Bay of Fear (Battle Lords of de Velt Book 3)

by Kathryn Le Veque

  Maude knew exactly who she meant. “Let’s find the old woman and see what she has to say about this,” she said. “Do we tell her of the contents of the hide?”

  Annalyla shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “She thinks it is a curse. Let her think that for now. Maude, she was trying very hard to convince me to tell Tenner to leave this place. She wants us out; that is clear. I cannot imagine why she should be so concerned for our safety, so I must think that she has other reasons for wanting us out. I do not trust her. Therefore, tell her not what the missive truly says, but ask about that amulet. Mayhap, that is the key to all of this.”

  Maude nodded firmly. “Agreed.”

  Together, and with the hide in hand, the women left the solar with its warped doors and headed back to the kitchens.

  They had an old woman to interrogate.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Already, there was a fire in the hearth of the kitchen at Baiadepaura, which wasn’t such a good idea considering the chimney hadn’t been used in years. Some smoke was escaping through the chimney, but it was also billowing out into the kitchen and lingering up near the ceiling. As Annalyla and Maude entered the kitchen, with the hide tucked up under Maude’s arm, they couldn’t help but cough at all of the smoke. The air in the chamber was positively blue because of it.

  Mawgwen and Mercy were at the hearth, trying to unplug whatever might be jammed up into the chimney. Considering the fire in the hearth was fairly large, they were trying not to get burned. Mercy was ramming the handle of a broom up into the chimney and chunks of soot and dirt were falling out, but the old woman was calling her off, telling her that they’d done all they could. The young girl was setting the broom aside and returning to her chores just as the two ladies walked in.

  “Mawgwen?” Annalyla said politely. “We have a need to speak with you.”

  The old woman was still looking up the chimney. “I know it,” she said. “And I’m sorry for it. But I thought it best to start the fire now to see if the chimney needs unblocking. I know ye didn’t tell me to, but that’s really the only way we’ll know.”

  Annalyla shook her head. “Nay, that is not it,” she said. “I am not concerned with the fire in the hearth. There is something else.”

  Mawgwen pulled her head out of the hearth, her face red and sweaty. It was then that Maude asked Mercy to go and find the quartermaster and ask the man to come see to the blocked chimney to make sure it was in working order. When the young girl in the threadbare clothing fled the kitchen, they finally had the privacy they needed. Annalyla fixed on the old woman.

  “I read the hide you gave me,” she said. “It did, indeed, contain a message and I must ask you about it.”

  Mawgwen looked very interested. She pointed to the hide under Maude’s arm. “What is it, milady?” she gasped. “The curse? Did it tell ye of the curse?”

  Annalyla considered her reply carefully. “What do you know of the missing amulet?”

  Mawgwen blinked; she was expecting an earth-shattering answer, not a question in return. She couldn’t read, nor could any of her family, so she was hoping that someone who could read would tell her what the curse actually said. That had been part of her selfish hope in giving Lady de Velt the hide. But all she received was a question in response to her answer, and that displeased her.

  “Only what I told ye, milady,” she said. “It was taken from the wicked lord’s wife and some think he searches for it.”

  Annalyla lifted an eyebrow. “You told me that your grandfather said that the ghost searches for it,” she said. “You said it as if it was fact. Now you tell me that only some think he searches for it?”

  Mawgwen looked back and forth between Maude and Annalyla, looking for some hint as to why they were asking these questions.

  “No one knows for sure, of course,” she said, considerably quieter. “Why do ye want to know about the amulet?”

  “Because I want to know what you know of it,” Annalyla said. She could sense that the woman was becoming guarded and that, coupled with the woman’s attempt to convince her to flee Baiadepaura, didn’t sit well with her. “Is that why you have come, Mawgwen? To look for this amulet? You said your ancestor was part of the mob that killed the last lord of Baiadepaura. You have also told me that the curse over Baiadepaura is now mine and that I must leave. Why do you want me to leave, Mawgwen? What are you not telling me?”

  Mawgwen stiffened. “If ye don’t want me here, then I can just as easily leave,” she said, hastily turning for her possessions, which were still in the kitchen. “I won’t stay if ye don’t want me to.”

  She was picking up her things. Annalyla rushed at her, with Maude following a split second later. Together, they ganged up on the woman, grabbing her by the arms and forcing her to drop her possessions. Annalyla went so far as to shove the woman down onto a stone bench that was built into the wall of the kitchen.

  “You are not going anywhere,” Annalyla growled. “I want you to tell me what you know of the amulet. What more do you know about this place that you’ve not told me?”

  Mawgwen put up her hands, fearful a slap would be coming her way. “Nothing, milady!” she cried. “I told ye everything I know. I brought ye the curse! I did that for yer protection!”

  “Or did you do it to scare me?” Annalyla fired back. “I want you to tell me everything you know about this place and about the amulet. If you do not, I shall send for my husband and you’ll not like it if he becomes involved. He is a very big man with a sword, Mawgwen. Will you answer my questions or do you wish to answer to my husband?”

  Mawgwen was increasingly frightened. This was not how she’d imagined her stay at Baiadepaura would go. She’d expected to have some measure of dominance over the fearful army who knew nothing of the cursed castle. Instead, the lady of the castle wasn’t an innocent lamb, but a shrewd woman who didn’t believe everything she was told. That wasn’t something Mawgwen had anticipated.

  Her control was slipping.

  “I will tell ye, milady,” she said, her voice trembling. “If ye’re asking about the amulet, no one knows what has become of it. My grandfather said that he was told that the man who stole it fell into the fire along with the wicked lord and his wife. If it left Baiadepaura, then it did not leave with him.”

  Annalyla eyed her suspiciously. “Then you do not have it?”

  “Nay, milady, I swear it.”

  “And you’ve not come looking for it?”

  Mawgwen shook her head firmly. “I’ve not, I swear,” she said. “I only came to give ye the hide and tell ye how to leave the curse behind ye.”

  “And you have not heard if anyone has left with the amulet?”

  “Nay, milady. I’ve not heard.”

  Annalyla still didn’t believe her, but short of beating the woman, she wasn’t sure how to get to the truth. Twice, a ghostly whisper had asked for Anyu’s horse, so at least part of what Mawgwen had told her was true. At least, it was coming to make some sense now. But there was a very big piece of the puzzle missing.

  “It has been two hundred years since the last lord of Baiadepaura was killed,” she said. “What do you know of the men who have occupied this castle since then?”

  Mawgwen lowered the hand she had in front of her face, the one meant to deflect the slaps she’d been anticipating. “Well,” she said slowly, “after the wicked lord was killed, my grandfather said it remained vacant for a very long time. No one would come near it. When the villagers left the castle, they left it in shambles. The passage of time caused it to fall into ruin. Then, it belonged to Lords of St. Austell for a time, I heard. I think they’re the ones who built some of the stone walls. The Lords of Truro took possession and they had men stationed here from time to time. When I was a mos, they were here, but they have not been here in many years.”

  “So there has never been steady occupation in all that time?”

  “Nay, milady.”

  Annalyla looked at Maude. “Then mayhap, the tra
cks of what happened those years ago haven’t been completely destroyed.”

  Maude looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”

  Annalyla had an idea. “Come with me.”

  With that, she took Mawgwen by the arm and pulled her to her feet. Maude got in on the other side of the woman and, together, they forcibly escorted the old lady out of the kitchen and up the steps to the windy bailey. The clouds were blowing over now, puffy gray clouds against the backdrop of blue sky, and they could smell rain on the breeze.

  A storm was coming.

  But Annalyla intended to see her idea through before the rains came. Her mind was working on the amulet, and what had become of it, and she wanted to think it through. If the amulet had been lost or buried, she could do nothing. But perhaps, a logical process might help them figure out what had become of it.

  Or not.

  In any case, Annalyla took Mawgwen and Maude out into the bailey.

  “Now,” Annalyla let go of the old woman just as they reached the approximate center of the bailey. “I was told that the wicked lord and his wife were burned to death.”

  Mawgwen and Maude were standing together, nodding. “Aye, milady,” Mawgwen said. “This is true. A great fire consumed them.”

  Annalyla nodded as she looked around the bailey. “Wouldn’t you think that if you’re going to kill someone, then you would do it where everyone could see it?”

  Mawgwen looked to Maude in confusion, who was looking at Annalyla. “They are probably going to do it where you are standing,” she said. “There, in the middle of the bailey, so everyone could see. Why do you ask?”

  Annalyla looked at the ground beneath her feet; hundreds of stones lined the bailey now and she knelt down, putting her fingers on the stones.

  “Mawgwen, when was this bailey cobbled?” she asked. “This isn’t usual, you know. My husband said that the bailey was cobbled because they must have terrible trouble with the rains. The stones prevent the entire bailey from being washed away.”

  Mawgwen still wasn’t sure what was going on, or why they were here, but she answered. “It must have been the Lords of Truro,” she said. “They built bigger walls and they built on to the keep. I remember this because they took men from the village to work on the building. When I came here as a child with my grandmother, the cobblestones in the bailey were here.”

  Maude was listening to the old woman. When she finished speaking, she looked at Annalyla. “Why do you ask?” she said. “What are you thinking, Annie?”

  Annalyla wasn’t sure at the moment, but a definitive thought was taking form. “I was thinking that if this is where they burned the wicked lord, then from what I have been told, they simply left everything here. Ashes, bones, everything. Mawgwen, they did not clean up the mess, did they?”

  Mawgwen shook her head. “Nay, milady,” she said. “They did the deed and they fled.”

  Big, fat raindrops began to fall, pelting them as well as the stone. Mawgwen glanced up at the sky, unhappy that she was going to be rained on, but Annalyla didn’t move. She was still looking at the bailey.

  “So, they left everything behind,” she said thoughtfully. “They left a pile of ashes and bones here and, presumably, the amulet that fell into the fire when the man who stole it was burned. So the amulet was here, buried in ash.”

  Maude lifted her eyebrows. “And?”

  Annalyla looked at her as the rain began to fall harder as the heavens suddenly let loose. Men around the bailey were running for cover, but not the women. Very quickly, they were being soaked.

  “And the ash had to go somewhere,” she said. “Otherwise, the pile would still be standing here, so if no one cleaned it up over the years that the castle was vacant, it had to go somewhere.”

  Maude wiped the rain out of her eyes. “But where?”

  Annalyla shook her head. “I suppose it would blow away,” she said. “Or, with the amount of rain they seem to have here, mayhap, it was washed away.”

  That made the women take another look at the bailey, this time with more curiosity and consideration for the bailey as a whole. The answers to their questions were possibly here if they could only figure it out. The bailey was sloped slightly towards the keep and away from the hall. In fact, the entire bailey sloped towards the keep and the sea cliff beyond.

  Then, they saw it.

  As they watched, little rivers of rainwater began to trickle in the direction of the keep. Both Annalyla and Maude saw it and, at that moment, it was the only thing that had their attention. They began to follow the rainwater as it drained away from the very spot they surmised once held the funeral pyre for the wicked lord and his wife. As the rain continued to fall, soaking them both, they followed the water as it drained towards the west.

  At one point, Maude took the hide, still under her arm, and buried it in her skirts so it wouldn’t get terribly wet, but Annalyla was singularly focused on the flow of water. Her head was wet and water was dripping from her eyelashes. The three women followed it until the draining water ran right to the keep and then began draining into small vents that were at the base of the north wing of the keep.

  The holes were small, cut into the foundation of the ground floor, but it occurred to Annalyla were the water was going. She looked up at Maude, who had the exact same thought, because the words out of their mouths at that moment matched entirely.

  “The vault.”

  They said it at the same time. Without another word between them, they turned and ran for the stairs that led to the kitchens because the vaults were attached to the kitchen. Mawgwen followed, but at a distance. She didn’t like what was happening with those women and she could see, clearly, that they were not going to leave Baiadepaura. Her attempts to force them to flee had no effect. In fact, Lady de Velt seemed suspicious of her motives and rather than be forced to tell why she’d really come, she thought it better to flee the castle and leave the occupants to their fates. The pirates would be there at dark and stubborn Lady de Velt would have to pay the price.

  There was nothing more she could do.

  Therefore, she hung back even as Lady de Velt and Lady de Correa charged through the small, fortified door to the vault that was just off the kitchen. She could hear them talking about needing light, and Lady de Correa came back into the kitchen to find something to fashion a torch with. All she found was an old broom, but she lit the bristles, anyway, and took it back into the vault with her.

  Mawgwen could see the flicker of flame against the walls of the vault and she could hear the women speaking, but not their words. All she knew was that they were distracted and if there was ever a time for her to leave, it was now. Grabbing her possessions that were still against the wall of the old, dusty kitchen, she fled from the chamber, taking her crow with her, who had been making itself at home beneath an old Davey Elm tree.

  Slipping from Baiadepaura through the nearly-repaired portcullis, old Mawgwen left the castle and the ladies to their fates, and fled into the countryside, never to be seen or heard from again.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The broom hadn’t lasted long.

  In fact, it burned quickly, and smoked heavily, and gave off very little light, forcing Annalyla and Maude to leave the vault and go to the hall to find the oil lamps that the quartermaster had brought with him. He also brought fat tallow tapers, a precious sack of them, along with iron sconces that would light halls and chambers and tables. While Maude distracted him, Annalyla stole four tapers and an iron sconce that happened to have four arms with spiked tips. As she whisked out of the hall, trying to keep the tapers dry for the trek across the bailey, Maude excused herself from the confused quartermaster and followed.

  Now, they had light. With the four tapers lit from the kitchen hearth and settled on the sconce, Maude carried it into the vault. The candles gave off a great deal of light and the old, musty-smelling vault was bathed in a faint glow. It was also a wet vault, as the floor of it was puddled with runoff from the storm.
And they could see that the vents that faced the bailey had all of that runoff water draining right into the vault.

  But that wasn’t all they saw.

  Decades and even centuries of neglect were evident. There seemed to be stores there, still, left over from the last occupants, but they were on the southwest side of the vault and raised on stones to keep them off of the muddy ground. The only thing on the eastern side of the vault, where all of the water and runoff from the bailey was coming in, was a sea of debris from decades and decades of rain runoff. All of it was washed into the vault from a very poorly designed drainage system in the bailey.

  “Look at all of this,” Maude muttered, looking at the piles and piles of debris. “It looks like a burial vault in here with all of that wet earth.”

  Annalyla couldn’t disagree. “But the neglect of this vault, and the castle, might be our good fortune,” she said. “If no one has cleaned this mess in two centuries, or longer, then the chances of us finding the amulet might be good.”

  Maude shook her head. “Do you really believe that?”

  “It is possible,” Annalyla insisted, although she wasn’t really sure. “If the amulet was washed out of the bailey from the years of rain, and ended up here in the vault, then we will find it.”

  “More than likely, someone has already found it and made off with it.”

  “We will not know unless we try.”

  Maude looked at Annalyla, distress on her face. “How, Annie?” she wanted to know. “There is so much debris here. It will take days or months or even years to dig this all up.”

  Annalyla was trying not to feel discouraged as she looked at the wet pile that was getting wetter by the moment. She looked at the runoff of water to see where it was going, trying to decide if it was better to walk away.

  But something in her refused to give up.

  Rushing back into the kitchen, she could see old iron implements near the hearth, including a big shovel used to scoop out the ashes. She grabbed it and ran back into the vault, eyeing the piles of mud and debris.