Horace considered it for a moment. 'The L's in your name will probably be a little slurred,' he said. 'And they'll pronounce all three syllables in your names with equal emphasis. You won't be E-van-lyn or Sel-eth-en, as we say them. They don't stress any one syllable more than the other. They'll say all three in a sort of staccato rhythm.'
He had proved to be correct. Shigeru listened attentively as Horace introduced his friends, using the adapted names he had given them, and then repeated them carefully. Of course, the polite term 'san' was added to each name as well.
After the formalities were taken care of, Shigeru sent for tea and they all sipped gratefully at the hot drink. There was a sharp edge in the weather – the heavy snows would soon be starting.
Horace regarded his cup. Green tea was all right, he thought. But it wasn't his favourite beverage.
'I don't suppose you brought any coffee with you?' he asked the two Rangers.
'We've got some,' Will replied and as Horace's eyes brightened, he continued, 'But it's all at our camp site on the coast.'
'Oh. Just when you got my hopes up. I'll send men to bring your gear up here,' Horace said.
Shigeru had been following the exchange with a smile. Horace's relief was obvious now that his friends were here – particularly the older, bearded man. Shigeru knew that Horace had taken on a lot after Shukin's death and he had worried it might be too much of a burden for such a young man. Now, he could share that burden, the Emperor thought. And he instinctively felt confidence in the abilities of this Halto-san to find a way to oppose Arisaka. Horace had told him a great deal about the enigmatic Ranger over the past weeks.
'Kurokuma has been missing his coffee,' Shigeru said.
'Your highness?' It was the younger of the two Rangers, obviously with a question, and Shigeru nodded for him to continue. 'What is this name you've given him? Kurokuma?'
'It's a title of great respect,' the Emperor replied gravely.
'Yes. So Horace told us. But what does it mean?'
'I think,' Alyss began uncertainly, 'it has something to do with a bear? A black bear?'
Shigeru inclined his head towards her. 'You have an excellent understanding of our language, Arris-san,' he told her.
She flushed a little and bowed in response to the compliment.
Horace, who had been trying to find out the meaning of Kurokuma for some time now, was pleased to hear the translation.
'Black bear,' he repeated. 'It's undoubtedly because I'm so terrible in battle.'
'I'd guess so,' Will put in. 'I've seen you in battle and you're definitely terrible.'
'Perhaps,' said Halt quickly, heading off any further exchange between them, 'we might take a tour of the defences. We've taken up too much of his excellency's time.'
'Please, Halto-san, call me Shigeru. I don't feel like an excellency in these mountains.' His gaze travelled round the others. 'All of you, please, call me Shigeru-san. It will save a lot of bowing and scraping.'
His smile embraced them and they all murmured acknowledgement. Then, as they began to rise to their feet, he held up a hand.
'Princess Ev-an-in,' he said, 'perhaps you and Arris-san can stay and talk further. I would like to learn more about your father and his Kingdom of Araluen.'
'Or course, your exc-' Evanlyn began, then stopped herself at his admonishing finger. 'I mean, of course, Shigeru-san.'
First order of business was to inspect the progress of repairs to the palisade.
Halt was silent for several minutes as he studied the weakened western section. The Kikori work gang assigned there were busy digging foundations for new vertical beams. They were well organised and the work was proceeding smoothly. The Kikori, after generations of cutting and hauling the immense mountain trees, were used to working together, with minimum confusion. Everyone was assigned a task and carried it out efficiently. Will watched one group as they went about raising a massive baulk of timber over one of the foundation holes. They worked smoothly and efficiently, reacting instantly to instructions shouted by their foreman.
'They're well disciplined,' Will commented.
Horace nodded. 'Yes. They co-operate well. I'd say it's because they need to work as a team when they fell really large trees and then move them down the mountains. Each man has to be able to depend on the men next to him.'
'Horace,' Halt interrupted, 'just stop them for a moment, will you? Stop them from what they're doing.'
Horace looked at him in surprise, then called to the foreman and told him to let the men stand down. He turned back to Halt.
'Is something wrong, Halt?' he asked and the Ranger shook his head.
'No. No. We just might have an opportunity here.' His eyes narrowed as he studied the damaged section. Then he seemed to come to a decision. 'How many men does Arisaka have? And how long before they get here?'
'Five or six hundred warriors, as near as our scouts can figure,' Horace told him. 'The bulk of his army is about three weeks away. We forced them into a long detour when we cut the footbridge down. But if he runs true to form, he'll send a party on ahead at double time to try to get in here before the snows block the valley.'
Halt nodded. It was what he had expected. 'So we might expect a party of maybe a hundred men sometime in the next ten days?'
'That's right. It could be sooner, but I doubt it. Even travelling light and with no real baggage, it's difficult country.'
'And if we could give them a bloody nose, it would be helpful,' Halt said.
Again, Horace agreed. 'Any reduction to Arisaka's numbers would be helpful.'
'All right. Here's what we'll do. Stop the repairs on that section. Patch it up but do it badly. Use the old rotten timbers that were there. Make it an obvious weak point.'
Horace nodded thoughtfully. 'You're planning to concentrate their attack in one area?' He wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but he'd never known Halt to have a bad one.
'A little more than that. Inside the weakened section, build a second wall – make it U-shaped and a little lower than the palisade so they can't see it. We'll let them create a breach. When they charge through, they'll find they've got walls on three sides – strong ones this time. We'll have them concentrated in one area and we can really do some damage to them. We'll have logs and rocks on the palisade walkway so that once they're inside, we can drop them into the breach and trap them. At least, we'll make it hard for them to retreat.'
Selethen was nodding, his eyes roving the palisade and the steep stone wall beside it.
'We could also pile up rocks and logs on that rock face,' he added. 'It'll be easy enough to build a retaining wall to hold them in place. Then, once the enemy are inside, we collapse the retaining wall and bring an avalanche down on them.'
Halt glanced quickly at the Arridi. 'Nice,' he said.
For the first time in several weeks Horace could smile at the thought of the impending conflict. There would be little hand-to-hand combat involved. The Kikori would have the advantage of fighting from the top of the palisade. Rocks, spears and logs would be effective weapons. They could destroy any small attacking force before they ever got to close quarters.
'I'm so glad you lot turned up,' he said.
'At the very least, we'll cut Arisaka's numbers down,' Halt said. 'The trick will only work once, but it'll slow him down and by then the snows might be here.'
Horace beckoned the foreman over and they explained the new plan to him. His eyes lit up as he grasped the idea and he nodded eagerly, smiling at Halt and Selethen as the authors of the stratagem. There was no need to give him detailed plans for the new section of wall. He would be more than capable of planning that. They left him to reorganise the workers and moved on to watch the small group of Senshi who were practising their swordcraft. As Horace had been, the three new arrivals were impressed with the speed and precision of the Nihon-Jan warriors' technique.
'They're good,' Selethen said. 'Very good.'
Horace looked at him. 'Man for man, I'd say they're better than our Araluan knights,' he said. It pained him to admit it, but the fact was unavoidable. 'Our best warriors would be pretty much equal to their best, but it's the next level down where they hold the advantage. The rank and file Senshi are more skilled than the average graduate from an Araluan Battleschool.'
Halt agreed with him. 'It makes sense,' he said. 'You told us they start practising when they're ten years old. Our Battleschools don't accept pupils until they're fifteen.'