Book 6: Chapter 31
“’Temporary fortifications to hold back an undead invasion’?” Meten grinned as he looked down at the ground form the top of the walls. “How is any of this temporary?”
Walls half as tall as Avalon’s which had been built with more people over a longer period loomed over a twenty foot deep and thirty foot wide moat filled with spikes and barbs. Large crenelations were placed evenly along the walls to provide areas to shoot and retreat into cover, channels had been carved to allow the defenders to pour hot oil or other liquids on the enemy, and a handful of cannons were being slotted into place as scouts reported that the undead horde was in sight. The fortifications only stretched for a couple thousand feet, which was a minuscule distance compared to the length of Avalon’s walls or those outside other major cities, but they were obviously not temporary fortifications just for one battle.
Kay shrugged but didn’t turn away from staring in the direction the enemy was going to come from. “This area wasn’t directly controlled by any one polity before all of this, it was contested between Nelam and a few cities that don’t exists any more. None of the remnants of different groups that want us to do all the work reclaiming their lands but take nothing from them have no reason to protest us building a wall here, not if they want us to keep doing their dirty work for them. If we decide we want to expand out in this direction when everything is done, this makes it less difficult. And if we decide to expand even farther east…” He shrugged again.
Eleniah shook her head. “Don’t we already have a huge swath of territory that’s only gotten a surface level of exploration and investigation? Avalon doesn’t need more land.” With the large scale preparations for intercepting the undead army complete the three peak elites that Avalon had were gathered atop the walls to wait.
“Most of the untamed area we control is to the north of Avalon City, and the capital is closer to the border than I like. If there’s more conflict coming our way I think a buffer zone between us and the rest of the world would keep any armies from marching directly to Avalon without being stopped.” Kay gestured behind himself. “We didn’t have the defenses we needed to keep out an army and people had to flee their homes. Their was pillaging and looting that ruined villages and set back people’s lives. If we push out the territory we claim, build defenses there, then build more defenses at the older border we can have two lines to hold back any enemies.”
“That sounds…” Eleniah peered at Kay’s profile. “That sounds more militaristic than usual.”
“Hmm?” Kay finally looked away from the horizon. “I’m not saying that that’s what we’re definitely doing, but I decided it was better to have the option.” He tapped his foot on the wall they stood on. “This serves, what, three purposes? Good for this fight, good excuse to push the border if we want to, staging area for if we need to invade the east.”
“Why would we do that?”
“Because it might be necessary.” Meten turned and leaned back against one of the crenelations. He took a puff from his pipe before continuing. “While it isn’t exactly the same, Nelam’s collapse is going to have many of the same consequences as when empires and nations collapse when dark ages come and the cycle of history begins to repeat itself. History has seen it hundreds of times by now. Whether the cities and towns that have managed to hold out against the vampyr become local powers, the parasites that are demanding Avalon return them to power in exchange for nothing are the ones that come out of it the best, or this entire region ends up a wasteland that people try and make new fortunes in, the result of this is going to be chaos and war. Small wars, but people will be fighting over everything of value that’s left.”