A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1125 A Changing World - Part 3
1125: A Changing World – Part 3
1125: A Changing World – Part 3
“So this is his ploy,” Greeves said, gripping the wall of the ramparts with a tightness, making his knuckles go white.
“This is it, Nila.”
“You warned us,” she said.
“For that, at least, we can be thankful.”
For all the grizzly efforts that Greeves had delivered in the darkness, they at least knew to expect something of this quality.
The defences were as prepared as they could be, as were the men, and as were the villagers.
They had all the supplies that they needed to endure it.
“This bastard… I wish I’d gone to the Capital with the boy, so I could get a look of a man that was even more rotten than me,” Greeves said.
“I would have charged him in the middle of the chamber, and given my life for his.
There would have been meaning in that.
Might even have washed away all my sins.
For that High King is a pissin’ rot.”
“You know it to be him?” Nila said.
“Who else could it be?
You know it the same as I do,” Greeves said.
“He waited for the boy to depart, and then whilst he was busy away, and our defences were at their weakest, he sends his forces to attack the stronghold that Oliver has built.
He recognizes the threat that Solgrim is, just like we’ve come to recognize it.”
“True enough…” Nila said.
“And I don’t think we can last,” Greeves said, gritting his teeth.
“Even though we knew, what is there for us to do?
There’s a thousand there.
We have barely two hundred men, and perhaps three hundred villagers we could employ.
Against the pissin’ Yarmdon though, we won’t hold.”
“Greeves,” Nila said firmly, turning him to look at her.
“We will hold.”
“…” Greeves stayed quiet.
“Greeves,” she said again.
“We will hold.
You shall say it with me, and you shall agree.
We will hold no matter what it takes.
The High King still underestimates us and he underestimates Oliver’s influence if he believes that we will fold here.
We have endured far worse than this.
We will hold.
We will not allow him to come home to ruins.”
“…So that’s why he chose you, rather than me, girl,” Greeves said, turning away.
“I don’t have heart enough to make speeches like that.
I don’t have your level of belief – at least not in myself.
When you say it though… Aye, there’s a flicker of the boy in you.
And aye… Aye, when you say it, perhaps we can hold.”
“I need you, Greeves,” Nila said.
“My work is already done, ain’t it, Nila?” Greeves said.
“I’ve already bloodied my hands with this business of torture.
What more can I do?”
“I need your devilishness, Greeves,” Nila said.
“Oliver taught us both that, didn’t he?
We do not always have to play the hero to win – and you know how to play the villain better than anyone else, Greeves.
I need you.
Oliver needs you.
We will ensure victory here.
Can I count on you?”
“…Aye, you can count on me,” Greeves said quietly.
“Even I don’t want this place to burn down.
Not after all the effort that we’ve put in.”
“Give it all that you have, then.”
…
…
“The troops have arrived?” Came a refined voice, when he heard footsteps clacking their way down his tiled corridor.
“According to the message on a crow this morning, they indeed have, your majesty,” came the reply.
“But just as I questioned it then, I question it even now… Was this truly a wise move?”
“It was a necessary move,” came the High King’s reply.
It was a stronger voice than he normally used around others.
There was a cunning to his eyes that he normally took care to appear as foolish.
Even he knew that strategically, the decision that he’d just made was not exactly a praisable one.
But there was naught else he could think to do.
“It was possible to leave it alone,” the other man said.
“It was not,” the High King said, an edge to his voice.
“Did you see how the boy looked at me in the throne room?
He knows, and he makes not the barest effort to disguise it.
Someone has told him, despite the order that we put out… But who?
Talon?”
“It does seem possible… We did not expect Talon to lose back then,” the other man said, taking care to stick to the shadows, as if he feared the candlelight that sat on the King’s table.
“That bastard,” the High King hissed.
“Even with what is on the line – his entire family – he chose to ignore me?”
“It would be hasty to say that, my King, for we have no proof,” the shadowed man said.
“This matter being what it is, if we want to force men to do our bidding, we have to at least keep of the appearance of keeping our promises.
If we moved against Talon’s family now, just as would have been true years ago, we would have gained nothing.”
“I cannot stand it,” the High King said.
“What a cockroach!
How does he continue to live on?
Just like his father.
There doesn’t seem to be talent in his eyes, but somehow, he’s kept going, and he’s survived every obstacle we put in front of him… I like it not.”
“None of us like it, my King,” the man said.
“But that seems to simply be the way of things.
If we were to move more boldly, like we have now, others would see, and they would begin to question.
There would be no hiding it anymore.
If you give them an inch, even the other Silver Kings who are neutral to you will take it as a means for your impeachment.”
“They wouldn’t’ dare,” the High King said hotly.
“They would,” the shadowed man replied calmly.
“Queen Asabel has created that precedent.
The seeds of rebellion are being stirred.
And this attack, as spiteful as it is, serves as the means to water it.”
“You will not speak to me like that,” the High King said.
“I am your King!”
“You know our relationship,” the shadowed man said calmly.
“You might be my King, but that is only temporary.
You are a horse that I have chosen to back.
Any other horse I could choose just as well.”
