shouted greeting from those working near
the road, as the troop of soldiers passed. This, plus Akaray’s obviously
respectful but fearless attitude towards the soldiers generally and Irshe in
particular, seemed to rule out at least the most oppressive of the possible
forms of local government. But we won’t make any assumptions, will we. Several
times they were passed by travelers coming the other way: two smallish carts
piled with bags, and pulled by a horse-and-a-half sized smaller cousin of the
huge mu’uthn grazers; two other groups of ten mounted soldiers (orange
and green ribbons, again). But no single travelers, Kirrah noted. And no other
traffic moving their way, at all.
Before noon, the walls of a larger
town came into view. Kirrah began to more fully appreciate the courtesy Irshe
had shown her by stopping last night, well, more like mid-afternoon yesterday.
The fact that he had been willing to accommodate her crippling fatigue rather
than pressing on to the town before nightfall, made her relax a tiny bit more
about this culture and its civility. Perhaps ‘city’ would be a better term,
Kirrah thought, taking in the scope of the sight ahead.
Rising above the brown and pale
green fields, a stone wall about six meters high stretched a good kilometer
across their path, angling from the river on their left, well out into the
surrounding farmlands to the right. Taller stone towers punctuated the wall
every eighty or ninety meters. As they approached, they passed increasing
numbers of small dwellings, until soon they were moving through what amounted
to a small village strung out along the road, just outside the city walls. The
wall ran straight from the river’s edge, then dog-legged back for a few hundred
meters parallel with the river, then turned back to its original angle for
about a kilometer out into the open plain. Riding alongside the dogleg section
of the wall, Kirrah could see a few parties of workmen on its top, maneuvering
meter-square blocks of stone into positions about twenty centimeters apart on
the wall’s outer edge. Those are called crenellations, some obscure
corner of her mind supplied. You stand behind them and shoot out. Looks like
someone’s expecting company.
For a simple agrarian society, this
wall was a truly impressive structure. It must represent a large fraction of
their available labor and resources to have built and to maintain, Kirrah
realized. Some of those stone blocks looked like they massed two or three
tonnes, and there were a lot of them. Quarrying, transportation,
fitting, raising, setting… an amazing bit of muscle-powered civil engineering.
Plus the towers – they had passed four or five already, and the longer section
of wall angling off to their right, ahead, looked like it had a dozen more. Overlapping
fields of fire – hmmm, I wonder what the range of those bows is. Each tower
was approximately twice the height of the wall, and six meters wide at the
base.
Before Kirrah could start inputting
dimensions and calculating the volume, number of blocks and mass of the entire
project, their party pulled up in front of huge, heavy gates set into the wall
at the angle where the dogleg changed direction away from the river.
Square-hewn logs thirty centimeters on a side and five meters tall were
reinforced and bound together by iron bands into a pair of two and a half by
five meter monolithic slabs that must mass three tonnes each. The double doors
were currently swung outward on heavy rollers set in a quarter-circle stone
track at each side. Iron bolts eight centimeters thick and most of a meter long
on the back of the door were provided with matching holes sunk in the stone
threshold. These lads must be serious about security, Kirrah mused. Those
doors look like they could stop a charging mu’uthn. Maybe they have to.
More orange-and-white ribboned
soldiers manned the gate, and brief greetings and salutes were exchanged. Their
orange-and-white escort stayed at the
the road, as the troop of soldiers passed. This, plus Akaray’s obviously
respectful but fearless attitude towards the soldiers generally and Irshe in
particular, seemed to rule out at least the most oppressive of the possible
forms of local government. But we won’t make any assumptions, will we. Several
times they were passed by travelers coming the other way: two smallish carts
piled with bags, and pulled by a horse-and-a-half sized smaller cousin of the
huge mu’uthn grazers; two other groups of ten mounted soldiers (orange
and green ribbons, again). But no single travelers, Kirrah noted. And no other
traffic moving their way, at all.
Before noon, the walls of a larger
town came into view. Kirrah began to more fully appreciate the courtesy Irshe
had shown her by stopping last night, well, more like mid-afternoon yesterday.
The fact that he had been willing to accommodate her crippling fatigue rather
than pressing on to the town before nightfall, made her relax a tiny bit more
about this culture and its civility. Perhaps ‘city’ would be a better term,
Kirrah thought, taking in the scope of the sight ahead.
Rising above the brown and pale
green fields, a stone wall about six meters high stretched a good kilometer
across their path, angling from the river on their left, well out into the
surrounding farmlands to the right. Taller stone towers punctuated the wall
every eighty or ninety meters. As they approached, they passed increasing
numbers of small dwellings, until soon they were moving through what amounted
to a small village strung out along the road, just outside the city walls. The
wall ran straight from the river’s edge, then dog-legged back for a few hundred
meters parallel with the river, then turned back to its original angle for
about a kilometer out into the open plain. Riding alongside the dogleg section
of the wall, Kirrah could see a few parties of workmen on its top, maneuvering
meter-square blocks of stone into positions about twenty centimeters apart on
the wall’s outer edge. Those are called crenellations, some obscure
corner of her mind supplied. You stand behind them and shoot out. Looks like
someone’s expecting company.
For a simple agrarian society, this
wall was a truly impressive structure. It must represent a large fraction of
their available labor and resources to have built and to maintain, Kirrah
realized. Some of those stone blocks looked like they massed two or three
tonnes, and there were a lot of them. Quarrying, transportation,
fitting, raising, setting… an amazing bit of muscle-powered civil engineering.
Plus the towers – they had passed four or five already, and the longer section
of wall angling off to their right, ahead, looked like it had a dozen more. Overlapping
fields of fire – hmmm, I wonder what the range of those bows is. Each tower
was approximately twice the height of the wall, and six meters wide at the
base.
Before Kirrah could start inputting
dimensions and calculating the volume, number of blocks and mass of the entire
project, their party pulled up in front of huge, heavy gates set into the wall
at the angle where the dogleg changed direction away from the river.
Square-hewn logs thirty centimeters on a side and five meters tall were
reinforced and bound together by iron bands into a pair of two and a half by
five meter monolithic slabs that must mass three tonnes each. The double doors
were currently swung outward on heavy rollers set in a quarter-circle stone
track at each side. Iron bolts eight centimeters thick and most of a meter long
on the back of the door were provided with matching holes sunk in the stone
threshold. These lads must be serious about security, Kirrah mused. Those
doors look like they could stop a charging mu’uthn. Maybe they have to.
More orange-and-white ribboned
soldiers manned the gate, and brief greetings and salutes were exchanged. Their
orange-and-white escort stayed at the
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