Free Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) by Honor Raconteur Page B

Siobhan managed to find a clear enough space to sit in between him and Beirly, although there was a particularly sharp rock there that wanted to poke a hole through her thigh. Grimacing, she maneuvered the sand bag around so she could sit on it instead, which helped tremendously. Settled, she drew out her water bag and drained a third of it in one long gulp.
    “Easy, Siobhan, that has to last you until tomorrow,” Tran cautioned in a low tone.
    “No, it doesn’t,” she denied pleasantly. “I’ll be right next to the canal, remember? I can fill it up there.”
    “I wouldn’t count on that, Shi,” Beirly warned. “As soon as we get there, we’ll be busy beavers. And after that, we might be fighting off angry men.”
    Point. She capped the water bag, grumbling, and stowed it in her pack to avoid draining the rest of it. Instead, she took out her wrapped bread and jerky and started in on it. Truth told, she felt like her stomach was trying to chew threw her backbone, she was so hungry.
    “What do we do about the sandbags?” she asked in between bites.
    “We’ll have to double up and carry them ourselves,” Knesek stated. From his voice, he wasn’t far from her, maybe two people over. “Only option I see.”
    “The math on that doesn’t equal out.” Beirly sounded like he were calculating things in his head. “Tran’s got three hundred with him. We’ve got fifty. We’d all have to carry six sandbags to get them over there.”
    Six?! Siobhan wasn’t sure she could manage three at a time! “Ah, gentlemen? How certain are you that you absolutely need all of those sandbags?”
    “Fairly sure, Shi,” Beirly drawled. “We wouldn’t have made people cart them all the way over here on a ‘maybe.’”
    Well, alright, that had possibly been a stupid question.
    “You better think it over again,” Tran advised. He hadn’t shifted his position at all, but he was clearly listening in. “If you can’t find a way to do it with less, that means I have to send some of my fighting force with you, and I’m not sure it’s wise to do that.”
    Siobhan was very torn about taking any men from Tran. They had carefully calculated how many men he needed for each stage of this operation. Taking anyone with her would tip the balance, and that might endanger the whole plan.
    Beirly and Knesek apparently thought the same, as they put their heads together, and started talking about weight, and water depth, and force, and other things that mostly went over Siobhan’s head. She sat there and ate, waiting for them to figure it out.
    “Guildmaster Maley?”
    Caught with her mouth full, she could only respond with, “Hmm?”
    “How important is it that we keep the water fully contained? Do you care if it spills out over the road?”
    Siobhan almost shook her head, then realized Knesek couldn’t see her, and hastily swallowed instead. “No. As long as it’s blocked from getting into the city, we’re good.”
    “Oh. Well, in that case…” he turned back to Beirly and they talked in numbers again.
    Eventually, Beirly tapped her shoulder to get her attention and said, “We think we can do it with half the sandbags. It’ll cause an unholy mess everywhere, so we might be fighting in several inches of water. But if you don’t care about that…”
    “I don’t,” she assured him patiently.
    “Then we can make do with less,” Beirly finished in satisfaction. “Can everyone here carry three sandbags?”
    Siobhan was fairly sure that was her limit. And her arms would be aching carrying those any sort of distance. Fortunately, from here to the canal, it was a relatively short hop. “I think so.”
    Holly must have been somewhere close and following this conversation, as Siobhan could hear her pass along the question. It took several minutes, but eventually word came back to them, that everyone was confident they could carry three at a time. Relieved, Siobhan ordered, “That’s what we’ll do, then. Tran, keep your