“Halek.”
“Halek, good. Now you’ll see what I mean about staying in formation—these on either side will protect your flanks, as you protect theirs. If you stay in line with them, you’ll be fine. Clear?”
“Yes. But there’s three of us, and only two of you—”
Siger glanced at Paks and smiled slightly. “That’s no problem to us. Paks, put a banda on; we don’t want you stiff at Sibili.” Paks stepped to the pile of bandas and returned to Siger’s side. Facing her was Sif, of Dorrin’s cohort, with Halek in the middle and Vik on the far end. She found she could hold her own against him easily, with strokes to spare for Halek. Siger, despite Vik’s aggressive attack, had breath and arm to spare, as usual. He continued his commentary on Halek’s swordsmanship and found time to correct the rest of them.
Halek kept trying to shift to one side or the other, but found himself locked between his companions and his opponents’ swords. Finally he seemed to get the idea, and began working with Vik and Sif. Sif, now that Halek was doing better, pressed harder. Paks was acutely aware of her unprotected shield arm. She found herself countering strokes rather than pressing her own attack. Halek almost made a touch on her. He grinned. That, thought Paks, is a mistake. She slipped the leash on her anger, forcing a startled Sif back, and back again, and giving Halek two good thumps with her blade. Siger moved with her, stroke for stroke, and they pushed the others to the edge of the ring.
“Hold,” said Siger. As they lowered their blades, he said, “Halek, you’ll need to practice this way every day. Your bladework is fair, considering your experience, but your cross-body strokes are weak; that’s why you shift so. Come back here in a half-glass with a shield, and we’ll start again.” He turned to Paks. “Tell Stammel that Halek needs the time with me, and see if they’ll release you, too.” Paks nodded.
“Come on, Halek,” she said. “We’ll get you a shield from the quartermaster.”
“What about a sword?”
“Not until I say you’re ready,” said Siger.
Paks and Halek walked back toward the quartermaster’s wagon. Halek was silent for a few yards, then said gruffly. “You’re—you’re good with a sword.”
“I ought to be,” said Paks cheerfully. “Siger spent enough yelling and putting bruises on me.” She felt good.
“Mmph. Well—I didn’t think you would be. I’ve never seen women fighters before.”
“Siniava doesn’t use them at all?”
“Oh, I hear he’s got a few girls—they duel, and that, at banquets and the like. And of course there’s women with his army, but not for fighting.” He chuckled. Paks felt herself getting hot again.
“Things are different in this Company,” she said firmly.
“I can see that.” He walked on a few paces in silence. “But—I don’t see how—why—a woman would want to be a fighter. It’s hard work—dirty—you can get killed—” He sounded genuinely puzzled.
Paks found herself suppressing a laugh. “Hard work? Were you ever on a farm? Working? No, I thought not. This is no harder than farmwork I was doing at home, and it’s no dirtier than butchering sheep. As for getting killed—women die having babies, if it comes to that.” She glanced at him to see his reaction; his face was furrowed in a frown. “Besides,” she went on, “I like fighting. I’m good at it, and I enjoy it, and I get paid for it. I’d make a very bad farmer’s wife.”
“Well, but—aren’t you going to marry someday?”
Paks shook her head. “No. Some do, but not me. I never wanted to.”
“I just can’t—are there many women like you in the north?”
Paks shrugged. “I don’t know. Some. You saw Captain Dorrin, and Arñe at lunch. Maybe a fourth of us in this Company are women.”
“I see.” He still looked puzzled.
Chapter Twenty-five
Early the next morning they set out for Sibili, marching along the north bank of the Chaloqueel on a wide stone road. Those three days came back to Paks later as a kind of dream—the rich valley farmlands, with fruit trees in full bloom, clouds of pale pink flowers that strewed their petals on every gust of wind, leaving the hollows of the road drifted with delicate color. On the slopes, grapevines had sprouted tufts of furry greenish-white leaflets. Rows of vegetables, plots of grain like green velvet—but all empty and quiet.
The sun had just set on the third day when they saw Sibili’s walls dark against the glowing western sky. Rain began again that night; the next day they picked up what news they could while settling into camp and readying for the assault. Sapping teams had already started work; Cracolnya’s cohort joined a small group of men in rust-colored tunics who supervised the construction of more siege towers and catapults.
“Who’s that?” asked Keri, of the rust-uniformed men. Paks shrugged.
“I don’t know. I never saw them before.” She stopped Devlin and asked him.
“That’s Plas Group—Marki Plas. They’re a special company—all they do is siege machines. A section of them came down with Aesil M’dierra.”
Despite heavier rain the following day, the assault began, with Andressat and Westland troops in two siege towers. Mercenary archers scoured the wall. The Phelani and Halverics stayed back as reserves; Paks could not see much through the rain, but watched Plas Group specialists operating the two catapults, winding down the arm, loading stones into the cup. She noticed that they adjusted the ropes with each shot, to compensate for dampness. But neither the catapults nor the assault succeeded, and the attackers straggled back that evening in no mood to explain what had gone wrong.
During the night the rain stopped. The Phelani and Halverics struggled to move a third siege tower to the walls under cover of darkness. With the others, Paks cursed angrily as its wheels sank into the mud again and again; by dawn they were still some distance from the walls, in easy range of enemy bowmen. The Duke ordered them back; Paks was glad to leave the unwieldy tower where it had stuck fast. Once out of bowshot, she finally had a chance to see what Sibili looked like. Built on a hump of ground near the river, its inner citadel stood higher than the rest; the walls were well built of buff colored stone. Although the city did not look as formidable as Cortes Andres, Paks though it would be harder to take than Cha. Overall it reminded her of a larger Rotengre, long and narrow, with heavy gates pinched between massive towers.
During that day, both sides used fire weapons. The defenders poured oil on one of the siege towers and lit it, with a cohort of Pliuni on the way up inside. The Pliuni fled, not without casualties. Plas Group lobbed stones smeared with burning pitch over the walls. The defenders fired the second tower; Andressat and Phelani troops rushed to drag it away from the walls and managed to keep the fire from burning the lower framework, but it was too damaged to use until rebuilt.
That night Paks helped drag the remaining siege tower into place while the sappers fired their tunnels. She heard a deep rumble off to her right, and shrill cries from the wall. Had the wall come down?
“Don’t stop!” said Captain Pont. “Move this thing!” Over the pounding blood in her ears, Paks heard horn signals and the clamor of combat. At last the tower reached the wall. A body of men they could not see—supposedly the Halverics—jingled past and started up the tower stairs.
“Get armed and ready,” said Devlin. Paks wiped the sweat from her face and stretched before slipping her arm into her shield grip. They crowded into the base of the tower, blind in that sheltered darkness.
Suddenly a crash from the top of the tower and a cry from the wall signalled the start of their own assault. The troops on the stairs surged upward. Pont held them back until the first group was halfway to the next level, then sent them on. In the blackness, Paks fell up the first two steps; someone else stumbled into her, cursing. She found her balance and went on. As she neared the top, dim light filtered in. She saw torches on the wall, and fires in the city itself. As she crossed the bridge to the wall, she tried not to think of the many feet of empty air below.