I came to a stop, pulling on his arm. “Haemon shouldn’t be training. He should be resting.”
“He’s doing much better,” he said, tugging on my hand so that I’d keep walking. “Io’s potions have worked miracles and he’s been eating nonstop. I thought we had enough supplies for a long siege but your brother is making me reconsider.”
Even if he was doing better, it still bothered me that Haemon was training and being with the army. I wanted him in the cavern with the others so that I would know he was safe.
Xander seemed to sense exactly what I was thinking. He stopped and put his hands on my shoulders so that he could look me in the eye. “I think after being a prisoner for so long he’s enjoying being with the soldiers, doing something to fight back against the people who stole him from his loved ones. He feels like he’s accomplishing something.”
“I understand that,” I said reluctantly. “I just want to protect him.”
“Lia, you want to protect everyone, and it’s one of the things I love most about you. Come on, let me show you the defenses.”
We climbed a very high staircase that was built into the wall. When we reached the top, I realized that I could see everything. The fields surrounding the city walls, the docks, the harbor, the forest to the south.
Xander showed me how the outer wall was actually comprised of two parallel walls and that the space in between had been filled with rocks and stones to provide extra strength, and then concrete had been applied to the top so that the soldiers could walk alongit. I wondered how this reinforced wall would hold up against the earth dragons.
He showed me an overhang with large slots. “So we can drop rocks and boiling oil on invaders below.”
Then it was over to the artillery towers, where the archers and javelin throwers would be. He showed me the ballistae lined up with the window slots. They shot stones and arrows. He explained how it used torsion of a spring made of horse sinew to unleash artillery. I’d never seen anything like it.
“I’ve had the blacksmiths working on bolts big enough to pierce dragon hide. The problem is we don’t have the right size ballista to shoot it, and that’s also being constructed.” I heard the edge in his voice, that he was worried these things wouldn’t be done before the Carians arrived.
He pointed out the catapults along the wall, and the ones on the ground behind it that were even bigger. Men were using horses to drag massive boulders and stones to the catapults.
Xander explained that the goal of the sieging army would be to break through the walls. They would first focus their efforts on the gates, which was why they were currently being reinforced with massive wooden beams.
If they couldn’t get a gate open or tear down a wall, then they would try using ladders to scale the walls. They would bring siege towers that would have ramps at the same height as the walls so that the soldiers could jump down and begin fighting.
“Those we try to hit with oil and flaming arrows,” he said. “Same with their catapults and ballistae. Anything made out of wood, we want to try to catch on fire.”
The Carians outnumbered us significantly. Even with the help of other nations, if they managed to overrun these walls ...
Ironically, the walls that I’d once hated were now the only things that were going to keep my loved ones safe. “What about food and water? Are you sure you have enough?”
“The Great War lasted ten years. Troas learned their lesson. We have enough food and supplies in the caverns to last for years. We also have underground cisterns and water reservoirs. We will be fine.”
I thought of how the Carians had blocked the water that ran to the temple. It had never made sense to me—why would they have done it?
Maybe Artemisia had guessed that my adelphia would be sent out to deal with it. The oracle had told her a Locrian maiden would be the savior, and they used it as a lure. So that they could release the terawolves on us.
What if they had more? For all I knew the Carians had been breeding them and planned on using them in the fight. I mentioned this to Xander and his mouth tightened.
“We need ditches surrounding the walls, but we don’t have enough time to dig them.”
“Suri can do that in minutes.”
His eyes widened. “Describe to me in detail what each of you can do that would help with the fight.”
I did, and how we could help power each other but that it drained us.
“But I didn’t feel that way when you took my light,” he said.
“That’s because you’re superpowered by a goddess.”
“Can your sisters draw from me?”
“Io might be able to since you’re her brother, but we only see the light around people that we love when we use our aspect.”
He looked smug for a moment, probably thinking about how I saw the light on him long before I admitted that I loved him. “But you felt it with Quynh’s baby.”
