Apologies for my wee absence

See what I did there? 😛 Yes, I am in Scotland (which I feel is sufficient excuse for my lack of posts)! You can read all about my overseas adventures on my travel blog! 😀

You are probably here, however, to read about my writing. It is, after all, Wednesday and I owe you for a few weeks. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 21 (though that is more coincidental than deliberate). After the main Farilien base in the north is taken, Kara and Anjez must work out how to retrieve it from enemy hands.

“We know the Haeleans have holed themselves up in the city. It is just a matter of enticing them out.” Kara pointed to the dot on the map, barely visible in the predawn dimness.

“What if we don’t draw them out of the city?” Anjez suggested.

“What do you mean?” Kara ran a hand through her tangled hair, only the force of her will keeping her awake. Neither she nor Anjez had slept.

“What if we let them stay in the city?” Anjez squinted at the map.

“I’m tired, Anjez. Don’t waste my time with stupid suggestions. Why the Everwinter would we want the Haeleans inside the city walls? They would decimate us if we attacked and they have enough supplies to outlast a siege attempt.”

He straightened, bracing his hands on his lower back to alleviate the stiffness, “How important is Adelton? Strategically?”

“While they hold it the Haeleans can access the river.”

He thought for a moment, “Could the river be guarded from there,” he pointed to a line marking a bridge a few miles south of the city, “if the city no longer stood?”

She shrugged, “Probably. But it does stand and likely will for centuries to come.”

“Has the city ever been taken before?” he asked, an idea beginning to form.

“Well, obviously.” She snapped.

“Apart from the obvious?”

“Um,” Kara struggled to recall her lessons, “Twice. Serent Hallten took it in 489 F.A. and it was taken again in 643 F.A. by some Irnemi king.”

Anjez’s mouth curved upwards in a crooked smile, “So it can be done?”

“Yes,” she looked up, “Is that your plan? To try and storm the city? We don’t have the troops, the sheer numbers.”

He shook his head, “Not to storm it, no. My tutor once told me of an invincible city in the East. Many vast armies tested their might against its walls and one after the other, they failed. Then one day, a company of mercenaries, remnants of a southern empire, came upon the city and in one day, they defeated it.”

“How?”

Bonus points to anyone who can guess which legend this scene draws upon. 🙂