Alcinor ignored Draelin’s parting words. Instead the engineer strode deeper into the rocks, so deep that the sunlight scarcely penetrated. He reached the place where he’d left another mark scratched on the cliff face, a circle with a line through its center. Yes, this was where they would start.
Alcinor spread his fingers and pressed them to the rock surface. He rubbed them hard against the stone, then touched his fingers to his lips. He recognized the gritty taste of the limestone, and the faint hint of salt. The cliff’s surface, composed mainly of quartz and limestone was strong, very strong, but buried within that strength were tiny flecks of salt.
Those slight grains of impurity accounted for the occasional white streaks scattered over the cliff. If he were right, those impurities would be just enough to weaken the stone.
“You have stood proud and high for many years.” Alcinor spoke to the cliff face as if she were his mistress. “But you’ll come down when I ask you. You’ll struggle and resist, but in the end, you will yield.”
His assistant Jahiri, a few seasons older than the Engineer, joined him. On the journey up, Jahiri had ridden with the log bearers, watching over the precious cargo. His cheerful attitude set him apart from most of the builders. Unlike his master, Jahiri stood tall and broad, and the thick muscles on his shoulders and arms seemed more suitable to a common laborer.
Nevertheless, he had proved himself the most amenable to the Engineer’s new ways and methods. “Is this the slab?”
Alcinor moved a few paces deeper into the shadow. If he stretched himself upright and raised his arm, he could almost touch the massive slab of stone that leaned over his head. “Yes. This is where the cliff is tallest, and hopefully, weakest. We’ll start here.”
Jahiri squatted down and examined the rock surface beneath their feet. “We’ll have to level the footing first.” He lifted his eyes up. “And trim the beam to match the angle of the overhang.”
“Use the strongest and straightest log we have,” Alcinor said. “This one will carry the most weight, and will be the key to bringing down the mountain.”
Jahiri glanced up at the mountain towering over him. “Looking at this weight of stone, I wish we’d brought thicker beams.”
“These will have to do. If the logs were any thicker, we’d never have been able to carry them.”
The first work crew arrived, and Alcinor told them to begin. Under Jahiri’s direction, they started chipping the rock away. Another senior apprentice directed ten of Draelin’s soldiers, who grunted under the burden of man-handling the awkward size and bulk of the first heavy oak log.
They used ropes and brute strength to haul it up the rocks, cursing their bad luck the entire way. They fought against the massive bulk heavy weight which kept threatening to slide back down the slope, or crush their fingers and toes as it shifted with each movement.
The wood had come from the northern forest. Jahiri had travelled almost to the steppes. There the master apprentice selected twenty of the finest oak logs from the crafty woodmen who dwelt in the foothills. They had recognized the opportunity to demand a high price, and Jahiri had paid almost double what such lumber would usually cost.
Two ships had floated the logs down the Tigris, to a farm just north of Akkad. The logs were trimmed and inspected for soundness, then dried in the shade. When Alcinor and Jahiri had finished their preparations, sixteen logs remained, each one about ten paces long and each perfectly straight.
“Better to have to cut them down when we’re at the Pass, than try to make do with a shorter one,” Alcinor had declared at the time.
As soon as Jahiri and his men finished preparing the footing, Alcinor took his measurement with his special staff, nocked and marked along its length for different distances. He indicated where the log should be cut, and a wood cutter and his assistant started the sawing, using a bright new bronze blade made by the finest toolmaker in Akkad. Trella had indeed spared no expense.
The two men took their time with the saw, one man pulling the blade, while the other guided it from the other end. Then they reversed roles, with the second man pulling the blade back. The labor took skill and patience, but Alcinor wanted a straight cut, and these men knew how to deliver it.
Again and again the saw rasped its way through the thick log, cutting into it by tiny fractions. The hard wood fought the blade, and other men took turns at the labor until they completed the cut. Then the oak had to be trimmed with hammer and chisel to sit flat on the ground but angled on the top to match the slope of the overhang. The entire task would have taken a day or two back in Akkad, but Alcinor had the services of over ten skilled artisans, and the work proceeded rapidly.
Three times they attempted to raise the log and fit it against the cliff, but each time the oak beam needed further adjustment.
At last the log rested snugly at top and bottom. Jahiri selected a special tool he’d ordered made, a thick bronze strip as wide as his hand and formed into a half circle, to avoid damaging the log. Two men held the band in place, while Jahiri used his hammer against the metal surface, each blow wedging the log tighter and tighter against the overhang. The log resisted, and sometimes it took five or ten blows to move it the tiniest of fractions.
When Jahiri finished, sweat covered his brow and dripped onto his chest. Alcinor gave the order to halt. The heat under the cliff drained the men’s strength. “Enough for today. We’ll start again at dawn.” He led the tired and thirsty men down the hill. As soon as they reached the bottom, the laborers headed toward the camp and their supper.
Alcinor, however, found Draelin waiting for him.
Draelin said nothing until the others had gone on ahead. “A messenger just arrived from Akkad. Lord Eskkar says the Elamites are on the move toward the Jkarian Pass. Considering how long it took before the news reached the King, and the four days it took for the messenger to reach us, the enemy could be here any day now. How soon can you be ready?”
Alcinor’s satisfaction at today’s progress vanished. Frowning, he turned to stare up at the cliff face. “I need to put at least ten more support logs in place before we start chipping away at the cliff. They must be placed exactly straight so as to take the strain. If we’re rushed. . if we’re off in our calculations, then the whole cliff could come down the wrong way, or not at all, and we’ll accomplish nothing.”
“So we’ve another five days, before you’re ready?”
Alcinor shook his head. “After the beams are in place, then we have to chip out more of the cliff wall. It’s like cutting down a tree. The first cut, the deepest, is at the base of the rock wall. That points the way the cliff should fall. Then the second cuts, well above the first, will cause the weight of the stone to shift onto the logs. That may take another two or three days.”
It took Draelin a moment to add up the days. “Damn the gods and that cursed rain. So we’ve got to be here at least eight days. What if the Elamites come before you’re ready?”
“Then we hide here in the rocks, Draelin, and hope they don’t find us. Unless you can hold them off until we finish?”
“Six thousand men? Maybe more?” Draelin snorted. “I don’t think so. Why didn’t we start sooner?”
“Because Lord Eskkar said that we had to seal the Pass at the last possible moment, so that the Elamites don’t find out about it and change their plans. Then they could just turn around and march back east, to join their other armies coming through the Dellen Pass. Remember, the logs took longer to arrive, and because of all the delays that held us up.”
“And now we may be too late. Well, let’s hope Ishtar smiles on you, and your plan works.” Draelin glanced up at the cliff towering over them. “Is there anything more my men can do to speed up the pace?”
“No, I don’t think so. This is not a job for unskilled workers, like digging a hole in the ground. I’ll keep my men working as hard and fast as they can. If we rush, we may accomplish nothing. It will take how ever long it takes to bring down the mountain.”