The makeshift villages were largest toward the center of things. In the shadow of the stronghold there was a dense ring of them melding into each other. We sold the horses. We could always steal others if we needed them. I had imagined the Eyrie as I had read of it; a vast empty walled pasture with a sparsely populated stronghold at the middle. What I got was the whole Alendi nation crushed into a couple of square miles. A hundred thousand people or more. Getting him out of the stronghold, which would be equally full, would only be half of it. We could make him disappear for a while amongst so many, maybe, but ultimately we had to get him through the gates and no one was going to be leaving for a while.
We set up our new tents in sight of the gate to the stronghold amongst a hundred others and settled down to watch and think. We took it in turns to look and watch, sitting either side of a small fire, swapping places occasionally. There was a moat about the stronghold and a narrow bridge wide enough for one man to walk across comfortably. It was of wood and could be burned. The gate was small, also. Just a door, really. The stronghold was low and square. I remembered what I had read of the inside. A courtyard, surrounded by forges, and a single building running all around the walls and as high. In essence the walls were the building, peppered with arrow slits. A small army could stand on the roof and repel attackers. I measured one wall's length by eye, making it just under three hundred feet. Guessing the courtyard was half the size that made one hundred and fifty by three hundred twice, or ninety thousand feet, and one hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty twice, or forty five thousand. One hundred and thirty five thousand square feet. Well, let's say it takes three feet square for a man to stand and fight, that would give enough room for fifteen thousand men on the roof. Not that they could all fight of course. That would be…
“Thinking of climbing in?”
“Eh? Oh, no. We would be seen for certain.” I looked back at the bridge. There was a guard detail, four men, passing people on and turning them back in equal measure. Clearly you had to have business inside if you wanted to pass. Most of the men coming out carried bundles of arrows and assorted weapons. Some carried food. What I was trying to get an idea of was what the magic word was. Who was passed and who turned back.
My attention drifted back to the roof. That would be only four hundred men usefully at the wall at any one time. That didn't seem enough out of fifteen thousand. Had I calculated right? Fifteen thousand sounded like a lot. Would the roof hold under their weight?
“My turn,” Sapphire said.
I nodded absently and changed places with him.