Chapter 45 Conspiracy (Part 1)
During the night of the new moon, the silhouette of Gerald Wimbledon could be seen near the walls of the City of Graycastle.
After his few months of stationing at Hermes came to an end, he was now finally back, he thought. The long journey left him totally exhausted, but he was still vigilant of his surroundings. He reined his horse to stop and motioned his deputy to go and inquire about the situation.
If everything went as planned, the Scholar Ansger should have had all of the guards replaced with guards loyal to Gerald. When his deputy gave the signal, the replaced guards would let down the side door of the drawbridge.
Gerald was wide-eyed, and was staring forward, out of fear that the guards would overlook the signal.
The truth was that he hadn’t waited very long, but for Gerald it felt like time froze and he had to wait forever. When his eyes had already ached to their breaking point, he finally saw a short flicker in the distance – two short flickers at the bottom of the wall, and then three times above the wall as the answer, signaling that everything was going as planned. Gerald had to take a deep breath before giving his troops the signal to march forward.
Seeing this, he already believed himself to be only a step away from the throne.
Gerald rode shoulder to shoulder with his deputies through the side door in the wall.
Behind him were more than twenty men of his cavalry following him. No one spoke a word, the only sound which could be heard was the pulling of the reins to move the horses slowly forward.
The walls of the City were built out of stones from the Fallen Dragon Mountain. Under the illumination of the torches, the brown and dark-red stones made the wall look like it was overflowing with blood. The entire wall was twenty feet wide, and during the construction of the biggest wall in the world at that time, more than a thousand hard laborers, masons and slaves had to die.
In the minds of the people this city was known as an impregnable fortress, but now Gerald and his men were easily crossing the walls, conquering the city with units from within. Somehow, he had to think of the Church’s new Holy City; would their more ambitious and absolutely impregnable walls also fall due treachery from within?
“Your Highness, I have already waited a long time for you here.” Gerald could hear Ansger’s voice through the gates. There, the scholar was already waiting for him with a small troop. Seeing Gerald appear, Ansger quickly dismounted and bent down to bow.