All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 221: Springing the Trap

Chapter 221: Springing the Trap

When Bee stepped into the room, she found she was not the first nor the last one there. Arthur, Mary, Susan, and a few of the military officers were there, but Trent and a few other captains had yet to arrive. Mary waved Bee over, and Bee gratefully joined a spot at the table next to her.

The conference table had actually been a bit of a point of contention amongst both the military and the people of the castle. Eventually, they settled on a round table where no individual took a place of prominence. The military officers had wanted Arthur to be at the head or the right hand at a long table. The castle and religious leaders had wanted Bee to occupy a similar position. Arthur had wanted Bee to be at the top, and Bee had wanted Arthur to be at the top. With this tangled mess of various positionings, they eventually chose a circular table. An elliptical table had been an option but had threatened to evoke the same issue. It gave Bee a secret bit of pride that the table was the same shape as Void.

The only thing that really was set was the ordering of a few spots. Technically, it wasn't a formally established rule, but Bee and Arthur always sat next to each other. Arthur sat to her right, and that usually meant that either Mary or Susan was to Bee's left. Other than that, the seats were more or less random. No one was forcing the officers and Bea's staff to mingle, but they also weren't segregated to one half of the table or the other, which Bea and Arthur were both very grateful for. It showed a willingness to work together that they hadn't been certain of while they were setting up their command structure.

"Do you know what this is about?" Bee asked Mary as she slipped into the chair. Mary Shook her head, and Arthur jumped in before anyone said anything.

"I received a missive from someone in the castle in the capital. But let's wait till everyone's here before we can discuss details. I don't want to have to repeat this, and it's important for everyone to hear it."

Some small talk dominated the table as people chatted about their families and the projects they were working on. Bee listened with interest, even if she was already aware of much of this. The wall was getting pretty close to complete. Apparently, a lot of the masons and engineers who had been working with the army had taken the lead from a lot of their combative members and also decided to follow The Church of the Cleansing Void. Bee was glad that her master was getting such recognition, but if anything, it was more likely overjoyed by how effective they'd gotten.

The ones she'd helped convert to Devotee had received rather unusual skills. One of the most common ones was Stone Melt, with which the engineers and masons could join stones together with no mortar and make them into a single seamless stone. Most of them had gotten skills like this while they were working on the battle arena or other large projects. But by the time the wall was started, only those with such impressive skills were allowed to work on it. The lead engineer was boasting to her about the thing's peerless beauty as the last member of the council made his way into the room.

"This is going to be the most impressive wall the world has ever seen, mark my words. It's going to be one solid granite piece that will be 40 feet high and 10 feet thick the entire way. The gate housing will be completely enclosed with stones. You could launch catapults and trebuchets at it for years before you break things down. Anything that isn't a high-level miner with the right tools won't be able to do a thing! I'll tell you, this might be the crowning achievement of my career. Nothing's getting through this wall. Well, maybe a dragon or some other ridiculous monster, but definitely nothing under level 50."

"What about over level 50?"

The engineer pursed his lips. "I'm sure you might be able to damage it if you tried, but please don't."

Bee chuckled at the engineer's backtracking, but she was still very impressed. This wall was fortified beyond anything she had ever heard of in all of her research. It wasn't just the construction but also the amount of spellwork they had asked for around the gate housing. The materials used by her and Miranda to reinforce that would also help quite a bit. Still, walls were solid fortifications that could always be bypassed. Once the last engineer finally settled into his seat, the small talk quickly died out.

Arthur gathered everyone's attention by clearing his throat. "I received a missive from one of the King's advisors bearing news. Apparently, this adviser had gone rogue and is concerned. He warned us that military action would be soon arriving against our castle and that the king was likely mad."

Silence reigned over the council for a few seconds before one of the officers ventured a question. "As in, angry? Or mad as in insane?"

"Insane." Arthur clarified.

The soldiers shifted uncomfortably. Bee could understand why. Not only was the King being insane a major accusation, but an army arriving soon? They had been assured they would have until mid-spring at least to prepare for some sort of attack.

Arthur let the silence go on for a little longer before he spoke again. "Now, this is beyond our expectations. But there are a few things to be aware of. First, this would have been a very hard march for them. They will likely be exhausted and under-supplied, which will help us greatly. But right as spring arrives, so too will their supply lines."

"You expect an extended assault, then?"

"I can't imagine they are trying to storm us, but rather start a siege. We will want to make sure we have enough forces outside the castle before they get here. That way, we can disrupt their supply lines long enough to make them feel the pain of a siege as well. Plus, with the wall in place, we should have plenty of farmland and skilled farmers to produce food for us. I'm not certain what their strategy is, but we will have options."

This made Bee feel a little bit better. At least they weren't completely caught off guard. Still, she felt a pit open in her stomach. They might have to do all this without Void unless it returned soon.

"Remember," Arthur continued, "we always expected some sort of attack. Even if the origins of this message need to be verified, it doesn't change the core of things. We can't be sure if the King is insane, either. But we know for certain he's definitely upset with us. As shown by our homecoming welcome at Caleb."

The officers all nodded, and one of them raised his hand. "How do we know we should trust this missive? This advisor is going against the King. Maybe he's simply trying to put us at odds even more?"

Arthur nodded. "He's an adviser that I have known for some time. He's rather clever and good with information, but I do believe his loyalty lies with the Kingdom over the King."

They went back and forth a little bit more, talking about the believability of the message and more detailed preparations. But eventually, it came down to seeing for themselves. Susan stepped out of the room briefly and was soon followed by Captain Major as they arranged for scouts to be sent out. While they were gone, there was more argument about what to do if the King truly was insane, corrupt, or power hungry.

There were too many options for the source of this fracture. Just because one advisor claimed something in a missive didn't make it true, even if Arthur trusted them. Bee had no idea about all that, though. She had never even seen the King nor been involved in politics. It reminded her too much of her father's type of work, so she didn't really care much, to be honest. She cared more about protecting her people.

She tugged on Arthur's sleeve, distracting him from the argument brewing around the table. "Are we prepared?"

Arthur grimaced and shrugged. "As much as we could reasonably be, but there is always more we can do. We probably should start working on drills. Preparing for wall watches and rotations too. We can start building more siege weaponry as well."

Bee nodded along with the assessment as Arthur posed a question of his own. "Do you think we can convince Maranda to give us some of those fireworks? They might make good ammunition for catapults and trebuchets."

Bee shrugged. "I can talk to her. I'm not sure how much more of those ingredients we have. We'll all work with her to figure out some alternatives."

Arthur nodded. "We are mostly prepared. But there are still things we can do."

Bee nodded. "Well, let's get to it."

---

Daedalus and I soared over the mountains, going east to west as we searched for the source of the feeling below us. I noticed many interesting things in the field of snow. Every once in a while, we'd see a small hut-like structure. It was incredible. I couldn't believe that anyone lived out here. Daedalus was unsurprised, though.

"People live everywhere," he said. "It's not just over on our continent. That one is almost entirely human, besides the monsters. At least, it was a thousand years ago. Maybe there are some more elsewhere. But on other continents, there are probably elves and other humans and stuff still."

I was surprised. I hadn't heard Bee talk about anything like that. But I supposed she might not know. Especially if travel between continents was as difficult and long as our flight.

As we moved to the center of the disturbance, the occurrence of such buildings increased. To call them buildings was a bit of a stretch. At first, I thought maybe they were just temporary shelters. But as I started to see groups of them, I noticed that they were actually collections of crudely built mud huts. The things were partially buried in snow, but even still, I could make out the raggedy thatched roofs and lumpy brownish walls. Quite disgusting living conditions, I had to admit.

Eventually, we came to the base of one of the largest mountains around. There, we spotted a cluster of huts that actually looked slightly planned instead of randomly scattered. It was still terribly messy though, even if they were arrayed in mostly straight rows.

As our shadows passed over the structures, several odd-looking creatures ran out of the huts and began screeching up at us. They weren't people, exactly, but rather shaggy ape-like creatures. We were high enough in the air that it was difficult to make out any details on them besides their general shape and the fact that they were furry. But even as we soared past, they tramped through the snow after us, yelling something. I beeped at Daedalus quizzically. "No, I have no idea what those are. New to me too."

I looked down at them and then back at Daedalus, uncertain about what to do. I flashed a message to him." Should we go visit the snowmen?"

The dragon chuckled. "Sure. Why don't we go land and see what these 'snowmen' have to say? They better not attack us, though. I would not want to have to eat an entire civilization."

I thought about it. Yeah. It'd be best not to have to consume all of them. They couldn't all be mess makers, though, surely? Perhaps they were just misguided. I was sure we could work out some sort of peaceful solution. While they seemed agitated, they hadn't thrown stuff at us or anything. Perhaps they just wanted to say hello.

Finding a relatively flat outcropping on the side of the mountain, we glided down to make our landing. We waited there as the snowmen chased after us, not too far behind.