The Lord and Lady in the White Tower
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own none of this. No, really. Rating: K Time: This is a sequel to the Lady in the White Tower and begins some months after that story ended.
That night, in bed with Kate, Rick had to ask her how she'd opened the strongroom.
"You remember me telling you about nanobots?"
Castle thought for a moment.
"Small machines, the size of…"He searched for the word… "Of molecules?"
"Yes. I sent nanobots inside the lock of the strongroom and they discovered the exact size of the key. Then I had a three-dimensional printer make a copy of the key."
Castle thought it all sounded like magic, but then he remembered a quote from an ancient Earth philosopher that Kate had told him about: Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
"If you say so."
"I won't be needing nanobots to determine the size and shape of something tonight." She said, reaching down his stomach.
It took several days to settle the affairs of the Islands of Pelicans and to reload the army onto the ships. But, in due time the set sail towards the south and the Golden Coast. They sailed slowly down the coast, stopping frequently at some of the larger ports. The ostensible reason for this was to buy fresh provisions and take on fresh water. However, Castle wanted to assure the coastal cities that the Empire had no designs ln them, but that there would be a very powerful Imperial force around, just in case. He told them that the Empire could be good friends, but deadly enemies.
The other reason was to assess the possibilities of trade along the coast.
They had put in at the city of Penrith, a small city on a river a few miles up a river from the interior. Castle had gone into the city to look around and came back to the ship with a package.
"What did you get?" Kate asked, curious.
"I bought a dress for you."
"You did?" Kate was not sure about Rick's taste in women's clothing.
He unwrapped the package and held out the dress. It was a deep blue silk dress with exquisite embroidery. Kate could tell that it was just about her size, although it might need a bit of tailoring.
"it's beautiful." She said, holding the dress against her body.
"No, you're beautiful."
Kate smiled.
"But why did you decide to buy me a dress? Was it just an impulse purchase?"
"Look at it closely." Rick said. "The silk is from the Queendom of Altai, or somewhere quite nearby. The embroidery is in the Imperial fashion as is the general style of the dress. The silk came by sea from Altai and then went to an Imperial workshop where the embroidery was done, and the cutting and stitching was done. Then it went to some Imperial port on the southern shore of the Great Inner Sea and from there it went by caravan all the way across the Plain of Stones and then across the Great Sand Sea. The merchant wanted three hundred and fifty gold crowns for it, but I bargained him down to three hundred and ten. However, Admiral Deese says that the very same dress could be sent here by ship from the Empire for much, much less than the cost of sending it by caravan."
"And the Empire will make money." Kate said.
"And the Viceroy of the Golden Coast will be very popular with the emperor."
The fleet again sailed to the south and decided to stop at the Free Republic of Stassen, a good-sized city on a large river. The Republic was just about halfway between the city of Aurum and the Islands of Pelicans. It would be a perfect place for convoys coming to and from the Empire to stop, in addition to being a wealthy city in its own right.
"Ships coming out from Stassen." Called the lookout. "Flying white flags."
"They must want to parley, Lord Castle." Admiral Deese said.
"We're always happy to talk."
As soon as the men in the small ship came aboard, they threw themselves on the deck and begged for mercy.
"Please, great lord do not kill us all. Make us your slaves. I promise we will serve you faithfully. But please take us away from here." The speaker was a tall grey-haired man, dressed expensively.
"Why would you want to leave your city?" Castel asked.
"De Ming the Merciless and his Army of God are coming. They will destroy us. Those they don't kill will be enslaved and will be worked to death."
"I'm Lord Richard Castle, the Viceroy for Emperor Paulus for his dominions on the coast of Auracania, specifically the Golden Coast. I have no intention of enslaving anyone. And I have a fine, large, well equipped, well-armed and well-trained army. Tell me about this De Ming."
"He's unbeatable." That was a short man with a long, black beard, also expensively dressed. "His army is invincible. His powers are such that arrows shot at his soldiers turn into perfumed water. Swords, lances, javelins and any and all weapons are useless against his army. A mere look from De Ming will kill hundreds. Please take us away."
"How may I communicate with this De Ming?" Castle asked.
"One of his saints is even now approaching the city to demand its surrender. You could talk to her."
"Her?" Kate asked. She had come on deck when she'd heard that a party from the city had arrived.
"Meredith the Destroyer. The stories they tell about her…" The grey bearded man just shuddered,
"Neither I, nor the Empire have any desire to have an army going around enslaving and killing people. I shall talk to her. And, with your permission, I'll begin landing my army. You have strong walls around your city, I'm told."
"They'll do no good." The man with the brown beard said. "They'll collapse at a wave of De Ming's hand."
The port was large, and they had no troubles docking the fleet and unloading the army. Castle placed his men along the walls. He noticed that town's own soldiers and militia were all in hiding.
Meredith the Destroyer arrived on a litter carried by a dozen ragged and starving men. A dozen similar litters carried her entourage. She was let into the city and went to the city hall where she met Castle, Kate and Lotus.
"Get down on your knees." Meredith demanded.
"I prefer to stand." Rick replied.
Meredith smiled cruelly.
"I'll have the two of you as my slaves and your animal for food."
Lotus opened her mouth to show her very long and very sharp teeth and growled.
"I fear no one." Meredith said. "De Ming, the Messenger of God, will smite all who oppose him. Now about the surrender of this place."
"That won't be happening." Castle said. "The Free Republic of Stassen is under the protection of Emperor Paulus. I am Lord Richard Castle, Viceroy of His Imperial Majesty's dominions on the Coast of Auracania, specifically the Golden Coast."
"All of Auracania belongs to God and His Messenger." She howled.
"I think we're done here." Castle said and the three began walking away.
"You dare turn your backs on Meredith the Destroyer?" She screamed. "You shall pay dearly for this insult."
Meredith and her entourage quickly left spewing curses at one and all.
Castle called Prince Polito and sent him and his light cavalry out to find the army of De Ming and apprise Castle of its strength and capabilities.
Prince Polito was gone for four days, but each day he sent a courier back to Lord Castle advising him of where he was and what he'd found, or not found. Finally, Prince Polito returned with his horsemen and reported to Castle.
"It is an army, Lord Castle, but I'm sure it's the worst army I've ever seen. They have no scouts or outriders out. We were able to ride up to within two hundred yards of their camp. They didn't loose any arrows at us, slingstones or javelins, and from what I can tell their weapons consist of swords and spears. I saw no armor among them, although each man has a round shield that will cover most, but not all of his body. And they seem to have no cavalry. There are men who ride horses, but I never saw any of them riding together. Lastly, they move in the oddest manner. Rather than move in some form of order, they move about in great clumps of men, and women. If they actually have beaten anyone, they must have used magic since I can't see any way that they could defeat anyone otherwise."
"How many are there?"
Prince Polito shrugged.
"Hard to tell as they don't move in any sort of formation, but possibly as many as thirty thousand soldiers."
"Do you still have men watching them?" Castle asked.
"Of course. They'll send back a courier at least once a day to report the enemy's progress."
Castle looked around him.
"We have a river to our right and a cliff to our left. They can't flank us. They'll have to attack us head on. But thirty thousand is a lot of people."
Castle talked to Kate about their enemy.
"I know now there is no real magic, but could they have some sort of science to aid them?"
"A great deal of the science of the past has been lost, but we on Newton have saved a great deal. I've never heard of anything that could turn arrows into perfumed water, or cause walls to collapse with the wave of a hand."
"We'll find out, I suppose." Rick said.
When the army of De Ming was two days march away, Lord Castle deployed his army outside the Free Republic of Stassen. In the center was the phalanx of Pirend of Piraeus. The twelve hundred pikemen were arrayed six deep so that all of their fifteen-to-eighteen-foot pikes could attack the enemy.
The three thousand troops of Chief Tokar, whose people, the Mimbrenats, had been driven from the Golden Coast generations before, had been divided in half and each half was placed alongside the phalanx.
On each side of the Chief Tokar's men were one of the two regiments of archers, both nearly a thousand strong.
The three regiments of heavy cavalry, Lord Castle's Norren Regiment, Baron Jomini's Brodland Regiment and Sir Dominic Hara's Linnmark Regiment, had been divided in half. The horse archers, along with Prince Polito's light cavalry were placed on the left of the line while the armored cavalry of the three regiments were on the right, along with Lord Castle's Companions.
Duchess Ann's two regiments were placed in the second line as a reserve along with Princess Arran's bodyguards and Sandrall's people.
Then Castle saw something that upset him. He called Kate to him.
"Princess Arran, Sir Karl as well as Duchess Ann are armed and armored. I'm sure that they see you, mounted and ready for battle and feel they should do the same. Will you please ride over there and stay with them? We cannot risk any of them getting killed."
Kate looked at the second line of troops. The three were riding barded horses and wore highly decorated armor. Princess Arran's appeared to be gold plated, something that was sure to attract an enemy.
"Of course. I'll stay with them and make sure they take no part in the battle." She smiled. "I notice that young Ranald is mounted on Lotus. No matter what Ranald wants to do, Lotus won't take him anywhere near danger."
Then Kate rode off.
De Ming's army was on the march early the next morning. They stopped about three quarters of a mile from Lord Castle's army and stopped. Many unarmed men ran out in front of the mass of soldiers and began leading them in chants.
"Our God is the greatest God." They chanted.
"De Ming is the Messenger of our God,"
"Our God will destroy our enemies."
"That's an odd formation." Baron Jomini said. "If they intend to attack in that formation, that is. They are in a block some five hundred men wide and about sixty deep."
"All they can do is charge at us straight ahead." Castle replied. "There's no reason for us to wait. We should start the battle now."
TBC