Blackstone (Book 2) (12 page)

They traveled toward Stott in easy stages, no one in any
particular hurry. When they came to the path, Siobhan’s Saoleord guests were
enthralled with the experience of traveling by pathmaking and it set off a
whole new round of questions. No one had realized, apparently, that Rune was a journeyman
Pathmaker until he stepped forward to take them to Channel Pass. Their
questions were now aimed at him as well instead of just Grae, and having three
renowned scholars vying for your attention was very heady indeed. Rune visibly
glowed under their intense interest.

Rune was no longer nervous taking people by path, and they
came to the very outer limit of Channel Pass without even a hiccup. Siobhan
hopped down off of the cart’s edge and walked around toward the very front.
“Alright, everyone, we don’t have a lot of daylight left. I vote we—” her words
died as she got her first look at the city.

Channel Pass…was no more.

What had been a live, bustling city was now nothing more
than a hollow shell. It was devoid of people, animals, sounds, smells,
everything—as if the very life had been sucked out of it. Siobhan stumbled to a
stop, feeling like some had just punched her hard in the gut. In sheer instinct,
she turned her head and called, “WOLF!”

He sprinted to her, arriving at her side in seconds, and
took in the same sight she did. “W-what?!” he spluttered, eyes bulging in their
sockets. “We’ve only been gone two weeks! What happened?”

Ryu Jin Ho came to stand at her other side, eyes grave. “I
take it this place does not look right.”

“This should be a thriving city full of people coming and
going,” Siobhan explained hollowly. A part of her mind refused to accept what
was in front of her, but her heart twisted in pain, so she knew it had to be
real instead of some terrible nightmare. “I’ve never seen a place look like
this before.”

“You came through here two weeks ago?” he asked, confirming
before continuing, “Then the signs are clear. We are too late. The war that you
feared would come has already started.” Ryu Jin Ho turned and said gravely,
“Hyun Woo-zhi, the plans we made are now mostly useless. We must urgently
prepare these people for battle.”

“Yes, I fear you are right.” Hyun Woo let out a long sigh,
sounding tired and resigned. “I came to prevent such tragedy but now I must
lend you my knowledge to combat it. But that is something we will speak of a
little later, I think. Siobhan-jia, what should we do now?”

Her first instinct was to say
I don’t know
and to sit
there on the ground and mourn. Channel Pass hadn’t been the most welcoming city
to her guild, but it was still a place that housed nearly six thousand people.
Her sense of humanity screamed at the loss.

Wolf’s hand came to settle on her shoulder. That feeling of
solid warmth grounded her, and she put her hand up to cover his, keeping it
there a little longer. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, making herself
forget about the terrible scene in front of her. She had to think. The entire
safety of this party depended on her ability to rationally think.

“Grae.”

Her Pathmaker came around to face her, boots sliding a
little on the slick grass. “Yes?”

“How much daylight do we have left?”

“About an hour, hour and a half at most. Not enough to get
across the bridge with.”

No, that would take about five hours. “I don’t feel that
it’s safe to sit here, so close to this destruction. Too much traffic can get
across that bridge even in the dead of night.” This bridge was not like the
other bridges, where you had to time your crossing depending on what the tide
was doing. It stood on higher ground so it could be crossed at any time. “I
think we should take the path back the way we came and camp there instead. If
we cross the bridge now, and it’s a dangerous situation on the other side, we
won’t have enough daylight to retreat back to here. I’d rather face any
potential danger with a full day of daylight at hand. So my real question is,
can we leave at daybreak, cross this bridge, and take the other paths to
Goldschmidt? Can we make the journey all in one day?”

Grae pondered this, muttering calculations under his breath
at high speed. Slowly, his head nodded. “It’ll be close, but I think we can. We
can’t make any stops, at least, nothing more than five minute rest breaks. The
soil is rich enough here that I can make do with less sunlight. I’ll need more
water from the channel though.”

“Get it.” To Wolf, she ordered, “Guard him while he goes.”

Wolf squeezed her shoulder once, a comforting gesture,
before detaching himself from her and following Grae to the shoreline.

Her insides quivered from fear and shock, but she forced her
chin up before turning to face the three Saoleord ambassadors. “If Channel Pass
has fallen, then anything on the other side of the bridge might well be in the
same state. There is no law between cities so if we don’t find refuge in a
city, we’ll be at the mercy of whatever is out on the road. I cannot put any of
you in that kind of jeopardy. We’ll retreat for the night and try to make
Goldschmidt in one shot tomorrow. It won’t be an easy journey, but it’s the
only chance we have of arriving safely.”

“We understand,” Cha Ji An assured her quietly, expression
subdued. “We will be safer at the other end of the path? No one will try to use
it to advance northward?”

“The odds of that are extremely slim. For one, Pathmakers
themselves are very rare. I know it doesn’t seem that way because I have two in
my guild, but trust me, I’ve had a real fight on my hands keeping both of them.
Most guilds were jealous when I had just one. The other thing is, it’s hard to
move a large body of people by path.”

“Yes, Grae-zhi explained this to us,” Hyun Woo stated
thoughtfully, eyes narrowed as he calculated. “An army would be near impossible
to bring through all at once, he said.”

“Correct. Even caravans have to be brought in one leg at a
time, once they exceed a certain size. If anything has a chance of finding us
tonight, it’ll be a smaller party.”

“A scouting party, I would think,” Hyun Woo agreed. His expression
said that he approved of her conclusions. “Still, it’ll be wise to double the
watch tonight.”

“Oh, I plan to,” she assured him grimly. “Tran!”

Tran’s voice boomed from somewhere out of her line of sight,
“Already on it!”

Good man. “Everyone, let’s get these carts turned around. I
want out of here as quickly as possible.”

ӜӜӜ

The camp that night was an uneasy one to say the least. The
fire was kept small, just enough to cook with, and no one wanted to unpack the
carts enough to drag out the tents. Weapons were kept close at hand, people
kept their boots on, and little huddles formed where people spoke in uneasy
whispers. The dogs went from one group to another, putting noses into their
ribs and whining anxiously. They understood their humans were distressed, but
not why, and so they paced about looking for danger.

Siobhan sat in a circle with Hyun Woo, Wolf, Ryu Jin Ho, and
Tran, their expressions grim. What food she’d forced down during dinner was
threatening to heave itself up again at just the idea of where this
conversation would go, but she couldn’t afford to stop up her ears and refuse
to think of anything either. With a deep breath to settle her nerves, she
asked, “How large of a force would it take to destroy a city of that size?”

Hyun Woo and Ryu Jin Ho shared a look. “Wolfinsky-gui and
Tran-gui told me that a guild was responsible for the protection of a city,”
Hyun Woo started. “How large of a force would protect Channel Pass?”

“Probably no more than three hundred,” Tran supplied. “I
think in Channel Pass it was a little more than that, because of the heavy
traffic they saw, but it’s somewhere around there.”

Ryu Jin Ho glanced at his superior again; his face as
unreadable as a statue, but eyes betraying worry. “The best way to start a war
is to have an army at least twice the size of your opponent.”

“If you are going to march and lay siege to multiple places,
then you want even more than that,” Hyun Woo continued the train of thought
with a confirming nod to Ryu Jin Ho. “Because you will have casualties, and
will lose men to the battle itself, you must prepare to have enough men to
carry you throughout the campaign.”

“So, more than fifteen thousand?” Wolf asked softly.

“If they are wise,” Hyun Woo responded, mouth moving in a
caricature of a smile. “But these people are not trained in the ways of war, as
you are not. It could be a rabble, a mob if you will, that are moving together.
Your cities, as well, are not prepared for a force of this size. With surprise on
their side, and speed, they can do far more damage than normally possible.”

“Surprise. Speed.” Siobhan repeated the words almost
mindlessly as her head calculated things, turning over options and weighing out
possibilities. “Right now, we have no idea when this attack happened. It could
have been last week or two days ago—we also don’t know how far ahead the
attacking force has traveled.”

“It is dangerous to move ahead without information.” Hyun
Woo frowned, turning his head slightly to look southward. “I, for one, do not
relish the idea of stumbling into that mob.”

Nor did she. “If we’re quick enough, we might be able to
divert a disaster. Ryu Jin Ho-zhi, are you a gambling man?”

His eyebrows arched in surprise. “I can be. Why?”

“Are you a fast runner?” she persisted.

“I can keep up with Man Fei Lei,” he answered slowly, a
spark in his eye that suggested he saw where she was heading with these
questions. “Does that suffice as an answer?”

It did indeed. Fei could almost keep up with Tran, if it was
a short sprint. Of course, no one could keep up with the Teheranian over
distance, but she wasn’t about to ask the impossible. “Then here’s my thought.
We need to send warning and expert help ahead of us, and we need to do it in
two different directions. If we put together a group of three people, they can
travel much faster, and hopefully get ahead of the army to warn the next city.
I’ve got two Pathmakers—it’s time to put that to use.”

Hyun Woo nodded. “Yes, I agree, a warning party must be
sent. But you said two different directions?”

“Goldschmidt, obviously,” she confirmed for him. “As they
are on a direct path from here. But the richest city in Robarge is Winziane.
You said this is a rabble earlier. I think you’re right. I think they’ve come
to loot Robarge. If that’s true, then the best prize for them would be
Winziane. I can’t imagine them leaving that city alone.”

“Wait,” Hyun Woo raised a hand, halting her from saying
anything further. “You say they have come to loot Robarge. But this city,
Channel Pass, is it not on Orin’s soil?”

“Technically, that is true,” she allowed. “But Channel Pass
is almost a Robargean city in many respects. It saw more trade than any other
place in Orin because of where it sat. It would be a rich prize to a pillager.”

“And so, it too fell victim?” Ryu Jin Ho looked disturbed by
this. “It is a ruthless enemy we face, one without conscience.”

“Which makes this situation that more worrisome. I can see
why you think they’d go for Winziane, as it’s not much further south from
Goldschmidt either,” Wolf said slowly, eyebrows beetled together as he thought.
“But I’m not sure they’d go directly for it, Siobhan.”

She cocked her head at him, surprised. “Really? Then where?”

“Converse.” He looked at Hyun Woo as he said this. “Because
if they can claim Converse, they control trade for Robarge.”

“Strategically speaking, this is sound,” Hyun Woo agreed
with a proud nod toward his pupil. “It also limits where people can retreat to
or get aid from. Controlling the Grey Bridges would be my first priority, if I
were in charge of this campaign.”

Ryu Jin Ho rubbed his hands together in slow circles, deep
in thought. “And yet, the men that are in charge of this rabble army are not
trained as you and I, Hyun Woo-zhi. Siobhan-jia has a valid point. They might
very well strike further south if looting is their goal.”

“If nothing else, we can get help from there,” Siobhan added
persuasively. “The guildmaster there is one of the main three that formed the
trade agreement. He wields significant power in the world. I think he needs to
know what’s going on.”

Hyun Woo gave an acknowledging grunt. “Then you are right,
we must send messengers to him.”

“It’s also safer to go that direction for us once we cross
the bridge.” Siobhan dredged up her mouth in a manner that might charitably be
called a smile. “Staying near the border of Robarge is too risky right now. I
want to take people to a place I know is protected until my scouting party
comes back and reports that Goldschmidt is safe to return to.”

She received no arguments from the group.

Hyun Woo turned and said, “Ryu Jin Ho, you are faster on
your feet than I, so I think you should go ahead with the Pathmaker. But just
those two will be dangerous, I think.”