The North (Closed)

[heartofcourage]

“Save it for my ma.” Riley groused as Ezra teased her and she rolled her eyes slightly. “Striking isn’t really your style, Ezra. Are you sure you’re up for something like this?”

They exited the tent, pausing only as Fiona and a small entourage passed by. Riley felt a bit of pity that so many riders were already vying for attention that early, but her Ma looked as stoic as ever as she let herself into Soma’s station.

“Ma might like the chance to get away from that entire lot. I’m surprised Da hasn’t cracked a few skulls yet.” Riley said.

 

[KieranSoares]

"It's your brother who'll give them what for. He's proving to have quite the commanding presence, and he doesn't tolerate your father's best soldiers- family or otherwise- being bothered and distracted," Ezra murmured, cracking a small smile as, a moment later, a large portion of the group that had followed Fiona were made to leave Soma's war tent.

"And I'll have you know, little kit, I was originally a guerilla fighter, and so were the rest of your mother's inner circle. Most of us Riders were," Ezra told her as they headed to where their dragons waited. "Twenty years back, we hit-and-ran constantly right from these shores, trying to take out ships. So trust me when I say us veterans are more than capable of switching our fighting style." Ezra rarely spoke of the past, being a generally stoic and quiet fellow ever at Fiona's beckon call, but he'd begun sharing some of it since the previous summer. He'd even told the younger generation about his lost trainee Vostan who'd died attacking cannons in the channel, and Danica had told them about her original partner Amistadt.

Ezra offered Riley a small smile. "Taking orders from someone thirty years my junior... that's new. But if your parents trust you and your brother, I will fall in line. They've never steered us wrong."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Taking orders from my brother is a new experience, but it seems that he has a good head on his shoulders." Riley said as Ezra seemed to be in incredibly good spirits that day. "Of course, I can annoy him if you want."

When Ezra laughed and squeezed her shoulder, she grinned and they made their way to their dragons, readying to take flight and start the first strikes as they saw fit. Inside the war tent, Fiona circled Soma's intricate maps, pondering her next move. She knew what she wanted to do, but it had to be meticulous.

"Where are those that have been around the longest? The cities that still remember before the war and need the most help?" Fiona asked, stopping her pacing next to Soma.

The two of them studied the maps in almost the same way, the tilt of the head and the way they settled on the same hip. Fiona had brought him up at her side in the council meetings of Trondheim and had helped to create the mind that he had. It made sense that even though he looked like Samuel, he was Fiona's son through and through.

 

[KieranSoares]

"According to the messengers who have come back so far," Soma began as he stood across from Fiona, his serious expression like a mirror of herself and Sam combined, "Most of the coastal cities are on our side and feel confident that they'll be fine til we arrive. It's cities further inland that will need our help. My main concern is that London is between us and some of the more vulnerable towns that will suffer before we can get to them if they throw in with us."

Soma pointed out Oxford, Cambridge, and Ipswich in particular. "We can't afford to help every single small town, but we can help their lords help themselves. If London digs in and holds us off, we can still move around it and gain allies. Oxford and its college need to be protected. The college itself has been accused of spreading treason in our favor, because the students and professors support the North after we tamed the Empire. But they aren't warriors. We need to protect them, and use their brightest minds to our advantage. Not to mention, Oxford's citizens were treated terribly twenty years back when the Imperials marched through."

Soma turned to Cambridge. "Cambridge was nearly destroyed in the last war when the Earl there refused to bend the knee to his dying breath. His daughter was barely ten years old at the time. Today, she's the unmarried Countess with a reputation for rebellion. She'll probably want to talk to us before she commits, but you can bet she's raring to strike back at Hess.

Pointing to Ipswich, Soma also gestured up the east coast of England. "Ipswich was a bit less out in the open for naval bombardment, but it was the command post for the Duke there as he tried to protect the coastal towns and villages across Suffolk. He was a dear friend of Ashien and Dylandra, and his son Benjamin was Ashien's squire. The Duke of Ipswich was captured and executed while Da was forced to call a retreat from London. They say the Duke died shouting for God to strike down Barbarossa and protect his brothers-in-arms, and he fought the executioner to the end. So, understandably, that spirit has remained in Ipswich, and they want Benjamin to come back and take his father's mantle."

Soma looked across at his mother. "If we install Benjamin there, I'm almost positive that the entire county of Suffolk will turn to our side, and open up a huge span of coast for more ships to come in. They'll see it as returning their lost, rightful lord. But we have to contend with an iron-fisted Baron to get it back."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Pick up Cambridge first. At least then you would have a foothold in case of retreat." She said as Soma explained his thoughts and reasoning behind the operations. "But do it in secret. If it is known that we are sending soldiers that far that quickly, it might be disastrous to those that are waiting for our help."

"As far as Oxford goes, Schaller and I will ride there today. We will speak to them ourselves." Turning, she gave and order to one of Soma's assistants to put together a care package for her before she turned to look at Soma once more. "We can leave literature with those that care to read it."

Staring at Soma, she knew that she would never be able to tell him how incredibly proud she was of him. As a baby, she could shield him from all of the bad things that a council meeting had to offer, but when he grew, he would understand that often his mother was the enemy simply for standing up for what was rightfully hers. How many times had they both stood by silently as someone called her a slur or a whore? How many times had she had to explain to him that sometimes the best thing was to say nothing at all? She could still remember the little toddler standing at her side, tears in his eyes because he didn't understand why someone would want to hurt his mother.

 

[KieranSoares]

"That's half the point of getting Oxford to join us- more scholarly minds to help us organize the little details," Soma assured his mother as he passed some documents off to another assistant as well. He was the youngest there, all of his aides and protectors anywhere from three to ten years his senior. But he had absolute command of his camp, unafraid to go toe-to-toe with problem soldiers or tactical challenges.

Soma was scribbling down some notes when he noticed Fiona staring, and he paused to look over at her. Instead of the frightened little boy who'd once tried to avoid notice, he offered a confident smile. "Yes, Your Majesty?" He teased gently.

 

[heartofcourage]

“Oh, now don’t you start with me too.” Fiona said as Soma teased her with her title. “I was just thinking that it wasn’t all that long ago that you would hold my hand so tightly while we were in your Aunt Kayla’s meetings, so scared that someone might look your direction.”

“And now, here you are, commanding the armies of the North. Nothing is too frightening and nothing is beyond your capabilities.” She locked eyes with him and gave him a warm smile. “I guess what I want to say is, I’m proud of you.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"You made this possible, Ma," Soma told her softly, standing up straight and gesturing to the war tent, and the camp beyond. "You're the glue that held the North together all these years, and pushed our allies to keep hoping even when it seemed impossible. Even when I lost my arm and got dragged away to Vienna, I kept faith in us. Everything you taught me at those meetings- that was what allowed me to dig into the old Council and learn how they worked, and that was the springboard I needed to find my voice."

Soma glanced down at the map, and his voice grew quieter. "I won't pretend I'm fearless or that I don't struggle. But even faced with multiple armies and allies looking to me for guidance, many of them doubting me because I'm young... I'm not paralyzed anymore by fear. I'm anxious sometimes, but most of all I'm honored by how much faith everyone is willing to have in me, and I'm dead set on proving your faith well-founded. No matter how scary it gets, I'm going to take us home. Even when I was little, I dreamed of walking into Inverness Keep with you, Ma."

Placing his hand on the table before him, he met her gaze with fire and determination. "And if I have anything to say about it, I'll be opening the Keep's doors for you before this time next year."

 

[heartofcourage]

"And out of all of us, my love, I believe you." She said with a small smile on her face as one of the assistants brought her a satchel full of pamphlets. "And I will spend all of my time teaching you about Inverness and the Keep. You have a lot to learn."

She pulled the satchel over one shoulder and pulled it tightly, moving to her son's side and kissing his cheek. "You're not a little mite anymore, even if Riley says you are."

 

[KieranSoares]

Soma pulled Fiona in for a tight hug before stepping back. "Riley's the least of my detractors now, Ma," he chuckled. "Go and let Oxford know we're coming to set things right, and that the true King of England is about to return."

Outside, Schaller was already saddled and waiting for Fiona, scanning the camp as his usual vigilance commanded.

 

[heartofcourage]

"How do you feel, old man, about causing some discourse amongst those of a high intelligence?" Fiona asked as she climbed into the saddle and gave him the command to head towards Oxford. "Students seem a much better prospect than brut soldiers."

Shortly after the duo took off, the first strike of Riley's group took place. It was a relatively small strike, the soldiers retreating immediately under dragon fire. As Riley walked around the small encampment to see what was there to salvage, she paused in looking over their weaponry.

"How have they made it this long with such outdated things?" She asked, looking over at Ezra as he did the same. "It's in terrible shape."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Barbarossa went after the isles as a trophy, not to make it prosperous," Ezra explained as he kicked a discarded sword aside, the blade rusty and chipped. "And even if he didn't live to enjoy the trophy, the Council did. The lords they installed all imposed extra taxes on the 'heathens' here, and enjoyed banquets and finery while common folk starved. Then when the Barons and Hess and Royer removed their previous Imperial governors, they declared their own government and independence from the Empire. No more Imperial taxes meant that the Barons could've spent the extra money on improving their holdings and building their militaries. Some did, but as you can see..."

Ezra picked up one of a pair of boots left outside a collapsed tent, showing Riley the ruined sole that was badly patched with scrap leather. "Ashford is one of many fools who kept the extra coin to himself and let things get worse. This is why lords have to be chosen carefully and kept in check, which is something your Aunt Kate was good at up in Scotland. Edward is going to have a lot of work to do to make England livable again."

Tossing the boot aside, Ezra surveyed the abandoned forward camp. The Ashford soldiers had set up an outpost to delay the Northerners, but they were so badly equipped and ill-trained that they'd fled the moment they saw dragons and fire. Ezra sighed deeply. "It's good for the people, but bad for us, that Scotland is apparently in much better shape than England. According to reports and Finnegan Royer- now that he's decided to help us- Scotland's actually not doing badly economically under Brennan Royer. But the people fear him. He's apparently quite the brute."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Ezra." Riley said, turning towards him with a long slender box that she had opened to reveal a very familiar weapon.

Inside was the complete weapon that had been used to nearly fatally wound Fiona. The one that they had salvaged that night had been broken, but there in her hands was one that hadn't been touched. It made Riley angry to know that more than one of the weapons existed.

 

[KieranSoares]

Ezra stepped over to inspect the weapon, his brows furrowing. "This isn't Chinese-made..." he murmured, reaching out to turn the short flintlock over. "They must've copied the design instead of importing... This is probably an officer's weapon, I doubt regular footmen have these. But that's still incredibly dangerous..." Meeting Riley's gaze, Ezra offered, "You're in charge here, Riley. But I'd recommend grabbing a greenhorn and sending them back with a report about this. Soma needs to know. If we have rebel officers and elite soldiers running around with these... Baron Ashford and his bodyguards probably have them too, and that'll make them incredibly dangerous to even our best fighters."

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley felt an intense anger pass through her as she looked over the weapon that had almost killed her mother. Ezra stated that it wasn't from the East, but made there on English soil and she wanted to burn the entire lot to the ground. Even as he gave her advice on what he would do, she barely heard him, only pausing as Andre cleared his throat and caught her gaze. He could feel her anger through their connection, something that they had worked on to keep her from running off or losing her temper at the spur of the moment.

"Send word back for Soma." She told Ezra as they flagged down a greenhorn. "I'll keep this with me in the mean time."

 

[KieranSoares]

Ezra could see her tension, and so took over informing the greenhorn who came in to land. Andre stepped up beside Riley, partly blocking her from anyone else's view til she could gather herself despite her anger. "Hey," he murmured softly. "We know these things are here now. People can be prepared for them. We won't let your Ma be hurt like that again."

 

[heartofcourage]

“Doesn’t mean that I don’t want to go hunt down whomever made this and claw their eyes out.” She said as she pulled the weapon from the case and tucked it into her belt. “I’m allowed to be angry but I’m learning to control that anger. I promise.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"You're getting a lot better,, and everyone notices," Andre encouraged with a small nod, his gaze turning toward the northwest where the city of Ashford loomed. "The Baron will know about this shortly, from the few who fled but didn't desert. We need to see what kind of weapons they have on the walls, and get rid of as many as possible."

Glancing back to Riley, Andre's gaze softened once more. "Whenever you're ready. I'm with you."

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley glanced over towards Ashford, incredibly quiet as she surveyed the city in the distance. Everything was oddly quiet, her mind peaceful for a moment before she turned back towards Andre.

“They have no dragons. Just weapons.” She said as she turned to make her way back to Marth. “If we rip the cannons off the city walls, it would cripple them. Then we do damage to the main city doors, it would give the foot soldiers a path to enter.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"If all else fails with the gates, we can grab a few dragons to help us drop a task force inside to open the gates," Andre offered. "I'm sure Jani would jump at that chance. But we'll see what damage we can do without high risk first."

Stepping up on Gia's saddle, Andre clipped his harness in and gave a signal to circling dragons overhead, showing them that the area was secure and to move out. Marth tilted one horn down for Riley to take hold, lifting her onto his back. "So, running face-first into cannons again. Just like our first real mission rescuing Jani."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Your mother would skin you alive if she heard you say that." Riley said as she climbed into Marth's saddle. "She barely allows us to do this in peace as it is."

After she was secured, Marth took easily into the sky, Riley watching as Andre gave orders to those gathered as to what they were doing. "We need to rip down a few of the cannons to make it safer for the greenhorns to attack. I don't want them under cannon fire if we can help it." She called to Marth.

 

[KieranSoares]

"No problem. They're slow to aim, so as long as we keep moving or attack from above, they'll have a hard time hitting us," Marth assured her. Despite the limitations of missing an eye from their run-in with black powder the previous autumn, Marth had regained his confidence and tenacity. But now, it was tempered with experience and knowledge of what he faced, and what could happen of he was too reckless.

By the time Riley and Andre were closing in on Ashford, it was clear that the town was preparing for battle. The outer villages and roads were empty of people save scouts and patrolling horsemen. As soon as Gia and Marth were visible, the scouts fled toward the sprawling castle surrounded by fairly low stone walls. It was not the imposing fortress that some English castles were, and it was built on relatively flat land instead of a more defensible hilltop. Castle Ashford had once served as equal parts government center as vacation home for English nobility, but now it was heavily reinforced and the formerly green grounds were churned to mud by soldiers and their camps. A small army of levied men awaited, larger than Soma had expected, but far from professional soldiers. He knew dragons would scare most of them into submission anyway.

Ezra and Andre flanked Riley as they approached, watching and listening for her command as they readied shields and crossbows and leaned low over Sadah and Gia's backs.

"I can see at least six cannons on the south wall alone!" Ezra called out. "The Baron's been expecting an attack for a long time, looks like!"

 

[heartofcourage]

“Two a piece then! Rip them from the battlements.” She called out as she pulled her own shield to the ready and directed Marth into action, focusing on the first cannon that was on their way.

Riley provided Marth with cover, firing her now when needed to keep troops from firing upon them as Marth cleanly tore the cannon from the mooring and then tossed it away from the castle walls. Then they were spiraling away from the castle entirely to allow Andre a path of attack. Riley blew a command on her whistle to a few of the greenhorns to give chase to any fleeing soldiers, making sure that they stayed in the offensive. The last thing she wanted in all of this was to suddenly find herself without the upper hand.

 

[KieranSoares]

Andre's attack was lightning-fast once he had an opening. To avoid being hit by cannon-fire, Gia dropped in from almost directly overhead and veered away at the last possible second while tearing the guns away. Arrows bounced harmlessly off her hide as she covered Andre, and he in turn was taking careful shots at officers to destroy morale. But it was Sadah unleashing fire on one of the cannon crews that caused the most panic. The ill-prepared defenders were mostly those who'd never even seen dragon fire. The few who had, had only seen it two decades prior.

When the south wall was cleared of cannons and the soldiers were in disarray, Ezra saw an opening and directed Sadah to drop in behind the wall. In a hail of arrows, Sadah touched down and smashed into the back of the gate like a ram. Her claws tore at the bar and any exposed locking mechanism, and Ezra huddled low under his shield, partly covered by her raised wings.

With a wrenching squeal of metal and wood, the south gate's right door was forced open. With Sarah's strength, the hinges bent and gave out, causing the right door to collapse entirely. Shoving the left side open, Sadah backed off and took off again. While she was unhurt by the arrows thanks to her thick hide, she had so many stuck in her scales that they looked like quills. Ezra seemed unfazed, though it was unclear if he'd been hit. He used his whistle to signal greenhorns to cover him, and he went back in for Sadah to target more officers on the walls.

Andre and Gia flew high overhead, surveying the destruction on the south wall before rounding back to see the vanguard of the Northern Armies looming in the distance. They would be at the wall within an hour.

"Vanguard incoming, Riley!" Gia shouted from the distance, knowing Andre's voice couldn't reach her from so far. "With the gate open, they'll take the city in no time. Should we join them, or keep pushing?'

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley surveyed the scene beneath her, knowing that they had the upper hand. Soon soldiers would reach the outpost and they would have a further foothold into England. If they stayed, she could make sure that things were secure, but she knew that they might do more good pushing inwards into the isle.

"We'll push ahead. However, Ezra and Sadah will retreat to look over their wounds." She called back, not wanting to take for granted that a single arrow might have caused massive damage to them both. "And that's an order."