Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) (30 page)

“I understand, milord.”

“Talk to Lady Falaise on your way through the column. She’s down at the first bend helping to supervise the descent. Find out if she’s got any contacts in the city that might be helpful or at least, sympathetic.

“Okay, so that brings me on to the next part of your mission. If we can’t persuade them to open the gates then we’ll have to open them ourselves. We obviously don’t have any siege equipment or the time to use it if we did. Beside which I don’t want to damage the gates as we may
need to shut them if the face of Duke Henry’s men. So, how many men does Lord Maxten have at his command? I also need to know where they are normally deployed. By the time we get there, the majority of them will be on this nearside gate facing us but where will he take them from? Is there somewhere that will be relatively undefended where a group of men could force their way in and attack the gates from behind?”

“Hm. Lot of specifics you want there, milord. I won’t get there until late afternoon today but I should make it before they shut the gates. If I slip out again, just before they shut the gates tomorrow night, I can brief you overnight.”

“That will be fine. Stop by the camp on your way now and have a word with Mo. I left a purse of coin for her to give you in case of need. Good luck, Kemon.”

“Luck, milord? Never trusted the lady. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Chapter 16

The descent to the high road had been long and arduous. Some of the larger wagons were so heavy that they had to double the teams on the ropes to keep the descent at a walking pace. Many of the men had to have blistered palms treated and bandaged before they could take another turn on the ropes or were assigned to the teams walking alongside the wagons with wedges to jam under the wheels. Temporary kitchens were set up at the top and the bottom of the descent to feed the teams of workers while others snatched a few moments of sleep on the leafy moss to either side of the trail.

They still had Duke Henry’s coach that Evan, the tax collector, had used and David had that pulled out of the line and brought down to the road early. He went to find Falaise and asked her to find him some artists who could repaint the coach, gilding it to the maximum possible extent and replacing Duke Henry’s coat of arms with the Lyenar arms. Her surprise at this first request increased substantially when he then asked her to find, or ask some of the ladies to make, a set of ten matching riding cloaks.

“Whatever are you planning, David?”

He smiled at her. “That coach is going to be the official state coach of the Lyenar people and you and Jeren, as rulers of the Lyenar, are going to make a state visit to the ruler of Highport accompanied by a full guard of honour.”

“Do you think that will work? Will he let us in?”

“He might let you in but I’m not sure about the honour guard. But it might throw him sufficiently off-balance to make a mistake. By the way, I also want uniforms for a herald, which will be me, and an equerry, which will be Baltur.”

“Will there be anything else?” she asked with a tinge of asperity.

“Well I’m assuming that you can dress yourself and Jeren appropriately for the occasion so, apart from that, no.”

He ducked under the resulting slap with a chuckle. “Sorry Falaise. But until Kemon gets back, I don’t know exactly what we’re up against so I’m just preparing some contingencies.”

While Falaise busied herself with those requests, the work continued on lowering the wagons down the slope. As darkness fell, torches were lit every ten paces down the trail and teams of children were organised to keep a check on the torches and replace them as soon as they went out.

Under the circumstances, it was remarkable that they only lost one wagon during the night and that was one of the smaller ones. It was only a one horse wagon and was on the second half of the descent when the driver’s brake lever snapped. Taken by surprise, the rope slipped through sweaty hands and the walking team did not react fast enough with the wedges. The wagon rapidly gathered pace, pushing the now panicky horse in front of it and, despite the heroic efforts of the driver to make the corner, the turn was too sharp. It ran wide to the edge of the trail and one of the front wheels shattered on a rock whereupon the whole rig went over sideways and cartwheeled twenty paces down the slope before coming to rest against a tree. The wagon was a write-off and the horse had to be destroyed but miraculously the driver escaped with nothing more than a nasty cut on his forehead.

The incident cost them some time however, to clear away the debris and rescue what they could of the family’s belongings to redistribute amongst friends and family. The general pace of the
work had slowed through the night as the men tired, and it was well past mid-morning before the last wagon was safely down. The children brought the herds down last while the men snatched a hasty snack or a few moments of rest.

***

According to Ash’s estimate, the point where the trail joined the high road at the foot of the escarpment was more than a full day’s travel from the city of Highport but some of the early wagons had already been sent a little way in that direction to make room for the later wagons coming down. The scouts they had sent up the Paelis road to warn of any approach from that direction, had not reported in so Ash sent two men to relieve them. He also sent two more up the trail towards Stadenbridge in case the main force from there had continued along the river instead of following the horsemen across country.

David had taken time out the previous day to speak to the prisoners, looking for recruits. The captain of the horsemen had declined to join them, to nobody’s great surprise and six of his surviving troopers had also refused. As David had threatened, they were taken back across the river and left without boots or weapons. The other four survivors had given their oath to David although one of them was so badly wounded it would be a week or more before he would be fit for even light duties.

They called an early halt that night with many of the drivers slumped over the reins, relying mainly on the horses’ good sense to follow the wagon in front. Ash stopped the march just about a half day short of the city but compressed the length of the column by doubling and where possible, trebling the wagons alongside each other on the high road. The state coach in all its gilded finery was brought to the head of the column, weaving in and out of the parked wagons to cheers and admiring glances.

Kemon returned to the column two hours after dark and David called the full council and his own officers together to hear the report.

“Where do you want me to start, milord? With the city itself?”

David nodded his agreement.

“Ok, Highport sits on the confluence of two rivers, the Staden and the Yarrow. It also sits precisely on the boundary of all three dukedoms, Paelis, Keldis and Westron. There are three gates to the city, each named after the corresponding dukedom. The trails from Stadenbridge and Wyndport join the high road just short of Paelis gate on this side and on the other side, there is one gate which leads to Waymeet in Westron and one which leads to Kell and Yarford in Keldis.

“To the west of the city there is a river gate for the boats coming up river from Westport. To the east of the city there are guarded openings in the city wall for the two rivers, the Staden and the Yarrow but there is no traffic through either opening.”

“Describe these openings in the city wall,” David said.

“They are just arches over the river, milord. The city wall is continuous across the rivers with a small tower on both banks and a portcullis which can be dropped but which isn’t usually lowered because it would trap any debris coming down the river and block the flow.”

“What about the western river gate?”

“That’s not so much a gate as a gap in the wall. The river is very wide at that point and flowing strongly. There is a chain that they can raise to stop boats entering and the walls are very thick there right down to the water’s edge so that it would be very difficult for anyone to force their way upstream by swimming. I don’t rate that as any sort of possibility for entry.”

“Go on,” David nodded.

“Inside the city walls, the High Warden’s palace, if you want to call it that, is situated on the land between the two rivers. There is no bridge below where the rivers join; that’s just wharf space
for the river boats and barges. Above that there are two bridges; one for each river and you have to cross both of them to get to either of the gates on the far side of the city. The good news is that the bridges inside the city are not guarded. Once you are through the gates, you have free movement throughout the city.”

“And the city defence force? How many men does the High Warden command?”

“I was drinking with one of the sergeants last night. The total strength is seventy five men with roughly half on duty at any one time; six on each of the three gates, two keeping watch on each of the river openings, half a dozen on duty at the High Warden’s palace and the rest based down at wharves. The barracks for the off-duty guardsmen is inside the palace compound. If the city is threatened, which is generally by one of the three dukedoms surrounding it, they will drop the portcullises, reduce the guards on the unthreatened gates and massively reinforce the side that is being threatened.”

“Ok, tell us about the High Warden himself.”

“He’s a mouse. He hides behind the High King’s charter and follows a strict policy of appeasement with all three dukes. He’s desperately afraid that one of them will move in and take over, which the other two will obviously resist and Highport will be destroyed, or at least financially ruined, in the resulting conflict. Admittedly there is quite a bit of history to justify that particular worry.

“The High Warden rules with the aid of an appointed council, mostly drawn from the wealthier merchants including Master Benson who was the contact given me by Lady Falaise. According to Master Benson, Duke Henry has already been in touch with the High Warden and, as a result, there’s no chance of the gates being open to us when we arrive. I looked for leverage points; there are always one or two but the council members are mostly too concerned with protecting their own positions against the other council members to unite in any meaningful way against the High Warden.”

“So if you’re ruling out persuasion as a means of getting in, that brings us back to the use of force. Is there any way we can get a group of our men inside the city to open the gates from the inside?”

“Two ways. As I said, when the city is threatened, they drop the portcullises on the river inflows. Now they know we are coming but the impression I got was that they regard us as a large group of refugees rather than a threat to the city. Certainly the portcullises were still raised when I left this evening. The openings are watched more than guarded but it has to be the most boring assignment imaginable, particularly overnight. It should be possible to sneak a handful of men through one of the openings in the dark, overpower the watchers and bring the rest through before any alarm can be raised.”

“But the alarm would be raised as soon as the guards are missed,” David said. “At the latest that would be when the day shift turns up to relieve them. The head of the column won’t reach the city gates until midday by which time they will be seriously on their guard. So what’s the second way?”

“Master Benson has a warehouse built against the city walls, behind the wharves on this side of the river. From the roof of the warehouse, it is possible to gain access to the top of the wall and drop a rope down the outside. The walls are patrolled during the night but not frequently and that part of the wall is not visible from the towers at the Paelis gate.”

“Will this Master Benson help us?”

“He will need some serious persuading and, even then, I suspect that the most we will get is the keys to the warehouse and grudging permission to hide there for the morning.”

“I may be able to help there,” Foxley put in. “Benson and I go way back and he does owe me one or two favours that could possibly be called in. Providing I can get to talk to him.”

David considered that for a moment. “It might be dangerous… and almost certainly wet.”

Foxley gave a short laugh. “I think I can cope with getting wet. But seriously, if you need Benson’s help, I’m the man to get it for you. And besides, I think it’s about time I made a bit more of a contribution to this endeavour.”

“Well, what do you say, Kemon?” David asked. “Can you get Lord Foxley into the city and through to Master Benson’s house?”

“Yes, that can be done, milord. Just the two of us.”

“No three. Talk to Feynor and take one of his men with you. If you run into any trouble, I want to make sure that Lord Foxley gets through and talks to Master Benson. Oh and give Feynor an exact description of where to position his group outside the walls by the warehouse, ready for the rope. And then you’d better get going since you have the longest night of it; getting into the city unseen, convincing Master Benson to help us and then getting onto the roof of that warehouse no later than two hours before dawn.”

Kemon bowed silently and left with Feynor on his heels.

“If you will excuse me also,” Foxley said, heading towards the exit. “I have some preparations to make before I leave.”

David nodded his agreement and spoke to the rest of the council.

“Okay, now tomorrow I want to make the best pace we can in order to arrive within sight of those gates by midday. The state coach will be at the very head of the column with an honour guard of ten of Jorgen’s spearmen and we will be the only ones who will actually approach the gates. Do you have the honour guard’s cloaks?” David asked Falaise.

“We have ten red cloaks as similar as we can make them. I’ve also sorted out Baltur’s equerry uniform and we have something that will be suitable for yourself, my lord, but we do need to arrange a fitting.”