A Soldier's Life
chapter-54

My eyes kept wandering to the sky and the griffins. After five hours of studying the flyers, I think there were nine total. They patrolled in a team of five and then in a team of four, switching every two hours. I assumed the team of four was missing one member. Did I feel guilt at being responsible in part for the missing griffin? No, we were at war and fighting for our lives. The fact that I could not kill the young-looking elf-woman weighed on me. I knew elves were much older than they appeared, but I still related her to a young woman from my past life, and my instinct was to protect her.

A few hours into my post, Konstantin was standing next to me at the barricade. Brutus and Felix were at the other end of our barricade. Konstantin asked, “Eryk, do you remember when I took you around the city when we arrived?” He was talking quietly, so only I could hear.

“Yes, you showed me the weaknesses of the city’s defense,” I replied in a whisper, wondering where he was going with this.

“If you had to leave the city by one of those weak points, which would it be?” Konstantin questioned me. It was his typical teaching moment question.

I gave it some hard thought; the perimeter of the outer city wall was miles long. The south and east had the invading army. The aqueduct to the northwest headed into the rocky hills was probably my choice as the ground in that area was covered in large scattered and quarried stones, making it difficult terrain. Calvary could not move, and many of the stones were large enough to hide among. The original escape plan was to walk along the aqueduct into the hills. The aqueduct was about forty feet above the rocky terrain below and about ten feet wide, meaning the griffins would easily spot us. It was not the best route since we were concerned with the flyers spotting us. “Still the aqueduct. Drop from it and move under it to escape into the hills,” was my answer.

Konstantin nodded, “Not bad. They will have scouts on the ground, but probably only a few, as their efforts will be focused on securing the city.” Konstantin was silent for a while before asking, “What do you think about the washout from the sewer?”

“You never showed that to me, and you said it was full of slimes,” I noted. Also, the idea of trudging through shit and piss again was not my first choice. But I would do it if it was a guarantee to save our lives.

“It actually empties about two miles south into the swamp, but you would have to submerge and swim under the water for almost a hundred yards from what I have been told. The army encampment is also close to the exit. There will be scouts on the ground near the aqueduct, but I agree the aqueduct is still our best option.” Konstantin seemed to be thinking, and some commotion behind me had me turn.

Castile was in full legionnaire garb and walking among the men. Her face was slightly more gaunt, but her stoicism had returned after a long recovery sleep. The metal legion helmet looked odd on her, and Konstantin explained, “She does not want to be targeted by the enemy, so she is blending in.” As if in response to Castile’s appearance, a griffin flew lower, and some archers responded on the wall above to chase it away. The arrows fell well short of the griffin, but it gained altitude anyway.

Castile, Adrian, and Delmar moved to the first barricade to look down the street and into the city beyond. Adrian explained the situation to Castile, “The enemy has paused their advance. They will attack the barricades again in force tonight.”

Castile asked, “Why are they waiting? The regulars and city guard are outnumbered.”

Delmar answered, “They are slowed down because they are searching every house as they go. I think they found the body of the griffin rider they were searching for because they stopped pressing through the city. They did take heavy losses in their haste to get past the barricades. I believe they will attack at night because their elves and dwarves have excellent low-light vision, giving them an advantage. The messengers say the humans in the Bartiradian ranks are just harassing the barricades to wear out the defenders while the elves and dwarves are resting.”

Castile nodded and went into a focused state I now understood was her sending out her all-seeing-eye. We all waited for her to return from her scouting. She was sweating a little bit, and it was not from the sun. Using her aether seemed to stress her. From Damian, I knew a mage was limited in how much aether they could use in a day based on their aether tolerance. Castile seemed to be close to her limit.

She suddenly blinked like she had something in her eye and breathed heavily, “They are still bringing their army into the city. They are fortifying the outer wall as well and rebuilding the Trader’s Gate with their mages. We can not get trapped in the city with them. We will leave tonight; we have already failed the assignment.”

Adrian seemed shocked, “Are you sure, Castile? You might be named a coward if we leave before the inner city walls fall. Duke Octavian will use that against you.”

“As soon as Durandus got himself killed, this assignment was doomed to fail,” Castile said sharply. “What are our options for leaving the city tonight?” Castile asked the men present.

Adrian called for Orson, the other scout, to join them at the barricade. Brutus, Felix, and I were in the background while Castile, Adrian, Delmar, Konstantin, and Orson discussed the company’s options but were close enough to overhear.

Orson offered the first suggestion, “We could go over the north wall and head northeast and then circle north to west. The woods are thick, and it looks like the enemy has avoided them due to the pixies. Also, their griffin spotters would be useless to find us in the trees.”

Delmar disagreed, “It would take us too close to their outriders. They would surely spot us and send cavalry to pursue us. I do not want to be running on foot through those woods at night. The pixies are bad enough, but running on foot from men on horseback would make it a terrible flight.”

Konstantin offered, “I think the best plan is still the aqueduct. Eryk suggested we get outside the city wall and then make our way through the boulder field under the aqueduct as cover.” Castile briefly turned to look at me. “It would be much slower movement, but we would have some cover from the griffins.”

Adrian added his thoughts, “Maybe during the height of their attack on the barricades tonight, the griffins will be too distracted to notice us. How many scouts do you think they have in the boulder fields and on the aqueduct?”

Orson answered, “None on the aqueduct unless they are invisible. We can see out to maybe two miles from the Citadel’s tallest tower. Among the boulders? Maybe as many as a dozen. But best guess, half that.”

Konstantin offered another option, “We could hide in the sewers and hope the Duke retakes the city. At least it will be defensible.” Castile had a sour look, and no one else looked thrilled at the prospect either. Whether that was because we would be in the sewers, being essentially cornered, or relying on the Duke to rescue us was not voiced.

I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer and asked, “What about the regulars and the city guard? Are we just leaving them to defend themselves?” A half dozen upper city guards were at the gates behind us, mixed with our company but out of earshot.

The group all turned hard eyes on me. I guess my input was not welcome. Castille explained it to me, “The regulars will be taken prisoner and sent back to work camps in the Bartiradian Kingdom. City guards will be made to work in the city doing repairs but will eventually earn their freedom after a few years. That has been the Bartiradian policy.”

Castile stepped close to me and looked up into my eyes with a hard stare, “The captured legionnaires and legion mages of the Empire will be executed publicly.” Castile let that sink in before adding, “We are a symbol of the Telhian Emperor and need to be made an example of by showing our defeat publicly.”

“That was not something they mentioned in the brochure when I signed up,” I griped softly. I had thought the absolute worst-case scenario would be we would surrender and be prisoners of war.

Castile ignored my comment and asked the others, “How many of Gregor’s men reached us?”

Adrian pulled out a slip of paper, “Eleven, seven combat capable and two in rough shape. They are all in the Citadel now recovering.”

Castile nodded. “Leave them there for now. If we use the aqueduct escape route, we will collect them then. Can the two injured men move?”

“No,” Delmar answered, “One has a shattered leg, and the other has some head trauma. They brought a few of the simple healing salves with them but used all their healing potions. We would need stretchers to get them out.” Castille pursed her lips at the news. She seemed to be considering her options, looking down the street.

“The aqueduct it is. At the peak of the fighting tonight, we will move to the Citadel and climb down to it. I can screen us for a few minutes from the griffin riders while we descend to the boulders. Make sure the men are well rested.” Castile turned and went into the orchards, with Delmar following her.

Adrian ordered Brutus, Felix, and I to the tiny room in the gatehouse. Inside, we found nine men trying to sleep. I found my way to an open spot on the floor with some blankets and tried to get some rest. The small room was a mix of sweat, body odor, and mildew. The smells did not bother me. The heavy breathing, loud snoring, and whispered conversations made it difficult to fall asleep.

I closed my eyes, but all I could think about was getting captured and hung for being a legionnaire. Somehow, I drifted off. It felt like I had just shut my eyes when I was woken to eat and take my next watch. The meal was bread, hard sausage, and cheese. All washed down with lemon water.

Brutus sat next to me as we ate. “She is just like Durandus.”

I asked, “Who, Castile? Why do you say that?”

He chewed while he talked, “All mages are alike, I guess. She is planning to leave the regulars and the city guard to defend the city themselves,” he answered.

I defended Castile, “What can thirty legionnaires and one mage do against an army? Besides, I think Durandus, Gregar, and Castile were sent here to die anyway. Living through this clusterfuck would be an accomplishment.”

“Clusterfuck…” He tested the word. “You have some unique sayings in Tsingia.” We ate our food in silence for a while before Brutus added, “I changed my mind. Castile is not like Durandus. He would have been only concerned with getting himself out of this clusterfuck. Castile seems to want to get her entire company out with her.”

Adrian called for us to come to gate duty. As I exited the small room, a steady stream of injured regulars passed through the gate into the orchard. Delmar was talking with a city guard captain not far away. The look of concern on his face told me something was up. The sun was starting to set, and it looked like the Bartiradians were increasing their activity in the lower city.

We were positioned at the gate, behind the first of the two barricades, and Delmar was now talking with Adrian, and they both started to talk with legionnaires. When Adrian reached us, I could tell the news was not good. He talked to us quietly, “Word has reached us that the regular army plans to surrender tonight if the Duke has not arrived by sunset. The general knows he can not hold the city against so many enemy mages. The Bartiradians control the entire lower city and will quickly run through the upper city if the army capitulates. At first dark, we are moving to the Citadel.” He looked at the disappearing sun, “About thirty minutes from now.”

Adrian left us to talk to Felix and Mateo on the other end of our barricade. Brutus whispered, “Okay, maybe Castile saw this coming.” He turned around and looked into the orchard where dozens of wounded soldiers lay. He looked back at the city, “The Bartiradian mages will have recovered their aether as well. I do not blame them for surrendering.” He was forgiving the regular soldiers.

As twilight faded, flashes of light and thunder roiled from within the city below us. Adrian turned and studied the flashes in the waning light. They were much closer than I expected, less than half a mile away. Thunderous booms echoed with the flashes. Adrian motioned some city guards forward to replace Felix and Mateo, and they left to head back into the orchards. He did the same for us. I could also see our archers on top of the wall heading down as well, with no one replacing them.

Konstantin waved us inside the gates, “Move to the Citadel. We are regrouping there with Castile.”

Brutus and I walked past the soldiers in the orchards who gave us spiteful looks. It was obvious we were retreating, giving up on the city. I felt guilty about it myself. But knowing the army was likely to surrender soon, I let the guilt wash off. These men would be taken prisoner, according to Castile. If I was captured, I would be hung publicly.

We entered the Citadel and followed others up the stairs into the large audience chamber. A raised throne dominated one end of the room. Massive glow stones lit the chamber in silver sconces. Castile was walking slowly around the chamber with Delmar on her hip.

The remainder of Gregor’s men were stirring from their bedrolls, getting ready to leave. I recognized a few faces from Durandus’ men who had joined them. Castile moved to check on two men who had not risen. She gave the one with a bloody headwrap a potion from her robes.

Even from this distance, I knew it was a lesser healing potion. She must have been saving it for herself. Everyone was assembled after thirty minutes. Men were bringing in our packs and setting them against the far wall.

As the legionnaire to whom Castile had given the potion stood, Castile turned to everyone. “We are going to move to the aqueduct and make our way out of the city. I will be able to screen us from above for a few minutes. The goal will be to move to the damaged section of the aqueduct outside the walls and descend the ropes. We will follow the aqueduct to the reservoir and then make haste to connect with the Duke’s army.”

Delmar stepped forward, “We expect the army to surrender shortly, which means the city guard will follow shortly after. Haste is important. Strip Artorius of his legion gear and bring him to one of the chambers. We can not carry him. He will have to tell the Bartiradians he is a baron’s son,” he indicated to the man with the shattered leg.

One of the men quipped, “See Artorious. You have a tower fall on you, and before you know it, you are a First Citizen and telling us what to do!” A few of the men chuckled to make him feel better, but we were leaving him behind, and it would not take much for the enemy to figure out he was legion. It was a death sentence.

I managed to find my pack in the jumble on the wall and shouldered it. Adrian and Delmar were giving orders to the new men. We were soon moving through the Citadel in pairs, Brutus being mine. We entered a dimly lit ballroom and went to a balcony overlooking the aqueduct going into the city. The blue moon lit the expanse before us. The rocky, difficult-to-pass hillside ran miles into the distance, the aqueduct looking like a narrow raised road cutting through the hills in the quickly fading light.

The northern forest was to the right, and I could see a number of lights on the edge of the massive trees. The Bartiradians clearly had a number of men at the edge of the forest, and I was glad we had not chosen that route. We were expecting some scouts in the rocky terrain, but hopefully not too many.

It was a good thirty-foot drop to reach the aqueduct from the balcony, and Konstantin was already directing men down ropes. From my understanding, this was the easiest access point to the aqueduct. If we took to the aqueduct further into the city, then the griffins would spot us more easily. Castile was on the balcony scanning the skies for griffins as we made our way down. We were shielded from them for now, but they would easily spot us as soon as we moved away from the Citadel.

After I descended myself, I was directed to remain close to the Citadel wall by Adrian. Soon, all thirty-five of us were on the aqueduct under the balcony. The night air was humid and hot and added to the sweat from our anxiety. Castile seemed indecisive and spent a brief moment using her all-seeing-eye spell. She was whispering with Delmar and Adrian about what she saw.

Adrian passed the message to my group, “The sky is clear. We will move tightly under Castile’s shadows. Ten palace guards guard the aqueduct gate. Be wary, as they may be the enemy in disguise.”

Castile nodded, and her shadow smoke oozed from her body, forming a large disc above us. The blue-lit moon was blocked out of our sight, and we all moved around the mage and moved with haste along the ten-foot wide channel in the aqueduct toward the outer wall. The aqueduct was like a raised road that brought water from a reservoir high in the hills.

A large gate was over the aqueduct at the outer wall. Only five guards were at the gate, not the ten we expected. Konstantin moved forward cautiously and talked to them, and they opened the gates for us to pass. Adrian was at my side and said, “We followed the Bartiradian mage here. He killed all the guards and escaped along the aqueduct.”

As I passed the palace guards at the gate, they nodded to us in respect. It was confusing to me because we were abandoning the city. I thought we would get the same hard stares that the regular army gave us when we passed through the orchards.

It was not far as we moved past the gate to the collapsed section. There were large planks here to bridge the twenty-foot gap and a steady stream of water falling on the rocks below. The original plan was to cross the gap and move quickly along the aqueduct. Now, we were dropping ropes and moving down to the ground to avoid being spotted by the griffins.

Orson was asking Castile how much longer we had for her screen as I passed. I did not catch her response before I was repelling. A heavy mist was in the air at the bottom of the splashing waterfall of the damaged aqueduct. We moved away quickly so our clothes did not get too damp from the spray.

Castile was the last one down, and I heard Konstantin talking to her, “Flavius, Orson, and I will scout ahead. They must have scouts among the rocks, hopefully not many.”

The three scouts moved forward into the darkness. We followed shortly after. Spirits were high as we moved under the cover of the aqueduct, as it seemed we had not been spotted so far. Our feet crunched on stone, and we weaved between large boulders in the moonlight. The ground was uneven with large chunks of stone, and many men stumbled in the low light.

Konstantin’s clear voice cut the night from the far left, “Enemy scouts!” Arrows started flying among us. A few men were hit as we moved for cover. Grunts of pain, but no screams came from the men who were hit.

Our archers started to respond, but I could not see anyone in the distance among the boulders. Then I remembered the enemy had elves and dwarves with excellent low-light vision. We were at a huge disadvantage. Konstantin came rushing back to us and took cover with us. “There are at least four.”

Flavius arrived shortly after as well, “Orson is hit. He is twenty yards out.”

Adrian barked loudly at everyone, “We can not stay here. They will get reinforcements. We have to move!”

As if in response to the urgency, a bright white pyrotechnic burst in the night sky above our position under the aqueduct. This was a clear signal to the Bartiradians in the city of our position. Brutus rasped, “I hope they are too busy in the city to give a clusterfuck about us.” I did not take time to correct his usage of the new word I had taught him. We had other things to worry about.