Siege of Stone

CHAPTER 24

Captain Norcross was pleased with how rapidly the defenses of Renda Bay were improving. The people in the seaside town were fishermen, boatbuilders, weavers, farmers, and tradesmen, and they had been preyed upon by the Norukai for far too long.

Thanks to the fortifications the D’Haran soldiers were installing, Renda Bay was now less vulnerable, but the village was not a garrison. These people would fight to defend their homes, but they were not a hardened army. They bore plenty of scars, however, and after Nicci and Nathan had fought with them to drive off the hideous slavers during the last raid, the town’s heart had changed. The people decided to stop letting themselves be victims. Renda Bay had increased lookouts, sent out coastal patrols, rebuilt their town, and added defenses.

Then the D’Haran expeditionary force arrived, and Norcross had stricter orders from General Zimmer. The young captain and his soldiers stayed behind while the others went to Cliffwall. They swore to protect the fishing village against threats, but Norcross knew that even fifty brave soldiers wouldn’t be enough to fight against the violent Norukai.

He stood at the harbor’s edge in midmorning, after the day’s mist had burned off and the fishing boats had gone out for their catch. The seasonal redfin run was nearly over, and the people were busy salting and smoking their catch for the cold months. The flocks of sheep and goats that grazed in the hills were growing fat for the winter slaughter, while others provided wool, milk, and cheese.

The people of Renda Bay worked day and night with Norcross’s men, building towers and defensive walls so the town would be ready whenever the raiders returned. From his training, Norcross understood siege defenses, battle tactics, offensive weapons. Though he was not an engineer himself, three of his officers knew how to construct catapults and spiked archery towers, along with some surprises that could be used against raiders from the sea.

The young captain would not let his people rest until the town was safe. Even though the morning was peaceful and sunny, with a salty chill in the air, every person in Renda Bay knew that any day, rain or shine, could bring an attack from the ominous serpent ships.

Thaddeus, the town leader since his predecessor had been slain in the last Norukai raid, joined Captain Norcross to inspect the construction of the new towers that rose high above the harbor, one on each side of the river mouth. Built out of stone blocks brought from quarries down the coast, the massive guard towers weren’t pretty, but they were nearly finished, with wooden platforms behind defensive crenellations, so that the guardians of Renda Bay could fire upon invading ships that attempted to enter the harbor. Three large cargo ships remained just outside the bay, like large guard dogs.

“How soon will we be ready?” Thaddeus asked, wiping his brow. “I’ll lose sleep every night until our defenses are finished.”

“We will be ready the moment we have to be,” Norcross said. “We’re ready now, and we will fight back if we are attacked. Each day’s efforts simply make us more prepared.”

Thaddeus nodded slowly. He was a broad-faced man with a reddish-brown beard and facial worry lines that hadn’t been there a month ago. “We can’t stop until the Norukai learn to leave us alone.”

The young captain continued to reassure him. “My men belong to the D’Haran army, and that means something, but if it comes to a battle, we’ll need everyone from Renda Bay to do their part, from a teenage farm boy swinging a rake to a grandmother striking with a cast-iron pan. Don’t underestimate anyone fighting for their home and for freedom.”

Thaddeus turned to look across the mouth of the river to a nearby hillside, and his expression grew sad. “If we had learned how to fight earlier, there wouldn’t be so many wooden markers in our graveyard.”

On the day after General Zimmer, Prelate Verna, and the other half of the expeditionary force departed for Cliffwall, young Norcross had accompanied the town leader to Renda Bay’s cemetery. Permanent stone markers memorialized the fallen over the years, but an even greater number of wooden posts, each carved with a name, signified a loved one who was not dead but captured by the Norukai slavers, clubbed senseless and dragged aboard the serpent ships.

Norcross had said, “Your cemetery should be a place for old, contented grandparents who died fat in their beds, surrounded by family. Not this.”

Thaddeus let out a wistful sigh. “Yes, that would be best.”

Amid the construction noises of bricklayers and carpenters in the lookout towers, blacksmiths continued their work, producing loud clangs as they fashioned sword blades, spearheads, and metal spikes. Norcross perked up as he heard a different sort of clang in the distance. He shaded his eyes to look beyond the shore wall and out toward the open sea. One of the stonemasons on top of the southern tower began waving, shouting down to those below. “There’s a boat coming back. Seems to be in a hurry.”

Norcross and Thaddeus hurried up the tower steps to the top platform. Even though the construction wasn’t yet finished, the defenders had stocked the towers with baskets of pitch-tipped arrows, piles of large round stones, rows of unstrung bows. On each side of the river, a large siege engine stood in place, giant catapults made with beams from whole tree trunks, strung with thick ropes, fastened with heavy iron springs. Baskets at the end of the throwing arms could hold boulders covered in pitch and set aflame.

From the tower platform, Norcross spotted a lone fishing boat tacking back and forth at full sail as it raced into Renda Bay. A distant tinny sound rang through the air, the fisherman aboard the boat banging on a metal pot to sound an alarm.

Norcross frowned, wishing the boat could sail more swiftly. “Alert the townspeople. We should get ready. There’s something not right about this.”

Thaddeus gave the orders, and runners raced down the tower steps and sent out a call through the streets of Renda Bay. The D’Haran soldiers pulled back from the work sites and gathered their armor and weapons, pulling on thick leather shirts and donning swords. More townspeople came running in from the hills and outlying homes.

Though the fishing boat raced toward the harbor as swiftly as the errant winds could bring it, Thaddeus identified the broad-beamed and sturdy fishing vessel long before it came to shore. “That’s the Daisy. Kenneth looks like he’s running from a storm.”

Norcross kept staring. “There’s no storm. It’s something else.”

Kenneth sailed swiftly toward the harbor. The bearded, shaggy-haired fisherman stood at the Daisy’s bow, trying to raise an alarm with his banging. Norcross remembered when Kenneth had intercepted the three sailing ships that carried General Zimmer’s expeditionary force down from Serrimundi.

The D’Haran ships were commandeered merchant vessels that had sailed through uncharted waters along the coastline, guided by Oliver and Peretta, the two young scholars from Cliffwall. The ships were led by Captains Mills, Straker, and Donell. At the moment, the three D’Haran vessels were anchored just outside the mouth of Renda Bay, too large for the shallow harbor to accommodate. Right now, with their sails furled, the ships were manned only by a skeleton crew who preferred to sleep on deck rather than in shared rooms in town. The three captains insisted on remaining aboard, unless they were called to important duties on shore.

By the time the Daisy reached the mouth of the harbor, with Kenneth shouting at the top of his lungs, Norcross had spotted the terrifying forms coming over the horizon, sleek attack ships with midnight-blue sails.

Beside him, Thaddeus swallowed audibly. “Those are serpent ships. The Norukai.”

Captain Norcross watched the sails appear, one serpent ship after another, six in all.

Thaddeus said in a low, shaken voice, “That’s twice as many as the last raid, and even with the help of the sorceress Nicci, we barely drove them away. How can we fight six serpent ships?”

“We’ll show you how,” Norcross said, his voice hard as iron. “We made plans day after day. We prepared the people, trained them. Your defenses are stronger now.”

“But, we’re not ready,” Thaddeus said.

“You are ready. Dear spirits, you have no other choice.”

Thaddeus turned and ran down the stairs of the lookout tower.

Norcross shouted for his D’Haran soldiers to gather in front of the piers and prepare to defend the town. He had only fifty soldiers. “Each one of you will have to be a commander,” he called out. “Take some villagers under your wing. You know that we have surprises for the Norukai this time. Let’s drive them away and convince them never to attack Renda Bay again.”

His men cheered, understanding the dire threat they faced. They didn’t doubt his confidence.

For his own part, Norcross felt very young and inexperienced. He was barely twenty-five years old and wasn’t ready for such a responsibility. He’d fought only twice in great battles. Now, he had a mere handful of men, each of them just as inexperienced and probably just as frightened as he was, and a large population of villagers who had been bruised and terrified many times before.

But none of them had another option. They had to be ready.

Norcross remembered that General Zimmer had also been young, promoted far beyond his ability or expectation, but Zimmer had shouldered his responsibility and become a genuinely inspiring leader. Now, Norcross understood that concept more than he’d ever wanted to. He wouldn’t let his general down, or Lord Rahl.

The Daisy docked in the first open slip on the pier. Kenneth threw down the hawser to one of the stanchions, quickly tied off the boat, and leaped onto the dock. His footfalls thundered as he ran to meet the soldiers. “Did you see them? Six serpent ships! They’re close behind me.”

“This town is ready to face them,” Norcross said. “We’re pulling together our defenses. Thanks to you, Kenneth. Your warning gave us an extra hour to prepare.”

Town leader Thaddeus stood beside Norcross, trying to match the D’Haran captain’s confidence. “Renda Bay will not be a victim again, not under my watch. The Norukai might expect us to be plump little lambs, but we know how to fight now.”

Soldiers rushed to prepare the siege engines. Workers filled carts with rocks and barrels of oil, then ran down the streets of Renda Bay and out onto the piers. More rowboats pulled out to the three anchored sailing ships led by Captains Mills, Straker, and Donell, which were now preparing for war. Village defenders stormed up to the high towers on either side of the river mouth.

Loud bells rang throughout Renda Bay in case anyone had remained unaware of the impending attack. Norcross stared out past the end of the piers, watching the ominous ships approach.

“We’re ready for you,” he muttered under his breath. “Come and learn your lesson.”

The nautical magic invoked from the serpent god pushed against the midnight sails, stretching the fabric and driving the Norukai vessels toward Renda Bay. The lookout on Kor’s ship had spotted the fishing vessel and snarled a challenge. Kor had shifted course to race after the fishing boat in hot pursuit, but somehow the man from Renda Bay either had magic of his own, the special favor of the Sea Mother, or just unexpected skills. His boat caught the right breezes, tacked from north to south, covering distance across the waves even faster than the raiding ships could. As the fishing boat dwindled toward the shore, the serpent ships could see Renda Bay not far ahead.

His first mate, a burly man with tattoos on his arms and neck, gripped the railing. “He will warn them, Kor. We shouldn’t have let him escape.”

“I didn’t let him escape,” Kor retorted. “Perhaps you’d like to swim after him, chase the sea serpents, then wreck the boat before he can deliver his warning?”

The first mate backed away. “No, Captain.” On normal voyages, such a challenge was an insult. Kor could have punched him, broken his jaw, and thrown the man overboard, but right now he needed every fighter. He would let the man die in the raid if he was meant to die.

In the two serpent ships immediately behind him, Lars and Yorik sent up signal flags, preparing for the wild raid. There was no military strategy. The raiding vessels would simply crash into Renda Bay, and the Norukai would attack with landing boats. Some would wade to shore, run along the piers, and set fire to any intact structures. They would kill or capture every person they could. Anyone too worthless to be a slave would be slain outright.

This was a raid to acquire more walking meat to be sold elsewhere down the coast, but it was also meant to send a message. Kor had his orders from King Grieve. Renda Bay was to be left a lifeless ruin, with black smoke rising high into the sky for all other coastal towns to see.

Kor leaned forward at the prow, admiring the carved serpent head enhanced with iron spikes for ramming ships. Kor had seen the real serpent god himself, three times, and knew that no carving could match the majesty or the terror of the immense creature, but Kor and his fighters would inspire their own terror. Renda Bay didn’t need to fear the serpent god. They needed to fear the Norukai.

On the shore, villagers scurried about like terrified ants. Kor’s lips twitched in an imitation of a smile on his slashed cheeks. Salt spray crashed from the prow of the raiding ship. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the helpless town. He felt hungry.