Blackstone (Book 2)

by Honor Raconteur

  With twangs and whistles splitting the air, hundreds of arrows were released all at the same time and came down like black rain to the unprotected army below them. Not all of the arrows found a target, but a good majority of them did, and the vanguard suffered a decimating loss before even reaching the walls.

  Satisfied, Wolf bellowed, “Fire at will!”

  Everyone took him at his word and started firing as quickly as they could draw and aim. Doing so would eat into their supply of arrows up here on the wall very quickly, but Wolf didn’t care about that. They had other plans to play out after their supply of arrows was spent.

  For several minutes, that’s all anyone did, shoot arrows and watch the enemy fall. Eventually, the back rows of men realized that charging blindly forward might be a bad strategy after all and they stopped before retreating several hundred yards, putting enough distance between them and the walls so that they had little danger of being shot.

  Wolf re-sheathed his sword and leaned against the wall, watching patiently as the army below milled about, talking amongst themselves. From what he could see, they didn’t really have any designated leaders among them. Or if they had, those leaders had fallen in the first wave of arrows. No one seemed quite sure of what to do or who to take orders from. Really, how had these people managed to destroy three whole cities? Was it just surprise and sheer numbers that let them get this far?

  Eventually someone hit upon the bright idea of trying a different section of the wall in hopes that it would be less fortified there. This idea quickly spread like wildfire and people started marching around toward the north-easterly section of Converse. Wolf shook his head in pity. Actually, the southern side was less protected because of the trap they’d laid. Going around to the other side would quickly decimate their ranks if they stayed over there long.

  Hyun Woo had been of the opinion that putting the trap near the largest breech in the wall might be a useless gesture on their part. They’d had so much advance notice, and made good enough preparations, that the army might not ever be able to get close enough to the walls to do anything productive. It depended on how many stayed in Goldschmidt and how many chose to march against Converse. Going through all of the trouble (and later expense) of laying the trap might be redundant on their part. Right now, watching the army troop over to the more deadly side of the city, Wolf was inclined to think his mentor might be right.

  Turning to his right, he said to the men nearest him, “While they’re gone, rest. We’ll be ready to reinforce the northern defenders if we need to, but rest while you can.” Getting nods of confirmation, he turned to his left and repeated the order, making sure that it traveled down the line.

  “Wolf-dog.”

  Rune? Wolf’s head snapped around so quickly that a few bones popped. “Kiō! Stop popping out of nowhere. You’re like to give a man heart failure.”

  The kid had the gall to grin at him, as if he’d find that entertaining. “Some men are sneaking along the wall.”

  What?! Wolf scrambled forward, pushing people aside so that he could put his chest flat against the stone and lean over, angling himself so that he could see the ground right next to the wall’s base. Sure enough, Rune was right. There were a good three dozen or so men sticking close to the wall so that they could sneak past.

  “How’d you see them?” Wolf asked almost rhetorically. Even Fei, up on his perch, hadn’t.

  “Didn’t,” Rune denied with a small shake of the head. “Heard ‘em.”

  “You’ve got the ears of a cat, kiō.”

  Rune accepted this praise as his due and joined Wolf at the wall, also peering over the edge. “What do we do with ‘em?”

  Good question. Wolf tilted his head to indicate he’d heard the question, but didn’t respond as he thought it over. A few dozen men couldn’t do much damage to them either way but he was loath to let them inside the walls without at least trying to stop them.

  “Let ‘em spring the trap?” Rune asked, tone doubtful.

  Wolf immediately shook his head. “No, the trap is meant for a larger force. Shame to waste it on just these few. Run to the archers and tell them to fire at will. Keep them from getting inside.”

  Pointing a finger at his own nose, Rune asked plaintively, “I can’t go play?”

  He gave the boy a repressive look. “Even you’d have a hard time fighting off three dozen men on your own, kiō.”

  “Spoilsport.” Resigned, the former assassin turned and jogged off, the fastest pace he could manage in these crowded conditions.

  Wolf watched him go with a slight frown wrinkling his brow. The kid didn’t really think he could handle that many opponents at once, did he? Granted, they weren’t properly armed or trained, but still…. Shrugging this off, he went back to staring over the wall. How had they managed to creep in this close without anyone noticing? That really worried him.

  “Fei!”

  “What?”

  He pointed a finger down toward the ground in an exaggerated motion.

  Cocking his head in puzzlement, Fei leaned further out, his torso nearly horizontal to the ground. When he saw what Wolf was gesturing to, he started swearing long and creatively. Wolf just grinned at him, no longer worried about anyone sneaking past. Fei’s pride wouldn’t allow him to make the same mistake twice.

  Assured that Fei would now keep a proper watch, he turned and went to the other side of the wall, moving closer to their trap so that he could ensure that nothing went wrong over there. People good naturedly shifted so that he could have room to lean up against the wall and look out.

  Rune, in spite of what he said, had gone back down to ground level and was fighting anyone stupid enough to climb through the breach. Even as he watched, the boy took down one man with a sharp kick to the face before spinning in the air like a dancer and landing another kick to back of a man’s skull. Watching Rune fight, he could honestly believe that the boy didn’t have to obey the rules of gravity.

  The man on Wolf’s right pointed a finger and jutted his chin toward the ground. “He need help?”

  “Naw,” Wolf assured him…what was the man’s name again? Asher? “Boy’s fine.”

  Asher let out a low whistle. “Never seen a man that can fight like that. Where he from?”

  “Sateren.”

  “In Wynngaard?”

  “Yup.”

  Asher nodded sagely, as if that answered everything. “How many trying to get into that breach?”

  “About three dozen,” Wolf answered, only to pause and recount. “Well, there’s probably two dozen left now.” Rune and the archers had quite efficiently whittled that number down.

  “That’s not enough to spring the trap for,” Asher said slowly with a frown.

  “We won’t,” Wolf assured him absently. Turning, he looked toward the north-easterly section of the city. “Unless the army turns around and comes back our direction, we won’t need to use it.”

  In a way, Wolf hoped they wouldn’t need it. He hoped that instead, the army would wear themselves out trying to get into the walls, and it wouldn’t come down to their desperate plan.

  Siobhan somehow got drafted into a supply coordinator. She went from one end of the city to the other, talking to the commanders of each section and getting an estimate of how many arrows, spears, and caltrops they needed. Then she would hoof it back to the blacksmiths scattered all over town, relaying the message. Before the end of the day, she was footsore and had quite the sunburn across her nose. She was morosely aware that the main reason she had been volunteered for this by Darrens and Hyun Woo was because it was her enforcers that were commanders and Beirly was the man in charge of the smithies. She was automatically the person that everyone would listen to, so thereby had the job by default.

  Ducking through the door of the smithy, she blinked and paused to let her eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting. When she could see properly again, she searched out Beirly, finding him bent over an anvil and hammering something, sparks flying. “Be
irly!”

  He struck once more before his head come up. “Shi! Got orders for us?”

  “I need,” she pulled out the scrap of paper with her notes on it from her belt pouch before rattling off, “Five hundred arrows, one hundred spears, and as many caltrops as you can turn out. They said they could easily use a thousand of them but weren’t sure how much time it takes to make them.”

  “Time-wise, we can turn out one every five minutes or so,” he answered, pulling off his gloves before approaching her. He held out his hand for the list, which she gave over. “It’s material we’re lacking. Not sure if I can make that many with the ore we have on hand.”

  That would be a problem. It was something they hadn’t thought to ask Winziane for and now that the army was literally pounding on their walls, they had no way to even get it here. At least, not in time to do any good. “Do what you can.”

  “Will do,” he responded with a sloppy salute. “But what’s it like out there? We’re only hearing bits and snatches in here.”

  “Well, they tried attacking the southern wall first, which is Wolf and Fei’s section.”

  Beirly shook his head in pity. “Those poor fools. Didn’t get far, I bet.”

  “You’d win that bet. Anyway, they retreated and went around to the other side and attacked the northern section.”

  Cocking his head, Beirly said slowly, “Isn’t Markl and Ryu Jin Ho in charge there?”

  “Sure are. While I was up there on the wall with them, things were getting heated.” Markl had been nervous about her being up there, too, but she’d stayed well out of the way to avoid getting hit by all the arrows flying about. “They were retreating from that section when I left. Ryu Jin Ho says that from the way they were reacting, it seems they’re dispirited. They’re not making the same sort of headway here that they have the previous three cities.”

  “True,” Beirly agreed with a sage nod. “The other times they attacked, it was a quick and easy victory for them. So does he think they’ll give up?”

  “He gives it fifty-fifty odds.” Siobhan personally hoped they did. As soon as they had Converse secure, they could go and reclaim Goldschmidt. “But whether they leave or not, we’ll need everything I just ordered. It’ll come in handy when we march for Goldschmidt if nothing else.”

  “Roger that.” Clapping his hands loudly, he called back toward the other smiths working, “We have orders to fill!”

  She waved him on and retreated back outside, heading for the opposite end of the city, which was the southern wall. Siobhan wanted to know if the army really had given up or had simply retreated for now. While she was heading that direction, though, she had every intention of stopping in at the clinic and checking on Conli, Sylvie, and Denney. Last she’d seen, Conli had drafted both of them to help. Even though the walls hadn’t been breached, he was still getting a steady stream of patients coming in.

  When Conli had been tasked with creating a clinic, he had wisely chosen a location toward the center of the city so that everyone could reach him fairly quickly. There were two inns designated as hospitals, Conli in charge of one, and a physician named Landgrave in charge of the other. As Siobhan stepped onto the porch, she saw that both inns had the front doors wide open and people were sitting on the cots scattered around inside, waiting to be treated.

  They had a line already?

  Disturbed, she went inside, looking for her people. In this sea of brunettes, Conli and Denney stood out and Siobhan spotted them easily. They were in the far back of the main room, gathering up supplies in a basket, Conli giving out instructions to his niece in a calm tone. Sylvie was a little harder to find, at least she was until she stood up. Catching her eye, Siobhan waved her over, not wanting to try to navigate this labyrinth of cots and injured people. With the way she felt right now, her balance was questionable, and she’d surely trip over something.

  Sylvie, of course, had no problem weaving her way through all of the mess. She even looked graceful doing it. (Siobhan was going to figure out how she pulled that trick off one of these days.)

  “Siobhan,” she greeted in relief. “Finally, someone that can give us an idea of what’s truly going on. We’re getting pieces of it here. What’s happening?”

  Repeating what she had told Beirly, Siobhan told her everything she knew, ending with, “I’m heading to Wolf and Fei’s section next. My news is about a half hour out of date right now and I’m not sure what’s happened since I left the northern section.”

  “So, Markl…?” Sylvie asked in concern.

  “Fine,” she assured her. “Just fine. He’s staying properly behind a shield while giving orders.”

  Sylvie’s eyes fluttered shut in a gesture of relief. “Thank mercy.”

  “But I’m surprised by how many wounded are in here.” Siobhan looked around in dismay. If it was like this already, what happened if that army really did manage to breach the walls? Granted, that didn’t look likely at this point, but the possibility was still there.

  “Most of them have been shot, a few burns from the smithies where they pushed themselves too hard, and a few from heatstroke.”

  Heatstroke? Well, granted, it was a warm day and if someone was working in front of a roaring fire all day, it would be easy to overheat. “Nothing serious, I hope?”

  “Nothing critical, anyway. We’ve been able to treat and bandage all of it. Conli’s only had to do surgery twice, to get a barbed arrow out.”

  Siobhan winced at the thought. Barbed arrows were nasty. “Well, pace yourselves. Make sure to take a break and eat. The army might have retreated for good, or maybe just for tonight, but either way, you should be able to rest for at least a few hours.”

  “I’ll pass it along,” Sylvie promised.

  Satisfied that things were going well enough here, she waved at the other two in the back, who returned the gesture, before she went back out. Siobhan knew that she wouldn’t rest well until she knew for certain what was happening outside the walls. Despite the fact that she was beyond tired and footsore, she picked up her pace a little.

  When she reached the southern wall’s main stairs, it was relatively quiet up top. Oh, people were talking, and there was runners going back and forth, but it wasn’t nearly the bedlam of activity that she associated with fighting. Had the army not come this direction, then? Hope rising in her chest, she put more strength into her legs, climbing up with as much speed as she could muster. When she reached the top, she pushed through and leaned her torso against the stone, looking out.

  The army had indeed retreated away from the walls, but only as far as they needed to in order to stay out of range of the archers. They were milling about, talking with each other, although of course she couldn’t hear a word from this distance. Siobhan waited for several minutes, breath caught in her throat, waiting to see what they would do.

  “They aren’t leaving,” Fei said from behind her.

  Jumping, she snapped around to find him right next to her, his eyes trained on the army as well. “Fei! Warn a woman. I nearly had heart failure.”

  His grin was fleeting but mischievous and she knew he’d done that on purpose just to tease her. Normally she’d get revenge, but at this moment seeing him relaxed enough to joke actually put her at ease.

  Forgiving him just this once, she jerked a thumb at the army. “You’re sure they’re not leaving?”

  “They’ve been acting like that for a good twenty minutes now. If they were going to abandon Converse, they’d have done it by now.” His eyes narrowed into a thoughtful frown. “I don’t think the army has a commander, as such, but someone over there is certainly giving them directions. They don’t move with quick precision, like a trained soldier would, but they do move altogether. It just takes a while to get them to change their course.”

  Well, he would know the difference, as he had been trained by some of the best. Siobhan trusted his opinion on this. “So what do you think they’ll do?”

  “Stay the night, try again in
the morning. Their morale is low right now after two failed attempts. Also, the light is failing. They don’t have time to try a third attempt today.”

  Not quite the answer that she had hoped for, but better than the alternative. Everyone was beyond tired today and at their limits. It would be best to have at least a night of rest before they went back to fighting the next day. “So what happens now?”

  “We don’t think they’ll try anything else today.” Fei inclined his head to the left. “Wolf-ren is setting up a night guard now, so that we can rotate watches and have a chance to rest.”

  “Should I send up food or blankets or anything?”

  “Someone else is already doing that for us.” Fei gave her a study from head to toe before adding, “And you look as tired as we do. I think you should go back and rest first.”

  She really couldn’t argue against that. “I need to report back to Darrens, but I’ll do that. See you both back at the inn, then?”

  He nodded in affirmation. “As soon as we’re done here. Hopefully, the fools will rest tonight and wait until the morning to attack.”

  “I second that.”

  ӜӜӜ

  Her quick report to Darrens turned out to be anything but quick. Darrens had his own sources of news for what was happening, so by the time she made it to headquarters, he already knew and in far more detail than she did. He only asked her questions about weapons supplies before pointing her to a chair.

  All of the major commanders of Converse had been summoned to him, Wolf and Fei arriving minutes after she did. Darrens directed people to sit with the simple direction of one finger pointing to available chairs around the large table he had designated as his temporary desk. Hyun Woo already sat at his side, as well as Ryu Jin Ho, Markl, and Tran.

  Once everyone was seated, Darrens cleared his throat to get their full attention. “Alright, I’ve been getting field reports throughout the day, so I more or less know what happened. What I want answered is this: how well are our plans holding up?”