The townspeople who were out and about seemed reasonably
prosperous as far as I could tell. At least, their clothes were a lot better than
what I’d seen on the peasant refugees, and most of them wore actual shoes
instead of just wrapping their feet in rags. But they kept their heads down,
cringing nervously out of the way whenever a troop of soldiers passed by, and
I noticed that none of them were armed.
The fear in their eyes made me wish there was something more I could
do for them, but it was the refugees who were the worst off. They were
everywhere, huddled in clumps wherever they could find a little shelter from
the weather. In narrow alleys, under porches, in disused corners of the winding
streets. Their ragged clothes and rough blankets were little protection against
the cold, and most of them looked like they hadn’t eaten in days.
My escort ignored them, and they kept their distance. But I wondered
how many of them would still be alive in a week.
Baron Stein’s keep was bustling with activity. Laborers carried an
endless stream of barrels and sacks into the keep under the watchful eyes of his
soldiers, while work parties came and went constantly. Apparently the Baron
meant to keep all the supplies that could possibly fit in his own cellars, where
he could keep an eye on them.
That wouldn’t have bothered me, except that there was no one
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dispensing food to those refugees.
I was led across the great hall and up a stairway to the second floor,
then along one of the balconies overlooking the hall to an open doorway
flanked by a pair of guards. Inside was a meeting room dominated by a large
rectangular table, with twenty or so men crowded into it. I recognized Baron
Stein, Holger Drakebane, Captain Rain and a couple of the men who’d been
clustered around the Baron during my brief audience the day before.
“-stand at fourteen months’ normal rations for the town and garrison,
my lord,” one of the older soldiers was saying. “But we’ve now emptied all
the farms within easy reach of the town, and at this rate the roads will be
impassible in another week. We might gain another month or two by emptying
the villages a bit further out, but we’ve little word on what we’d be facing.”
“Well, now that our wizard has finally joined us maybe he’ll have a
thought or two on that,” the Baron replied sourly. “The war council meets here
at dawn every third day, Daniel. Don’t be late again.”
I blinked in surprise. I’d expected shouting and threats, not an invite to
the executive planning meetings. Did Stein not care what I’d done to his
cousin? Or was there something more going on here?
I gathered my wits, and responded. “I’m afraid your invitation only
reached me this morning, milord, but I’ll certainly strive to be punctual in the
future. I don’t have any detailed intelligence on the disposition of enemy
forces, however. There was a pack of Ungols lurking in the next village
upriver yesterday, and there seem to be goblins and trolls everywhere.”
“The giants are working their way down from the north,” Captain Rain
put in. “If we send scavenging parties south we should be able to avoid them
for a few more days.”
“That works for now, but what about when they do get here?” The
Baron objected. “We need a lot more grain, or we’ll be putting most of those
refugees to the sword when they start to riot. How do we get more food?”
I looked the room over as the men struggled with that one. There was
only one empty place at the table, a rickety-looking stool all the way down at
the foot where I’d be scrunched against a wall. Petty revenge? Well, letting
him make me look unimportant was probably a bad idea, but I couldn’t just
claim a better spot at this point. There were messengers and servants standing
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back against the walls to either side of the table, so I didn’t want to look like
one of them either. I needed some subtle way of making myself look different.
There was a crude map drawn on the wall to the left of the table, so I
stepped into the middle of the open space to the right where I could pretend to
be looking across the table at it. Then I reached into my cloak, and pulled out a
heavy staff made of polished granite that I conjured up on the spot. I set the butt
of the heavy implement down on the floor and adopted my best Wise Old
Wizard pose as the conversation ground to a halt.
“Felwolves are edible,” I pointed out as the men eyed me in surprise.
“One of them could probably feed the whole town for a day or two, and the
giants keep a lot of them around. Every time they attack the town they’ll be
giving us more provisions.”
“Can we even hold the town against them?” One of the men I didn’t
know asked nervously. “They’ll be here before that new wall of yours is
finished, and the old one won’t keep them out.”
“Grow some balls, Erland!” The Baron growled. “If some raiding band
bothers us we’ll run them off! Holger and I hunted drakes together, I think we
can handle a few mangy giants. Hell, even our wizard might join in.”
I nodded. “Of course. Ballistae should work on them as well, if you
have any, and massed arrow fire would be worth a try. If you’re really worried
you could start setting stakes in the moat before it fills with snow. If you make
them the right size that should work even better on giants than it does human
troops.”
Another man scratched his head in puzzlement. “Why’s that?”
Was I really going to try to explain the square-cube law to these
people? Well, maybe in simple terms.
“The same reason a cat can jump out of a tree and walk off unhurt,
where a horse that fell the same distance would probably break its neck. The
bigger a creature is the more anything that uses its own weight as a weapon
will hurt it.”
“It’s not worth the labor,” Stein objected. “But the ballistae are a
thought. Nels, have your boys take down the ones by the river gate and move
them over to the other side of town. We can shift the others as the new wall
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gets built, until we’ve got one on every tower in the gap.”
One of the knights nodded. “Will do, milord. I don’t suppose you can
do anything about the weather, sir wizard? All these damned blizzards are
slowing the work down a lot.”
I shook my head. “I’m afraid weather magic isn’t one of my talents. If
something critical comes up I can hold a spell over a small area to keep the
wind and snow off, but I imagine finishing the wall is more urgent for now.”
Stein grunted. “Let’s get back on track. Alvar, you’ll shift the
scavenging parties south until the next meeting. Erland, finish checking the
shops and refugees for food hoards. Holger, how’s your business looking?”
The High Priest stood.
“There’s some good news, at least. I’ve received word that the Red
Conclave is assembling in Kozalin, and is preparing a grand working to turn
back the weather. Also, Prince Casper is visiting the embassies of the fair folk
there to propose alliances, and the Queen of the Seelie Court has been
receptive to the idea. That’s particularly significant because the fair folk stand