Chapter 83 — Tracks Turn South

Chapter 83: Chapter 83 — Tracks Turn South

Chapter 83 — Tracks Turn South

The northern scouts returned before the morning bell.

Nicholas entered the gate first, his horse white with frost around the mouth, and Thomas followed with a broken Orc spear tied behind his saddle.

Christopher met them in the gatehouse with Godfrey and Walter.

"How many?" Godfrey asked.

Nicholas removed one glove and spread a rough map across the table. "Too many to count from one trail. More than fifty. They crossed the western ridge during the night."

"Which direction did they take?"

"South. They were still following the western ridge when we left."

Thomas placed the broken spear beside the map. "We found this where they stopped. The fire pits were still warm."

Godfrey examined the shaft, cut rather than broken in battle, a strip of red hide hanging below the spearhead.

"How far?" Christopher asked.

"Two days if they keep their current pace," Nicholas said. "Less if they leave their packs."

Walter traced the route. "The western claims are exposed if the Orcs keep this pace."

"Then we prepare Dragonwatch as their target," Godfrey said.

Christopher recalled the outer patrols and ordered the surface soldiers to their posts.

The gate bell sounded three times, and work stopped across the stronghold: farmers left the cold frames, masons climbed down from the western platform, and families gathered near the inner yard while Walter read the defense assignments.

Alarm drills sent each household to its assigned place. Parents gathered small children and blankets, older children carried water or guided the youngest to the inner barracks, and essential workers reported to Bennet before joining their assigned group.

The settlement grew noisy. Livestock pulled against ropes, a child cried as the gates closed, and three farmers crossed the yard to the wrong shelter. Families still followed the prepared routes, and workers brought the animals toward their assigned pens.

The forty soldiers on the surface already knew their sections: twenty held the main gate and northern wall, twelve went west, and eight formed the reserve inside the yard, with the Knight Apprentices divided among them so no section relied only on men who had never fought together.

Militia carried bolts, water, and spare shields while crossbow trainees climbed to the protected firing positions; the older children moved younger children toward the shelters and then reported to Bennet for messenger work.

Meg brought the four hounds into the lower stable, where they pulled at their leashes when the bell sounded again.

"Keep them in the stable until Walter calls for them," Christopher told her.

"They can smell Orcs. They may warn us if anything reaches the inner yard."

"Then keep them where they can warn us without reaching the gate."

Meg tightened her grip. "Yes, my lord."

Bram stood with the apprentices near the western stairs, his warhammer resting against one shoulder.

Godfrey placed him in the reserve.

"I went north with you," Bram said.

"And you followed my orders," Godfrey replied. "Do the same here. Walter decides where you stand."

"Then I can stand on the wall."

"Stay in reserve until he calls you."

Bram faced the wall and complied.

Christopher crossed into the small plane before noon.

Thunder waited on the castle wall, and she felt his alarm through the bond, answering with immediate excitement; images of blood, open snow, and falling prey struck him before he reached the stairs.

"Stay here while I defend the walls. I will call you if the outer defenses fail."

Thunder spread her wings, then sent him an image of the Orc armor shattered beneath her claws.

"Uraks may challenge you. I need to know how many are coming before I open the gate."

Thunder sent back only impatience; counting mattered less to her than the fight itself.

"If the walls fall, I will open the gate."

Godfrey entered behind him and looked from Christopher to the dragon.

"She wants to fight," Christopher said.

"Of course she does. She is a dragon."

"If the wall fails, I bring her through."

"If the wall fails, we will need her," Godfrey said.

Thunder turned toward Godfrey, then folded her wings against her sides. Christopher breathed with her once. The bond steadied his hands before he returned to the surface.

Back on the surface, Owen inspected both arbalest platforms while Wat tested the catches without loading bolts, and Barlow distributed spearheads and checked the braces holding the western weapon.

The main-gate arbalest had three battle bolts. The western weapon had one.

Christopher counted them. "Four in all."

"Three are straight," Wat said. "We need to check the fourth."

"Check it before anyone loads."

They stopped the mill and carried its ground grain into the inner stores. Workers moved the livestock behind the second wall and filled water barrels beside every stair.

Martha sent bread, cheese, and cold meat to the wall positions before anyone asked, and soldiers ate in turns; Christopher managed half a piece of bread while walking between the gate and the western tower.

Barlow rolled each bolt across the workbench. One shaft wobbled near the head, and he set it aside. The three straight bolts went into a separate rack: two for the main arbalest and one for the western platform. The warped shaft went to the scrap pile.

The Black Iron prisoner watched from the labor yard with his ankles chained.

Christopher brought Godfrey and Walter to him.

"Can he fight?" Christopher asked.

"Yes," Walter said.

"Can we trust him with a spear?"

The prisoner answered before Walter could. "You can trust me to prefer these walls standing, my lord."

"That is not the same as loyalty."

"No, my lord."

Christopher ordered one ankle chain removed and the remaining chain shortened enough for the man to walk but not run freely; he would stand behind the reserve spear line under Walter’s eye.

"If you turn your weapon toward our people, Walter kills you."

"Understood."

By sunset, smoke no longer rose from the outer houses, and every family slept within the defended part of Dragonwatch; scouts remained beyond the walls in pairs, with fresh horses waiting at marked posts.

Christopher walked the walls once more after dark, where soldiers stamped their feet against the cold, crossbows rested beneath waxed covers, and spears stood inside arm’s reach rather than leaning in careless bundles.

Long stretches of wall remained empty because Dragonwatch had too few defenders for every tower. Walter concentrated his forces around the gate, western breach and inner routes.

The towers stood empty along long stretches of wall. Christopher watched the northern road and hoped the Orcs would mistake the gaps for weakness.

The first pair returned after midnight.

They had seen fires on the northern road.

The Orcs were coming to Dragonwatch.

The last scouts entered Dragonwatch at dawn.

Adam rode through first, and Simon followed after stopping long enough to watch the northern road from the final marker.

"They split," Adam reported. "Most remain on the road. A smaller group moved west during the night."

Godfrey stood over the map in the gatehouse. "How small?"

"About twenty. The smoke and trees made an exact count impossible."

"Did you see any Throks or Uraks among them?"

"We saw larger figures among both groups, but they were too far away to identify."

Christopher turned to Walter. "The northern force keeps our eyes on the gate. The western group uses the broken ground."

Walter nodded. "Or they want us to think that."

Godfrey gave the orders: Ivo commanded the western wall, Walter held the northern gate and reserve, and Godfrey would move wherever the stronger Orcs appeared, while Christopher remained near the inner stairs where messengers from both sides could reach him.

"I can fight," Christopher said.

"You will," Godfrey replied. "You will not abandon command to chase the first Orc who climbs a wall."

The gate closed before sunrise, two heavy bars dropping into their brackets, and carts filled with stone were placed behind them without blocking the reserve line.

The soldiers ate on the walls — nobody received ale — and hot broth moved through the positions in covered buckets while the wind carried faint smoke from the north.

Walter walked every section.

"Do not throw a spear because one man beside you throws," he told the northern line. "Wait for the command."

At the crossbow stations, Adam checked strings and loading hooks; the six captured crossbows had been joined by four purchased in Griffin City, but ten weapons were not enough for the length of the walls, so he concentrated them near the gate.

"Shoot at the same target?" one trainee asked.

"Shoot at the target called by the section leader. If nobody calls one, choose the closest clear body. Do not waste bolts on a shape hidden behind three shields."

Wat inspected the main arbalest, where three men worked its windlass and a fourth carried the heavy bolt from its rack.

"One shot before they reach the ditch," Wat said. "Maybe another if they stop."

"And if they do not?" Christopher asked.

"Then the crew uses crossbows."

On the western platform, the second arbalest had only one battle bolt, and Ivo placed his best crossbowman beside it, ordering him to choose the target.

The families waited in the inner buildings: children filled the lowest rooms of the repaired barracks, Joan and Martha controlled food and water, and Mabel prepared the infirmary with two helpers.

Meg sat beside the hounds inside the stable while the dogs paced and growled toward the north.

The morning passed without an attack.

Men shifted their feet to keep warm, frost forming along shield rims, and every movement beyond the cleared ground drew bows before someone recognized a bird or loose branch.

Christopher walked the northern wall twice. He knew the men by face now, though not every name came quickly: some had served in southern garrisons, others had guarded merchants, estates, or town gates before debts and defeat placed collars around their necks. They understood walls and commands, but none had defended this wall before.

Walter had marked each section with paint: a red line showed where the gate unit ended, white marked the reserve stair, so nobody needed to search for his place after the horns sounded.

At the western wall, Ivo made his soldiers repeat the route from the battlement to the inner yard, for the second arbalest limited the space around the platform, and men who tried to pass behind its bent bow could catch clothing or weapons on the frame.

"Around the painted stones," Ivo told them. "Never beneath the arms while it is drawn."

The crew repeated the warning.

In the infirmary, Mabel placed strips of clean cloth, boiled needles, and strong spirits within reach while one helper sorted dried herbs beside her.

"How many beds?" Christopher asked.

"Twelve inside. More pallets can cover the floor."

"And if there are more than twelve?"

"Then they lie close together."

Mabel gave the answer plainly, and Christopher left her to work.

He passed the stable next, where Meg sat between two hounds while the other pair watched the door; she had tied each leash around a separate post so one frightened animal could not drag all four loose.

"The small brown one keeps pulling," she said.

"Can you hold him if the horns frighten the others?"

"I can hold him, my lord. I tied every leash separately."

"Then stay here until Joan or Walter tells you otherwise."

Meg’s gaze drifted toward the wall. "Will we hear the fighting?"

"If the wind carries the sound south, yes. Stay with Joan when the horns sound."

She nodded and tightened the nearest knot.

Christopher returned to the gatehouse, where Bennet had brought the household seal, coin chest, and settlement records into the inner castle.

"The grain?" Christopher asked.

"Most is already behind the second wall. What remains can burn without starving us."

Godfrey entered after completing another circuit. "The men are ready."

"They look ready. Are they truly ready for this?"

"Ready enough to stand where they were placed. We learn the rest when the Orcs arrive."

Christopher looked toward the northern ridge, wanting another wagon of bolts, another company of soldiers, and another month of training.

Near midday, grey smoke appeared above the northern ridge.

It spread sideways instead of rising.

Godfrey climbed the wall beside Christopher. "Magic."

The smoke descended across the road, too thin to hide the land completely but enough to blur distance and turn every dark shape into several.

"Shaman?" Christopher asked.

"Most likely. That smoke is carrying Mana."

The first Orc horn sounded behind the smoke.

A second answered from the west.

Soldiers raised shields, crossbow crews set their weapons against the wall, and Walter ordered the reserve to stand.

Bram remained behind the front line with the apprentices, holding his hammer low as Godfrey had taught him.

The Black Iron prisoner stood beside the reserve with one ankle chain still attached; Walter had given him a plain spear.

"You remain with this line," Walter said.

"Yes, Sir."

Christopher felt Thunder strike the bond from the other side of the hidden gate, having sensed his fear and the hostile Mana beyond the wall.

Wait, he sent.

Her answer carried teeth and lightning.

Movement appeared within the smoke.

The Orcs were close enough now for the wall Knights to feel scattered Aura among them: four weaker sources moved below, and two much stronger ones remained farther back.

Godfrey’s face hardened.

"Two Uraks," he said. "Four Throks."

Walter eyed the western smoke. "One Urak on each side?"

"No. Both are north."

The western group existed to divide them.

Christopher sent a runner to Ivo. "Hold the west with soldiers. Return to the northern wall when the western attack stalls."

The runner left at once.

The Orc horn sounded again.

Dark figures broke from the smoke and began running toward Dragonwatch.