Sand & Stone

Chapter 15: Interlude Reji

"Some men... just are not trustworthy."

-Markus Frith, the traitor.

"Reji Varga? Lady Icuni would like to speak with you in her Manor about recent... events."

I glanced at the runner who was dressed in leathers. He carried a sealed parchment letter which no doubt had very candid words from Merchant Icuni. I sighed, taking the parchment from him, throwing it on a pile of similar letters on my desk. I waved him away but he didn't move.

The runner coughed "Lady Icuni was very avid that you speak to her as soon as possible."

My eyes narrowed and my hand came to rest on the scimitar at my waist, it felt comfortable, familiar. I stood up from my desk, my eyes still fixed on the runner. Lady Icuni was a middling Merchant, on so far in debt to the crown that she had nearly salivated when I offered to rid her of them. Now at the slightest hiccup she crumbled.

"You can tell Lady Icuni that I am indisposed at the moment besieging Castle Ironhold," I said, my tone clipped and business-like. "I am quite sure the success of this siege will solve her... worries." The runner seemed hesitant but something he saw in my face made him gulp then nod and run off out of the tent.

It had been a few hours since I had seen two ghosts, ones who should have both died in a hole in the desert and yet they were back, like a Goddamned nightmare.

I let out a deep breath and rubbed my temples, trying to make sense of what I had witnessed. That crippled woman had somehow come back from the dead with Brutus at her side. I had to take a deep breath as my head began to throb at the thought of Brutus, all that might, wasted. We had some bad blood but he was throwing everything away, and for what? What could she have offered him that I wasn't? He knew, he knew the Empire was coming, the City wouldn't survive under her, anything she promised he would know she couldn't keep. But yet there he had been, a deathly still shadow standing behind that grinning mad woman.

He should've been dead from the fall or withdrawal and yet he still lived, worse yet that cunt Anna had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. It was almost too much to process. I had spent the last few days solidifying my control of the City, and now everything felt like it was unraveling.

I shook my head and walked out of the tent. Here in the streets emergency tents had been put up to shield troops from the desert sun, the common folk had been pushed back a few blocks, none of them wanted to die to a stray arrow. Sieges were nasty business.

I turned my gaze to Castle Ironhold. It was an odd appearance in the City, a signature of Lady Eliza's paranoia. I glanced at the limp dead body of the old hag high above the battlements and scoffed. Greedy hag should have stayed holed up in her keep. Luckily the ballista were all broken and that made it safe enough to be this close to the walls but the Ironholds were tough bastards.

It was late afternoon, and the sun's rays were beginning to paint the sky a pale orange as I stood outside the walls of Castle Ironhold. The road leading up to the castle was lined with soldiers, their faces determined and eyes fixed on the looming structure in front of us.

The castle was a massive stone structure, its walls reaching high into the sky. The raised drawbridge stood in front of us, a sign of defiance from those inside. It was flanked by tall towers, each one manned with archers ready to rain arrows down upon us at any moment.

My troops were un-disciplined but their expensive artifact armor made them courageous. They threw themselves up the ladders with courage knowing they could survive an arrow or two with what they were wearing. It should have been easy enough to overwhelm the battlements, get inside and lower the drawbridge but the Ironhold's were experts in defense, throwing rocks and boiling oil down at assailants.