Chapter 52

The rain still poured down steadily. The small stream beside the castle was becoming a raging torrent but was held safely within the banks. That torrent led to the east cutting a path through the plain till it fell over the small ridge of a box canyon. From there the water flowed underground till it reached Seacliff Island. There it surged forth and flowed down a slight slope beside the east side of Seacliff castle then in a long slow curve it went out into the sea. The water was crystal clear and refreshing to all who drank from it as it made its way across the island.

Jason stood in the doorway from the castle yard contemplating how he would lay out his plan. If he did it wrong Keith would be obstinately opposed even if it was a good plan. Keith was a good man and a good knight but he resented Rangers for some reason. He had spent most of the morning working on this plan with Lars and the other Rangers. Lars and Ryan waited for him then when he was as ready as he was going to be he nodded and led them into the dining hall turned war room.

"So let's hear your great plan Ranger. How many of my men will die as you sit back and watch like you people always do? No matters what happens no Ranger ever dies in battle. "

"That is enough of that Sir Keith. Rangers put themselves at risk all the time while you sit here in the castle and whine. I'll have no more of that talk in this Castle. Especially since one of the first casualties in this war was a Ranger." Lord Nicholas said loudly. "Now we will discuss every plan and decide on the best one. Ranger Jason we'll hear your plan first."

"Thank you Lord Nicholas, I have met with Mel, one of the scribes here at the castle, and discussed this idea with him to make sure it is possible to do. Together we came up with a workable plan I believe. The main problem we have right now is how soft the ground is going to be after this heavy rain. The ground will be too soft to keep a wall firm against any attack long enough to make a good defense. At least any wall could be built before the enemy arrives.

My proposal is to build a wall that will hold up for one assault and then fall." Stated Jason calmly.

"So you plan to leave my men exposed to attack. Sounds like another wonderful Ranger plan. And where will you be during this?"

"Myself and six other Rangers will be behind the wall to entice the enemy to charge blindly after us while those men that were on the wall are safely hidden under the fallen wall. If all goes to plan very few of your men will be exposed once the wall falls."

"Where are you and the other Rangers leading the enemy?" Asked Nick

"Sir Keith mentioned he had found a small shallow box canyon. He described it to me once before and as described it would do nicely to contain the enemy while archers standing on top of the canyons walls fired arrows down into the enemy ranks. Keith could you describe the canyon again?"

"Sure," he said hesitantly unsure if he wanted to be part of this plan. "The canyon is only about three to four meters deep at the deepest. It has a small pond at the deep end fed by a small waterfall. From the pond it grows shallower for about a hundred and fifty meters before it is again level with the surrounding terrain. The first fifty meters into it have trees covering the growing canyon walls till they are about two and a half meters tall."

"Thank you Sir Keith. My hope is to get the mounted men to charge after us leaving the rest behind. To do that we need to make them angry at the archers and to do that the wall needs to have a large number of them on top of it. By having the archers concentrate on the mounted men as they attack the wall we can expect them to want revenge. The seven Rangers will look like bowmen trying to escape and thereby draw them into the trap."

"How do we get the wall to fall when we want it to fall while making the enemy think they caused it to fall?" Asked Lord Nicholas.

"I left the details of that to the scribes, however Mel told me it will be relatively simple to engineer. Mel's concern is with how soft the ground is. If is too soft we won't be able to dig a trench for the men on the wall to hide in once the wall falls. Also the logs tied to support the wall will sink it the ground too deep to be able to pull out to make the wall fall. They will wait and see how saturated the ground is then decide how to make it work best. The biggest problem is we will probably only have a day once the rain stops to build the wall and get everyone in place. We need to be ready to go into action as soon as the word is given."

Everyone was silent for a few minutes then Keith spoke. "I think this plan has merit. I hate to say it but it is a lot better than what I had anyway. What are the chances of everything going to plan?

"I'd say fifty fifty. As far as it depends on us I think everything will go smoothly. Getting the enemy to do what the plan says is the iffy part. No plan can anticipate what the enemy will do and so may not survive contact with the enemy. We need to have some contingencies ready in case things start to go wrong."

"Like what?" Said Nick

"Like what happens if the wall doesn't fall as planned." Replied Joel of Highcliff fief.

"Exactly. What if only part of the wall falls? What if the mounted men don't charge after the Rangers? What if they try to escape the canyon by going through the trees? What if they have a large number of archers to attack our archers? These are things we need to anticipate and plan for. There will probably be something happen that we have no plan for so we have to be ready and able to react as needed."

"I think that those on the wall should have the plan explained to them. This will help them to do their jobs as we need them to. I volunteer to lead the archers on the wall. We will need some good archers on that wall as well as some soldiers good with a spear." added Joel.