John Flanagan - The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

First order of business was to inspect the progress of repairs to the palisade.

Halt was silent for several minutes as he studied the weakened western section. The Kikori work gang assigned there were busy digging foundations for new vertical beams. They were well organised and the work was proceeding smoothly. The Kikori, after generations of cutting and hauling the immense mountain trees, were used to working together, with minimum confusion. Everyone was assigned a task and carried it out efficiently. Will watched one group as they went about raising a massive baulk of timber over one of the foundation holes. They worked smoothly and efficiently, reacting instantly to instructions shouted by their foreman.

'They're well disciplined,' Will commented.

Horace nodded. 'Yes. They co-operate well. I'd say it's because they need to work as a team when they fell really large trees and then move them down the mountains. Each man has to be able to depend on the men next to him.'

'Horace,' Halt interrupted, 'just stop them for a moment, will you? Stop them from what they're doing.'

Horace looked at him in surprise, then called to the foreman and told him to let the men stand down. He turned back to Halt.

'Is something wrong, Halt?' he asked and the Ranger shook his head.

'No. No. We just might have an opportunity here.' His eyes narrowed as he studied the damaged section. Then he seemed to come to a decision. 'How many men does Arisaka have? And how long before they get here?'

'Five or six hundred warriors, as near as our scouts can figure,' Horace told him. 'The bulk of his army is about three weeks away. We forced them into a long detour when we cut the footbridge down. But if he runs true to form, he'll send a party on ahead at double time to try to get in here before the snows block the valley.'

Halt nodded. It was what he had expected. 'So we might expect a party of maybe a hundred men sometime in the next ten days?'

'That's right. It could be sooner, but I doubt it. Even travelling light and with no real baggage, it's difficult country.'

'And if we could give them a bloody nose, it would be helpful,' Halt said.

Again, Horace agreed. 'Any reduction to Arisaka's numbers would be helpful.'

'All right. Here's what we'll do. Stop the repairs on that section. Patch it up but do it badly. Use the old rotten timbers that were there. Make it an obvious weak point.'

Horace nodded thoughtfully. 'You're planning to concentrate their attack in one area?' He wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but he'd never known Halt to have a bad one.

'A little more than that. Inside the weakened section, build a second wall – make it U-shaped and a little lower than the palisade so they can't see it. We'll let them create a breach. When they charge through, they'll find they've got walls on three sides – strong ones this time. We'll have them concentrated in one area and we can really do some damage to them. We'll have logs and rocks on the palisade walkway so that once they're inside, we can drop them into the breach and trap them. At least, we'll make it hard for them to retreat.'

Selethen was nodding, his eyes roving the palisade and the steep stone wall beside it.

'We could also pile up rocks and logs on that rock face,' he added. 'It'll be easy enough to build a retaining wall to hold them in place. Then, once the enemy are inside, we collapse the retaining wall and bring an avalanche down on them.'

Halt glanced quickly at the Arridi. 'Nice,' he said.

For the first time in several weeks Horace could smile at the thought of the impending conflict. There would be little hand-to-hand combat involved. The Kikori would have the advantage of fighting from the top of the palisade. Rocks, spears and logs would be effective weapons. They could destroy any small attacking force before they ever got to close quarters.

'I'm so glad you lot turned up,' he said.

'At the very least, we'll cut Arisaka's numbers down,' Halt said. 'The trick will only work once, but it'll slow him down and by then the snows might be here.'

Horace beckoned the foreman over and they explained the new plan to him. His eyes lit up as he grasped the idea and he nodded eagerly, smiling at Halt and Selethen as the authors of the stratagem. There was no need to give him detailed plans for the new section of wall. He would be more than capable of planning that. They left him to reorganise the workers and moved on to watch the small group of Senshi who were practising their swordcraft. As Horace had been, the three new arrivals were impressed with the speed and precision of the Nihon-Jan warriors' technique.

'They're good,' Selethen said. 'Very good.'

Horace looked at him. 'Man for man, I'd say they're better than our Araluan knights,' he said. It pained him to admit it, but the fact was unavoidable. 'Our best warriors would be pretty much equal to their best, but it's the next level down where they hold the advantage. The rank and file Senshi are more skilled than the average graduate from an Araluan Battleschool.'

Halt agreed with him. 'It makes sense,' he said. 'You told us they start practising when they're ten years old. Our Battleschools don't accept pupils until they're fifteen.'

Selethen stroked his beard. 'I agree,' he said. 'As individuals, they're impressive.'

The words fanned a spark of vague memory in Will's mind. He frowned as he tried to place it, but for the moment it escaped him. He looked away, distracted, to the workers down the valley, who were climbing over the palisade, placing new timbers in position and now working on the logs that would form the new inner wall section. He noted how well they worked in harmony with each other. There seemed to be no wasted effort and no confusion in their actions. He shook his head, a little annoyed, as he tried to retrieve the tantalising thought that was stirring in his memory. What had Selethen just said? As individuals, they're impressive. That related somehow to the sight of the disciplined teams of Kikori at work.

'It'll come to me,' he told himself, and hurried to catch up with the others.

Once again, Moka was working with his small group of Kikori, trying to turn them into swordsmen. There was some improvement, Horace thought. The Kikori were fit and well co-ordinated. But the gap between these new trainees and the Senshi they had just been watching was all too evident.

'How many fit Senshi do you have, ready to fight?' Halt asked.

'Maybe forty. Enough to hold the palisade against one attack. But after that…' Moka gestured doubtfully. He knew Arisaka would not be daunted by early casualties. Once he had overwhelming numbers in place, he would keep throwing his men at the wooden wall.

'And Arisaka has…how many? Five hundred?'

'Something like that.' Horace's tone was dejected. No matter what tactics they could devise to delay Arisaka, sooner or later, they would have to face his large, expertly trained warriors.

'And you've got two hundred Kikori who'll fight?' Selethen asked and, as Horace nodded, he added, 'What about weapons?'

'Axes,' Horace said. 'Some knives. And most of them have spears. We did find a stockpile of old weapons further up the valley when we first got here. The place has been used as a fortress more than once over the years. But they were old and mostly rusty. I wouldn't trust the temper of the blades, they're hardly usable.'

Halt looked at the sky. There were grey clouds scudding low above them, their bellies swollen with moisture.

'Let's hope it snows soon,' he said.

'So, how are things between you and Will?' Horace asked. Alyss turned to him and a slow smile lit up her face.

'Lovely,' she said. 'Just lovely.'

It was two days since the Araluans and Selethen had arrived at Ran-Koshi. In that time, the work that Halt and Selethen suggested had advanced well. As Horace had remarked earlier, the Kikori were a useful group to have with you if you needed to build in timber. The young warrior had felt a sense of relief at being able to hand over these details to older, more experienced heads.