Starless

by Kathryn Le Veque

  Achilles grunted. “I would say so,” he said. “The family has been around since the days of William the Bastard. If there is a war, they are in the forefront of it. Did you actually go to battle with them?”

  Susanna sighed faintly. “Nay,” she said. “I was left behind to protect the women. Always to protect the women. I have confession to make.”

  “What is that?”

  “Other than small skirmishes, I have never fought in a major battle.”

  “Why not?”

  “No one would let me. I am a woman, after all.”

  “But you are Blackchurch-trained.”

  “It does not matter to most.”

  Achilles fell silent for a moment. “You are as skilled as any man I have ever seen, Sparks. I promise that I will let you fight in any battles that I am in command of.”

  “Would you?”

  “I said I would.”

  “I have never wished so hard for a future battle in all my life.”

  Achilles laughed softly. “Unfortunately, I am not usually in charge of battles, but Alexander is. He is a natural leader, much as Maxton of Loxbeare is.”

  “I have never met Maxton. What is he like?”

  “He is the meanest man you will ever meet,” Alexander said groggily, unable to sleep any longer because of the talking going on. “But he is also one of the fairest commanders you will ever know. He is the unofficial leader of the Executioner Knights, a man known for the strength of his sins as well as the strength of his accomplishments.”

  “You will meet him someday soon,” Achilles said. “Maxton and Kress and I could never stay apart for very long, so there will be a time soon when we reunite.”

  “And Sherry, too?”

  “Sherry, too.”

  Alexander shifted around in the darkness. “As much as I would love to be part of this joyful reunion, there will not be one if we do not figure a way out of the situation we are in,” he said. “I can only imagine it is another hour or so until dawn, so we must speak on such things and do it quickly. We must have a plan of action.”

  It had been the subject Susanna and Achilles had been trying to avoid speaking of, as foolish as that was. It was the axe hanging over their heads, the storm that was looming on the horizon. They knew it was coming.

  They couldn’t ignore it.

  “I know,” Achilles finally said. “In truth, I have been thinking about it all night. Cai bought us some time by demanding that the battle take place at dawn. That took de Meynell’s focus away from us, however briefly.”

  “He told Kevin to bring the men at dawn,” Alexander said quietly. “He is waiting for that moment so, until then, we must do all we can to delay anything serious.”

  “There is no question,” Achilles said staunchly. “I will simply refuse to fight her.”

  “If you do, then he may pick someone else to do it. He will probably select me.”

  “And?”

  “And if I refuse to fight her, he may start stabbing Coverdale again. He is not beyond such motivation.”

  “I do not want to see my brother injured,” Susanna spoke up, moving over to the edge of the cell, a cage that shared a common wall with the cell that Achilles and Alexander were in. “One of you must fight me. If you do not, then de Meynell might even pit me against one of his men who, I am sure, would follow his orders to fight me to the death.”

  Achilles had heard her chain rattle and now, her voice was very close. He felt his way over towards her cell in the darkness, coming to the slats of the iron cage and reaching through. He found her arm and she instantly latched on to him with both hands. That warmth, that connection, was electric. It fed and fortified him like nothing else he had ever known.

  “I will do it,” he said softly. “Have no fear, Sparks. It will be me and I will drag it out until Kevin and Morgan come charging in to save us.”

  “But we will have to make sure that it looks as if we are giving effort,” she said. “I do not want him to think we are making light of the whole thing.”

  Achilles scoffed. “You and I have been fighting without hurting one another since the day we met,” he said. “Remember the tavern in Heckington? We spent the better part of an hour rolling around on the floor, making it look as if we were hurting one another.”

  “I was hurting you.”

  “You were not. In any case, that is what we shall do again – drop the swords and charge one another. We can make a fist fight last much longer and it is far more entertaining.”

  He couldn’t see her smiling in the darkness. “Are you sure you want to engage in close quarter brawling with me again? I nearly ripped your ears off the last time.”

  “I was screaming in pain to feed your pride. It did not really hurt.”

  She started to laugh, as did he. On the other side of Achilles, Alexander groaned. “Christ, you two are sickening,” he said. “Achilles, you know damned well she was hurting you and Susanna, if he’d wanted to disable you, he could have at any time. He was holding back because you are a woman, so do not get any foolish notions of superiority. You were winning because he was letting you and I have seen the man in battle enough to know that. But I will tell you this – it was convincing, all of it, so if you can repeat that battle for de Meynell, do it. Do it long enough for the Richmond army to make an appearance.”

  The laughter faded at the reality and truth of Alexander’s words. Achilles squeezed Susanna’s hands as she placed her cheek on the back of is big mitt. All jesting aside, the situation was critically real and they all knew it.

  “We will do what needs to be done,” Achilles muttered. “We can only pray that Kevin is able to get in or Cai is able to stop this madness. I will not consider the alternative.”

  Although Alexander wanted to discuss that possibility, he refrained. There was no point. If it came to that, all would be at an end and there would be no recovery, so he let the conversation die. They knew the situation and they knew the stakes. All they had to do was hold out until the Richmond army arrived.

  If it arrived.

  Surprisingly, it was Susanna who brought up what Alexander could not. Or perhaps not so surprising, considering she had the most to lose.

  “But what do we do if the worst comes?” Susanna asked quietly. “If d’Avignon cannot stop what is about to happen and his army cannot come to our aid, what do we do?”

  Achilles squeezed her hand again. Usually, he was the emotional one, the aggressive one who made decisions based on impulse. That had been his problem his entire life. But in this case, there was time to think about the situation and consider all scenarios. He didn’t want to think about a scenario where the Richmond army was delayed, or worse, prevented from coming to their aid, but Susanna had asked a question about something he didn’t want to consider. He had no choice and his guts were starting to churn with apprehension.

  “Whatever we do will not be to the death,” he said firmly. “Sherry will help us, as will Cai. It will not come to that. Somehow, we will escape. But, Susanna… you must consider that we may not be able to take Samuel with us. I know you are worried for your brother and it does not make any of us happy that de Meynell tries to control you by threatening Samuel, but you may have to face the fact that he will have to remain behind. Are you willing to do that?”

  Susanna was in a bind. Of course, she didn’t want to leave her brother behind. But on the other hand, she wanted very much to leave with Achilles, to become the man’s wife and live a long and healthy life with him if the opportunity presented itself. But that might entail leaving her brother behind. As she thought on it, she knew she could only come up with one answer –

  She couldn’t.

  In her heart, she knew she couldn’t.

  “Sammy is my brother,” she said, feeling tears sting her eyes. “We shared a womb together. It has always been the two of us, even when years separated us. I cannot leave him behind knowing what de Meynell would do to him, Achilles. I am sorry if that is not the
answer you were seeking, but it is an honest one. Much as I would not leave you behind, I will not leave Samuel behind, either. Would you leave one of your brothers behind?”

  Achilles shook his head, though she could not see it. “Nay,” he said. “I could not. But if it comes down to it and we are able to get free and he is not, would you not take that chance? Remaining behind with him does not ensure his survival. Quite the contrary if de Meynell is willing to use Samuel to control you.”

  “Your brother would want you to go,” Alexander said in support of Achilles. “Much as you would want him to go if he had the chance to be free. You must think on it that way; remaining will not help him and he will suffer the guilt of knowing you remained because of him. This is a situation with no winners, Susanna. But in the end, you must do what is best for you. No one will fault you for it.”

  The tears were starting to flow. “I simply do not know if I can leave him.”

  Achilles was still holding her hand. “I hope it does not come to that,” he whispered. “But know this; no matter what you decide, know that I love you. That will never change, Sparks. From the beginning of time until the end of all things, I will love you just as I do now. Nothing can destroy that.”

  That only made her tears fall faster. She opened her mouth to reply but a noise from the vault entry stopped her. Someone had opened the door and the faint glow of light could be seen. Footfalls were heard, the sound of many boots, and with the light behind them, Susanna and Achilles and Alexander were able to make out several figures entering the vault. The fact that there was light streaming through the doorway told them everything they needed to know.

  Dawn had arrived.

  The time had come.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The sounds of water rushing was quite loud, drowning out any noise from their movements, which was fortunate. They didn’t want to be heard. As Kevin and fifty Richmond men moved across the river upstream from the falls, everything about their movements were masked by the flowing waters of the River Ure.

  Kevin and his men had been ready to move the moment a ribbon of pink on the eastern horizon signaled the approach of dawn. As soon as they saw it, they made haste into that freezing river, using the rocks to cross as much as they could, before disappearing into the trees on the other side.

  Luckily for them, no one had cut back the trees from the Aysgarth Castle for more than twenty years. There were stumps all around where the trees had been cut down in years past, but those were old markings of what had once been maintained land surrounding the castle.

  As it was, the current Baron Coverdale had allowed trees to grow again and, being so close to the river, those trees had an endless supply of water and grew up strong and tall very quickly. Kevin had been scoping out his path for most of the night, at least from what he could see in the darkness, and he wasn’t surprised to see that the trees ran right up to the moat. In fact, there were trees growing in the moat itself, which was a swampy mess. At one point, the moat had drawn water from the river, but over the years, dams of debris had built up and there was no longer water flowing in the moat.

  That was to be Aysgarth’s mistake.

  As Kevin maintained his position in the trees, determining the best way to get to the walls, Morgan took his contingent of fifty men to the postern gate along with the young, skinny soldier who had scoped it out so ably. The plan was that as soon as the sun began to appear on the horizon, they would make their move on the castle. For those at the postern gate, it depended on someone actually opening it, like a servant or a cook, but for those planning to mount the walls, it would take a little more doing.

  But they were prepared.

  A grappling hook was a staple of any attacking army and Richmond had brought several. They had ropes attached to them, quite long, and the ropes were knotted so the men climbing them would have something to grip as the ascended. Kevin and his men had been watching the walls carefully, waiting for a break when the men changed shifts, and that came, as predicted, just as the sun peeked over the horizon.

  Once Kevin saw that, he and his men moved.

  It was Kevin’s intention to scale the wall first and get an idea of what was on the other side before sending his men in. Given that the walls of the shorter but wider motte weren’t very high at all, he was able to make his way across the swampy moat and up the other side, throwing the grappling hook and scaling the wall quite ably. He was young and strong, and he made his way up the wall with very little effort. Once he was at the top, he could see nearly everything.

  And what he saw struck him with fear.

  Shocked, he watched a scene in the outer bailey that was both puzzling and terrifying. He could see several men standing around in a big circle, including Alexander, who seemed to be surrounded by heavily-armed men. Kevin moved his gaze around the bailey and saw Caius being escorted away from the fight by a contingent of men with their swords pointed at his back. Kevin didn’t know where they were taking him. But before he could ponder that, his attention was drawn back to the big circle of men. And what he saw in the middle of that circle was what had attracted his attention –

  There was a battle going on.

  As Kevin watched in horror, he could see Achilles and a much smaller warrior doing battle. They were fighting with their fists, throwing punches and rolling around in the dirt. Clearly, something horrific was going on and Kevin’s attention moved to the gatehouse, which was heavily-manned as the shifts of sentries changed. That meant it would be well guarded if his men breached the walls and tried to attack it.

  But he had to do something and do it fast.

  Kevin slid down from the wall, removing the grappling hook when he hit the bottom. Rushing over to his men, waiting in the trees, he found himself surrounded by a host of concerned and eager faces.

  “My lord?” an older soldier asked what they were all thinking. “What has happened? What did you see?”

  Kevin was thinking quickly and logically, or at least, trying to. “It seems to me that d’Avignon is a prisoner,” he said. “I only caught a glimpse, but he was unarmed and being marched somewhere by heavily-armed soldiers. I know not where they were taking him, but we’ll have to find him quickly. He was headed towards the gatehouse. I saw Sherry, too. However, there is a fight going on that many men are watching involving Achilles and someone I did not recognize. I have no idea what is going on, but it cannot be good.”

  “But the gatehouse?” the old soldier pressed. “Can we get to it?”

  Kevin looked at the anxious faces around him. “They are changing shifts and it is heavily-guarded at this moment,” he said. “We can get over the walls but I fear getting through the gatehouse would be very difficult. By the time we were able to get it open, the mercenary army on the west side could be summoned and we do not want to deal with those men.”

  “What do we do?”

  Kevin expression was serious, controlled. He was a de Lara, a knight in a long line of knights dating back to William the Bastard. A de Lara did not fail, in any case. Smart and resourceful, he came up with a plan.

  “We need a distraction,” he said. “We have to draw the soldiers, inside of Aysgarth, out and we have to prevent the mercenaries from getting to the castle to repel our invasion.”

  “What kind of distraction, my lord?”

  Kevin gestured in the direction of the mercenary encampment. “We are going to set that mercenary encampment on fire. While everyone is fighting that fire, we extract d’Avignon and the others.” There was a young soldier next to him and he grabbed the lad by the arm. “Run back to the bulk of our army and take twenty men with you. Get over to that mercenary encampment as quickly as you can and start setting it ablaze. Stay undercover and do your best, but everything depends upon you igniting their tents and possessions. Move like the wind, lad. There is no time to waste.”

  The lad fled, sailing through the woods and disappearing. When he was gone, Kevin turned to the closest man.

  �
�You,” he said. “Run to the postern gate and tell Morgan to hold. Tell him what we are doing. He is to wait to enter the compound. When he sees the smoke from the mercenary encampment, that will be his signal to move. That is when the gates of Aysgarth will be opening.”

  The second man fled to the north, following the trail that Morgan and his men took. With everything in motion, the old soldier turned to Kevin once more.

  “What do we do now, my lord?” he asked.

  Kevin turned his attention to the gatehouse, of which they had an angled view. “Move the army so that we are watching the gatehouse,” he said. “When those gates open and men start pouring out to fight the fire, the army pours in. But for the rest of us – we’ll be mounting the walls. We’ll be entering Aysgarth from all sides.”

  Men were on the move. Something was going on inside of Aysgarth Castle and their commander was in danger. Until all of the pieces of their plan fell into position and that mercenary encampment began to burn, all they could do was wait.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “I hope you slept well last night,” de Meynell said in tone somewhere between a threat and cheerfulness. “It is going to be an eventful morning.”

  The sun wasn’t quite up yet as Achilles, Susanna, and Alexander faced de Meynell and about fifty of his men beneath clear morning skies. All of de Meynell’s men had their weapons drawn and there were even a few archers, which concerned Achilles a great deal. He had no idea why archers were even summoned, wondering if they’d been brought to take aim at Samuel. Instead of stabbing the man if Susanna showed defiance, perhaps they were going to shoot arrows at him instead.

  It was a horrifying thought.

  He didn’t dare look at Susanna, afraid he would see that she had the same concern. That would only enrage him and, at this point, it was too early for him to lose his temper. He didn’t reply to de Meynell’s statement, which only made the man more solicitous.

  “What?” he said. “No witty reply? No demands? Surely you are concerned with what is to happen today?”