Release That Witch

The freemen who were treated as cannon fodder had successfully climbed up the slope without any resistance.     

However, wooden barriers blocked their way. Rather than being tightly built with wooden logs, the barriers bore gaps that allowed spears to thrown through so that the defenders only needed to stand behind the barrier as they attacked the enemies with spears.     

Yet, Duke Frances didn't expect that the men that were guarding on top of the wall had disappeared leaving the outer-ring of the wall unguarded. The vanguards breached the barrier with axes and brought down a few logs before pouring into the top of the wall. After a while, the wooden gate was laid down as well.     

"Let's move," Duke flicked the reins, leading the remaining army to march on. "It takes us not more than 30 minutes from the start to the lay-down of the gate. What is Garcia Wimbledon plotting?" Frances frowned. Anyone who had a little war experience would know that when the leader abandoned the city, he would leave behind some guards or buy some expensive gutsy men, who knew not fear of death, to resist the enemy and buy as much time as possible for the main army to retreat.     

"Princess Garcia is no fool, after all she conquered the entire Southern Territory in such a short period of time. Why doesn't she deploy the men to guard the wall? The defenses and traps, no matter how strong and tricky they are, will have no use when they are unmanned." Duke Frances pondered and decided to send the guards into the city in advance to check on the situation.     

The information that the Captain of the guards reported was the same as what they had seen on the wall, there was no resistance in the city either. Only some streets were barricaded by timbers and bricks, and his men had gathered the residents to clean the blockades.     

Frances led the rest of the army into Eagle City without any hesitation. He believed that he, a proven veteran who had followed King Wimbledon III to war for many years, would not be scared stiff by a young girl. It seemed to Frances that Timothy had made the mistake since he could have saved a lot of time if he chose to cross the city after Frances took it.     

As he passed through the gate, the Duke smelled something strong, it was not the rotten stink that was common on the battlefield but something like a mixture of pine nut oil, orange peel and incense. If drawing a deep breath, he could even smell fragrant.     

"What is it?" He looked around and found nothing special. Since the ditch that was for draining water off the wall was plugged up, the sewage had overflowed and ran along the ground slowly. Moreover, the dirty accumulation that had been left alone for an unknown time was dark black, reflecting a colorful light pattern in the sun.     

"Maybe it was the smell of the sewage," Frances thought while shaking his head and walked into the castle with the platoon.     

"Now that I've taken Eagle City, it's natural to stroll around the lord's castle and City Hall to check if there is anything valuable to take. Certainly, Garcia must have plundered the city. But there are still some larger crafts and decorations that will be appropriate booties. And the food carts are good enough to carry the booties after they've been roughly cleaned up. As for the mercenaries, they must be heading to the stores and farms.     

Leave them alone. Anyway, Duke Joey is dead and no one knows whom will be the new lord. Robbing the entire city comes first."     

After he walked through the entire lord's castle, Frances Chlett discovered something wrong.     

The castle was too empty, he thought. He couldn't even find any cloth or food in the basement, not to mention the gold. The wall where there should have been paintings on it was now blank and the bookcase had no books either. What's queerer was that the bed in the lord's chamber was gone too. The castle looked like it had been stripped.     

How could they take away all these things when they were in a rushed retreat? Frances started to sense that the situation was not as good as he had thought. The castle wouldn't be so empty unless they had started to transport these things early.     

When he was about to head to the City Hall, a thick black smoke suddenly billowed over the North Gate.     

"What's wrong? Something caught on fire?"     

"I have no idea my lord. I've sent Moliere to check it out," The Captain said, "maybe it was the enemy who started a fire on purpose."     

At first the Duke thought it was a trap, but soon he realized that using the fire to block the gate was meaningless. If there were no men to join in and launch the attack, the fire would be quenched soon by any organized troops. Let alone the fact that the fire had little use to hold back the enemy since they could bypass the gate and climb the slope to get out.     

The right tactic was to make the men lie in wait until the scattered fires disturbed the enemy, and then launch an attack and catching them by surprise. It was an effective way to mess up their formation or even force back the enemy. Like he had said before, an unmanned trap was no more than uselessness.     

At this moment, the other three gates began to smoke too, and the fire in the North Gate became clear in sight, what's worse, the fire flared up quickly. It seemed like the gate was stacked with straws to fuel the fire. There were people screeching somewhere in the city, perhaps because their houses caught a fire as well.     

"This is not right..." The Duke thought, "when I entered the city through the North Gate, there was nothing to catch a fire there but an open space! But how could the fire spread so quickly without a tinder? Wait..." An idea flashed through his mind, "could it be that Garcia Wimbledon had recruited the witches in secret?"     

Frances touched the God's Stone of Retaliation that hung around his neck and felt relieved a little. With the stone that would protect him from evil, he could pass the witches fire with impunity. Furthermore, no evil harm would come to the guards either, for all of them were equipped with the stones. As for the freemen, who didn't have enough money to contribute to the church, they were beyond the Duke's consideration now.     

Thinking that the city was a little weird, he decided to get out of the city first. The army could set camp at the South Gate, they could watch the city while waiting for the riders of the new king to return. As he thought of it, he commanded the Captain, "we move to the south and leave the city. You keep blowing the horn on the way to gather the platoons."     

"Yes!"     

The crowd moved at once, however, when they approached the South Gate, the fire had spread to the residential area where acres of houses were burning, casting a heat wave that forced them back. The panicked citizens, who had hidden in their homes, now ran out and crowded the street, even breaking through the wall of blades and swords of guards and running to safe clearings in a fluster. All of a sudden, everyone seemed to sink in the sea of fire, surrounded by the thick smoke and the fierce fire.     

"Calm down! Go and find the well. Fetch the water to put out the fire," Duke Frances quickly gave a succession of orders, "let the houses alone. Just try to quench the fire on the blocks and clear out a road. Keep blowing the horn to make sure others know where we are."     

"Sir!" A rider raced from the center of the city and jumped down from the horse before drawing the reins. It was Moliere who was sent to the North Gate by the Captain. "My lord, there is no way to quench the fire at the North Gate."     

"What did you say?" Frances was in shock. "The fire can't be quenched?"     

"The fire is fueled by black water," she said quickly, "The fire not only can't be quenched by water but also flows along it! My lord, the entire north of the city is burning!"     

"The flame that can't be quenched..." he murmured, "it's the fire of demons indeed." The Duke shouted loudly, "everyone stay calm. It is the fire of demons set by the witches under Garcia's command! As long as you wear the God's Stone of Retaliation, the seemingly dreadful fire will not harm you!"     

"I see. May God be merciful," said Moliere , subconsciously touching her chest, "My lord, what should we do next?"     

"You've the God's Stone of Retaliation, so what's there to fear? All of you mount your horses, let's race through the fire," the Duke said while waving his hand, "the evil fire will disappear as soon as it meets the God's Stone!" He paused and said, "Moliere, you lead a platoon out first. I will stay here to gather the men yet to arrive."     

"Yes!" the Lady Knight nodded, "please take care, my lord. The rest of you, be alert and keep up."     

After that, she mounted and raced to the end of the scorching hot street, without hesitation.