“Self-sustaining, fully garrisoned, and walled in,” Janis murmured. “I like the idea, Khollo. But do we have the time to pull this off?”
“Who knows?” Khollo asked. “For all I know the vertaga will attack tomorrow. But until they attack again, I suggest we make use of the time and do something.”
Janis turned back to the table, biting his lip. Finally, he looked around at the others.
“Leon, send a man to bring in those villagers. I’ll dispatch riders to the rest of the Basin. Tarrik, I’ll need every pickaxe you can give me, and weapons. Khollo,” he turned and looked his nephew straight in the eye. “If we’re to do this, the men will need to know where to start building.”
Khollo nodded. “I’m on it. I’ll have a plan by the time the villagers arrive.”
Janis nodded. “Good. Gentlemen, this is a turning point,” he announced. “We will no longer sit here tamely, waiting for our doom. No, we are warriors! And we will fight for every inch of the South, every man woman and child who has been forced to flee their homes and abandon their old way of life. Let the whole South know that the West Bank is digging in to fight!”
The others in the room cheered wildly. Khollo meanwhile dragged a clean parchment across the table and scooped up a writing stick. They can cheer all they want, he thought as the meeting broke up. But right now, I’ve got a construction plan to draw up and the South is counting on me to get it right. Khollo exhaled heavily and started drawing. He could almost feel the pressure of being responsible for so many lives settling on his shoulders.
Chapter 19
Khollo was still scribbling frantically when Sermas and Hern came looking for him a half hour later. The young advisor hardly even looked up when they entered, writing with one hand while he studied a map of the area. In his other hand, Khollo clutched a sheaf of supply lists, temporarily forgotten as he focused on other parts of his plan.
“Um . . . Khollo?” Sermas asked hesitantly.
Khollo hardly heard him, intent as he was on his work. He turned away from the map, scanned one of the supply lists, then a second, then threw the whole group of them aside and started digging for another report.
“Do we have a plan?” Hern asked.
The young advisor grunted in reply, pausing for a moment to review what he had written. As he did, Sermas crossed the room hesitantly and waved a hand in front of Khollo’s eyes. Khollo blinked, then twisted around, scowling.
“What?” he demanded. “I’m busy. We need a plan for when those villagers arrive.”
“They’re here,” Hern told him. “Janis is speaking with their headman now.”
“So soon?” Khollo asked, surprised. “Great. Well, the plan’s not finished yet, and there’s so much work that still needs to be done – ”
“Then fill us in,” Sermas suggested, flopping into the chair normally reserved for Janis. “Maybe we can help.”
Khollo sighed. “Fine. How many villagers just arrived?”
“A few hundred.”
“Three? Four?”
Hern tilted his head thoughtfully as he took a seat beside Khollo. “Maybe three hundred and fifty? About half are men strong enough to fight.”
“How many are strong enough to dig?”
“Dig?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Ok,” Sermas said, frowning. “I’d say they can all dig, they’re villagers after all. They’re used to hard work. But what do you want them to dig for?”
“We need a place to put them all,” Khollo explained. “And we don’t have that right now.”
“Then build some shelters,” Hern replied. “Simple.”
“Build them with what?” Khollo demanded. “Look at the map, Hern, there are no forests for miles and miles. There’s barely enough wood in the area to keep us warm throughout the winter. No, any building we do will have to be with stone.”
“That will take forever!” Sermas protested. “
“Maybe,” Khollo said, “Maybe not. There are caves in the north face of this hill, and many of the other rises nearby. We can use the caves at the West Bank as shelter for now, but we’ll need something more permanent.”
“Like what?”
Khollo smiled grimly. “Well, we need a city. But those don’t just drop out of the sky. We’ll have to build something. Or expand what we already have.”
“I don’t follow,” Sermas said, rolling his eyes. “We have no wood, building with stone takes forever – ”
“We won’t be building with stone,” Khollo cut him off. “We’ll be cutting into stone. We’re going to expand the natural caves in the hillside, connect them to the upper fortress, and build an underground city that can withstand even the worst assault.”
“That’s . . . ambitious,” Hern replied hesitantly.
“And won’t that mean there’s all kinds of entrances into the fortress? There must be dozens of caves in the northern face of the hill,” Sermas pointed out.
“We’ll seal them later,” Khollo said, waving a hand dismissively, “And build a single, north-facing entrance. We’ll use the stone from the excavation to build a wall to the north as well, close in a sizeable chunk of farmland.”
“My head is about to explode,” Sermas warned, pressing his hands against the sides of his skull. “Let’s sum it all up, briefly: you want the villagers to live in caves, expand those caves, and dig away at the ground underneath the fortress, and make a giant city?”
“Which will promptly fall on our heads,” Hern noted, “Since most of the hill will be gone.”
“Not if we do it right,” Khollo countered. “It would be no different from an ordinary building, we just have
