Dense thickets of pine trees lined the road to Trantia.
The forest floor was a thick bed of fallen pine needles, shrubberies, fallen trees, and rocks. Only the road was clear of debris, and tree trunks lined the forest path to keep forest debris and water clear.
August scanned his surroundings while his automaton horse barreled forward at a full gallop.
The horse took care of itself, so his mind was free to focus on other things.
A small part of his mind focused itself on the squirming beastkin girl holding on to him for dear life. Her warmth bled into him, and he felt the constant pressure of her body pressing against him.
She was a pleasant distraction.
The rest of his mind concerned itself with disparities between what he thought he knew about the Empire and what he observed.
This area hadn't been heavily populated or worked for centuries.
Somebody kept the dirt road clear, but the forest showed no signs of human activity.
If August tried to run through the forest, he'd trip over within seconds and crack his head open.
August was no expert on trees, so he had no clue how old these pines or the forest itself might be, but he knew that most forests weren't this dense.
Any nearby villages and towns would need wood to fuel their homes and industries.
There couldn't be many people living nearby, then. No wonder Gharrick Pass had been left abandoned for so long. There was nobody to protect.
This was the wilderness. He'd been sent to the boonies.
The ride took less than an hour. The fact the horse didn't slow down or rest at all made the trip extremely fast.
A small town loomed in the distance.
"No smoke plumes," August said. "They haven't done anything to the town yet. Let's find a vantage point."
With a mental nudge, August directed the horse to a nearby hill.
The forest thinned out and vanished well short of the town, and the pair had passed a couple of tiny villages on the way.
Now the terrain was flat and open. Any besiegers could see August and Fei coming without even trying.
Trantia looked to be intact. A wall surrounded the entire town, and August could see undeveloped space within the town.
Whoever had designed the wall had planned ahead.
Or perhaps they had overestimated the growth of the town.
There wasn't much to see. A large manor house. A town hall far too large for the size of the town. A mishmash of houses built in wildly different eras.
August reckoned some buildings were as old as the Empire, and others younger than Fei.
A shimmering blue dome hung over the town.
"Does every town have that?" Fei asked, pointing at the magical barrier.
"Border forts and towns, usually," August replied. "Cities use a more limited variation in their walls."
"Why only at the borders?"
Memories of refugees fleeing burning towns and armies wiped out overnight in "state-of-the-art" fortresses came to August's mind.
The demonic hordes had shown little respect for the wondrous power of sorcery.
"Barriers are a fairly new technology. They haven't been tested or made economical yet," August said, telling a half-truth.
This was the reason a normal Bastion would give. Someone who hadn't seen the barriers fail in the future.
"Econo—" Fei blinked. "What?"
"They cost too much to be worth it for now. The Empire would go bankrupt building them everywhere."
Fei nodded. August didn't remember her being so… uneducated.
She was cute, but he couldn't help but want to teach her all the things she had known by the time he had met her in his timeline.
"I guess that's why those bandits haven't broken in," Fei said, pointing at the mob of the people camped outside the walls. "There's so many of them."
"Really? That's your reaction to that tiny group?"
"Eh?"
August hid his smirk. If he smirked too much, he'd come across as condescending and arrogant to Fei, and he wanted her to like him.
Hopefully love him, eventually.
"What was the last thing you told me before we left?" he asked.
Fei paused. She held a finger to her lips for several seconds. Then she nodded.
"'I don't know how to ride,'" she said.
August glared at her. "Before that."
"Um… Something about how dangerous it was because Lady von Clair's soldiers couldn't handle the bandits?"
"Exactly. Now, how many bandits are there, and how many soldiers do you think Lady von Clair has?" August asked.
He waited while she counted the bandits one by one, then stared blankly at the town.
Almost a minute passed.
They were lucky that the bandits weren't on the lookout for reinforcements. Or maybe the bandits assumed that a single horse with two riders was too insignificant to worry about, given how far away August was sitting.
Both he and Fei had enhanced vision. He used the binding stone to see farther, and Fei's beastkin senses were vastly superior to a human.
Where the bandits could barely make them out, he and Fei could see the fine details of the bandits and their camp.
"Fifty-four bandits. Maybe a few more I can't see in the tents," Fei said.
"I know Lady von Clair has at least that many soldiers. Don't soldiers come in companies of a hundred?"
"It's her private army, so she can have as many as she likes in a company. But normally, yes," August said. "What does that tell you?"
"She should have sent her troops out to crush the bandits? I don't see any signs of battle."
"Which means a few possibilities." August began ticking off fingers.
"This is a trap intended to lure us or Nair in. The soldiers either aren't here or are terrified of the bandits, which I feel is unlikely if we're being called to help."
August held his last finger up. "Or, most likely, the bandits have a sorcerer of their own. It only takes one to upset the balance of a battle, and it explains why Lady von Clair's soldiers are hiding inside the town."
"They're that powerful?"
"Compared to us? No. Compared to ordinary soldiers?Absolutely.
A sorcerer's spells punch through steel plate, melt flesh, and harm dozens at a time.
Even if her soldiers win, Lady von Clair may lose half of them, and the bandits may simply retreat. Then they attack another day, and she has no soldiers left." August shrugged. "So, what is she to do?"
"Ask us for help?"
"Exactly. Even if this is a trap, there's still likely to be a sorcerer present."
"So this is a real battle then? Because there's a sorcerer?" Fei asked.
"More so than I thought," August said.
He dismounted the horse.
Fei watched him, remaining precisely where she was, her hands gripping the reins tightly.
With a thought, August commanded the horse to lower itself to the ground.
Fei screamed as the horse dropped, pressing herself against its neck. When nothing happened, she poked her head up and looked around.
"Oh." She giggled and jumped off the horse.
The bandits continued to mill about outside the town.
A handful of tents sat roughly a hundred meters from the walls, and a construction site was directly opposite the gatehouse.
Open wagons loaded with logs sat next to the construction site.
A half-dozen laborers were nailing the logs together into a frame. At the front of the site was a large hunk of misshapen steel.
A battering ram. Normally, it wouldn't be able to break through the magical barrier. But with the help of a sorcerer, it could.
"We'll take out the ram first," August explained, pointing out the construction site.
"I can't spot the sorcerer from here, so we'll need to look for one once we've drawn their attention. Once you spot him, dash in and take him out. I'll cover for you."
"Against fifty bandits?" Fei squealed.
"I told you before, it's not the bandits that we need to worry about. Don't worry about them." August gave her grin and ruffled her hair.
She ignored his attempts to boost her morale. "There's over fifty of them!"