hacked out of the cliff, but here more of it was clearly in view, gradually ascending. After half a mile or so, it turned a corner and disappeared into the gorge of the Ruzena.
“You haven’t tried to build a redoubt up there?” Otto asked.
“Course I did! We were too late. The Wends were there yesterday already. See them?”
At that distance any figures would tend to merge into the rock, but Otto peered with wind-watered eyes and eventually made out a couple of lookouts sitting at the side of the road, inconspicuous against the cliff. A company of archers or arquebusiers would be on standby, sheltering around the corner, and any sortie from Gallant would be mowed down before it arrived.
“If we could hold that bend, their damned bombard would be useless junk. Can we risk a night attack?”
“I’ll leave that up to Vlad,” Anton said. So now he was ready to admit who was in charge of the defense, and that was good. “About five or six miles upstream, the gorge widens into Long Valley, where we have our border post, and where they almost killed me. The Pomeranian ferry dock is on the lake, a mile or so farther on.”
“Wulf thinks he saw the Dragon at Long Valley last night, with at least one Speaker guarding it.”
Anton shivered, as if that news was even colder than the wind. “Then it should arrive here today or tomorrow. Even if they need to reinforce bridges, I can’t see them needing more than two days.”
“Less if they have Speakers to speed things along.” Otto blew through his fists to warm them. “If that bombard is as big as they say it is, then I don’t like this situation at all. The range is too great for bows, especially firing uphill and into the wind. Arquebuses might reach, although they would be hopelessly inaccurate.”
“We only have three, with very little powder and shot. I expect Vlad will save them for the main assault.”
But the Wend’s bombard was going to have both wind and elevation working for it. Properly dug in, it would put a stone ball on target every time. Even if it only fired six or seven times a day, in two days the barbican would be a rock pile. The defenders had nothing to oppose it except some hope of future trebuchets to throw rocks at it. Flying rocks might not hurt the gnd t hurt un itself, but they ought to delay its emplacement and flatten a few gunners.
Realistically, all that a conventional defense would do now was delay the inevitable end for a few days. Gallant’s chances of survival depended on Wulf. Ever since Father’s illness had called him home from his youthful days of battle, Otto had assumed that he would eventfully die in his bed at home. Now he saw that this little junket to Cardice County might be the death of him. He might never return to Dobkov.
“You!” Vlad came striding over like an enraged Goliath of Gath, with the wind rippling his beard and his nose flaming red with cold. “You two prissy nobles come here to dance to entertain the men, or did you plan to be useful?”
“I was about to ask how we could help,” Otto said mildly.
“Half this junk,” the big man boomed, waving a meaty hand at the spread of timber that was threatening to pave the entire roof, “is rotten with woodworm and useless. Go downstairs and get those drunken whoresons to pick out the good stuff and sort it into types, so if I need a left rear upright I can send for it. Also have them come up and clear the crap wood out of our way. Then burn it and all the rest like it.”
This hardly seemed like a job requiring a count and a baron, but Otto dutifully led the way to the stairs. The attic below was a noisy, very dusty cavern, low-ceilinged and lit only by loopholes; he and Anton could barely stand erect in it. A dozen men were heaving timbers around, and several of them were shouting orders. As soon as the count himself arrived, though, he was able to seize everyone’s attention and impose silence. Before he could start issuing orders, Otto tugged at Anton’s cloak. “The light in here isn’t good enough to sort out the bad wood.”
Anton nodded and amended Vlad’s orders accordingly. Who was in charge here? No one. How many were master carpenters? Two were. He appointed one of them gaffer. First, six men were to go back up and stack the bad pieces that Vlad had already discarded; they would do as ammunition. The rest were to start sorting all the timber into types, making a pile of each shape. When they had done that, they were to choose the worst pieces from each pile and take those away to be copied so that new trebuchets could be built to their model. And whenever they winched a piece up to the roof, they were to inspect it in good light and bring it back again if it was no good.
Any questions? Then get to work. Yes, my lord.
Every man ran to obey. In peace or war, men worked better when they had orders directly from a nobleman. No one argued with gentry. The big man upstairs with the beard was a knight, but a count was much higher in the eyes of God or man. Counts were very special.
Noble blood or not, the dust was making Otto sneeze, so he gratefully followed Anton as he ran down another flight to the machine room. Count and baron shared the same dream of escape to somewhere where they could be more useful.
“I’m going to the armor anto the y next,” Anton said, heading out the archway to the parapet walk. “Our supply of arrows-”
“My lord?”
He spun around to frown at the woman who had spoken. Tall but bent, she was swathed in a laced-up cloak of coarse cloth with her shoes and a few inches of black dress visible below it; from the front of it protruded a wind-reddened hand clutching a distaff like a bizarre scepter. A black felt bonnet hid her hair and ears, revealing only a face from which wrinkles and weathering had driven any trace of beauty. Her age might be anywhere between forty and seventy, depending on how many children she had borne. Undoubtedly she was a servant, almost certainly a widow, and hundreds of her like could be found in the streets anywhere. Women of her station did not normally address counts, and certainly did not stand in wait outside doorways to ambush them.
“I am Count Magnus.”
She smiled, nodding as if she knew that. “And I am Greenwood.”
“Who?”
“Greenwood!” Otto said joyfully. “Then you are welcome, goodwife. I am Baron Magnus of Dobkov.”
“And who else would you be?” She bobbed a curtsey that seemed to be intended equally for both of them.
Anton remembered now. “A mutual friend sent you?”
“Doubt that anyone calls him friend, my lord, but he is widely known and not without repute.” She simpered. “My name for today is Justina.”
“You are not quite the sort of helper I was expecting.”
“And what sort of helper was that, my lord? Someone like that great hairy giant up there on the tower?”
“That is my brother, Sir Vladislav.”
“Oh, by the angels, my terrible tongue has run away with me again! Tongue, you will be getting me birched, I do swear.”
Anton drew a deep breath, but before he could use it Otto coughed a warning. “I suspect that Justina’s innocuous demeanor is designed to confound more our adversaries than ourselves, Brother.” Anton had a limited sense of humor.
“Save us. Those are precious big words to be using on a humble drudge like me, your lordship.”
“Are they truly?” Otto said with a chuckle. “Now, I assume that the first thing you want to do is meet our other brother, Wulfgang?”
“Heaven be my witness, my lord, that will be the second thing. The first wiThe firll be to have a trusty gentleman, such as your noble self, my lord, be warning him that I have come to aid and mean him no harm.”
Otto recalled Wulf telling him that Speakers could recognize one another at a glance. “Is that your usual way of working, or have you been warned about his hair-trigger temper?”
Justina rolled her eyes in mock terror. “By Our Lady, a fearful combination you are naming. Yet it be vital that I speak with him.”
“All very well,” said Anton. “But where is he? I don’t remember him saying where he was going, do you?”
Otto shook his head while racking his brain. It had been an hour since they parted; Wulf could be literally anywhere in the world by now. As a love-smitten swain, he might have doubled back to speak with Madlenka,
