Chapter 4: The Blood on Steel
The travel back to the king’s castle was generally uneventful with the occasional seasickness. The days after our arrival was peaceful with the only events being unpacking the kings room, which hadn’t been torched when the Castilians entered the main chamber. Most of the time spent not on unpacking was spent on tours of the countryside, and later a trip to Gibraltar to visit the veterans of the siege, which was a trip I did not participate in.
When the king returned form his trip, he began to make preparations for the invasion of Urbino. Most of the time was spent on relocating the troops that had immediately surrendered to the Spaniards. After he had found most of the two thousand, plus a few new recruits, he ordered his men to load up into the boats so they could leave.
This left me with a dilemma. I didn’t want to go on another boat trip because I tended to get seasick on longer boat rides, but I didn’t want to collect dust while there was an exciting war going on across the ocean either. Weighing my options appropriately, I decided that I would follow the king and his men to Italy and watch them.
When I arrived, I had heard from Jamal that all of the Italian had been wiped out from a previous war with their neighboring state, Florence.
Well that was great, just great, I got myself seasick on a four day boat trip to Italy just to watch a bunch of people sit around and do nothing. But on the plus side, I got to watch a siege. To tell you the truth, it was nothing like I had expected it to be. Unlike the total war games I played, a siege actually takes a long time to complete with the siege of Anacona taking over two years. I would usually bide my time while “besieging” the city by taking a tour of the front lines, and later, the city.
My tours of the city were very depressing and not as satisfying as I thought they would be. Many of the times I would pass a historical landmark, it would be heavily looted. Also it appeared as if everyone inside the city was suffering from disease and famine. Even the noble families were suffering from food shortages.
“This isn’t what war is supposed to be like, not all sad and depressing like this is, its supposed to be glorious and prestigious, just like what movies and video games say they are.”
I returned to my “tent” felling dejected until I heard what I thought would be good news.
“Sultan, Sultan!” Jamal entered the room exclaiming, “the leader of the garrison had just surrendered his men to us!”
“Good, tell them to open the gates so our men could enter.”
“Oh good,” I thought “ those poor people won’t be suffering anymore.”
I was wrong. Completely wrong. The moment the soldiers entered the city, mass pillaging began as woman were raped in their own homes and local businesses were looted and then burnt to the ground. I began to get frustrated, wanting to be able to stop them, but not being able to do anything. I immediately left the city and headed to the king’s chamber.
Uploaded with
ImageShack.us
A few days passed between the fall of Anacona uneventfully. In the city a distant glow had formed because of all the looting. When the city became safer to enter, the king moved his temporary chambers to the castle.
“Sultan, the king of Urbino wants to negotiate peace.”
“Send him away, peace has already been achieved.”
The king sent of Jamal to tell the king. I had been a spider for a few years now, and I was starting to grow to like it.
Uploaded with
ImageShack.us