They were tall, powerfully built, and good riders. Even when the outer castle was set on fire, the horses had been expected to panic, but there had not been as much confusion as hoped. Even so, it seemed to have done considerable damage.
The high-ranking warriors who formed their main strength had patterns painted all over their bodies in white, and necklaces hung with the teeth of several animals around their necks. He had heard that the Jandana treasured animal teeth enough to prepare them as a bride’s dowry. For them, horses, furs, and animal teeth were currency. Among these, lion teeth were particularly rare. A single male lion’s fang was said to be a valuable possession worth twenty horses. Whoever killed a male lion, regardless of age or rank, rose at once to the highest rank of warrior and enjoyed wealth as well.
These warriors mingled freely among the tribal soldiers without forming ranks, but he could sense that everyone around them respected them. There were some more respected even than the warriors, and these were a few women. He wondered if they were shamans or prophets. Even the warriors treated them carefully, as though serving a king. Yet they were not being protected. Like the warriors, they mingled casually with the troops.
After inspecting the outside, Gene came down to the first floor. Ignoring the townspeople whispering and staring at him suspiciously, he ordered the armed Saemgeuneul soldiers to stand in the center of the hall. Since they had weapons and knew the tension of battle about to begin, they obeyed his instructions relatively well. Once he had them form ranks with spaces between them, the first-floor hall was packed, and everyone else could only press against the walls or move onto the stairway landings. Then Gene’s armed men came down from the upper landing in a group. Without realizing it, the people moved toward the stairs leading below. Gene stood at the very front without paying them any heed.
“I have received command of this castle during the fighting from Lady Dalsad. My name is Gene. You may call me Adjutant. From now on, I will organize you into groups of ten. My men will be the captains of each group. The man standing at the front of each row is your captain, so obey his orders absolutely. Those men hold authority over your lives and deaths. Do not forget. All of this is for your survival. The objective is to remain alive until the relieving army returns.”
Of the five hundred or so people called Saemgeuneul soldiers, only about two hundred were capable of properly fighting. They made up the front of the ranks. Gene’s soldiers, now captains of ten, stamped one foot and shouted together.
“We will obey absolutely!”
The Saemgeuneul soldiers were startled by the sharp cry, but were also tense and stiff. Gene looked around at them.
“What are you doing? Your captains say they will obey, and you intend to keep your mouths shut?”
“We will… obey absolutely!”
“We will obey!”
“W-we will obey!”
Awkward shouts broke out from all around. By then, those pressed into corners had begun slipping down below. When Gene gave a signal, the captains of ten gathered their units and ran to the positions they had been assigned. What remained were about three hundred unarmed soldiers. More precisely, they were men armed with sickles, pitchforks, sticks, and such things. A considerable number were too old or too young. Gene spoke to them.
“You are the reserve. Half on this side will support the fighting from the first-floor hall. The other half will first carry the siege equipment upstairs, and afterward continue carrying up the offensive materials made on the first floor. In the intervals, support the fighting on the second and third floors. And the five in front, you are messengers. Follow me about, conveying my orders to each place or reporting how the battle is going.”
The five Gene pointed out were all boys. Their reply was energetic too.
“Yes!”
“Then everyone to your positions!”
As the soldiers scattered, Gene started toward the entrance to the keep. Then, seeing a soldier standing there, he felt as though ice had been pressed against his spine.
“Hanbun!”
Hanbun immediately turned, ran over, knelt, and bowed his head.
“My ability was insufficient to break through the encirclement in time. As a messenger, I ought to have ridden until the last moment, but I thought there might be even one more thing I could do here before being torn to death by the savage Jandana, so I have returned. Even if you call it cowardice, I will not make excuses. If, after your victory, you hang my head from the gate, I will not resent you.”
Then the way to ask the general for relief had vanished completely? For a moment, everything before him went dark, and he felt something bitter rise in his throat. Forgetting even that the boy messengers were watching, he nearly covered his face. He could not properly hear what Hanbun was saying. Then, at the words “hang my head,” he suddenly came to himself. The Hanbun Gene had seen was no irresponsible soldier who would abandon his duty to save his own skin. He might have kept riding until he died heroically, but he must have remembered the faces of Gene and his comrades, who had to fight a thousand Jandana with twenty-two men. Since he had not delivered the news to the general, he would die even if he returned anyway. Gene could not condemn a man who had come back hoping to be of even a little help before he died. Hanbun already seemed to have been struck by an arrow in the shoulder on his way back. Gene forced strength into his neck.
“Understood. Support the fighting on the first floor. You may take men from this reserve.”
“I will obey.”
Gene started to turn, then left one more word.
“And well done.”
Since he turned away again, he did not see Hanbun’s expression. Hanbun continued watching his back long after Gene had gone.
The first report of fighting came from the second floor. It had begun when an overenthusiastic Saemgeuneul soldier poured boiling oil outside without waiting for orders. When Gene ran there, a Saemgeuneul soldier lay fallen after being hit by an arrow, and their captain, Gaiar, had hung a large blanket over the window and was fending off arrows. Seeing Gene, Gaiar grinned.
“I thought I’d gather a few arrows.”
He answered easily, but in fact the situation was not easy. The keep did not stand alone. There were other houses to either side of it. One of the Jandana who had climbed onto the roof of such a house threw a noose. He looped the rope around a projection at the top of the keep and crossed over in a single bound. The Saemgeuneul soldiers screamed and shrank back. Gaiar’s words that it was good enough if they did not run held excessive truth. Gaiar sprang up and thrust his sword. He had also said, “It is better to face them in pairs or groups of three.”
Gene drew his sword and ran in. The opponent was large even for a Jandana, making Gene and Gaiar standing before him look like children. While Gaiar took the attack, Gene thrust at his side. But as though he had eyes in the back of his head, the enemy turned and caught the sword on the thick leather wrapped around his forearm. Yet Gene moved faster. Before they knew it, he had turned half a step and driven his sword beneath the man’s chest. With a spray of blood, the enemy fell with a sound like a log collapsing.
In the meantime, two more Jandana warriors crossed over. At the sight of their fallen tribesman, they gave strange cries. Now Gene and Gaiar had no choice but to face one each. Only then did two of the Saemgeuneul soldiers run up. As he fought the enemy, Gene shouted,
“Go up and cut the ropes! Then check the fighting downstairs and come back!”
The soldiers moved in a fluster. Just as Gene brought down his enemy and looked toward Gaiar, he saw a Jandana who had been crossing fall through the air. Even Gene could hear the sighs of relief the Saemgeuneul soldiers let out. Then a boy from the messengers came running.
“They’ve started fighting downstairs too! There are so many savages…”
In the middle of speaking, the boy suddenly shut his mouth, thought over what he would say, and shouted,
“Nine dead, five wounded. No reinforcements needed yet. Captain Zamallik sends that report!”
Gene was an adjutant, but Zamallik had become a captain. Gene did not bother to point it out. He nodded, thrust between the enemy’s shoulder and shoulder blade as the man fought Gaiar, and when the enemy fell, patted Gaiar’s shoulder and went up to the roof of the keep. A few Saemgeuneul soldiers stood there with hand axes, watching for any ropes that might come flying. Gene smiled at them, then looked down between the projections. The Jandana, who had filled the small square in disorder, were pressing toward the keep’s entrance like a raging wave. The same was happening inside. Where they met, he could actually see blood and flesh flying. The boiling oil poured from the second floor merely interrupted the flow for a moment at a time. Gene knew how flimsy the hastily built barricade at the keep’s entrance was, and how weak the single layer of defenders stopping them was. For now, they were holding, but they were relying on no more than the resilience of an eggshell. If even one place broke, it was clear they would be torn to pieces.
Fear suddenly swept over him. Unconsciously, Gene rubbed the nape of his neck with one hand. His skin had risen in gooseflesh. It was helplessness. After returning to the palace, he had trained relentlessly for years and gained the ability to protect himself, but that much ability could not overturn today’s situation. He had been caught up in this, and his life depended on the future of that thin line of defense. First he was afraid, then angry, and finally sad. It was not because of the people dying. He could not yet feel the people’s lives as his own. He was not yet a king, or Saemgeuneul’s castle lord. He was merely someone who had decided to do what he could in the place he had been swept into.
But his twenty-two men were different. It was a sense of responsibility he had never felt before. Gene looked down at his hands. They were hardened hands. He believed there was something within them. Gene muttered under his breath.
“Zamallik, I’m coming.”
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