The wolves seemed to be weary of jumping the gorge in front of the castle, as the wall after it was just as daunting and easy to get knocked off of. Belemast knew that and why he specifically set it up that way. Once the bridge was up, this castle in the mountains was one tough bitch that wasn't going down without an epic battle to the deadly finish.
Two days. That was what Hector had left them with.
Belemast was determined to use every minute of it.
By the second evening the forges hadn't stopped ringing since sunup, and the courtyard smelled of hot metal and horse sweat. Every blade in the castle that could hold an edge had been resharpened, and every scrap of silver melted down and reforged into something with a point. Belemast walked the walls twice a day himself, testing the arrow slits, counting the barrels of oil, and muttering measurements to himself that only he seemed to understand. Nobody asked what he was planning but trusted that their leader knew what he was doing.
It was Belemast who called them to the hall that evening, to a longer table than usual, more food on it than the four of them could reasonably eat. A joint of roast boar, bread still warm enough to steam when it was torn open, and bottles of wine he'd been saving without ever saying what for. Nobody commented on it, but nobody missed it either. It had the shape of a last supper, even if no one at the table wanted to say so out loud.
Miyamoto was the one who finally broke the silence, setting down his cup with the same deliberate care he used for everything.
"Alfred and I have discussed this," he said, looking at Belemast rather than Calissa. "When the Hakken come, we will hold this castle as long as it takes. Every hour we buy is an hour Calissa doesn't need to fight for her life."
"We're not asking your permission," Alfred added, not unkindly. "Just telling you how it's going to go. You get her out. We hold the wall."
Calissa set her fork down.
"That wasn't part of any plan you two agreed on with me." She protested.
"There was no plan with you," Alfred corrected her. "There was a plan about you."
"That's not…" Calissa started but stopped talking out of sheer frustration.
"Let them finish, my dear." Belemast requested, quiet enough that it cut through the argument before it could properly start. He wasn't smiling the way he usually was when he interrupted people. "Go on, old friend."
Miyamoto inclined his head to him, then turned back to Calissa.
"This is not a matter of doubting your sword, little one." He continued, "I have trained you myself, and I know exactly what you are capable of. But a hundred Hakken storming a mountain pass is not a fight you can win by being the strongest blade in it. It is a fight you win by not being there when it arrives."
"So I run?" Calissa asked, "While you two stay behind and die for me."
"While we buy you the time to live," Miyamoto corrected her. "There is a difference."
"We would ask you to respect it," Alfred said to his daughter.
"Even if I don't yet agree with it?" Calissa asked him.
"Especially if you don't agree with it." Alfred confirmed.
She looked to her father, half-hoping he'd flinch. He didn't.
"I've buried your mother already," Alfred reminded her, "I'm not doing it twice."
The room went quiet in a different way after that. It was not the tense, waiting quiet from before, but something heavier. Calissa didn't have an answer for it, so she didn't try to find one. She just reached over and refilled her father's cup instead, which was as close as she could get to saying she'd heard him. Belemast let the moment sit a while before he spoke again, and when he did, there was none of his usual performance in it.
"You're both wrong," he casually declared.
"Is that so?" Alfred inquired. "Do tell us why?"
"As it happens, there is no need for sacrifice." Belemast replied, "I would have told you this sooner if you'd bothered to ask me before deciding to be noble at my table."
"Meaning what exactly?" Alfred asked.
"Meaning nobody is staying behind to die in my castle." Belemast said as he reached for the wine and topped up his own cup, unhurried, like a man who already knew how the rest of this conversation would go. "This mountain isn't just walls and a bridge, my friend. My father and his many brothers spent decades digging tunnels into it. Most of it was completed before I was even born. They run under the keep, under the courtyard, all the way down through the rock to a river gorge two miles from here that no Hakken patrol has ever thought to watch. I also happen to be the only living person who knows the way through them without getting lost or falling to his death in the dark."
Calissa stared at him. "You've had a way out this whole time?"
"I've had a way out since before you were born," Belemast said, "I simply didn't mention it, because the secret escape only works as long as it remains a secret. This table has more ears than I can trust."
"Then why bring it up now?" Miyamoto asked.
"Because you two just sat at my table and volunteered to die holding a wall I have no intention of losing anyone to defend." Belemast's voice had an edge to it now, the good humor gone out of it entirely. "You misunderstand what I'm offering you all. It isn't sanctuary. It's an exit. When the Hakken come, we hold the front gate exactly long enough to make them believe we mean to fight to the last man, and everyone will disappear into their tunnels, and the place will be empty when the furry bastards walk in."
"Everyone?" Alfred repeated.
"There are various tunnels," Belemast continued, "My people will take two of them to various exits from the castle. The four of us will us the last one that will get us far away from the castle and allow us to disappear. We'll the wolves break their teeth on an empty castle. It will take them days, maybe even weeks before they figure out where we went."
"All four of us?" Alfred repeated.
"All four of us," Belemast confirmed. "I don't care how good either of you is with a blade. She's not walking out of these tunnels alone, and neither of you is staying behind to buy her three extra minutes when I can buy her many extra days. You want to protect her? Then be alive to keep doing it once we're clear of the mountain."
Miyamoto was quiet for a moment, weighing it the way he weighed most things; carefully, and without letting his face give him away.
"You planned this before we ever sat down to eat," he said finally.
"I plan most things before I sit down to eat," Belemast admitted. "It's a bad habit my father gave me, along with the tunnels."
Calissa looked around the table, and then at her father, who still hadn't quite unclenched his jaw. She looked over at Miyamoto, who was studying Belemast with something that might have been respect. Then at her uncle, who was pretending this was easier for him than it clearly was.
"And what happens once we're through the tunnels?" she asked her uncle. "We just leave the castle to them?"
"We'll regroup," Belemast confessed. "We find out exactly how many of them there are, and why they want you badly enough to lay siege to a fortress on a mountain. And then, when we're ready and they're not expecting it, we decide what happens next. When the time is right… I will gather many more men from kings that owe me favors, and a lot more silver weapons, and march back on this place and retake my castle. So, don't fret about that dear."
"Why would you do that?" Calissa asked. "Sacrifice so much just for me?"
"Because you're family, my dear." Belemast replied, giving her a wink. "Do you honestly think that I would let my only niece go up against an army without me? I only just got you. I hate to say this, little lady, but you're stuck with me for a while."
Calissa didn't smile back, not right away. Instead, she picked up her own cup and let it meet his.
"Two days," she said.
"Two days,"" Belemast agreed. "Eat something. It's a long way through that mountain, and I'd rather you weren't hungry for it."