Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights (47 page)

Hawke cleared her new assignment with General Stymes and the two of them shuttled down to the town, a town which was actually a small but wealthy kingdom. Marines patrolled the walls with locals, and a shuttle flew high cover over the town, its sensors feeding data to the marines when necessary. Dozens of attacks had taken place the previous day and night as gleasons attempted to take advantage of the hole in the wall. Most of the attacks had been singular, but two well-planned attacks with multiple gleasons had tested the defenders.

Hawke introduced Graylee to the local authorities and escorted her to the wall. As she inspected it, the head builder found them and introduced himself.

“Sky Knights, I’m Builder Thaeron,” he said.

Hawke stuck out his hand and the two grasped forearms. Graylee reached out to do the same, but the man took one step back and bowed, saying, “M’Lady.”

Hawke introduced her. “Builder, meet Sky Knight Graylee. She, too, is a builder. Are you willing to explain your plan to her?”

The man frowned. “She’s a woman, not a builder.”

Graylee spoke for herself. “Why don’t you test me? Tell me your plan, and if I have any suggestions, I will discuss them only with you in private. If my ideas have merit, your men will never know they came from me.”

Thaeron rolled his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable. Hawke and Graylee both understood his hesitation— women occupied certain niches in his society and never strayed outside those niches.

Workmen worked quickly and efficiently replacing stones. Two rows had already been placed, though there was a long way to go. Hawke took the man’s arm and led him a few steps away from the hole
.
“Just talk to me. She’ll listen.”

“We have a small supply of replacement stones as you can see,” Thaeron said, “but there aren’t enough. We’re cutting new stones from inside the walls. That will lead to other problems, but we’ll deal with them after the wall is repaired. We’re also running low on mortar.”

“Where do you get your mortar?” Hawke asked.

“We mine it and sell it. It’s our primary source of trade.”

“So you have some stored?”

Thaeron rolled his shoulders again. “No. We used it to make our walls higher when the demons came.”

Hawke nodded his understanding. “We’re prepared to make a temporary cover over this hole if you’ll let us. We’ll use a special cloth that we think will keep the gleasons out.”

Thaeron looked at Hawke the way a father looks at a child who’s trying but failing. “You joke. We make our walls out of stone.”

“May we see where you’re cutting new stones?” Graylee asked.

Thaeron led them to a far corner of the city, Graylee limping along beside Hawke. There, just inside the wall, a deep pit had been cut from hard rock. Workers hammered away inside the pit, a dark, scary place for someone not accustomed to stone work.

“May I?” Graylee asked, pointing into the pit.

Thaeron frowned. “It’s tight quarters down there.”

“I’ll be careful,” she said as she stepped onto a ladder.

She didn’t have to go all the way down. She stopped just above the heads of four masons and watched them work, then climbed back to the surface. She led Hawke and Thaeron away from the pit for a private conversation.

“I’m impressed. They’re very good, and they’re fast,” she said. “Still, it’s a slow process cutting stones.”

“It is what it is,” Thaeron said. “We work faster at the mine, but we haven’t been there since the demons arrived.”

She glanced at Hawke, then said to Thaeron, “What if we took you there and provided protection.”

Thaeron’s eyes widened. “Have you seen what these creatures do to people?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m new here, but the Teacher knows.”

“Builder,” Hawke said, “I have fought demons. I can protect your men, but I don’t know how to cut stone. I just came from your King Taele. He’ll be here with the caravan in five days. He would be impressed if his wall was repaired by then.”

“Impossible.”

“How many days to cut stone and how many days to mine mortar?” Hawke asked.

“We manufacture the mortar at the mine and store it there. We just have to pick it up, two hours each way and a few hours to load. It will take three weeks to cut the stones.”

Hawke winced. Graylee understood the issues and looked around for a stairway. She found one and led the two men to the catwalk running along the wall. There, she ran her hands along some beautifully cut rectangular stones that had been laid atop the lower, rounded stones of the wall.

“I haven’t experienced a demon attack yet,” she said, eying Hawke, “but I envision them climbing these walls pretty easily.”

“They do,” both men confirmed.

She leaned over the wall and looked down. “These walls were made to stop people, not demons.”

“Too true,” Thaeron agreed again.

“Higher walls serve a purpose, but not a great purpose against demons. A shorter wall would not hinder your defenders very much, certainly not as much as a hole in the wall. Why not remove the top layer of cut stones from this wall and use them to repair the hole? You could add more stones back to this wall at your leisure.”

Hawke stared at her with his mouth open. Thaeron, the one who ultimately bore the responsibility to his king, rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“It would work,” he said. “I still need mortar.”

“Will your men go if we guard them?” Hawke asked.

“They’ve manned these walls beside our guards. They know how ugly it can get.”

Hawke countered. “How often does a stone mason get to be a hero, especially to his own family? And to the king?”

Thaeron looked deeply troubled. “We’re not soldiers.”

“You won’t have to be. I’ll bring enough soldiers to guard you,” Hawke said.

Graylee spoke up. “Builder, I can have a temporary wall in place by nightfall. Do you have a platform to lower and raise me outside the wall?”

“I have ropes and pulleys for lifting stones. We usually build scaffolding for the workers.”

She shook her head. “For obvious reasons, we’re not going to build scaffolding outside the wall. I’ll need one person to help me. Will you?”

Thaeron looked to Hawke for help, but Hawke shook his head. “King Taele is expecting me back at the caravan. My sky knights will keep the demons away while you work.”

* * * * *

Graylee and Thaeron hung on the outside of the wall, balanced precariously on a small platform. Workers above moved it up and down as directed. Thaeron anchored a line at the top and bottom of the wall to provide a straight, vertical line, then Graylee applied a liberal amount of sealant to the stones. Thaeron pulled the fabric taut from the top of the wall and she pressed the fabric into the sealant and stones.

Two scooters flew sentry duty above them. Periodically one or both of them left, shots sounded, then the scooters returned. Imperial Marines had spread out along the walls as well, knowing that gleasons liked to create diversionary strikes.

When Graylee and Thaeron reached the bottom, workers hoisted them back to the top, shifted the platform to the other side of the hole, and they repeated the process, this time stretching the fabric from the top and side. A light rain began falling, reducing visibility for the scooters and forcing them closer. When the rainfall increased, the scooters landed at the base of the wall and their riders dismounted to patrol nearby. Periodically the shuttle passed by as a darker shadow in the low clouds overhead.

“This will never work, you know,” Thaeron said.

“You might be right. We’ll test it when we’re done.”

“I see you measured wrong. It’s too long.”

“Have your men noticed?”

“Of course. But for the demons, they’d be laughing.”

“I’ll tell you the secret, then you can show them. Okay?”

“What secret?”

“We’re going to stretch the extra fabric out on the ground away from the wall. As you can see, I left several meters of extra fabric. We’ll cover it with dirt and rocks and anything else you want to use to make it look natural. When a demon comes, he will try to crawl under the fabric, but he won’t be able to lift it if he’s standing on it. I don’t think they’re smart enough to figure it out.”

Thaeron thought about what she’d said for a while, then called out to his men above. “We need piles of dirt and stones, lots of it, just outside the base of the hole.”

A little while later both scooters took off and they heard heavy shooting. The shooting quickly moved closer and Thaeron eyed Graylee’s blaster.

She shook her head. “Our hands are coated with glue. The sky knights will deal with it. Can we work faster?”

Moments later the shuttle hove into view as marines congregated on the wall above the two workers and everyone started shooting. Graylee turned to look, and to her horror she saw her first gleason. Actually, she saw three grievously wounded gleasons climbing the hill toward her hole. She considered removing her gloves and drawing her blaster, but she believed the marines would prevail. When the last gleason finally stopped moving, everyone returned to what they’d been doing, just as if it was another day at the office. 

“How can a woman be a builder?” Thaeron asked.

“I come from a place where women do more than raise children and work the fields. We have machines for doing the heavy work, so a woman can be just as effective as a man at most jobs.”

“But why would you want to? Women are mothers and wives.”

“And they cook and clean and carry the water.”

“Well, yes.”

“Are you married?”

“Yes. I have one child, a girl.”

“What would your wife do if the water came right into your house from the well, the food came to her already cooked, and nothing ever got dirty.”

“She still has to teach the girl.”

“Unless you brought your girl to work with you and taught her.” He started to argue, but she cut him off. “I know, I know, stonework is too hard for a girl. So is fighting. Did you know I’m a soldier?”

He stared at her in shock. “A soldier
and
a builder?”

“A soldier and a builder and a scholar, and I’m good at all of them.”

He considered for a time, then said, “You’re here to show the stupid people how to do things better.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Think that if you will, but it is not why we came here. We came to fight the demons, nothing more, but now we can’t leave when we’ve killed the last demon.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ve seen our sky ships, you’ve used our weapons, and you’ve seen our lights that don’t require flame. What if I told you some of your neighbors had seen more of our special things? Maybe better weapons or something?”

“I would worry.”

“Exactly. We don’t want you to worry, so we’ll stay and teach you. We’ll teach all of you equally. My ancestors built things with stones just as you do. Does that make me smarter than them, or smarter than you for that matter? No, it does not. Every generation does things a little bit better than the last generation. There have been many, many generations between me and my ancestors. In fact, it’s because of their smartness that I’m free to work outside my home. During your lifetime you’ll pass what you’ve learned on to some young man, and he’ll probably end up doing it better than you, right?”

“That’s my hope.”

“Ours, too. We want to give you a chance to learn without fighting wars with your neighbors.”

“My daughter will not be a soldier.”

“Of course she won’t. We’re not here to eliminate tradition. However, from a practical standpoint, wouldn’t it be nice if she had the choice? Soldiers will not use swords in the future, so they will not need to have the strength of a man. Your daughter will probably become a wife and mother, but your grandchildren will be more comfortable with our magic things and might make other choices.”

“What if I deny them such choices?”

“Why would you do that?”

“So they’ll be happy.”

“I won’t answer that question. I’ll be here for a few more days. During that time, I ask that you watch me. See if I’m happy or sad. Fair enough?”

He did not answer, and she did not force the issue. A little while later she brought up another subject, a subject she tried to discuss in a way that would not offend him.

“Are you going to remove the new stones along the bottom of the hole?”

He nodded. “Yes. I wondered if you knew. We’ll use the cut stones from the top of the walls to make a stronger foundation. I just hope we can get the mortar.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll start on that tomorrow. I want your king to be pleased with you when he returns, though in fairness he might not notice right away. He’ll probably want to show off a little and celebrate with his men.”

“That’s the lot of builders.”

“Hmm. Have you ever considered the fact that it’s the lot of kings as well? I wonder if some of them wouldn’t prefer to be builders rather than warriors.”