KINGSLAYER

♕ 1 | 3 | 9 ♕

Stephanopolous turned around. Jaylah could barely see his reddened face. She raised the scepter in her hand. The signal.

A low horn sounded. Hundreds of infantry soldiers in beige coats rose from where they were masked by the thick grass on either side of the Kalingi army. They kicked up powdery dirt to blind the enemy and began hurling explosives by hand into the fog. Rumbles rocked the earth where they struck. Flashes of fire shone through the dust and smoke.

The grass was still green from summer's warm rain, so it would not burn, only Kalingi bodies would. Jaylah smiled. The most basic rule of warfare was to use the battlefield to one's advantage, especially while on the defensive. Her Godfire and repeating firearms were not yet ready, so she had to take any edge she could find.

The archers kept shooting as fast as their limbs would allow them, the explosions kept coming, boulders were hefted over the wall's edge and dropped to crush in the Kalingi's sturdy helmets. It was deafening chaos, and no one could tell what was happening inside the smoke layer. All they knew was that after two decades of living in complete terror, Kalingi bodies were finally piling up. And it felt good.

Then the cannon fire began. And it was not Jaylah's.

Even from where she stood at the furthest possible sector, the wall reverberated under her feet. How had they managed to light their cannons without being able to see? The dust was clearing and only one barrel smoked. No... Surely that was too much power for only one cannon alone. It could not be.

As visibility returned, white soldiers that were not manning the cannons began to surge for the beige ones, who were beginning to run short of explosives. They all watched from above as lone Oceanics began to sprint forward and weave under swinging fists and swords to bury themselves deep within the enemy ranks. That was when they detonated their final explosives. Blood flew everywhere and holes appeared in the otherwise impenetrable Kalingi forces. The archers remained relentless, their pace growing more and more hurried as the cannons reloaded.

It was difficult to find soldiers with beige uniforms still on their feet. Knowing their win was inevitable, the Kalingi were beginning to return to the horde. The dust was settling, revealing nine more cannons just like the one that had shaken the entire wall in one blow. Jaylah's breath caught in her throat as her gaze traveled up from the barred gate to where the archers all stood with their general. She now was sure the Kalingi had not been boasting when they claimed to have superior weapons. The whole city would be reduced to rubble.

Move, Jaylah screamed at Stephanopolous in her thoughts and prayed he was thinking the same. Get them out of there before they—

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. One after the other, the cannons fired in rapid succession, all aimed at the gate. It was deeper than thunder, louder than the sea. And it occurred so fast she could not tell if any of the archers had the time to get out. Or how much of the south wall still stood at all.

One, two writhing bodies fell from above through the smoke. Jaylah could only dig her nails into her palms and pray it was not Sonia or Margaux. Back here, she felt so useless. The battlefield was her home, not standing back to watch.

Still, if they died, they died. And they did it with honor, for their country, for her.

Debris toppled outward. Hopefully it would crush the Kalingi the way they deserved, but she knew they had anticipated that. With a groan, the front of the wall that held the gate in place peeled away and fell like a tree chopped for lumber.

It was a narrow break, but a break nonetheless. They were in.

Seeing them all flood the front entrance, Jaylah got the potent urge to stride down there and carve the invaders up herself. There were desperate yells from the Oceanic soldiers outside the wall, knowing they had lost and that there was nothing they could do about it. It only made the enemy spring through the crack to capture the city faster.

Where they were met with forty cannons aimed at them from every possible angle.

"Fire!" screamed Stephanapolous from somewhere Jaylah could not see. The cannons were all lit at once, blowing so rapidly that the Kalingi had no chance to escape. They had gotten most of their numbers within the city, all of them now stuck in the death trap. Smoke obscured their thin way out—not that they could have fled with so many bodies pressed against the breach all at once.

The Oceanic cannons were not as powerful as the Kalingi's wall-crushers, but they were more numerous. And the sheer amount of destruction they created was gorgeous, throwing bodies in the air as they did. The insides of the wall were painted over red again and again. Bits of the wall came down under the constant barrage, but it was so infinitesimal compared to the slaughter that Jaylah was not even looking.

Do you see me now, Father? she asked the sky, knowing he was never lurking too far from her. The monster is gone. Now I am just an Empress.

The blue-uniformed Oceanic soldiers who had been hunkered down within the city had now exited through the north gate and were circling around, over the barricade, to finish off the remainder of the army on the grassland. Given their numbers and their full reserve of energy, it would be an easy win.

Still, Jaylah was too in awe to watch the battle's end. The cannons stopped firing and the world fell silent. What was left behind was a mess so beautiful Jaylah nearly grinned from ear to ear. She had done it. And she had done it with less advanced technology and minimal death of her troops.

It would take weeks to clean out all the bodies—no, not bodies. Parts. She did not think there was still a corpse down there that was whole. There were surely no survivors in the stack of bones and pulp. It spread through the entire front half of the city. Pile after pile after pile. It was nothing compared to the carnage Jaylah knew they had wreaked from the south or the obliteration the enemy would bring when the second siege began. The the third. And the dozens after. But it was a start. Even if it cost everything, she would make mass graves of Kalingi to outweigh the atrocities they committed against her country.

The war had only just begun.

She would not lose. Even if it cost millions of lives, she would not lose.