Insufficient Defense

"The way I see it, we have two choices." Reiner said as he and Giano returned along with the others and gave them the news. "We can look for other ways to cross the river, or we can wait at the end of the line and follow the barbarians when they have left."

"I don't find it amusing to wait." Hals said. "What's to stop another column from coming up from behind and catching us in the middle again?"

"We must not wait." Ulf declared. "If we want to get to Duke Herlmann in time to warn him that the Norsemen are advancing on him, we have to get out before they do."

"I don't know if that will be at all possible." Reiner replied. "Seen that they are already crossing, but the sooner we do it the better, as you rightly say."

"Didn't Gustaf say he knew a shortcut?" asked Oskar, concerned.

"Yes." Replied Hals as he cast a meaningful glance at Franka. "But Gustaf is dead."

"We can only hope to find the shortcut if we look for it." Reiner hastened to say. "We'll split into two groups and look for another crossing east and west of the bridge, and reconvene here when we've found it. Giano, you take Pavel and Oskar to the west. I'll take Franz and Ulf. Hals, you stay here. If more soldiers show up, go up one level. We'll look for you there."

"Yes, Captain." Hals replied.

The others went off into the left and right passages, leaving him alone.

Reiner, Franka and Ulf described a wide detour around the river chamber; they advanced eastward as far as the network of tunnels would allow, and then headed southward in search of the river. It was easy to find. Its roar filled the tunnels, so they were guided by the noise and the accompanying wet wind like a compass. After a while they found a tunnel that seemed to run parallel to the waters. They felt the current vibrating the left wall. The tunnel began to descend gradually and before long they were splashing in shallow water.

About thirty paces further on, the constant wearing of the water had opened a hole in the wall through which Reiner could see the river, and a backwater of brackish water filled the tunnel to knee height. Water steadily flowed in and out of the hole with each rising wave.

Reiner and the others advanced through the water to the hole and looked across. Reiner grimaced as the icy water overtopped the edge of his boots and slid down his calves. There was little to see. The river led out of the darkness on the left and into the darkness on the right. There was no sign of a bridge.

They continued onward, winding their way through tunnels and galleries, high chambers and passages through which they had to crawl. There were many openings leading to the river, some intentionally made and others, like the first one they had found, due to erosion; but not a single bridge. On one occasion they found the remains of one: a spur of rock that protruded just a few steps above the current. On the opposite bank there was another spur and the mouth of a tunnel beckoning them, invitingly.

"Can we bridge over it if we can find wood?" asked Reiner to Ulf.

Ulf shook his head.

"No, captain. The river is too wide and fast. We'd need two tall trees and a pillar in the middle to bridge it."

"Agreed. Let's look ahead."

But there was nothing. Closer to the main chamber they found the first of a series of narrow jetties built above the water at the end of stone ramps, but they did not go far enough into the current to be of any use. On the opposite shore there were also a few. Some had stone pilings that rose like crocodile teeth along the edge. There came a time when they could go no further. The last jetty they found was so close to the main chamber that from it they could see part of the bridge and hear the bellowing of the Norsemen above the roar of the water.

Ulf narrowed his eyes critically as he gazed at the reconstructed bridge.

"Work of orcs." He said as he sniffled through his nose. "It's a shoddy construction. The biggest pieces of wood they can find, and rope to tie them together. I'm surprised it's still standing."

Reiner shrugged. "Maybe they'll all fall into the river." He turned to go back the way they had come. "Let's go back and see if the others have found anything."

Ulf followed, but Franka continued to watch the bridge. "I don't suppose we can float up to it, and then cross underneath through all those struts."

"What?..." asked Reiner as he turned. He smiled mockingly. "Well, I suppose you could do it if you weren't swept by the current, but where would you end up? Trapped under the bridge, on the other side, with the barbarians marching over your head. And, to top it off, soaked to the bone."

"Yes." Franka agreed. "But what if there were another jetty on the opposite bank, downstream from the bridge?"

"The current would sweep you away, anyway." Reiner replied.

"Not if we used ropes." Ulf interjected as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yes, if we do it in stages, it might work."

Reiner frowned as he thought of the cold water inside his boots and imagined himself completely submerged in it. He sighed.

"Let's see if the others have found a more civilized way across. They hadn't. All the passages were cut off when they reached the river."

"But there was indeed a jetty on the other side of the river, now that you mention it." Pavel said when Franka had mentioned his plan to cross the waters by floating downstream. "About thirty paces downstream."

"Sixteen and a half meters." Oskar said humbly. "Half a meter or so."

They all turned to stare at him.

"Can you really determine that precisely?" asked Reiner. Oskar shrugged his shoulders.

"It's my curse."

"The jetty upstream is about the same distance from the bridge." Ulf said. "Maybe a little closer."

They exited the main tunnel and entered the maze of side passages, where they measured all the rope they had. Some had lost theirs between runs, falls and jumps, but between them they had more than forty-five meters. Ulf nodded his head in satisfaction.

"This could work."

Reiner thought it was the first time he had ever seen the big man happy.

Once they had determined who would do what and how, they moved on again through the twists and turns of the tunnel city until they reached the river again.

Reiner and the others eyed the water nervously. Talk of jumping into the river was one thing, but the reality was very different. The current was terrifyingly fast and would undoubtedly be colder than glacier ice. Reiner's head was filled with visions of him crashing into the granite pillars at high speed and, from the way the others shuddered and gulped, he knew they had similar thoughts.

"I can't swim." Hals said, anxiously.

"Neither can I." Pavel added.

"There will be no swimming at all." Replied Ulf as he tied one end of the longer coil of rope around a stone pile. "Anyway, the current will carry you faster than if you were swimming."

"What you must do." Reiner interjected, terrified himself though he was doing his best to make it look easy. "Is hold your breath and try to stay underwater until you're under the bridge. We don't want a garbage eater looking into the water and watching us splash around."

"We'll have to leave the dungarees behind or we'll sink like rocks." Ulf warned.

"Leave the dungarees behind!" shouted Hals. "Are you crazy, what if we have to fight the barbarians?"

"If we find ourselves fighting the Norsemen." Reiner said. "The breastplates won't be enough to save us."

Ulf looked back towards the bridge as he went about uncoiling the rope. Then he turned his head to Oskar.

"Gunner, how far to the bridge?"

With undivided interest, Oskar was examining a hole he had in the nogging.

"Oskar!" Reiner called to him. "Oskar, wake up, boy, how far is it to the bridge?"

Oskar raised his eyes, blinking, then narrowed them to look toward the bridge.

"Fourteen and a half meters. I'd like another sip from the flask, please."

"When we get to the other side." Reiner promised him.

Ulf uncoiled fourteen and a half meters of rope, using his huge boot to measure it.

"If I leave it too short we won't make it to the bridge." He commented. "If I leave it too long, we'll bang our heads against it."

Reiner swallowed hard. "In that case, I'd better go first, since I'm the one with the hardest head." He wanted to go last, but a leader was expected to set an example.

Ulf tied the rope around Reiner's waist.

"Don't gasp as you come to the surface." He said. "They might hear you."

"Why not tie a rock to my feet and knock me out with one blow?" growled Reiner. "Then they wouldn't see me, for sure."

He gave the impression that Ulf was considering this as a possibility.

Reiner turned around and sat down on the edge of the stone jetty. He filled his lungs with air, exhaled and filled them again. He realized that no matter how many deep breaths he took, he would not be ready, so, with a sigh, he began to sink his body into the river.

The shock of the cold water almost made him scream, and the force of the current pulled at his legs with such ferocity that what he had intended to be a graceful silent glide turned into an awkward splash as he was yanked off the jetty by the water.

There was no difficulty in staying below the surface. The river drew him to it like a mistress. He could see nothing, feel nothing but the cold and the power of the current beating against him. But the journey ended almost as quickly as it had begun. He came to an abrupt halt, face down, the rope tight around his waist as the river tossed him back and forth like a kite in a strong gale. He stretched out his arms and felt for the pillar.

It was almost impossible to fight the current, to keep his arms outstretched to the sides. If she relaxed in the slightest, her arms would be propelled over her head. His lungs burned, bursting, desperate to fill with air. At last, his left hand touched stone and he pulled with his arms to get closer to the pillar.

His head came to the surface and, at the last moment, he remembered not to gasp and inhaled slowly even though he wanted to fill his lungs with deep breaths. The granite pillar rose less than a meter above the water. He climbed to the weathered top and clung, shakily and weakly, to the underside of the wooden structure of the orc bridge. He looked up and paid attention for any sign that he had been discovered, but heard nothing but the endless pounding of the Norse's boots as they passed overhead. He was so cold that he could hardly feel his fingers. When he had recovered a little, he untied the rope, gave it a sharp tug and released it so that it fell back into the water. He watched as it slithered away into the shadows like a snake on the choppy surface of the water.

After what seemed to him an interminable wait during which he became convinced that the rest of the party had been discovered and killed and he was alone and immobilized on that pillar, surrounded by Norsemen in an infinite underworld, Oskar surfaced at arm's length from the pillar. He was remarkably serene, and Reiner had no trouble bringing him up to where he stood.

"Are you all right, Oskar?" he whispered.

"Ah, yes." Oskar replied as he wiped the water from his eyes. "I'm not afraid of water at all. I grew up near a lake. It's remarkably cold, though. I'd like you to give me a little sip of the elixir to take the chill off."

"We're not on the other side yet."

They sent the rope back and, taking turns, Franka, Pavel, Hals, Giano and, finally, Ulf joined them. They all arrived in silence except Hals, who cried out in pain because the rope had wrapped around his fractured leg and twisted it when he stopped short. Pavel covered his friend's mouth with one hand until he recovered, and everyone looked up expecting a horned helmet to peek out and look at them. Fortunately, the roar of the current was loud enough to drown out incidental noises.

When Ulf finally arrived and had untied himself, he plucked a loose piece of rock from the pillar and tied it to the end of the rope so that it would sink and not give away his presence as it floated to the surface.

"First part accomplished." Reiner said, relieved. "Now, on to the opposite wall."

In a drier environment, the members of the group who had all their limbs healthy would have had little difficulty moving along the underside of the bridge structure, because the logs were wide and numerous. Unfortunately, the wood had not been seasoned or treated in any way, in fact they were just cut logs from which sap was still dripping from the ends, and it was slippery because of moss and algae, so every step had to be very careful. At some points the logs were so poorly joined, tied together with ropes instead of fastened with nails or pegs, that they moved when stepped on.

Reiner was reminded of an occasion when he had been playing up the apple trees in his father's orchard after a spring rain, and had sprained a wrist when he lost his footing. For Hals, who had a broken leg, and Oskar, who had a broken arm, the walk was impossible without help. They had to be supported every step of the way. Pavel looked after Hals, as usual, and Reiner stayed by Oskar's side, supporting him and holding his hand when necessary. There were a few near-disastrous slips, but at last everyone reached the opposite wall and sat or leaned back against the slippery logs to catch their breath.

Ulf was shaking his head in dismay.

"Outrageous. A child could have built a sturdier bridge. Look." He pointed a thick finger at the ropes holding the logs together. "They've used rope of the worst quality. It has loosened and rotted in the damp. With a few knife slashes here and there, the whole structure will..." His voice trailed off and his eyes glazed over.

"Don't even think about it, you crazy piece of shit." Reiner said anticipating what he was going to say.

"But we must!" whispered Ulf, suddenly animated with excitement. "We must do it! We could stop them. More than half the host would be trapped across the river with the cannon. They would need days, maybe weeks to rebuild it."

"What is this?" asked Hals. "What does he intend to do?"

"He wants to tear down the bridge." Reiner explained. "With us here." He looked at Ulf and shook his head. "You'd kill us all."

"I wouldn't!" assured Ulf, in whose voice there was a tone of anguished hope. "If I loosen it just enough, I could tie a rope to a key strut and pull it when we're all gone."

"And if you loosen it too much, it will fall on our heads before we can do anything." punctuated Reiner.

Ulf clenched his fists to control his temper.

"Captain, I'm an engineer. This is what I know how to do. Aren't you going to trust me when we're on my turf, like I trusted you when we were on yours?"

"I do trust you as an engineer. My fear is that you are allowing your anxiety to stop the Norsemen to drown your engineering knowledge in delusional dreams."

They all looked up when they realized that silence reigned overhead. There were no soldiers crossing the bridge anymore.

"Is it that they've all left?" asked Franka.

"It can't be." Hals declared.

The silence ended with new roars and cracking of whips which, after a long moment, were followed by a creaking of wood, a groaning of slaves, and a scraping of iron on stone.

"The cannon." Pavel said. "They're moving the cannon."

Ulf turned to look at Reiner with imploring eyes. "Captain, this is an opportunity we must not squander. If we can sink the cannon in the river, we will not only slow them down, but we will...emasculate them! They will be half as dangerous a threat as they are now. They might even quit and go home."

Reiner bit his lower lip. They didn't have much time to act.

"Agreed." He said at last. "What do we need to do?"

Ulf gave him a wide grin in return and set about tying what rope they had left to the strut closest to the wall.

"Hals and Oskar. You two will tie yourselves to this rope and wait here. The rest of us will spread out along this flank of the bridge and cut the ropes that tie the struts together. Once you uncoil the ropes, bring them here and tie one end to this pillar and the other to your waist. We are not to jump into the river without being tied, but if the bridge begins to give way, jump, tied or not. do you understand me?"

"I understand that you are a madman and you are going to kill us all." Hals said, but began to tie the rope around his waist.

Reiner, Ulf, Franka, Pavel and Giano hurried back among the timbers. The cannon was approaching. There was not much time left. Reiner braced himself between two V-shaped timbers and began to cut through a mass of knotted rope that bound two logs together. Despite everything Ulf had said about rotten rope, the fibers were tough and resisted the blade's edge. He felt like hacking at it but didn't want to risk making noise. To his left, Franka was cutting feverishly. Giano was to his right, cursing to himself as he worked and constantly looking up.

The gun was picking up speed and, despite being wet and half-frozen, Reiner began to sweat. There was a good chance that the cannon would bring down the bridge without his help. Before his eyes flashed images of him being trapped at the bottom of the river.

From above came shouts of alarm and the bridge shook with a shattering impact. Reiner clung to the shaking and swaying struts.

He held his breath. Amazingly, the bridge remained intact. He let the air out. He heard the Norsemen shouting and the whips cracking again. From the sound, it sounded like the slaves had pushed the cannon against one of the railings.

A momentary relief. Reiner began to cut again as the slaves chanted a strange chant and began to pull the cannon back and try again. At last he succeeded in cutting the thick hemp and began to uncoil it, passing his arm around the trunk again and again, like a tailor measuring the waist of a fat priest.

He had already uncoiled the rope and cut the end that was tied in half, when the cannon again moved forward with a thunderous noise, and this time the slaves got it properly oriented. The heavy iron-rimmed wheels clattered on the wooden planks, and the whole bridge seemed to groan in pain. Reiner could hear the wood compressing and shifting around him.

Since the bridge did not collapse immediately, he set to cutting again. Franca passed him with the agility of a spider, a coil of rope slung over one shoulder. Giano was almost done, they had made it!

A sudden shout and a splash from the other end of the bridge made Reiner turn his head quickly. Pavel was clinging to a support beam, his legs dangling over the water. A log was floating away down the river, followed by a tangle of rope.

"By the son's balls!" cursed Reiner as he looked up in fear. Would the soldiers have heard him? He whipped off the last strands of his rope, slung it over his shoulder, and charged like a monkey through the logs as fast as he could. The pikeman's hands slipped as he tried to climb the slippery log.

A rough voice shouted to them from above. Reiner looked up and his eyes met those of a Nordic foreman whose helmet flashed in the torchlight. For a moment, both stood motionless, then the foreman disappeared and Reiner heard him shout the alarm. The cannon stopped.

"Ulf!" shouted Reiner as he reached Pavel. "We've been spotted! Tie up and hit the water."

"But I still have to remove the center joist!" was Ulf's retort.

"It's too late!" Reiner braced himself, grabbed Pavel's arm and pulled.

"Shouldn't we let ourselves fall into the water?" asked the pikeman as he struggled to pull himself up over the log.

"Without tying ourselves down?" asked Reiner. "We wouldn't be able to stop."

Luckily, Pavel was sinewy and light. With Reiner's help he was better able to hold on to the log and swing his legs up another and get a foothold.

"Sorry, Captain," he said as he stood up. "He collapsed as soon as I stepped on him."

"Forget it, but get moving. We've got to tie up by the wall or we won't make it to the pier."

But as they turned toward the south side, the Norsemen began to descend the flank of the bridge.

"Hurry!" said Reiner as he drew his sword. As he and Pavel were passing like monkeys between the beams, the cannon was again set in motion, but this time to retreat toward the north end of the bridge. The slaves were pulling it back to safety.

"No!" shouted Ulf. He started forward, sledgehammer in hand, stepping fearlessly between the struts-"The cannon must fall!"

"Ulf! Fall back!" bellowed Reiner. "I command you...!"

A barbarian landed on his feet on the beam in front of him, roaring and brandishing the axe, and immediately slipped and fell into the torrential waters. He disappeared instantly. Reiner burst out laughing, but a second barbarian, a huge pagan with a flaming red beard, was more cautious and held on with one hand while threatening Reiner with the sword. A group of barbarians descended behind him.

"We'll never get through all those." Pavel said.

Reiner took the coil of rope off his shoulder and handed it to the pikeman without taking his eyes off the advancing barbarian.

"Tie yourselves together. We'll jump together."

Pavel hesitated. "But didn't you say...?"

"We'll have to risk it. It may be death, but not certain death."

The red-bearded barbarian threw a slash. Reiner ducked and the heavy sword slashed open a gash in a supporting log. Reiner had a clear line of attack. He launched a lunge toward the man's chest, but the sword was deflected aside by the Norseman's chainmail.

Reiner stepped back behind the pillar just as the barbarian was once again tearing splinters from him. Behind the giant, another barbarian let out a shriek and fell into the water. The others turned around. Ulf was behind them and was advancing, swinging the sledgehammer. Reiner gasped at the big man's agility on the treacherous structure. He seemed to be more comfortable there than on solid ground. It was because of all the years spent climbing up and down scaffolding, building fortifications, Reiner decided.

For a moment, as another barbarian fell victim to Ulf's sledgehammer, Reiner thought the engineer might make it, but more and more barbarians were coming down the flank of the bridge. They seemed to go on forever. The battle could not be won.

"Tied up, captain." Pavel said behind him.

"Tie my waist." Reiner ducked to dodge another cautious blow thrown by the red-bearded barbarian, and stepped back. He felt Pavel's hands pass around his waist. "Ulf!" he bellowed. "Fall back! Abandon the bridge!"

"No!" shouted the engineer. "I have to take just one hit!" he backed away from two barbarians, slipped around a pillar and ended up behind them. "Allegiance!" he shouted. "Allegiance all of you! I will join you."

The red-bearded barbarian leapt forward and threw a blow at Reiner, who leapt desperately backward and dodged the sword blade by little more than an inch, but lost his balance. His feet shot forward and he fell backwards. He briefly saw Pavel flailing arms and legs, and then the icy black water closed over him. The current pulled his body downstream like a giant hand.

The answer to whether Pavel had finished tying him up came almost immediately. He stopped with a brutal jerk and the thin rope penetrated painfully into his waist. Something crashed against his left side. Pavel. The current pulled at them like two men lying side by side on a rack of torment. The cold was unbearable. Reiner struggled to lower his arms and clutch the rope. He tried to stick his head out and the water broke against his chin like the bow of a ship and filled his mouth.

At last he managed to grab the rope. She pulled on it and managed to pull herself out to breathe, filling her lungs with air. Pavel struggled beside him to do the same. Reiner released a hand and grabbed him by the back of the neck. He was about to sink back down to help him, but Pavel found the rope at last and both of them rose shoulder-deep above the waves, albeit with considerable effort.

To the right, Reiner saw that Oskar, Franka, Hals and Giano were also in the water, all together because their ropes had become entangled with each other. They were very close to the jetty and were struggling to reach it. A barbarian splashed past them, trying to swim, and Reiner turned his eyes toward the bridge.

The cannon was almost back to the north shore, with the slaves pulling it from one end and pushing it from the other. Below them, Ulf was throwing his sledgehammer against a support strut in the center of the bridge as the barbarians advanced toward him from all sides. He delivered a mighty blow that Reiner heard even above the noise of the water, but the strut remained in place. He threw the sledgehammer against the prop again, but a barbarian leaped at him and made him miss the goal. They were already surrounding him from all sides, throwing slashes and thrusts at him. Ulf received a cut on one shoulder and another on one leg. He roared and swung the mallet in a circle, throwing three barbarians into the water. Five others took the place of the fallen.

Pavel began to pull on the rope in an attempt to return to the bridge, struggling against the current of the river.

"You stupid bastard!" he shouted. "Pull, captain! We have to help him!"

"Ulf!" shouted Reiner at the top of his lungs. "Jump, stupid!"

Ulf was hitting left and right like a demigod descended from Flame, the goddess of war, and, amazingly, for a moment the barbarians backed away from him, unsure of their footing on the unstable timbers. In a last desperate attempt, Ulf struck the pole again and there was a terrible impact that finally released him. It spun out, bounced between beams and crossbeams, and fell into the water.

The barbarians under the bridge stood motionless and looked around uneasily. At first it seemed that nothing had happened, but then the bridge groaned like a melancholy giant. Another strut came loose and fell into the river, and then another.

With a roar of fury, one of the barbarians leaped toward Ulf and discharged his sword like an executioner's axe. Reiner watched in horror as the slash went through the engineer's collarbone and continued all the way to his heart, spurting a gush of blood.

Ulf was dead, but he gave the impression that, in killing him, the barbarian had also killed the bridge: as the engineer fell, so did the construction, warping and crumbling with slow elegance.

"The stupid fucker," said Reiner, groaning ostensibly. "I told him..."

The bridge first collapsed down the center and then disintegrated along its entire length. At the north end, overseers shrieked at the slaves to pull harder, but the great cannon was still on the planks and began to roll backward sliding down the rapidly increasing incline, dragging slaves and barbarians with it until at last its weight was too much for the remaining supports and it collapsed along with the falling structure. The cannon crushed Ulf and the Norse warriors and dragged them with it as it plunged into the waters with an enormous roar.

A great wave rose above the waters and rushed downstream as the muzzle of the cannon sank into the current like a sea monster at the moment of death. Reiner felt the tension loosen on the rope around his waist as the bridge disintegrated into logs and planks floating adrift toward them.

"Brace yourselves!" shouted Reiner to Pavel, and risked a glance toward Hals, Franka, Oskar and Giano, who just then were climbing onto the pier. Franka lay, panting, on the stone slabs. Giano was desperately trying to get one leg up. Then came the wave, which covered the jetty with a huge mass of water up to their waists. As he was buffeted by the wave, Reiner saw Franka and Giano being swept off the jetty and back into the river along with Oskar and Hals.

The only fortunate event, if it could be so defined, was that the wave pushed all four of them toward Reiner and Pavel; in fact, it almost threw them against each other, and Reiner had to reach up to deflect Oskar's knees as it whirled past him.

"Catch them!" shouted Reiner to Pavel. "Hold them tight!"

Reiner and Pavel tried to catch something in the jumble of limbs and torsos. Through the splashing and frothing, Reiner's eyes met Franka's, whom he grabbed by one arm and pulled to himself. Pavel caught Hals by the collar of his shirt.

"We'll all die together in the end, eh?" snorted Giano spitting water.

"Watch out!" shouted Franka.

Reiner looked back, and a huge log that came whirling down on the wave nearly caved in his skull. He kicked it away and another hit him in the back. The wreckage of the bridge whirled past them, spinning and crashing into each other with tremendous blows, while ropes, like spider webs, entangled and held them together.

A rope struck Oskar's chest and pulled the gunner, who in turn dragged his companions. Hals lifted the rope and passed it over Oskar's head, who was barely conscious. Hals and Pavel were trying to keep him out of the water, but they too were sinking.

Reiner caught a tangled log on a rope and held him back.

"Come on up, everybody!"

The light, which had been diminishing rapidly as they moved away from the barbarians' torches, disappeared altogether as the river swept them across a meander. Groping, Reiner pulled Franka toward the log and she slipped an arm over. Reiner heard the others doing the same as the current swept them into the darkness at terrifying speed.