Tales of Gallanol : Ch.5 Caerella (Part 1)

Chapter 5 : Caerella

Part 1

(Written  21/5/2084)

    Caerella was a beautiful city. It was the oldest Gallanolian city still in existence. Rodin 1, the founder of Emywid, had lived here before he moved south with his people, well over a thousand years ago. After Emywid, Ellion, Celeswid, Lanardyl and Carthen it was the sixth biggest of the many Gallanolian cities of the early twelfth century. Its position on two steep hills, contained in a half loop by the wide and navigable Ella, dominated the otherwise relatively flat Ellavale, which stretched for many miles to the east. The city was on the north bank of the river, encircled by two tall and ornate walls. The inner wall stretched along the outer side of the twin hills, which were really twin peaks of the same hill, enclosing an amphitheatre-like city, stretching tier by tier down to the wharfs on the eastern stretch of the river. The lesser peak was walled itself. There were colonnaded barracks, built into this wall, and below them, massive wooden gates from which large numbers of troops might issue down into the city. If the city ever held enough soldiers to fill all the barracks it contained it would be a surprise. There were barracks in the small third peak in the loop of the river, where the towering Little Fortress stood. The Little Fortress was only little in comparison to the massive Palace on the second peak. The Little Fortress was a mass of tall thin multi-turrets, steepled, and stretching to varied lengths. The tallest tower was a third as high again as the next one. It seemed an anarchic creation. The architect who built it must have been endowed with the vision of a God who created the Saullon Fell Mountains or the soft hills above Lanardyl. There were reputedly thirteen towers, each of a different diameter and different length. And yet they were all of the same basic design.

     The bastions of the Little Fortress continued the circular shape of the turrets into the sheer exposed rock of the third peak, which itself was not particularly tall. The Little Fortress was, like the buildings of Emywid, built of marble whitestone, quarried mainly in the hills of Lanardein and northern Prydein, but also in the province of Laer in eastern Baerwys, but it was alone among the buildings of Caerella in this: marble whitestone was not cheap in Elladein. Even the Palace on the second peak was not built of it.

     The Palace was built of the same stone as the city walls: soft brown, almost fawn Agal stone, quarried near Morith in Elladein. Today the stone was little used in building, except by the most wealthy and ostentatious merchant families, because it could only be found near Morith, and its value was very high. When the the city walls and the Palace had been built during the ninth century, at a tie when Cinder Folk were becoming numerous in Gallanol and there was first need for defence against foreign peoples, the stone had not been considered expensive. The walls had been used in the tenth and early eleventh centuries against Telmartan, Assurian, Tunian, Martan and Norenician raiders. But in Elladein at least, things had settled down in the last eighty years or so. The Martan peoples had become relatively settled to the west and southwest. The Telmartans had followed the River Ella to the Great River, and the Great River through the Great Divide to empty Telmarta to the east. The arrival of the peaceable Nardyrrians fro the north in the last eighty years had created a stable and friendly buffer state between Gallanol and the barbarian Norenicians, the Northern Cinder Folk nations. The emergent power of Martainia was beyond Assuria to the south and southwest, and did not concern Elladein as yet. The Assurians, akin to the Martainians, were less numerous, and their Kings and Barons welcomed trade.

(written 24/5/84)

     The present Palace had been built in the ninth century. But its purpose was never defensive. The walls were picturesque and artistically motivated, but the notion that resistance would be necessary in the Palace alone in rich and wealthy Gallanol in those days, was unheard of. The wall builders feared attack from barbarian raiders, but those barbarian raiders would never have attempted to lay a long siege to a Gallanolian city in an attempt to occupy it.

      That fear was a new fear, a new arrival of the last few years of Martainian rise in particular, although the Telmartan invasion of 1023-25 was the first real shock to the Gallanolian peace which had in practice lasted hundreds of years. Then the whole of the Telmartan nation had swept south into Elladein and Baerwys in retreat from wars with the Assurians and Norenicians. The Telmartan leaders, Tula, and Jon the Rotter, his son, had led the nation intact to the south, offering the vision that they could oust the Gallanolians and claim the ready made fields and herds for their own. The Telmartans lived off, and pillaged, Elladein and Baerwys for months, laying siege to Caerella for a few months, and appearing outside Emywid. Gallanol had never faced such a full scale invasion before, and it retreated behind its walls. The Telmartans were never concentrated enough in their efforts to enter Caerella, but for over a year they controlled the countryside. Many rural travellers were killed. Finally a large army was raised in the south, which cut short the Emywid siege. The Telmartans realised they could not conquer the cities and withdrew, this time into the large eastern lands, which became Telmarta, or Great Telmarta.

     The Palace was an artistic supremacy, built in the ninth century by Aedh of Elladein, following his fashion conscious tastes. It was perhaps the most splendid example of the revolutionary Creadd styles of the time, to which symmetry, flowing length and smooth lines were all important. The Palace was rectangular. Tall, smooth circular columns acted as buttresses down the two long sides. Below them neat symmetrical steps ran to the edge, where great blocks of Agal stone, decorated with massive carvings of fashionable young society, dressed in flowing robes, trousers which flared down the leg, and with varied hairstyles often with symmetrical fringes. Females had similar varied haircuts , in length and style, but went for big, simple looped earrings on both sides. Adventurous women often wore two or even three earrings, hanging from each other. Aedh was a young man in the 830’s, when he built the Palace, a passionate devotee of Creaddism, although he moderated his artistic passions as he grew older with his generation. On the ends of the Palace were tall doorways of carved and painted wood, which could be opened on warm summer nights for parties. Each level of the Palace was built to the same plan, only smaller, and there were four levels. On the top of the fourth level the roof was flat, and walled by a small wall, again inlaid with carvings. Parties could be held on the top, or the fashionable sunbathing of the Creadd period. From the top a panoramic view of Caerella and Ellavale could be viewed. Only the first peak obstructed the view to the horizon.

     Prince Trahearn, the son of King Lew, turned away from the messenger to his wife Morgana. “There is a negotiator from the southern army at the gatehouse on the South Bank. He is on his way up here. I think you know him – Jovian of Gorn.”

      “Yes, I know him,” replied Morgana. “A boyfriend of mine nearly ten years ago! We went to the same school.” She laughed. “I never thought to meet him like this in the middle of a war. Fate moves in mysterious ways. I will meet him too. It may be an advantage if he knows me.”

     “You still love him, don’t you?” said Trahearn, without a hint of jealousy. Their love was strong, tried and tested.

      “Oh, I always loved him, attention seeker and social climber that he was,” she replied teasingly.

     “Pleased to hear it,” laughed Trahearn. “This is serious business, though. They will want us to surrender. We have little chance of winning the struggle. The city leaders do not want to fight. They say it is better to give in at the start than to suffer a long siege. They think we could get better terms if we surrendered now.”

     “They have a point, Trahearn. As the city’s leaders we have a duty to protect the people. Deneldinhew is strongly supported and popular in the south. King Lewden of Paldein has no chance of defeating Baerwys together with Lanardein, Galdellyn and Falwent. Rhodri and Prydein will not resist. Is there any worth in pointless war?”

     “But Father has gone to Morith. If he can gather a large enough army, he may be able to relieve the siege,” said Trahearn, hopefully.

     “Where will he get it from, Trahearn?” asked Morgana. “See sense. Norenician mercenaries cannot be trusted. We cannot afford any more anyway, without all the merchants behind us. They know we are on to a loser, and Deneldinhew is onto a winner. If he had stayed in the south they would have supported us. Your father is a good King. He knows where the interests of the people are. They all support him, but not when the cause is hopeless. Not when Deneldinhew has amassed the largest army Gallanol has ever known and he has decided to come north and conquer.” She paused, but he could not answer.

     “The Nardyrrians support your father, but they are not militarily strong, and they would never think of going to war. The Assurians might become involved, but only in their own interests. They would demand payment or the possession of mines, and they would always be on their guard against Martainia. Martainia could use a major Gallanolian civil war which involved Assuria as an excuse, either to invade Assuria or to invade Gallanol. Do we want resistance at the price of allowing Martainia to expand? The Unificationists and Deneldinhew’s supporters are right when they fear Martainia. Your father knows that. He will never let the Martainians in.”

     “We cannot surrender unless Father agrees,” said Trahearn. “If Jovian says they will let Father keep his throne, we will negotiate. I will send for Father if that happens, and we will give way to some of Deneldinhew’s proposals in return. But I will not surrender if they say he must be dethroned.”

     “If they say you can have the throne on their terms, that should be agreeable too. Your father is an old man; he would agree to it if he had to,” added Morgana.

     Trahearn nodded, “Perhaps.” He did not look too happy.