Relieved of his burden, he turned to Amber. "We almost didn't make it," he said.
Amber's face was white as she spoke. "But we did."
~
THE BARBARIAN horde had moved incredibly fast. Emir Volkan had said they wouldn't make it this far south; their supply lines would be stretched too far.
Yet here they were, and Wengwai was now a city under siege.
The great army drew closer as the day progressed until they spread towards the city walls like an encroaching tide. Miro climbed the wall, ignored by the soldiers as he watched them approach. The walls were too high for Miro to see individual soldiers, but he saw siege ladders and siege towers, trebuchets and catapults. Their soldiers marched in close formation, squares of troops in tight files forming larger squares, leaving gaps between them so messages and supplies could move easily through the army.
"This is no barbarian horde," Miro whispered as he looked on from atop the city wall.
He counted along one of the rows; fifty men. He counted perhaps forty men deep. Miro calculated: one of their smaller squares held two thousand men.
Miro counted ten of the smaller squares forming a larger row. The depth was impossible to see, there were simply too many of them.
Four of the larger squares made up the army's front. Behind that was obscured by a cloud of dust.
Miro marvelled as he gave up counting: there had to be at least a million fighting men.
How could the enemy commander feed, clothe, and control such a large number of men? The logistics would be a nightmare.
Miro watched until the sun began to set in the west; tomorrow the attack would come. He clambered down from the wall to find Amber resting against the stone, chatting with a group of other women.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"Come on," Miro said. "Let's walk."
Amber stood and soon they were navigating the orderly chaos of a city under siege. Boys ran with buckets of water to the walls. Fathers carried children through the inner gates to the next ring of buildings. Soldiers pulled carts loaded with swords, and barrels of what could only be black powder.
"What did you learn from the women?" Miro asked.
"The Elector of Gokan and his councillors administer the city from the tower, which occupies the innermost ring. It's called the Eye. That plume of red smoke rising from the Eye is an attempt to summon aid from Veldria."
Miro thought about the Emir's soldiers, back at the border. "They'll never make it in time," he grunted. "This city will be overrun before the Emir can give the order."
"You think it'll be that quick?"
"Yes. We're in a doomed city, Amber."
"The Alchemists' Guild is in the second ring," said Amber.
"Good. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. Once we get what we need from the alchemists, we'll work on a plan of escape."
"What about your promise to the Emir?" Amber said. "We owe it to our people to find out what's happening here."
Miro cursed. "I know. I also know that time is against us. As the siege progresses, it'll be more difficult to get out. Amber, we'll have to split up. Find the Alchemists' Guild, and get the antidote."
"What will you do?"
"There's one place I can be sure to get a good vantage of events as they occur. I'm going to join the soldiers on the walls."
~
THERE were seven concentric tiers to the city, which meant Amber had to pass through five sets of gates to get from the walls to the second ring, the location of the Alchemists' Guild.
The first gate was easy; she simply walked through, just another woman returning after final words to her man on the walls. This was a poor district of storehouses, tanneries and carpenters, along with rows of single-storied cottages, joined together so they each shared a wall.
It was a different story at the second gate. There was a single guard here, casually checking the people passing through. Amber was dirty, but she was dressed in the quality garments the Emir had given them, and the guard let her through without a word.
The city's builders had placed each set of gates a reasonable distance around the circle from the gate before it, most likely deliberately. It meant Amber had to walk around the ring to reach the next gate, rather than the gates being lined up in a neat row, but she guessed it was a safety feature. In the event that a ring was overrun, the enemy would have to pass through a killing ground before reaching the next gate.
She was now in the fifth ring from the Eye, with three more gates to enter. This was a district of markets and stalls, but today the stalls weren't placed in neat rows and displaying colourful wares; today the stalls had been pulled over and onto their sides, crammed together to form barricades.
As she walked along the ring in an anticlockwise direction, heading for the next gate, Amber passed six sets of barricades. The rows of two-storey terraced houses evidently belonged to the merchants, who looked down at the passers by from their windows. Amber wondered what was going through their minds.