Age of Kings

by A bag of plums

122 - Pearis Under Siege

“There’s no way we’re getting in there unnoticed, is there?” Parisa asked as the group huddled around a small fire in a secluded copse of trees, hidden from view from anyone who might be looking for them.

They had spent the day riding around the main city that Morn was besieging, trying to find a way in without having to go through any Unified troops, but they had the city completely surrounded in every direction. From here, they could see three siege engines, sitting there in the dark as the Unified remained motionless beside them. Not even one of them moved an arm to scratch their heads or shift a foot for better balance. There were more than just Canterlot knights in the Unified ranks, they had seen. There were some northmen and even soldiers from Saddle Arabia in there. Morn was truly unifying the world.

“It might be admirable, were he not uniting the world by knocking out everyone’s brains,” Sombra commented as he stirred at the pot of stew that hung over the fire. Posey had found numerous root vegetables and herbs to make a tasty stew, which was helped by the generous rations of meat and other food from the Frozen North. The stench of cooked meat still disgusted Emerald, but seeing her friends relish in it made her forget about it.

“What if we snuck in?” Posey suggested as she toyed with her bandana. “King Sombra, you have the ability to move in darkness. Emerald and I have some expertise in getting by undetected. And Parisa…”

“I’m Parisa!” The young dancer clapped. “I can do it!”

Posey paused, then nodded. “Um… if we were to move now, while the sun remains hidden, perhaps we could enter the city before they realize we’re here.”

“What about our horses?” Sombra asked. “I can’t leave Stormchaser out here unattended. Someone might steal him.”

In the distance, there was a small explosion as one of the Unified’s siege engines launched a flaming sphere into the city, kicking up a plume of oily flame. It seems something had stirred them from their nightly ‘rest’, if one could call it that.

“Morn seems bent on taking this city, even more than before” Sombra said as he peered out at the ongoing siege. “I have not seen this many Unified soldiers since Nidaroats. Not even back home at Masyaf were there this many.”

“We have stopped him at every turn,” Posey said as she checked on the vegetable stew. “He must be getting frustrated that he has not been able to hold neither Nidaroats nor Masyaf.”

“Thankfully this Prench city seems well defended. At least for now.” Sombra sighed. “This is no way to change the world. Parisa, stay here with the horses. It would be better if you come in once we’ve assessed the situation within. That way, our steeds and supplies can wait here.”

“Yessir, your majesty sir!” Parisa stood at attention and gave Sombra a snappy soldier’s salute. “You can count on me!”

It was still dark out by the time the group got everything settled for Parisa, then Posey, Emerald, and Sombra crept out of the grove and towards the city, staying low and slow to not attract any unwanted attention.

They did well to avoid the part of the wall that had awoken, keeping to the shadows as they slinked to the opposite end of the city, looking for sections that had some damage and less Unified.

“This one.” Posey stopped and crouched low, pointing to a part of the wall that had some cracks and arrows from the Unified attacks. “We can make our way up here.”

“Then I will see you on the side.” Sombra nodded to the two ladies. “Be safe. Take it slowly. We don’t want to wake the Unified before you reach the top.”

Having said that, Sombra dissolved his body into a dark mist that flew up and over the wall, sticking so close to the shadows that he almost disappeared from sight the instant he moved.

Emerald and Posey continued to the wall, sticking to burnt grass to hide themselves. The odor of scorched greenery and the acrid stench of burning oil filled Emerald’s nostrils as they pressed themselves against the outer wall. The Unified army was standing not too far away, about thirty paces distant from the wall. They remained truly motionless, not even blinking their golden eyes, save for breathing.

“I’ll never get over how creepy the Unified are,” Posey whispered. “Morn has truly done something unnatural and against nature.”

“He has to be stopped. These poor people have been taken away from their homes, their lives…” Emerald shook her head as she pulled her hood up to conceal her glimmering hair.. “Morn, oh, Morn. This is not how unification is meant to be.”

Posey nodded in agreement and launched herself at the wall, grabbing hold of the nearest fissure and hauling herself upwards. Emerald soon followed, using cracks and embedded arrows as handholds and footholds to climb up the otherwise sheer wall. There was no way that any of the Unified would have been able to do this, not with their dulled reflexes and armor that they were wearing.

It was slower going, climbing in the near total darkness, but eventually Posey and Emerald made it to the top of the wall. As they pulled themselves up and over, they were greeted by the sight of Sombra crouched behind a small partition.

He looked over and beckoned them to join him. “All quiet so far. No sign of the Prench on this side. The patrol must have yet to return.”

“Now we need to find them and convince them we’re not part of Morn’s army,” Emerald said. As spymaster, she had once decided to pick up Prench to blend in, seeing as Prance and Canterlot didn’t have the best of relationships, even before Morn took over. Alas, there hadn’t been any time for her to do so since setting off on this adventure to save the world from her former lover. “If they hear our voices, they might just shoot us on sight. We will have to find our spies, if they are indeed still here.”

“Your voices, my lady.” Sombra cracked a smile. “I sound not like you Canterlotians. Perhaps I should do the talking. After all, I have studied.”

“We should first get down from this wall,” Posey decided. “Find somewhere to lay low until I can get Gabriel to send Parisa a message that we managed to get inside.”

“Agreed.” Emerald looked over the wall on the other side. Below it was a quiet street lined with small buildings, one of which still had a light burning from within. “We can start looking for our spies after.”

The trio descended from the wall via a nearby staircase. The steps were finely chiseled and sturdy, which reminded Emerald of Canterlot’s walls and how they had been damaged by the Plunderseed plants. She felt thankful for the druids’ machinations now, for if they had not been used, there would have been no way out of prison and the world would have been doomed.

The city streets were narrower than the ones in Canterlot, but were well paved and maintained, with cobbles on the floor instead of dirt, different from the small villages they had come across on their way towards Saddle Arabia.

They found a stable around the corner, its insides shrouded in darkness, though they could hear the whinnies of horses within.

“This will do for now.” Emerald inched inside, keeping one arm in front of herself warily. Though there was safety from the Unified behind the walls, she wasn’t sure how a Prench person would take their presence. To her relief, the stable only had animals present and she signaled her friends with a whistle before finding a few stacks of hay to retire for the night.

---

An explosion and shuddering ground woke Emerald a while later. The sun was now up in the sky, albeit shrouded in a thick grey layer of cloud like the day before.

Emerald shook Sombra and Posey awake and they emerged from the stable quietly. There were shouts from somewhere along the wall and orders were being barked in Prench.

“Come on,” Sombra beckoned. “Let’s go further into the city; these soldiers have enough on their plates without having to deal with us. Now where do we start looking for your Canterlot spies?”

“Arret!” Before they could fully leave the stables, a trio of guards stood before them, spears pointed forward as a man in rags and a straw hat pointed at them furiously.

The farmer-looking man began speaking in a slew of Prench, but judging from his look and his body language, Emerald figured he must’ve been the stable owner.

Sombra held up both his hands to show that he meant no harm before speaking to the guards and the farmer in Prench himself. While the guards’ face remained suspicious, they did lower their spears a few inches while Sombra explained himself to the Prenchmen.

“Anglais? You are with the enemy outside our walls!” he gasped after switching to their native tongue.

“No, no!” Emerald waved her hands, then pulled her hood down, revealing her face to the guards. “We are not with them. The usurper king is no king of mine. We have come to stop him!”

“You Canterlotian pigs, always doing what you want. How can we believe a word out of your mouth? We should throw them in the dungeons!” The guard on the right waved his speartip at the group.

“I can vouch for them,” Sombra said, stepping forward. “On my honor as the rightful king of Saddle Arabia, I give you my word that these two are not with the enemy. You can obviously tell that I am neither Prench nor English, certainly.”

“A king, he says?” The guards shared looks. “How can we know for sure this isn’t a trick of Canterlot? What proof have you?”

“If we were with Canterlot, our eyes would be shining like torches,” Sombra pointed out. “You have been fighting the Unified for weeks, now, surely you have seen their eyes. As for my claim as king…” Sombra held up his hand palm facing up and a black flame made of shadow appeared, dancing just above his hand. “Only Saddle Arabian royalty has the power of the djinn. This is my proof that I am the king of Saddle Arabia.”

“Black magic!” The stableman recoiled.

“What should we do?” The guards began whispering amongst themselves. “They might not be with Canterlot.”

“But what if we let them go and they open the gates and kill our king?”

“What if they have come to help us against the enemy?”

The three switched to Prench and began firing off questions at one another, too fast for Emerald or her friends to follow.

A new voice barked something from behind them and the guards turned around as a man in plated armor walked down the cobbled path, holding a palm up; his other hand rested on the pommel of a blade sheathed by his side. He had on a helmet that had wings coming out the sides, folding back around his head before rising high. Through the horizontal slit in it, Emerald saw vibrant pink eyes looking back at her, one with knowing and recognition.

He began speaking with the guards and stableman. The three guards had suddenly stood to attention before giving him a nod. Eventually, they waved the stableman off and gave Emerald one more looking before marching off down the street.

“I’m glad that’s cleared up.” Sombra brushed a hand through his jet black hair. “Thank you, sir knight. Who do we have to thank for this?”

The knight lifted his helmet, letting locks of brown hair drape down his ears and face as he gave them a firm smile. “I would not be a good knight if I let you get kicked out, would I? Welcome to the city of Pearis.”

Emerald’s eyes widened. She knew this face well. After all, she was Canterlot’s spymaster. She was meant to know faces and recognize them. This particular knight had given her plenty of intelligence on Trottingham when they were working to bolster its defenses.

“Sir Stirruth!” she exclaimed. “Tis good to see a friendly face in these lands!”

She walked forward and grabbed his hand, letting out a metallic slap from his armor.

“I am guessing this is one of your spies?” Sombra said as he removed a piece of hay from his pants.

“Oh, yes! Sir Stirruth is a knight I had picked out when I first became spymaster, along with his brother, Sir Stirrupis.” Emerald said happily. “Sir Stirruth, this is King Sombra of Saddle Arabia and Posey the Hood. We have come to aid Prance.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Sir Stirruth said cordially. “I’d heard stories about the infamous bandit Posey the Hood, and of Saddle Arabia as well. I hope we will get along.”

“What do you know about the siege beyond the walls?” Sombra asked, wasting no time in getting to the bottom of this. “How fares the city?”

Stirruth waved for them to follow. “I cannot hide the fact that Pearis is on the brink of disaster. The city is slowly running low on supplies; the knights here have yet to gain any ground against the forces outside. But Lady Emerald, you must tell me, how did this happen? Canterlot was once our proud kingdom. Never in my life would I have expected it to attempt conquest like that.”

Emerald shook her head sadly. “Tis Morn Dread. He had turned against the king and usurped the throne. With Excalibur, he can bend anyone to his will. We call them the Unified, soldiers taken from various lands to spread Morn’s United Kingdom.”

“The Unified,” Stirruth repeated. He led them down a street which was littered with debris. “That sounds rather serious. We of course noticed that something was amiss with the enemy soldiers when we saw all their eyes lit up like candles in the night, but to think it would come to this…”

“At least the city still has some semblance of order,” Posey said as they passed by a few shops. They were still open, even with the siege going on and there was a steady stream of customers going around with shopping baskets. “Pearis’s spirit has not yet broken.”

“Well, it would hardly be an appropriate reaction to the siege if people started robbing and looting everything, would it?” Stirruth said. “We’re civilized folk here in Prance, not ignorant savages who discard all decency at the first possible excuse.”

“What kind of a country would fold that easily?” Sombra snorted. “If someone tried looting in my kingdom, we would have them whipped and strung up.”

“Tis nice to see people banding together in times of need.” Posey nodded approvingly at a bread shop as a young child ran off with a huge loaf in his hands.

“But, alas, this will not last forever.” Stirruth shook his head and sighed. “I don’t keep count of the kingdom resources, but Pearis is about five days away from running out of food.”

“So we have five days to break this siege or the city begins to starve,” Posey concluded grimly. “Do you know who is leading the enemy army?”

Stirruth shook his head. “There has been no captain in sight around Pearis. The commander must be at another outpost close by, somewhere they could still issue orders from without having to travel far.”

“I wonder which Knight of the Round Table is behind this host of invaders,” Sombra remarked. “Did you not say that someone here had one of the artifacts you seek?” He said to Emerald.

Emerald remembered Moon Tide’s words. Indeed, a Knight here wielded one of Star Swirl’s weapons. If she could get her hands on that, she could help turn their fortunes.

“We need to locate the leader of this army,” Emerald decided. “If we take them down, the Unified will be less organized and easier to defeat.”

They kept walking as Stirruth led them further into Pearis. The buildings here were larger and the streets more spacious, but there was still the selfsame debris and broken craters that bespoke the war between the Prench and the Unified. Morn’s army had tried to take the city, but Prance had proven resilient and formidable enough to hold their ground. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing they could do to get through the siege around Pearis. At least, not on their own. While she and her friends were here, perhaps they could lend a helping hand to turn the tide.

Emerald smiled to herself as they walked. Before this, she would’ve never imagined herself ever working with Prance to take down Canterlot. Prance had been on thin ice with Canterlot all these years and it was through careful planning and relations that they had not broken out into war earlier.

“Anyway, here is my base of operations,” Stirruth stopped outside a large but nondescript building that had a tiled roof. It was located on a street corner with a textile shop across it. “Is it just the three of you?”

“Well, no,” Sombra said. “We have one more person waiting outside of the city. We thought that it was better not to put all our figs in one cake, if you know what I mean.”

Stirruth blinked. “I do not.” He knocked three times on the door, once slowly. The door opened slowly, revealing another man, shorter in height, but he too was strapped in plate armor with a sword by his side. “Stirrupis, look who decided to wander into Pearis?”

The man turned his pink eyes to Emerald, then widened them. “Lady Emerald! This is a surprise.”

“I wish the reason for our visit was a more cheerful one,” Emerald said after greeting him. “No doubt you know about the army massing outside of Pearis.”

“It would be hard not to,” Stirrupis said, closing the door behind the group. “They’ve been trying to take Pearis for weeks now. It has the people of the city in a panic, and the king is at his wits’ end about what to do to save Pearis from the enemy.”

Emerald looked around the inside of the building. It was rather opulent, like the inside of a Canterlotian noble’s house. Tapestries hung from the walls and there were other paintings mounted at regular intervals. The floor was lined with a dull red and gold carpet and the candle holders were made of a shiny silvery metal that looked valuable.

“As you can see, the king of Prance trusts us to be in his inner circle of knights,” Stirrupis said proudly. “He has never suspected that we are actually spying for Canterlot. Though I suppose that now we may be without a job.”

“With Canterlot’s leadership the way it is now, you may well be,” Sombra agreed. “Still, hopefully once Morn has been stopped, everything can go back to the way it was.”

Emerald gave Sombra a searching look. “Do you really believe that, Sombra?” She asked quietly.

Sombra turned to Emerald, placing his hand on her shoulder hesitantly, but Emerald did not push him away.

“I have to believe it, Emerald. That no matter how bad or hopeless things get in this war, that everything can go back to normal. Maybe not back to the way that it was in the past, but it is up to us to pick up the pieces and make a better world than what we have now.”

“Wow,” a familiar voice said. “That sounded really kingly of you, your majesty! I’m inspired!”

Everyone turned to look at who had spoken. Sitting in the corner of the room in an armchair was Parisa Pie, looking back at the rest of the group cheerfully.

“Wha- how?” Stirrupis and Stirruth looked astonished. “How did you get in here?” Their hands jumped to their weapons, but all Emerald, Posey, and Sombra did was look mildly surprised.

“I walked in, silly!” Parisa said blithely. “I also left the horses and our supplies in the stable outside. Figured I should get into the city before the Unified started attacking again, right?”

“How did she get in?” Posey whispered to Emerald, sounding thoroughly puzzled. Emerald just shrugged in return.

“It is alright, she is with us,” Sombra told Stirruth and Stirrupis. “Parisa Pie, these are our allies in the city of Pearis. They are going to help us drive away Morn and his army. Stirruth, Stirrupis, this is my court dancer and traveling companion, Parisa Pie. She is the fourth member of our band that I was telling you about.”

“I see…” Stirruth put his weapon away, but still regarded Parisa with some degree of suspicion. “How did you get past the Unified, much less into Pearis?”

“If someone like you could get in, that means Morn’s army could too!” Stirrupis said, slamming his armored fist in his palm.

“Somehow I don’t think that’s the case…” Sombra muttered.

“What was that?” Stirrupis barked.

Sombra stepped forward. “I’m saying that Parisa would never compromise the city, nor would she allow any of the Unified to follow her in. I would trust her with my life. If any of the Unified make it into Pearis because of her, let the blame lie on me.”

“Your majesty, you don’t have to-” Parisa began, but Sombra shushed her with a wave of his hand.

The two Canterlotian spies still looked unhappy about this, but Sombra’s expression was fierce enough to quell any objections they might have had.

“...Fine.” Stirruth said at last, almost spitting the word. “We’ll do it your way for now, king. But don’t think you can just walk in here and give us orders. We answer to Canterlot, not Saddle Arabia.”

“Canterlot has betrayed you,” Sombra shot back sternly. “Unless you wish to join up with the Unified, we will have to work together to drive off the armies of the enemy.”

“We should take them to the king,” Stirruth said to his brother. “He’ll want to know Lady Emerald is here.”

Stiruppis nodded. “But it will take some convincing to get him to trust her. He doesn’t like Canterlotians.”

“Emerald Edge is your best hope for fending off the Unified,” Sombra said, pushing a stray lock of hair from his face. “I trust that the Prench king will be wise enough to see that, like the other kings that Emerald has already met.”

Stirruth mumbled something inaudible, but offered no other protest.

“Come on, then. We have five days to break this siege. Let’s hope Lady Emerald is as good as you say.”

As they left the safehouse led by Stirruth, Emerald turned to look back at Stirrupis. For a brief moment, the whole world turned dark in her vision and the figure of Stirrupis flickered a bright crimson color. Emerald rubbed her eyes to clear them and the darkness went away, as did any other strange colors that had shown up.

Strange… I didn’t use it.

“Come on, Em,” Parisa tugged at Emerald’s sleeve. “No time to dilly dally, we’ve got a king to meet!”

“Yes…” Emerald collected herself and shoved the incident aside. “Of course, you’re right, Parisa. Let’s go see the king.”

---

Comments

[MoonlightRift]

okay, getting my bearings on the story once again!