Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3)

by Honor Raconteur

  “Six, last I checked.”

  That low? Well, granted, they were using canal water. That didn’t have the same power as water coming in off the high seas. Frowning, he factored that into the equation and kept going.

  Grae, proving that he could not only converse but also keep an eye on his student, interrupted himself once to correct Rune, “No, we’re sixty-two spans exactly from the outer wall.” Rune obligingly crossed out his guess of sixty that he had written and kept going. In the end, he reached the same conclusion that Grae had. The evergreen pattern was the only one they could use and still transport more than a hundred men at a time. Finished, he handed the sheet up to Grae.

  “—we never measure from city gate to city gate, as that tends to cause problems.” Grae continued to explain as he took the sheet from Rune and looked it over. “Gate guards are never happy when they have a sudden influx of people at their gate, and it’s dangerous besides; dropping a load of people off into a section that you know is populated can cause serious accidents. We always measure at least ten feet out away from the wall and use that as our city marker. Rune, excellent work, as always. This is correct. Ryu Jin Ho-zhi, I’m afraid I was right in my guess. We must use the evergreen pattern, and there is no way that I can carry more than three hundred and fifty men at a time. The soil and water levels here simply won’t permit more than that.”

  Ryu Jin Ho nodded, not entirely happily. “But how close can we get?”

  “With a few minor adjustments, within five feet of the walls. I can’t get you closer than that without running the risk of dropping people smack into the wall.”

  Rune’s mind was briefly distracted by the mental image of people colliding head first into Goldschmidt’s walls like a bird impacting against a glass window. While entertaining, Grae was likely right. It wouldn’t be the best option.

  “Five feet. Yes, that should be close enough.” Ryu Jin Ho lifted his glass again to peer towards Goldschmidt. “Seven hundred men in total, if you and Rune-gui both take a group in.”

  “Can’t we borrow Jay Fowler from Winziane again?” Rune asked. It might be a stupid question, but the man had already come up once to help them transport people. Rune didn’t see why they couldn’t borrow the man again.

  From the startled blink that Grae gave, it seemed to Rune he’d forgotten the other Pathmaker. “Oh. It’s true, he might be willing to help again.”

  Ryu Jin Ho looked excited about this possibility, in a restrained way. “Is he a good fighter, this man?”

  “Decent, I think.” Rune hadn’t seen the man in action, of course, but the way he moved suggested he could probably handle himself in a one-on-one fight.

  “But I would suggest having someone dedicated to protecting him,” Grae cautioned. “We have too few Pathmakers in this world as it is. We can’t risk losing one.”

  “We’ll take precautions,” Ryu Jin Ho promised. “But if he is willing to help us, that means we can get all able-bodied fighters into Goldschmidt at more or less the same time. And if we can do that…”

  “It gives us better odds of winning,” Rune finished.

  Ryu Jin Ho inclined his head soberly. “It does indeed.”

  Siobhan was not able to find Wolf before the meeting reconvened. Where he had been, or what he was doing, seemed to be a mystery among the guild. She had spent most of her time detailing for Hyun Woo and Darrens everything she knew about the canal, which (because of Grae) was a great deal. They’d also conferred with Beirly, wanting to know exactly how much material and time it would take to dam it up. Because it looked as if they would need his expertise, she had Beirly join them for the meeting, and he sat next to her at the table.

  Everyone trickled in by twos and threes, Wolf being the last to sit at the table. She expected him to be angry, depressed, or some mix of the two but instead he seemed only resigned. Odd. Wolf was not known to recover that quickly after he’d fought with her. Had someone taken him aside and given him a talking to, like Markl had her? Whoever had done so did a splendid job, judging from the result. Perhaps it wouldn’t be quite the chore for her to settle things with him after all.

  Darrens didn’t ask her or Wolf outright if they’d settled things but his eyes held the question as he looked between the two of them. When neither of them jumped out of their seats and started yelling, his shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Well. I hope the past two hours have been productive for everyone. Where do we stand?”

  Hyun Woo cleared his throat. “Guildmaster, if I may?”

  “Please do. You’re in charge of this, after all.”

  With an inclination of the head, Hyun Woo took control of the meeting and turned to the table at large. “First, Grae-gui, on the matter of paths. What are your findings?”

  “We can only use the evergreen pattern,” Grae answered. His tone suggested he was making an effort to be more audible this time. (Trying to set a good example for his student, perhaps?) “According to our calculations, we can take up to three hundred and fifty men. I can get you within five feet of the walls.”

  “Rune-xian suggested that perhaps we can borrow Pathmaker Jay Fowler once more from Winziane?” Ryu Jin Ho added hopefully. “If so, we can take over one thousand directly to the walls.”

  Everyone turned to Markl, as he was the closest link to Guildmaster Hammon. He spread his palms up in a shrug. “I believe my father will have no problem letting us borrow the man again. We will have to guarantee his safety, though. Jay Fowler is the only Pathmaker that Winziane has.”

  “I personally will guarantee his safety,” Gaurav Hasur promised.

  Hyun Woo perked up noticeably at this. “Excellent. This will make things much easier.”

  “Hyun Woo-zhi,” Rune spoke up, “I’m not sure if you know this, but we don’t have this path already built.”

  Hyun Woo had been about to say something else, but at Rune’s words, he visibly started and said instead, “We don’t? But we were using paths to transport people out of the city, were we not?”

  “We have a sunflower pattern built outside the city,” Rune explained. “It’s a different pathway. We can only transport up to one hundred people with it. In order for our plans to work, we’ll have to build the evergreen pathway.”

  Hyun Woo stroked his beard thoughtfully before asking Grae and Rune together, “How long will that take?”

  Rune looked to Grae, who had more experience in building paths, for the answer. Grae offered, “With the help of a dozen people gathering stones, and Rune building alongside me, I think we can get it done in a little over a week.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Hyun Woo relaxed back into his chair. He’d apparently thought that pathmaking would take months or something along those lines. “Then we will gather a dedicated team to help you. Start after this meeting.”

  “Of course,” Rune and Grae said in near unison.

  Siobhan hid a smile. She’d noticed that Rune seemed to be picking up some of Grae’s habits and mannerisms. The more time they spent together, the more noticeable it became. She wasn’t sure if it was a conscious choice on Rune’s part, or if it was just a side effect of them being around each other so much. It might be a mix of the two. Rune seemed to have a small case of hero worship where Grae was concerned.

  Hyun Woo clasped his hands together in open satisfaction. “I am pleased. This means that my plan will work.”

  “Plan?” Darrens asked hopefully.

  “Forgive me, Darrens-zhi, I will detail it in a moment. Before I do so, I must ask one other question. You have an accurate head count of how many fighters are fit to go into Goldschmidt?”

  “Sixteen hundred and fifty-three, or so our doctors and enforcers report.”

  The strategist nodded, unsurprised. “Approximately the number I estimated. Very good. Now, to my plan. Siobhan-jia, Tran-gui, I will be sending your groups in together.”

  Siobhan hadn’t expected that. Before, Hyun Woo had acted as if he would send her in advance of everyone else. “Togeth
er?”

  “You will be in charge of different groups,” Hyun Woo responded, his tone careful. Afraid of stepping on her pride as Wolf had done earlier, and thereby setting her off? “But yes, you will go together. I have no way of anticipating how quickly the enemy will react when their water source is cut off. They are not, after all, attached to Goldschmidt. They do not know it well. Since it is not their home, they might choose to quickly abandon it when their only fresh water source is lost.”

  A good point and not one that Siobhan had thought of. Siobhan had this sneaking suspicion that Hyun Woo had altered his plan so that she wouldn’t be going with just her own group. He was perhaps making allowances to help one of his students. Then again, perhaps not. He had a perfectly sound, strategic reason for two groups going in at once.

  “It would be wise to not only have your group there, but also another force standing by in case they do open the gates immediately.”

  Everyone was very carefully not looking at Wolf when he said this. Everyone, that was, except Tran who was not afraid to put a stick in that particular nest of vipers. He looked directly at Wolf with a challenge in his voice. “Are you going to insist you go instead?”

  Wolf met the stare levelly and without any sign of anger. “No.”

  “No?” Tran looked like he was biting back a smile. “So you admit I know the land from here to there better than you do?”

  “Only by a little.”

  Siobhan had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. Tran was the only one in the guild to ever cross that distance by foot, and he did it on a fairly regular basis, to boot. Wolf, she believed, had only done it three times in the past ten years. But of course, neither man was about to admit that the other one might be better than they were on anything.

  The real question that Tran was asking, of course, was, ‘Do you trust me with Siobhan?’ and Wolf had given a firm yes. Everyone at the table had heard it and it made Tran sit back, nearly glowing with contentment and pride. It was not often, after all, that Wolf showed him such an open gesture of trust.

  Hyun Woo didn’t openly heave out a breath of relief over escaping the need to mediate a fight at the table, but he clearly was doing so on an internal level. “Then Tran-gui will take a force of two hundred and fifty men with him to hide in the dry river bed. Siobhan-jia, you will command fifty, along with Beirly-gui, to dam up the canal with.”

  “Understood.”

  “Beirly-gui, you said earlier that if everyone in Tran-gui’s command helps you carry the materials, you think it will only be an hour’s work to dam up the canal.”

  “That’s right,” Beirly confirmed. “To do it quick like this, all we need are sandbags, but a lot of them. If each person can carry one bag, we’ll have enough to do the job.”

  “Then that is what we will plan to do. Tran-gui, any objections?”

  “If there’s a single man in my command that can’t carry a sandbag a mere sixty spans without fussing, then I don’t want him.”

  He didn’t agree aloud, but Hyun Woo’s expression said he silently concurred with Tran’s opinion. “Then your group will carry the bulk of the materials necessary.”

  “And when we’re done?” Siobhan asked, unclear about what to do after her job was finished.

  “You will retreat back along the highway toward Winziane. If pursued, do so at all speed until you have drawn your pursuers well out of the city’s gates. Then, Tran-gui, I want you to do one of two things. If she is pursued, send some of your men to her defense, as she will not have enough men to fight a force off with. The other part should be sent to the gates with the focus of keeping them open. Your task is to get as many of our men through that gate as possible.”

  Tran nodded understanding. “And if she isn’t pursued, stay put?”

  “Indeed. You follow me well.” Hyun Woo gave him a proud smile. “As expected of my student. Can you guess what I want you to do next?”

  “Provide a distraction so that all of their focus is on me, spreading their forces thin, so that the other groups can get men over the walls.”

  “Precisely.”

  Emalee was the one that asked, “But which do you think they’ll do?”

  “I give it even odds of them either pursuing Siobhan-jia’s group immediately or staying safely inside the walls.” Hyun Woo’s mouth pursed thoughtfully. “If they had a strong commander over there, I would think he would defend the walls until they had confirmed that there was no fresh water to be had in the city. But there is no strong leadership over there, so it makes it hard to predict what they will do.”

  Siobhan was personally hoping that they would choose to chase her, as it would mean less waiting around under a hot sun.

  “Siobhan-jia, you will start working at pre-dawn. By the time your work is finished, the Pathmakers should have enough daylight to send the other groups forward. Each will have their designated spot along the wall they will be aiming towards. Unless, of course, Tran-gui manages to secure an open gate. Then they are to go there with all speed.” Hyun Woo was speaking to the table at large as he said this. “I will speak with each of you after this and assign you your areas. What men we cannot get there through path or with the forward group will come in by ship. They will, naturally, have to leave ahead of everyone else to make it there on time. Jonathan-gui, Gaurav-gui, you will be in charge of those men.”

  “Understood.”

  “Yes, Master Hyun Woo.”

  “I also want our Pathmakers to board those ships as soon as their groups are at the wall. Except Rune-xian, of course. He will be leading one of the groups. But Grae-gui, I need you back here just in case. If the enemy force inside Goldschmidt does not immediately fall for our bait, and chooses to wait a few days, we will have our men trapped outside of the city without any resources. We must have a way of supplying them quickly in case this happens. Quickly and quietly, if possible. Your paths are the only way to do that. So, board a ship as soon as you arrive and come back here to Converse.”

  Grae gave a soft, “Yes, of course.”

  Darrens held up a hand. “Wait, I’m no strategist. Let me see if I follow this. Siobhan goes in with Tran at night, waits until predawn, then dams up the canal. Now, if the men inside immediately react, they’ll open a gate to chase after her. If that happens, you want her to run along the highway to draw them out further and have Tran rush in, keeping the gate clear. Is that right?”

  “It is.”

  “And while they’re doing that, the Pathmakers and the other commanders will be bringing in their groups and taking advantage of the open gate to pour into the city.”

  “Correct. If this does not happen, Tran-gui and Siobhan-jia will do their best to make a disturbance to draw the guard to one section of the city, making it easier for the rest of our groups to scale the walls. Either way, we should be able to breach the city.”

  “And then?”

  “And then…” Hyun Woo’s expression became darker. “And then, there is little strategy that we can plan, as it will fall to street-to-street fighting, which is an ugly thing. I will prepare the men on how to do so effectively in the week we have. If all my plans fail, we will be facing what they faced here: a siege. And that is the one thing we must, at whatever cost, avoid. For if we are forced to do such a thing, we will surely lose the majority of our men.”

  ӜӜӜ

  The meeting more or less broke up after that, although they all lingered so that Hyun Woo and Ryu Jin Ho could meet with them individually and give them assignments. Siobhan turned to Beirly and asked, “Is there anyone that you want to take with us? Anyone that has good masonry skills and is a capable fighter?”

  “Hmm. Chris Knesek comes to mind. Not sure which guild he’s from, but we worked together well when we were making all those caltrops.”

  “Do you know where to find him?”

  “I do,” Beirly confirmed with a bob of the head. “I’ll hunt him down and ask if he’ll come with us.”

  “Anyone else?�
��

  “Well, I don’t know about her masonry skills, but I know her fighting skills. I had to make her a new spear, as hers was broken first day. Holly Sadler.” Beirly let out a low whistle. “You think Markl’s dangerous with that spear-sword of his? You should see Holly fight with a plain old spear. I wouldn’t mess with the lass.”

  “Get her too, then.” Siobhan was sure that between Hyun Woo, Wolf, Tran, and Darrens, they would put together a group of people for her, but she liked having a say in things like this. “I have one or two people I want to ask as well.”

  Beirly lowered his tone even further, making it hard for her to hear him even though she was standing right next to him. “Mighty strange feel to the meeting at first. Everyone was looking at you and Wolf like they expected an explosion any minute. What was that about?”

  Ah, right, she hadn’t warned Beirly about that. “Wolf and I had a fight in the first meeting. He didn’t want me going.”

  Beirly looked at her steadily. “Didn’t want you going, or didn’t want you going without him?”

  She puffed out her cheeks. “The second, I guess.”

  “Siobhan. After ten years, don’t you know by now that Wolf will never, ever, let you go off into danger without someone he trusts at your back?”

  Intellectually, she did. She just forgot, sometimes, during the heat of the moment.

  “I take it the two of you haven’t made up yet.”

  She mumbled something inarticulate.

  “Go do that.”

  Yes, she probably should. Putting it off or trying to avoid him for another hour would only make things worse. Still and all, she wasn’t really looking forward to this conversation. Grumbling to herself, she stalked out of the room.

  Hyun Woo had already spoken to Wolf, and she’d seen him walk out a side door that led into a second gathering room. At this time of the day, it was empty of all people. Wolf was slouched in front of a cold hearth, sitting in a chair that was a mite small for him, eyes staring blindly at the ashes.

  Siobhan had expected him to be in a better mood after the meeting, seeing as he had gotten his way and she was not going without one of her own guildsmen going with her. But that was naïve of her. Of course he wouldn’t be happy again yet, because he was convinced she was still mad at him.