From the high lighthouse tower on the Ishalem headlands, Kel Unwar used a spyglass to peer out at the waters beyond the harbor.
For nearly a week he had been expecting the arrival of Soldan Vishkar and his warships. Without the hundred Nunghal vessels, Unwar felt vulnerable, and he needed guardians to protect the canal mouth. His men had finished mounting the four bronze cannons in stone emplacements at the mouth of the harbor, their barrels pointed out to sea. The weapons would not be enough to stop a concerted attack, however.
Unwar had already sent word to Olabar to inform the soldan-shah about the Aidenist army camped to the north of God’s Barricade, but he was not overly concerned. Even though they were assembling catapults, the Tierrans could not penetrate the towering stone wall; Unwar had built it to be eternal.
Still, these Aidenist soldiers seemed far more determined than before. And every time he saw their army, their Fishhook banners, their hateful faces, he was reminded of what they had done to Alisi.…
Clad in silver mask, dark cloak, and black gloves, the Teacher—his sister—joined him in the breezy tower room. Alisi peered through the thin slits in her mask. “We lost an important weapon when the Aidenists rooted out my ra’virs. If any still remain hidden among the Tierran soldiers camped at the wall, I have no way to contact them.”
“The ’Hooks will be suspicious of any unusual behavior, especially now,” Unwar said. “But they can’t have discovered all of our ra’virs.”
“My students know their mission, and we will have to trust them. The Tierran army clearly plans to stay for some time.”
Alisi spotted the ships on the horizon before he did. She pointed, and he turned the spyglass. “Vessels coming—a great many sails.”
He let out a satisfied sigh upon seeing the impressive fleet, running calculations in his mind. “Vishkar has done well. This is better than I had hoped. We may even have enough vessels to sail through to the Middlesea and strike Gremurr.” He knew the soldan-shah would be pleased at that.
But Alisi kept staring. Sunlight reflected off her burnished mask, and her voice had a razor’s edge. “Those are not Vishkar’s ships.”
Unwar jerked up his spyglass again, twisted the barrel to sharpen the focus, and realized that the sails had been painted with a barbed curve—a Fishhook. The sight sizzled into his eye like a hot nail.
The Aidenist warships dispersed to form a cordon along the mouth of the Ishalem harbor, leaving themselves room to hunt down any vessels that ventured too close. Over the next hour, they encircled and seized four outbound ships and chased off three military patrol craft.
As soon as he saw the ships arrive, Unwar sounded the alarm and had his soldiers launch war galleys to go fight the Tierrans, but they were greatly outnumbered and broke off without engaging the enemy. Instead, Unwar stationed his forces at the mouth of the canal, to prevent the invaders from penetrating the waterway at all costs; he sent anxious archers to man all of the watchtowers along the length of the canal, should the Tierrans succeed in breaking through.
But the Aidenist fleet was content to stay out of cannon range, far from the war galleys, like vultures waiting to feed on a carcass.
“Why won’t they come in and attack? They are cowards.” Unwar paced around the upper lighthouse room.
“They might attack, but they would never hold Ishalem. We would overthrow them within a week, a month.” She watched the ships out at sea. “No, they are blockading us, which is just as bad. We can’t sail in or out. They’ve cut us off.”
Unwar couldn’t understand the strategy. “Do they think the great city of Ishalem can be harmed by a siege like that? We can still get supplies by other routes.” He wrestled with the unanswerable questions. Though he was a kel, a military leader, by vocation he was an engineer, a planner. He understood how things worked, but this behavior had no logical explanation. “What are they trying to accomplish, Alisi? And what does the army camped outside the wall intend to do?”
He remembered the foolhardy Alamont horsemen who had ridden to Ishalem thinking that a mere ninety brigands could take the holy city from the entire Uraban army. Perhaps Queen Anjine and her military didn’t understand the geography of the isthmus and of Uraba. Could she truly be so ignorant? He didn’t think so.
With a whistle and a smash, several huge boulders hammered into the high wall at the northern end of the city; he could see the puffs of white rock powder from the impact. The Aidenist army had begun using their catapults.
Shrill horn blasts, made tinny by the distance, sounded an alarm, and soldiers rushed to God’s Barricade. Unwar drew in a long breath to quell his surge of anger. He said through gritted teeth, “They are like vermin, attacking any weak spot of exposed flesh.”
Alisi stepped away from the window so that her ominous form fell into shadow again. “They are not stupid, Unwar. The fact that you do not understand their tactics does not mean they won’t surprise you. Be vigilant. You can be certain they’re planning something terrible.”
“In that, I never underestimate them.”