weapons and armor. Others cleared the camp itself of supplies: bags of grain and beans, great jars of wine and barrels of ale. One tent held all the gear for a smith's shop: anvils, hammers, tongs, bellows, and bars and disks of rough iron.
Most of this they carried into the storage cellars of the tower, each load tallied by a scribe from each company. Siger and Hofrin chose weapons to replace those damaged, and reserve supplies to take along. The enemy's mules were distributed to each company too, along with the feed for them.
From the talk she heard while working, Paks gathered that Siniava's army had come from the west. Before reaching this tower, they had taken those along the western border, and these were now garrisoned by Siniava's troops. But a survivor had escaped to warn the commander of the north watch, the Count of Andressat's son-in-law; when the enemy force arrived, it found the tower sealed and well defended. Clart scouts, riding ahead of the Halverics, had discovered the siege in progress, and the Halverics attacked the besiegers. Though heavily outnumbered, they had held the enemy close under the tower walls, where the Andressat archery could do its worst, until the rest of the Clarts and the Phelani arrived in force.
"They should have got out of here," said a Halveric corporal as he and Paks dragged sacks of grain across the tower court. "Only they thought they could break us and get rid of us—the fools—and we kept 'em busy enough they didn't think of anyone else."
"You had a rough time, then," said Paks.
"Oh—we fight close order, same as you. We just drew in and let 'em pound. We knew you was comin'. And we had some Clarts, to mess 'em about on the flanks."
"It's too bad they broke loose," muttered a Halveric private. "After what they did last year—"
"Too many of 'em," said the corporal. "We mauled 'em e