“Good man.” Broden frantically tried to think if he needed to pass along anything else. The shore was in sight, he only had a few minutes. Ah, right. “Tell them to find Master Larek when they reach the docks, he’ll know where to put people.”
“Larek of Dahl? I thought so. Good man, that, got to know him when he was helping offload all of those merchant ships. I’ll send everyone to him.” Mark looked anxiously at the barrier, with the gaping crack running in a jagged line right through the middle. “How much longer do you think it will hold?”
Broden dearly wished he had an answer to that question. “Hopefully as long as it needs to.” He did not have a better answer than that and he was out of time anyway. The dinghy bumped into the dock and Broden leapt off, scrambling to find his footing and sprinting as soon as he had it.
Here, at least, he did not have to frantically search for someone. He could feel Ashlynn clearly through their bond and knew exactly where to go. He found all three wizards not in front of the barrier, as he had expected, but instead at the inn, broadcasting instructions to everyone. Broden listened with surprise as he ran up. Gerrard was literally on top of the roof, booming out in a voice that could have surpassed thunder: “IF YOU CAN FIGHT OR TRACK, GO TO THE ACADEMY! SPREAD THE WORD AS YOU GO AND BE THERE IN HALF AN HOUR! EVERYONE ELSE, HEAD TOWARD THE DOCKS! YOU WILL ESCAPE INTO ESTOLE. TAKE NOTHING WITH YOU!”
He kept repeating that over and over as Broden skidded to a halt in front of Ashlynn.
Ashlynn, bless her, did not wait for him to ask questions. She gave him a breakdown of the situation voluntarily in between issuing orders. “This barrier was too makeshift, it had several fundamental weaknesses because we were literally throwing it together. You know how—yes, go there, and no we don’t have room for any luggage, just go, Estole is preparing things for you, go, go!—what was I saying? Oh, right, you know how we had to build very strong pillars in order for the barrier to have a solid setting in front of Dahl and Estole? We didn’t have time to build that here. There were just simple wooden posts instead. But the wood is breaking, it can’t sustain that kind of magical energy for long without literally disintegrating.”
“Which is why ye be no’ even trying to fix it?”
“Exactly, no point.” Ashlynn paused for a young man that looked barely out of his teens. “I’m sorry, what did you ask?”
“I want to make sure my grandmother gets across safely, but I also want to fight. Can I come back after seeing her across?” the man repeated anxiously.
“I can’t guarantee you’ll have the time. Either go or stay,” Ashlynn directed.
For a moment he looked conflicted, not sure which was the better choice to make. Then he nodded, spun, and rushed off although not far before catching up with an old woman, presumably his grandmother. He took her arm and ushered her toward the docks, the grandmother struggling to hurry.
Broden was extremely sorry to hear that they could not somehow patch it and make do for a little longer. That had been his hope as he frantically made his way over here, although his realistic side had said the odds were not good on that option. “Ye cannot make another barrier?”
“Not one that functions the same,” Ashlynn denied with a frustrated shake of the head. “Not before this one fails completely. Kirsty is over there now, patching as she has to, making it last as long as possible. We need at least three hours to get everyone out of here and I’m honestly not sure if the barrier will last that long. I have a bad feeling we’ll have to erect a barrier over the center and hole up until we can get people shuttled to safer places. And escorting them is going to be an absolute nightmare with an army trying to get in.”
A nightmare that gave Broden a headache just thinking about it. “Best avoid that. I will head back down to the docks, load up people as fast as I can and toss anyone in that sets to arguing with the ferrymen.”
“Go,” Ashlynn encouraged. “Someone needs to, as people seemed oddly concerned with taking things with them.”
It was odd, but people were strangely materialistic, even in circumstances like these. Broden ran back to the docks, throat nearly dry from thirst. He would have given his eye teeth to be able to quaff down a tankard of water, but they did not have the luxury for that.
No surprise to anyone, there were people insisting on taking some sort of heirloom with them on the boats. The ferrymen had their hands full trying to get people loaded, and arguing with the stubborn ones as they worked. Broden waded into the middle of it, sometimes just taking the bundle out of the idiot’s hands and shoving them in, sometimes pitching the luggage into the water if they tried to argue the point further.
It was confusing, enough to make his head swim, as people swarmed on all sides. The boats were coming back and forth quickly, other boats joining in that were not part of the ferry, but fishermen local to the area that saw the problem and tried to help. Broden was not sure if Edvard had thought to send them or not but they were very welcome. The fishing boats could hold more than the ferry boats and so could evacuate people much more quickly.
Broden had no sense of how much time had passed until he forced himself to stop and actually look at the sun. Two hours? Had Kirsty managed to keep the barrier up that long? Looking about, he realized they only had another dozen people to load up. Was that really everyone? Worried, he jogged back through the streets, calling out to see if anyone was still lingering.
He did not receive any reply in return. Had everyone actually gone that quickly? Ganforth was not as heavily populated as Estole or Dahl, but they still had a fair number of people over here. Even with half of them going for the academy, Broden felt like they were a hundred people short at least. Maybe he had lost count in the confusion of loading people up, and some had gone on before he could even make it back to the docks after speaking with Ashlynn. Perhaps that was why his count was skewed.
Either way, it seemed his task was done. He headed back toward the docks and was greeted by a strange sight indeed. Four fishing boats were letting men off at the docks. As he watched, one of them finished unloading and quickly escaped back into the channel, returning to Estole. He was glad to see they had the sense to make sure there was no sea worthy vessel staying on the shoreline, but…what were all of these men and women doing here? He recognized more than a few faces, all of them either hunters or men he knew to have some fighting skills. Some of the women were ones that he and Riana had trained, fledgling guardsmen that hadn’t quite completed the course enough to actually take up the uniform.
Legs beyond tired, he nevertheless pushed himself into a lope so that he could catch up to them more quickly. As his feet touched the wooden docks, a face he knew very well turned and gave him a grin. “Master Larek!” he greeted in surprise.
“Master Broden,” the man responded, extending a hand and clasping it. “We’ve all come to help you fight the blaggards off. King Edvard was asking for volunteers, anyone that felt they could join in on the fight. Are we welcome?”
Broden honestly felt like crying. His eyes were wet with unshed tears. “Always.” Looking about, he saw that he had at least a hundred people. They were not the type he would put on a battlefield, but for what he had in mind, they were more than suited for the task. “Let’s get into the academy. Fast and snell, now, afore the barrier collapses completely.”
“Lead the way,” Larek encouraged. “Most of us have never been over here before and aren’t sure where the academy even is.”
Broden immediately took off, encouraging people to keep up with him. He took the next street right and headed for the academy. Fortunately it was not far and when he rounded a corner and came within sight of the main doors, he spotted Ashlynn impatiently shifting from foot to foot, waiting on him. He dredged up adrenaline from somewhere to run the short distance to her. Ashlynn grabbed his arm as soon as he was within reach, jerking him all the way inside and shouted at the others, “Quickly, quickly, quickly!”
As soon as the last person passed her, she sl
ammed the door shut. “They’re in!” she yelled at someone out of sight.
The barrier around the academy snapped up and audibly hummed as it settled into place. Broden braced his hands on his knees, dragging in breath. He was seriously getting too old for this. “Everyone in?”
“Yes. Everyone out?” she demanded.
“I think so, aye. I ran through the streets calling to people but got no’ a word in reply. Hopefully we caught them all.” If not, they were on their own. “The outer barrier?”
“Will fail any second.” Ashlynn let out a long breath, stressed and anxious, but trying not to be overwhelmed by the feelings. “You were literally the last person we were waiting on. Kirsty did her best but after a certain point she hit a limit. She said the Iyshian soldiers are just hovering out there, ready to pounce.”
A terrifying thought, that. “Lass, I hate to ask, but what about Estole’s docks?”
“Fortunately, we had to set up a separate system for them. Because there were a lot of brick and stone buildings—the warehouses—in place already, we just used them to set up the barrier on that side. That part is still intact. Mostly. I mean, someone clever can still swim under, but an army isn’t going to be marching through.”
Broden knew they kept saying that was a weakness, but it was not much of one to his mind. That was ice cold water, filled with winter runoff from the mountains, and would freeze a man if he was in it for too long. And once he was out, he’d have to instantly change clothes to avoid losing a limb or three. To Broden, the water was a very effective barrier all on its own.
Looking about, he realized that every square inch of the main courtyard was filled with people. Mostly volunteer fighters, huddling in with each other, speaking to each other in low, troubled tones. Broden knew that the barrier they sat in was more solid than steel. This one had ties to the very bedrock the academy sat upon. No one would be getting through this one. But they were also trapped in here, with limited water and food, and that was their weak point. Sieges were effective in that way—like as not you could starve your opponents into giving up.
Ashlynn’s caller necklace lit up. “Ashlynn!”
Edvard? And he did not sound worried but a little relieved and excited. Broden cautiously hoped that something good had happened even as Ashlynn responded, “I’m here, Edvard. Tell me good news.”
“To start with, everyone from Ganforth made it over safely.”
Broden sent a prayer of thanks heavenwards.
“I had quite a few volunteers who wanted to go up and fight with you. Did they make it?”
“They did,” Ashlynn assured them. “Everyone came in safely and the barrier around the academy is up.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. I wasn’t sure if they’d make it. Also, I just received word from Hendrix.”
Ashlynn and Broden shared a speaking glance. Hendrix? How? “Isn’t he running about the countryside?”
“He still is, but apparently he’s won over most of the support he needs already. He heard from Ash and Riana what has happened here, and he’s relayed word up to us that he will raise up an army to help.”
There was absolutely no way that he could have heard him right. “Hang on, lad, Hendrix thinks he can raise an army?”
“No, he’s absolutely positive he can. He’s had more than one person tell him that they wish to fight. He’s some distance out, not in danger of tangling with the Iyshian army, and he’s going to visit every town nearby until he can pull a militia together. He thinks he can be here in five days.”
Broden had a strangely still moment in his mind, all thought and emotion suspended. It felt like a cleft point, when things were about to change, and even though it was ridiculous, he somehow believed that Hendrix really could deliver on that promise.
“Can you last five days?” Edvard pressed. “Do you have enough food and water to sustain everyone for that amount of time?”
Ashlynn looked to Broden, eyes fierce. Broden was perfectly in tune with her in that moment. It would be a challenge, certainly, but one they were willing to accept. “We’ll manage, Edvard. You focus on the southern border and don’t worry about Ganforth. We’ll take care of the rest.”
Chapter Thirty
Broden discovered something about Ashlynn during the siege against the academy. It was literally impossible for her to sit still. Granted, the situation was far from relaxing, and he did not expect her to laze about, but she acted worse than a cooped-up cat. Her impatience was such that while not actively clawing at the walls, she was ready to break something in order to sneak out.
After spending two days trying to settle her down, Broden gave up. He went to a man that knew the lass better than himself and demanded, “Gerrard. Can ye no’ get the lass to settle?”
Gerrard looked up from the inventory list in front of him, pausing his count of food stuff in the pantry, a wry smile on his face. “I have better odds of halting the tide.”
That was the answer he had expected. Grumbling, Broden slouched against the door jamb.
“Driving you crazy?” Gerrard asked in complete understanding.
“Granted, it be a short trip,” Broden acknowledged in dark humor. “I did no’ realize it afore now, but she has absolutely no patience, our lass.”
“Absolutely none,” Gerrard agreed and let the list dangle next to his leg for a while. “In situations like this, where she literally can’t do anything but wait, she quickly loses even the semblance of patience. It’s just as well that Edvard assigned her to be Sherriff of Estole. Even after all of this is over, having a demanding job will keep her from going stir crazy.”
Now that was not a thought he had entertained before, but Gerrard was right. A brief mental picture flashed through Broden’s mind of what Ashlynn would be like if she did not have a designated occupation. It was so terrifying he actually shuddered.
“Thankfully for all,” and Gerrard was laughing at him now, “Edvard knows his siblings very well and understood that a busy Ashlynn is a happy Ashlynn, and as long as she’s busy, she won’t drive us to drinking.”
“The man seems wiser by the minute.” All of that was good, but it did not solve the immediate problem. “But what do I do with the lass now? Short of knocking her out.”
“It might very well come to that.” Gerrard frowned in consideration, staring off into space. “I think she’s been wound up for so long that even when she has the chance to relax a little, she literally doesn’t remember how to. Our choices are either make her sleep, or give her something to focus on.”
Broden pondered that for a full minute. “Have any sleeping spells handy?”
“A full arsenal. It’s the only way to survive as the sole adult with thirty children.” Putting the list down, he cracked his neck from side to side, like a man gearing up for a fight. “Let’s see if two old foxes can get the drop on her, shall we?”
For three days, Broden and Gerrard took turns tag-teaming Ashlynn long enough for someone to sneak up behind her and spell her back to sleep. It got progressively harder each time but Broden realized after that first day that Ashlynn actually needed the sleep. It was not until she had slept eighteen straight hours—after only being spelled to sleep eight—that it became apparent just how exhausted she was. Now that she was sleeping twenty hours a day, and eating regularly instead of bites in between emergencies, she actually gained a little color and flesh back in her cheeks. Even with them being on limited rations, she was faring better.
After seeing that, Broden swore he was going to sit on the lass and make her eat more regularly. She had been driving herself into the ground without him realizing it.
He was all set to do the same routine on the fifth day, but when he went to find Gerrard, he found the man in the middle of a call with Hendrix. As he stepped into Gerrard’s study, the man caught sight of him and waved him through, Hendrix speaking loud enough for Broden to hear easily.
“—approaching the southern edge of Dahl, but we don’t dare get muc
h closer than this without risking engagement,” Hendrix was saying. “I’ve got an army of three thousand, but they’re oddly equipped and have no training actually fighting together. I don’t want to put them in a head-on battle with Iysh. The outcome won’t be pretty.”
“Guerilla warfare would be the better choice,” Gerrard agreed. “Broden just stepped in, let me catch him up. Broden, Hendrix is outside the barrier with a rebel army of three thousand volunteers.”
That much Broden had caught coming in but it did his heart good to hear it, and a smile broke over his face. “Ye made good time, lad.”
“That I did,” Hendrix acknowledged with a gleeful laugh. “It’s amazing how many came when I called. Even I was taken by surprise. But now that I have them, I’m not entirely sure what to do with them. What’s the situation like over there?”
Lad likely felt as if he had entered the third act of a play with only a basic premise to go off of. “As to that, the Iyshian army be acting a bit strange, lad. They have no’ made a serious attempt yet at the academy, just been raiding Ganforth for supplies. They ransacked the immediate area as much as they could, but even that did no’ last long. At the moment, lad, ye got half-starved and very frustrated men on short pay camping outside the academy.”
“Well now. That’s a little puzzling. I can’t imagine they’re very happy freezing out there either. Did I mention that the wind chill is such that it cuts right through to the bone?”
Broden had no doubt of that. “Ye’d think they be more than ready to run at the barrier and find a way to end this quickly.”
“I do indeed. This is very strange behavior. Why go through all the trouble of getting up there and then not do anything constructive?”
“Took the words right out of our mouths,” Gerrard rumbled. “Your Highness, we’ve got men here that are rested up and ready to move. We want to figure out what their battle plan is, if it’s not siege warfare they’re interested in.”
Arrows of Revolution (Kingmakers Book 3) Page 25