Enlightened Empire

Chapter Capter 393 - Old and New

Winter still held the southern kingdom in its icy grip. Snow still reigned on the plains north of Antila and silenced all life under its cover. However, only the Uskaylla River still raged on with its usual ferocity. With its source high in the southernmost outcrops of the Sallqatta Mountains, it charged downhill in the north-eastern part of Antila and brushed the city along its eastern wall. On its race towards Port Ulta and the Weltalic Sea, the river showed little care little for the surrounding stillness.

Ever since the start of the siege three weeks ago, this river had become the front line between the two armies in the Sachay civil war. Though of course, the war had since expanded into a conflict between the southern and central kingdoms.

At this moment, a small scouting troop of Corco’s southern army was on patrol along the river, half a day’s march to the north-east of their army’s camp. Though the noise of the nearby river was almost deafening, that still didn’t stop one of them from complaining.

“So why do we have to run around in this empty place again!?” Taki shouted against nature.

He blew into his hands as he looked at the endless snow around him. Clearly, the scout wasn’t too happy about being forced out into the cold. That much, Qhatuq could understand about his new partner. Since he himself was a warrior from the much more temperate Tacicir north of the Narrows, he himself was not yet used to Sachay’s winter. Still, even as a new member to the southern kingdom, he knew that their task was necessary. Though of course, he wouldn’t explain that much to the noisy companion who had been forced upon him.

“Shut up and follow your orders,” the warrior shouted instead. “The commander knows what he’s doing. That’s all we need to know.”

As they reached a bend in the river, they continued straight, away from the water. Since the noise had slightly rescinded for now, Taki took it as another excuse to whine.

“At least you should tell me what we are doing, right?” he whined, even going so far to stop in his steps. “At least I should know what I am meant to look out for, or why would I even be here?”

This time, Qhatuq paused to look back at his annoying, clueless new colleague who tread on the spot to keep himself warm, arms clung around his torso. After the sudden start of the war against the coalition army formed by House Ichilia - the rebellious southern lords, the Arcavian forces and the troops of Huaylas - the southern kingdom’s army had been forced to expand once more, even though it had already been of considerable size before.

As a result, the number of rookies had increased dramatically. To make sure these additions wouldn’t just become cannon fodder, veteran soldiers like Qhatuq had been burdened with the new recruits to provide guidance.

That had helped the newcomers get used to the battlefield more quickly, but for him, it really was a pain to drag around so much dead weight. At least others could deal with their rookies as part of a formation, but he was on his own out here. Despite what he had said, scouts had to do more than just follow orders, it wasn’t a position that was easy to learn, and out here with his life on the line, he didn’t have the leisure to just start a teaching session.

Still, it looked like this time a stern reprimand wouldn’t be enough to shut up the rookie. So rather than bark back, he suppressed his twitching eye and explained.

“You weren’t with us yet the last time we marched for Kapra. Back then, the traitor lords tried to break the river dam to flood our entire army. So the commander told us to keep watch along the upstream river, in case the traitors try anything like that again.”

“But there is no dam here anyways, right? What would they even break?” Taki complained back like an idiot, all the while looking upstream, maybe in search of a dam he had overlooked so far.

Qhatuq suppressed a sigh.

“Even if there is no dam, the traitors can still build one,” he said. “If they dam up the upstream river and then let it overflow past its boundaries, just imagine what happens to our camp.”

“Wait… but Antila is downhill,” Taki replied in an incredulous tone.

“That’s right. Imagine all our trenches filling up with freezing river water, and our people in them.” Qhatuq couldn’t help but shudder. “If those plans were to succeed, the army would just be building a moat for them, and a grave for themselves.”

“They would be flooding their own city!” Taki shouted, seemingly forgetting about the cold for a second. In response, Qhatuq just shrugged.

“Even if they drown, we’d drown first. Antila might be downhill from here, but it’s still built on a hump along the river. If they move their soldiers up early, at least some would survive.”

“Even the traitors won’t be that mad, right?”

“Not sure, but just think of the things they did to the people in Kapra. They clearly don’t mind killing their people, so we better be careful and assume the worst. If our enemies aren’t idiots, and monsters, they’ll try to use the river to their advantage.”

Qhatuq started walking again, and Taki followed, this time without a complaint.

“So that’s why we’re here. I thought the commander just didn’t like us,” the rookie mumbled after a while.

“Now you know. In the future, I don’t want to hear any complaints. If your company leader tells you to do something, you just do it without the dumb questions. And don’t talk bad about the higher ups. You don’t know who-”

“Shh, stop.”

Again, Taki stood still, and this time he even interrupted his veteran partner's sound advice.

“I mean it,” Qhatuq emphasized through gritted teeth. “If someone hears you complain about your superior and military police show up-”

“No, I mean, shut up a second,” Taki repeated, this time without his joking tone. “I think I heard something.”

Finally, Qhatuq went quiet and watched his companion work. The rookie blew into his hands one more time, before they formed a funnel over his right ear. There was a reason why this idiot had been assigned to an elite unit like the kingdom’s scouts, while other new recruits had just been sprinkled into the standard infantry or logistics teams. Despite his foul mouth, he had an excellent talent for scouting. Especially his hearing was the best Qhatuq had ever seen on a man.

Thus, the veteran put his amber glasses over his eyes and concentrated as well. Although couldn’t hear anything aside from the noise of the distant river, even after several seconds, that didn’t mean he would dismiss his partner’s claim. At least in this regard, the rookie had proven reliable over the past few days.

“Lead the way,” he whispered instead.

So, for a change, the veteran followed behind the rookie. With lowered bodies to hide behind the frozen, snow-laden shrubbery, they traveled along the river, deeper into the hills north of Antila. When Qhatuq started to think that his companion had played a prank on him, he himself could finally hear what his partner had been talking about before. Dull thumps and human shouts occasionally broke through the raging river to reach his ears.

The alarmed veteran pulled the rookie from behind and signaled him to step back and keep quiet. Then, as quietly as his training allowed for, he pulled the white hood of his white uniform over his face and sank to the ground. Through ankle-deep snow, he robbed up the last few meters of a hill along the river’s shore. Somewhere on the other side, he would find the source of the unnatural noise. Not long after the cold had penetrated his thick uniform, he crested the hill and managed to get sight of the upper Uskaylla River.

The sight confirmed his worries. On the other side of the river, he could see between twenty-five and thirty people were working away in the dense woods along the shore. Although they were mostly covered by the forest, a look through his telescope told Qhatuq exactly what they were doing. They were logging away the trees, and then carrying them to the shore next to a narrow part of the river, only to hide them under snow. Who knew how many they already had prepared.

Sooner or later, they would dump it all and dam up the entire thing, and then flood everything downstream, just as Qhatuq had feared. Luckily, they hadn’t finished their work yet. Before their plan could succeed, he had to carry his knowledge back to the main camp so they could prevent the worst. Time was of the essence.

Thus, as quietly as they had come, the rookie and veteran duo disappeared from the river’s shore, with their enemies none the wiser.

__________________

Chalco’s heart almost beat out of his chest as he stared into the distance. Although he squinted hard and concentrated fully, he couldn’t see much against the backdrop of the endless, white hills across the river. His eyes burned like fire, but he just couldn’t stop looking. For the second time this day, his hairs stood on end, like he was being watched.

Maybe just nerves.

A deep breath slightly reduced the jitters in his hands. He blinked away the tears in his pained eyes before he looked back at the workers behind him.

“Move! Move! Let’s get this done and go back home!” he shouted and clapped to encourage the workers.

In response, he only got some strained grunts. No wonder they couldn’t go any faster, since everyone was already doing their best. They all knew what was at stake, and how dangerous their work was.

Although Chalco knew that his complaints were pointless, he couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. Otherwise, he would feel responsible if something really happened to his crew. If nothing else, they had already put in too much effort and guts to give up now.

Dozens of wooden logs were lined up near the shore already, half-covered by mounds of snow. At the same time, they had started to set up the catch that would be released along the river’s narrowest point. Soon, the work on the eastern river shore would be done.

By then, they would only have to quickly sneak over to the western shore and set up the catch for the logs across the river. At that point, they could simply dump all the wood into the water, together with a mixture of stones and clay that would lodge them in place well enough to hold back the water. He was hesitant to call it a dam. Really, it could barely be considered a blockage, but Chalco was still proud of the method he had devised under the circumstances.

They couldn’t move a lot of manpower to slowly build up a solid dam, otherwise the southern kingdom’s soldiers downstream would notice something eventually, which would defeat the entire purpose of their secret mission. They also couldn’t just throw in the logs, earth or anything else into the water haphazardly. That way, their work would be much faster, but floating debris could attract attention downstream as well.

Thus, Chalco had come up with this compromise, one that promised both speed and secrecy. The location was also carefully considered: Out of direct sight, hidden between several hills and half-covered by a forest, while also located in a small depression, which could fill up with enough water to flood the downstream enemy trenches, but not the entire city. It wouldn’t be his proudest work as a builder, but if he were to be successful in defending his home, it would certainly be the most important work of his life.

As he went over the remaining steps in their construction plan one more time, Chalco was once again distracted from his thoughts. Again, he felt like he was being watched from afar. While he was the best builder in Antila, he was also unmistakably a true warrior, so he had learned to trust his instincts.

“We should send some scouts out to make sure there is no one to notice our work,” he finally said to his fellow officer in the distance. Pari was responsible for security work only, while Chalco - as the one who had come up with the plan and presented it to his master - had been put in charge of overseeing the entire construction. Although Chalco’s position was higher in theory, in practice, they were both warriors, and thus equal in status. Even more, Pari had made it very clear very early on that he wasn’t interested in suggestions.

“How many times do I have to say this, I am not sending scouts,” a grumpy Pari replied in his usual, rude tone. “More scouting north of the enemy camp will only attract the heretics here, do you not understand that? This whole plan of yours is madness anyways. Who would ever be foolish enough to flood his own city, in winter no less? I think so, and the heretics will think the same. So if we never give them an excuse, why would their patrols ever scout an area this far off the battlefield?”

“You might be right.” Although the miserable bastard had insulted him again, Chalco still decided to take it as a compliment for his bold plan. Conflict wouldn’t get them anywhere anyways.

“That’s right, I’m right,” the bastard kept droning on. “Now go do like your workers, little bricklayer: Shut up and get back to-”

Before Pari could finish another provocation, the sound of cannon fire - etched into every medalan warrior's bones since the start of the Era of Strife - interrupted his words. It was a sound both men should have been used to after days of bombardment atop the Antila's wall. Then again, it had never been so loud, the source never so close.

Before they could react, the impact of the cannon balls hit their position from across the river. Water splashed in front of Chalco, and he heard something tear and smash behind him. When he turned, some of the arranged logs had already splintered under the impact of solid chunks of metal, a deep indentation left behind in the wood to prove the violence of the impact. Caught completely off guards, the workers stared into nothing, just as stunned as their overseer.

While Chalco was still at a loss, Pari had already reacted.

“Retreat!” the bastard shouted, finally useful for once.

As if a spell had been lifted, all the paralyzed workers and guards woke up at once. Without any of the organization they had shown during the building process, they fled back into the small woods behind them, in search of protection from the deadly tools of their enemies. Long after they had heard the last distant shot of cannon fire, they still continued to flee, until they reached the safety of their camp far to the river’s east.