For Alagaesia: 9. The last steps

Roran shouted, "Release". A clutch of hundred arrows flew from the Varden's ranks into the walls of Aroughs. There were wails of pain from the city walls as twenty-odd archers fell from the walls. A huge stone flew from the city's catapult. Roran turned his head fast towards the three elven spell-casters who had come with him to help in the capture of the city. They uttered a fast spell which sounded like, "Jierda" and the stone broke into small pieces just before it fell into the Varden soldiers. The little pieces still caused injuries to the soldiers; but none was fatal.

They had laid siege on the city about ten hours ago. This city didn't have magical protections. It wasn't even big like the cities of Feinster and Belatona. It was just a small town. But it was decided by Nasuada, that leaving the town in the Empire's hands was dangerous as it could be used as a staging point for two-sided attacks by Galbatorix. Roran was a prime supporter of this view among the Varden captains and elders. So he was charged by Nasuada to capture the city for the Varden.

Roran had collected about two-thousand soldiers and asked the elves for help in person. The elves seemed happy about the preparations Roran was making and so sent three of their own to assist him in his campaign. Roran was happy that he had asked for the elves help because he knew that it was them who had helped in reducing the casualties greatly. The battering ram's thumping sound was heavy in the air. The gate of the city of Aroughs was finally starting to creak as the sound suggested. Horst had taken care of supervising the Battering Ram unit. He had equipped the tip of the wooden battering ram with a hard, sharp iron end which helped so much in denting the wooden gate faster. Roran had trusted Horst with complete control of the battering ram unit knowing full well the smith's abilities. The trust had paid off, because the gates were giving way sooner; much sooner than what the elves had predicted after analysing the gate.

"Knurl hrest", a dwarf shouted behind Roran and a huge stone flew towards the city and from the sound that was heard, Roran was sure that the wooden catapult that had thrown the stone just a while ago from the city was broken to pieces. Bringing these 20 dwarves with him was another one of his preparatory ideas that had worked wonders. He had heard how good the dwarves were with their building and mining from Eragon and so had contacted the dwarves asking them to help him in deploying the trebuchets. The dwarves had obliged by sending 20 of their kinsmen with Roran's army. Their unerring aim at the city's catapults was the reason for the minimal damage caused by them. They had broken eleven such engines in the ten hour siege and the city seemed not to have anymore catapults.

The archers were ready for the next shot. The leader of the archers indicated it to Roran and Roran gave his signal to go on with the attack. A whoosh noise was heard as the archers released their arrows. A few more of the Empire soldiers were taken down. Meanwhile, the gate started crashing and Roran shouted, "Soldiers. Arrange yourselves. We are going into the city." On his command every soldier of the Varden arranged themselves in attack formation. Roran was very well aware that the gate would act as a funnel for the Varden. So he placed his best fighters in the front of the arrangement after asking the elves to protect them with wards. He was on the second line pitching himself against the first wave of attacks by the Empire.

Once the gate crashed open completely, the battering ram unit dispersed as fast as they could and the first line of the Varden entered the city. The line was spearheaded by the elves who were fast and strong. They cut down the defenses of the Empire soldiers as soon as they entered the city leaving the soldiers open and confused for attack by the second line in which Roran was present. Roran smashed his hammer on the head of a soldier as he raced in mounted on Snowfire. He was satisfied that his plan had worked. The first line of impressive soldiers had ran through the ranks of the empire soldiers quickly creating confusion in the empire's ranks. The second line of Varden which had comprised of accomplished fighters including himself, had made good use of the confusion killing as many empire soldiers as possible before they were able to regroup and launch another attack.

As he raced through the city, Roran noticed the low number of soldiers of the Empire on the streets and quickly guessed that most were in the centre of the town guarding the keep where most people might have taken refuge as well as where the town's lord or lady whoever it was waited. He had seen this eventuality arise in the end. But in no way, did he think the siege would lead up to this point in half-a-day. It struck him how weak and forlorn the people of the town might be to succumb in such a short time. Pity swelled in his mind as he thought of the siege of Carvahall. But he knew that this wasn't killing of villagers as the empire had done. It was the struggle to change power from incapable hands to capable hands. He called all of his subordinate leaders and conveyed them the plan he already had in his mind to use when this situation arose.

*          *          *          *          *           *           *          *

The archers of the Varden moved as silently as possible through the streets surrounding the Keep of the town of Aroughs. Five building surrounding the Keep were identified by the spying elves as fit for climbing up the roofs by "mortals". Roran watched from the shadows of night as his archers found their way through the closely packed buildings. He held his breath and prayed under his breath that the movement of the archers of the Varden would go unnoticed. Suddenly there was a commotion in the upper levels of the Keep and an arrow was shot at an archer killing him instantly. Roran lost faith in prayers at that point but there weren't anymore attacks from the keep which meant that the archer who was shot was the only one spotted by the empire.

When the archers were in position, the mind-speaker of the archers contacted Roran's friend and spell-caster Carn to inform of their success. When Roran was delivered the news, he let out a breath in relief. Roran then asked Carn to contact the elves and ask them to initiate their attack. The elves were to kill the patrol-men stationed on the different levels of the not-so-big Keep. They had indicated that they could do so and Roran although didn't know how it was possible was glad that it could be done. Otherwise, severe damage would be inflicted upon the Varden's foot soldiers.

Roran waited with his sub-commanders for the elves to commence their attack. He was keenly watching the Keep. After about four minutes, three soldiers fell from the top most level of the Keep and it indicated that the elves had begun their attack. Roran ordered his sub-commanders to take charge of their respective units. Every sub-commander directed their horses toward the waiting Varden soldiers and Roran accompanied them. He had two-hundred soldiers under his direct command. The Varden soldiers surrounded the battering ram unit in a protective way. They started marching towards the keep with steady steps.

The empire soldiers stationed for patrol on the keep's various levels were clueless about what was striking them as many of them fell dead either by peculiarly strong arrows or being hit by some kind of fireballs or as if on their own. They weren't in any state to attack the approaching Varden. Roran observed this and thanked silently every god in the land for giving him the idea of asking for the elves help. Only very few of the patrolling soldiers were in the state to attack the Varden and so the task of taking on the whole of the Varden's force fell on the shoulders of the foot soldiers.

There were about a thousand foot soldiers of the empire judging from the size of the defensive line they had established. Roran asked Carn to contact the mind-speaker of the archers to inform that it was time to attack. In another thirty seconds, the whoosh of the arrows filled the air and many soldiers of the empire lay on the ground dead. In the next half-minute, another clutch of arrows had been sent into the empire's ranks killing many this time too. Thus even before hand-to-hand combat began, Roran had made sure that the defenses of the empire was considerably weakened. Strengthened by his victory, Roran charged snowfire forward confidently.

One soldier of the empire on horseback tried to slash at him with his sword. Roran swayed away from the sword's reach and quickly regaining his composure swung his hammer to smash it into the man's chest crushing it. He kicked Snowfire's flanks urging him to move faster. As he passed a foot soldier, Roran crashed his hammer into the man's helmet and snowfire's speed was enough to break open his skull. Racing snowfire further, Roran managed to kick aside two soldiers who died soon trampled by horses. All the while, he made sure the Varden didn't break formation in the heat of battle. It was very important if the battering ram unit was to be brought near the door unharmed. His insistence on not breaking formation had some negative effects though because many soldiers on the fringe had to die because of over-engagement with empire soldiers. But the Varden soldiers were ready to sacrifice their lives for ensuring this crucial victory.

Roran, who never liked to see the death of people under him-his friends-was motivated by the sacrificial quality of his men and doubled his attack ferocity. The empire soldiers who stood before him never escaped the grip of death and Snowfire seemed to know the urgency of its master, moving faster towards the door of the Keep. Once they were within a certain reachable distance from the gate, the Varden broke formation, engaging ferociously with the remaining empire soldiers. The battering ram unit's way was cleared by a marching group of horse-mounted Varden soldiers and thus the battering ram was being moved towards the gate.

Once the battering ram unit reached the door, the Varden covered them protectively. The two-hundred-odd soldiers of the empire who remained tried to regroup commanded by a single man, whom Roran assumed to be a captain. Spurring snowfire towards that man with a zeal, Roran let out a wild war cry. The man who was also mounted on a stallion, turned around just in time to deflect away from a wild swing of Roran's hammer. Roran turned snowfire around and before he could regain his balance on the saddle that he had lost because of the swing at thin-air, the captain struck on his back pushing him off to the ground. But Roran was quick to throw his hammer at the captain's horse's leg making it lose its balance and fall over. The captain severely wounded just like Roran got up from the ground with some difficulty.

Both of them-Roran and the captain-circled each other. The captain brought his sword towards Roran's heart in a swift motion. But Roran had expected such a move and he side-stepped the attempted plunge-through-the-heart move. But the captain was quick to regain his composure not allowing Roran time to swing his hammer. The captain then swung his sword toward Roran's sides. Roran brought his hammer to the side just in time to stop the sword. The force the captain had put in the swipe was evident as he struggled to recompose himself from Roran's deflection of his sword. Roran used this opening and crashed his sword into the man's left hand. He howled in pain. But held on to his sword determinedly. The pain in his hand acting as a sort of catalyst, the captain entered into a series of strong blows aimed at Roran all of which Roran deflected in the last second owing to the heaviness of his hammer. Soon the hammer's weight seemed too much for him and his reflexes became slow. He earned a cut below his shoulder as a result of his slow defense. But soon the man's raw energy that seemed to come as a revenge for his smashed hand fell and Roran found that he could attack the man. He put in all his strength in lifting the hammer fast and bringing it down on the man's chest. The man resisted bringing his sword in front of the hammer in time; but the force behind Roran's attack was too much that his sword was pushed down and plunged into his own armour killing him. Snowfire stood behind Roran calmly seeming oblivious to the war around him waiting for his master to join him. Roran patted the horse and got on his saddle.

With the death of that man, the empire soldiers were bereaved of their last commander and started running amuck. It was then easy for the Varden soldiers to either kill or arrest the soldiers of the empire. The battering ram was hitting the door steadily and door started showing signs of giving away. Meanwhile the elves joined Roran and informed him that they had taken care of all of the patrol-soldiers of the keep.

Now Roran waited for the door to crash-open. He mused the state of the women and children in the Keep. He knew that they would now be probably cursing him to have the most painful death. He knew he would have done the same type of cursing if somebody had barged into his home in that way. As he was musing this way, something felt wrong; terribly wrong. Something was calling him. It was giving him some message. Telling him that something had gone astray for some loved one somewhere. At last he figured out that it was the ring; the ring that Eragon had given him and Katrina. His first thought was Katrina. He sweated all-over. But somewhere in his tired mind he knew that it was Eragon who was in trouble. He knew not how. But he knew it was Eragon who was in trouble.

Just then the door creaked and the elves and a few soldiers entered the Keep and killed some ten-odd soldiers guarding the inside of the Keep. They then looked at Roran for his command. But Roran was in no mood to do anything. He fought with his mind for control; he fought the fear that longed to take over him. With every ounce of his remaining courage Roran said, "Who is the lord of the city?" An elderly man stood from his seat. "I am. Don't do anything to my citizens. I will surrender." "We are not barbarians to do anything to women and children. We only need the land freed of tyranny", Roran said as if to reassure himself about the mission that he had taken up. "Then why do you attack our city. We have always been peaceful.", the man asked. "You are. But your King isn't. He will use your city to attack us if he can. Your city was a risk. But rest assured. Under our rule, you will be more prosperous", Roran said. But his voice betrayed the fear rising in him. The old man nodded. "You can be seated.", Roran said not wanting to keep an elderly noble standing and not wanting to extend the dialogue he was having with the man in the terror he was feeling within his mind.

"Contact Lady Nasuada. Now.", Roran said to one elf. Seeing Roran's seriousness, the elf took a pitcher filled with water from the keep and went outside. Roran followed him. Once they had reached outside the commotion of the soldiers and people, the elf placed the pitcher on the ground and started casting spells. Roran was filled with too much worries to notice what the elf was saying. His mind raced through the possibilities. He knew Eragon wasn't dead. His mind would tell him if he was; Eragon had explained how the ring worked. He was alive. But Eragon had been close to mortal danger and his state was still not good. "You can speak, stronghammer", the elf said bringing Roran out of his musing. "What is it, Roran?", Nasuada looked like she had been raised from sleep. "Have you captured the city yet?" "Yes, my lady. We have.", Roran said as if it wasn't important at all. "Then the last steps of our defense is over.", Nasuada sounded energetic. But she noticed Roran's dejected demeanor and she asked, "What happened, Stronghammer?" "Its.... It may be nothing, my lady. But.... I feel like something bad has occurred..", Roran stuttered with his words. Somebody came in Nasuada's tent and she spoke with the new arrival in short words, "Your wife. It is she who has come.", Nasuada said. "Oh... What for?", Roran asked. "Eragon is in trouble, Roran", Katrina said only her voice coming through. She seemed deeply worried. "How do you know?", Nasuada wasn't believing although her voice was softer than usual. "This", Roran and Katrina showed their respective rings to Nasuada. Nasuada gasped. Roran looked like a wounded animal wanting to attack somebody. Katrina was an image of sadness. The lone elf who stood by Roran was stunned silent.

Author's Note:

The first chapter in Roran's POV. Hope he was in character. I know he doesn't muse about killings like Eragon does. But being a fearsome warrior, that trait seemed a little more nobler. And Roran had conceded to Eragon that he had visions of the men he killed. Other than those simple parts where Roran thinks of Aroughs as Carvahall, I have done Roran just as Christopher Paolini does; a great leader of men.