'Halt, you've got to face facts,' Alyss put in. 'Evanlyn is right. If we don't get help Arisaka will overrun this place in the summer. Oh, we'll hold out for a while, of course. But sooner or later, his men will break through. This is our only chance.'
'I expected more sense from you, Alyss,' he said coldly. 'I know Evanlyn tends to go off on wild ideas, but I'm surprised at you. What do you think Pauline would say about this?'
Colour flared in Alyss's cheeks as he spoke. Then she replied, measuring her words carefully so that anger would not get the best of her.
'What would you say to Pauline if it was her idea?' she replied.
Halt hesitated. They all knew he would never dare to tell Pauline she was reckless or hare-brained.
Seeing his hesitation, Alyss continued quickly. 'Tell me, Halt, aside from the simple fact that you'd be worried about us, what's the flaw in this plan?'
He opened his mouth to reply, then paused again. Truth be told, there was no flaw, other than the fact that he hated to see the girls place themselves in danger. He looked at them for a few seconds and realised that that fact was not a sufficiently good reason to reject the plan. Both girls had been in dangerous situations before. Both would be in dangerous situations again. Neither of them were shrinking violets. And Evanlyn was right. If she and Alyss went, they wouldn't be taking any fighting men away from the valley. They'd need help scaling the sheer cliffs that led down to the lake. But once that was done, the Kikori who helped them could return.
'I just…I…I don't like it,' he said.
Evanlyn stepped closer to him and placed her hand over his. 'We don't ask you to like it,' she said. 'I don't like the idea that we'll be leaving you and Will and Horace to fight Arisaka with a bunch of half-trained lumberjacks as an army. These are hard times and we have to make tough decisions.'
He let go a deep sigh. The girls were right and he knew it.
'All right,' he said. The two faces before him were suddenly wreathed in excited smiles and he added heavily, 'But God help me when Will and Horace find out about it.'
Whatever answer the girls might have made was cut off by the sound of shouting outside Halt's cabin. Then the door flew open and young Mikeru burst in, too excited to exhibit the normally impeccable manners of the Nihon-Jan.
'Halto-san! Come quickly! Arisaka's men are here!'
Mikeru's excited warning was a little premature. Arisaka's army were not actually charging up the valley, as he implied. But the first elements had been sighted, just a day away.
As Horace had surmised, Arisaka had repeated his earlier tactic and sent a fast-travelling advance party ahead of his main force. The Kikori scouts had counted a hundred armed Senshi, carrying minimal baggage and moving towards the valley at a steady jog.
'How did they know we're here?' Horace asked.
Halt shrugged. 'They may not know your exact location. They're probably just tracking you. After all, a party as large as this one would leave plenty of signs for a halfway decent tracker.'
'So what is our best move now, Halto-san?' Shigeru asked. They were gathered in his cabin to discuss this latest eventuality. Shigeru, observing how Horace deferred to the bearded Ranger, and knowing Reito's limitations as a combat commander, had questioned Horace at length about Halt's background and experience. Horace had left him in no doubt that they were lucky to have such an experienced tactician at their disposal and Shigeru had appointed the Ranger in command of the defence of Ran-Koshi.
'The palisade is repaired,' Halt said. 'And the trap at the western end is just about complete. Another half day should see that done. I suggest we sit tight behind the palisade, wait for them to attack and then bring down our avalanche on top of them.'
'Will they attack?' Shigeru asked. 'Perhaps they will wait for Arisaka's main force to catch up.'
Halt shook his head. 'I doubt it,' he said. 'It makes no sense to come racing across country after us only to sit down and wait when they eventually catch up. Arisaka knows that the snow is coming.' They all glanced at the open doorway. It was snowing outside. With each day, the flakes became bigger and heavier and the snowfalls longer. Already the cover on the ground was eight to ten centimetres deep. 'He'll want his men to hit us before the real storms come. After all, he knows you only have thirty or forty warriors with you.'
'There are around two hundred Kikori men as well,' Will said but Halt made a dismissive gesture.
'From everything the Emperor and Reito-san have told us, Arisaka won't be expecting them to fight. That could give us a big advantage.'
'If they will fight,' Horace said gloomily. He worried that when the time came, the Kikori might be affected by centuries of tradition and history. They had rarely rebelled against the Senshi in the past and when they did, the results had been catastrophic. He felt the chances were high that they would, at the last minute, be overwhelmed by their sense of assumed inferiority. Assisting the Emperor to escape and standing up against the highly trained Senshi warriors of Arisaka's army were two entirely different matters.
'They'll fight,' Will said firmly and Halt turned a questioning eye on him.
'You seem sure of that. What have you and Selethen been up to? You've been spending a lot of time with the Kikori.'
Will and the Arridi leader exchanged a quick glance. Then Will shook his head.
'Early days yet,' he said. 'Just an idea we're working on. We'll tell you when the time is right.'
'In any event,' Halt said, dismissing the matter for the time being and returning to the point Horace had raised, 'the Kikori will be fighting from behind a defensive position, not facing the Senshi in open combat. That'll make a difference. All they'll have to do is keep shoving them back down off the wall.'
'As easy as that?' Horace said, grinning in spite of his earlier misgivings. But he thought Halt had a point: fighting from behind a defensive position was less daunting than facing an enemy on an open battlefield. With any luck, not many of Arisaka's warriors would get close enough for individual combat.
'When do you think they'll attack, Halt?' Selethen asked.
'Our scouts say they should be here late tomorrow. I would assume they'll size up the situation, rest for the night, then hit us first thing the following morning.'
Selethen nodded agreement with the estimate, but Shigeru was a little surprised at the speed things were moving.
'So soon?' he said. 'Won't they have…preparations to make?' he asked vaguely.
'They don't have any heavy weapons or siege equipment with them,' Halt said. 'After all, they had no real idea that we would find us in a ready-made fortress like this one. My guess is they'll spend the night getting a few scaling ladders ready then try and rush us. After all, they have nothing to gain by waiting.'
The sky was overcast and heavy with clouds. In the east, through a gap between mountain peaks, the sun could be made out as a red, watery ball rising into the sky. A cold wind blew up the valley, bringing snowflakes with it.
Above the soft keening of the wind, Halt could hear the rapid tread of feet, crunching on the rocky ground before them.
'Here they come,' he muttered, as Arisaka's advance party, moving in three uneven columns, rounded the last bend before the palisade. He turned to Will.
'Don't waste arrows on the ones at the foot of the wall. Rocks and spears will do for them. Save your shots for any who make it to the top. They're the ones we need to stop, before they get a real foothold.'
Will nodded. They were pacing the timber walkway on the inner side of the palisade. Shigeru's few Senshi warriors were in defensive positions. Beside them and behind them, the Kikori crouched, out of sight. Some had their heavy axes ready, but most were armed with spears or long poles they had cut to use as pikes. The tips were carved into points which had been hardened in fires the night before. Every five metres, piles of large, jagged rocks stood ready for use against the attackers.
'Stay down, Kikori,' Halt said quietly, as he passed the crouching timber workers. They grinned nervously up at him and he added, 'We'll soon be giving Arisaka a very unwelcome surprise.'
They reached the decrepit western end of the palisade. Here ten Senshi and the same number of Kikori were stationed on the planked walkway behind the badly patched, dilapidated wall.
'They'll concentrate here once they realise,' Halt called. 'Be ready to get off the wall as soon as you feel it's going.'
The mixed group of defenders nodded, their faces serious, their thoughts focused on the coming fight. Halt surveyed the new inner wall with satisfaction. It was lower, but much sturdier than the old palisade – altogether a much more defensible position. He glanced up to the piled rocks, earth and timber balanced precariously above on the rock wall. The Kikori had contrived to cover the rocks with branches and bushes, even leaving one small sapling springing out from the mound so that it appeared more natural. Looking carefully, he could just make out the ropes trailing away from the deadfall.
'Get ready!' It was Horace's voice. He was at the midpoint of the palisade. He had his shield on his left arm. The unfamiliar shape of a Nihon-Jan katana was in his right hand. Behind them, they heard and felt feet on the ladder that led up to the walkway from below. They both turned to see Shigeru, in lacquered leather armour, stepping onto the walkway, closely followed by Reito.
'Your highness, I'd really prefer it if you'd stay back from the fighting,' Halt told him. He knew Shigeru was no expert with the sword. Capable, perhaps, but expert? Never.
'Your preference is noted, Halto-san,' said Shigeru, making no move to retire back down the ladder. Halt met his gaze for a few seconds, then shrugged.
'Well, I tried,' he said.
At a shouted order, the attacking force suddenly broke into a run. They had no particular formation. They spread out in a rough line as far as the narrow valley walls would allow. The line was three or four men deep. Halt made out five rudimentary scaling ladders – each one nothing more than a single thick sapling trunk, notched to accept crosspieces, which were then bound in place to act as rungs. At least another ten men were carrying ropes and grapnels. The plan was obviously to assault the wall at fifteen or sixteen different points at once to overextend the thirty-odd Senshi who could be seen defending the palisade.