“Shouldn’t we rest a little?”
At Terry’s words, Gayar loosened one shoulder and replied, “I can still fight, but I’m hungry. Hanbun, have you eaten anything?”
Hanbun, who was checking beneath the barricade, answered, “Biscuits.”
“What, when did you hide those away?”
Hanbun took something from a pocket in his trousers and tossed it over. Gayar caught it, popped it into his mouth, and chuckled.
“An old courier never goes around with empty pockets.”
“How could I know whether we’d have to hold out like last time?”
“If it takes that long again…”
Gayar broke off, pressed his lips together, and swung his sword at a new enemy climbing over. Hanbun knew what he meant by “last time.” If the fighting continued until dawn as it had then, their destruction was certain. The miracle on that occasion had been possible because Gene was there. But there was no need to tell the patrolmen that reality. The only people here who could calmly accept it and keep fighting were the two former soldiers.
Perhaps there was one more. That young lady.
Rosa was not a soldier, but she was so composed that it was hard to believe. And according to the patrolmen, she had effectively commanded the defense until Hanbun and Gayar arrived. Hanbun had not believed it at first and asked Ashabel again, only to receive the same answer. In a situation like this, ordinary young women would have been fortunate simply not to panic. Commanding men was unthinkable.
Now she was tending the wounded laid out in the first-floor hall, and seemed capable of first aid too. They had not had a chance to talk, occupied as they were with the fighting, but the more he thought about it, the more extraordinary she seemed. What life had she led? Yet there might never be another chance to ask, if this battle really lasted until dawn.
To shake off that ominous thought, Gayar left the barricade in Hal’s care for a moment and stepped back. With a biscuit in his mouth, he approached Hanbun and tapped his shoulder with his left hand, which had only three fingers.
“How is it? Harder than riding a horse?”
Hanbun, who never joked in a serious situation, replied, “Now I know how hard it was for you men then.”
“Tired?”
“We grew old in the meantime.”
Just then, someone came up behind them and set something at their feet. When he turned, long golden hair slipped over a chin and fluttered past. Gayar was startled. Rosa had brown hair. Was there another woman here? Neups, beside him, called out.
“Oh, Nana? Where have you been hiding? It’s dangerous here! Get inside!”
The girl said nothing, only pointed at Gayar’s waist. She held a waterskin. Realizing he had drained his own just before, Gayar unfastened it and handed it over, accepting the fresh one. Looking down, he found bread cut into convenient long pieces and picked one up. Nana went to the next barricade and put down bread there too. Hal shouted just as Neups had.
“It’s Nana! Hurry back to your sister!”
Instead of going inside at once, Nana retreated a few steps and looked beyond the barricade. She could not possibly see over it at her height, but they heard her murmur.
“The front entrance is the bigger problem.”
Only Hanbun and Neups heard. Neups took no notice, but Hanbun frowned, then raised his head above the barricade and examined the enemy’s deployment. He quickly recognized the change and shouted, “Change over!”
Mikun and Reddinus, the next team, came running. Hanbun went down to the first floor through the hole left by the rotten floorboards. The hall was crowded with wounded men. Rosa, sitting among them, sprang up at the sight of him.
“What is it?”
Her expression showed that she understood he had not come in to rest. Hanbun pointed to the door.
“How much of that has melted?”
“Almost all of it.”
“We must move the wounded farther inside.”
Without another word, Rosa beckoned to the two patrolmen helping her and prepared to move them. While she and the two men carried the wounded toward the altar, Hanbun called the remaining patrolmen together beneath the front entrance. The sacks of chicken manure they had piled before the door were shifted a short distance back and stacked like a low hill. The sacks dripped as the ice melted. The men seemed not to know why they had to do this, but after a full day of seeing what Hanbun and Gayar could do, none argued.
Once all the sacks were moved, Hanbun pointed to the ropes heaped in a corner.
“Bring those. Tie this end there, and that end over there. Then…”
At his direction, they crossed the long ropes this way and that and tied them into a maze-like obstacle centered on the mound. It rose slightly above knee height, making it difficult either to jump over or pass beneath. There were two layers, difficult to slice through in one stroke. An enemy could get inside by crossing one or two ropes at either side, but doing so would funnel him through those narrow points. When the work was done, Hanbun finished giving instructions while two men wound the ends around pillars to make them secure.
“Now stand inside the door and prepare yourselves. You three, stand opposite us with your backs to the altar and meet anyone trying to come through these passages.”
One patrolman tilted his head and asked, “Wouldn’t it all be over if they set fire to this?”
“They won’t start a fire.”
Once the men had taken their places, Hanbun stood at the far right before the door. Then a patrolman named Rix said, “But honestly… couldn’t we surrender even now?”
A few men laughed. Most made no response, but one or two looked uncertain. Terry answered, “They said from the beginning they’d wipe us out if the captain didn’t come. Would they accept our surrender now?”
“That was ridiculous in the first place. The captain’s coming back the day after tomorrow. They can wait until then and have their duel, or not, as they please. Why kill us all because he doesn’t appear this instant?”
“They don’t know that.”
“Couldn’t we tell them even now? We’ve no chance of winning if we keep fighting like this. Must all of us die just to buy two days?”
Whether or not Rix’s reasoning was sound, no one wanted to die. A ripple of agreement spread. A little flustered, Terry snapped, “Then you go running out and tell them. Count me out.”
That was true too, but once their doubts had surfaced, they did not readily subside. Several men looked at Hanbun, hoping he would say something. When he remained silent, Creses, sitting among the wounded after injuring his shoulder a little earlier, spoke.
“Sir, won’t you say something?”
They did not know precisely what the military title Ashabel had used for him meant, but lacking any better form of address, they had followed his introduction. Hanbun answered, “Gayar and I are not fighting to find out whether we will live or die. So I have nothing to say.”
The patrolmen tilted their heads, not understanding. Rix asked, “Then why are you fighting?”
“The captain’s enemies are my enemies. Do I need a reason to fight an enemy?”
“That’s true, but the captain hasn’t gone away to leave us to die like dogs. This just happened by chance…”
Rix trailed off, studying the other men’s faces. Hanbun smiled faintly.
“You are right. That is the difference between you and me. I stake my life on even a single fragment of the captain’s honor. If you do not, that is your affair. The captain has never forced an unwilling man to fight. Nor does he hate such men. He understands them very well. That is because he does not fear his own death. If he were afraid to die, how could he not hold back men who tried to run away? But he is always prepared to face death alone. So those who wish to flee need not worry about him.”
Rix had no answer. The other men changed expression too. Some were bewildered by this unexpected speech, but most seemed stung by the fact that Hanbun, whom they had not even known until yesterday, followed Gene, the very idol of the Brothers of the Hawk, more faithfully than they did. Soon several spoke out one after another.
“We whom the captain himself calls brothers, give in after half a day’s siege?”
“This is a matter of honor. The captain’s and ours.”
“Even if we fight prepared to die, we might not survive. Who’s talking like that and taking the heart out of us?”
Then Rosa, who stood beside Creses, said, “Your resolve is admirable, but there’s not much chance of being wiped out when you think about it. It will end soon.”
“What on earth do you mean… Ugh!”
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