A century ago the prospect of laying siege to the Satume would have been a formidable one but now it was all too easy. Then hundreds of soldiers would have been garrisoned, every crack in the twenty meter high wall vigilantly patched, every gate barred with steel. But time and relative peace had conspired to soften these defenses.
Now the former fort was guarded by a handful of sentries with all the urgency of a snake sunning itself on a warm afternoon. The walls had long ago been surrendered to ivy and the gates were slowly losing the fight against rot and rust.
Once the taking of the Satume would have been a challenge for a man like Aporum. It would have been a test of his mind and manhood. Strength pitted against strength and mind against mind but now it would be easy and quick. The Satum was surrounded as a leaf carried softly in the wind is caught in an instant by leaping flames. And Apocrum was determined that the Satum would fall, burn, and surrender to him the heart of more than one nation.
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