Blackstone (Book 2) (18 page)

Fei, perched up on top of the watchtower, let out a cry:
“WOLF! THEY’RE COMING!”

Everyone had been waiting for this moment for a full two
days, so none of them could claim to be surprised. Wolf slung the shield from
his back around and onto his left arm with a practiced move before taking his
iron right hand and banging it loudly against the metal, using the shield like
an alarm. It made quite the racket, the sound echoing and carrying for a fair
distance.

His people, well drilled as they were, recognized the sound
instantly and scrambled up to their positions on the wall. Wolf had to duck
closer to the outer edge and suck in his gut to let them have enough room to
pass him, and even then he was jostled around a bit.

Within minutes, they were ready, weapons in hand, eyes
peeled intently toward the eastern horizon.

Fei’s eyesight was once again proven to be as sharp as a
hawk’s as it took several minutes more before Wolf could finally see the army
approaching. Narrowing his eyes, he strained to pick out individuals, trying to
get a headcount. Then he shook his head in disgust. A useless gesture, his eyes
weren’t good enough for that. Giving up, he raised his voice and called to Fei,
“How many?”

Staying on his perch, Fei didn’t look away from the army’s
approach as he called back, “Not sure! About three thousand!”

Oh? The reports they’d gotten estimated five thousand had
hit Goldschmidt. Did they lose that many men in felling the city? Or had they
left a number of people behind? It might be a mix of both. Goldschmidt was the
first city to put up any real fight. Stott and Channel Pass had been hit
without any warning and so hadn’t given any real resistance.

That made their job easier, certainly, in defending
Converse. Whatever the reason, Wolf wasn’t about to complain.

Looking to the left and right, he took in the general
expressions and attitude of the people with him. Some of them looked
determined, some of them nervous, but underlying it all was a tremor of fear.
These people had never seen a body of men that large before—not a caravan in
the world came even close to this number. Seeing three thousand men marching
for them, as bloodthirsty as starving wolves, would make even the stoutest
heart shiver. Even Wolf, as seasoned as he was with fighting, found the army’s
approach unnerving.

Sending a man into a fight who was afraid was the worst
thing a commander could do. Wolf knew this from experience. It was part of the
reason why he was missing a hand. He absolutely could not let this air of
trepidation suffocate them.

Taking in a breath, he prayed for guidance from any god that
might be listening, then he tried to phrase in his own head what to say. He
hashed through several sentences, wishing absently for either Fei or Markl
(they were better at things like this), but eventually came up with something
that he felt would help. With another deep breath, he opened his mouth and said
as loudly as he could, “MEN OF ROBARGE!”

The whole line atop the wall jerked, their heads snapping
around in surprise to stare at him. Clearly, they hadn’t thought he would say
anything to them.

“I CALL YOU THAT BECAUSE NO MATTER YOUR GUILD, NO MATTER
YOUR CITY, YOU ARE OF ROBARGE!” He had to take another deep breath to have the
lungpower necessary to keep speaking. “THE ARMY COMING AT US ARE MINDLESS
BEASTS. THEIR WILL IS WEAK. THEY THINK TO PUSH PAST YOU AS EASILY AS THEY HAVE
BEFORE, PLUNDER AND MURDER, AND CARRY OFF WHAT THEY WISH. BUT THEY HAVE NO
POWER HERE!”

Wolf gauged the reaction of his words and found that he was
only half-hitting the mark. So he repeated it, with even more emphasis on the
words. “THEY HAVE NO POWER! THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT.
YOU DO
. THEY
HAVE NO STRATEGY OR TACTICS.
YOU DO
. THEY HAVE NO LOYALTY TO EACH OTHER.
YOU DO
. YOU ARE EACH OTHER’S ALLIES. DEFEND EACH OTHER, FIGHT FOR EACH
OTHER, AND
DO NOT LET THEM PASS!”

A roar went up from the walls, men and women of every age
clanging their weapons against shields, or against the stone wall, making a
raucous sound that was nearly deafening. It was like a wave of sound, a war cry
that spoke only of determination and courage, with not one trace of fear to be
found.

The army that had been marching with such speed before
faltered, their approach visibly hesitating as pockets of men stopped dead in
their tracks, intimidated by what they saw and heard.

The men that stood with Wolf saw this reaction and they let
loose another war cry that could rival the first in volume. It unnerved their
enemy so that only half still wanted to advance, and the other half clearly had
second thoughts about this whole venture.

Wolf had just been trying to rouse the morale of his own
troops so that they had the courage to face the enemy. He hadn’t anticipated
that by doing so he’d scare his enemy. A wolfish smile split his face in two.
He wasn’t about to complain about that either.

The war cry from the southern side of the city was loud
enough to carry around to the other walls, and from a distance, he could hear
them also shouting a war cry that would curdle a man’s blood. It was an open
challenge to those that marched against them—come and take us,
if you can
.

From above, Fei leaned forward, almost precariously balanced
on the very edge of the roof, his hand up to shield his eyes from the afternoon
sun. Whatever he saw surprised him, as his head jerked back and he leaned even
further, straining to see better. Wolf watched this behavior in bemusement and
the beginnings of alarm. Just what had the man seen to make him react so?

Turning in place, Fei waved a hand to catch Wolf’s
attention, then cupped his mouth before yelling to him. Wolf only heard the
tone, but couldn’t decipher the words through all of the shouting going on
around him. Helplessly he shook his head, pointing toward his ear to show he
couldn’t hear anything.

Frustrated, Fei gave up on this and instead climbed down, as
limber as a monkey. Within two hops and a leap, he had gained the main level of
the wall. Wolf pushed through his people, meeting Fei halfway. “What?” he
asked, still having to raise his voice to make sure that Fei could hear him.

“They’re not properly armed!” Fei said in disbelief.

Wolf blinked at him. Surely he hadn’t heard the man right.
“Not properly armed?” The men he had faced in Goldschmidt had been.

“Most of them don’t have real weapons. They’re carrying
hammers, or hoes, or butcher knives. The few that are armed have weapons so old
or oversized that it makes me think they’re stolen.”

This seemed insane to Wolf, at first. Who went into battle
without a proper weapon to his name? But it made complete sense when he thought
about it. Good weapons were expensive to make and a financial burden to replace
if lost or stolen. The whole reason why Orin had put together this rag-tag army
in the first place was because of a practically destitute economy. Where would
they find the means to arm five thousand people? And even with them looting the
other three cities that they’d taken, the first thing that a man did when under
attack would be to take up his sword, or whatever other weapon he used. So
there would be little chance of gaining weapons through looting.

Wolf must have been (un?)lucky enough to meet up with the
men that were armed while fighting in Goldschmidt. Or perhaps they sent the
people with true weapons as a vanguard into the city and let everyone else come
in after them.

He blew out a lungful of air in a steady stream. “Well, that
makes the job of fending them off easier. How long till they reach the walls?”

“I give it minutes.”

“Then let’s get back in place.” Wolf switched the shield to
his right arm, absently locking his thumb in to hold the hand around the
handle. That set, he pulled his sword free and gripped it rhythmically in an
old habit. As he did this, Fei moved back to the watchtower, picking up bow and
a quiver of arrows as he moved.

Eyeing the army’s approach, Wolf waited on taut nerves, and
slowly raised his sword above his head. “Archers ready!” he boomed out.

The three hundred men under his command instantly notched
arrows and pulled them back, ready to fire into the air.

Giving it another few seconds for more men to come within
range, Wolf bided his time before giving the command, “LOOSE!”

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.”