CHAPTER 131: PARLEY

Once Princess Alexis was out of the shower, she motioned for Dominic to go in.

"You still smell like gunpowder and magic. It’s not bad, but you should wash and change out of your armour. The enemy is in no shape to attack again this morning, even if they want to." She insisted.

"Yes, Princess. But it’s afternoon."

"Then put your armour back on after you shower. Who knows what that moron Albroles will order by nightfall."

Dominic showered and changed, then returned to the strategy room to see the Princess staring out the window.

"What do we see?" He asked.

"There is a messenger with the white flag of parley walking across the north fields. Get ready, we will take a car to the wall."

As they descended the stairs past Marquis Burton’s room, they saw him and his sons sitting silently, staring at the casket of his deceased wife. The boys looked like they’d aged a decade in a single night, and the Marquis himself couldn’t be called anything but broken.

Princess Alexis immediately dismissed asking him to accompany them, and left him with his grief.

The driver raced across the city, so they were at the North Wall when the flag bearer was still only a little over halfway across the open ground.

"What is the process for this? I didn’t get to that part of the book?" Dominic whispered.

"We speak to them from the walls. There is no fighting until they’re all the way back to their lines and the flag is put away out of sight." Alexis replied quietly.

The formally dressed nobleman holding the white flag of parley stopped ten metres from the wall and raised his voice.

"Might I ask: to whom I have the honour of speaking?" He called.

Alexis nodded for Dominic to answer on her behalf.

"Royal Sorcerer Dominic Wavemates on behalf of Her Highness Alexis, Ninth Princess of Cygnia."

The Nobleman nodded.

"Nigel, Second son of Viscount Staptontave greets the Princess and her advisor.

Last evening, Duke Albroles was most unfortunately lost in battle, along with his entire Command Retinue. As the Ranking Noble remaining in the force, I wish to negotiate the peaceful withdrawal of troops from the theatre, and the collection of the remains of our Noble Officers."

Dominic turned to Alexis, and she nodded, then held up her hand to indicate she would speak.

"Lord Nigel, under normal circumstances, the hostile actions of the Dagos Army would leave no room for a peaceful withdrawal. However, given the gravity of the loss of Duke Albroles in battle, I will grant your request.

But I must ask, for our records, which Titled Nobles were lost in this engagement?"

The Nobleman sighed, and Dominic could see that the events of the morning had worn on him.

"Duke Albroles, all five of his sons, Prince Prescott, Lord General Albroles, plus the Barons of Dove, Gaston, Natalia, Dover and Greenbelt."

Dominic noted all that, and nodded gravely. Why the Duke had brought all five of his sons to the same battlefield was a mystery. Tactically, that was a terrible idea.

So, he asked.

"Was there a particular reason that all of the Albroles heirs were gathered on the battlefield?"

Lord Nigel shook his head and ran his fingers through his tangled black hair.

"They weren’t supposed to be. Three of his sons were airship Captains, and they weren’t assigned to the Burton region. But they were all shot down here. The other two were brought as witnesses for his intended marriage to the Princess after her surrender."

The last was barely audible, as if he didn’t really want them to hear it.

"Ah, yes. That makes sense. We received a letter to that effect." Dominic replied, as Princess Alexis looked like she was going to kill someone.

Lord Nigel bowed. "Thank you for your mercy, Your Highness. I will have the cleaners begin their work now."

He began to retreat, but Dominic stopped him with one last request.

"What method of burial does Dagos prefer for their dead?"

He knew that the answer was cremation, but he also knew that he could ask them to burn their own dead to remind them that they had made a tragic mistake in attacking the city of Burton.

"If you will allow us to clear our dead, we will perform a proper cremation ceremony before our withdrawal." Lord Nigel offered.

Princess Alexis nodded and raised her voice, so she would be heard down the wall.

"We will allow you to gather and cremate your dead. But if your force does not withdraw after, we will consider it a complete disregard for Noblesse Oblige, and order our riflemen to target your Officers in all future engagements." She announced.

That already happened, but it wasn’t an open and deliberate thing. Killing the Ranking Noble was an easy way to victory, but targeting every Noble Soldier in the ranks would be a disaster for their lineages.

"I understand, Your Highness." He replied tightly, then turned and walked away.

Not long after he reached the lines and planted the white flag on a pole, keeping it flying to signal the ceasefire, the Dagos soldiers began sorting the battlefield, separating the officers from the enlisted men, and the Titled Nobles from the rest of the Officers.

The process would take many hours, as there were far more dead than there were living, and the force looked like there was a disease running rampant through them.

At some point, they had brought the majority of the soldiers from the south up to join the other forces, and that must have spread whatever illness they had to the rest of the soldiers.

But they kept at their work, cleaning the dead and arranging them in piles to be cremated.

The funeral pyres lit the night sky, a macabre reminder of the battle’s true cost, but by morning, the survivors were packed up and leaving to the north with whatever they could carry.

"Was it wise to let them clear the battlefield? They will have taken as much of the wealth and magitech as possible back to Dagos with them." One of the city mages asked as Dominic and Alexis returned to the wall to watch the enemy depart.

"Indeed, but in the minds of the common soldiers, who are unlikely to see a cent of their promised pay from their dead Noble masters, we will be the compassionate ones. The Royal Lady, who allowed them a chance to salvage some dignity as they returned home." Alexis replied.

And it would crush morale if they were sent against her again.