The Battle of Thornwall was fought forty-three miles from the capital, and the battle was different.
Fifteen thundermakers on the barbarian ridgeline. Fifteen weapons firing in the staggered sequence that the reduced count produced: one impact every nine seconds. Nine seconds between impacts. Nine seconds of breath. Nine seconds of aiming and firing and ducking that the soldiers in the earthworks used with the efficiency that survival demanded and that the Baron of Frost's twenty-five-day campaign had purchased.
