The Fireseed Wars

The explosions were louder outside and one burst took out a temporary stable, turning it into kindling wood, while another dropped into the middle of a score of men trying to put out a fire on a supply wagon. The screams of wounded men and animals were so terrible that the hair on the nape of his neck stood up.

With his palms pressed over his ears, Lysandros shouted, "Give the order to fall back! We need to move the men out of here as fast as possible!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Demnos said, turning to address several of his subordinates. Soon the sound of horns was added to the cacophony of the wounded and exploding shells. The heat from the burning buildings and equipment was so hot that Lysandros felt as though he were roasting inside his armor.

It took most of the rest of the day to evacuate the entire camp. The salvos of Hostigi shells never stopped, raining death and destruction throughout the camp.

Some of the drovers attempted to round-up horses and oxen to pull the supply wagons free, but the animals were completely out of control, bucking wildly or running aimlessly into men and other horses. It wasn't until dark that they were able to return and retrieve those supplies and foodstuffs that hadn't been burned up or destroyed in the afternoon attack. Their losses were staggering.

"How bad is it?" Lysandros asked Grand Commander Aristocles after his men had made a cursory inventory the next morning. Their new encampment was still in turmoil, but at least they were out of gun range. He had a terrible headache and the sinking feeling that forcing himself on the Grand Host as one of its commanders was the worst decision that he'd ever made. In his zeal to punish Kalvan, he had put himself and his rule in jeopardy with only a young wife to guard his throne. I must have been sun-struck to have come to such a foolhardy decision!

"Your Majesty, the good news is that most of our firearms survived the attack, Praise Galzar! The Hostigi shells only hit one of our fireseed magazines so we still have plenty of fireseed. On the other hand, we lost about a third of our food stocks and several of our guns. Which means we don't have enough guns to press our siege, not that we were getting anywhere before."

"How are we going to take this City without guns or being able to approach the walls any closer than ten marches?"

Aristocles shook his head. "We can't. Our guns don't have the range to reach the walls. Even if they did, the City's earthen bulwarks devour our shot. All we can do now is keep the Hostigi holed up inside Thagnor City and the peasants away from their fields. Maybe we can starve them out. Our only other course is to ambush Kalvan's army when he returns from Greffa."

FORTY-SEVEN

Styphon's Own Voice went to the window of his palatial apartment at the top floor of the Great Temple and stared out the glass at the tens of thousands of celebrants flooding the Great Square of Styphon. News of the Host of Styphon's Deliverance's great victory over the Army of the League of Dralm had only arrived this morning at first light. Another great victory in the war to consolidate the Five Kingdoms under Styphons House's rule had been won.

If anyone still alive had ever thought Great King Demistophon was trustworthy, those thoughts were put to rest when his uncle took command of the League of Dralm's Army and the King refused to join the attack against Grand Master Soton, leaving the League's Army outmanned and soundly defeated. Now the League of Dralm Army was in tatters and there was no one left to come to the King's aid.

The siege of Agrys City was still in place, but the City would be taken before summer turned into fall. He had just overseen the casting of ten new eighteen-pound guns, which would be finished and shipped to Hos-Agrys within a moon.

Soton's dispatch had been full of criticisms of Archpriest Roxthar and his Investigation. Maybe it was time to send his own personal guard under the command of Archpriest Grythos, to act as a counterweight to Roxthar and Styphon's Own Guard. Grythos was a former Knight Commander in the Order of the Zarthani Knights and one of the few priests in Balph not afraid of the Investigator.

Finally, Soton had asked for his direction upon whom to appoint as regent and temporary ruler of Hos-Agrys after the city fell. Demistophon was unmarried and childless, while his uncle, Prince Vython of Agrys, had been killed in the attack. Vython had once been married, but his wife had died of childbirth fever and his daughter with her. He had remained unmarried until his death.

There were some cousins, but Grand Master Soton had almost single-handedly finished off the ruling dynasty of Hos-Agrys. Anaxthenes couldn't trust Soton to behead Demistophon when the city fell, but Archpriest Grythos could be counted on to ensure that the King was executed. He used his bell pull to call in an underpriest.