Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 12

The column and its baggage train passed through the northern gatehouse of the island fortress and crossed over the bridge that spanned over the harbour. It had a drawbridge of the same sort as the southern gatehouse on both ends. Alessia stood again, leaning forward so far over the edge that Marcus worried that she would fall off if they hit a rough patch of road. Then he recalled that the bridge did not have any rough patches – it was laid with the same, seamless stone road as the rest of the highway.

“Brother Marcus,” Alessia exclaimed, “have you seen the like?”

He couldn’t say that he had. There were a myriad of common ideas represented by what stretched out below either side of the bridge, but someone had combined them in ways that he had never seen done before elsewhere.

Many towns and cities were founded on rivers and built harbours that took advantage of them, but he had never seen an entire stretch of the river purposely re-engineered into one. The northern riverbank was a wall fashioned from blocks of grey stone that stretched the entire length of the town, looking to be a good ten metres above the waterline.

Rather than being built along the banks as one would usually see in river settlements, the harbour was actually above the river and inside the walls of the town. There were two pairs of locks on either end that elevated vessels between the river and the berthing areas on the warehouse level, creating a fortified harbour. Curiously, there were no ships in sight at all.

“What is a harbour with no vessels?” He muttered to himself.

“That’s a good question,” the driver said, “but I don’t doubt that House Corelyn has some plan in mind. There’s only one large vessel and a handful of small boats on the river at the moment, but as you can see this harbour is meant to handle hundreds of ships. Rumour has it that the Countess is going to connect all of the Riverlands by water – some even speculate that she’s going to start a route between the Sorcerous Kingdom and the ports around the sea in the southeast.”

“The Undead in Katze might have something to say about that,” Alessia quipped.

“Not if the ships are crewed by Undead,” the driver replied. “The one vessel I mentioned has a Skeleton crew. Literally.”

We use summons for violence, yet they are used here for industry and trade.

The Sorcerous Kingdom certainly had a different paradigm when it came to employing the Undead. Marcus wondered if there was any difference between a Skeleton sailor and a Skeleton Warrior.

“Does the Katze River see severe flooding?” Marcus asked.

“It floods for a good two to three months out of the year,” the driver replied. “The warehouse level of the city is well above the highest mark of the seasonal floods and it’s a nice and secure harbour on top of that. The locks on either end raise and lower ships between the river and the harbour.”

“That is a lot of water to move, how do they do it?”

“Hmm...there should be a reservoir somewhere. Undead work the pumps to keep it filled.”

Marcus could not see any structures that looked like reservoirs, and the town appeared seamless in construction as his search turned upwards. Aside from the expansive harbour district with its rows of warehouses, Corelyn Harbour had two other main sections within the confines of its walls. There was a central area where the spire of the town’s temple rose above the surroundings. The other buildings appeared to either be commercial or industrial in function. The raised area which radiated outwards to the outer walls were dotted with residential buildings and pleasant-looking green spaces.

The place appeared to have been purpose-built as a major hub for the future river transportation network that the driver had hinted at. Marcus realized that both the border town and the town they had stayed overnight at had a similar feel to them, and it now occurred to him why they were called villages rather than towns. They were deceptively large due to their purposeful design – the number of people actually living in them was far less than it appeared. Even Corelyn Harbour could be mistaken for a small city at a glance, but after understanding its layout, he guessed that it would only count as a large town in terms of its population.

“This all seems quite ambitious,” Marcus remarked as he looked down thoughtfully at the features below the highway.

“Well, that’s a noble for ya,” the driver said. “Just because they aren’t plotting and scheming against one other doesn’t mean they aren’t plotting and scheming about other things. I’d say us common folk prefer it this way over the other.”

As the driver had mentioned earlier, the highway was a merchant’s dream; the settlements built along it purpose-built to facilitate trade and industry. The highly specialized planning and its advanced construction spoke of a much more progressive nation that had taken the place of what was formerly Re-Estize.

Never mind the overwhelming fortifications that faced the river, the sheer economic might represented in a nation that could create this was a clear sign to any visiting dignitary that getting on the Sorcerous Kingdom’s good side was a desirable thing. Corelyn Harbour was the honey and the whip, expressed in the form of a single town.

“How long has this harbour town been under construction?” Marcus was still puzzled over the sheer amount of new construction that was present.

“Hmm…construction started about midway through spring,” the driver replied.

Marcus swept his gaze over the shore and up the valley. The groundwork and formation of just the port area was something that should have taken many years – even with the assistance of Golems.

“All this in under half a year,” he said flatly. “Was the river naturally like this?”

It was the only thing Marcus could think of that might shave so much from this huge project. Even then, he decided it would have still needed more using the methods he was aware of.

“Uh, no,” the driver scratched his head. “The original harbour village is further upriver. Countess Corelyn decided to charter a new town here because it’s where the highway is.”

“So she just decided to do this and everything we see was done in a handful of months.”

“Mhm.”

“How?”

“With magic?” The driver seemed surprised that Marcus was surprised, “I was heading out to the Empire when it happened, so I only heard about it. The entire thing was announced in advance so that people could come watch, so asking around for a bit will probably land you with a personal account.”

Magic that shaped earth and stone was not uncommon, but the sheer scale displayed was beyond what was capable by a single magic caster in such a short timeframe. How many it would take to manage this, he couldn’t estimate. In addition to the applications in civil engineering demonstrated before them, the strategic and tactical advantages from being able to wield this power could not be understated. Fortresses and highways might be able to spring into existence in the time it took for an army to march from one place to another.

The column slowed once more as it approached the end of the second bridge, and Alessia finally sat back down. The sentries at the gate again appeared to be a pair of militia with a pair of Death Knights, and this time they were stopped at the gatehouse. Looking up at the battlements above, he saw the heads of Elder Liches and Death Warriors peering down at them with their crimson gazes – the contingent’s painfully exposed position on the bridge underlined just how vulnerable any attackers would be.

The Death Warriors on the bridge had all manner of ranged weaponry and he did not doubt that their heavy crossbows, long javelins and wicked throwing axes could penetrate even their enchanted mithril plate. The Elder Liches were in position to rain all manner of magical destruction onto their heads. A dozen seconds passed before they started moving again, and Marcus released a breath he didn't even realize he was holding.

He glanced over to Alessia to see how she was doing. Instead of looking at the Undead as they passed them by, she was examining the militia instead.

“Is it possible these sentries are not Humans?” The girl leaned over and whispered to Marcus, “Some Undead appear much the same as the living. I imagine there would be much running and screaming going on if any of what we have seen appeared at home.”

She turned her attention to the bent back of the driver, running a suspicious eye over him. Marcus hoped that she wasn’t about to try and violently prove her hypothesis.

“「Light Cure Wounds」.”

Alessia suddenly cast a healing spell on the driver. The glow of the magic washed over the crooked frame of the man before fading away.

“Oh, my back was getting sore,” the driver shifted in his seat. “Thanks for that, miss.”

“Of course,” Alessia smiled brightly. “I am glad to have provided some comfort. It is the least I can do for your being so amenable to our endless questions.”

Marcus shook his head wordlessly. Alessia was an exceptional Paladin and a cunning tactician, but this cunning manifested as something of a sly nature when not in battle. In Human lands, it was not illegal to cast beneficial magic. As a member of the Temples, she was lawfully entitled to do so. Outwardly, she had provided the driver with something that had a rated value in exchange for his cooperative attitude. In actuality, she was checking to see if he would take damage from the healing spell.

He wondered what would have happened if the man was something like a Vampire instead. Were healing spells considered offensive magic in this land with so many Undead?

“If you do that to a Death Knight,” Marcus muttered, “you will become a Squire again.”

“Surely you jest, Brother,” her gaze slid away, “why would I do such a thing?”

It occurred to him that this might be the reason Alessia was specifically chosen for whatever she was to do. The Temples kept careful track of populations under their jurisdiction and her traits and strengths would be specially noted. Perhaps his worries for her were needless and she was actually the most suited out of all of them to serve here.

Paladins were generally perceived as virtuous, just and straightforward – for good reason, as this was usually the case. Alessia was all of these things, but she was also rather flexible. Hopefully, they didn’t think to employ her as some sort of spy: she was still a Paladin, after all. With this new perspective to account for, however, Marcus was becoming increasingly curious about what the Bishop had in mind for her.

“Will we be parking our wagons the same way as yesterday evening?” Marcus asked.

“Uh, yeah,” the driver answered. “We’ll be using the area on the east side of the port district. Traffic going south parks on the other side.”

“This can’t be more than two hours from E-Rantel,” Marcus noted. “Why would anyone stop here in favour of the city? The Harbour had no special activity that I could see.”

“To keep traffic from piling up in the city,” the driver replied. “It used to be that all trade coming through here went into E-Rantel, but now that it’s the capital of the Sorcerous Kingdom, the city’s going to get more traffic than it was designed for. They’re gonna have to figure something out before it gets bad.”

“Do you really think so? Being ruled by an Undead Sovereign seems like a great deterrent to trade.”

“You’ll forgive my saying so,” the driver said, “but that ain’t how it works. As long as it’s safe and the borders remain open to trade, someone will move things around as long as it’s worth it. Even if no one from outside the country does it, someone from ours will do it instead. Lady Wagner would be ecstatic if she could become the sole purveyor of goods in and out of the Sorcerous Kingdom, but that's nothing more than a silly dream – merchants that let their competitors gain an advantage like that for no reason don’t stay merchants for long.”

Marcus decided that the experienced teamster would know more about the workings of trade than a Paladin from the Theocracy. Having hostiles along two-thirds of their borders, trade in his home nation was largely domestic. None would risk going out into nonhuman nations to trade, and nonhumans obviously did not go to trade in the Theocracy. Out of all their neighbours, only the Draconic Kingdom, a few Human nations to the south, and the Sorcerous Kingdom in the north had open borders.

“How does this town function in relation to E-Rantel, then?” Marcus asked.

“It’s basically a cargo port,” the driver answered. “Trade is conducted in E-Rantel, but only goods that need to be delivered to E-Rantel go in. When purchases are made that will travel in this direction, the goods are prepared here – that way we don’t have unmanageable amounts of freight trying to constantly enter and exit the city itself.”

“Travel in this direction, you say?”

“Yeah, Lady Wagner’s chartering another town out east for the same reason. Once enough pressure is taken off of E-Rantel, they can finally begin repurposing more of the city without interfering with its daily business.”

Marcus looked up north to the horizon, at the walls of the fortress city. E-Rantel appeared to be quite a large city, but as far as he knew, it was built as a fortress to project Re-Estize’s power over the crossroads of the region. The repurposing the driver spoke of must have been to transform it into something more suited to be the capital city of a nation.

“You didn’t mention any town such as this to the west.”

“As far as I know, there isn’t one in the works yet,” the driver said. “Re-Estize has been pretty quiet since they lost this duchy. When the Sorcerous Kingdom did their big thing to get trade flowing again, barely anyone from Re-Estize appeared. Even House Wagner’s former affiliates were absent. I’m fairly certain that Lady Wagner would have encouraged them to come.”

“Well, they did suffer a devastating defeat, after all,” Marcus told him. “Being invited to the land that you just lost might be a bit much.”

“Maybe,” the driver said dubiously, “but merchants don’t think that way and most of House Wagner’s associates are merchants. Merchant companies in the Kingdom sent caravans to the Theocracy and the Empire before all this. I can’t imagine them giving it all up if there’s nothing stopping them from going back to business as usual.”

Putting it that way, it did seem out of character for merchants. A few months was not a very long time: perhaps they had simply not recovered from their nation’s loss, or the fear of what awaited them in E-Rantel kept them at bay. The reaction in the Theocracy was just as adverse in the first few months, and they did not even participate in the conflict.

Marcus and Alessia watched silently as the driver expertly handled his team of horses to exit out the side of the highway down a shallow ramp. The warehouse district stretched out to either side of the highway after their route passed through the massive tower that served as the town’s southern gatehouse. Ramps joined it to the main thoroughfare. The highway was level with the town’s central district, bisecting the residential area and exiting out of another gatehouse in the north.

The procession came to a large area on the harbour level that was similar in appearance to where they had left their wagons in the previous village. Rows of warehouses could be seen nearby, as well as the berths stretching along the channels of the harbour. Though the amount of activity was probably about right for a town straddling a major highway, the sheer size of the port made it appear barely used.

“You said this is the final stop for the wagons?” Alessia asked.

“That’s right, miss,” he replied. “We’re to keep your extra baggage overnight. You can pick everything up in the morning when you’re ready to go.”

“Then…this is appropriate, yes?” She withdrew a small purse from her belt and held it out beside him.

“This is…” the driver looked down and grinned, “I’ve always heard that the Theocracy raises their ladies right and proper, and it seems that it’s true. Thank you, miss.”

“You have shown us great hospitality and patience – beyond our expectations for the journey,” she returned his smile with one of her own. “It is only right to express our gratitude.”