lord Ceonwin's Domain—and certainly, it was close to the front lines.

"He calls for aid," Ceonwin said.

"We should give it to him, my lord," Sir Fihail replied.

"There are twenty thousand souls within those walls, and the orcs will bring the survivors to labour camps. If nothing else, we need to stop them from adding that much labour to their workforce."

"By the time we muster the army, it will be too late," Lord Ceonwin muttered. He tapped the map with his finger.

"The orcs won't leave a walled city like Oschester after their raid. They'll use it to strike out at us from a position of strength. And if we give them time to fortify it before attacking, we may not win. Our army isn't built for drawn-out sieges." I grimaced.

"We have to do something. We can't just let ten thousand people get killed or captured, can we?" More importantly, why had Oschester, a supposed fortress, fallen so quickly? Was it poorly armed? Unprepared? Or were the orcs just too powerful and too fast? But I was no thegn. It wasn't my place to question Lord Ceonwin right now. I'd already pushed it enough today, and I was probably on thin ice just by being here, even though I was only a sergeant.

"We will do something," Lord Ceonwin said.

"But killing ourselves with a frontal assault on a fortress city is unproductive for everyone."

"We can gather five-hundred regular Dupes from the nearest battalions," Sir Fihail said.

"It would take a day. If you wish for seven-hundred, we can wait two days."

"Sir Egric and the city's portreeve estimated that there were a thousand orcs in the assault," Ceonwin said.

"They outnumber us, and we would not last long if we were to besiege the city."

"Apologies, my lord," said the messenger, "but the portreeve is not to be trusted. A—almost everyone in the city is aware of his corruption. He has likely pushed the estimate lower in hopes of you coming to his aid sooner." Lord Ceonwin gave a sad smile.

"Yes, I am aware. Most are. It is not polite to say so."

"Yes, my lord. Apologies." I bunched up my fists. Portreeves were the managers of important cities—I'd learned that from my studies in the library. Were we just going to let a corrupt mayor tell us what we could or could not do? Besides, Ceonwin and the thegns outranked him by a large margin. Lord Ceonwin exhaled.

"We must come to their aid. But I am still working on a plan. We cannot attack without a plan—and it must be foolproof if we are to succeed. Summon the five hundred Dupes from the surrounding battalions, and bring me their commanders at once. But we cannot afford to wait any longer." He turned to the messenger.

"I will need all the details on the orc force and their positioning in the city that you can give me. Am I clear?" ~ ~ ~ At dinner, I waited anxiously for Ceonwin to make an announcement. I'd already explained what happened to the rest of my squad, and I'd told Sage about my earlier conversation with her father as well, plus my conclusion. Her face had contorted slightly, and she had only said, "If you are to be trusted, I will accept it."

"Have I ever lied to you?" I countered.

"How would I know?"

"I thought you knew everything." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She had only squinted at me in annoyance, which I took as a minor victory, then turned back to my food.

"Are you alright, brother?" Brawl asked me.

"You're only picking at it."

"Yeah," I said.

"I'm fine." Near the end of the meal, Ceonwin and his thegns marched into the mess hall, with the Drillmaster close behind him. They approached the plinth and hopped up, and turned to face us. By now, everything had gone quiet. The rumours were floating around, but no one knew anything decisive. Lord Ceoniwin turned to face us.

"The fortress city of Oschester has fallen. It was a swift attack, and the defenders failed to hold the orc horde back. We didn't have time to reinforce, and from what I've heard and the few details I've gathered, it's possible the portreeve has betrayed us and purposely allowed the orcs into the city. But we shall not jump to conclusions. It is too soon." He rested his hands on the hilt of his great warbrand.

"If the orcs can hold, refortify, and defend the city—if we give them the time to do so—they will turn it into a bastion capable of launching all manner of assaults on our front lines. This cannot stand.

"We will have five hundred men from the surrounding battalions, and your Drillmaster has agreed to bring you along as well. Your group will be an invaluable addition to our forces, and this will be considered a training exercise for you.

"It will be a three day ride to Oschester. Your lieutenants will brief your sergeants along the way, who will in turn brief you. We plan to use you to secure the outer city before our main army arrives on foot to assist in taking the inner wall." All I had to go on for what Oschester looked like was a simple sketch of the walls. It wasn't much, but something told me it was similar enough to Castle Urcia. Only it was much larger.

"By the time you arrive, the orcs will still be processing the prisoners and survivors," Lord Ceonwin continued.

"Your goal is to free as many of them as you can and arm them, which is why some squads will be tasked with opening the armouries and looting when remains. Listen to your lieutenants. Sergeants, you are to act with discretion and do what is necessary to secure your objectives. I know many of you were not expecting to be deployed yet, but I trust that you have the will to see it done.

"We leave at sunrise tomorrow morning." ~ ~ ~ After dinner, we all rushed to the barracks to get as much sleep as we could. I tried, too, but the longer I laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, the longer I realized I couldn't do it. Whatever Lord Ceonwin knew about the portreeve was enough to lead him to think that the man had betrayed us? Had he just opened the gates to the orcs or something? And why?

More importantly, why would he seem intent on underestimating the orcs' numbers, for the sole goal of making us come help, if he had let the orcs take his city in the first place? Unless it was a trap to try to destroy another chunk of the army and the next generation of sappers. Surely, Lord Ceonwin realized this, but he had to heed the call anyway. If what he said about Oschester was true, then we couldn't let the orcs have an inch of it. And we had to act quickly before they fortified it any more.

It didn't make it any easier to sleep. After a few hours of failure, I climbed up onto the roof of the barracks and stared up at the sky, watching the stars and the distant, watchful glow of Welkinmere. But I couldn't get any peace. Of course I'd alerted Anchor, and like before, he'd followed me up. At first, I noticed him just sitting on the spine of the roof, but after a few minutes, he shifted closer.

"Gate is doomed," I said.

"We're all doomed. I mean, seriously, if we can't even hold a fortress city like that, what hope do we have? The orcs will just slowly, meticulously advance until there's nothing left."

"That doesn't sound like you," Anchor told me. I scoffed.

"Yeah. Well, I don't see a way to save Gate except by burning it all down and trying again. This place is rotten to its core. Maybe it was built on rotten foundations to begin with."

"Levi, I know you've read your books. You know the principles that founded this nation—""What good are they if no one adheres to them? What are we even fighting for?" I shook my head.

"How do we know we're right and they're wrong? What if it's all just propaganda, all just lies about how evil the orcs are, all to make us think we're doing a good thing? To help the Warlord maintain his power? What if the orcs are all just loving fathers, fighting for something they believe in, ready to return home when this is all over?" Anchor chuckled softly.

"We've both been to the front. You've seen the orcs. You've fought them. Unless that story about freeing the prisoners from the Labyrinth was a lie, but that's hard to believe. Did you forget so quickly? You've lived it, you've seen what we're up against with your own two eyes. They're a force of nature. Spare me from that."

"Morality is hard, though. It's—""Yes. It's easy to say there's no such thing, to bend like a reed in the wind. It's hard to walk a virtuous path. Sometimes, walking the virtuous path means making an enemy of the world. Means standing up to forces of nature. You've heard them talk with empty voices, speak with no souls, and you've seen them throw themselves on your blade for no reason other than to just claw your face. Your enemy will give his life to slay you." I hung my head and said nothing.

"Levi." Anchor narrowed his good eye, then tapped his eyepatch.

"I'd only met one Atoning before you. I thought they were all awful, rotten to the core. But you showed me otherwise. We're not orcs. You're a man like me, and we have a choice. All of Gate can choose—it doesn't have to be this way. There's strength left in the world of men." He paused.

"You wouldn't give up on a fire just because its embers are getting dim."

"No, I wouldn't."

"Lord Ceonwin seems honourable enough. We can still retake Oschester." I nodded.

"And from there, we'll figure it out. But I'm not going to buy into this false dichotomy. We don't have to choose between slavery to the whims of a dying empire and total annihilation. Maybe Gate needs someone else at the helm." He was silent for a few seconds.

"Burning it all down helps no one."

"No, not burning it down. Changing it to save it."

"Aye, I can get behind that." He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"But focus on the present. If we're walking into a trap, I know you'll get us out of it. You've pulled off miracles before, and you can do it again." He held out a hand.

"Brother?" I clasped his forearm.

"Brother."