Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (9 page)

Out in this open space, with nothing more than moon and stars to light the way, it was difficult to see anything more than vague silhouettes. Still, everyone could see Goldschmidt as they approached it. Tran didn’t go directly to the city, but skirted around the southern edge, toward the dry river bed.

Siobhan frowned, as that wasn’t the plan. They were supposed to go to the east, by the canal, and drop off the sandbags.

“Tran?” she asked in a loud whisper.

She couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but his voice had a frown in it. “We’re making too much noise. Even in this darkness, if we get too close to the walls, they’ll hear us.”

Oh. Were they really being that loud? Siobhan strained her ears and discovered that Tran’s concern might very well be dead on. They were used to a certain level of noise from Goldschmidt, no matter what hour it was, because the city was that large. But with it occupied by only a few thousand people, the city was relatively quiet. In fact, there was hardly a noise to be heard from it. In the stillness of the night, the noise their group was making could probably be heard on top of the walls.

Storm and sky, that wasn’t something they had factored into their plans. She’d have to figure out how to get all of those sandbags over to the canal. Actually, she had a sinking feeling she already knew how that would have to happen. Siobhan was just in denial at the moment. Her aching legs and back preferred not to think about carrying additional weight at dawn.

They arrived at the mouth of the dry river bed and Tran slowed to—for him—an absolute crawl. The river bed wasn’t smooth, after all. It had a very uneven surface with rocks sticking up everywhere. People had to move with caution just to avoid turning an ankle or landing on their faces.

As they packed in, Siobhan stayed at the mouth while Tran moved forward, softly encouraging her group to stay to the right, and Tran’s to stay to the left. When it came time to move, she didn’t want her group tangled up with his, and having to jostle their way out. When the last person was settled, she moved forward, checking on her people as she did so, and finding that while they were all winded, with aching legs and backs, no one had lost their determination. Satisfied, Siobhan passed along the word to eat, drink, and settle in for whatever rest they could on this rocky ground. She estimated it to be nearly three in the morning, and dawn happened in roughly two and a half hours. They wouldn’t have time to sleep after that, so they needed to snatch whatever sleep they could now.

Finally, she reached Tran’s side again. He had his head turned so that he kept an eagle eye on the city gates not far from them. Although what he expected to see in this darkness, she didn’t know. With fumbling, Siobhan managed to find a clear enough space to sit in between him and Beirly, although there was a particularly sharp rock there that wanted to poke a hole through her thigh. Grimacing, she maneuvered the sand bag around so she could sit on it instead, which helped tremendously. Settled, she drew out her water bag and drained a third of it in one long gulp.

“Easy, Siobhan, that has to last you until tomorrow,” Tran cautioned in a low tone.

“No, it doesn’t,” she denied pleasantly. “I’ll be right next to the canal, remember? I can fill it up there.”

“I wouldn’t count on that, Shi,” Beirly warned. “As soon as we get there, we’ll be busy beavers. And after that, we might be fighting off angry men.”

Point. She capped the water bag, grumbling, and stowed it in her pack to avoid draining the rest of it. Instead, she took out her wrapped bread and jerky and started in on it. Truth told, she felt like her stomach was trying to chew threw her backbone, she was so hungry.

“What do we do about the sandbags?” she asked in between bites.

“We’ll have to double up and carry them ourselves,” Knesek stated. From his voice, he wasn’t far from her, maybe two people over. “Only option I see.”

“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!”