Albie walked down the street. The smoke cloud hung over the city. The soot bothered the sick man's lungs. Instead of using the life force in blood stones or his living family he just suffered through the coughing fits. His lungs were always going to be a problem until he finally stopped breathing. The life energy was better spent keeping him standing straight.
The mage surveyed the street. A handful of dead horses had become the feed for the raven beasts. The giant rats piked at the straps of the knights' armor and dragged the weapons into the sewers.
"Leave the armor on," ordered Albie. The rats looked at him and with a whisker twitch before dispersing.
The bodies would work well as undead. A plate armored corpse was a terrifying thing to face doubly so since all the orange coats knew who the bodies were. A dead knight meant something at least the mage though it did. Some of the bodies might be cooked inside the armor but the body would probably still work.
The mage looked at the most valuable body. A dead sun mage was full of useful pieces. The heart especially. The mage cut the heart out and began to draw runes on it with Cats' moon stone. The runes of moonlight would keep the heart fresh. The heart might be fastened into a device that creates mage blood. It would save the blood he would have to spill himself to make bloodstones.
The rats drag the body away.
"Drain the blood in the kitchen," ordered the mage. "It has a lot of uses."
Seeing the solar mage dragged of the mage remembered the star mages book. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked for the page that had freed itself from the wax.
Sergeant of Arms Maxum Blunt is a man I had plans for. His being used to support a man destined to die a bandit frustrates me. He is a great military mind I had planned to start a school to elevate common folk. You would get tremendous value out of his mind. He has now rallied his men and the trades men to break down the west wall and escape. He has cannons and the less arrogant knights and bastards. If he escapes you will die before you can achieve your revenge. Your best chance to stop him will be tomorrow night at the west wall. If you do not stop him before he leaves the city you might be able to stop his company, but you will not be able to stop him. The next page will be unsealed after the cannons destroy the wall.
The note implies that no matter what he does the Sergeant of Arms will nock down the wall. He would need to prepare to send his family against the orange coats.
The note said the less arrogant knights and riders would be with him. That implies the arrogant ones will be alone.
"Scab," thought Albie to his son. "How goes the assault."
"We have used the last bomb on the north barricade," responded the wight. "We captured 2 banners. They have retreated behind the brick walls and are using fire to stop us. We have a plan to get through the walls."
"let me know how it goes," responded Albie. "Have the grey lady round up the workshop. If your attempt fails pull back, the remaining corpses will be needed for a battle tomorrow night. I have reason to believe that you will not be able to dig the orange coats out."
"How do you know I will fail?" asked Scab hurt bleeding into his thoughts.
"The star mage has predicted that tomorrow night canons destroy the west wall," answered the moon mage.
"You trust the star mage that much?" asked the dead man.
"I don't know much about the star mage," responded Albie. "He is the closest thing I have to a father, but I know very little about him. All I can say for certain is that he knows almost everything and that a star mage is a mage."
"He knows everything?" asked Scab.
"He is the keeper of grimoires, the binder of souls, and claims to arrange the future," explained Albie. "I have seen enough of his predictions to believe he can protect the future."
"A human has just thrown himself at my construct and destroyed its leg," thought the dead man. "I never imagine they would do such a thing. I shall pull back or now. We shall fix the construct by tomorrow night."
"What is the construct?" asked Albie.
"Page 76," responded Scab.
Albie pulled out Abomination Warfare as he began to walk back home. He flipped the book to page 76 to see a sketch of a collection of stone slabs bound together by human muscle. A large T with legs was its general shape. The thought of a man sacrificing himself to destroy the leg of such a thing was amazing.
The will or loyalty it would take for a man to do such a thing was amazing. It was easy to make some mindless thing blow itself up. It speaks of the Sergeants leadership to inspire such actions in those under him.
Cleaning up the remaining noble soldiers who decided to stay behind could be done tonight. He would leave it to the lurkers and wights to finish them off. In the mean time there were contraptions to build and beasts to improve.