Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) Read online

  Gasps sounded around the table as people realized the full import of that question.

  Grae once again shifted uneasily under the weight of their attention, but focused steadily on Wolf as he responded, “Of course. I can’t take more than a few hundred at a time, though. And once I’m there, I’m stuck. I can’t take the path back to Converse without being in full view of the walls.”

  “But this can be done?” Hyun Woo looked more excited by this idea than the suggestion of damming up the water.

  “Yes, it can.” Grae rubbed the back of his head and added sheepishly, “Although it’ll take me about a week to build a path to do it with. Nothing I have here in Converse will do the job. And what you’re asking is tricky—it’ll take fine calculations on my part to do it right. Otherwise I’ll ram people directly into the walls instead of just outside them.”

  Hyun Woo nearly vibrated in his chair, words tumbling over each other as he asked, “How close can you get? How many can you take?”

  “With the evergreen pattern, I can take approximately three hundred men. That’s a rough estimation, you understand, and I’ll have to do calculations to make sure that’s right. But I believe I can get them within five feet of the walls.”

  Both strategists looked dangerously close to bear-hugging the stuffing out of Grae, they were that excited.

  Siobhan was equally excited, as this idea hadn’t even occurred to her. Thank heavens Wolf had thought of it, as Grae likely wouldn’t have thought of the paths in a military way either. “Grae, couldn’t you transport more with your coral pattern?”

  “The ground here isn’t rich enough for it.” Grae’s mouth pursed in an unhappy line. “Otherwise it’d be perfect for this situation. The evergreen pattern is the largest I dare use.”

  “Three hundred is not enough, but I understand that we have more than one Pathmaker in this city.” Hyun Woo looked at Rune with a questioning eyebrow.

  “Three, actually.” Rune gave an abashed shrug. “Including me.”

  “Nine hundred altogether.” Hyun Woo rubbed his hands together in an idle gesture of thought. “Pathmaking cannot be used at night, is that correct?”

  “It can’t be used without strong sunlight,” Rune responded. “So not even in dawn or sunset hours.”

  “That does complicate the use of this.” Hyun Woo looked pleased but frustrated all at once. “We have nearly sixteen hundred men here who are capable of fighting. I need to transport all sixteen hundred to Goldschmidt, otherwise our task becomes even more dangerous and prone to disaster.”

  “Three hundred of those can be snuck into the dry riverbed at night,” Tran suggested. “I know the land like the back of my hand. I can guide them there.”

  “That still leaves four hundred that I must somehow get to Goldschmidt.”

  “We can get some of them there by ship,” Jonathan volunteered. “Converse does trade up and down the channel all of the time, no one would pay any attention to merchant ships traveling up along the coast. If we time it right, we can get them there just at the turn of dawn, give them time to get to the walls before any lookout has enough light to see by.”

  Tran backed this by saying, “We can manage to offload two hundred that way. We already have a force trained to offload quickly because of the recent battle. We’d have time to get two hundred to the city walls before a lookout could see them. The light is always bad on that section of the city anyway, because of how the sun rises.”

  “That leaves two hundred.” Darrens shared a look with everyone around the table. “Any other ideas?”

  Siobhan raised a finger in the air. “Why don’t you let me take them in?”

  Rune couldn’t tell who was more surprised. Siobhan had said it so naturally, as if it were a foregone conclusion that she’d go, that no one seemed to know how to respond at first. He glanced at Wolf-dog’s face, seeing how he took it, but one look was enough to see that the other Wynngaardian wasn’t ‘taking’ it at all. Wolf-dog seemed torn between shouting her down or shaking sense into her.

  When she didn’t get an immediate response, Siobhan continued as if that awkward silence had never descended. “I know we’re still working out timing, and making plans, but it’s pretty clear to me that you’re going to need every commander at this table to lead people into the city. That leaves you short at least one commander to deal with the water, doesn’t it?”

  “It does,” Gaurav grudgingly admitted.

  Siobhan asked the table at large, “Well, who else can you send? How many of your commanders know exactly where that water canal is?”

  Hyun Woo studied each man before turning to her and admitting, “It appears only the men of your guild know.”

  “Exactly. Grae and Rune can’t, they’ve got people to transport. Tran can’t, he’s got people to take to the dry river bed. I’m assuming you want Wolf and Fei poised to take people through the gates or off-loading from the boats, as they know the area the best?”

  Neither strategist could disagree with her.

  “So, who’s left? Me. Now, I’m not a trained strategist like my men here, but I know a thing or two about leading people into a fight. I’ve been doing that for ten years. I know the area around Goldschmidt as well as Grae, as I’m always the one that goes with him as he’s preparing to build a path or checking up on his paths. And, unlike the rest of you, I don’t have an important task already assigned to me. Shouldn’t I be the one to go?”

  Hyun Woo spread his hands. “Your assessment is sound. But four hundred men is more than you have ever commanded. Are you sure of this?”

  “I’ll need at least fifty to quickly dam up that river, I would think.” Siobhan frowned thoughtfully, apparently oblivious that Wolf-dog was glaring a hole in her head. “And the other three hundred would be there to protect the workers in case the rabble inside realize what we’re doing and charge out the gates. Give me one man that can be heard above a crowd, as I can’t shout that loud, and I think I can do the job just dandy.”

  Wolf abruptly shot out of his chair, grabbing Siobhan’s arm as he did so, and growled at the room, “We need a moment.”

  Siobhan spluttered out protests as he dragged her clear out of the room, up the stairs, and into a private room on the second story.

  Rune, watching this, shook his head and muttered, “She shoulda known better.”

  “Truly,” Tran sighed, not in the least surprised.

  Jonathan raised a hand and asked tentatively, “Am I the only one that’s missing something?”

  It was Tran that explained in a wry tone. “The main reason that Wolf first joined Deepwoods was Siobhan. He’s highly protective of her and always has been. I’ve seen him break a man’s nose just for looking at her wrong. He’s not about to take the idea of her leading a force of men into an enemy city well.”

  “Well, not without him going with her.” Fei shared a secretive smile with Tran.

  “So, to clarify, it’s not her being in danger that has him wound up in knots, it’s being in danger without him there to protect her?” Jonathan seemed immensely interested in this.

  “We go into danger all the time.” Tran lifted a shoulder in a shrug that said such danger was commonplace by now. “We’re all used to that. But Wolf doesn’t do well when she’s in a dangerous place and out of his sight.”

  “For good reason.” Markl joined the conversation for the first time with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “I’ve yet to see anything that can actually get past Wolf’s guard.”

  Tran, affronted, glared at him. “I can.”

  “Even then, you only have a fifty-fifty chance of managing it. Rune and Fei are the same. You four fight each other to a standstill all the time.”

  Rune was not about to admit, out loud, that Markl was dead on.

  Ryu Jin Ho leaned both arms against the table, following this with quirked eyebrows. “Interesting. I knew their bond was strong, but not that strong. So, if we sent Wolf-gui in with Siobhan-jia, he likely would not argue?
”

  “Yes,” Rune confirmed. “But Siobhan’s right, we don’t have the manpower for that. You’ve only got so many commanders and that’s a mighty big city to cover.”

  Hyun Woo rubbed his hands over his face in a tired gesture. “This is true. And I can hardly teach the finer points of siege warfare to a group of new commanders in the week it will take us to prepare. Siobhan-jia is the right person to send, where shutting off the canal is concerned. At least, if the idea I have in mind will work.”

  Darrens perked up hopefully. “You have an idea already?”

  “I do. It will take skillful timing, though, to pull off.” With an exasperated look toward the ceiling, the older man got to his feet. “I will elaborate shortly, but let me go and fetch my two commanders first. I do not wish to tell my plan only to repeat myself.”

  Rune felt like someone should warn the master. “Um, Master, Wolf and Siobhan’s fights aren’t something a man chooses to interrupt. They don’t argue often, but when they do, it’s downright scary.”

  Hyun Woo gave him that enigmatic smile that Rune found impossible to read. “The young are often boisterous, but rarely wise.” So saying, he walked calmly across the room and ascended the stairs.

  Rune waited for that to make sense, but after it whirled in his brain three times, he gave up and turned to Fei. “What did that mean?”

  “It means the young are loud but not usually right.” Fei seemed as amused as Hyun Woo, strangely enough. In fact, that smile was eerily alike the other man’s. “Do not worry, Rune. I think Hyun Woo-zhi has broken up worse fights than this.”

  For his sake, Rune sure hoped so.

  ӜӜӜ

  By the time that Wolf got her into a room upstairs and the door closed behind them, Siobhan had put it together. She could see it on his face, what he thought of her volunteering to go. Why he bothered to close the door was the real question. With the way he could bellow, everyone downstairs would be able to hear him, even through five doors.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she lifted her chin in challenge and squared off with him. “Alright. You obviously don’t want me to go.”

  In an eerily similar manner, he also squared off with her, torso leaning forward slightly in an aggressive way. “You’re right. So don’t go.”

  “I will,” she negated, words cutting.

  Brows snapping together, he growled at her in wordless denial.

  “Don’t growl at me, Wolf. I said I’ll go, and I’ll go.”

  Seeing her get more stubborn, he took in a huge breath, and backed off enough to try reasoning with her. “Siobhan, you don’t have any experience in this.”

  The forced patience in his tone put her back up even more. “And what’s ‘this’ exactly? Leading men into a place that they don’t know? Guarding an area that might be under attack any minute? Pulling off an impossible job ahead of time so a much larger force can come in at my heels and finish the job?”

  “No, that’s not—”

  Raising her voice, she ran roughshod over his attempt of responding. “What do you think I was doing when we were guarding the bridge last fall in Quigg? And how else would you describe my job for the past ten years as I led this whole guild from one city to another without any information about its conditions except the location? Or what, do you think I don’t have enough experience leading hundreds of people? All the caravans we’ve escorted, which have sometimes three hundred people in them, don’t count?!”

  His good hand came up to grip at his hair, hard, in a gesture of sheer frustration. “That’s not what I meant, woman! And you know that!”

  “If by ‘this’ you refer to me not having the same training as you in strategy, aye, I’ll agree!” Siobhan snapped back. She had to strangle the urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake sense into him. It wouldn’t do an ounce of good trying, and it would make her look like a child trying to budge a mountain.

  “THEN WHY DID YOU VOLUNTEER TO LEAD ANYONE?!” he thundered.

  It set her ears to ringing, the volume was so intense. Instinct almost sent her taking a step back, but she dug in her heels and stayed her ground, although it was hard to do so. “Because it doesn’t take a head for strategy for this! Hyun Woo will tell me exactly what to do, or Ryu Jin Ho will, and even if they didn’t, it’s a simple thing! Go in, block the canal, protect it and the workers from any attacks in the city. When the reinforcements arrive, retreat. Did I miss something?!”

  Wolf jabbed a finger at her. “It’s simple, I’m not arguing that, I’m saying you shouldn’t be the one to go.”

  Siobhan had never felt more insulted by someone in her own guild before. The urge to shake him returned two fold and she had to dig her nails into her palms to keep herself from acting on it. Either that or kick him hard in the shins. He honestly didn’t think she could handle it, did he? Was his opinion of her skills really that low? The anger abruptly transmuted, leaving her shaking and cold with rage.

  The silence that fell between them was hard, hard enough to forge into steel. Wolf’s eyes went wide as he realized that he had pushed her past anger. Splaying a hand out, he pleaded, “Wait, Siobhan. Wait. That didn’t come out right.”

  “Oh, I think it did,” she breathed, tone soft and icy.

  “No, really, it didn’t,” he negated desperately. “I’m not saying that someone else is a better leader than you. I just don’t think you should go.”

  The words flowed over without touching her. She felt impervious to his words, like a stone in the middle of a river was impervious to the fish that swam around it. Her eyes went blind to his very presence as she walked past him, heading for the door. “We’re done here.”

  At that moment, the door opened and Hyun Woo stepped through. He came in cautiously, like a man that knew he was stepping into a place where angels feared to tread. His eyes went from her face to Wolf’s and back again. “Is all well here?”

  “Fight’s over,” Siobhan assured him, her mouth creaking up into something that might charitably be called a smile. “I’m going.”

  “Siobhan,” Wolf pleaded, worry and desperation clear in the way he spoke her name.

  Hyun Woo might have come up to mediate, but facing the icy rage in her face and the desperate fear in Wolf’s, he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Whatever scene he’d expected to find, this wasn’t it. “I think it best we sit and discuss this.”

  “Discussion’s over. I’m going. You can deploy him wherever you deem fit.”

  Trying for a gentle tone, the strategist said, “He argues against this because he is worried about you.”

  Lip curling into a snarl, she grabbed the door and yanked it back open. “He should have said that, then.” Siobhan cleared the door in one stride before slamming it behind her. She threw it with such force that it actually bounced back and vibrated, slowly swinging back open. Not caring, she stalked for the stairs.

  As she went, she heard Hyun Woo say, “I fear you have hurt her pride, Wolf-gui.”

  “I did more than that,” Wolf groaned, sounding miserable.

  Yes, you certainly did, she fumed. Almost, she turned back to rip a strand off his hide, but…no. Words said in anger were always regretted later. She’d regret this fight enough as it was, no need to add more to it.

  Getting to the base of the stairs, Siobhan realized in some surprise that everyone was gone. Only Markl was still there, and he was leaning against the edge of one table, legs crossed casually at the ankle, obviously waiting on someone to descend.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Ryu Jin Ho said we needed a more accurate map and detailed information before we could make any plans. He’s going out with Grae and Rune to do some calculations. Darrens is getting a more accurate headcount of who is battle ready now and who will be able to fight a week from now. We took a unanimous vote and decided to meet back here after noon.”

  “In other words,” she translated, still feeling rough around the edges from the residue of anger, “no one wanted
to continue the meeting after Wolf and I had that scream fest upstairs.”

  “Exactly.” Extending a hand, he offered with a gentle, sympathetic smile, “Walk with me.”

  Wondering where he was going with this, she accepted the arm, putting her hand inside his elbow. He led her out the main doors of the tavern and onto the street. This hour of the morning, everyone had their own tasks to do, and there was little traffic. They were able to step out and walk along the side without bumping into anyone.

  “Are you the oldest in your family, Siobhan?”

  Surprised by this out-of-the-blue question, it took a second to switch mental tracks and answer. “Ah, no. Third to last, actually.”

  “Really? I’d always pegged you as the older child.” His head cocked slightly as he thought that over. “Probably because you’re such a natural big sister to everyone in the guild.”

  “It comes from being a big sister to Grae. He’s actually eight months younger than me. For a child, that’s a huge difference.”

  “I suppose it is.” His eyes crinkled up in a semi-smile. “As you know, I’m the oldest. For many years, I was the only boy, too. Because of that, I was usually in charge of protecting my sisters. Even when Samuel came along, he was too young to protect anyone, so I was still the default guardian of my teenage sisters. It was quite harrying at moments, trying to protect three of them all at once. Especially without stepping on any toes.”

  Siobhan did not for one minute think that he was telling her all of this just to pass the time. But she didn’t quite see where he was going with it, either. “Did you learn how to be good at it?”

  “Still learning, actually.” His grin became rueful. “I’ve learned that protecting my lady-love is somewhat different than protecting my sisters. I’ve made a muck of things several times with Sylvie without intending to.”

  Siobhan probably knew more about those times than he realized, as it was usually she that advised Sylvie how to handle it.

  “Still and all, I’ve gotten an idea of how to handle protecting a woman without angering her in the process. So. Won’t you let me say what Wolf was trying to say?”