Divided Nation

The Siege Part 1

"These walls have stayed impregnable for hundreds of years," Karol said marching along the walls, "It withstood almost 10 years of siege in the first invasion. There's no way it'll fall now to a band of rogues."

     What he said was true enough. Thick walls, tall towers and terrain that simply wasn't possible to siege, the landfall was without a doubt the most impregnable castle in Gala. 

     "The seperatists have seized most of the cities in the Yellow Kingdom, my lord," A soldier said, reporting to Karol, "Even Lexington's upper town has been breached. We're all that remains now."

     Even with only the landfall left, we still housed a formidable army. We had the usual 500 Titian's that garrisoned the castle, but before the revolt had happened, Jordan had called his banners together at the castle. Only a couple of cities or towns had responded, but together, still still added about 1,000 more soldiers to defend the castle.

     But what worried me wasn't the fact that an army would soon be camped in the shadow of the landfall, or even the fact that Regime ships would soon be blocking our naval routes. It was the coughs that I heard going through courtyard and walls of the castle. The Blood Feve rnow ran rampant throughout the castle. 

      "I want everyone diagnosed to be put in the courtyard, rounded up and fed properly, but they are not to make contact with anyone else," Karol had informed a couple hours after Jordan was incapicated, "The ones that were killed are to be burned at a pyre outside of the walls. And the ashes thrown into the sea. We cannot afford to let this virus spread any further."

       Jordan had been stuck inside of his room ever since Crampton had infected him. I wondered who would replace him now as commander. I had known Crampton ever since I was a child. He had been a lowly gate guard back then, but he was like a brother to me. But ever since he assisted in assassinating my father, he was promoted to commander of the third garrison.

       The war has certainly taken a tow on the Regime. Two out of five of the Garrison commanders had been killed. Bradil at the Rapids and now Crampton at Titian's Landfall. That left Morden the archer. Ikhad the sorcerer. And Rydel the fleet commander.

      I had a feeling that I would see Rydel soon enough. He had been on the Exenica when it amushed the Yellow Kingdom fleet for sure. From there, it would make no sense to all that way just to sink the fleet. Louis must have planned for the Royal navy to blockade the Landfall by sea.

       The Golden Sword army must be moving gathering their forces at Lexington now as well. From there, it would be a easy three or four day march to the base of the Landfall. It would take another week to navigate the rocky terrain of the Landfall and reach the castle itself. So a week and a half to prepare for the siege.

     "How many provisions do we have?" I asked Karol as we finished our inspection of the defenses and now were approaching Jordan's chambers.

     "More than enough," He replied, "It's been a... tradition for every King of the Landfall to store away some food every year in case of an event like this. We have enough for a good year at least."

     That was good. It would be hard and inefficient to supply the besiegers by land. Louis would have to supply them by ship, and that would be risky, especially with the food shortages in the Regime right now. Karol had also ordered all farmers to burn their farms to prevent the Golden Sword from using them. 

      Meanwhile, we'd be inside the Landfall, with enough grain and meat to last years. As the siege date was growing closer and closer, Karol had ordered the woods outside the castle to be cut down, all the animals hunted. The seas were also overfished, leaving nothing for the besiegers to eat. Thousands would starve.