Part 57 (1/2)
Sludig shook his head, mystified. He was unable to look away from the pale faces. ”Preserve us,” he said hoa.r.s.ely.
Baron Seriddan climbed heavily up the steps onto the platform, weighted by his armor. ”What news?” Isgrimnur asked.
Seriddan took off his gloves and held his hands close to the brazier of coals. ”Things go well, I suppose. Elias' men are firing on the ram and it is slow going to keep it moving uphill, but it will be against the gate soon. Some of the siege towers are also being moved into place, and they seem to be concentrating their arrows on them. We are lucky there is such wind today, and that it is so hard for the king's archers to see.”
”That's what everyone keeps saying,” the duke grumbled. ”But I am going quietly mad here anyway. Curse Josua for leaving me this way.” He scowled, then made the sign of the Tree. ”Forgive me. I did not mean that.”
Seriddan nodded. ”I know. It is terrible not to know where he is.”
”That's not all that's bothering me. There are still too many unanswered questions.”
”What do you mean?”
”If all they need to do is stall us-if this flaming star truly signifies something will happen that helps Elias-then why didn't they even try to parley? And you'd think that the king would want to see his brother at the very least, if only to shout at him and call him a traitor.”
”Perhaps Elias knows that Josua is not here.”
Isgrimnur flinched. ”How could he know that? Josua only disappeared last night!”
”You know more of these matters than I do, Duke Isgrimnur. You have been fighting the king and his magical allies a long time.”
Isgrimnur walked to the front of the platform, staring at the Hayholt's shadowy walls. ”Maybe they do know. Maybe they lured Camaris in somehow-but, d.a.m.n me, that wouldn't mean Josua would come, too. They couldn't have planned on that.”
”I cannot even guess,” said the baron. ”I only came to tell you that I'd like to take some of my men around to the western wall. I think it is time we gave them another spot to worry about.”
”Go ahead. But that is another thing that troubles me: Elias doesn't seem very worried at all. With the battering ram so close, I would have expected at least one sortie to prevent us from dragging it into place.”
”I cannot answer you.” Seriddan clapped him on the arm. ”But if this is all that the High King has left to offer, we will have the gate down in a matter of days at the most.”
”We may not have days,” Isgrimnur replied, frowning.
”But we do what we can.” Seriddan clambered down and moved toward his horse. ”Take heart, Duke Isgrimnur,” he called. ”Things are going well.”
Isgrimnur looked around. ”Jeremias!”
The boy pushed through a small knot of armored men at the back of the platform. ”Yes, sire.”
”See if you can find me some wine, boy. My guts are colder than my toes.”
The squire hurried off toward the tents. Isgrimnur turned back to the windy, snow-smothered battlefield, glowering.
”G.o.d preserve us!” Sludig gaped in astonishment. ”What are they doing?”
”Singing,” said Isorn. ”I saw it before the walls of Naglimund. It went on a long time.” He stared at the two dozen Sithi, who had ridden forward and now stood calmly within bowshot of the walls, knee-deep in the drifting snows.
”What do you mean, singing?” singing?”
”It is how they fight-at least it is how they fight with their cousins, the Norns. If I understood better, I would explain it to you.”
”And these are the allies we've been waiting for?” Sludig's voice rose in anger. ”We battle for our lives-and they sing? Look! Our men are dying out there!”
”The Sithi can fight in other ways too, Sludig. You will see that, I think. And it worked for them at Naglimund, although I don't know how. They brought the walls down.”
His companion snorted derisively. ”I will put my faith in the ram and the siege-towers-and in men with strong arms.” He looked up at the sky. ”It's getting darker. But it cannot be much past midday.”
”The storm is growing thicker, perhaps.” Isorn restrained his horse, which was stepping nervously. ”I do not like the looks of it, though. Do you see that cloud over the towers?”
Sludig stared, following Isorn's pointing finger. He blinked. ”Lightning! Is this the Sithi's doing?” Indeed, almost the only thing that could be heard over the moaning wind was the strange, rhythmic rise and fall of the immortals' voices.
”I do not know, but it might be. I watched them at it before Naglimund for days, and still I could not tell you what they do. But Jiriki told me that his people work to counter certain magicks of the Norns.” Isorn winced as thunder crashed, echoing across the hillside and down through the deserted streets of Erchester behind the prince's army. The lightning flashed again, seeming for a moment to freeze everything on and before the walls of the Hayholt-men, engines of war, flurrying snowflakes, even arrows in their flight-before the storm darkness returned. Another roar of thunder sounded. The wind howled even louder. ”Perhaps that is why the Norns are not among the archers,” Isorn continued loudly. ”Because they are preparing some trick, some spell-something we will not like much. Oh, I saw horrors at Naglimund, Sludig. I pray Jiriki's people are strong enough to hold them back.”
”This is madness!” Sludig shouted. ”I can see almost nothing!”
Another crash came, this one a little softer. It was not thunder. ”Praise Usires! They have brought the ram against the gates,” Isorn called, excited. ”See, Sludig, they have struck the first blow!” The black sword raised before him, he spurred his horse forward a few steps. With the sea-dragon helm on his head and his cloak whipping in the high wind, even Sludig could almost believe this was Camaris and not his liege-lord's son. ”We must find Hotvig's riders and be ready to go in if they can breach the gate.”
Sludig looked in vain for a messenger among the milling foot soldiers. ”We should tell your father,” he shouted.
”Go, then. I will wait. But hurry, man. Who would have thought we would be so close so soon?”
Sludig tried to say something, but it was lost in the noise of the storm. He turned his horse away and rode back down the hill toward Duke Isgrimnur's watching place.
”The ram is against the gate,” Sangfugol said exultantly. ”Look at it! It is big as three houses!”
”The gate is bigger.” Strangyeard was s.h.i.+vering. ”Still, I am astonished that there should be so little resistance.”
”You saw Erchester. Everyone has fled. Elias and his pet wizard have made this place a wasteland.”
”But there seem to be men enough inside the walls to defend the castle. Why did they dig no trenches to slow the siege engines? Why did they lay up so few stones to push down on the scaling ladders?”
”The stones they had did their work,” Sangfugol replied, angry that Strangyeard did not share his excitement. ”The men who wound up beneath them are as dead as you could wish.”
”Elysia, Mother of our Ransomer!” The priest was shocked. ”Sangfugol, do not speak so of our fallen soldiers! I only meant it is strange the defenders seem so ill-prepared for a siege Elias must have known was coming for weeks, even months.”
”The king has gone mad,” the harper replied. ”You've heard what those who fled Erkynland say. And there are few left to fight with him. This will be no different than prodding a bear out of its cave. The bear is fierce, but it is an animal for all that, and must lose out to the cleverness of men.”
”Cleverness?” The archivist did his best to shake the snow off his blanket. The wind slashed bitterly even through the low barrier of stones they had erected. ”What have we done that is so clever? We have been led by the nose like oxen all along.”
Sangfugol waved his hand airily, although he too was trembling with cold. ”Having Isorn and that Nabban fellow pose as Camaris and Josua-that was a clever idea, you must admit ... except for your little suggestion that I be the one to play. the prince. And going beneath the Hayholt's walls by caverns and tunnels-that is something clever indeed! The king would not think of that in a thousand years.”
Strangyeard, who was rubbing his hands together furiously in an effort to keep them warm, suddenly stopped. ”The king might not-but his allies must know of those tunnels.” His voice shook. ”Surely the Norns must know.”
”That is why our fairy-folk have gone down after the prince and Camaris. I've seen them, Aditu's brother and mother and the rest. They can take care of themselves, I have no doubt ... even if the Norns know about the tunnels and are waiting for them, as you seem to think.”