The Citadel by Frank Dravis

Author:Frank Dravis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Six Factors Publishing, LLC
Published: 2024-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Mount Trufel

Stith Drakas

The coach began to climb, going around one corner and then another. Peering through the slats, Achelous noted the white stucco and beam buildings clustered together, the tighter and more cramped nearer the top. All vying for their place on the Rock.

“We’re near the Citadel parade grounds,” Larech said. “We’ll be there soon.”

The entire journey, the agent had kept the bird cage between his feet and seemed anxious to be rid of it.

A watch tower, with burgundy, grey, and black banners hanging from its battlements, hove into view. From the turret’s conical roof, a pennon, a black eagle on a grey background with a burgundy border, snapped in the brisk ocean wind. On the immense dome of rock, Mount Trufel, the bastion of the Citadel, sprawled. At the base of the dome to the east, the Angraris Ocean crashed and spewed in constant irritation. To the south, the approaches were guarded by a broad tidal flat, treacherous bogs, and a prominent sea wall. To the north, a canal hewn from the rock afforded a sheltered waterway for those merchant vessels brave enough to risk the narrow tide channel through the coastal shoals. The canal, wide enough for two small ships to pass abreast, wound its way from the ocean, past docks, wharves, underneath a drawbridge, and ended at a pier a hundred feet below the parade grounds. At the grounds, the armored coach and its escort came to a halt, waiting for admittance through the Main Gate.

Achelous watched as two full companies of pikemen practiced coming to arms, bracing, and then charging. Here, Drakan might be on full display. The pikemen moved with precision. His trader’s eye caught the nickel tint to the steel as the afternoon sun slanted off spear points. Those weren’t cheap parade weapons. He did a double take; a Scarlet Savior led a band of Troglodytes past the carriage heading to the gate. He turned to Larech.

“What? Troglodytes? Ah, ya, surprised? Why?”

“I would have thought it was too cold for them.”

“Ach. They may not like it, but the Church brings them. There’s a lodge on the tidal flats. The Church parades them about like pets, bragging they can control them.” Larech shook his head, turning to a Cuirassier, “The Church’s powerful ally,” he sneered the words. Then back to Achelous, “Ah, but you would know all about the reptiles. Helprig and his Wedgewood conquest. Good thing Uloch and our Hoplites were there or—"

The carriage jerked into motion, and the eenu’s hooves clattered on the flagstones. A shadow enveloped the wagon, and there was a tight turn to the right and more climbing.

The sound of rumbling coach wheels and eenu hooves echoed off the high wall just outside the slatted windows. It turned to a deeper drumbeat when they passed through another enclosed gate. Achelous tried remembering more of what he knew of the Citadel; his life may depend on it. There was a ring of defenses inside the outer wall of the fortress, from what he could recall of a long-ago glance at a hologrid.

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