Herald of Steel

Chapter 731 The Ten Thousand Reinforcements

Lady Felicia was finished packing soon and before the morning sun could reveal her whereabouts, she and her daughter had already escaped the city via a secret passage, riding on a horse rapidly that was headed towards Alexander's camp.

The woman was surprisingly without even a single escort, being accompanied only by two of her handmaidens who rode on two separate horses, them in charge of their mistress's belongings.

Lapitus of course had insisted on giving his wife a few guards, but Lady Felicia vehemently declined them all, saying that the fewer people there were, the better.

And though in reality this was a reason, the much bigger reason was that having them would make her planned tryst with Alexander a lot harder.

Thus Lady Felicia made the short journey with just her trusted two maids, and once out of the city, it took her only a few minutes to reach the camp, her thick dark cloak fluttering in the wind as her mare galloped across the open field.

 And upon approaching the camp, she would display her seal and be quickly let in, where she would be given a temporary guest room and around mid-afternoon of that very day, even get a meeting with Alexander.

While Lapitus stayed behind in the city, carefully gathering his men and setting his pieces for the coup, while at the same time keeping his ears perked up for any information regarding the promised reinforcements.

But it would have been better for him to renege on that distant hope, for unfortunately those would not be coming.

And that was because Lord Theony met the incoming party first!

After his leave from Thesalie, Lord Theony and his entourage soon chartered some boats from a nearby town and rowed them down the huge River Diannu, attempting to return to the capital through the sprawling waterways as soon as possible.

Lord Theony traveled on his craft following the traditions of the time, moving during the day and resting during the night.

And although he would have very much liked to have the boats be on the waterways at all times, he knew that was not possible.

The practice of resting at night had a myriad of reasons.

A primary one was the limited visibility during the dark hours, when sometimes the weather would turn ugly, such as producing thick, rolling fog, which would increase the chances of crashes, either with other vessels or simply the shore. 

Then there was the simple need for the sailors to rest and sleep.

And lastly, the boats needed to be moored for the sailors to cook food and resupply.

These boats did not have large enough kitchens to feed everyone abroad, and neither could they carry all the produce and firewood.

So Lord Theony covered half the theoretical distance a day.

As did Philips, the crown prince.

And since they were using the same waterways, it was only inevitable that the two men would cross paths.

It was around midday of one particular day that a scout Lord Theony had stationed on the bow of his boat to keep a lookout suddenly came to his chambers, letting him know that a huge flotilla was spotted ahead, which the nobleman knew could be really mean one thing.

"Go! Take my seal and row over to them. Say that I want to talk to the His Highness!" Lord Theony hurriedly handed him his family's seal and soon after the two sides made contact.

"Lord Theony! It really is you!" And as the nobleman was escorted into the flagship of the flotilla, Philips was there to personally greet him.

But the greeting was not one of jovial reunion, but of shock and surprise at the unexpected and even unpleasant meeting.

A sentiment that was quickly reinforced as Lord Theony informed the royal of the latest happenings at Thesalie and the reason he was here.

"Our forty thousand strong are scattered. Lord Ponticus is missing, likely dead. The enemy has already taken the first walls and it's only a matter of time he takes the second!"

"The city is lost!"

"I saw no point in staying there any longer! And there is also no point in you going, Your Highness!"

Lord Theony very succinctly summarized the recent events.

And hearing so, for a few minutes, Philips went completely mute, even feeling dizzy.

He could not believe it.

Even after all their efforts, they were still going to lose the city?

That legendary city!

Philips had the urge to downright shout at Lord Theony for delivering his false news.

'Dammit it! From the second we decided to attack that new pasha, it's been nothing but disaster after disaster…' He then cussed, feeling like Alexander was really their black star.

And if he were to be given the chance to turn back time, he would have certainly urged his father not to go pick a fight with that man.

But since there was no such magical artifact, he had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill of regret.

And then try and think of a way to rescue the city.

But naturally, if a military veteran like Ponticus and his staff could not come out with a deal with the siege, what chance did he have sitting inside his boat for a few hours?

Lord Theony had been very detailed in his recount, especially about the wall the enemy had erected and how they were using it to undermine their defenses.

And like the others, outside of coming out of the city and destroying the structures manually, Philips was unable to find another alternative.

So then he suddenly turned to Lord Theony to all of a sudden blame him!

"Lord Theony, going by your accounts you did not actually see the city fall, did you? Why are you so sure of its capture? And even then why did you leave it? Wasn't it lord father's command that you help defend the city!" 

Philips clamied in a rightour tone.

'Defend the city! What defend the city! There is nothing left to defend! We lost' 

Hearing the implicit threat of Philips tattling to his father, Lord Theony felt increased, and if not in the interest of maintaining decorum in front of his future boss, he would have shouted those words not only in his head but out aloud!

But instead, keeping a straight face, Lord Theony defended his actions as this, "I have taken action in defense of the city. I lead the main army against the enemy, Your Highness, remember!"

"And it was only after I deemed the city to be lost that I chose to leave."

There was a subtle but very certain tone of sarcasm to his reply, but then Lord Theony's tone very quickly changed to a soft, logical, one, 

"Your Highness, I know that you very much want the city to hold. But think about it! If the city was still in our hands, surely we would have been inundated with messenger birds asking for help!" 

"But have we reached any?"

"No."

"Is it not proof enough that the city has fallen and anyone and everyone of any worth there has been killed?"

Lord Theony very pointed posed, and then in a deep, confident voice turned to Philips to pronounce, 

"Your Highness I am sure Thesalie has been taken. I have been there. I have seen it. I know it."

"So there is no point in you going there."

"In fact, you going there might even mean walking into a trap!" Lord Theony lastly ominously warned.

And it was this sentence that really struck Philips.

It had to be remembered that he was traveling in a huge ground with hundreds of large boats.

So if he were to waltz into Thesalie just like that and then find that the enemy was waiting for them on either of the banks, it would not be as simple as changing the gear to reverse and backing off.

If that happened, many, many boats would have to be abandoned, many lives would have to be sacrificed, and even then Philips might be captured before he could escape.

The crown prince was not willing to take such a huge risk.

Especially not when what Lord Theony said might very well be all true.

Because as Philips thought, he found that according to Lord Theony's recount, it had been four to five days since their army was defeated, and if the city still held, surely there would have been some cry for help.

And even if the messenger birds were not sent to him, even then a messenger from the capital would have been surely dispatched to let him know of the recent developments.

There was no way he would be learning of all of this like this.

But nothing like that happened.

So it was only reasonable to come to the worst possible conclusion.

*Sigh*, I understand," And so with the 'ironclad proof' in his hand, Philips finally chose to accept reality, as he turned to say in a regal tone,

"Lord Theony! I still think that you should have stayed in Thesalie. Or at least have my cousin Philips with you when you left." 

"I will leave it to my father to judge you for that, as well as your failure to defend the city."

"As for now, I will order the flotilla to turn around. We need to return to the capital as soon as possible."

"The capital will be in total chaos once they know of Thesa … the city's loss!" The crown prince seemed unable to even say the proper name, such was his disbelief.