Chapter 199

Kelart and Gustav rode side by side at the head of the army, the pace of the horses was steady and strong, their hooves stomping the hard packed earthen highways while their heavy infantry made the march behind the long lines of cavalry. The taxes seized from many of the noble houses were only begrudgingly given up, and far behind the army came the wagon trains of collected coins, grain, and other vital goods intended for resale to support the throne.

At least no word had come of overt hostility, but the reality of the situation was not lost on Gustav or Kelart. Where once the peasants might have openly praised the passing paladins and knights of their beloved Queen, they now just quietly kept their young and comely women out of sight, and now the peasants openly backed away or simply glared at the passing royal army.

"We seem to be less popular than we used to be." Gustav made the neutral observation while only looking at Kelart out of the corner of his eye. Kelart in her magic robes made for a compelling and noble sight. Her long brown hair, the sharp features on her face, along with her steady eyes could unnerve others with a glance and one could all but feel the magic from her.

The only immediate response to his statement was that she tightened her grip on the reins of her white horse, and glared down at those who glared back at her in turn until they looked away and went sullenly back to work in whatever field they were in. Raising and striking their hoes into the earth, a routine older than the Kingdom itself.

Finally she spoke to him, "We can fix this. We just need to purge the corruption out of the Kingdom and do what we can to restore the trust of the people. It may take time, but it can be done, Commander."

Gustav kept his eye on her while still watching the road. "Will you be including yourself in that purge? How about me? Your sister?"

Kelart glanced over to Gustav. "What do you mean?" She asked innocently, her eyes completely removed from the road then.

Gustav could not look at her further while he spoke, "Nevermind." He muttered.

"No. Not nevermind Commander. Speak." She hissed the order through gritted teeth.

"You remember what started all of this. It was the trial of the Huntress, yes there were a lot of rumors, stories, and corruption events before. But that was the brick that broke the donkey's back. The story of the Huntress of the Wildlands was probably exaggerated, but with her public trial, her reputation went all over the place, and everybody knew it was a sham. I know it was a sham. And I know my former Commander made it that way." He whispered the accusation at Kelart, who sat mute on her horse.

"The Mad Eyed Archer's daughter, the child of one famous paladin and one of the Colors, first sent to die, then given a show trial after a record of survival and success where most just disappeared never to be seen again? What was your idiot sister thinking?!" Gustav hissed back at her, his anger palpable, he yanked his head toward her and glared at her as she had glared at peasants before.

Kelart remained mute.

Gustav however, did not. He hissed his complaint and let out his fury with every word, "I was the judge at that trial, I saw Remedios' face. I spoke with one of the whores who screwed her way through the jurors, there's no way I believe you didn't know what your sister was up to. She's too stupid to act on her own, she's just smart enough to know she needs other people to think for her, and to take credit for other people's work."

Kelart finally slumped, the heat left her eyes, "You're right. I did know." She acknowledged. "I had a hand in… not everything, but a lot. I was trying to keep Roble from harm, we used corruption against the corrupt, I never thought it would turn on us this way…"

"Fool." He snarled at his senior, and she did not retort. "Every ounce of blood here is on you… and me for going along with it. Maybe if I'd declared a mistrial due to corruption, maybe none of this would have happened. So, what happens when we're done?"

Kelart shook her head. "Only the gods know that, and perhaps the Holy Queen." She was resigned in how she said it, and sluggish when she raised her hand to point ahead, "There it is, Hoburns, and from the looks of it, the issue of who is in charge has yet to be settled."

It was an understatement, even from a distance the fires were obvious, plumes of smoke rose from fires that couldn't be seen behind the great towering walls, more noteworthy, they rose from multiple points around the city, which in Gustav's experienced eyes meant, 'Heavy fighting in multiple positions… that can't be good.'

It took another half a day to reach the city with the bulk of the royal army, and no sooner than they reached the area that alarms went up from inside the city walls.

Commander Gotsa met the pair shortly after the noise of the city went up and the numbers of people on the walls began to increase. He bowed to the pair before they dismounted, but remained quiet while Gustav bellowed orders over his shoulder.

"First Bannermen, see to the main gate! Second, see to the Western wall! Third, see to the Eastern wall! Fourth, see to the Northern wall! Establish reinforced positions by nightfall!"

"Haruh! Haruh! Haruh!" The paladins and knights on horse and foot alike raised their lances and banners as they cheered, and the nobles commanding each army began to move their units into position.

The camp as Gustav saw it, was in good order, ample space between tents to avoid mass targets, more tents than were needed in order to provide the illusion of greater numbers, and the onagers were well out of reach of easy reprisal from the walls. Various hulks of ruined rams sat at different intervals from the gate, but the fact that there were multiples indicated that the commander was acting with aggression.

The soldiers who marched by were in good order, with clean if sometimes damaged armor, and even without looking he could see that Gotsa's armor had battle damage. 'Leading from the front, good.' Gustav reflexively approved of the big bear of a man and descended from his horse to extend his hand.

Gotsa clasped it, "Sir, it's good to have you and your army here." He glanced up at the still mounted Kelart, "And your magic, Lady Custodio." He added with a polite bow of his head.

She returned the gesture, "At least things are in good order… but why hasn't the city fallen yet, Commander Gotsa Habin?"

"Because the mob organized itself and has, much to our surprise, been steady in their resistance. We simply didn't have the numbers we needed." Gotsa didn't wince at the use of his full name as a tiny rebuke, he knew quite well that he'd done all that could be done, though he straightened up a bit when he replied. "They'll fall with or without you, but we're also trying to minimize the destruction of the city. What's the point in taking it if all that means is that Her Majesty becomes Queen of the Ashes?"

"Good point." Kelart answered with some chagrin, enough that she chose to dismount her horse and make a sort of apology, "I'm sure you've done all that you could have done under the circumstances, I didn't mean to sound so critical."

He shrugged it off and gave her a friendly smile from behind his bushy brown beard, "Think nothing of it, now that you're here, perhaps they'll surrender."

Albedo watched from her window as a few hundred prisoners were dragged through the streets, judges, minor nobles of various houses which hadn't fled the city fast enough. Some public officials, guards, soldiers, watchmen, and others.

Their clothes were tattered and torn, dirty, unwashed, and every one of them was worse for wear. Some were limping, all were bound together with ropes, chains, and wooden poles that ran alongside their heads. Worse, they were blindfolded, most were sullen and silent as the mob hurled abuses at them.

Others however, were not quite broken. "Curse you all! Peasant trash! Don't you know who I am?! I have connections all over the South! You trash eat the food we send you! You trash have your weapons because we pay for them! You dare do this to me?! May the demi-humans feast on you all! We should have let them kill this whole worthless region!"

It did nothing to endear him to the crowd.

But Albedo, watching as she was from the window, began to laugh, "Oh this is marvelous. There were Southern nobles here… of course there were… this is Hoburns, they would be close to the crown."

Albedo's laughter was grim like the cat looming over the canary, she licked her lips as hungrily as one as well, watching as the captives were dragged to the towers and hauled up the stairs, stumbling, falling, bruising, cursing, and screaming when they were struck by hate filled peasants driving them like cattle.

"My Lady, what will be happening to them up there?" Skana asked as she approached the window to stand beside her Lady. Illyana for her part, still refused to come any closer to the noise of human hatred and rage, putting herself into the corner, but Skana, unable to restrain her curiosity, was drawn to the demoness and the window like a moth to a flame.

Albedo looked down at the bright eyed girl, "Painful deaths. The city will fall tomorrow, and when it does, we will not be here. I have no intention of engaging in combat with these worthless ants."

"So where are we going?" Skana quipped as she watched the prisoners being positioned where they would be visible to the attacking army.

"To the Southern Holy Kingdom, it won't be long, just a few days, enough time to spread the word of the atrocities allowed to be visited on Southern nobles in the North, the weakness of the Holy Queen… from there?" Albedo chortled with delight as if she heard a hilarious joke.

"From there," she held her belly to hold back her laughter, "we will visit the wall again."

Skana nodded, "My Lady, your rewards, I cannot thank you enough for them, but can I kinda ask just one more small thing?"

"You can always ask." Albedo emphasized and turned her attention from the screams that began on the wall.

"My village, it's not a bad place, sure some of the people are dumb, stupid, bigoted, foul smelling, sticks in the mud with no sense of fun whatsoever-" Skana began listing off their flaws until Albedo cleared her throat.

"The point Skana?" Albedo demanded, and Skana blushed a little at the reproof.

"But on the whole, they're alright, I mean, they don't 'deserve' to die, is all, I know we can't always stop this kinda stuff but… if it isn't too much trouble, could I ask that the common folk not be made to suffer too badly? I mean, I'm one of 'em, and I'm useful, right, My Lady?" Skana pointed out.

Albedo gave that a moment of brief reflection, "True. But it won't be up to me, it will be up to the Queen of Frost."

The answer was cold comfort to Skana, who returned to sit beside the quiet elf woman.

"Have they gone mad?!" Queen Calca shouted as the prisoners on the wall began to scream. Peasants standing behind them began to beat the nobles, judges, and officials with heavy whips, clubs, and flails. Blood spattered about, bones snapped before the disbelieving army of the Holy Queen, but it was not lost on them even in a state of dismay, that lethal injuries were avoided.

The point was suffering, it was a point of no return. A message, a gauntlet thrown down before the royal house. Soldiers snarled and clenched their weapons as they recognized their comrades either by face or by status given their tattered remains of uniforms, and saw them crying out in agony for mercy that their captors were unwilling to grant to them.

Commander Gotsa Habin approached the Holy Queen and then, stepped in front of her, putting his body between her and the hideous sight so that he obscured her view of the wall like a mountain.

"You don't need to see this, Your Majesty." He said quietly.

"Why?! Why would they do this?! How could they be so cruel?!" Queen Calca choked out as she listened to the voices of agony and pain continue to rise.

Gotsa, unfortunately, had an answer. "This is the ugly side of war, this is a statement that there will be no quarter, no surrender, the defenders intend to fight to the death."

Queen Calca vigorously wiped the snot from her nose and tears of anger from her eyes, "Get out of the way, Commander. I should know what I'm dealing with, for better or for worse…"

"My Queen-" He started.

"Now. Commander. That is an order." Calca said with the iron of royalty in her voice, and with some reluctance, the mountain of a man stepped aside, the bright blue eyes of the once beloved Queen stared at the twisting faces and the sprays of blood. The whole event took minutes, but it felt like hours to the Queen, and to those atop the wall who endured the revenge of those whose names and faces they never knew before that hour, felt like years.

One by one, the torment ended, and some nameless peasant who meant nothing to anyone, gave a swift kick to one of the beaten, broken, bleeding captives, and sent him plummeting off of the wall before moving to the next prisoner. Thud after thud followed. The noise continued with such regularity that the falling bodies were like the sticks used to beat drums, and the noise was that of a warrior's march, until there were none left to kick off, and there were no captives left to torment or to kill.

When it was done, and the silence stretched out like the inside of a grave, Calca walked to the command tent where Kelart and Gustav sat speaking, trying to ignore the distant cries until they stopped.

When she entered, they rose to their feet and prepared to kneel, but the ice eyed Queen shook her head and waved it away. "Forget it, I have only one order." Before they could ask for it, she gave it to them, "Tomorrow, when you attack, and you will attack, anyone found with a weapon is subject to immediate execution as a traitor. Anyone who does not immediately surrender, is subject to immediate execution as a traitor. Anyone found inside my palace or with plundered treasure, is subject to immediate execution as a traitor. Am I understood?"

"Y-Yes… My Queen." They said at once, and then said nothing more when she wheeled about and left them behind.