It took less than an hour for the Summer Villa to fall completely. It wasn't a proper fortress, but it was still defended by a knight and dozens of soldiers, with a stout curtain wall and enough supplies to withstand a brief siege. Yet none of that had mattered in the face of the force Ashlynn had assembled to destroy the Summer Villa, and the treasured Lothian Estate fell before the sun had risen high enough in the sky to stop touching the hilltops in the east.
A few of Ashlynn's soldiers had been wounded in the battle, and each one of them trudged down the hill or was carried by their companions in order to receive healing from the Mother of Trees.
Ashlynn's face had gone white and pale as she stood over one of the Tuscans, who had taken several arrows to his legs along with more than half a dozen torches hurled by humans at his head and torso while he and the rest of Ipoktok's men assaulted the portcullis.
