Harken's army arrived on the sixth day, exactly when the system said it would.
Kai was already at the bridge.
He'd been there since before dawn, watching Oswin's crew make final adjustments to the structure with the focused quiet of men who understood that the thing they were building was going to be tested very soon and very seriously. The carpenter himself moved along the bridgehead without speaking, checking joints, testing tension points, occasionally crouching to look at something from underneath with an expression that gave nothing away.
Kai had learned not to ask Oswin questions before sunrise. The man needed silence to think and Kai needed Oswin thinking clearly more than he needed reassurance.
Brennan appeared at his shoulder as the first grey light hit the river.
"Outriders spotted two miles east," he said. "Moving slow. Scouting formation."
"How many?"
"Six."
Six outriders for a force this size is conservative. Harken's being careful. Kai filed that away. A careful Harken was a more dangerous Harken than an arrogant one, but a careful Harken was also one who'd seen the construction reports from his scouts and was approaching with questions he wanted answered before he committed.
Good. Questions meant hesitation. Hesitation meant time.
"Pull our people back from the eastern bank," Kai said. "I want Harken's outriders to cross the bridge, look at the structure, and ride back to report. Don't interfere with them."
Brennan stared at him. "You want to let them scout our position."
"I want them to see exactly what I want Harken to see."
"Which is?"
"An incomplete looking defence. Impressive enough to explain why we refused terms. Not impressive enough to justify caution." Kai looked at the bridgehead. "Oswin."
The carpenter looked up.
"Cover the eastern joints. Leave the western face visible."
Oswin looked at the structure, looked at Kai, and then did something Kai hadn't seen from him before. He nodded without arguing.
They pulled back.
The outriders came twenty minutes later.
Six men on good horses, the kind of horses that said their owner spent money on cavalry and meant it. They approached the bridge at a walk, crossed it slowly, fanned out along the eastern bank and looked at Oswin's structure from three angles with the professional attention of soldiers who'd been told to look carefully and report accurately.
Kai watched them from the tree line two hundred metres back.
Look at the western face. That's it. See the beams, see the height, assume the rest matches.
They looked at the western face for approximately two minutes. Then they rode back across the bridge and disappeared east.
Kai walked back to the bridgehead.
"They'll tell him it's a standard elevated barricade," Brennan said beside him. "Defensible but not extraordinary."
"Yes."
"Is that good?"
"It means he'll commit infantry without softening us with mages first." Kai looked at the bridge. "Mages are expensive. Harken won't waste them on something his infantry can handle." And if his infantry can't handle it, by the time he realises that, they'll already be across. "Get the men into position. I want everyone in place before his vanguard crests the hill."
Harken's vanguard appeared on the eastern ridge an hour later.
Even at distance it was impressive. Five hundred men moving in column, the morning light catching on spear tips and shield rims, the steady rhythmic sound of boots on packed earth carrying across the valley like something felt more than heard. Behind the infantry Kai could see the cavalry — forty, maybe fifty horses held back on the ridge, waiting.
He's keeping the cavalry in reserve, Kai noted. Smart. He knows the bridge won't take them. He's planning to use them after the infantry clears our position and the ford becomes viable again.
Except the ford wasn't going to become viable again. Not today.
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BATTLEFIELD OVERLAY: ACTIVE │
│ │
│ Enemy infantry: ~480 │
│ Enemy cavalry: ~50 (held in reserve)│
│ Enemy mages: 3 confirmed │
│ Chokepoint integrity: HOLDING │
│ Our position: CONCEALED │
│ Arrow range: READY │
│ Structure trigger: ARMED │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Aldric appeared at his left shoulder. Brennan at his right.
Neither of them said anything. There was nothing useful to say. The plan was set, the positions were locked, and the next hour would either prove Kai right or prove him dead.
Thermopylae held for three days, he thought. We only need one.
Harken's infantry reached the bridge approach and slowed. Kai could see the vanguard commander — a big man on a grey horse who was not Commander Veth, which meant Harken was sending someone sober first, which was sensible — surveying the western bank with professional suspicion.
Here it is. He's hesitating.
The hesitation lasted ninety seconds.
Then the vanguard commander raised his arm and the column started moving onto the bridge.
Two abreast.
Kai let out a slow breath.
Here we go.
The first hundred men crossed in just under five minutes.
They came off the bridge onto the western bank and immediately met Oswin's structure — a layered abatis of sharpened timber that funnelled them into a narrow approach corridor, steep enough on the flanks to make climbing awkward, positioned to keep any formation wider than four men from forming properly. The vanguard pushed into it with the practiced aggression of soldiers who'd done this before, shields up, spears probing.
From the elevated position on the western bank's ridge, Brennan's archers waited.
Kai watched the crossing count.
One hundred and forty men on the western bank. Still the system held. Still the archers held.
Wait.
One hundred and eighty. The bridge was packed now, men pressing forward from behind, the column bunching as the approach corridor slowed the flow. The vanguard commander was shouting something — pushing his men harder, frustrated by the pace.
Wait.
Two hundred and ten men. Just past the halfway point of Harken's infantry. The bridge was at maximum density — shoulder to shoulder, nowhere to go but forward or back, the cavalry watching uselessly from the ridge on the wrong side of an impassable ford.
Kai raised his hand.
Brennan's archers stood.
He dropped it.