The Forge Of Kings

Chapter 5: The Fall of Sylhalin

    
     Fevers, Chills, Raw skin, I was finally seeing first hand the illness spreading among my people. A nurse assured me that a simple facial covering would be helpful to prevent against infection. The coughing, The sobbing, the air felt so thick, almost heavy. I pulled my focus from the masses and turned towards the makeshift graveyard facing Sylhalin. I walked down the rows of infected corpse piles and watched the flames destroy everything that once was a person.

    "My Lord! This way!" A woman shouted with an anxious wave in her direction. I looked back at the flames, and finally walked towards her. As I approached she gave me a bow and then nodded for me to follow her. "Virmath wanted me to fetch you, he has something to show you!" She said with a excited squeal, she had the highest spirits of anyone these past few days. She pointed to a wooden machine ahead of us. The closer we got, the harder it was to decipher. "Ah, The King himself, greetings my lord." The scruffy elven man said with a bow. I lowered my face covering and nodded to him. "Where are my manners, excuse my disrespect, Sire. I'm Virmath, I'm a sailor by heart but I'm not bad with my hands as you can see." He patted the wheel of his wooden machine. "I was told to make something to help with transporting large items quickly like projectiles." He said with a smile, "My starting contraption took something after a crossbow, but it was not functional, but this baby is a completely different concept, but same idea, to start, we put our item here, he said approaching the giant net on the back, Then he position it, finally we cut this rope here, and..." He sliced the rope with his blade and a bundle of corpses flew into the cliff face faster than anything I'd ever seen. I gave a wicked smile beneath my kercheif.

      "Voilà, That was just a test run, obviously we'd have to have an actual target next time, but I think this is just the thing you need to get something over them there walls. Not to mention they're a pain to reload so multiple shots is unlikely, but I can try to make more." Virmath stopped talking and took a deep breath like he hadn't been breathing. "Is that a small smile I see? I assume you like my do-hickey?" Virmath said with a hearty chuckle. I nodded, "It is quite impressive, you turned an impossible thought into a tangible machine, I'm impressed." I gave him a light smile, and extended my hand, he shook my hand with glee, "It's an honor, Sir." He said, I nodded, "I'm sure it is, I'd like you to meet with the group I've assembled, We'll be meeting in a few hours, and you could add quite a bit to the discussion." I told him, Virmath smiled and nodded. "Of course." He gave me a wave as I turned back towards the worn down grass paths leading towards town, just as I was about to turn towards the castle gate, a woman grabbed me and turned me around and screamed. "HOW CAN YOU LET US LIVE LIKE THIS!? IT'S INHUMANE!" she sobbed. I was speechless, I had no response for her pleas, I just continued on my way, and left her wailing in the road. The guards opened the portcullis  with a loud rusty squeak.

     A few hours have passed since I ventured outside the inner wall. I stood at the window and watched the valley fires dwindle down, it's been two days since the battle with Esíos, and yet it seems like attacking Sylhalin is far from my grasp. I was eager to get it done and over with already. There was a rapid knock at the door. I turned from the window and faced the door. "Enter." I said, Virmath smiled and entered "Am I early?" He said looking around the empty room. "No, The group is in the room across the hall." I explained, "I'm glad you're here, I'd like to talk to you privately before we join the group." He nodded at my words and sat at the chair on the opposite side of my desk. "I'd like to know how long it would take you to make more of that machine of yours." I asked.

     He looked around my study and finally opened his mouth to speak. "That prototype took me a day, but I worked straight through the day. If I had help, I could get more finished quicker." He stated warily. "Fantastic!" I said gladly " I would like you to get to work as soon as possible, we're already behind schedule and if we can take down the gates and some of the soldiers beyond the wall we could invade in a matter of hours. I smiled, finally! some good news, Sylhalin will fall tonight, whether we're prepared or not. I could feel the anticipation in my fingers.

     I led Virmath into the conference room across from my study and the group turned their attention to him, I introduced him to the group and they all exchanged light pleasantries. Virmath explained that he needed help building more machines, The exact words he used were "Flinger-machines." The group agreed that they could all help him finish. I spoke up from the end of the table. "Finish before morning, I'd like to ambush Sylhalin before the night passes. I got up and left the room, the group still processing the sudden deadline. I walked out into the courtyard and started filling in my captains as to what was happening tonight. "Tonight? You want me to have my men ready for battle tonight?..." The captain asked in surprise, I nodded lightly. He chuckled and sighed, "Fine, but I don't agree with this, but I will spread the word." I watched and in a matter of 30 minutes even the town's people had begun building Virmath's machines, we had Knight's training with swords and shields, Cleric's preparing their meds and spells, Everyone seemed to have a role.

     I walked to my study put my cloak on and looked in the shattered aged mirror, I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to see my reflection disappeared from the view, "Good to see I'm not rusty." I said to myself, I took another deep breath and returned to normal, my reflection once again filled the mirror. I grabbed my dagger and headed to the courtyard. As I was exiting the castle there was a horn sound in the distance.

     I flipped up my hood and grabbed ahold of my dagger and moved to cover behind the barracks, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but I did hear something that sounded like chanting towards the gate. I stuck to the shadows and headed towards the chanting. But it wasn't chanting I was hearing, it was synchronized footsteps. There were imperial soldiers marching towards the gate. I looked around but all of my followers seemed to vanish, I headed towards the barracks and grabbed a bow and quiver, and headed up the stairs to the roof, It was the perfect vantage point. The marching soldiers stopped at the gate, and unsheathed their swords and entered the courtyard. I watched as the gate opened with a squeak, in the distance, the top of the wall bordering Sylhalin and Eithor began to move, and a giant cage erupted from the wall with a giant clash it connected to it's opposite sides and created a dome above the distant city. "What the hell...?" I whispered. The marching grew closer, to close, they are in the keep. "Shit...shit...shit..." I took a deep breath and stepped up on the ledge, I lined myself up with the alchemists shop below and jumped.

     I stuck my landing with a roll and ran, I need to find out what the hell is going on! I began running for the Sylhalin gates, and there I found my followers, fighting, and screaming, I took a breath and started to fight into the crowd, suddenly a woman bumped me "oh, sorry." She mumbled, she turned to see my face and bowed "My Lord, glad to make your acquaintance once again." She said, I looked at her face, and recognized her from the battle 2 days ago, she was the woman who helped me in my battle with Esíos. I asked her name and she tilted her head, "Now you want to exchange pleasantries?! I'm Laurel!" She shouted over the sounds of battle, Something was different about her, I couldn't quite place it. I kept trying to find out what it was but she vanisheded into the crowd of soldiers. The imperials had posted archers on the ledge above us just beside the domes boundary, slowly thinning the herd of us at the gates, but my followers were prepared, taking down archers and protecting the angry civilians. The double gates began to crumble, before they fell there was a shout from a distance behind me.

     "FIRE!!" screamed a man, I turned to see it was Virmath leading the charge. He was firing burning corpses at the gates and netted ones over the wall into the slats of iron bars that made up the protective dome. The gates came crumbling down and the mob stormed the streets, taking down soldiers and civilians alike with their unrelenting fury. A few buildings caught on fire, the streets began to fill with people, dead and alive, I jumped in where ever I could, fighting soldiers, just as I finished killing one and going for another I got pulled into an alley, "Shhh" A shadow obscured man said as he waved me further into the alley, I followed him warily until we reached a dead end lit by a torch mounted in the center of the stone wall.

      Finally able to see the man, he was an light skinned high Elf, he looked like an ordinary man, short hair, light skin, light green eyes, and medium height, the only difference was his ears, they pointed straight up, unlike the dark elves, whose pointed back instead. "We would like to help" He stated, I looked around, I didn't see anyone else. "Who?... I just see you." I said cautiously. He sighed and whistled and suddenly elf after elf jumped down off the roofs and filled the alley. "These are the people of Sylhalin and we'd like to join your cause." He stated confidently.