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Date Posted: 06:25:31 03/01/00 Wed
Author: Belamore
Subject: Cliffs of Cree: Day 2

Cliffs of Cree: Day 2

Troyellen watched as his soldiers worked on the trees and rocks and
positions along the cliffs. Still no sign of the Tancan. What if
Belamore is indeed insane from years of being the dung-forker, Troyellen
thought. What if he is wrong and the Tancan do not move west through
the northern route...all of my finest bowmen, wasted in this position
when they could best defend Canaday. It will be a ten day march south,
down through the Cree forests to reinforce Canaday. He shouted orders
to his men on positioning the logs and preparing shelters for his men.
The skies were darkening with clouds. "Damn Belamore."

...

Central Road to Canaday Day 2

On the central road to Canaday two riders approached from the east. It
was Arelle and Magan. I ordered Pallaus and Fayle to continue as I rode
to the sweating horses of Arelle and Magan.

"Arelle, you are pale and weak." I called for twelve lancers to escort
Arelle back to her fathers' cabin. "You must rest and regain your
strength. Janora has need of you." She started to protest but I
slapped her horse and she rode off with the escort.

Magan glared at me with hatred still raging in his young eyes. We
watched as Pallaus' 200 lancers rode by, then his 400 men at arms
followed by 200 mounted long-bowmen.

"Magan. I know you must hate me. Hear me out. Yes, I knew of Justin's
part in the death of your sister. I knew only after and as stableman I
could do nothing. To tell you then would have meant your death as well.
You were but a boy, unequal to the task of dueling Justin. He is the
best swordsman in all the kingdoms. I, in my prime, could never best
him. Now you are ready. You and Sir Fayle are his only equals. But
Fayle is older and slower, you are still young and quick and strong.
But Justin will defeat first your mind, then enrage your heart in his
cunning ways...then he will defeat you. You fight him with a cold heart
and keep your wits. If you will not give your allegiance to me then
pledge it to the kingdom and Canaday. When this is over...If you wish I
will kneel before you and give you my head. But now it is Justin first,
then the Tancan. Will you pledge your sword to the kingdom?" I reached
to grasp his shoulder but he shunned me.

"On my honor as a knight of Canaday I pledge my sword and will follow
you." He turned his horse, then turned back and spat on my shield.
"But, I shall take your head when it is over." He rode off to join
Pallaus and Fayle.

I watched as the 600 men at arms and pikemen, marched in a fast pace
behind the mounted. I thought of the hundred second linemen at arms
and old men and young boys defending the woman and children back at
Drice, now all but abandon; I prayed that the Cliffs of Cree trap
would work and spurred my horse with my good leg to catch up to the
front of the army.

...

Canaday Castle...Day 2

Lord Justin and Sir Talorone walked the east catwalk looking out over
the night sky ablaze with ten thousand fires of the Tancan horde.

"I told you Tancan could not be trusted." Talorone stopped and drank
from a cup of broth.

Justin did not speak. He though of the twenty mile wall of Canaday that
spanned north at Mount Cree to south at Tampion Sound. The castle wall
itself was 4000 feet long in the center. He thought of the three
eastern gates as he looked over the wall at the fire brands burning at
each gate. He nodded his approval at the construction. The outer gates
blocked the entry into a 50 yard tunnel. The tunnel floor of hardwood
planking was split in the center and could be dropped so that only a 50
foot pit was between the outer gates and the inside gates. The Tancan
could breach the outside gates but could not pass through the tunnel
with the plank drawbridges lowered into the pits.

"Guard, tell the gatemasters to drop all the eastern tunnel bridges."
He smiled and looked at the oil caldrons placed at intervals along the
towers. "You, tell the oil guards to dump the oil over the sides now."

"Now?" Talorone said in dismay. "We will need that oil boiling when
they try to scale the walls."

"Tancan will have toppled the caldrons inward with his catapults long
before he rushes the walls. When he is done with his catapults and
approaches with his scaffolding and ladders we will drop the torches and
catch them in hell."

"That will stop the first assault but when the fires burn out, then
what?" Talorone snarled, his contempt for Justin showing more and more
each day.

"The fires will burn for days. It will buy more time. I have already
loosed the pigeons and as we speak the coastal armies are mobilizing and
are marching to our aid. Thirty thousand by land and 20,000 by sea."

"That will take six months at the least and leave the west coast
vulnerable to our enemies across the sea." Talorone dumped his broth
over the edge and tossed his cup down to the court yard.

"We will hold and wear down Tancans' force and take our chances that
King Drake will not guess that the coast is bare but for token
garrisons." Justin grew angry for a moment. "Tancan is a fool. If he
had not thought himself so powerful and kept our bargain, together we
could have sailed to conquer Drake. Tancan must have decided that he has
no need of me and my armies and thinks he can defeat Drake himself with
his undiciplined mob of an army. Drake would eat him for breakfast
without me and without Tancan, my plans for Drake are bust. He is a
fool." Justin festered with the thought of all he had done to have it
fall apart so easily.

"But if you have given Tancan free reign toward Tampion and he should
move his army around Cree we will be surrounded. The western wall is
lower and less protected than the east. And no pitted tunnel, just a
road leading in behind the gates."

"You worry too much. No army has ever breached Canaday, not for a
thousand years. Much care has been taken in preparing this narrow
stretch of land that separates east from west. Tancan cannot move wagons
and catapults through Cree beaches and he cannot cross Lake Tampion with
heavy equipment. He can only move his army. Our long bows will cut his
armies down before they reach the western walls. I have everything
under control." Justin watched the Queen leave the nursemaid chamber
and get into the royal coach. "Now what is she up too?" He watched the
coach leave through the main gate to Canaday Village.

....

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