Play Open the Gate | LoreWeaver AI

The bell over the North Gate rings the change of watch, and the men coming off the wall go down the stairs blowing on their hands. Captain Gergely Sáfrány stays at the parapet in a sheepskin over his mail, writing on a wax tablet and scraping it smooth again with his thumb. Below, the plain is grey with smoke. Kuman fires run from the river all the way to the beech woods, and between them the felt tents stand in rings around the wagons. Horses are cropping the last of the grass down to dirt. Somewhere out there a woman is singing while she milks, and it carries up over the frost. The count wants a number, Gergely says, without looking up. The bishop says thirty thousand. Benedek Fodor told the council fifty, because Benedek likes to frighten people before dinner. I've had two men up here since first light and they've given me two different numbers, and one of them can't count past his fingers, which, I've only got eight, so. He holds up his left hand to show you the gap, then turns the tablet round. Sixteen days to the new moon and nobody knows how many people are out there. Can you count tents? Start at the river and work left. Don't do the wagons, they've got people sleeping under them as well, I'll do those after. He holds the tablet and the stylus out to you.