Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3)

by Honor Raconteur

  “The math on that doesn’t equal out.” Beirly sounded like he were calculating things in his head. “Tran’s got three hundred with him. We’ve got fifty. We’d all have to carry six sandbags to get them over there.”

  Six?! Siobhan wasn’t sure she could manage three at a time! “Ah, gentlemen? How certain are you that you absolutely need all of those sandbags?”

  “Fairly sure, Shi,” Beirly drawled. “We wouldn’t have made people cart them all the way over here on a ‘maybe.’”

  Well, alright, that had possibly been a stupid question.

  “You better think it over again,” Tran advised. He hadn’t shifted his position at all, but he was clearly listening in. “If you can’t find a way to do it with less, that means I have to send some of my fighting force with you, and I’m not sure it’s wise to do that.”

  Siobhan was very torn about taking any men from Tran. They had carefully calculated how many men he needed for each stage of this operation. Taking anyone with her would tip the balance, and that might endanger the whole plan.

  Beirly and Knesek apparently thought the same, as they put their heads together, and started talking about weight, and water depth, and force, and other things that mostly went over Siobhan’s head. She sat there and ate, waiting for them to figure it out.

  “Guildmaster Maley?”

  Caught with her mouth full, she could only respond with, “Hmm?”

  “How important is it that we keep the water fully contained? Do you care if it spills out over the road?”

  Siobhan almost shook her head, then realized Knesek couldn’t see her, and hastily swallowed instead. “No. As long as it’s blocked from getting into the city, we’re good.”

  “Oh. Well, in that case…” he turned back to Beirly and they talked in numbers again.

  Eventually, Beirly tapped her shoulder to get her attention and said, “We think we can do it with half the sandbags. It’ll cause an unholy mess everywhere, so we might be fighting in several inches of water. But if you don’t care about that…”

  “I don’t,” she assured him patiently.

  “Then we can make do with less,” Beirly finished in satisfaction. “Can everyone here carry three sandbags?”

  Siobhan was fairly sure that was her limit. And her arms would be aching carrying those any sort of distance. Fortunately, from here to the canal, it was a relatively short hop. “I think so.”

  Holly must have been somewhere close and following this conversation, as Siobhan could hear her pass along the question. It took several minutes, but eventually word came back to them, that everyone was confident they could carry three at a time. Relieved, Siobhan ordered, “That’s what we’ll do, then. Tran, keep your force intact.”

  “Understood. Now, I’ve got the watch. Everyone try to sleep as much as you can.”

  Concerned, she asked him, “What about you?”

  “You think that little jaunt made me tired?”

  Siobhan felt like there were weights on her eyes, and her muscles were throbbing after what she had just done. She was tired enough to become cranky, so her first instinct was to punch him in the arm.

  “Ow! Siobhan, what was that for?”

  “Being an insensitive man.”

  Anyone who caught the exchange snorted or laughed softly.

  “Just sleep,” Tran ordered, tone exasperated.

  Honestly, she felt tired enough to fall asleep standing up. Pointy rocks wouldn’t pose much of a problem at the moment. She maneuvered about so that she could lean on Beirly’s shoulder. Semi-warm, only marginally comfortable, she still managed to drop off into a restless slumber.

  Of course, it felt like she had barely closed her eyes before Tran had a hand on her shoulder and was shaking her awake. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, she’d have kicked him and rolled back over, but now wasn’t the time for such a luxury. Instead, she dragged her eyelids up, one at a time, and forced her body into a sitting position. It felt like muscles screamed in protest as she did so, but she ignored that too. After she got moving and warmed up again, it wouldn’t be that bad. Hopefully.

  With her eyes now properly open, she could see the barest hint of sunlight. The sky was no longer dark, but a sort of muted grey and blue. Close enough to dawn that it was time for her to move out.

  Siobhan, in a fit of evil enjoyment, shook Beirly and Knesek awake, and watched them go through the same process she had. Beirly especially looked as if someone had glued his eyes shut, but he eventually did manage to get both of them open and focused. Once they were in motion, they jostled the people next to them, and so it continued down the line. Tran’s group had unloaded their sandbags already so that her people could easily pick them up before they went. Siobhan ate the last meal out of her pack, knowing full well it might be the only thing she would get to eat that day, and then used the empty space to put two sandbags in there. The third she would have to carry in her arms.

  She gave people a few more minutes to get ready, as the ones at the back would have had a slower start time than she did. But then she motioned people to get up and get ready to move.

  The key to this whole plan was for her to get to the canal as quickly as possible, without drawing attention, and put the temporary dam on the canal before the watchers on the wall could fully realize what they were up to. To that end, her first task would be to get her people over there with all due haste. That would be difficult to manage while carrying three sandbags, but trying to run with these things wouldn’t kill her.

  Trying to say anything to the whole group without shouting wouldn’t work, so instead, she just moved. They were obviously waiting on her, as the whole line moved with her, climbing up over the banks and onto flatland. That was when Siobhan discovered that running while carrying three sandbags was simply impossible. She could manage a jog, and that was it. Gritting her teeth, she kept the speed up as much as possible, determined to maintain it all the way to the canal.

  Muscles screaming, feeling as if she would totter over from the cramps in her calves, she finally stumbled to a halt five feet from the canal and dropped everything. Fortunately, no one stopped with her, but instead flooded around her, taking their bags directly to the canal’s edge. Also, fortunately, neither Beirly nor Knesek were waiting on her to issue orders. They immediately started working, giving out directions to people as they did so.

  Siobhan took a minute to find her wind again before calling out, “Holly!”

  “Here!” the other woman responded. She waved her spear in the air to be seen over the group.

  Focusing in that direction, Siobhan ordered, “Get our guards in position!”

  “On it!”

  Siobhan had to watch the timing and keep an eye on the overall picture, so she couldn’t be part of either the building group or the guarding group. Holly was an enforcer in her guild, accustomed to directing people, so she’d been volunteered for that role. Siobhan instead found a high point on the canal, out of the way of the work crew, and stood on top of it so she had a semi-commanding view. One eye on her people, one eye on the wall, she held her breath and prayed this turned out the way they hoped.

  With a determined crew of forty people, the temporary dam was built very quickly. Siobhan was amazed at the speed of which they moved. Granted, they had done a practice run on this two days ago, so everyone more or less knew what to do even without being directed. Still, it was impressive. Siobhan’s attention was drawn to it, and she watched in open admiration. People that could work that quickly always impressed her.

  “—down there.”

  What was that? Siobhan jerked her head up and around, trying to pinpoint the source of that voice. It had come up from a higher place, somewhere near the wall. The sun wasn’t strong enough to reach her yet, so she didn’t have to shield her eyes as she looked up, but she did have to narrow them to see over that kind of distance. There! Two men, pointing toward the ground and talking loudly to someone else she couldn’t see. The wind snatched
their words so she was only catching one in three, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they’d seen her group and had more or less figured out what they’d done.

  Now came the turning point. They would either attack immediately or spend several hours, if not days, going through the city in search of water. Either way they went, Siobhan needed to get people in motion. Turning on her heel, she nearly lost her balance on her perch and had to windmill her arms for a moment to avoid heading straight for the ground. Fortunately, she managed to right herself again. Hand over her thumping heart, she called out, “Beirly! Knesek! We need to be done!”

  “Two minutes!” Knesek called back. The man was dripping sweat and sounded like a leaking blacksmith’s bellows.

  Close enough. Turning to the rest, as not everyone was still working, she ordered, “Get ready to move out! Holly, stand as a point of gathering!”

  Holly didn’t respond but waved her spear in the air again, signaling where she was. People started flocking to her in a semi-circle.

  By the time that Siobhan made it off her perch and to Holly’s side, Beirly bellowed from the canal, “DONE!”

  That hadn’t been two minutes. Not that she was complaining. Relieved, Siobhan yelled as loudly as she could, “MOVE!” Spinning about, she took off in as fast of a run as her aching legs would allow. She didn’t think for one minute that everyone heard her. Most were already waiting on her, though, and they readily followed.

  As she ran, she kept a weather eye on the top of the wall. Things were definitely getting more hectic up there. People were shouting, and running back and forth. Either they were responding to an enemy force right next to their walls (one that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere) or someone up there had realized that the water going into the city had just been dammed up. Or possibly both. The first fountain was right inside the wall, after all, and it wouldn’t take brains to figure out that the water had been abruptly cut off.

  The real question was, how fast would they react? Would they bother to open the gates and try to attack her people considering they were such a small force? Would they want to come outside and undo the dam? Siobhan wasn’t sure, so she ran sideways just long enough to take her people outside of bow range. No sense in exposing them when there was no need to.

  They made it to the highway leading out of the southern gate without issue. There, Siobhan slowed her pace. Here was where they wanted to linger, without actually lingering, and act as bait to draw their enemy out of the city. Breathing hard, she put her hands on her knees and took several deep breaths. When she didn’t feel like her head was spinning anymore, she straightened and looked about her. Everyone looked as drained as she felt but she couldn’t let them rest here on the open road. Taking pity, she led them off at a quick walk, giving them some space to regain their breath. Besides, the Orinites in the city hadn’t made their move yet.

  Nerves jangling, Siobhan kept stealing glances behind her, but they were now several hundred yards outside of the city with no sign that the gate would be opening soon. She mentally started cursing. It didn’t appear like their first plan would work.

  Siobhan had spent a good amount of time thinking what to do if the first plan failed. Tran had suggested setting the wooden gates on fire, and so far, that was the best idea that anyone had. She was loathe for it to happen, though. The gate might fall, but it risked setting the rest of the city on fire as well, and they had just dammed up the only available water source, so wouldn’t setting anything on fire be a bad idea? She personally wanted a city to return to, not smoldering ruins.

  But they had to do something quickly. Siobhan looked at the sky in open worry. The sun was rising steadily now and any minute, the sunlight would be strong enough for pathmaking. Grae, Rune, and Jay Fowler would bring people through, and when that happened, they had to be in a position to distract all of the men on the wall.

  The creak of hinges sounded like a heavenly chorus singing through the air.

  Siobhan spun around, a delighted smile blossoming on her face as she realized that while late, the enemy force had taken the bait. They only opened it far enough to let about two hundred men pour through, but that was enough.

  “Alright, people, run scared!” Siobhan called, resisting the urge to laugh like a maniac.

  The people around her didn’t resist the urge, but they were all winded enough that it came across strangled instead of merry, so their pursuers didn’t realize they were laughing. It sounded like choking ducks, actually. Not that she had ever heard a duck choke, but if it did, it would probably sound something like this.

  Stumbling more than running, they bumped into each other as they moved, heading in the general direction of the highway. From an outside perspective, it probably looked chaotic, like they were so panicked that they were knocking into comrades in their efforts to escape. In truth, people were apologizing to each other breathlessly as they tripped, and others caught elbows and held them up. Siobhan could only hope they’d catch their wind soon, as the battle was only beginning.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Tran move, and with him, a small sea of people flowed in his wake. One group immediately ran ahead, straight for the gate, while the rest came and joined their rear, turning to face the onslaught. It was so perfectly timed that Siobhan almost cheered aloud. But no, cheering on a battlefield was probably a no-no. At the very least, it would be distracting.

  She veered off, as planned, and raced back the way she had come. Her muscles still felt heavy with fatigue, but she had her wind back, and felt strong enough to fight. People moved with her, drawing weapons as they did so.

  The two forces met somewhere near the middle. Siobhan was ruthless and cut down people without mercy as her swords met whatever weapons they held in their hands. Her focus narrowed down to a single point: get through these men as quickly as possible and then head straight for the gate so that she could help Tran hold it open. They could not, under any circumstances, allow that gate to close on them right now. Too many plans hinged on it staying open.

  A near deafening cacophony sounded in her ears, a dreadful music made of screams, the clang on clang of metal, and wordless shouts of determination. It set her head to ringing. Still, she shouldered through it, and before she properly realized just how far she’d fought, she fetched up near the gates.

  To her relief, they were still open, and Tran’s group was holding off any attacks from either side well. Tran, however, seemed upset about something. When she reached his side, she glanced at his face before setting her back to his.

  “What’s wrong?” she shouted over the din.

  “They should be here by now!”

  Who? Oh, the other groups. Yes, of course, that was true. They had plenty of daylight, so where were the rest of them? Had something gone wrong? She couldn’t imagine that was the case, not with three Pathmakers going over every little detail to make sure it worked. Worried now, she tried to steal a peek toward the east, seeing if she could spot them coming. But there were far too many people in the way for that, and she wasn’t willing to budge far from Tran’s side now that she was here.

  Time passed indeterminately, with no way for her to mark it, except perhaps by the number of opponents she defeated. Worried and frustrated that she couldn’t do anything from here, she took her anger out on anyone foolish enough to get close to her.

  “HA!” Tran crowed, victory and relief evident in his voice.

  “They’re here?” she asked, wanting to be absolutely sure she knew what that ‘ha’ was for.

  “They’re here,” he confirmed for her before slamming his fist into a hapless jaw, sending the man flying backwards, out cold. “About time.”

  She seconded that. Really, what had been the hold up?

  Tran let out a boisterous laugh, sounding for all the world like a little boy with a new dirt pile to play in. “Now the fun really begins!”

  Rune could not believe how hard it was to get three hundred people moving along one path. He
was so used to caravans, or piling people up in carts, that it hadn’t occurred to him that it would take this long to move the whole group through on an open path. He’d already had it open for a full hour and he was just now getting to the end!

  No one had foreseen how long this would take, not even Grae. The evergreen pattern was a wide one, so it was large enough for two men abreast to move through, but putting three hundred and fifty people two abreast on an open path was like forcing an ocean to trickle through a funnel. It had taken far longer than anyone had anticipated. Worse, for his group, they more or less waited on him to finish before moving out, as few of his people knew Goldschmidt well and needed him to lead the way. It was maddening. By the time the last person came through, Rune was ready to punch something.

  The fight outside the walls was already in full swing. It seemed Tran and Siobhan had managed to get the gates open. He saw people in the gate archway fighting, at least, and even from here he could see Tran’s head. He was tall enough to loom over everyone else.

  Rune’s job, after getting everyone here, was to get inside the city and head straight for the eastern gate and force it open. The more gates they had open, the better. But before that, he had to check on his people. If anyone from his guild was in trouble, he was grabbing them and sticking them near the path to take back to Converse. His guild was more important to him than this city.

  Fortunately for Hyun Woo’s plans, Rune saw Siobhan, Tran, and Beirly fighting just in front of the open gate. They had their backs to each other, in a triangular formation, and none of them took more than two steps out before falling in again. Neither Siobhan nor Beirly had much training fighting in that position, but both had watched the enforcers train, and apparently that had been enough to give them a feel for it. It was a little awkward still, but they were executing it well enough that no one attacking could seem to isolate them and take someone down. And that was good.