Chapter 170 Help from the Past
The main road west of the royal castle.
The city guards formed a line to block the wide road. Some of them had slowly retreated in the face of the hundreds of armed men, until their numbers were sufficient to form a solid line. As the group approached, a young captain stepped in front of them and shouted in a voice more confident than his heart felt.
Captain: Halt! By order of the Queen. We have the authority to arrest and, if necessary, execute those who commit crimes against the people of the city.
The men stopped, and an old man and a young woman handed their weapons to the others. They positioned themselves before the captain, and the man spoke in a loud voice.
Fausto: Men, find a place to get a drink while we speak with the Queen. Please, do not start any fights with these boys. There will be plenty of fighting tomorrow.
Birgit: Captain, please arrest us and take us to the castle. Take the dagger out of this bag and show it to High Priest Danilo.
The captain was confused, but he took the bag from the hand of the woman: Four guards with me. We will go to the castle with them. Guards, keep an eye on the actions of these men, but do not engage in combat without cause.
The guards counted fewer than forty men. They knew that a fight against those hundreds of men would result in their deaths.
In the royal castle.
The man and the woman sat at a table, with the four guards surrounding them. The door opened, and the captain entered with the priest, who had a refined and handsome face.
Danilo placed the golden-winged dagger on the table: Who gave you this dagger?
Birgit smiled: My grandfather, Oleg. But that was not his name in the past.
The Priest: And you...I believe you are Fausto the Raven.
The man: Yes…or I was that man.
Danilo: Captain, open the door and tell the page that everything is fine.
After a few minutes, the queen and four royal guards entered the hall.
Olivia: The High Priest told me that you are a famous man, but almost no one knows who you are. Why do you have hundreds of armed men near the castle?
Fausto: We have six hundred and thirty-four men. Most are veterans of past wars. The others are hunters, men who need to be skilled with the bow and crossbow, or their families will not eat. They promised me that they would fight for the queen, who wept over the bodies of common soldiers and poor servants.
Birgit: Promise them peace after this war, and they will die for it if necessary. They have children and grandchildren, and they do not want them to die in battles in the North for a king who does not care about them.
The queen looked at the priest: Are you sure?
Danilo: Yes. This man and his grandfather nearly seized the throne for the Duke of Puerto Blanco. They were the heart of the revolt. If they have ideas on how to defeat a superior force, let us hear them.
The war room.
The people gathered there gazed at the large map spread across the table. It depicted the northern part of the city and the fields immediately surrounding it. Coins had been arranged in formations near three gates in the defensive walls; others represented companies of knights and Unicorns.
Esteban: We have no choice but to defend the gates. With the addition of the new citizen militia, we have sufficient forces to defend three gates and the sections of the walls vulnerable to attack.
Olivia: What if they try to attack one or more of the other gates?
Rodrigo: We can move our soldiers inside the city much faster than they could advance toward these gates. We have good roads and shorter distances. With the Pegasi in the air, they will not be able to conceal their movements.
The Queen: Can we win?
Pedro: Possibly. However, the best opportunity is to kill Aurelio and his captains.
Esteban: Yes, but they are going to hide him. If the Pegasi could find him, we could leap over the walls and look for a place to perform a magical jump near his location.
Néstor: Yes, but without flags, I do not know how we are going to find him.
Birgit: Forgive me, but there is a way. The messengers.
Fausto shouted: Yes! Just like we did in the years leading up to the revolt.
Olivia: Explain it to me.
Birgit: For years, spies infiltrated within the city closely shadowed the messengers to determine which nobles were most important to the King and his court. When the revolt erupted, they assassinated many of them through covert attacks. This created a chaotic situation within the royal army, and the forces of Puerto Blanco launched a massive surprise attack.
Esteban: We need to find the messengers who will carry messages to Aurelio.
Pedro: How can we create a situation in which messengers travel openly to deliver a message to their commander, who is hiding?
Marisela: Fear.
The woman pointed to the coins that represented the armies of Wulfhelm and Tatiana. Heinrich pushed the groups of coins closer to the army of Aurelio. Esteban moved the coins representing the enemy forces into positions to react to those forces.
Marisela: These captains will send messengers to Aurelio.
Esteban: Yes. And if we put Danilo and the duke in the air, we would have five pairs to look for them.
Olivia: Six. Six pairs.
The men looked at her with a mixture of concern and admiration. Finally, the Count placed a coin with Pegasus wings on the map to represent the Queen and Little Feather.
Rodrigo: We still need a clear spot to jump to. If we were on one of these small hills, maybe we could spot a possible zone, but...
Emiliano: Ribbons. There are still large ribbons left in the grand banquet hall. If we tie them to sandbags and a Pegasus drops them into a clear area, they could perform a magical jump...with my help.
Rodrigo: My friend, you will have to be on the battlefield. You do not belong on a battlefield.
Emiliano: No one belongs on the battlefield. Yet, we wage battle after battle. Today, we have a person who is worthy of our lives.
The nest.
Snowfall and White Stockings departed after nightfall. They flew south and west to conceal their destinations from the enemy. White Stockings encountered the army of Duke Wulfhelm and landed to deliver the royal order. Nevada continued north and then east in search of the warriors of Tatiana. Upon receiving the message, they immediately began traveling south. The two returned quickly to receive instructions regarding their morning missions.
That night, the High Priest of the Pegasi slept with the riders in their dormitory. The Queen slept in the bedroom of Chara.