“If they can kill,” Gavril said, “they can drink. This girl’s plenty grown up, Taniel. Just save enough for me, lass.” Gavril took the bottle back and drained the last of it in one long draft. He smacked his lips, thick cheeks flushed, and Taniel wondered how many bottles the Watchmaster had already put away. He felt a little concern—rumor had it that Gavril had started drinking heavily again during the nights. He hoped it wasn’t true.
It wasn’t the only rumor to concern him. “Wine’s all good,” Taniel said. “But I’d rather have gunpowder. Any word on the shortage?” They’d gone through their stores at an alarming rate. What should have lasted a year’s siege was spent in just a few weeks. The Kez just had too many soldiers.
Gavril shook his head. “Nothing from Adopest. The last courier said the army still has plenty. Even still, they shorted us two whole cartloads last week.” He scowled. “I ordered the artillery to go easy the next few days. I have the feeling we’ll be seeing hand-to-hand soon.”
“You really think they’ll make it over the bulwark?”
“Eventually.” Gavril suddenly looked very tired. His bulk sagged a little, and his face revealed a man fighting a war of attrition he felt he might lose. “We’ve killed twenty thousand men already. Wounded as many more, and yet they keep coming. They say there’s a million down on that plain below, each one with words of glory and promises of riches in their ears.”
“I heard Ipille has offered a whole duchy to the officer who leads the charge that breaks us.”
“Heard the same thing,” Gavril said. “And they’ll make officers of the first thousand soldiers who follow him in.”
“That’s a lot of incentive.”
“Aye. Gives us a lot to shoot at.”
“They have more men than we have bullets.”
“How many Privileged you think you’ve killed?”
Taniel ran his fingers along the notches on the butt of his rifle. “Thirteen dead. Wounded twice that many.”
“That’s a sizable chunk of their royal cabal.”
“Not enough,” Taniel said.
“Well, I want you to keep an eye on something else.”
Taniel frowned. “What’s more important than Privileged?”
“Sappers,” Gavril said.
Taniel remembered the sappers. They’d tried to start digging their first day on the mountainside, and gunshots had sent them back down the hill with their tails between their legs, not to be seen since. Well, not until the other day. They were back at it again, down below the last redoubt—well behind the Kez front line. They were deep enough already that artillery wasn’t bothering them, though a couple of cannons had been blasting away at their position.
“Are you really worried about them?” Taniel asked. “It’ll take them years to dig the distance all the way up to us. If they break through, all we do is point a cannon down that hole and fill it with grapeshot.”
“Wish it were that easy,” Gavril said. “Bo says they’ve got help. Privileged. And Julene.”
Taniel felt his hands begin to shake a little. He stilled them by rubbing them together. “Whatever she feels like helping with can’t be good news for us. Still. You want me to shoot at sappers?”
“Not the sappers themselves. Watch for the Privileged helping them.”
“Gavril!”
Bo joined them at the bulwark, crossing the yard at a dead run. He dropped down on the other side of Taniel, breathing hard. Taniel could tell he was exhausted. His cheeks were sunken, all traces of fat gone, and his hair dirty and scraggly. There was mud on his face, from Kresimir-knew-what.
“They’re planning something big,” Bo said.
“The sappers?” Gavril asked. “We know about them.”
“No,” Bo snapped. “Right now. The…” He stopped as the sound of enemy artillery suddenly fell off. There was a moment of silence before a Watch cannon fired, followed by the cracks of muskets. There was no return from the Kez side. Bo went on. “All their Privileged are gathered just below the last redoubt, near their sappers.”
Taniel shrugged.
“Over a hundred!” Bo said. “They don’t get together like that for a picnic. There’s officers there, too, I wouldn’t doubt. They’re getting ready for a big push.”
Gavril stood up, looking over the bulwark. Taniel closed his eyes and waited.
“Shit,” Gavril said, dropping back down. “You might be right. They’ve got men coming up all quiet on the road. Lots of them. I saw a few black jackets among them.”
“Wardens?” Taniel said. “Pit.”
Gavril climbed to his feet and was away, barking orders at the Watchers, yelling for every able-bodied man.