Blackstone (Book 2) (16 page)

Tran glanced over his shoulder at Wolf, and catching the
expression on his face, promised softly, “We’ll come back and reclaim it,
Wolf.”

As if uttering a solemn vow, Wolf responded, “We will.”

Seeing Channel Pass and hearing about what state Stott was
now in, had filled Siobhan with grief and rage. But that didn’t compare with
how she felt when she saw Goldschmidt. It felt as if she had lost her center,
and indeed she had, as the city had been home to her for over a decade now. The
loss of her guildhall had been crippling by itself but losing both made her
almost sick.

But as guildmaster, she couldn’t indulge in those feelings,
not yet. She had people depending on her to make rational decisions and bring
them to a place of safety. So she forced it down, although it felt like she was
swallowing acid, and made herself focus on the present and what needed to be
done next.

Grae brought them through to Converse with admirable
precision, as always, and as soon as the path closed they all clambered off the
carts with record speed. It was a miracle no one had been jostled off on the
way over here, it had been that cramped. As usual, she barely had her legs over
the side of the cart before Wolf appeared with a hand to help her down. She
took it and stole a hug as she did so. Instinct propelled her to physically
reassure herself that even if the city and hall was lost, she still had every
member of her guild.

Wolf seemed to realize what she needed and gave her a hug
around the shoulders before letting go. She took strength from the contact and
gave him a fleeting smile before turning and taking a good look at Converse.

The city looked ready to split at the seams.

Converse was a sizeable place, but certainly not in the same
category as the larger cities in Robarge. It was a trading city, a place for
people to stop temporarily and little more. But now it had at least
three
cities’ worth of citizens packed into it. Everyone from Channel Pass, Stott,
and Goldschmidt had run here for safety. Tents had popped up all around the
outer wall of the city, no doubt because there was no longer any room to be
inside. Siobhan frowned, an uneasy feeling forming as she took this in.
“Wolf…it’s not safe for people to be camping outside the walls like this.”

“No, it’s not,” he agreed, a matching frown on his face.
“There’s too many refugees in there.”

“We need to send them somewhere else,” she said, making a
snap decision. Turning, she tried to find Rune in the crowd, but couldn’t spot
him. Giving up, she called loudly, “RUNE!”

Like magic, he appeared at her elbow in the next second.
“What?”

“I need you to go to Winziane with a message for Hammon.”
Realizing her mistake, she turned and found Markl before waving him over.
“Markl! I need you too!” She waited for the scholar to join them before
continuing, “We must send word back to Hammon about what has happened before he
sends us fighters. He was set to do that early afternoon, and it’s getting
dangerously close to that time. Markl, go tell him everything that has happened
and explain to him what the situation is like here in Converse. The city can’t
support this many refugees—ask if he can take them.”

“Winziane will have the room for them,” Markl promised her.
“I’ll arrange it with him. What about the fighters he promised you?”

Siobhan shook her head, frustrated. “I don’t know the answer
to that yet. I think we still need them, to defend Converse, but I need to talk
to Darrens first. For now—”

“Send them,” Wolf cut in firmly.

Her eyes flew to his face. Send them?

“Send them,” Wolf repeated, locking his eyes with hers.
“They’ll hit Converse next. I think their goal is not only to loot the cities
but also to take control of the Grey Bridges.”

An icy chill chased its way up and down her spine as she
realized in horror that he was likely right. “Send them,” she told Markl
hoarsely.

Markl had studied strategy as well in Saoleord, although not
to the extent that Wolf and Rune had. He clearly understood what Wolf was
saying and agreed with it, as he nodded grimly. “I’ll tell him. Rune, take me
please.”

Rune paused and looked ahead for a moment, body weight
shifting uneasily. Siobhan watched him, puzzled. Normally he would immediately
do what Markl had asked, especially since she was also asking. “Rune? What’s the
hold up?”

Those clear blue eyes were clouded with concern. “Denney,”
he responded softly.

Denney. Siobhan’s eyes widened in realization. In that
crowded city, where things were already chaotic, Denney would be a handy
victim. Of course. Siobhan should have thought of that already.

Wolf put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll keep her with
me. Go, Rune.”

Reassured, Rune clapped him on the back before turning and
leading Markl back to the path.

Siobhan sent a prayer to the heavens in thanks that she had
a good guild that knew how to look out for each other. Mercy knew that she
couldn’t seem to think of everything at once. Shaking the thought off, she
turned for Converse. “Wolf, get Denney, and then we need to find Darrens.”

ӜӜӜ

Of course, finding Darrens was much easier said than done.
There was no major guild in Converse, hence there was no major guildhall, and
that was the problem. If there had been a major guild here, Siobhan would have
immediately gone to the guildhall as that would be the sensible place to meet.
But without it, she hadn’t a clue where to go except to visit every inn and
hostel along the main street with hopes that Darrens had chosen one of them as
a main base of operations. When that didn’t work, she fell to asking everyone
she passed until, miraculously, she ran into someone that knew and led her to
the right place.

Still, the search ate up valuable time, almost an hour, and
Siobhan was beyond frustrated by the time she got to Darrens.

The inn proved to be a good choice, as it was one of the
larger ones in the city. It also, unlike most of the inns, had a main
conference room (no doubt meant for trade and business negotiations) that had
nothing more than a large table and several dozen chairs inside. Darrens had
promptly taken over the space as his own, and even though he couldn’t have been
in it for more than twenty-four hours, it looked eerily similar to his own
conference room in Goldschmidt. Maps were already pinned to the walls, stacks
of reports on the table, and of course his people were scattered throughout
working on logistics and such.

Siobhan took a whole step inside when she spotted Ryu Jin Ho
standing next to Darrens, both of them facing the map on the far wall.
Tired—that was her first impression of them. Their body language screamed it
with the slouched shoulders, the constant shifting from foot to foot as their
muscles protested, the heavy sighs that punctuated their sentences. Had they
not slept at all since coming here?

“Guildmaster Darrens,” she called out in greeting. “Ryu Jin
Ho-zhi.”

Both men snapped around, identical looks of relief on their
faces at seeing her.

Darrens immediately came around the table, a hand stretched
out in welcome, which she clasped strongly. “Siobhan. I am overjoyed to see
you. What did Hammon say?”

“He’s sending us fighters,” she reported concisely. “This
afternoon. I just sent Markl and Rune back with the request that he send them
here and also take our refugees. This city cannot hold them all. Markl assured
me that Winziane will take them.”

Putting a hand to his chest, Darrens closed his eyes for a
moment. “Thank all mercy for your quick thinking. That was exactly the problem
we were discussing just now.”

Siobhan turned and gave a bow to Ryu Jin Ho. “My heart is
well seeing you safe. Wolf lost track of you last night and we assumed you were
here, but we weren’t sure.”

“Guildmaster Darrens would not let me stay behind, so I came
with them.” Ryu Jin Ho did not sound upset about this, well, only slightly
upset. As a warrior himself, he likely felt he could have done some good
fighting on the streets last night. But as a strategist, he clearly realized
that his knowledge would be better put here rather than in a skirmish
somewhere.

Siobhan spread her hands, looking between both men. “My
guild is here and ready to help. What would you have us do?”

“Help me organize the refugees and get them ready for
transport,” Darrens requested. “Everyone out there knows you, you know your Pathmakers
and how they work, so it’s best you handle that. Get as many people out as you
can tonight. We think we have another two, three days before the army hits us
here but I want those people gone as quickly as we can manage it.”

She nodded understanding. It was barely noon now, so they
had a good six or seven hours of daylight left to use. Well, no, seven might be
cutting it too fine. But she could shift a lot of people in six hours,
especially using both Pathmakers. The people outside of the walls would be the
first to transport. “Understood, I’ll take care of it. After that?”

“Rest,” Ryu Jin Ho ordered firmly. “Everyone right now is
working through the night but when they drop from exhaustion, we need people
ready to replace them. Rest. Be ready to work again tomorrow morning.”

Sensible advice. She wasn’t sure if her jangling nerves
would let her do that, but was game to try. At least putting a hot meal into
her stomach and her throbbing feet up would help. “I’ll try to find an inn,
then. We’ll report back here in the morning.” Hesitating, she lowered her voice
to a more confidential tone, “Be straight with me. Can we defend Converse?”

“Yes,” Ryu Jin Ho assured her, a wolfish smile of
satisfaction on his face. “I now know how large they are, how they fight, and
what tactics they use. Now that I know my enemy, I know how to fight them.
Converse will not fall.”

The absolute confidence on his face reassured her in a way
that nothing else would have. The panic that had been pulsing in the back of
her head faded to a hum. Well, maybe she’d be able to sleep a little after all.
Returning his smile with one of her own, she gave them both a bow before
turning on her heel. “Wolf, let’s go.”

 “Has anyone seen Siobhan?” Wolf looked from face to face,
but everyone just shook their heads or shared glances that said,
I haven’t
seen her, have you?

Frustrated, he left the cramped inn and went outside, going
from front yard to back, repeating the question. Despite the fact that a man
couldn’t take half a step without running into someone, no one had seen his
guildmaster.

Since legwork wasn’t getting him anywhere, Wolf went back to
the front porch (which was the only part of the inn that a man could take a
full breath in) and stopped to think.

After Siobhan’s meeting with Darrens, they’d followed the
plan set and transported as many people as possible to Winziane. Hammon was
only too happy to help as no one wanted innocent people caught in the next
battle with the army heading their way. Grae, Rune, and three other Pathmakers
from Winziane had nearly run themselves ragged taking people from Converse to
Winziane. Grae and Rune only barely returned before the light had failed them,
which was the closest that Wolf had ever seen Grae cut it. Another five
minutes, the man might not have had strong enough sunlight to make the path
operate properly, which would have left him stranded mercy-knew-where.

While they did that, Siobhan organized people to go,
enlisting the help of her guild to organize everyone. Sylvie was the only one
sensible enough to find them rooms in an inn, and it was her formidable trading
prowess that had managed to find three vacant rooms in this chaos. It meant
tripling up, with cots on the floor, but everyone was thankful to have a roof
over their head for the next few nights.

With the way that Siobhan had run herself ragged over the
past two days, Wolf would have assumed her to be sitting down somewhere with
her feet up. Right now, she had nothing better to do than rest, as it was the
strategists and the enforcers that were preparing Converse for an attack. So
where in sweet mercy was she?

Unless…when the thought struck, his eyes narrowed in
contemplation.

Siobhan never let people watch her cry. She had this silly
notion that just because she was a guildmaster, that she should never appear
weak to the guild. Wolf knew better than she that the guild looked to her for
guidance, not necessarily strength. That was his department.

If he couldn’t readily find her, that must be it.
Determined, he started looking for out of the way corners, deserted places that
would give her privacy. It wasn’t an easy thing to find in this overly crowded
city, but there were a few spots here and there. It took four false tries
before he found her.

As he’d feared, Siobhan lay curled up in a near-fetal
position against the back city wall, nearly wedged between it and a building.
Her hands covered her face, but he didn’t need to see to know she was crying.

Instinct propelled him forward, and he had his good hand on
her shoulder, drawing her into his embrace, before he properly realized what he
was doing.

Siobhan looked confused for a split second, jarred from her
grief, but when she realized it was him she curled into his arms without
hesitation. His good hand went up to stroke her hair, the iron one carefully
placed around her waist so that it couldn’t accidentally hurt her. For a long
time they just knelt there on the ground, holding on to each other, as he let
her cry against his shoulder.

She started to subside, her breath evening instead of coming
out in hiccupping sobs. It’d be a fine time to offer some comforting words, if
he could think of any. If there was something that needed killing, Wolf was the
man to call. But knowing the right thing to say at the right moment, well, that
was what they had Markl and Fei for. Still, he had to try.

“It could have been worse,” he offered tentatively. “We
could all have been in the city when it was attacked.”

With a sniff, Siobhan nodded against his shoulder. “I know.
And I’m thankful we weren’t there when it all happened, but…” her voice broke.
“The Hall, Wolf. Our Hall. Heaven knows it wasn’t much, but it was home. And
now, now there’s nothing left of it.”

He’d like to have said something like
It’s just a
building, Siobhan
, but in truth he’d gotten attached to the place too. He
had a lot of fond memories of the Hall and there was a part of him that knew he
could always retreat there if things became truly bad. To have it razed to the
ground like that had wounded him. Tears sprang to his eyes but he blinked them
back. Pressing a kiss against her forehead, he whispered soothingly, “I know.
Shhh, I know. It’ll be fine. We’ll rebuild.”

“It’ll take a while,” she sighed mournfully.

“Nonsense. What are you saying? We have
two
Pathmakers
now. We’ll make twice the money. We can build the Hall back before you can
blink twice.”

She gave a watery laugh and finally lifted her head from his
shoulder. “That’s only if you and Tran can behave and not rack up any fines.”

“Nothing to destroy right now,” he pointed out laconically.
“I think even we’d be hard-pressed to find trouble at the moment.”

“Point.”

“And just think, we can make the Hall the way we need it to
be this time.” Tears were still in her eyes, but she was gaining hold of
herself. He used a thumb to wipe away the wetness on her cheeks in a gentle
sweep.

“You mean make Beirly’s workshop twice as large, as he
always wanted, and make Conli a proper clinic to work in?”

“Don’t forget the lofty rafters for our two sneaks. I think
they’d break out in fits if you made them sit properly in a chair all day.”

Siobhan’s mouth quirked into a rueful smile. “That’s true,
isn’t it? We’ll have Beirly draw up the plans for a new Hall. Although I think
it’ll take us a few months before we can go back and start rebuilding.”

A few months sounded optimistic to him, but he wasn’t about
to say so. “A fine plan.”

Uncurling from him, she looked about, and only then seemed
to realize where she actually was. “How in mercy’s name did you find me here?”

“It took some hunting,” he admitted candidly. “Are you ready
to go back now?”

Taking in a shaky breath, she looked toward the ground for a
long moment before nodding confirmation.

That didn’t look like a firm yes to him. “Siobhan, if you
need another moment or two, take it.”

“No, I’ve been gone too long. People will notice I’m missing
and start to worry. And we have enough to worry about without me adding to it.”

Well, maybe what she needed now was something to focus on,
now that her grief had run its course a little. He’d seen this cycle before
with her. Something would upset her, she’d cry about it and be upset, then
she’d pick herself up and get buried in work until her frustrations had passed.
It was probably a better cycle than his, where he got angry at something and
then went and beat it to a pulp.

The thing that had brought him through the darkest times was
dreaming of the future, imagining a better time that lay ahead. It was what let
him survive those first terrible years after he was kidnapped from home and
forced into a dark guild. It was also the thing that let him survive when
Siobhan first bought him. He’d wanted so desperately to be a true part of the
guild, that even though he felt awkward and out of place there, imagining a
time when he was part of them had given him the strength to stay and change. He
knew how important dreams were, and so he tried to give it to her.

“You say Beirly wants this, and Conli needs that, but what
do you want in our new Hall?”

Wistfully, she responded, “I’ve always wanted a true bathing
chamber. You know, like the ones they have in Wynngaard, with the stone tile
work and the heated baths that you can soak in.”

“That would be nice,” he agreed, equally wistful. “Do you
think Beirly can build that?”

“Is there anything in this world that Beirly can’t build?”

“He claims there is, but I’ve yet to see proof of it.”

“Right? I think he needs to build us one. Or two. I’m not
sure if us women want to share with the men.”

“I’m not sure if I want to share with Tran.”

Siobhan poked him in the ribs for that one.

Chuckling, he got to his feet and offered her a hand,
pulling her up with him. Siobhan didn’t let go of him, but instead linked arms,
which pleased him in a purely masculine way. The fact that she trusted him
enough to let him see her at her weakest moment also stroked his ego. He
probably shouldn’t feel flattered by that, but he did.

As they slowly walked back to the inn, Siobhan asked, “What
do you want? From the new Hall.”

“A decent sized training yard,” he responded instantly. That
one didn’t even require thought on his part.

“Now that’s a practical suggestion,” she approved. “Hmm,
what else should we do…?”

They traded suggestions back and forth, which somehow led
them to reminiscing about things that had happened in the old Hall. Sharing
words of comfort and dreams, they walked at the pace of memories.

ӜӜӜ

Ryu Jin Ho set Wolf and Tran as his lieutenants, sending
them out to teach how to prepare to defend the walls, as they were the ones
that knew what to do. Wolf found this to be particularly challenging as he did
not possess the skill with either words or pen to really convey what he knew to
the men. It took effort on his part, and patience on theirs, but eventually
they understood what he wanted and went about making it a reality.

Converse didn’t have much in the way of trees, so setting
pikes along the outer walls was out, but Beirly was making caltrops with the
rest of the blacksmiths to make up for it. Wolf sent people out to find every
arrow and throwing spear available in the city, ordering them to be collected
every few feet on top of the walls. There was also oil and torches gathered to
keep the army at bay.

After the weapons and at least some of the defenses were put
into place, Wolf focused on drilling the people so that they knew exactly where
to go and how to respond when the army finally did reach the walls. Wolf had
them start at the base of the walls and on his signal, they would race into
position and lift the right weapon. They did this repeatedly for two hours
until he was satisfied it was well drummed into their heads, and panic or
excitement wouldn’t make them forget it.

Hyun Woo arrived that morning by path. Wolf saw from the
wall when Grae brought him in. Wolf assumed that between Hyun Woo and Ryu Jin
Ho that they would come up with a strategy on how to defend the city. But, Hyun
Woo called for him and Rune barely ten minutes after arriving, asking that they
meet him in the new Blackstone headquarters. Curious what this was all about,
Wolf obeyed the summons and went to the inn, meeting Rune almost at the same
time in the doorway.

Rune fell in behind Wolf as they entered the main room and
asked, “Do ya know why he’s asked for us?”

“No idea,” Wolf admitted. “I guess we’ll see shortly.”

The main room was madness, although after that first
startled blink, Wolf started to see that it was organized chaos. Darren’s wife
had stepped up, it appeared, and she was even now directing people to different
parts of the inn, making sure that the right information went into the proper
hands. Wolf stopped in front of her and waited to get her attention before asking,
“Hyun Woo?”

She turned and pointed to the far back left corner. “There.”

“My thanks.”

Rune moved ahead of him, acting as trail blazer to the back
corner. It took a little shoving, and a great deal of patience, but they
finally made it. A large, rectangular table was shoved catawampus into the
corner with two benches on either side of it. Hyun Woo and Ryu Jin Ho both
stood next to it, neither of them inclined to sit, and they looked up as the
Wynngaardians approached.

“Rune-xian, Wolfinsky-gui,” Hyun Woo greeted with a strained
smile. The man had every hair in place but the dark circles under his eyes were
a clear indication he had not slept well the night before, if at all. “You made
good time. Come and sit.”

After being on his feet the majority of the day, Wolf was
glad to sit, even if only for a few minutes. “You called for us?” he asked,
slinging his legs over the bench.

“Indeed so. This is a perfect opportunity to teach you how
to defend a city.”

So even here, the lessons didn’t stop? Wolf couldn’t help
but grin, delighted by that.

“Also, we are strangers to this city,” Ryu Jin Ho added
pragmatically. “You both know it better than we do. What problems have you
noted?”

“The walls are not sound,” Rune answered promptly. He sank
onto the bench next to Wolf, more slumping than sitting. Then again, he had
been doing most of the legwork on the northern side. “We have multiple holes in
the wall.”

Both strategists frowned hearing this, not one bit pleased
with the news. “How big are these breaches?”