Kingslayer (42 page)

“Alright.” Her smile faltered a little. “If it doesn’t?”

“It’ll take longer than a week.” He gave her a cocky smile, more confident than what he actually felt. “They won’t land one ship on Niotan’s soil, I promise you.”

“I know.” She stepped back and shooed him on. “Go fight. I have a house to finish.”

This calm, half-teasing expression soothed his heart as nothing else could have. He reached out with one arm just long enough to hug her hard against him. She squeaked at the unexpected movement. Against the top of her head he whispered, “I really love you.”

“I love you too,” she murmured against his chest. “Now, go.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Stepping back, he put a foot in the stirrup and swung himself aboard with practiced ease. As he settled into the saddle, he caught Sego’s eye. The man gave him a reassuring nod and smile, silently promising to take care of things here. He looked back to Amalah who gave him the same look. Yes, he could trust these two to handle the things that he could not. With a breath, he raised his right hand and waved it in a circling motion. “FORWARD!” he bellowed in command.

The men of the Niotan Army moved out at a trot, hooves ringing against the stone, and not one man looked back.

~~~

They rode hard for the coast, stopping only when necessary to rest the horses. Darius and his men arrived midmorning, the sun obscured by clouds but no less hot for it. Without pausing to rest, they instantly dismounted and started checking on everything. Darius had given standing orders to start pouring the oil into the sea when the ships were sighted, but he went straight there to make
sure
they had already started that. Even with an army of volunteers such as this, it would take a considerable amount of time to pour in enough oil to cover most of the water of the harbor.

Fortunately, they had, and had every intention to work through the night until every last drop of oil had been poured in. Relieved, he went back to the city and started worrying about their preparations instead.

Almost around the clock, he and his staff worked, coordinating all of the individual units to make sure that all of the pieces would fall into place when the time came. Tolk and Bohme took turns sitting on him and forcing him to take time and eat. Since they only got to eat when
he
did, he allowed this.

In his frantic state to get everything done, he barely thought of what he would do when everything
was
ready. But early on the third day, it abruptly happened. He checked with the last unit commander and stood there, belatedly realizing that all preparations were complete with half a day or more to spare if the gods were kind.

Standing on the docks gave him a clear view of most of the city. He turned slowly, studying everything within his line of sight. Each street had water buckets and huge barrels of water collected, just in case a fire spread in that area. All of the boats had been pulled clear of the water and heaved onto the docks or onto the shore, safely out of harm’s way. The civilians were talking uneasily among themselves, but they were clearly ready to pitch in and help in any way they could, as no one tried to resume their daily routine. All that was left was waiting for the troops to arrive.

“I have nothing left to do,” he said to Bohme in something of a daze.

“Take a nap,” Bohme suggested helpfully.

“I don’t
like
naps,” Darius responded grouchily. “They make me sluggish.”

“You shound like a two year old, shir.”

He felt like one, too, saying that.

“Been up for two daysh shtraight,” Bohme pointed out patiently. “Everyone elshe hash shlept but you.
You
need to be able to think.”

He had a really good point, but Darius hadn’t been kidding. Naps made him groggy. Especially now, when he’d gone without sleep for two days, it would do him more harm than good. “I’ll lay down at the inn and rest,” he compromised on a sigh, turning around. “But I’m not sleeping.”

~~~

“Sir! Sir, wake up!”

A persistent hand shook him by the shoulder, jostling him out of a sound sleep. Darius flailed, half-awake and not at all coordinated. He pried open one eye through sheer willpower and managed to focus it enough to see Ramin leaning over him. His mouth felt glued together as he managed to stutter out, “W-what’s going on?”

“The armada has been sighted, sir. They’re within view of the harbor’s gates.”

In less than a second, Darius came fully awake. Swearing, he wrenched himself out of the bed and headed straight for the door. “Why didn’t anyone wake me up sooner? And where are our troops?  Have they arrived yet?” he demanded irritably.

“They arrived an hour ago, it’ll still take the ships another hour to get into place, sir,” Ramin assured him as they took the stairs two at a time down, “and you needed the sleep.”

“I need more than an hour to double check readiness, Ramin!” he snapped, hitting the ground floor with a loud thump.

“We did that sir,” Navid assured him at the inn’s main door. At this hour, and with an armada breathing down their necks, no one else had stayed inside and the multitude of chairs and tables stood empty.

Darius knocked a chair aside to make way for him. As he reached the door, he tugged his uniform straight and demanded, “Troops?”

“All standing ready.”

“Water brigade?”

“Standing ready,” Navid repeated patiently. “Oil in place, gate crew in place.”

“All under control,” Ramin soothed from behind him.

Darius stopped and slowly turned, giving the man quite the look for that tone.

Bohme watched this play out for a moment before reaching out and giving Ramin a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Alwaysh wakesh up grumpy,” he assured the commander in a loud whisper. “Don’t mind.”

“I feel sorry for Raja Amalah, then,” Ramin dared to mock-whisper back.

Swearing under his breath, Darius reversed directions and thumped back up the stairs. Alright, fine, he had a half hour before he actually needed to be at the docks. If that were the case, then he would shave off this two day beard. If he didn’t have to go through a battle while scratching like a dog with fleas, then he wouldn’t.

A half hour later, in a fresh uniform that someone—probably Sego—had thoughtfully packed, Darius stood on the docks and calmly watched the armada sail in through the port’s open gate. Navid had taken the south side this time, with Kaveh taking the north, leaving Ramin the center. Darius wanted a front and center seat for this battle, so he chose to stay on the central dock with Ramin. Payam, as always, hovered nearby in case he needed to pass along a message.

From behind them, not a trace of sound to be heard. Usually a city of this size could produce a cacophony of noise, almost deafening at times. But now not a soul stirred, everyone intently watching the enemy approaching.

The sun had started for the far horizon long ago, turning the sky into molted colors of dark golds and reds. They had, at best, another two hours or so of daylight left. Darius stood on the docks and watched the armada intently. Right now, he didn’t know if they would choose to sail into the harbor at this point or not. Having never fought on the sea, he didn’t know if they had different rules of combat. If this were a land battle, Darius would wait just outside of the enemy’s range and wait until the next day, where he would have plenty of light to fight with.

But would the admiral in charge of that armada do the same?

Turning, he asked Ramin, “Has his position changed in the past half hour?”

“No, sir.”

Hmmm. Suspicions raised, he lifted his spyglass from the pouch at his waist and extended it before lifting it to his eye. Peering carefully at the ships, he looked for a tell-tale chain…there. “They’re anchored,” he muttered to himself.

“Sir?” Ramin asked, moving forward a step.

Raising his voice to a more audible level, Darius repeated, “They’re anchored. They have no intention to start a battle today.”

“So they’ll wait until daybreak tomorrow?” Ramin peered at them intently, hand raised to shield his eyes from the waning sun. “That’s what I would have done. They’re certainly in a good position to do so.”

Yes, they were. The armada lay in a half circle in front of the harbor walls, blocking anyone from coming in or going out. In fact, they could safely sit there for several days, blocking all trade, and Darius wouldn’t be able to do one thing to stop them.

Hopefully they wouldn’t do that, though.

Darius blew out a breath and collapsed his spy glass again. With the enemy hovering like this, no one would be able to sleep well tonight. But hopefully, they wouldn’t need the energy to fight tomorrow. “Ramin. Set watchers in place to make sure that they obediently stay in place and then have everyone else retire for the night.”

“Yes, sir.” 

~~~

Darius, after many years of battle situations, had learned to fall asleep when he truly needed to. Even then, he woke before the birds could even stir, taking the time to properly shave and put on a clean uniform.

As no else in the inn had awoken yet, he chose to go to the waterfront for breakfast, a yawning Tolk and Bohme in tow. He spent the early morning hour talking to the night watchmen and anyone else awake.

Over the course of the next hour, the sun steadily rose in the sky and burned off the cool morning mist that hung over the harbor. By the time that the city’s inhabitants had awoken, he had enough daylight to see that it would be a clear day without a single cloud in the sky. Truly a perfect day to sail—or fight. He went to the same dock he had been on the night before and stood there enjoying the ocean breeze as he waited for his enemy to sail to him.

As dawn faded into day, the ships pulled up anchor and moved out. There was no pre-arranged signal for putting the gate in place, just a standing order to do so as soon as the last ship had sailed through. Darius shifted his spyglass so that he could see in between the ships as the crews on the other side of the wall went into action. All of the drills in putting the floating gate into place had paid off. He watched in satisfaction as the men pulled the gate into place and then secured it, all within minutes. Of course, it didn’t really have the weight to it that the rest of the wall did. And if a battering ram from one of the ships struck it, it’d probably give quite easily. But
Adad
didn’t know that.

Someone on his flagship spied the now walled off gate and sent up a cry that Darius could
just
hear from this distance. Adad whirled around to see for himself. Darius couldn’t see his face from that angle, but he didn’t need to. The man’s body language said it all. Adad the Hammer thought himself well and truly trapped. His usual hit and run tactics wouldn’t work here.

Darius hardly needed his spyglass to see such a short distance, but he rather enjoyed being able to zoom in and see the horror on Admiral Adad’s face. The man had looked quite smug at first, sailing into a defenseless harbor with only a thousand or so troops standing ready on the docks.

“General,” Ramin’s tone held steady but had a hint of laughter in it. “Try to contain your evil smile. You’re scaring the men.”

Darius cleared his throat and tried to smooth out his face into a bland expression. Judging from Ramin’s reaction, he didn’t quite succeed in looking impassive.

Adad ran from one end of the ship to the other, looking in every direction. It rather reminded Darius of a rat trapped in a cage. Through his glass, he saw the Admiral looking more worried with every moment until finally the man stopped on the prow of his ship, snatched up a megaphone, and yelled through it, “DARIUS BRESALIER!”

“Payam.” Darius pointed to his own megaphone laying nearby. The runner snatched it up and passed it to him, exchanging it for the spyglass. “My thanks.” Lifting the piece to his mouth he called back, “GREETINGS, ADMIRAL!”

The cordial response, for some odd reason, infuriated Adad even more and he yelled back angrily, “DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT LOCKING US IN WILL HELP YOU?!”

In a very exaggerated gesture, Darius pointed toward the water. “LOOK DOWN CAREFULLY!”

Adad lowered the megaphone, stared at him for a long moment before reluctantly turning and looking over the side. He probably meant to just glance in that direction, but he froze with one hand on the rail, seemingly rooted on the spot.

“I think he just realized that the water is covered in oil,” Ramin observed to no one in particular.

Yes, he had. Darius expected him to start panicking any second now. Without looking away from Adad he said, “Ramin.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’re smiling evilly.”

“I learned how to from the best, sir.”

Chuckling, Darius raised the megaphone to his mouth and called, “I WILL BE GENEROUS WITH YOUR TERMS OF SURRENDER, ADAD!”

That shocked the Admiral back in motion and he whirled away to snatch up his megaphone once again. “WHO SAID I WOULD SURRENDER?!”

Darius picked up a burning torch from a holder nearby and lifted it high above his head. “DO YOU PREFER TO BURN INSTEAD?”

Adad didn’t answer immediately. In fact, he lowered his megaphone and turned to speak rapidly with the ship’s captain instead. Darius didn’t need to hear the conversation to know more or less of what they said. Even if they launched the landing boats with soldiers aboard right this minute, it would take a good hour to get everyone off. Worse, they couldn’t time the landing so that all of the boats would reach the docks at the same time. Darius’s troops would be able to overwhelm each boat as it came to them and pick them off, one by one.

But even if, by some miracle, they managed to get the boats to quickly launch and reached the shore before the burning oil destroyed the boats, they would be trapped. The Ilam soldiers would be stuck on land without any way to retreat or receive support from the mother ships. They might have enough men to take over this city, but the whole country?

Ramin leaned in closer and whispered, “Do you think our bluff is working?”

“He hasn’t once glanced back to look at the gate,” Darius muttered back. “He doesn’t think he can charge it and break through. Or he doesn’t think he can reach it in time. The oil will carry the fire straight to his ships. I’ve seen a house burn before—it was nothing more than charcoal and embers in minutes. I doubt a ship will burn any different. I bet Adad knows that, too.”