Caius nodded, some of his happiness fading. Now, the seasoned and deadly commander was starting to take over. “Of course,” he said. “It sounds serious.”
“It is.”
“Then follow me.”
Not another word was spoken as they headed back into the keep, up the wooden steps and into a single chamber at the entry. The keep was very tall, but every floor had no more than two rooms. Caius took them up a flight of narrow stairs, built into the wall, and emerged on the floor above the entry where there was one enormous room, cluttered with a table and chairs, weapons, and a variety of other things, all of it relevant to the commander of Richmond Castle.
It was his seat of power.
One of d’Avignon’s men had gone for food while a second man stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the chamber, guarding it from unauthorized persons. Kevin, however, had followed Alexander and Achilles and although Caius didn’t have any issue with his own men being part of a private meeting, he eyed Kevin dubiously as the man trickled in behind Achilles. Seeing where his attention was, Achilles made introductions.
“Cai, this is Kevin de Lara, another trusted Marshal knight,” he said. “Kevin has spent time in Canterbury with David de Lohr, but he has come with us on this most important task because we may need his excellent sword. He is quite trustworthy, I assure you.”
Caius’ dark gaze lingered on Kevin. “De Lara,” he repeated. “Are you related to Sean de Lara?”
Kevin nodded. “He is my brother, my lord.”
Caius scratched his chin and turned away. “I see,” he said. “I knew Sean years ago when I first returned from The Levant. He was a good man, but that was before he decided to baptize himself in John’s poison. What do they call him now? The Lord of the Shadows?”
Kevin kept his composure as they touched on the fragile subject of his brother. “All men must follow their own paths, my lord,” he said evenly. “Sean has chosen his.”
Caius pulled up a tall stool next to his table, which was cluttered with an array of maps, vellum, writing instruments, and more. “I am in no position to judge him, I suppose, given the sins of my past.”
“The Britannia Viper,” Kevin said. “I have heard.”
Caius smiled without humor and looked to his table, shuffling through the maps in front of him. It was clear that his nickname, and his past, wasn’t something he wanted to delve in to, so he changed the subject.
“Achilles,” he said. “Tell me of Maxton and Kress. They are married, you say?”
“Indeed, they are,” Achilles replied. “’Tis a long story, but they’ve both married well. Maxton is on the Welsh Marches with his wife and Kress is in Scotland with his. They seem to be quite happy.”
Caius grunted. “They must be remarkable women to take those two,” he said. “I never thought I would see the day when either of them took a bride.”
“It is true, I assure you.”
Caius simply lifted his eyebrows at the thought, astonishing as it was. But soon enough, his attention turned to Alexander. “Now,” he said. “You said you had something important to speak of, Sherry. What is it?”
Alexander, standing near the table, pulled up a chair of his own. “We have come to you with information you should be mindful of,” he said. “We were recently at Aysgarth Castle. Are you aware that there are about a thousand foreign troops there?”
Caius looked at him curiously. “Why were you at Aysgarth?”
Alexander cleared his throat softly, glancing at Achilles to see if the man wanted him to answer that question. Achilles, seeing that Alexander was uncertain about his reply, stepped forward.
“We were escorting Lady Susanna de Tiegh home,” he said. “Susanna serves William Marshal. For the past ten years, she has been a bodyguard to a Marshal ward living at Castle Rising in Norfolk. Susanna is a Blackchurch-trained knight, a fearsome woman the likes of which you have never seen, and we were serving together in a recent mission where she was wounded. When she was able to travel, we escorted her home to recuperate and that is where we saw at least a thousand men, not from England. We believe they are mercenaries and we returned to tell The Marshal, who then sent us to you to ensure you knew about this.”
Caius was listening carefully. After a moment he leaned forward on his table. “There is not much that happens in Yorkshire that I am not aware of,” he said. “I have heard about this, but I’ve not had confirmation. In fact, this has been something we have been dealing with for the better part of a year.”
“Dealing with what?” Achilles asked. “What is going on?”
Caius folded his enormous hands on the tabletop. “It all started a few years ago,” he said. “We started hearing tale that Samuel de Tiegh was taxing his vassals heavily, which isn’t too unusual with some of these local warlords. They do it to pay for their armies. But de Tiegh had very little army and even though he was taxing heavily, there was no clear reason why he would do such a thing other than the upkeep of Aysgarth. It’s an impressive fortress, but given his taxation demands, it suggested something more.”
“Upkeep of a fortress like that must be very expensive,” Achilles said. “We were there for an evening and we ate like kings. But what about the mercenary army he seems to have? He told Alexander that it does not belong to him.”
“I would believe that.”
“Why?”
Caius unfolded his hands and pointed to his map. “Do you see this?” he said. “This is Yorkshire and Lancashire, from Middlesbrough to Lancaster. This is the area of England that is narrowest from sea to sea. Richmond sits more towards Middlesbrough while Aysgarth sits right in the middle, in Wensleydale, as the largest and only fortress in that vale. It’s that vale that connects Yorkshire to Lancashire, making Aysgarth very strategic.”
Achilles, Alexander, and Kevin were bent over the map. “You think de Tiegh is preparing to overtake that pass for some reason?” Achilles asked.
Caius shook his head. “Not de Tiegh,” he said, moving his finger to the east until he came to rest just north of a large, dark area. “This is where Whorlton Castle sits, just north of the moors. The lord of Whorlton is a man named Witton de Meynell. I’ve met Witton on more than one occasion; the man has dreams of grandeur. Whorlton is a small castle belonging to an old family, and Witton is married to the daughter of the Count of Gotha. That is common knowledge in these parts. But my spies tell me that de Meynell is the one bringing over the Teutonic mercenaries.”
Achilles was very interested. “De Meynell,” he muttered, looking at Alexander. “The same knights we ran into at Skipton.”
Alexander recognized the name as well. Shaking his head in mild disbelief, he looked at Caius. “We had an incident with seven de Meynell knights at a tavern in Skipton,” he said. “We killed at least three of them and seriously disabled two or more. It was a bloody incident.”
“How long ago?” Caius asked.
Alexander shrugged. “Well over a month ago.”
Caius pondered that as he turned back to his map. “De Meynell is ambitious,” he said. “That is no secret in Yorkshire. He’s formed an alliance with de Tiegh and has sent some of the mercenary troops to Aysgarth. It’s my belief that he intends to take control of Wensleydale. He has at least a thousand men at Whorlton and another thousand at Aysgarth. With two thousand men, he could easily hold that pass… and more.”
“But why?”
Caius was staring at the map. “I believe it is the groundwork of what is to come,” he said ominously. “Rumor has it that de Meynell’s father-in-law is allied with the Duke of Brittany. In case you were unaware of the history of Richmond Castle, Brittany has held Richmond on occasion since the time of William the Bastard. Ownership has gone back and forth between Brittany and the crown several times and the crown only regained control of it about fifteen years ago. When Richard went on crusade and was allied with the King of France, Brittany held Richmond, but when Phillip was part of the abduction plot against Richard, Will
iam Marshal marched up here and tossed Brittany out. Now, I fear they want it back.”
“And you think this troop build up has something to do with regaining Richmond?” Alexander asked.
Caius nodded faintly. “I think it is a distinct possibility,” he said. “Being gutless and ambitious, I think that de Meynell is trying to be a very big player right now. If Gotha and Brittany are aligned, what better way to move on Richmond than to move mercenaries into Wensleydale and Yorkshire, building them up so there is a massive army to retake Richmond?”
“But what about taking control of Wensleydale?” Alexander wanted to know. “You mentioned controlling that vale.”
Caius thumped on the map where the vale was. “Look at what is directly north of the vale,” he said. “Bowes Castle. If Richmond is under siege, Bowes will send reinforcements. Controlling the vale means he can send men to intercept any help from Bowes. Juston de Royans would be unable to reach me.”
Alexander grunted in understanding. It was shocking and quite logical, the perfect military strategy. He looked to Achilles for his reaction, who had been absorbing everything said. Achilles, however, was still staring at the map.
“You still have Skipton and Netherghyll to the south,” Achilles said thoughtfully. “It would take tens of thousands of men to block those armies from coming to your aid. In fact, The Marshal sent a missive to Bryton de Royans about the situation with Aysgarth, so the man has been notified.”
Caius sat back on his stool. “That is good,” he said. “But Netherghyll is two days away should I need help. Bowes is less than a day. In any case, that is what I believe this build up is for. I do not think it has anything to do with rebelling barons. I think the target is Richmond Castle.”
Achilles shook his head as he realized what the man was saying. “And you have not told The Marshal this?”
“Not yet,” Caius said. “There is not much he can do at this point. I already have men coming up from Mount Holyoak Castle to the south to reinforce my ranks and also from Robert de Ros of Helmsley Castle, who is eager to get back into the king’s good graces. He can easily do that by helping fend off a siege of Richmond. I am unconcerned that I will have the manpower to fend off a substantial siege, but any such action will keep me bottled up in Richmond. If the mercenary army decides to storm through Yorkshire, I will be helpless to defend the countryside and the smaller castles.”
“Have you sent word to some of the smaller castles?”
Caius shook his head. “Not yet,” he said, “but that day is coming very soon. I will hold a meeting here at Richmond next month to discuss it with them so they will know what we are facing. At that point, I will send word to The Marshal. He will need to know what is happening in Yorkshire and we may very well need the bigger armies from the south – de Lohr, de Winter, de Vaston, du Reims. My only concern is that if they all march north to chase the mercenaries from Yorkshire, that leaves London and the south without adequate defense, but that is something William will have to worry over. Not me. I have my own problems at the moment but I believe they are manageable.”
It seemed as if Caius had things under control. This far north, men who served The Marshal had to think and act for themselves, which was exactly what Caius was doing. But now that the situation was outlined, that brought about the other reason they’d come to Richmond – the very woman without whose presence the mercenary army at Aysgarth would not have been discovered. Little did they know when they brought Susanna home that they were delivering her into a maelstrom of military turmoil.
Achilles cleared his throat softly.
“It seems that you have your finger on the pulse of what is happening around you,” he said. “I would expect nothing less from The Britannia Viper. But there is something more to our presence here, Cai. To my presence here.”
Caius folded his massive arms across his chest. “What is it?”
Achilles took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than he thought. “Remember I told you that Maxton and Kress have married?”
“Aye.”
“I want to marry, too.”
Caius eyebrows lifted with great interest. “Who?”
“Susanna de Tiegh. Samuel de Tiegh’s sister.”
That brought a smile of glee to Caius’ lips. “The Blackchurch-trained women? The one you told me you had escorted home to Aysgarth?”
“The same.”
Caius looked at him in confusion. “But I do not understand – if you want to marry her, why did you take her to Aysgarth and leave her there?”
Achilles scratched the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. “Well…” he said, paused, and started again. “I was not entirely sure I wanted to marry her until we were departing. I told her I would return and ask her brother for permission to marry her, but the situation is this – we had no idea of the chaos going at Aysgarth when we left her there. As far as Samuel de Tiegh knows, his sister served de Winter and has since left his service. He knows nothing about her serving William Marshal and we want to keep it that way. The Marshal has not denied me permission to return for her, but he feels that you would be better served to create a plan for her extraction since you know the situation with Aysgarth better than we do.”
He was somewhat stumbling over his words at that point and Alexander put a hand on his shoulder. “The Marshal does not want Achilles to go charging into Aysgarth, revealing Susanna’s true loyalties, and possibly getting them both killed in the process,” he said. “We need ideas, Cai. We must extract Susanna from Aysgarth, but we need ideas on how to do it. It is an extremely delicate situation.”
That was putting it mildly. Caius shook his head. “Christ, Achilles,” he muttered. “You’ve got quite a situation on your hands.”
Achilles nodded sheepishly. “I know,” he said. “But one way or another, I shall return for her. It is a promise I will keep.”
Caius scratched his head before standing up, clearly pondering the situation. “Samuel de Tiegh was a fairly innocuous lord until a couple of years ago when he and de Meynell became allies,” he said. “I have met Samuel on several occasions and found him rather bland. He even came to Richmond a few years ago and we feasted. I forget why; it does not matter, I suppose. But it is important to note that he has also never officially professed his hatred for the king or William Marshal. He has never even officially lauded his alliance with de Meynell, either; I have received that information from my local spies. Samuel de Tiegh is a rare case of a lord who does not seem to have any particular loyalties.”
“Except to de Meynell,” Achilles said.
“Exactly,” Caius said. Then, he drew in a deep breath, his expression thoughtful as he perused the map in front of him. “I suppose it would not be odd for me to travel to Aysgarth under the pretense of heading to Lancaster. I would simply be stopping for the night to seek shelter and perhaps a meal with de Tiegh. Everyone in Wensleydale knows that Aysgarth provides lavish feasts for their guests.”
“And we could go with you,” Achilles said, becoming increasingly excited. “Sherry and Kevin and I. But you would have to introduce us as newly-sworn knights to you, and insist that you do not know us well, because in order to distance ourselves from the Pembroke standards we were wearing when we escorted Susanna, we told de Tiegh that we had stolen them off of Pembroke knights.”
Caius grinned. “You did what?”
He started to chuckle and Achilles continued. “Because we saw the mercenaries, we did not want him to think we were Pembroke knights who would report such information to The Marshal,” he said. “I know it sounds foolish, but not knowing the situation, we were genuinely fearful he might not let us leave if he knew we served Pembroke. We concocted a great fabrication about stealing the Pembroke standards and heading north to pledge our fealty to the House of de Velt.”
Caius lifted his hands. “I am clearly not the House of de Velt.”
“Then we tell him that you made us an offer we could not refuse.”
“Good enough.”
Achilles stood up from his chair. “Cai, I am not going to ask for permission to marry Susanna at this point,” he said. “If her brother believes I am a wandering knight, a fool with no past and no future, he may very well deny me. With the turmoil that seems to be engulfing Aysgarth, it is my intention to simply spirit her out of there.”
“Steal her?”
“Aye.”
“So my going along is simply to distract de Tiegh from your true purpose.”
“Aye.”
Surprisingly, Caius didn’t take issue with that. He simply shrugged. “We did worse things in The Levant,” he said. “It will be like old times again – stealing women and creating havoc. But I will tell you now that I am taking my army with me, especially if you are going to steal de Tiegh’s sister. I will keep them out of sight, but they will be at the ready if we need them. I do not want to go into Aysgarth unprepared.”
Achilles nodded. “Agreed,” he said. “But know this – my intentions towards this woman are honorable. This is not a whim, Cai. This is… love.”
Caius’ eyes widened. “Love, is it?” he said. “God’s bones, Achilles, I never thought I would hear that from you. This must be a spectacular woman.”
“When you meet her, you will see.”
“Then let us not waste any time. We can make Aysgarth by nightfall if we leave within the hour.”
Achilles was more than ready. Food began to arrive at that point and the knights took their share, eating and talking, but mostly listening to Caius tell tall tales of The Levant and his adventures with the Executioner Knights. It seemed that there were three men officially dubbed the Executioner Knights, the Unholy Trinity by some, but there were more men that were part of that exclusive club, Alexander and Caius included. The adventures they had were wild adventures, indeed, but reliving them somehow fortified them and gave them strength. Stories and camaraderie that nourished souls, fed with the blood of fallen comrades and successful missions. Moments like these were what kept the Executioner Knights going, the thrill of duty of their chosen vocation.
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