“I know,” Landon interrupted, “I remember the excitement of youth. As I was saying, a modrig is two hundred and fifty men, while a ludus is five hundred.”
“So a second and first lance must be in charge of all of them,” Fil reasoned.
“Yes, there are two second lance knights and they each are in charge of an akron, which is a thousand, while the first lance is in charge of all two thousand.”
“I see, so Lathrin is a strong warrior?” Jonas asked.
“He is, but it is not always the strongest warriors who make higher rank. They must also be sound thinkers and men of intellect,” Landon informed them. “Battles are won for many reasons, just one of them being the ability to fight. There are many other characteristics of a successful army. If things go well here you will both likely learn what I am talking about.”
“I can’t wait,” Fil said exitedly.
Jonas smiled, gazing at the column of knights marching ahead of them.
Fil and Jonas sat in the wagon with mouths and eyes open in wonder. Finarth was huge, and neither of them could imagine a community this large. The lands surrounding the city were blanketed with homes where farmers and herders lived. Landon explained that the land outside the city was cheaper with lower taxes. Inside the city lived the artisans, merchant elite, and the noble families who occupied most government positions.
They received a few looks from the many people along the road, but for the most part the citizens acted as if they were accustomed to seeing merchant caravans and armed knights.
Fil and Jonas looked on, noticing that these people didn’t seem much different from the hardy mountain folk they knew. No one was idle and everyone, from children to the elderly, was doing something of use.
As they drew near to the city gates Jonas was amazed at the immensity of Finarth. An outer wall twenty paces high surrounded the city. It was made from thick cut stone, each the size of a wagon. As far as Jonas could see the wall was lined with battlements and armed men walked it with vigilance. But what really amazed Jonas was that he could see an even larger wall behind it. It looked to be over forty paces high, standing like a cliff, impenetrable and indestructible. Jonas, peering ahead of the column, saw that the gate was open and the knights were already moving inside.
“This is incredible,” Fil muttered.
“Wait until you see inside those gates,” Landon said. “This is just the outer wall.”
As they neared the gate Jonas noticed the huge gate house. It looked like it had the strength of a small mountain. The gate itself was built from cut timbers each the size of a large man and laced together with solid bands of black steel. It was so immense that Jonas wondered how it was opened and closed.
But it was the scene beyond the gate that really caught the boys’ attention. Landon had not exaggerated. There was an expanse of flat completely empty land well over a hundred paces wide. At the edge of that was a small stone wall about waist high that formed a perimeter around a moat that stretched all the way flush to the inner wall. The stone path they were on led to a tremendous bridge made of stone spanning fifty paces across the expanse of water before merging into an open landing twice as big as the first.
Jonas swept his eyes over the impressive site and for the first time on his travels he was speechless.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Landon said, smiling at the astonished boys. “That there,” he said, pointing to the empty land separating the first wall from the moat, “is the killing ground. Anyone that manages to make it over the wall or through the gate, will bunch up here before the moat or bridge where they will face the onslaught of spearmen and archers.”
The boys, still speechless, slowly looked around not wanting to miss a thing.
The moat was filled with gently flowing dark water and was easily fifty paces wide. Jonas stood up, craning to look over the side of the bridge to the water below, but it was too dark and deep. The bridge itself was over twenty paces wide and the large column of knights and Landon’s merchant caravan easily fit across it.
The wagon came to a halt as the knights were funneling into the large inner gate. Jonas was able to briefly view