Herald of Steel

The lords of Zanzan and the lady of the house were the first to enter the manor, along with about twenty or so bodyguards accompanying.

And once inside, though the soldiers tried their best to secure all the entrances, their efforts proved futile.

Because they were really too few.

And it was this lack of numbers that made Cambyses inquire where were the rest of the reinforcements.

She guessed it had to be at least 6 am by now, and the army should have been here by now.

“The soldiers are still gathering downhill. But they should be making the climb as we speak!” Menes quickly answered the inquiry, though he sounded a lot less confident saying that second sentence.

One which Cambyses noticed and narrowed her eyes in anger, her pupils blazing with fury.

“Speak the truth! Where are the defenders? It’s been so long and they are still not here? Why is it taking them so long?” Menes had never seen Cambyses have such a scary look as she shot these questions.

But then again she had never been in such a scary situation.

“….we thought it would be prudent to wait and gather forces before coming. So they are waiting for my instructions to advance.” Finally, unable to bear pressure from Cambyses’s glare, Menes muttered this in an almost mosquito-like voice, which the hyper-aware Cambyses of course caught every single syllable of it.

And it made her heart almost turn black with fury,

“What! Why! Why would you hold off on this?”

“Do you want Zanzan to fall?”

“Do you want me to die?”

“You disloyal snake! Alex’s eyes must have been eaten by shit to have put you in charge!”

“Not only did you lose us the war, but you can’t even do this properly?”

“Do you think you can put on a pair of clown shoes and dance on my head just because I did not say anything about the last battle?”

“When did you become such an imbecile? You fucking ….xxxxx…..xxxxx….xxxx”

Hearing this, finally, Cambyses’s dam of patience burst open as she began to lambast Menes in a way most of the people there did not think was possible, as Cambyses in her vituperation uttered words no self-respecting woman was expected to say, drawing stunned eyes from all over.

None had seen Cambyses become so mad.

While the person in the direct line of fire to it all, Menes, only drooped his head in shame as the shrilled shouts bombarded him.

He would admit he had made some grave errors in his duties.

Regarding the reinforcements, what he did was place them at the bottom of the hill leading to Alexander’s manor, and then told them to wait and build up mass before advancing, as he figured one large combined force would be much better than sending units one by one to face the enemy individually in a piece-meal fashion.

This was also the reason why that guard Cambyses had sent to get the active defenders had not come yet.

They were stopped by Menes’s adjutant who then told them to wait for more of their comrades.

And though the man protested, they were held off.

Now, to be frank, Menes’s plan was not a bad plan in theory.

Certainly sending a few hundred troops apiece might have been just feeding them to the enemy one by one, letting the enemy deal with each individual unit separately instead of a wider, coherent force.

But in thinking that he failed to take into account the fact that the manor might desperately need reinforcements, even just a trickle of it, right now to survive rather than wait to get a whole lot of it much later.

That was what he should have done.

And as Menes realized this, along with the other council members who too had suggested this only hung their heads.

And seeing this, Cambyses finally chose to finish her tirade.

She knew the enemy was fast approaching, there was little time on her hands to be engaged in such infighting.

So climbing off her horse, she then suddenly instructed Menes.

“Now go! Take this horse and run down to the hill. Gather the men there and come rescue us,” as she handed the reigns of the horse and almost in a metaphorical sense, told him to go grab the reigns of the army.

“Bu..but…no Cambyses! You should go! I will stay and guard the manor. Because if anything happens to you I will not be able to show my face to Alexander,”

But Menes wanted to refuse, as he then pointed towards the direction of the front door to shout

“The enmey is yet to encirlce the fornt gates. You can still get out! Quick!”

“You must live! The people still need you!”

And he was joined by Grahtos too, who said,

“That’s right, My lady. This manor barely has any defenders to defend itself with. Please escape while you can!”

To which Cambyses only sneered, before turning to Menes and saying in a mocking tone, “So you do you know me dying is bad? Looks like everything is not shit inside you after all.”

Judging by the voice she was still very mad.

As Cambyses then steeled her voice and spoke in a commanding voice,

“It’s good that you know that.”

“So ride this horse out and bring the army to rescue us. Aren’t they waiting for your orders? What good will I escaping do?” Cambyses taunted, even though she could very much command the army if she wanted to, and then finished her speech with this very explicit threat,

“And know that if you fail and I die, Alexander will have your ass!”

Cambyses was basically saying ‘go and take command of the army or die trying.’

And hearing this absolute command and feeling Cambyses’s seething rage, Menes knew there was no way around it.

So he at last leaped onto the beast with haste and then with a silent nod and a stony face, urged the horse forward, hoping the enemy had not closed off the entrance to the manor by now.

Because then, the lone man would then have no choice but to die.

“Mistress, we should try and leave the manor too. Let us follow General Menes,” As they saw Menes navigate the horse through the narrow doorway into the corridor, his head lowered to the same level as the beast’s shoulder, the remaining council members urged Cambyses to follow behind him on foot, hoping they could be fast enough to outpace the enemy.

But the stoic Cambyses shook her head in denial, making all the council members think,

‘She is not going to say to hold the manor at all cost is she? There is no way that’s possible! The enemy is both at the back and the left, and is rapidly encircling us.’

Hence these members, who had come ahead of the main force to reassure Cambyses, now felt like ants in a hot stove and wondered if they should try and make a break for it on their own.

Because if Menes could do it, perhaps they could too.

But such treacherous thoughts were put to rest immediately by Cambyses’s next sentence, where she said,

“No need! We will take the secret passages! It leads to the southern district! It will be much safer.”

And this made all the lords widen their eyes a bit.

Yes!

There were still the secret escape routes every noble dug for themselves.

How could they have forgotten about that?

“Ahh! Of course!” Grahtos’s voice went up a few octaves as he said this, an air of relief and comfort escaping his mouth.

He had become a lord just a few months ago and did not want to die so soon without having enjoyed anything.

While Harun who was accompanying them chimed an inquiry, “Ahh! But then mistress why did you let General Menes take such a dangerous route? The southern distinct is not too far from us. He could have come with us and the attack would not have been delayed too much.”

“Perhaps the tunnels as very winding?” And Menicus was there to provide a possible answer.

But Cambyses denied that, saying, “No, the tunnels are not too long. It places you just outside the walls of the port.”

Which made the three men confused as to then why Menes could not come with them.

So Cambyses gave the real reason in a cold tone they had never heard before,

“General Menes has many mistakes in the past few months. So I sent him out through such a dangerous path to see if he still has the goddess’s favor.”

“If he lives, he can still command the army. If he can’t….then he is not worthy anymore.”

The callous way Cambyses said it made the men subconsciously bolt their spines a bit out of fear as they suddenly felt an aura of respect from her.

This was not the Cambyses they knew. 𝐞𝐨𝘃𝐞𝐥.

And it was in fact true.

Because this Cambyses was somehow changed about witnessing that explosive.

And this authoritative and decisive style of judging one’s worth, especially one who had proved incompetent was something the ancient people actually admired.

“May the goddess bless him,” So Menicus placed his hand on his heart hearing this, as did the others, not daring to speak up against it one bit.

While Cambyses ignored this, and only said, “Come, time’s wasting,” before suddenly her an idea flashed inside her…setting fire to the manor and killing foes and allies alike!