Michael Manning - The Line of Illeniel

“There might be a way to do that,” Cyhan mused, “but what about the building time… and the water?”

“We start building right away, and we build from the bottom up. We lay the foundation and the first ten feet or so and then we block the river. We keep building upward from there, trying to stay ahead of the water’s rise. You said yourself the river isn’t that big, it won’t fill too quickly for us.” Royce stroked his beard as he thought about it.

Cyhan gave up, “I don’t know anything about building dams. It might be possible but I think it will be much harder than you think.”

Marcus stepped in, “It will be damn near impossible. You’ll need massive stones for the foundation, and those take time to quarry and move. After that if you build too fast and sloppy the water will wash out your upper courses before the mortar can fully set. Assuming you have that much stone ready to lay the upper courses anyway. The base will have to be at least twenty feet thick if not more… I dunno maybe Mort can work that part out. It’ll take a lot of math to calculate the water pressure at the base as the dam gets higher. I’m no engineer.”

I spoke up, “We won’t need mortar; I can probably fuse the stones together. We will have to do some calculating though, to figure out how thick it needs to be. I imagine I can help with the quarrying as well. I’ll have to think about that.”

“How do we let the water out?” Joe asked, “Are you going to build sluice gates into it? Seems like that would make the construction a lot more complicated.”

I looked at my father and our eyes met. He smiled at me. “We blow it up,” I said.

“You’re talking hundreds, maybe thousands of tons of solid stone. There’s not that much powder in the whole kingdom!” Joe remarked.

“He won’t need powder Joe,” said Marc waving his arms in the air. He was miming some sort of spell casting, either that or inventing a new type of erotic dance. “Boom!” he finished dramatically.

Penny eyed Marc’s antics dubiously, “Before we get ahead of ourselves there are certain basic hurdles we have to get past. We need workers to build a dam, and lots of them. There are only so many people available and if they’re spending the next few months building a dam they won’t be doing much else.”

“The dam is the only idea we’ve had that has any possibility of giving us a victory,” I replied.

“And if it doesn’t work? If there’s a construction failure or the enemy doesn’t do what you want, what then? It will take most of our resources and there won’t be much left over for a backup plan,” she said seriously.

I looked at my father and then back at Penny, “If it can be built he can do it.” I pointed at my father. “He’s the best damn blacksmith for a hundred miles.”

“No disrespect Royce,” Cyhan spoke up, “but you’re a smith, not an engineer or a stone mason.”

Royce wasn’t put off, “Where do engineers come from eh? Somebody somewhere woke up one day and said… ‘Hey maybe we can build this.’ I may not have gone to any fancy colleges back in the city, but I know how to build. My boy here can help with the math. Get me the men, the stone, and enough time and we’ll build the finest dam you ever saw.”

Cyhan must have seen something in my father’s face, “Alright. I believe you. You build that dam. We’ll still need to figure out how to make sure the enemy is where we want them when the time comes.”

“Let me worry about that,” I said. “I have some ideas.”

“Such as?”

“Give me a few days to work on ‘em and I’ll show you all what I’m thinking of,” I replied. “For now we need to start moving. The dam has to start immediately if we’re to have any chance of finishing it in time.” I did a mental head count. “Dorian… head to Lancaster. If James is there tell him we need every able bodied man he can spare. Explain what you can and if he still has doubts tell him to come see me. If he isn’t there tell Genevieve, she’s not afraid to take the initiative when needed.”

“When do you want me to go?” Dorian asked.

“Now,” I answered immediately. “Marcus, I need you to visit the Baron of Arundel. He needs to know what’s going on, tell him I would be greatly honored if he would pay me a visit.”

“I’m not sure if Sheldon will be happy about being ‘summoned’ by his neighbor,” Marc suggested. “What should I tell him?”

“Excuse me?” I said blinking at him.

“What should I tell him?” Marc repeated.

“Did you say his name is ‘Sheldon’?” I asked.

Marc laughed, “Yeah he caught a lot of hell over that in his younger days. I wouldn’t make any jokes about his name when you meet him though; he’s still a bit sensitive about it.”

I shook my head, “Alright, at least I had some warning. Tell him there’s rumor of war brewing with Gododdin. Given his location I’m sure he’ll be more than ready to come discuss it as soon as possible. Don’t give him any more information though. I’ll give him the rest when he comes.”

“I can do that. He won’t be happy about it but that’s your problem not mine,” Marc headed for the door.

“Hey!” I shouted after him. “I didn’t tell you to go yet!”

He spun as he walked, “You were about to!” and kept going. I had to admit he knew me better than myself some times.

“Joe,” I addressed the older man next.

“Yes sir!” he snapped to attention.

“You don’t have to do that Joe, I’m not a general.”

“I did a stint in the royal guard, old habits die hard. Anyway as far as I can see… you’re about to be one,” he answered without giving an inch. He was still standing at attention.

I sighed, “Fine, whatever… Joe, Rose Hightower is in the capital arranging supplies and recruiting for us. She needs to know what we’ve decided. We’ll need more workmen, lumber, stone masons, food, and… hell I don’t know what else. Get with my father he’ll have a better idea of some of the specific materials.”

“Cyhan I’ll want you to go with Joe. I can’t risk losing him on the road and the journey needs to be made as speedily as possible,” I said looking into the grim warrior’s eyes.

For a moment I thought he might argue, “Alright. Have Dorian work on the sword with her while I’m gone. She needs to keep up the training.” He nodded at Penny.

Last I looked to my father, “Dad…”

“I’ll be taking a horse out to look at the site for the dam,” he responded without waiting for me to finish.

I grinned at him, of course he knew his job better than I did, “Penny and I will ride with you. I need to see this myself.” The day was already half done so we wasted no more time.

It was almost dusk by the time we reached the area where Shepherd’s Rest joined the main valley. I hadn’t been there in years but the place looked much as I remembered. The ground was rocky and littered with boulders near the river as it passed through and there was a good fifty yards on the southern side of the river before the hills rose up again. The northern edge of the river was nearly flush against a massive stone face where the mountains met it.

“That’s a lot of open ground to fill,” I commented.

“It could be worse,” Royce answered. “If it was easy everyone would be building dams.”

“How deep is the river here?” asked Penny.

“Not sure. Let me borrow that big stick of yours Mordecai,” my father said. I could only assume he was referring to my staff.

“No need,” I replied. “I can feel it. It’s about five feet deep at the middle and maybe two foot near the banks.”

“Damn useful talent,” my father remarked.