The reason for the silence became obvious half an hour later, when a runner from the walls arrived with a message.
"Your Highness, this arrived for you by arrow." He explained.
In fact, the scroll was still wrapped around the arrow, and sealed with wax, marking the origin as a member of the Dagos Royal Family.
[Your Highness Princess Alexis,
In consideration of your presence within the city of Burton, we have held off on firebombing the city for one day. Should you surrender the city and present yourself, unarmed and unaccompanied, within the next twenty-four hours, there will be no need for civilian casualties.
For their crimes against Dagos, the lives of Dominic Wavemates and the family of Marquis Burton are to be considered forfeit.
I am looking forward to your positive response.
Dominic looked at the scroll. He didn’t recall doing anything in particular to this Duke. In fact, he had never been to Albroles. This had to be because he was a Wavemates Dragonkin.
"Interesting. They not only know that we are present, but they know who you are. Dagos considers the entire Wavemates Royal Family to be wanted criminals. But they have also considered your presence important enough to individually name you before the Marquis Burton." Princess Alexis noted.
"I’m not sure if I should be honoured or not. But somehow it feels good to feel wanted." Dominic joked.
Princess Alexis sighed as she read the letter again, then looked out over the city.
"You know that they have enough men there to storm the city and force their way in, right? Even if we stopped the airships, it’s only a matter of time before the city is either starved out or burned to the ground and sacked.
I knew that this mission was unlikely to have a good ending when I volunteered, but this is faster than expected.
With the Natural Sons here, and the Magitech Orbs for the mages, I give it three weeks if we can contain most of the fires. Three weeks to either fight our way free or find a way to get them to leave."
She spoke softly, but Dominic noticed that she hadn’t mentioned surrender.
They surely wouldn’t kill a captured Royal from Cygnia, and if the city fell, the rest of them would all be killed anyhow. It would be faster for her to surrender, but the result was likely to be the same.
Dominic had zero faith that they wouldn’t burn the city to the ground the moment that they had the Princess. No matter what her response was.
Moments later, the door burst open, and Marquis Burton rushed in, flanked by his older sons.
He also had a scroll in his hand, with the same wax sealed emblem on it.
"This was delivered to me by one of the staff." He huffed, then slammed the paper on the desk and glared at the Princess and Dominic.
You worthless sack of shit.
You have six hours to bring me the bodies of the Princess, her guards and her advisor, or our artillery will begin the firebombing of your city. If you want to have any commoners left in your so-called Marches, you know what to do.]
Dominic wondered what the whole insult to the Burton Marches was about. When the title was granted, Burton was the border between Dagos and Cygnia, but that was hundreds of years ago, and the border had moved six hundred kilometres north since then, over the course of four major wars.
"Is there something I should know about your relationship with Duke Albroles?" Princess Alexis asked.
Princess Alexis pointed at the wax seal, then the words on the paper. "It seems he is somewhat less than fond of you."
The Marquis shrugged. "One of his sons is married to my second daughter. But they have been for a decade, and I haven’t heard any news of marital issues. I really don’t know what has him so worked up."
The Princess nodded. "Well, their first move was to try to turn us against each other to force an early capitulation. A sure sign of desperation, but possibly unwarranted desperation, given their numbers."
The son of Marquis Burton shook his head. "I don’t think that it is unwarranted, but rather a failure of their leadership to adapt to combat realities. All of our reports from near the border show units and villages overrun by the mechanized advance of the Dagos Army.
In my opinion, they may have believed that they would actually overrun the city walls on the first day, and they never expected to face the riflemen and level of artillery fire that they did. I don’t know if my father has made it public yet, but the powder stores were deliberately spoiled when we opened the casks last night."
Princess Alexis glared at the Marquis, whose furious glare was turned on his son.
"What am I in trouble for? The Royal Family has priority for all defensive information." The young man defended himself from his father’s fury.
"Alright, so we know that there are more spies in the city, and that there is a reason they had expected that you would not be able to mount a defence. The Natural Sons are a new Regiment, and easily mistaken for a reserve unit, given their uniforms and lack of lineage.
If that was the case, it puts things in a new light.
The question is, do we call his bluff immediately, or do we wait for him to make the first move?" Alexis asked.
All eyes turned to Dominic, as her advisor.
"I say we recommence the bombardment of their position, and assign extra guards from the Natural Sons to the mages on cannon duty. The number of Magitech Orbs is limited, and we can’t spare many if they do encircle the city.
If we take out more of their artillery this morning, we can force an infantry charge at the walls from across open ground, with both riflemen and artillery on defence." Dominic recommended.
The Marquis frowned, but his sons nodded in agreement. It was better to move first, and not give the enemy time to put a new plan in action.
"I believe that they are stalling. They have infiltrators in the city already, and among the Keep staff. I suspect that they are going to make another move today, and they needed time for their people to get in position." The older son agreed.
"Then we will follow the Princess’ order. Speak, and we will obey." The Marquis affirmed.
"Target their artillery and vehicles. Destroy their supplies and ability to stop our deliveries, and they might not be able to outlast us at a siege."