To defeat one’s enemy otlefield, one must first till the fields and mihe earth. From there, everything else followed. She uood that well. It was not necessarily her people that o be the oilling and mining; however, it was necessary that she was aware of who did it and the quality of such produce.

  Iron, for example, o be of the correct purity, aplishing which varied depending on where it was sourced from, whether from bogs or mined from the Harz. From that iron then came the bombards and their shots. With the correct iron, these could also be made to the correct purity, such they also behaved predictably, that they could be used otlefield in a sistent manner.

  Wheat, for example, o e from a source that could not be interrupted by the enemy. That, if the path could be interrupted, either es o be arranged far away, leaving the enemy no time to interfere; or that es o be close, allowing the opportunity to intervene if the enemy attempted to interfere. Of course, such a matter was best avoided, that the easiest way to prevent an enemy from interfering was to know ahead of time who to call a foe and to establish such trade that, if war did e, the paths would naturally be either distant and defensible.

  She had much time to sider such matters, marg at a leisurely pace with Marquess Bavaria as her prisoner. He was dressed in thin clothes, seen shivering, his hair matted and hands always in s, forced to walk at her side as she rode. While they avoided the city of Isarau itself, they did not stray far from its outskirts, many a mert heading to or from the city audieo the spectacle, and they carried those rumours with them, outpag her militia as it ambled along.

  If such rumours reached soldiers still loyal to him, then it did not reaough of them to rally an army. A militiaman and a professional soldier looked all the same to a mert, and her militia marched in high numbers, with the Duke of Bohemia’s vast army also statioo the east.

  This matter was merely a matter of time, it seemed.

  A fht brought them to he River Ilz. It was not an insurmountable river; however, the fortress had been built atop a hilltop here precisely to give the defenders ample opportunity to interfere with supplies crossing the main bridges of both the Ilz and the Danube.

  The Marquesses of Bavaria and Dukes of Bohemia of old had found it easier to get along with such fortificatioween them. While not the only path an attacker may take, it was the most dired the easiest to march a rge army through. That this fortress had brought the Duke’s attack to a stalemate spoke of how effective he perceived it.

  Of course, it had not immobilised him, especially with little expectation of a defeo be found beyond it. Already, he met with lesser nobles of the area, setting the foundations for his eventual rulership, o sit idly.

  So it followed that, when his scouts reported her arrival nearby, he thought it prudent to examine his alleged ally in this endeavour.

  She thought much the same, ready to greet him the moment he arrived at her camp. His apanying forces, while only a small part, were, in her eyes, equivalent to her own, making up what he cked in number with professionalism.

  However, this was not to be a battlefield.

  “Yrace, please, I have little hospitality to offer; however, it is all at Duke’s disposal,” she said, curtseying.

  He waved her off. “Do leave the theatrics for tomorrow, My Lady, this simply the rehearsal,” he said, ending in a chuckle. “I must say, I find it auspicious that such matters have been so ly tied together.”

  “It must be as God wills.”

  Smile stretched wide, he stared at for a moment before turning away, g his hands together. “Let us visit the guest, that he should be clued into his role for the uping py.”

  As they walked, she said, “That is, I thought t along the bombards.”

  “Ah, yes, I heard of their success in your little matter,” he said, rubbing his .

  “If Yrace wishes it, then they make take a day to prepare.”

  A frown touched his brow. “What was it, only a few bsts a day? Such cumbersome things.”

  She tittered, g her mouth. “When it es to these things, I wished to instil a certain fear in those vermin, that they would spend all day dreading the volley, knowing there would be no escape but surrender. I do say, it may well serve Yrace well, that uest’s troops know intimately the… effectiveness of the bombards. Of course, if Yrace desires it, we may rain such hell upon them from dawn to dusk.”

  “Oh I do like the sound of that,” he said.

  “sider it dohere is some necessary work to prepare the terrain; however, if we set out at first light, we should be in position to begin from around midday. We should have the shots to st a week or so, but always send for more if the fortress proves difficult.”

  He loosely gestured, asking, “Does My Lady think so poorly of her bombards?”

  “I think of what may happen that, if it does e to pass, I am prepared to rea a rational manner,” she said, then mimicked his loose gesture. “Not all of us seize the moment as Duke does.”

  “Such fttery, to think my daughter always speaks of My Lady as if all wit and no femininity,” he said.

  She let out a sigh. “Without a father to protect me, it has been hard,” she said, almost a whisper.

  Their ambling pace came to a stop outside a guarded tent. Before entering, he looked at her with a certain softness. “A father is certainly someone irrepceable; however, I do have a nephew in desperate need of a good wife.”

  “With su uncle, I would certainly have no fears,” she said lightly, looking away with a shyness.

  “It is merely some idle words, nothing worth sidering until our matter is resolved,” he said, his expression stiffening as he turo the tent.

  At a wave of her hand, the guards stepped aside, opening the fps. A gloom pervaded the interior with only a single dle to stave off the shadows. The warden iood up at their entrance, saluting, and promptly left at another little wave of hers. Her personal guard, the knight Ludwig, was the only one who joihem, albeit waiting by the tent’s entrance, as the Duke’s personal guard waited outside, not room for all of them.

  “A year ago, yrandfather ruled the Bavarian nds, and none eveertained my suggestions,” the Duke said, his voice quiet, walking to a few steps from the prisoner. “Two months ago, your father ruled, and my cillors feared it too great a risk.”

  Aep and he reached out, raising the man’s until their eyes met.

  “Now look at what the reitle has bee, trapped by a mere tess, to be exged for nd as if a prized cattle. I must say, some of my advisers suggested to leave your father alive, afraid of what greatness you might achieve—yrandfather’s little darling.”

  Pausing there, he ughed, a deep chuckle which he covered with his hand, yet his eyes showed the broad grin he had.

  “Good things e to those who wait. Such a shame, then, that such evils be ied by the son. As, that is the very definition of human, is it not? That we are all to be punished for our first aors’ sin. Do not curse me for following God’s example, curse your forefathers. They died knowing what accursed debts they have left upon your head.”

  She wondered if he had such speeches to st until dusk. As if hearihought, he turo her, smiling, then back to the prisoner.

  “You are lucky the tess is merciful. If left to my own devices, I would have had your wife and children sughtered as your father once did to me. irit for battle would you have, I wonder? I only know that, in the days that followed, I nearly itted that gravest sin, willing to beg fod’s mercy if only to see them again a day sod is surely good, rewarding my struggle and punishing the sinners.”

  With that said, he turo the door and took a step.

  “Enjoy your st days with her, that you soon shall have a long life to look forward to under my… care.”

  So he began to walk out and she followed, saying, “You know, my mother met his grandfather and quite detested the man.”

  Her ae apahe pair back to the edge of the camp, where st words were said and a goodbye exged, the Duke in high spirits as he mounted up. “You are a great woman, My Lady. Your parents would be proud.”

  “My thanks to Duke. Your praise means mue,” she said, smiling.

  As a good host, she stayed standing there until the Duke and his men could no longer be seen. No one else joined her in such a pce, much work to be done, but for her guard.

  “My Lady, what he spoke of….”

  She turo the knight. “Pray tell, Sir Ludwig, do you think a child is born with sin?”

  Whatever he had expected her to say, such a topic was not it. “Ah, well,” he mumbled, trying to recall any sermon oopic.

  However, she raised a hand to stop him. “That is a matter for the Churot for us,” she said.

  He heard her answer, relieved he did not have to e up with an answer of his own, only for him to uand a moment ter. “Ihe matter of sin is not one for us to ourselves with.”

  They stayed there in silence for a while, gazes on the horizoled upon such distant slopes that would soon be a battlefield.

  “Let us inform the captain of the pn,” she said.

  The captain she spoke of was the one in charge of the bombardier crews. He had been chosen by his predecessor, a on enough method in such meritocracies as a militia. That predecessor was her than the old mayor’s son-in-w, who had retired some months ago to a position of training, quite the important position as the amount of bombardier crews had almost doubled.

  As for the netain, he had aemper and some time otlefield. He led the crews with greater disciplihan before, yet held their respect. While not a native to Augstadt, his youthful days were long over, having spent about as long iy as he had in what had been his homend. A man with a family and friends and rades.

  Young men bursting with ambition were useful, she knew, but so too was the older man who had survived such youthful years.

  The day ent in preparation for the supposed siege, which most still believed to be the case. There was some joyouso the young men who thought this a ce to gain some prestige bae, bringing back tales of valour for the servers at the pubs, knowing that their role in all this was rather small. The Duke had such a rge force, fag a besieged enemy—had the skirmish with the holed-up meraries not ended with hardly a casualty?

  Those that knew were the bombardiers, kept apart from the rest, engaged in maintenan the ons and readying the gunpowder. Even when night fell, an early thing this time of year, their food was brought uhe supervision of the captains, that ion would be let slip.

  Finally, the day of reing dawned.

  To keep this matter close even now, the bombardiers left before first light had even spilled over the distant hills. It was not a great distao where the fortress stood, the horses pulling the ten ons to position by mid-m.

  This fortification was rather different to before, a thing of shorter walls that, from above, resembled a six-poiar, thick walls snted, some earth piled up either side of them. The walls were also made from cy bricks, not piled stone. Ihe walls was no great tower or structure, but simple barracks and kits and armouries, no longer something which lords built to live peacefully. There were other subtleties in its design that made a simple assault costly—if not impossible—such as protrusions from the wall where arrows could be fired from, giving an attacker ne at the walls.

  In truth, the captain had no clue how effective their bombards would be against such a thing. If he had to guess, though, his boold him any siege would still take months, no shorter with the bombards firing. So it was a relief they weren’t here for that.

  However, the Duke’s troops did ly reassure him. While they had also made camp a little away, they came out in force today, milling around this ftter terraihe fortress’s crossbows could not reach. A rge number. Still, his nerve held. It was also a small mercy that, while the troops may have been curious, none came to interfere with the preparations.

  Rather than a long line across for firing at the fortress, they were arranged one wide and ten deep. Su ocerited a certain ceremony and so they set up for that.

  Close to midday, a horse-rider from her camp arrived to announce her immi arrival with the prisohus began the py. The Duke’s troops gradually fell into position, their captains in good spirits as they awaited the arrival of the Duke himself and the other men of good standing.

  Wheered the se atop her horse, prisoner walking at her side with a leash tied to his manacles as if a pet, she saw before her about five-thousahere were more elsewhere, of course. Some had been stationed around the other sides of the fortress, to hold the bridges, and some still at the camp, guarding supplies and there were those in charge of cooking and such.

  Five-thousaill made quite a sight to behold.

  With his voiing, as if to be loud enough for those in the fortress to hear, he shouted, “Men, I bring before you today our enemy. He was said to be a great leader of men, capable of strategy, a master of tactics, and with an uanding of tricks and ruses. Look at him!”

  She walked the horse to the front of her bombardiers where she then dismounted. Rather than in her riding habit, she wore her uniform today as if to emphasise the differeween herself and her prisoaking a moment on the ground, she affixed her rapier, pleting her look. However, she did not rest her hand on it as she instead tio hold the prisoner’s leash.

  Tugging him along, she walked in front of the Duke’s troops while her militia took up formations from where she’d e, set apart from the Duke’s troops by the line of bombardiers in the middle.

  “Look at their hero,” the Duke shouted, gesturing at the prisoner with one hand and the fortress the other.

  She stepped closer.

  “Does he not strike terror into your soul?”

  Aep.

  “Shall we beg him for mercy?”

  His troops ughed, especially those at the front, sons and grandsons of his sworn lords reciated sutertai out here where there was little to do. Besides, they had heard Lord Isarau’s praises plenty enough.

  “Look at him,” the Duke said, turning to the prisoner with a manic grin.

  It was that moment that she stopped walking. The prisoner raised his head, no sign of fear nor shame there, and it infuriated the Duke, igniting a fire in his veins that he thought had long died down. It bid him to strike down this cur, already his foot taking a step and hand in the air.

  Then there ier in his chest, the prisoner’s matering to the floor. Chaos rose up, few knowing what had happened, most simply knowing something had.

  “Fire!”

  Before the fusion even had a ce to settle, there was a great disturbance from the militia fleeing back whehey came, especially the bombardiers who ran as if chased by the devil himself.

  The reason why soon became clear.

  Even with her ears covered by woollen wads, the disjointed booms deafened her, yet not to the point she could not hear the screams that persisted afterwards—and what screams they were, the cast-iron balls tearing through flesh and bone as if butter.

  Perhaps as many as a thousand already y dead or injured.

  After running a handful of steps, Ludwig half-grabbed her, hoisting her onto her horse, and she set off. Gng back, she caught sight of a flood of men p out from the fortress as if they had been waiting for that very signal. A smile touched her lips. However, this was not her nor her militia’s fight.

  As for the Marquess of Bavaria, well, his fate was fod to decide. That said, she hoped he would triumph—those bombards would be an annoyao repce otherwise.