Mixed, but unimportant

The reaction of the men and women crowding the overlooking walls and balconies is mixed. While some gasp in shock at the brazen admission of their new ruler's treatment of the priestess, other spectators cheer enthusiastically at seeing the woman humbled.

It is this woman, after all, who has nearly destroyed their city and promised to sell each of the wives and daughters present as naked slaves from the city's central **** block. Movement around you catches your eye and you see one of the bound officers has slipped free of his bindings. The hoplite assigned to guard him draws his gladius but instead of killing the officer, he passes the short sword hilt first to the warrior in the black and gold of Ares.

"Help me with this, Rider." The man reaches for the carpet at your feet and starts to pull at the loose end. All around you. the officers who you thought were captives are free and the guards from Apollopol are helping them. Not really understanding what is happening you too pull at the carpet and inside as the rug opens up, you see five spears that had been hidden within. No wonder that fucking rug had felt so heavy.

"Thanks Rider." The captain from Ares tosses you the sword and picks up one of the spears instead. The circular bundles held stacks of shields, not enough for every warrior, but enough to form a small shield wall. Only after what seems like an eternity, but that in reality has taken a dozen or so heartbeats, do the citizens of the Citadel realize that they are in trouble.

While the Apollonian Prince, the High Council and the vast majority of the elite citizenry of Athenapolis perched on this lofty fortress are captivated by the sight of the High Priestess being humiliated, the newly freed officers of the United Army are moving swiftly to position themselves at strategic points. All around you, the fake bindings that once encircled the prisoners' arms are lying uselessly on the paved courtyard and the alleged prisoners are moving arm and arm with the hoplites who were supposed to be guarding them.

The warriors from the city of Apollo move in organized groups up the steps to **** the mercenaries manning the drake-bows and rock-piles guarding the Citadel's gates. Others charge to the doors leading down into the honey-comb of chambers and halls below; by sealing these passages, they trap any remaining mercenary forces below while the fate of the Citadel is determined by the men fighting in the open courtyard above.

Screams of terrified nobles begin fill the air along with trumpet blasts warning of the danger that come much too late. The Lord Marshal is now on his feet too and the captain general of the forces of the City of Apollo is pulling the High Priestess away from the Prince of his city who is only now starting to realize that he has been nothing more than a pawn in a much larger game.

Unlike the United Armies' officer's your bindings were not specially designed to fall free, but you have a sword in your hand and after a frenzied effort you are able to cut free your bindings. You move swiftly through the panicking throng reaching Relia's side just as one of the prince's cronies draws his sword. You are not much of a fighter when standing on solid ground, but this man is even worse and after only two swings of your blade he drops to the ground clutching at his upper arm in horror as blood flows brightly onto his tunic.

With a joyous smile you step back over the thrashing body of the courtier kicking away his blade as you reach for Relia. You watch carefully trying not to look like a threat, but unwilling to let any man mistake Lady Relia for one of the many pretty Athenapolian maidens that will soon be added to the long coffles of women below. You almost feel bad for the more than three dozen young women who had once already had their robes torn from them and felt the bite of chains on their delicate wrists. These women believed they had been saved, but after the briefest taste of freedom they are once again being rounded up like animals.

Relia is as confused as the young women being collected together by grinning warriors. One, a sassy young woman who you remember taunting the bound officers as they waited at the foot of the Citadel was picked up and tossed over the shoulder of one of the very same men. With a wicked grin you scan the collection of Athenian beauties for the dark-haired Lady who had spit at you while you waited at the foot of the Citadel. You spot the curvy brunette easily standing by her two friends and when she sees your eyes settling on her she blanches noticeably and her hands move swiftly to cover her plump chest. Your attention is drawn away from the tempting young prize when Relia takes your arm in hers.

"I don't understand." She whispers as she clings to you with the strength of a drake's claw. "I thought we had lost..."

"Me too, sweetheart." You laugh as the complexity of the Lord Marshal's plan slowly sinks in. "That Lord Raxius is one ballsy bastard, I'll give him that." If you didn't know any better you would have thought that the Lord Marshal had been planning this for months.

The skies above Athenapolis are filled with drakes again as Riders screamed down onto the few mercenaries still stubbornly refusing to give up. Once two or three of the mercenaries had been plucked by a drake and then released to plummet onto the city below the will of the defenders was shattered and the fighting was pretty much over. With the drake-bows no longer free to fire their deadly barbed shafts, the Riders could finally join the fight. You wish you could have been riding with them, but looking at the throng of tasty looking prizes waiting to be claimed you are quite happy to be here any way you could.

Prince Anochises is a fool and an asshole, but he is no coward. Drawing his sword he wheels wildly threatening the slowly closing circle of warriors who are penning him in. Lord Raxius waves back his men and steps forward saluting the Prince with his sword as he swings it to test the feel of the unfamiliar blade.