Chapter 36 — If the Wall Falls

Chapter 36: Chapter 36 — If the Wall Falls

Chapter 36 — If the Wall Falls

Christopher’s first defense plan covered the entire table.

Owen Wren stood at one end with both hands planted beside the drawing; Godfrey stood at the other, and neither spoke.

Christopher looked from one man to the other. "It is a beginning."

"It is three years of work," Owen said.

The plan showed a ditch around Dragonwatch, repaired walls, four new watch platforms and a second gate inside the first. Christopher had also drawn barriers across two streets and marked the inner courtyard as a refuge.

"We don’t have to finish the whole plan this season."

"Good," Owen said. "Because we cannot begin everything now either."

Godfrey moved a cup onto the western breach. "An enemy enters here before your ditch reaches the northern wall."

"Then we begin with the breach," Christopher said.

"Yesterday you wanted the gate approach first."

"Both matter, but the breach is open now."

"Everything matters," Godfrey said. "That’s why you choose."

Christopher rolled up half the plan. "Then we inspect it again."

They began at the gate after breakfast, Walter joining them with Owen’s younger brother and Gilbert Webb, who carried a board for notes. The temporary green-timber leaves still closed, though one had begun to warp, its lower edge rubbing against the ground whenever rain pushed gravel into the track.

Godfrey walked outside and looked back toward the opening.

"If riders charge while the gate is open?" Christopher asked.

"They reach the yard."

The road ran almost straight through the entrance; a loaded wagon needed the clear approach, but so did mounted attackers.

Christopher marked the problem. "Movable barriers. Not directly outside. Two lines inside the yard, offset so wagons turn between them."

"A cart can make the turn?" Walter asked.

"If we leave enough space."

"Then mounted men can make it too."

"Not at full speed."

Godfrey nodded once. "Worth measuring. Not building today."

They continued west, where workers had repaired the lower stair beside the breach but left the upper firing platform incomplete. A sentry could stand above the gap now, though four could not fight there without crowding one another.

Outside the wall, thorn bushes and the remains of two wooden houses gave cover almost to the rubble. One roof had collapsed inward; the other leaned against a tree.

Godfrey disappeared behind the ruin, and Christopher could no longer see him from the wall.

"That answers the question," Walter said.

Godfrey emerged near the breach. "Twenty men could gather there at night."

"We clear it," Christopher said.

Owen pointed to the fallen timber. "Some can be salvaged. Most is rotten."

"Put aside anything sound. Burn the rest when the wind is safe."

"Away from the wall," Godfrey added. "And away from the barley."

Gilbert wrote: clear western approach, save sound wood, remove brush.

The breach itself had been narrowed with quarry blocks, smaller stone and timber braces, enough to stop a wagon, though men could still climb it.

Christopher studied the gap. "We fill it with rubble and earth."

"Earth washes out," Owen said.

"Between timber frames."

Owen studied the wall ends. "Two faces. Cross-ties between them. Pack stone at the bottom, earth and rubble above."

"How long would that hold?"

"Long enough, if drained. Not if you trap rain inside it."

Christopher drew a narrow drain through the bottom, and Owen took the charcoal and moved it aside so it would not weaken the center.

They went through a postern into the outer ground, where Christopher saw how exposed the repaired stair remained. An archer on the platform would have a clear shot over the breach once the bushes were gone, but someone beneath the wall could still stand where the platform could not see.

"Blind place," Christopher said.

Godfrey walked the base. "The gate tower covers part. Not all."

"Could we cover the blind place with another platform?"

"Another month," Owen said.

They placed a future mark on the map and moved on.

The northern wall was stronger. Ancient black stone stood beneath later Drake repairs, and though several facing blocks had loosened, the structure remained high and thick. The greater problem was the ground outside: a shallow fold hid anyone approaching from the northwest until they were close.

Christopher suggested digging the fold deeper into a ditch.

Owen shook his head. "The soil drains toward the wall. Dig there and you make a pond against the foundation."

"Then could we raise a bank instead of digging?"

"Perhaps. After the harvest, when we have hands."

Godfrey pointed to the ridge beyond it. "A watch platform there sees farther than one here."

"Outside the walls?" Christopher asked.

"A small tower, not a fort. Two men withdraw before an enemy reaches them."

"Then they need a signal."

"Horn by day. Fire by night, if the weather allows."

Christopher added it to the future work. Every answer produced another requirement: shelter for the watchers, a safe path back, dry fuel and someone to rotate the post.

They stopped near the storehouse at midday. Its repaired roof was sound, but wooden sheds crowded both sides, and fire could pass from the forge yard to the grain stores through those roofs.

"Pull them down," Christopher said.

Bennet, who had joined them near the kitchen, objected. "One holds tools. The other houses two families."

"Move the families and tools out of those sheds."

Bennet looked along the crowded street. "Where would you put them?"

Christopher looked along the street too. Most repaired houses were occupied, and the empty ones needed roofs or floors.

"Not today," he admitted.

Godfrey tapped the wall beside the storehouse. "Water barrels here. Sand beside the forge. Hooks for pulling burning thatch."

"And clear the rubbish between the buildings," Owen said. "That costs less than moving families."

Gilbert added fire tools and divided water stores to the board.

The well stood in the main courtyard; if attackers reached it, much of the outer settlement would lose easy water, so Christopher proposed filling barrels near the western yard and inside the inner courtyard.

"They go stale," Martha said when they asked her.

"Then use and refill them."

"Who will handle that?"

Christopher turned to Bennet.

"We can add it to the kitchen water rotation," Bennet said. "Two barrels, not twenty."

"Four," Godfrey said. "Two western. Two inner."

They settled on four.

Martha placed the western barrels beneath the gate stair and beside the breach lane, and Joan marked their lids with red cloth. Every third morning, the kitchen crew would replace the water and use the old supply for washing or animals.

The inner courtyard lay before the enormous closed castle. Two dry storage rooms had already been cleared in its western corridor, but the rest remained restricted by locked doors, collapsed passages and Owen’s warning marks.

Christopher stood near the courtyard entrance. "If the outer wall is crossed, children and noncombatants come here."

"Through which route?" Godfrey asked.

Christopher pointed toward the main street.

"The same route fighters use to reach the breach," Walter said.

He had not considered people moving both ways.

They walked the side passages. One narrow lane behind the kitchen reached the inner courtyard without crossing the western yard, though rubble blocked half of it; clearing the lane would give civilians a second route.

"The alarm runners learn both," Christopher said.

"After we clear and test them," Walter replied.

At the inner entrance, Owen found sockets where an older gate or barrier had once stood. The doors were gone.

"We can fit a timber bar across it," he said. "Not a proper gate yet. Barricades behind it if needed."

Christopher marked the inner line on the plan.

They returned to the table before supper. Christopher unrolled his original drawing, and Owen crossed out most of the ditch while Godfrey removed two new towers and one firing platform. Bennet struck out rebuilding every shed near the storehouse.

What remained fit on half the page.

Owen reduced the work to five tasks: clear the western approach, finish the firing platform, reinforce the breach, measure the turn inside the gate and prepare the inner shelter route. The water barrels and fire tools would be placed alongside that work. The distant watchtower and wall arbalest stayed under future work.

"How many workers?" Christopher asked.

Owen counted. "Ten for clearing and salvage. Six carpenters and laborers on the platform. More when we begin the breach."

"Cedric will object when we take that many workers from the fields."

"Cedric always objects when you take hands from the fields," Bennet said.

"He is often right."

"So am I," Owen replied.

Godfrey considered the reduced plan. "This does not stop an army."

"I know it will not stop an army."

"It may stop raiders from entering before the alarm sounds. It may give families time to reach the inner yard. That’s enough reason to build it."

Christopher rolled up the discarded half of his design. "We start west tomorrow."

Cedric arrived before the meeting ended. Owen showed him the reduced list and named the workers he wanted. The farmer read it slowly, then placed one finger beside the western clearing.

"Eight workers tomorrow, my lord. Two more after the lower ditch is cleared."

"Owen asked for ten."

"The barley needs water before the wall needs a cleaner view. If the ditch remains blocked, part of the lower field dries."

Owen started to object, but Christopher raised a hand. "Eight tomorrow. The other two join when Cedric releases them."

Both men accepted the division, though neither looked pleased.

Godfrey then took them back to the inner courtyard. Walter sounded the alarm clapper once; Joan brought the children from the kitchen lane while two apprentices pushed an empty cart across the main street. The first group reached the courtyard quickly. The second became trapped behind workers carrying timber toward the breach.

"Stop," Godfrey ordered.

The people halted where they stood. He moved the timber crew against the wall and pointed Joan toward the narrow lane behind the kitchen.

"Use that path. The main street belongs to the defenders when the western horn sounds."

Joan bowed. "Yes, Sir Godfrey."

They repeated the movement, and this time the children reached the inner yard without crossing the route from the gate to the breach. One small boy lost a shoe and tried to turn back; Meg caught his hand, pulled him onward and sent another runner to retrieve it after the drill.

Christopher watched from the courtyard entrance. The route worked, but only because the rubble had been moved that morning. A broken cart or stack of firewood could close it again.

"Nothing is stored in this lane," he said. "Not for an hour and not overnight."

Bennet added the order to the work board, and Joan said she would check the route during the evening household round.

Outside, wind moved through the barley. No Orcs stood beyond the field, and no warning horn sounded from the wall, yet the work would begin anyway.

Christopher paused at the training yard before returning home. Meg was repeating the same turn Walter had shown her for weeks. Bram carried a timber beam with two workers and matched their pace instead of lifting his end too quickly. Neither exercise looked like much from a distance.

At the kitchen yard, Joan had already begun assigning the water rotation Bennet promised. Two barrels were scrubbed before filling; a third leaked around its lowest hoop and went to Barlow for repair. The work had started before Christopher finished worrying about the plan.

Minutes were something Dragonwatch could afford to build.

Before bed, Christopher walked the shelter route again with a lantern. A stack of baskets already leaned against the kitchen wall, narrowing the lane; Joan had them moved and promised to check the path each evening, and Walter added it to the night watch. Clearing a route once meant little if daily work slowly closed it again. They also moved a water cart from the inner-yard entrance and marked a new unloading place beside the kitchen.

Cedric Palmer gave Christopher eight workers instead of ten.

"The barley does not stop growing because you found bushes near the wall," he said.

"Owen asked for ten."

"Owen asks for every man who can lift a board."

Christopher had heard that before. "The western approach needs clearing before we reinforce the breach."

"Then take eight today. If the lower turnip ditch stays open, you get two more tomorrow."

Owen would complain, and Cedric would complain if Christopher took the full ten; Christopher accepted eight.

The crew gathered outside the western postern after breakfast: four farmers between field jobs, two of Wilfred’s free tenants, and a final pair from the purchased slaves, their collars visible above rough shirts. Walter held the control seal but kept it inside his coat. The five cooperative prisoners remained inside the wall carrying rubble under guard, since Godfrey would not put them among trees and ruined houses where they could disappear.

Owen separated sound beams from rotten wood and inspected every ruin before workers entered.

Christopher took an axe.

"No," Owen said.

"I know enough to cut brush without losing a foot."

"You know how to swing at it. Walter needs to watch the tree line, and I need to watch the walls. Neither of us needs to watch you bury an axe in your foot."

Christopher surrendered the tool and carried cut thorn instead.

The bushes hid old postholes, and one worker twisted his ankle before they reached the first house; Mabel sent him back inside.

They cut a lane from the breach outward. Walter remained uphill with two apprentices, turning often to watch the ridge and the trees, while a third apprentice stood on the unfinished platform above them. When Christopher looked up, he could see only the man’s shoulders.

"Too low," Godfrey said, coming through the postern without Christopher noticing.

"The wall is high enough," Owen replied. "The rail is not."

"An archer needs to lean out to see the base."

"Then the archer leans too far and falls," Owen said.

They climbed to inspect it while Christopher continued moving thorn. The platform had been built from salvaged beams fitted into old stone sockets; two supports were sound, but the third had split near an iron peg, and Owen wanted to replace it before widening the deck.

Godfrey wanted an opening through which an archer could shoot down without exposing his body.

"A gap in the floor?" Christopher asked when they returned.

"A protected opening beyond the wall face," Godfrey said.

Owen drew a small extension with a covered slot beneath it. "One. Not a row of them. The old stone must carry the weight."

Christopher recognized the idea from castle pictures in his old life, though he had no useful detail to add; Owen understood the load, and Godfrey understood where a defender needed to shoot.

By midday, the first ruin stood exposed, its roof long collapsed. One wall leaned toward the open ground while another remained tied to a stone chimney.

Christopher wanted the wall lowered so attackers could not hide behind it.

Owen threw a stone against the base and watched loose mortar fall.

"Pull from this side," he said. "Nobody stands where it wants to fall."

Workers fixed a rope around the upper beam from a distance. Bram joined them after his morning training, and Godfrey placed him at the rear of the line.

"Pull with them," he said. "Not before."

Bram watched the man ahead of him. The rope tightened, and on the third pull the beam shifted; the leaning wall folded inward with a heavy crash, and dust rolled across the cleared lane.

Nobody moved until Owen gave permission.

Beneath the debris they found three usable roof beams, a rusted hinge and a nest of mice. The hinge went to Barlow, the beams were carried inside for inspection, and the mice escaped toward the field until Walter’s boot changed their direction.

The second house stood over a collapsed cellar. Owen marked it with stakes and delayed the demolition until they could brace the chimney and pull the walls inward. The wind blew toward the barley, so the workers carried rotten wood and thorn to a bare patch instead of burning it.

Christopher helped carry the last bundle. Thorns caught his sleeve and opened two shallow cuts across his wrist—the workers beside him had collected worse scratches without complaint—and Mabel washed the cuts anyway, warning him that dirty thorns could make a small wound troublesome.

By evening, the sentry above the breach could see twice as far along the western ground. The larger ruin no longer hid anyone. The second still did.

Godfrey tested the improvement after sunset.

He sent Simon and Adam outside before the gate closed. Their task was to approach the breach without being seen. Christopher stood on the platform with Walter and one apprentice while clouds covered most of the moon.

For several minutes, nothing moved.

Walter pointed toward the cleared lane, and Christopher saw a darker shape cross it and disappear behind the remaining ruin.

"One," Walter said.

The sentry rang a small hand bell. Simon stepped into view and raised both hands.

Adam remained hidden.

They waited. A stone clicked near the base of the wall, and Walter, leaning over the unfinished rail, found Adam pressed beneath the blind side of the breach.

"He crossed farther north," Godfrey said from the yard. "The ground folds beyond your sight."

The cleared lane had improved warning. It had not removed every approach.

Cedric released two more workers once the field ditch stayed clear. Owen used them to lift the new rail while Wat Cooper fitted a seasoned support with Barlow’s iron straps; Cedric reclaimed one man for the turnips the next morning, arranging it directly with Owen.

Christopher watched the support rise into place. "Would fresh timber be stronger?"

"For a while," Wat said. "Then it shrinks and twists. We use dry wood where it carries men."

The platform widened enough for four archers to stand without striking one another. Owen added a waist-high inner rail and the single covered opening Godfrey requested, and an apprentice lay flat and aimed a practice bow through it toward the base of the breach.

"Can you see?" Godfrey asked.

"The lower rubble. Not the wall to the left."

They adjusted the side board once. The second position was better.

Christopher suggested measured markers outside the wall. Aldwin and Godfrey chose the distances, and workers placed small pale stones where an archer using an ordinary bow could recognize them, then darker forked posts farther out.

"An enemy sees them too," Christopher said.

"He will know he is near a wall," Godfrey replied. "That’s not a secret."

The markers would help defenders judge distance in rain or dusk. Walter demonstrated by putting three arrows near the first stone and one beyond it. Two apprentices tried, and one struck short every time.

Godfrey had the short-shooting apprentice move his feet and loosen his shoulders before trying again. The next arrow still fell short, but it landed closer. Walter ordered ten shots from the platform at the end of each ordinary practice, so the men would learn the view before they ever had to use it in darkness or rain.

"Practice from the wall," Walter said. "Not only in the yard."

The children watched from inside the marked safety line. Meg had finished her footwork session and stood with the other runners, following each arrow from the platform to the target.

By the third evening, the western ground was clearer, the first ruin gone and the firing platform usable. The second ruined house still stood under warning stakes, and the breach itself remained a climbable mound between broken wall ends.

The second ruin came down that afternoon. Workers braced the chimney, fixed two ropes to the upper beams and pulled from the open ground. The first pull shifted nothing. Bram joined the line only after Godfrey placed him at the rear and told him to match the others.

On the second pull, the front wall cracked, and Owen ordered everyone back. A section collapsed into the cellar, carrying the chimney with it and sending dust over the cleared lane. When the air settled, the cellar stood open beneath broken beams.

They recovered two iron hooks and a repairable handcart wheel from the cellar.

Walter repeated the night approach after the ruin was gone. Simon crossed the northern fold but had to crawl through open ground before reaching the wall. Adam tried the old cellar and found it filled with fresh rubble. Both were seen before touching the breach.

"Better," Walter said when they returned.

Godfrey looked toward the northern fold. "Better is not clear. Keep watching that ground."

The sentries changed their position twice during the next watch so anyone observing from the trees could not depend on one blind angle.

Christopher met Owen and Godfrey on the new deck.

"How many men can hold this?" he asked.

"Against how many?" Godfrey replied.

"Suppose twenty raiders reach the western ground," Christopher said.

"If they have ladders? Bows? A ranked fighter?"

Christopher leaned against the new rail. "You could answer one question without giving me five."

"Four archers here. Men behind the rubble. Walter or I where the attack is strongest. The answer changes after the first minute."

Owen pointed down at the breach. "And this changes before any of that. We start the timber faces tomorrow."

The cleared ground made Dragonwatch easier to defend. It also made the broken wall easier to see.

From the platform, Christopher could look straight through the gap toward the green fields and the northern ridges beyond them.

No army waited there.

The workers would begin packing the breach anyway.

The last cart of salvaged stone creaked toward the store yard. Christopher returned four workers to Cedric the next morning and left the others with Owen until the rail was finished.