At the end of three hundred paces precisely, the band of
gold energy silently dispersed.
“Three
million,” said Jerem Cozak. “Three million died this way before the high cities
of Redmarak fell. I wonder that any fanaticism could have been enough.”
I shook my
head.
“Now,” said
Jerem Cozak, “comes the real retribution.”
I looked to
the walls of Kasora again, and saw a line of hundreds of golden orbs arching up
away from the city, falling with all the terrifying familiarity of stones
hurled by children. But these were not mundane, and they fell near groups of
our disks with uncanny accuracy. The artillery orbs burst, earth exploded
upward, and another disk and its operators died in front of me in ways the
war had more acquainted me with.
“The siege
of Kasora has been fought many times,” said Jerem Cozak, “and more often analyzed.
Assailants disable the towers with artillery so that they can bring infantry to
the gate when it falls. Defenders use the Towers of Light to pin artillery in
place so their own artillery can counter it. If the assailing artillery fails
to remove the towers, the city stands. If the assailant retains artillery after
the last tower falls, the city may be taken, so long as the defense is
significantly outnumbered.”
I looked
sideways at him as another barrage began, this one from operators who had not
fired the first time. “In every other battle,” I said, “you have changed the
field of combat. You have taken us by unexpected ways, or brought walls down by
powers you did not explain. You taught the Swarm to heal wounds that would have
killed us, and to make it so that we could not be seen. There is nothing like
that here?”
He smiled. “The
game is set. All the pieces are in motion. I have told you what I will give, and
we are locked inside this valley. What more is there to do?”
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