The Forge Of Kings

Chapter 4: The Cleansing Plague

    
      I sat there, in the war room I had convened in hopes of gathering enough intelligent minds to come up with a salvageable plan to conquer The Gated Kingdom of Sylhalin, but unfortunately we are just as unprepared as before. We were already behind schedule, and it made me a little irritated. No person can enter the kingdom from Eithor, and that's the only way out of the valley. Some of the soldiers suggested getting our best support ready to take it by force, but we don't have enough troops to even attempt it. I watched the sunrise through the colorful stained glass of the room, and my mind drifted to the flames outside as it passed through the red pane. "What if we attack with flame troops in front? Their gates are wooden, we would have an easy entry point? Granted, The houses and walls are white marble so they can resist it well beyond the gates." I suggested. One of the scouts nodded, "It's not the worst idea, They'd most likely have archers posted at the wall in attempt to snipe us off one by one. Taking down the gate before we approach the wall would help reduce casualties significantly." He said.

     A few hours passed before a cleric entered the room. She closed the door and kept to the wall. She approached me and pulled down her kerchief. "Sir, I have an urgent matter I'd like to discuss, perhaps you'd like to go someplace more private?" She asked softly. I turned to her and nodded, I informed the group to continue working in my absence. I led the cleric into my study across the hall and closed the door. "What is so urgent, Miss?" She looked at me and shook her head a bit. "I'm sorry to inform you Sir, but there's an illness spreading among the citizens of the port district. Most symptoms seem to be fever and chills, a few have developed a terrible rash that seems to end in their flesh peeling off at the slightest touch... The doctors are not sure what to do to cure it, and most of them are outnumbered and to busy dealing with the sicker citizens that the rest are worsening and dropping dead in the streets. If we can't find some answers soon, I worry we will have a mass panic on our hands." The cleric nervously twiddled her thumbs while she told me all this. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Please discuss separating the infected from the healthy, corpses and all, we can begin placing them at the far end of the valley, away from the people, hopefully that will prevent more from falling ill." I instructed. She nodded replaced her kerchief over her face and disappeared from the study.

     I removed my cloak, and hung it on a rack by the door and headed across the hall. "My apologies, what did I miss?" I said to the group, they all confirmed that they had made no progress since I left. "What was that about?" One of the scouts asked. I explained that the medical staff had encountered a new fatal illness and have yet to find a way to counteract it. The group seemed shocked. "What are the symptoms?" One man asked nervously, I sat down at the head of the table and looked around at the group and explained "A rash, so bad that the skin peels off, a high fever, and chills are what have been reported so far." Most of the group was focused on the sudden plague spreading amongst the citizens of Eithor, but two scouts continued looking at the maps on the table, they didn't seem bothered by the fact that people were dying to an invisible enemy.

     The scouts were scolded by one of the women of the group, "Don't you have a little empathy for the sick people out there!? She shouted, "Tear your eyes away from those and focus on the more urgent matter at hand!" She grapped a handful of papers off the table and threw them across the room. The scouts looked at her filled with rage, they both began yelling at her mercilessly, and she yelled right back. "Why don't you mind your own business? If you want to focus on the sickness do so, but leave us be, The more minds thinking on our plan the quicker we can take down the enemy!" one scout yelled.

     The woman looked at him and inhaled deeply before countering his argument. "We'll have a better chance of beating the enemy if we don't have our own troops dropping like flies! We'd need to ensure they're just as short handed or we'd be set up to fail!" The one scouts face grew less frustrated and more intrigued. "Even the scales you say? How do you propose we do that? We have no way of thinning the masses of troops with the massive gates and cliff sides surrounding the valley." The group looked at each other and discussed ways to thin the army from a distance, "We could get an engineer? Someone who helped create the aqua ducts for transporting water around the fortress." The one woman shook her head and asked "but what would they engineer? We don't even have a full plan." She said with a irritated shrug. The one scout lifted his head and with a crooked smile said "My dear, we're going to truly even the scales." As he showed her to the window, we all watched the medical staff wheel the bodies out into the valley and leave them in piles with other deceased. Some piles were set on fire to prevent further infection, families weeping for their loved ones. "My god, you want to use the corpses as weapons..." She gasped, she raised her hands to her face and let out a soft sob. The scout smiled, "Indeed, We just need to find a way to get them over the cliffs, which is why we need an engineer, only then will The Gated Kingdom fall."