The Santara Commentaries (Book 1-10)
The Santara Commentaries (Book 1-10)
Chapter 10: The Two Sorties
Chapter 10: The Two Sorties
In those days, Mocasar was the center for the Preternatural Arts in Santara. Despite Tionghoa occupation, the Sultanate capital was a place of scholarship. Having eschewed Tionghoa technology, the Paloeans turned their minds to the preternatural arts. I saw the results of this relentless learning in Kochba, but the Sultan was not the only mage in the Paloean army. During the Padri War, Sultan Kochba had employed many practitioners of the preternatural arts, though none were half as powerful as him (or Inferna).
For the Paloeans, the earth mages were the most potent. By moving the earth, they became handy in sieges. Though the Paloeans lacked the cannons that the Dunadinians had (through King Aron’s employment of Tionghoa mercenaries and deserters), they made up for it with the earth mages, who acted as sappers when we siege Tionghoa settlements such as Bandar and Khatulistiwa.
This brings us to our siege of Khmer.
As it turned out, the Padri as a whole relied on Paloean earth mages to get their defenses up on time. Much of our lines of contravallation and circumvallation were walls of risen earth rather than actual works of construction. Of course, preternatural arts are still limited by the strength of its practitioners, and earth magic is no different. It would still take time for us to get our military investment up.
Hence, our two offensives as I had outlined in the previous chapter.
I will first talk about Kochba and Inferna’s attack on the Free City of Khmer.
The joint Paloean-Puncakian attack came from south of the city. Though I was not there, I know for certain that things were not pleasant for the defenders, not when you had to deal with both Kochba and Inferna as enemies.
The swarm of Puncakian flyers heading towards Khmer must have been a terrifying sight for the Tionghoa. Even worse for them, the defenders of Khmer had spread themselves thin, so there were not many musketeers nor archers to shoot down the pegasi and gryphons flying towards the colonial capital. Even so, it was still a challenge to get through the walls of Khmer. Shots of arquebus and cannons flew out from the walls, and many Puncakians were shot out of the sky. There, they took heavy casualties. It took a gargantuan fireball, made from the combined powers of Kochba and Inferna, to blast a hole in the defenses.
An eyewitness account describes that fire attack to be like “the sun himself coming down to earth, turning all it touches into dust.”
The hole in the wall was not necessary given the airborne nature of the attackers, but they did disperse the defenders, allowing the former to enter the capital with little opposition.
And once the Puncakians entered Khmer, the slaughter began in earnest. The forces of Inferna and Kochba began to raid the settlements within the colonial capital. The Puncakians would descend upon a kampung, slaughter the inhabitants, torch the settlement, and then fly away. Tionghoa defenders would rush into the kampungs only to find charred corpses and burnt down buildings. This would be repeated many, many times, leaving trails of carnage.
Kochba and Inferna’s attack upon Khmer left such a mark on the people. To this day, Tionghoa parents would invoke Kochba and Inferna, said to be demons coming from the deepest pit of the netherworld, to scare their misbehaving children.
Much as I hate to admit it, Kochba and Inferna’s actions did help us in the siege. It kept the Khmerians occupied and prevented them from launching a sortie on our position.
It would also help us in other ways later on, but I’m getting much ahead of myself.
Thus was our attack upon Khmer itself, spearheaded by Kochba and Inferna. Now, I shall speak of the attack on the Borobudur, led by Lord Aron and Lady Paradisa.
Our attack was launched from the eastern side of our zone of control. At this point, we knew that the Tionghoa have already sent men from that fortress.
We had the advantage of mobility. Thus, when we first saw the enemy, we were able to strike quickly. The main road from Khmer to Borobudur was rather narrow, forcing the Tionghoa soldiers to march in single file lines. This allowed the pegasus and gryphon riders to pick off isolated soldiers. We also encountered larger groups, but they were no problem either; a swing of Lord Aron’s magical sword was able to scatter them in an instant.
At first, we enjoyed our little victories. Every night, we would celebrate our victories over the isolated and outmatched pockets of Tionghoa soldiers. But soon the Tionghoa grew wise to our stalling tactic, and they took a new approach. Fully aware of their advantage in numbers, they decided to ignore our raids altogether. Of course, there were also multiples roads from Borobudur to Khmer.
And unfortunately for us, the construction of our fortifications was not yet done, even with the help of the Paloean earth mages.
There was only one way we could have delayed the Tionghoa. It was an idea born of desperation, but I could think of nothing else…
Halfway between Borobudur and Khmer was the Sunda River. The source of the river was actually just south of the Tionghoa fortress, but the river itself flow in such a direction that it divided Khmer and Borobudur. Where we were, the river flow through a narrow gorge; a bridge was required in order to cross it. Just close to it, behind the mountains and facing the river, the Tionghoa set up their vanguard camp.
The base camp was heavily defended, but we had no choice. We had to attack. I had expected much pushback from Lord Aron and the rest when I told them of this plan, but they accepted it with little resistance. I was surprised, and flattered, at the trust they had put in me.
Had they questioned me further, I would have told them that the Commander of the Borobudur Fortress, Wen Tao, was a coward; an attack on their camp would have him recall all the Tionghoa soldiers. Of course, if my allies had asked me how I even knew of that fact, I would not have been able to answer them.
Not at the time.
And so, we stopped our raids and we beelined for the Tionghoa vanguard camp. During our flight, we made sure that we flew very close to the main roads and at low altitude. In other words, we did all we can to make sure that the enemy could see us.
This approach came at a cost, however, as we found ourselves being shot by archers and musketeers every so often. But we had to buy time with the lives of our men.
Finally, we made our way to the vanguard camp. The swarm of Puncakians (and Drusus) were ready to descend upon the Tionghoa. But of course, the camp was heavily defended with archers, musketeers, cannons, and even ballistae. Not only that, but they were also ready for us.
I will be honest with you, readers. We lost a lot of soldiers in that charge. Arrows, bullets, and cannonballs flew our way, and our evasive maneuvers could only do so much. Brave men and women dropped like flies, some to the river gorge, others littered the vanguard camp.
If it wasn’t for King Aron and Despot Drusus, it would have been a complete slaughter. Once we made it to camp, Lord Aron dismounted from Hadassah’s pegasus. Then, he showed the Tionghoa the full power of the Isildur. With a single stroke, the Dunadinian King cut down an entire squad. And from a distance, his preternatural arts scattered many. Meanwhile, Drusus’ black wyvern terrorized many a Tionghoa.
But despite the might of the Isildur and the prowess of the warrior without equal, it was still a desperate battle. The carnage on both sides were great, blood was everywhere. And once again, I saw Paradisa’s fear of blood rearing its ugly head. That phobia never went away, the silver-haired maiden simply willed herself to ignore it for the sake of her beloved. But the carnage was too much, and her fear overpowered her will; once again, she hyperventilated. I was her passenger still when it happened…
“Paradisa!” Like back in Ben-Teng, I shook her as hard as I could. But she was unresponsive; her eyes were blank. But I was not about to give up, so I shouted again, “Paradisa!” This time, I pushed her face to Lord Aron’s direction.
The King of Dun-a-din was in a fight for his life. He was greatly outnumbered, and only the might of the Isildur was keeping his enemies at bay. But from afar, a squad of musketeers was taking aim, and my lord was completely unaware.
I could only look on in horror as the musketeers fired their weapons. But the bullets never hit my lord, for Hadassah the warrior maiden flew in just in time, and she took the shots that were meant for him. With bullets in her body, she fell to the ground, and her pegasus followed suit, its body landing on top of its mistress.
King Aron quickly realized what was going on, and with a swing of his weapon, he blew the musketeers away with wind magic. One man stood back up, but not for long as I shot him dead with my pistol.
There was peace at the moment, but I knew it wouldn’t last. Paradisa, having finally regained her bearings, and I quickly made our way to Lord Aron; I could see my lord speaking with the fallen Hadassah. And when we got there, he greeted us with two words: “she’s dead.”
Much as we wanted to bury her (and all the others who had fallen), we knew we had to leave. We had done what we set out to do. Though King Aron had lost his transport, Drusus with his wyvern was more than happy to provide.
And so, we escaped the vanguard camp. Our journey back to our camp outside of Khmer was uneventful. Just as well, over half of our soldiers in that attack perished, and those who remained had sustained at least one wound; we were desperate to avoid another battle.
By the time we returned, our lines of contravallation and circumvallation was close to completion. Walls of stone and wood, risen earth, and towers now surrounded Khmer and protected us from Borobudur. As expected, the advancing Tionghoa soldiers, having once been close to our camps, had been ordered to return to the vanguard camp. Some even got marching orders to return all the way back to Borobudur.
The mass retreat of the Tionghoa allowed us to finish our fortifications. Our attack was a success, even if it didn’t feel like one.
Now all we had to do was to wait out the enemy. But the wait was a miserable one, especially for Paradisa. She had been sullen ever since our attack. As every soldier had been busy maintaining watch for sorties and offensives, none had time for the silver-haired maiden, not even Lord Aron.
Feeling sorry for her, I decided to have a talk with Paradisa. It had been a week since our return, we were still waiting for the inevitable Tionghoa breakout attempt. I entered her tent without so much of a warning, a faux pas to be sure.
When I entered, I saw Paradisa standing up straight from her sitting position. But her smile quickly grew into a frown.
“Oh, Yu. I was hoping for…”
“Lord Aron?”
“Yes,” responded Paradisa, her face sullen once more.
“I just want to talk to you, Lady Paradisa. Why are you so sad? Is it because of all the men and women we lost?”
Paradisa was deep in thought. “Honestly? No. While I mourn their loss, we Puncakians are used to death. Even from the very beginning, we cannot take our lives for granted.”
I grimaced at Paradisa’s words. I hadn’t forgotten the Valley of Gehenna. I still haven’t forgotten that place. “Then what is it, what’s bothering you?”
“Hadassah.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Lord Aron’s driver? But she’s dead, she’s no threat to you.”
“It should have been me, not her!” Paradisa cried, ignoring my words. “I should have given my life for Lord Aron! Not her. I have no right to live!”
And then she broke down in tears.
If I had been a Yakobinian, I wouldn’t have been caught off guard by Paradisa’s emotional display. Alas, I was an ignorant goy.
In Yakobinian society, it is not uncommon for men, especially powerful ones, to take multiple wives. After all, Yakob himself had two wives and two concubines. There was even one High King of Santara who had taken for himself hundreds of wives and a thousand concubines. I had been unaware of this social custom, leading me to misunderstand the situation surrounding Lady Paradisa and Hadassah.
It was clear, even to me, that both maidens loved the King of Dun-a-din. And so, I thought Paradisa hated Hadassah. And I did not begrudge her for doing so, not one bit. Yet rather than celebrating her rival’s death, she mourned her like a beloved sister.
I’m never the most attuned to other people’s feelings, especially back then. When Paradisa cried her heart out, I ran out frantically in search of Lord Aron. Thanks be to El Shaddai, he was actually on his way to check up on Paradisa also. Thus, I was able to get a hold of him quickly. More importantly, I was able to do so without informing anyone else of my lady’s distress.
With haste, Lord Aron entered into Paradisa’s tent. The following was their exchange (I put this dialogue together based on their testimonies):
As soon as Aron entered the tent, Paradisa ran towards him and jumped into his embrace. The silver-haired maiden continued to cry, and soon the King’s clothes were drenched with tears.
“Yu told me everything,” Aron said.
Paradisa was silent.
“But you need not feel guilty for what happened,” Aron continued. “It was El Shaddai’s will that Hadassah gave her life. She had no regrets, my love, so neither should you.”
Paradisa sniffed. “But I failed you, Lord Aron. If I hadn’t been overcome by my fears, then she would have lived.”
“Perhaps,” responded Aron. “But we each have our limits. And I believe there’s more to your guilt than this.”
Paradisa hesitated, but she finally spoke: “My sister and I had a plan. Well, she did. I just went along with it.”
“Plan? What plan?”
“To continue to the line of Borromeo and ensure the coming of the High King, we had come to an agreement. You will be like Yakob, with me and Inferna as your wives. And Hadassah will be your concubine.”
“And that’s why Hadassah came into my tent the way she did. I had thought it was too much of a coincidence.”
“Inferna knew her troops well. Hadassah was hardly the only pegasus rider who held feelings for you,” said Paradisa, “but she was certainly the most beautiful.”
Aron gave his interlocutor a disapproving look. “You’re wrong about that.” Suddenly, he moved closer to Paradisa, and held her chin in his hand.
“M-my lord!”
“And you’re wrong about me!” Aron said, frowning. “Don’t I get a say in this? Didn’t I tell you that I refuse to be shared?”
“But such is the way of our people,” Paradisa protested, “of our fathers.”
“Not my father,” responded Aron. “And not our first father, for whom El Shaddai made only one woman to be his wife. Now listen, there will be a High King of Santara, just as El Shaddai promised us. And he will come through you, Paradisa; not Inferna, not Hadassah. What says you, my love?”
Paradisa closed her eyes, then she smiled. “I… I don’t want to share you. Lord Aron, I want you to be mine. Mine and mine alone.”
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