“What does His Majesty need?” Ash asked, genuinely interested.
“I want you to go to East Arabista, to the walled city of Zadastra.”
The border town of Zadastra was considered one of the most fortified cities in the four surrounding kingdoms. In its two hundred years of existence, it was captured only once—when its bribed governor willingly gave away the keys of its gates. There were about a dozen guns on the walls and almost seven thousand troops in the barracks. However, rumors had it that they were so good that there might as well have been twenty-five thousand of them. Considering that he had three cannons, one siege mortar, and twenty hundred men under his command, put Ash at a serious disadvantage. In addition to the thick outer wall, there was an equally thick inner one.
“I’ll
