Chapter 562: Witch Vs. Army
Ollie crouched behind the roots of a mighty cypress tree, looking out across the open plains below where a powerful army had built their camp. Banners flapped idly in a faint summer breeze that seemed to bring no relief from the endless heat of the two suns. The symbols of the Lothians, the Dunns, the Hanrahans, the Rians, and dozens more major and minor families could be clearly seen, mixed with a nearly equal number of banners displaying the gleaming sword of the Order of Holy Light, the burning blade of the Order of Holy Flame, and the burning sun of the Inquisition.
"How many of them do you think there are, Milo?" Ollie asked in a hushed voice. Between Milo and Harrod, he’d managed to rally over four dozen soldiers and twice as many villagers who were skilled with weapons, though most of them were hunters skilled in bows and snares rather than the use of axes or maces, the way Harrod’s men were.
"At least a thousand, Sir Ollie," the Heartwood archer said, crouching behind a screen of tall grasses as he observed the army arrayed against them. "Enough to burn our village to the ground even if they didn’t soften us up with the second sun at night. What they’re doing," he said bitterly. "It’s just cruelty."
"No," Harrod disagreed. "It’s pragmatic. Commander Bassinger always said that to attack a fortified town or village, you need to outnumber defenders by at least five to one. But that only results in a bitter fight with many casualties."
"So they’re trying to weaken us to reduce their own casualties?" Ollie said, frowning at the army on the field below. "And they’re willing to camp here for weeks, torturing us to do that?"
"Maybe they think they can bait us into attacking them," the horned soldier said. "We don’t have the advantage of our walls here, and they’ve had time to dig trenches and fortify their position. If we attack them head-on, we’re only offering our heads up to their blades."
"Then we don’t attack them head-on," Ollie said with a predatory gleam in his eyes. For months, he’d suffered under the eternal sun this army had created, and he’d watched his people suffer at the hands of the Church’s cruel and cowardly plan. Finally, they were within the reach of his blades and the witchcraft he’d learned from Ashlynn.
Ollie thought that he understood Lady Ashlynn’s desire for revenge when he learned what Lord Owain had done to her on their wedding night. Anyone would want revenge after enduring suffering like that, and so he thought it was only logical for Lady Ashlynn to seek vengeance.
Now, however, he understood the fires that must burn in her heart and the rage she must feel at the thought of her tormentor living well for even one more day. He’d never before desired someone’s death, but now there was almost nothing he wanted as badly as he wanted to kill the Inquisitors responsible for the curse of the second sun. All he had to do was prod them into abandoning their fortified camp in order to ’slay some demons and a witch’ and he could finally put an end to this trial.