Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Siege of Syrn: Part XXIII

"Arm the peasants."

Dirk stared at Arem in disbelief. "What do you mean?"

"Arm the peasants and townsmen. All those people that you evacuated, remember?"

"Yes, but..." Dirk stuttered at a loss for words. "I can't be responsible for the deaths of however many hundreds of people are back there in the keep!"

"Maybe, but if we fall, they'll die anyway. You know the Thargonites never take prisoners for very long."

"How do you propose we do this?"

"We have a huge supply of weapons in the armory. We also have a good deal of chain mail."

"They have no idea how to fight."

"I'll bet that most of them know more than you would guess they would. At the very least they should all be able to handle a bow."

Dirk nodded. "True. That they should. But can they handle our bows? The war bows that we use are much heavier than the hunting bows that they're used too."

"Not all that much heavier." Said Arem, "And besides, most of them will be able to use spears as well, or instead."

Dirk was still skeptical. "The majority of the people back there is older men, women, and children. How many of them do you expect to fight?"

"Well, aren't there several merchants who tried to bribe their way out of fighting? And 'older men' doesn't mean 'decrepit men. ' Most of them can still fight."

Dirk nodded. "Now," He said, "the Thargonites have made a serious error, and it gives us at least another day, I figure."

Arem looked surprised, "What have they done?"

Dirk grinned. "They only assaulted the walls. The gate is still secure. Since they can't bring more siege towers over the siege towers, and they can't bring ladders over the siege towers, they have to knock down the other gate before they can bring ladders in."

"Haha!"

"Yes. If my guess is correct, they'll have to build a heavier ram to get through these heavier gates. So, in the meantime, they're stuck out there, and we're stuck in here. This gives us time to rest and
arm townspeople."

"Then we'd better go get to work. If your guess is wrong, then they could attack within the next two hours."

"You're right. Work first, rest later."

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