Mara Ironfoot had the depot's layout drawn on the oilskin before Brekk finished asking his second question.
She drew it from memory, because she had walked the ground itself two seasons ago, before the Threians occupied it. The shelf the depot sat on was a defensible rise with a near sheer drop on its eastern face, which was why the Threians had chosen it.
What the Threians had inherited along with the defensible rise was the stream sixty feet below it. It was the only water source within half a day's travel of the position.
"They did not dig a well," she said. "The shelf is solid rock under a thin soil layer. A well was never an option for them."
Brekk looked at the drawing. "So they haul."
"They built a winch. A counterweight frame over the eastern drop, cable down to the stream, containers up on the cable."
She tapped the drawing. "I watched it work twice from the ridge above. Two operators, four containers per cycle, six cycles a day for a garrison that size."
