Herald of Steel

As the defeated remnant of Menes’s forces entered the city, seeing their dejected appearances and badly mauled state, Cambyses’s heart skipped several beats.

With them defeated, and the enemy so close……Cambyses dared not think further.

And coupled with the losses she recalled, the nineteen-year-old began to feel a stinging headache coming.

Close to 13,000 dead was a large wound for any lord.

Never mind for a small fiefdom like Zanzan.

It was not something Alexander’s city could afford to withstand at this point.

Especially not when all those lost were all healthy, young men in the prime of their lives.

And knowing this, the day Cambyses had gotten the news, the girl was so hurt and afraid that she even found it hard to swallow her food for the rest of the day, feeling butterflies swarming inside her stomach.

“Mistress, please eat something,” Mean had urged her several times, but that day, whenever Cambyses got close to any food, her throat appeared to subconsciously turn dry and her stomach produced an uncomfortable feeling.

She was deathly afraid of what would happen to her and the city when the enemy army arrived at their walls.

Worse, she really had no one to express these fears and get valuable feedback.

By this it was meant that the people who would have come really handy in this situation, such as the Queen Mother, or Mikaya were absent, leaving Cambyses with only the twins, who had been cajoled by their grandfather to skip this year’s Jtaama.

And these two princesses were really of no help in the military side of things.

And so with the current circumstances, Cambyses decided to immediately send a messenger bird to Alexander informing him of the situation, and further asking him for advice and if possible even reinforcements, though she knew the latter was very, very unlikely.

And as she waited for the news, Cambyses got to work preparing the city for the inevitable siege with the help of Menicus and Bartholomew, intent on producing a strong, fortress-like defense.

And once they were reinforced by around another 37,000 men, which was the army defeated at the hands of Perseus, she decided to call a council meeting as soon as possible.

And given the urgency of the situation, with Perseus being so close, the leader met up just a day later the army entered the city, where the council members met to discuss what to do next, i.e.- whether to fight, surrender, or escape.

“Surrender is out of the question.” Cambyses sitting at the head of the chair, where usually Alexander sat let this be known perfectly clearly.

This was the city they had, and if this was gone, even if they would all survive, Alexander would become a pauper.

And this was not even mentioning the new things the city produced.

Cambyses would rather die than hand all those valuable things over.

And this was unanimously agreed by all the other members too, as expressed by the leader of the council members-Menicus.

“Haha, yes of course surrender is out of the question. We have fought so hard to gain this city, how can we simply give it away?” He loudly claimed.

This strong stance was a no-brainer for a variety of reasons.

The biggest one probably being due to their loyalty to Alexander.

He had treated them well, and with the generous remunerations he had given them, being with him seemed like the safer choice.

And so if they surrendered, along with Zanzan, their own fiefdoms, and peerages would likely also go.

And this was not to mention if they surrendered without his or his wife’s permission, as he was not here, they could bet every single gold coin they had that Alexander would come to exact revenge. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝗇𝓔t

And given his battle accomplishments up until now, surrendering to the enemy without even fighting sounded craven.

And this was not even taking into account the people of Zanzan, who would surely not accept such a decision and might simply start a riot.

Thus all the military leaders had a strong incentive to fight till the end.

Hence the surrender option firmly crossed out, Menicus turned to Cambyses then prudently suggest,

“Although we will never surrender, but perhaps it would be better for my lady and her entourage to leave for the capital on a ship.”

“A siege is a brutal affair, and surely the lord will have a better peace of mind knowing his wife was safe.”

It seemed Menicus preferred that Cambyses escape, which actually came out of him from the genuine goodness of his heart.

But here Cambyses flared up like an enraged cat, *Bang*, even smashing her fair hands against the hard table to say, no, to shout, “My husband left in charge of this city. And I will be in charge of this city till the day he returns or till I die and crumble to dust.”

“I’m not leaving!”

“No one is leaving!”

“We will defend the city to the death!”

Cambyses’s loud and absolute proclamation somewhat surprised the men, as they had thought perhaps the trailer sex would prefer the company and protection of her much stronger husband in such trying and dangerous times.

But seeing her revolve, Menicus, who had thought of wanting to say something more, decided not to bring this topic up.

Instead, he could not actually help but let out a sign of amazement, saying, “It seems that we have all underestimated your courage, my lady. We apologize,” as the old even lowered his whitened thatched head.

Following which he turned to face the other council members and point out, “If a girl like her can stay, what does it say about us men if we can’t? Right boys, haha!”

The old man very crudely tried to raise morale and then noticed the nervous and for some even ashamed faces.

They could not believe they were beaten in terms of courage by a young girl.

And hearing this it was Grahtos who loudly joined first, confidently saying,

“That’s right! What does losing one battle matter? I have lost countless battles in my life, and I’m still here aren’t I”

This certainly helped lifted some of the gloomy mood, as then, seeing his comrades join in Melodias, the calmer of the members too threw in his support, which was meant to be a short uplighting speech, but which then transformed into giving an almost epic speech,

“That’s right! We might have lost the battle, but is that the end?” Melodias loudly posed, as he then loudly claimed, “No!”

He then pointed outside, to the scenery outside the window,

“Look outside! Look how downcast the sky is. Look how bleak everything looks.”

“It is now winter.”

“It is now cold, freezing, and unforgiving out there, with no shelter, no food, and even the water stings when you drink it.”

Melodias spoke from experience, as their three days march had not been kind, either to him or his men.

In fact, because they had not packed much warm clothing, it had been brutal, and it was only the fact that Zanzan was in close proximity, and the soldiers knew they would be able to soon have hot food, and warm beds when they reached the city, that gave the defeated army the strength needed to go on.

Or else, as Menes had suspected, a mutiny would have surely taken place.

Or at the very least a general desertion of the army.

Thus with the elements turning hostile against any force, not in protected cities and shelters, Melodias was confident Perseus would not be having a pleasant time, as he pointed out,

“The enemy has decided to attack us at such a time! A time where Goddess Gaia turns her wrath against anyone not in their homes resting.”

“Not only that, he wishes to win a siege at such a time!”

“He thinks we are so easy that he can brush off the cold winds, the icy waters, and the freezing temperature to take our city.

“A city that has stood against Tibias’s aggression for centuries!”

“A city whose walls have never fallen.”

“And the deluded king he thinks he can do what all his predecessors failed to do now? In this weather?” Melodias mocked Perseus with an incredulous voice, smirking at the man’s decision, as the man hardened his voice to at last claim,

“Well, we will show him just how mistaken he is!”

“We will make the king understand through the blood and bones of his men just how strong we are.”

“Let’s see how long he can last against our walls.”

“The walls that have been thickened to twice their size, and the wooden gates that have been replaced by an iron portcullis.

“Nothing would make us happier than to see for the foolish Tibians to smash their heads against our walls.”

Melodias’s long speech highlighted to the military commanders that they still held considerable defense against the enemy and thus the general pessimism about the whole situation managed to subside quite a bit.

After all, in any siege, you are hoping the enemy will break before you, and so there is always the lingering question, ‘Will we be able to withstand a siege?’

While Cambyses screamed manically in her head,

‘That was exactly what I said to you idiots months ago!’

‘So why are pretending that this idea is something brand new that you thought of right now!’

‘If you power-hungry hyenas had just stayed behind the walls, the winter and walls enemy would have simply killed the enemy for us.’