Chapter 25: The Letter of Friendship

"Sir, we can not hold for longer," a soldier said to the governor of the bordering castle. "If it remains like this, our castle will fall in a few days."

The governor banged his hand on his thigh and snapped. "Damn it. Do whatever it takes! Do not let them enter at any cost!"

"We are trying, my lord, but they are too crowded," the soldier said.

"I do not want excuses!" the governor shouted. "Get back to your work!"

"As you order, my lord!" the soldier bowed and exited in a hurry.

The governor looked at his right-hand man. "What about the reinforcements? Is there any news from the emperor?"

The man moved his head sideways. "No, my lord. The emperor is too busy dealing with the rebellion of the farmers. I doubt he could send us reinforcements right now."

"Damn it!" The governor gritted his teeth before he stood up. "Fight till your last breaths!" he ordered his soldiers.

***

Dyna and Gilbert discussed their next course of action while they monitored the progress of the conquest. They stood on an elevated land from where the castle was in full view.

"How many more days can we last?" Gilbert asked.

"A week at most," Dyna answered. "We do not have much food and water left."

They saw the soldiers hitting the gate of the castle with a log. They hit it again and again in the hope of a breakthrough, but the enemy resisted fiercely.

"We will need to increase our push."

"The soldiers are exhausted. I do not think they could keep this up for longer," Dyna said.

"The enemies are hopeless too," Gilbert said as he watched soldiers trying to climb up the walls with wooden ladders and failing when rained by arrows from the enemies. "I know they could not hold on for much longer. This will now turn into a test of endurance. Whoever could hold out longer would win."

A soldier arrived at them. "A messenger has arrived. He is claiming Prince Colt of Madmen has sent him."

The eyes of Gilbert expanded when he heard the name of Colt. "What did you say?" His hands and feet began to shake. "Did you say Prince Colt?"

"Yes, should I send him to you?" the soldier asked.

Gilbert and Dyna looked at each other as they had laid the siege for Colt. But he was not in the castle. It meant their attack turned out to be meaningless.

"Yes," Dyna said to the soldier.

The soldier bowed and left. After a while, a round man arrived at them. Just when he arrived, Gilbert grabbed his collar and shook him fiercely. "Where is he? Where is Colt? Tell me!"

His actions bewildered the man. "Ah, wait. What are you doing? Leave my collar."

Dyna separated Gilbert from him. "Hey, what are you doing? He is a messenger. Do not touch him."

Gilbert pushed himself back when he realized what he was doing. "Ahem." He scanned the man up to down. "You do not look like a messenger." He commented this because of his unfit look and rusty attire.

The messenger was none other than Sango. Colt had sent him to deliver a message to the chief of the army, who had laid siege to the bordering castle of the Wild.

"Take this letter and give it to the person leading the siege. Offer them our friendship. They could help us against Hammer and we could help them against the kingdom of Wild." This was what he had said.

"I have come with a message from Prince Colt of Madmen." Sango pulled out the letter he had tucked under his waistband. "Here it is."

Gilbert rushed, took it from him, and opened the letter to read it.

"What does it say?" Dyna asked.

"This is indeed from him," Gilbert said, as his eyes were filled with tears. He was on the verge of crying. "I recognize this handwriting." He showed it to Dyna in excitement. "This belongs to him."

Dyna took a read after she took the letter from him. She nodded. "Understood. Tell Prince Colt I accept his offer."

"Does this mean we have to lift the siege? He is not in there," the old man Gilbert wondered. "It was only for that reason we had attacked the castle, right?"

"No. I never planned to lift the siege," Dyna responded as she turned to look at her soldiers struggling for conquest. "We would need a base of operations. Someone secure where we could not get ambushed in the dark."

Gilbert smiled as somewhere in his mind, he too, had the same intentions. "Understood."

Sango had a hopeful smile on his face. "I will give him this message at once." He turned to leave, but Gilbert stopped him.

"Wait, wait, I will come with you."

"Are you sure?" Dyna asked him. "We need you here at the moment."

"I will return with our new allies. Do not worry," Gilbert assured her. "It will be a matter of a few days. We can hold for that long."

Dyna nodded as she understood his excitement for meeting the young prince. "Fine."

"Let us go," Gilbert said to Sango in an excited tone.

"Yeah."

They both left while Dyna turned her focus to the conflict of the siege.

***

"They would choose an acting leader in the absence of King Hammer," Kyte said to Colt as they strolled near their camp. "Logan must have succeeded in infiltrating them now."

"Yeah, if what you had said earlier was true," Colt said. "There would be heavy politics in choosing the acting leader. First of all, they would try to remove Varius out of their way, as he is extremely loyal to my brother."

"Yes, my prince. Logan would have to speed up the divisive politics going on there. But I do not know if he could do it. Pardon me, my prince, but why did you choose a bandit for this job? He has no experience in this task," Kyte questioned. "What if he gets caught and fails his mission?"

"Do you know what I have learned from my father and brothers all my life?" Colt looked at Kyte. "It is to take advantage of people's fear." He smirked. "That man is scared to lose his life. He would do anything to protect it. Even if it means doing the impossible."

At that moment, Kyte could not distinguish between Colt and Rozerd. It was as if the wounded prince had taken over the body of his younger brother and spoke to him. He smiled. "I guess you are right, my prince."

"What we need to do now is prepare for another battle," Colt said with a dense look. "We need that castle."

"Our soldiers are exhausted from the previous battle. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kyte questioned.

"What we need is just a push." Colt looked at him. "We can not rest, Kyte."

Kyte nodded as he understood his intentions. "Right."