Windemere, p.22
Windemere, page 22
part #5 of Archer of the Heathland Series
“And the money we extracted from the Selgraves,” Kamil added.
“So, in other words,” Jannik said as he passed a pensive hand over his beard. “They’re going to pay us to get us out of the castle, and then they’re going to rob us and kill us one way or another.”
“I think so,” Redmond said. “Which is why we should leave tonight. We rotate the guard on the gates, the tunnel, and the sewer so the men can get some rest. I don’t want any more uninvited guests.”
“What about the wagon?” Kamil asked.
Redmond studied him. “You think they might smuggle someone in with the wagon?”
“I would,” Kamil said.
Jannik gave Kamil a sideways glance. Redmond had thought that Jannik might be overcoming his distrust of Kamil, but that glance was full of suspicion. He considered asking what was bothering him but decided against it.
“Right,” Redmond said, “then the wagon stays off the bridge on the outside of the barbican. We’ll unload it from there.”
“If it comes,” Rollo said.
The wagon did arrive an hour later with a guard of fifty men clad in mail bearing the royal coat of arms. Redmond met it on the same spot where he entertained the King.
“We were ordered to deliver it into the castle,” the leader of the guard said.
“This will do,” Redmond said. “We’ll unload it from here.”
“But my orders were—” the man said.
“No one is entering the castle until tomorrow,” Redmond talked over him.
The men exchanged glances but apparently were unwilling to risk a battle so close to the walls where over one hundred archers stood ready.
“You’ll answer to the King,” the guard said.
“I understand,” Redmond said.
The guard’s desire to enter the castle made Redmond even more suspicious. Maybe Kamil was right. He kept an eye on the guards as he reached to remove the canvas covering. Their horses pranced as if their riders were transmitting nervousness to them. Redmond paused, then flipped the canvas away.
He tensed, expecting men to leap from the wagon, but nothing happened. Iron-bound boxes filled the bed of the wagon. Maybe he had been too paranoid. He signaled to the archers to come unload it. Twenty-five of them stepped out onto the bridge. Within half an hour, they had unloaded all the boxes, and Redmond started to relax when something caught his eye.
The last archer in the line had fresh soil marks on his knees. Redmond tried to remember if any of his men had knelt down while retrieving the boxes, but he was certain none of them had. They were stacking the boxes in the barracks which had wooden floors, so why would any of them have wet stains on the knees of their trousers?
“Stop,” Redmond called and drew his sword. The men paused and glanced back. The one with the wet stains faced him.
Redmond strode up to him.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
The man tried to appear shocked and confused by the question.
“Captain?” he questioned.
Now that Redmond could see his face, he knew this man was not one of his archers or one of the men that had joined them from the dungeons.
“Set the box down,” Redmond said. Jannik jogged out to see what the matter was. He clutched his big hammer, ready for action.
The man set the box down and raised his hands. “What’s going on?” he said. “I didn’t steal any of the money.”
“You recognize him?” Redmond asked Jannik.
Jannik peered at him. “No,” he said.
“Me neither,” Redmond said and gestured toward the waiting guard with his sword. “You had better rejoin your men,” he said.
“Captain Redmond—” the man began, but Redmond interrupted him.
“My men don’t call me captain,” Redmond said.
Uncertainty swept over the man’s face, and Jannik shot out a hand and collared him.
“Wait,” the man said.
The clatter of hooves sounded as the guard rode onto the bridge. Redmond whirled to face them.
“He’s under the King’s protection,” the guard said.
Jannik gave the intruder a shove, and he stumbled toward the men on horseback. “Then take him back to the King,” he said.
“And tell the King,” Redmond said, “that this treachery is beneath him. We negotiated in good faith.”
The guard snorted. “You’re simple thieves,” he spat.
Jannik stepped toward him, his hammer raised, but Redmond restrained him.
“Take your wagon and leave,” Redmond said.
The guard whirled as the intruder climbed up in the wagon beside the driver.
“It’s like you often say,” Jannik remarked loudly. “You can never trust a noble.”
Redmond turned to follow his men back into the castle when Jannik placed a hand on his arm. He bent close.
“How did he know?” he whispered.
“Who?”
“Kamil,” Jannik said. “How did he know they would be smuggling someone inside the wagon?”
“What are you getting at?” Redmond asked.
Jannik glanced up at the walls as if to see if Kamil was spying on them.
“I saw him leaving the keep two days ago.”
“So?”
“So what was he doing in the keep—if not conspiring with Baron Otto?”
Redmond scowled. “I think you’re letting your dislike of foreigners confuse your thinking.”
Jannik’s gaze darted to the gate and back to Redmond’s face. “And you’re too trusting. I saw him coming out the keep when he had no business there. Where was he when you were meeting with the King?”
Redmond shrugged, but he couldn’t remember seeing Kamil immediately before or after he met with the King. Kamil had come up to them from the direction of the inner ward.
“No,” Redmond said, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe it of any of his men—certainly not Kamil.
“Well you had best keep an eye on him,” Jannik said. He patted his sledgehammer. “Me and Bessie won’t be far away.”
Adelaide refused to stand as the King’s emissary entered her tent. She knew the man well. He had been a frequent visitor at her father’s manor in Metz and is castle in Beck Wood. The King probably chose him for that reason—assuming a childhood acquaintance might make her more malleable.
Marquess Leo Brom of Langon smiled at her. His beard had grown longer in the intervening years. Gray now streaked his long dark hair. He peered down at her over his hawkish nose. A blue robe with pointed sleeves nearly concealed his hands. Lady Selgrave had never liked him.
“Adelaide,” he said as if he had real affection for her. “You look lovely.”
Lady Selgrave glowered. “Have you come to mock me?” she asked.
Leo pulled back as if surprised. “Of course not,” he said. “The King sends you his best wishes and an offer.”
“The King has interfered in a personal matter,” she insisted, “and has humiliated me and the Baron by coming to oppose us with an army in our own lands and purchasing our castle from a band of ruffians and outlaws.”
Leo bestowed a fatherly smile upon her. “Now, don’t be like that,” he said. “The King came to help you out of a difficult situation.”
“I’m no longer a child,” Lady Selgrave said.
“Any man can see that,” he said. His gaze swept over her body. Normally, this gave her a sense of power over men, but not this time. She shivered in disgust.
“What do you want?”
Rubbing his hands together as if he were enjoying himself, Leo said, “The King sends his greetings as I said and his best wishes for your good health.”
Lady Selgrave raised her eyebrows at the meaningless formalities and waved a hand at him to hurry up.
“King Rupert has purchased Castle Windemere for 200,000 gold coins.”
“So little?” Lady Selgrave said. “Those archers are fools.”
“Perhaps,” Leo continued, “but the King would like to return the castle to its proper owners.”
“Why hasn’t he sent emissaries to Baron Otto?” Lady Selgrave knew better than to trust King Rupert.
“Because, the archers have refused anyone admittance to the castle while they hold it, and you are in command of the Baron’s army, for the time being.”
Lady Selgrave narrowed her eyes. That could only mean the King wanted her army for something. She was not sending them to the frontier to be wasted on the useless border wars under any circumstances.
“However,” Leo continued, “the King could use your help in a tiny matter.”
Lady Selgrave waited tight-lipped.
“The King can ill afford the 200,000 gold coins at present and would like to recover them.”
Now it was coming clear. Lady Selgrave sat up straighter. The King was going to be duplicitous as always.
“He also knows the archers extorted 10,000 gold coins from you and assumes you might like to have that money returned.”
“Of course,” Lady Selgrave said.
“The King will return the Castle of Windemere to its rightful owners under the following conditions. First, you agree to assist him in recovering the gold from the archers. And second, you and Baron Otto withdraw your opposition to the head tax.”
Lady Selgrave scowled. “The King wastes our resources and men on a war he cannot win,” she said. “And he still holds lands that he stole from us without cause.”
The Marquess gave her his paternal smile again. “And you are wasting resources and men here when a simple payment could have solved the problem. Please remember that your father knew he was playing with fire when he arranged your wedding, and he was willing to take the risk. The King could hardly turn a blind eye to such an insult, as you well know. Consider it the price of being allowed to become a baroness as well as a countess rather than some lower lord’s plaything.”
“How dare you!” Lady Selgrave lunged to her feet.
Leo continued that irritating smile.
“Your father would advise you to accept the King’s offer,” he said, “especially given the fact that you have no other options. If you refuse, the King will imprison Baron Otto for sedition and rebellion and for the murder of the lords who died while under his protection.”
“The archers murdered them when they attacked the castle,” Lady Selgrave insisted.
The Marquess gave her a simpering smile and clasped his hands together. “You and I both know those archers had no cause to kill men for whom they could have received large ransoms. The King has also seen the bodies. The lords were not killed by archers, they were poisoned while feasting at Baron Otto’s board.”
“I was there,” Lady Selgrave said. But her continued defiance was getting her nowhere.
“You may maintain the charade,” he said. “But the King knows the truth. You accept his offer, or he will have you both arrested for murder and sedition.”
“He can’t do that.”
“He can, and you’ll find that the lords who have gathered to you will quickly disappear once they learn the truth of how you have manipulated them. I believe you will find that once a woman develops a reputation of being vengeful, only the naïve or despicable will follow her.”
“Oh, all right!” Adelaide said and sat down again. “What to do you want me to do?”
“The King cannot attack the archers as he has finalized a truce with them, but you and the other nobles remain free to act. The archers are expected to surrender the castle tomorrow. They will most likely travel with Baron Longmire to the coast. Baron Longmire has instructions not to intervene should you intercept them. You may then take whatever vengeance you desire and what monies may be yours. The rest is to be returned to the King.”
Lady Selgrave smiled now for the first time since the Marquess entered her tent. “For once, the King’s priorities and mine seem to have aligned,” she said. “Will I be given complete freedom to deal with all the archers as I see fit?”
“You mean their leader? What’s his name? Redmond, I think?”
“Yes,” Lady Selgrave said.
“He is your plaything,” Leo said. “The King will turn a blind eye, so long as his terms are met.”
Lady Selgrave nodded. “I accept.”
As the shadow of evening spread over the castle, Redmond stepped into the mews behind the apothecary shop with the thick leather glove on his hand. He had no experience working with hawks, but he couldn’t leave these birds here to starve or leave them to the Baron—not after seeing how much Emilia and Tal cared about them. He held a piece of meat in the gloved hand the way Emilia had done.
He untied the hawk from its perch, held up his hand, and whistled. The hawk jumped to his hand with a flutter of wings and tore at the meat. Redmond carried it outside and threw his hand up. The hawk took off with a jingle of the bells tied to its tail. Redmond watched it soar up over the curtain wall with its jesses trailing behind. Then he did the same with the other hawk. Would Emilia and Tal see them fly and know he had been thinking of them?
The men emptied the Baron’s stables of horses and collected enough from the battlefield so every man, injured or whole, had a mount. Redmond would not leave his injured men behind for Adelaide to torture. Each archer filled his saddlebags with his share of the treasure. That way, those who survived would still be able to profit, and it would make it that much more difficult for the King or Lady Selgrave to reclaim the money if they tried. It also meant his men could be mobile without the need to worry about cumbersome wagons. They had packed what food was left—and there was precious little of that. They would have to scavenge off the land as they rode.
Each man carried one hundred twenty arrows, a bow, a sword, and a shield. Redmond had also seen that at least half of them had a lance, spear, or pike. All of them now wore a mail hauberk and a steel helmet scavenged from the dead.
They hadn’t had time to repair the mail shirts that had holes where the bodkin points had torn the rings apart, but that would hardly matter. At least his men were as well armored as the men-at-arms they would face in open country. And he knew pursuit was inevitable.
Redmond strode through the outer ward. He had two more visits to make before he left the castle. One of his men still guarded the dungeon, and he opened the door for Redmond. The dungeon retained the moldy smell mixed with the powerful stink of sweat and human waste. Redmond’s boots scraped against the damp stone floor as he descended holding a torch aloft. He let himself into the room where Dacrey was kept.
Dacrey stirred and blinked up at him but didn’t try to rise. He was chained to the wall and slouched on a pile of straw. Redmond wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant smell.
“Finally come to gloat, have you?” Dacrey said.
“No,” Redmond replied. “I wouldn’t waste my time on you. But I thought I should tell you as a matter of honor that we have sold the castle to King Rupert. He has been informed of your treachery, and you will be delivered to Baron Longmire tomorrow.”
“That’s noble of you,” Dacrey said. “Why didn’t you kill me with the rest of them?”
“Because I don’t kill men who are defeated,” Redmond said.
Dacrey scoffed at him. “You’re a fool,” he said. “Lady Selgrave will have your head before the end.”
“Speaking of Lady Selgrave,” Redmond said. “What can you tell me about her plans?”
“Ah, I see,” Dacrey said. “You’re hunting for information you can sell to the King.”
“I now have more money than I can spend,” Redmond said. “My only interest is in getting my men out safely.”
“I don’t know anything,” Dacrey sneered. He shifted, making his chains rattle.
“Was she planning on dethroning the King?” Redmond asked.
Dacrey peered up at him with a surprised and thoughtful expression.
“She never told me,” he said. “She said if I helped her, she would support my claim to Longmire.”
“Why Longmire?” Redmond asked.
“Leave me alone,” Dacrey said.
“If you help us, I will speak for you to the King and the Baron.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Okay,” Redmond said. “Then, with any luck, we will never meet again.”
Redmond closed the door behind him and climbed the stairs, pondering on the ability of the promise of power or wealth to make men and women do terrible things—to betray people who trusted them. He stepped out into the warm evening air and strode toward the keep. He needed to pay one more visit to Baron Otto before leaving the castle.
The man the King tried to smuggle inside disturbed him. One spy like that could have caused a lot of trouble, such as warning the King of their plans to sneak away or leaving signs to lead the King’s men to them, poisoning the cistern, or simply opening one of the gates.
All of those potential tragedies had been avoided for now, by the mere luck of wet knee stains. The spy must have dropped from the wagon as it passed behind the rubble of the barbican and waited there, kneeling in the mud, to join the archers who came to unload the wagon. It had not escaped his mind that King Rupert and Baron Dragos could be conspiring together.
As Redmond approached the keep, he remembered the first time he entered there as an unarmed prisoner anxious to save his men. Now he came as a conqueror, ready to flee for his life because he couldn’t hold the castle forever.
He found Baron Otto dressed in a long black tunic, reclining before the fire with some ponderous tome he had acquired from somewhere.
“How are you feeling?” Redmond asked.
The Baron glanced at him and grunted. “I’ll soon be well enough to go into battle,” he said.
“That’s encouraging,” Redmond said. “Fortunately for us, we will be gone from here tomorrow, and you can haggle with the King for the return of your castle.”
Now the Baron looked up. “Tomorrow?” he said.
“Baron Longmire has offered to escort us back to his lands,” Redmond said.
Baron Otto sniffed. “Good riddance,” he said. “I hope you’ll have the honor to leave the homes and shops undamaged. My servants and peasants have done nothing to you.”
Redmond smirked. “We don’t make war on innocent people,” he said. “Nor do we enslave them and send them to die in the mines.”
