Twenty Ninth Day

It was a boy of fourteen who saw it first. Posted just before the crack of dawn on the platform that projected vertically upwards from the tenements, he could barely believe it. This would make my father very happy, were his first thoughts. The promise of a better life in the army than selling fish in the slums of the city had seemed too tempting for both him and his father. The king's recruiters had laughed when they had seen the reed thin boy, short for his age standing beside his father. He will do, the commander had nodded. They needed some hands to make the food and clean the uniforms. But the boy had impressed the soldiers with his sharp eye. He seemed to pick out high flying birds in the bright noon as well as spot wild hare among the bushes for the hunt. He had a keen eye, said the lieutenant and had given him the work of a lookout. He was to climb the tallest trees and look out for enemy movements ahead. Now as the siege entered the twenty eighth day, his job had been to climb the makeshift platform and look for any movement on the walls of the city. A city that housed fifty thousand souls.

The siege tenements started about a two hundred yards away from the city walls, behind a spear laden fence and manned by sentries. On the outermost edge of the fence slept the untrained and weak soldiers, usually volunteers who were too poor to stay in the city. They slept with no tents and often no change of clothing for days. Moving inwards slept the stewards, lookouts and other hangers on, who cleaned clothes and washed horse and man. Then came the tents and with them the scouts, the infantry, the cavalry, the stables, the elephants with their war mahouts, the war chariots and their charioteers, the warrior commanders, the lieutenants and the sub generals in that order. In the middle of this circlement, were the General's quarters that sprawled across seven tents with its own kitchen, study, war room and sleeping quarters. However, the largest of these tents remained empty on most occasions. Today, however, the servants were furiously levelling the floor and dusting the carpets while another was making changes to the parcham, the flag, fluttering atop the tent. The silver bordered flag was being replaced with one with scarlet gold threading. The King was about to arrive today.

As soon as the boy had informed of what he saw to his captain, they had both ran like the wind to the officers' tenements. After a brief check, they were sent on to one of the sub-generals. The sub-general heard out the captain and the lookout boy and then took out his viewscope, a device that the travelling Northmen had first brought to the Kingdom a few years ago. Although what you saw was a hazy apparition, there was no doubt that this miracle of a contraption made it seem as if you were standing much closer to your quarry.

After taking in a hazy view, the sub-general turned. "The boy is right." The lookout captain and boy both beamed. He tossed a few coins to the captain and the boy's head drooped. He tossed another at the boy. "This one is for you. Good work."

A lieutenant standing nearby asked when the boy and captain had left, "What now, sub-general?"

"We need to let the General know, right now."

--

The General stroked his beard. As he had anticipated, the siege had broken the back of the city. After losing most of its fighting men, what had they remaining? However, it did seem curious to him that a request for parley came from the city on the day the King was to arrive. It was a coincidence and the General did not like coincidences. Coincidences meant a deviation from the plan, and in war, deviation from the plan meant death.

"What do you suggest, Vrijush?" The General asked his sub-general.

"This could be desperation. We can make them squirm even more and wait them out to fully surrender. We are in no hurry. If needed, we can stay entrenched for another month." Vrijush replied.

"Hmm." The General thought again. The Nalas were a small kingdom. They were not known for their military or economic strength but they did have intellect. How would you explain a tiny community such as theirs surviving and thriving for hundreds of years when other kingdoms had broken and eroded away. They were over-represented in the gurukul and temples and even he had read their teachings on statecraft as a student.