Raven’s Rise

by Cole, Elizabeth

  “Did the man come back to the gate?” Rafe asked.

  “No. No, they walked west toward the woods, and then…no one saw anything.”

  “Angelet wouldn’t have just walked off,” Rafe muttered to Alric. “And certainly not with someone who was a stranger to her.”

  “Unless he told her something to get her to go with him. A threat.”

  “She was in the manor walls. She would have screamed.”

  “Then he tricked her?”

  “How?” Rafe burst out.

  “Her boy went missing too, you said.” Octavian turned to the guard. “How about the boy? Did he leave the manor this morning?”

  “Oh, a whole pack left. But they’re like wild animals, running about and chasing each other. I couldn’t say if he was among them.”

  Rafe shook his head. “Goswin and Angelet both left the manor, possibly with a stranger, and now no one has seen them for hours. That’s no coincidence. I have to find them.”

  “You’re not going alone,” Alric said.

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Of course I trust you, but two swords are better than one.”

  “Excuse me, but by that logic, three are better still,” said Octavian.

  Rafe regarded the other two knights. “You’re under no obligation. I brought all this here. I’ll deal with it.”

  “Don’t be an idiot.” Alric put a hand to Rafe’s shoulder. “We want to help.”

  “Yes,” Octavian agreed. “At least, I do. Sir Alric is obligated, because of that oath you three took. I’m just joining you out of Christian duty, and a desire to find a man who seems to have something against the lady Angelet. Who, from what I can tell, nobody could possibly hate.”

  “Well, someone does,” Rafe said.

  Alric said, “Then let’s go.”

  Soon the three rode out of Cleobury, fully armed and wearing chain mail. They had only a vague idea of where to search, and no proof that anything evil had befallen either Angelet or Goswin. But Rafe knew something was horribly wrong.

  * * * *

  Angelet had been confined for hours in a tiny hut, with the guard Ulmar posted just outside. Somehow, Ernald had found a deserted farmstead not far from Cleobury, and he’d spent the last few days watching the manor to see when and how he could send someone to steal Angelet away.

  If only she’d spoken to someone before leaving! Even a maid. Then they’d know. As it was there was no way Rafe would have any idea where she was, or that she was captured. “Sweet Mary, please help me,” she whispered. Then she sighed. Why would she merit help? She had just spent a night sinning in a church. If anything, this was a direct punishment for her actions.

  She bent her head. “I’m sorry. Forgive me, please.”

  “Why should anyone forgive you?”

  Angelet’s head snapped up, and she saw Bethany in the doorway. The former maid thrust half a loaf of bread toward her. “Eat.”

  She took the bread, ravenous since she’d missed the midday meal.

  “Bethany, I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here,” Angelet said, trying to reason with the maid.

  “God knows I’d rather he never found you,” Bethany agreed with a snort.

  “Then help me get away.”

  “Help you? Ernald would kill me.”

  “Only if he knew you had anything to do with it. Please.” She put a hand on Bethany’s arm, but the maid jerked her arm away.

  “Don’t touch me, you freak!”

  “You’re afraid of me?” Angelet asked, surprised. Bethany’s eyes, shifting between Angelet’s hand and her own sleeve, told her the truth. “You think you’ll get the same affliction, just by being near me? You’ve been my maid for years!”

  “And I hoped to never see you again!” Bethany hissed. “Why does he want you so?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never encouraged him.”

  “You draw him on with your aloofness then. Men always want what they are denied.”

  Angelet closed her eyes. “So it’s my fault if I encourage a man and it’s my fault if I discourage a man! I can’t win!”

  The maid sighed with vexation, but then said, “That’s truth, I grant you. Any woman knows that.”

  “Then as a woman, please help me out of this mess. I’ll slip away. Ernald will never find me again.”

  Bethany leaned closer. “All right. A deal. I’ll let you escape…if you tell me where the money is.”

  Frustration gnawed at Angelet. “I don’t know! I never did anything to the chest, and I was just as surprised as anyone when it broke open and there was no gold in it.”

  “You had the key. You must have done something.”

  “I swear I know nothing of it. I’d tell you if I did…all I want is to get away from here. I don’t care about any money.”

  “That’s what people who’ve always had money say,” Bethany said. “Still, I believe you. I bet it was the knight who took it.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know. Please, Bethany. It’s not that long until dark.” Until the time that Ernald threatened to force her to bed with him. Angelet shuddered.

  Bethany glanced behind her, then beckoned Angelet closer. In a low voice, she said, “I’ll draw Ulmar away from the door for a moment. Watch and sneak out. Go to the left and hug the side of the hut to hide behind it. Then you’re on your own. Head to the woods for cover. But if you’re caught again, it will be worse than before.”

  “Thank you,” Angelet breathed.

  “Just go quickly.”

  Bethany stepped outside, leaving the door cracked. She chatted with Ulmar, in that flirtatious way she had. The guard laughed at something she said, then the sounds of their conversation drifted away.

  Angelet, peeking through the opening, saw her moment. She slipped out and hurried to the back of the hut. She took a moment to get her breath and survey the land. No other buildings were in sight from this side, and the forest lay not far beyond. She could run.

  But that left Goswin alone. How could she abandon him? No, she’d have to bring him along somehow. She had a little time. The late afternoon light was still bright, and it was at least an hour until sunset, possibly more. Ulmar would assume she was safely in the hut, so he had no reason to sound the alarm.

  Angelet peeked around the other corner of the hut, toward the main farmhouse. Was that where Goswin was?

  She then looked toward the stables and saw a familiar figure. Not content with merely kidnapping him, they had put Goswin to work feeding and watering the horses. He was lugging a wooden bucket filled so full that water sloshed over the brim with every step. Then he disappeared into the darkness of the stable building itself.

  She waited until she saw another guard walk out the door, heading to the main farmhouse. Seeing nobody else, she picked up her skirts and ran around the perimeter of the open area until she reached the back of the stable building.

  There she leaned against the stone wall, trying to catch her breath. She heard no shouts, and it seemed that she had succeeded. She waited several moments more, but the quiet endured. The only sounds were the wind stirring the highest branches, and the twitterings of hidden birds. Angelet moved to where the stone wall of the building gave way to wood. In one spot, a plank was missing.

  “Goswin!” she called in a low voice.

  “My lady?” Goswin’s voice was excited. “Where were you? They wouldn’t say!”

  “In a hut, but I got free. Listen, we can wait until dark, then—”

  At that moment, a huge hand clamped down on her shoulder. She turned to see Ulmar standing over her.

  “Did you think it would be so easy?” he asked. “One of the men by the house saw you running.”

  He dragged her around to the front of the building, and she faltered when she saw Ernald approaching with several others, including Bethany, who regarded her with cold eyes.

  “I heard,” Ernald said, “that you were attempting to escape.”

  “Should I
have just sat there and accepted my fate?”

  Ernald just looked at her in confusion, and she realized that was exactly what he expected her to do.

  “You were stupid to go to the stable,” he said at last. “The woods would have hidden you.”

  “Goswin was in the stable.”

  “And you wanted to save him? Silly. You’d have got away if you hadn’t bothered with the boy.”

  “I wouldn’t have left without him.”

  “Well, now you won’t leave at all.” He grabbed Goswin, thrusting him toward Ulmar. “Tie the boy to the post and take his shirt off.”

  “What are you doing?” Angelet said.

  “You disobey, but he’s the one who will take the punishment. I’m whipping him ten times.” He retrieved a whip from inside the stable.

  “No!” Angelet tried to grab Ernald’s arm. “You can’t do that.”

  “Well, I can’t hurt your pretty flesh, Angelet. I have other uses for it. And you don’t want to be stripped bare to the waist in front of everyone, do you?”

  She followed him. “Ernald, please. I beg you. Don’t do this. I’ll never run away again. I promise.”

  He paused, flicking the whip against the ground, where the end of it twisted like a snake. “Promise? You give me your word?”

  “Yes. I swear it. Leave Goswin alone. He did nothing.”

  “What if you’re lying, Angelet? You planned to run away, didn’t you?”

  “I give you my word I won’t ever again. Please.”

  “You’re sweet when you beg, Angelet. Very well.”

  She sighed in relief.

  Then, without warning, Ernald swung the whip in an arc, directly toward Goswin’s unprotected back.

  Goswin screamed once, a high piercing shriek that split the air. A bright red welt appeared on his back.

  “No!” Angelet shouted. “Why did you do that? I promised!”

  “A little reminder that if you break your promise, others will suffer.”

  She broke past two guards in the way and rushed to Goswin. She fumbled at the rope until it came untied. “I’m so sorry, Goswin. Oh, Lord, you’re bleeding.”

  “It’s nothing, my lady,” Goswin said, fighting back tears.

  “I’ll get the wound tended.”

  “Don’t make pronouncements you can’t keep, Angelet.” Ernald stood above them. “You’re not in charge.”

  “Then you can tell someone to tend his wound!” she said.

  Ernald sighed. “You’re almost more trouble than you’re worth.”

  “How much is that?”

  He laughed. “That depends. Though even if I don’t recover the money, I’ll still get you to that nunnery, and soon. After your behavior with that knight, you ought to be locked away, to restore the tarnish you’ll bring to our family. Then I’m going to Northampton, where the king will hold his Easter court. That will be my opportunity to make an impression. My father has been holding me back long enough. I’m sick of it.”

  “So you’ll tell the king that you fixed Otto’s mistake, and that’s why you deserve to run Dryton?”

  “Possibly. Or the king might offer me another position. Or a wife.”

  “Kings don’t just hand out rewards,” she said in disgust. “You need to earn them. Prove your loyalty.”

  “Don’t lecture me on loyalty, woman.”

  Just then, one of the soldiers in Ernald’s retinue gave a shout. “Someone’s approaching!”

  “Send them away!” Ernald growled.

  “Armed!”

  That got everyone’s attention. They all looked to the track leading west, the access point of the isolated farm to the main road.

  “My lady,” Goswin said. But Angelet had already seen the same thing.

  On the road, on a small rise so the sunlight shone behind him and turned him into a silhouette, was a black-clad knight on an equally black horse.

  “Rafe,” she murmured. The image was so similar to the one she saw in her visions that she wondered if a seizure was imminent.

  Then the horse reared once, and Rafe began to ride directly toward her.

  Chapter 31

  Earlier that day, the knights had made one discovery very quickly—a group of boys ran toward Alric, shouting that one of their number couldn’t be found.

  “We’ve been looking for ages!” one shouted.

  Rafe asked, “Was it Goswin?”

  “The new boy, yes!”

  “Where did you see him last? Were there any others in the woods today?”

  The boys conferred, and reported that a big man asked one of the boys the way to Cleobury, and if they were at hide and seek—which prompted the boy to start exactly that game. The man had been armed, and he was described as a giant.

  “A stranger,” Alric said under his breath. “And a giant, if he’s bigger than Peter, as the guard described. He must have watched the boys playing and took Goswin when he was hiding during the game.”

  “But where?”

  The boys directed the knights to the area of the woods where the game had been played. There, they found evidence of several people walking. That led to a clearing, where they found signs that a whole group of people had been there, with horses and all.

  “Too many riders,” Octavian said. “Too many to be hiding out in the woods, that is.”

  “They were afraid to use the road this close to Cleobury,” Alric agreed. “We’ll have to track this backwards. They might have gone through Bournham without resorting to stealth. We’ll ask if a party of this size rode through today, and which direction.”

  In the nearby village of Bournham, where Alric was very well known, several residents told him that a party of at least ten men came through in the morning, and then again later in the day.

  “There were women too,” added Margaret Dyer, whose giant tubs of fabric dye sat in the yard of her business. She always saw who passed by, since her work kept her outside much of the day. “One or two, I think. Odd, for the men looked to be soldiers. They rode out the north way.”

  Alric thanked her, and they rode on.

  “North could be anywhere,” Octavian said. “They could be hours away by now.”

  “We’ll keep looking till we find a reason to stop,” Rafe said. He hated to think that Angelet was getting further from him by the moment. Why had he wasted a whole morning talking to everyone but her?

  “There’s a place I’ve got in mind,” Alric said suddenly. “If they’ve been following you, Rafe, they might have come across it. You wouldn’t have noticed on your ride here—you had other concerns.”

  At Alric’s instruction, the three men rode toward the abandoned farm he told them about, one that had yet to gain another owner after two years of neglect. “They might be using it, if they needed to stay close for a few days.”

  The knights rode on. Though anxious to reach their destination, Rafe still had the impression that someone was following them. He looked back often, but saw no one. He decided that he’d been trailed for so long he no longer had any ability to forget the feeling—he would simply have to get used to the creeping sensation of being followed for the rest of his life.

  The bright sun crawled across the sky, then began to drop toward the horizon. Rafe felt that everything was taking too long. It took too long to discover Angelet’s absence. Too long to hear about Goswin. Too long to prepare to ride out.

  Then, Alric pulled his horse to a stop where the road climbed a small rise, obscuring the other side. The others followed suit.

  “The farm is up ahead, just beyond this hill. It’s possible they took Lady Angelet there.”

  Octavian nodded, saying, “We should plan how to approach the place.”

  “Here’s the plan,” Rafe interjected, already nudging his horse to the front. “I’m riding directly there. If I see anyone I don’t like, I’m killing them. You two can follow me.” He kicked once and was off.

  “You used to make better plans!” Alric called after him.


  Rafe didn’t care. Hitting the top of the rise, he reined Philon in so he could judge the scene before him. The startled horse reared once.

  “Stop that,” Rafe muttered. He saw a farm below, where people moved about. He nudged Philon once, and the horse sped down the slope toward the ramshackle clutch of buildings. A small group of people stood near what looked to be the stables, and a few more were emerging from the house. Several horses cropped grass in a paddock.

  One of the figures wore a pale blue gown. Angelet. She was being held in place by a huge hulk of a guard. But her eyes were on Rafe.

  He picked out the other figures, identifying the irritating Ernald, as well as the maid Bethany, and Goswin. The other men looked like hired soldiers.

  Rafe jumped down from his horse, drawing his sword.

  “Ernald!” he yelled. “This is your doing?”

  The lordling lifted his chin into the air. “You shouldn’t have come after us. You shouldn’t have taken Angelet away in the first place. Made my life quite inconvenient these past few weeks.”

  “I offered to fight you before, at Dryton,” Rafe said to Ernald. “I won’t wait any longer.”

  “Don’t be absurd,” Ernald retorted. “You’re alone, and I’ve got ten men with me. In fact,” he added, raising his voice, “the first person to kill you will get an extra reward!”

  “No,” Angelet protested. But her cry was drowned out by the shouting of others. Some came from the soldiers who stepped forward to fight Rafe. Another was a cry of dismay, howling that two more riders were coming.

  Rafe turned to see Alric and Octavian galloping toward them.

  “Ah. Reinforcements,” he told Ernald.

  “Not enough. Anyway, you can’t do anything while I’ve got Angelet under my command. One word from me and she dies at Ulmar’s hand.” He nodded toward the big man, who stood by Angelet, his blade drawn.

  Then Ernald’s expression changed. He was looking at Angelet with puzzlement. “What in hell are you smiling about, woman?”

  Angelet was indeed smiling. Though she faced Ernald, her eyes didn’t seem quite focused on him, but rather on a distant point. She lifted one hand and pointed toward Ernald. “I see you,” she said, speaking slowly.