Sea of Dekatos

Chapter 15

On land, the work continued. Buildings were built out of stone blocks, rising high in the air on the solid foundation of bedrock. The divers knew of the areas that burgeoned with fish, and they laid nets down on the sea floor, hauling up the four corners to ensnare great hauls to feed the workers. Unlike Lau from a much later epoch, the King did not want a castle, nor did he know they could even exist. All he wanted was a wall around the city.

His idea was not immediately met with interest by the people. They had been driven from their old homes, exiled by the might of professional solders, forced to rebuild their lives in a hot, arid landscape. Morale was a fragile trait in those days, but the King regaled them with tales of the safety and security that such a massive wall would provide. When their enthusiasm had been sufficiently sparked, he outlined his idea and his people listened, awed by the power of his mind.

There was a massive stone mountain just outside of their settlement. The artisans – experts by now – drilled large holes in the side of the mountain, especially along cracks and fissures. Women were sent out in new ships to locate trees and drag them in. After shaping the wood, the rods were driven into the holes and the entire population of the settlement carried water up in clay urns to soak and expand the wood. When the mountain finally cracked, great sheets of stone slid away. These were shaped into large rectangular pieces. The King himself developed a method of hauling the gigantic stone fragments into place once they were ready.

He had his people build a ramp out of wet soil and roll logs over it to strengthen and compact the dirt. With ropes attached, the stone block was hauled up the ramp. At the top it was slowly eased down the incline on the other side until it gradually settled into the prepared foundation. Great sheets of stone were set one atop another, each one having been slid into place on a ramp specially prepared for it. The work took years, but the city eventually developed unassailable walls of solid stone.

Decades passed and war eventually came to Yang. During the many sieges it faced, the walls remained monolithic, solid, and utterly impenetrable. During Morganna’s War, when the King of Yang refused to marry a highborn daughter of Anshi, a gigantic, three pronged military force struck.

Initially, the Queen of Anshi had sought an alliance with Yang, as the five cities began lusting after the red gold that it it controlled. The King of Yang, however, had already selected a slim young woman to be his courtesan, and did not want the daughter of Queen Morganna. 

Less than a year later, the chariot army of Char had surrounded Yang, a formation of heavily armored foot soldiers from Hecai marched in after forty solid days of walking, and a fleet of copper ships from Anshi appeared out of the morning mists. Long before Sento would propose his famous treaty, the leaders of Char, Anshi and Hecai had decided to topple the walls that protected Yang and take the red gold for themselves. Sensing destruction of his beloved city, the King of Yang sought to fracture the hostile alliance.

The copper ships of Anshi had already learned to use fire in sea combat. They would pull up close to enemy ships and hurl pots of flaming oil. The Anshi mariners were safe, even if the wind blew the burning ships of their enemies against them during battle. The copper ships – useless for pursuit at sea because of their slow speeds – were very effective when sieging a stationary target such as a city. They soon lined up outside the harbor of Yang, unopposed, yet unable to breach the walls. The enemy chariots and foot soldiers controlled the dry tracts surrounding the desert but there were no crops for them to uproot, nor trees to cut down, and no soil to ruin with salt. Yang had barrels of dried fish and water inside their city, enough to last them for another twenty days of siege.

The King of Yang knew every city lacked some essential element, and his spies and diplomats had researched it long ago. In the same way that the undersea exploration of the first King had found the metallic veins of precious metal, so had the diplomatic explorations of the ambassadors uncovered weakness in every other city.