Lord of a Thousand Nights

by Madeline Hunter

  She stared into the blackness and urged it forward. Releasing the hands holding hers, she blanked her mind to her companions' presence.

  At first the darkness greeted her benignly, an empty void, but then slowly, subtly, it came alive. The voices emerged again, low and distant and not so threatening. Even the screams that sounded like her own were far away. She was running, running, toward the sounds, following the scruff of boot steps.

  Suddenly the fear was new and fresh, and the heart that she felt inside her was not a woman's heart but a child's. She was streaking with relief toward some light in the distance.

  She gasped as the sun almost blinded her eyes and the horrible image filled her mind. For a split instant the picture of herself, limp and dead, hands dangling by her side and face twisted and blue, flashed in front of her. Not here. That is the other nightmare, not this one.

  Hands reached for her, pulling her away, back into the blackness. They shook her roughly, and grabbed her face. “We are here. We are here,” a firm voice soothed.

  Anna was embracing her tightly, and Christiana was speaking gently in her ear. She stayed thus for a few moments, and then pressed to disentangle herself. “I am all right. It is over. It will not happen again.”

  “We must get her out of here,” Christiana said.

  “Aye, you must get me out of here, but not because of this,” Reyna said. “Perhaps Aymer sought to drive me mad. Easy to lock away and forget, then, and who would care? But it has not worked, nor will it. It is over, I tell you.”

  “Since that is more than you have said since they threw us in here, I am inclined to believe you,” Anna said.

  “But we must get out all the same,” Reyna repeated. “He means to kill Ian. It will be a challenge to individual combat, most likely, but he will have a plan to assure his victory, and it will not be a fair fight.” She contemplated their plight. “This crypt is below the chapel, and that is outside the wall and close to the forest. I wonder if Duncan even knows what Aymer is doing.”

  “It does not matter. If we get out, we run,” Anna said. “Do you remember these hills, Reyna? Can you lead us west?”

  “I think so. It has been a long while, but the paths can not have changed much.”

  “How do we get out?” Christiana asked. “You tried the door after they put us here, Anna, and found it locked. No doubt there is at least one guard outside, and they took your sword.”

  “Let us hope that there is indeed a guard,” Anna said. “Not more than one if we are lucky, though. If we can get him to open the door— This is a crypt. There must be something to hit him with. A crucifix, a stone plaque, something—”

  She rose and began stumbling around the small chamber. “Here is something. A stone cross.” She grunted from strain, and then cursed. “It is too heavy for me. I hate to say it, but we could use a strong man right now.”

  “Since we neglected to bring one, it looks as though we are stuck here,” Christiana said.

  “Nay. We will rush him all at once. But we need the door open. You are the one to do that, Christiana. Offer him a kiss or something. The chance of having a comtesse should make him forget his duty.”

  “Oh, saints help me,” Christiana muttered. “You had best overpower this guard before it comes to a kiss, let alone or something.”

  They clustered together and stumbled their way up the stairs. Christiana took her position, and Reyna and Anna pressed against the wall beside the stairway.

  Christiana rapped on the door. “Please open the door for just a moment, kind sir. I am feeling most unwell. My companions are already unconscious, and I fear we will all die if some fresh air is not permitted in at once.”

  The oak door opened a crack, and dim light leaked down the stairs. The guard's head blocked some of it.

  “Could you open it just a little more? I am sure that they will revive with a bit more air. If you are kind in this, I will be grateful.”

  “I am sorry, Comtesse, but my orders were—”

  “I will be most grateful.”

  “Well—if the ladies are as bad as that,” the guard muttered. “It was not the intention for you to be harmed.”

  The sliver of his form disappeared from the crack. Moments later the door opened wide, and his dark shape filled the threshold.

  They lunged.

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  They had him flat on his back, buried under a tangle of soft bodies, immersed in a chaos of grips and squirms and whispered feminine excitement.

  “Get his sword arm—nay, that's mine, grab his.”

  “Someone sit on his chest.”

  “Damn, this whoreson is big.”

  “Ladies—”

  “I've got his sword—”

  “Ladies.”

  The whirlwind froze in mid-gale. Three moonlit heads jerked around in surprise.

  “Ian?”

  Ian sorted out the various women sprawled on him. “The small one holding my arm is my wife, and the big one holding my sword to my throat must be Anna. That means that the rump crushing my chest belongs to the Comtesse de Senlis. Perhaps, Comtesse, you would be so good as to—”

  The rump quickly moved off. The gripping hands fell away. They all scrambled to their feet.

  Anna handed back his sword, and pale light reflected off its length.

  Unfortunately, that brought his men rushing to his rescue.

  “Stand back!” Ian whispered sharply to them while he reached toward Reyna and pulled her up against the shield of his body.

  Reyna immediately melted into the sanctuary of his body, holding him tightly, burying her face against his chest. He wrapped her with his arms and cherished the feel of her small frame and woman's warmth. She was here, very alive and real, and his joyful relief matched her own.

  He kissed her head again and again as he led the group out of the chapel and into the cover of the trees.

  “I thank you for distracting the guard, Reyna. I was debating whether to engage him and see if you were imprisoned in that crypt, or to just march into the keep and demand your release. In either case I would have had all of the Grahams on me.”

  “How did you find us?”

  “I learned from Paul that you had gone to Glasgow and that someone had followed. When I arrived there I found Gregory, and he told me the rest.”

  “Gregory is well?”

  “He made it back to Glasgow. Since I didn't know what inn you used, I decided to track you by looking for him at the taverns and whatnot. I found him at the second brothel I tried, laid up in bed like a prince, with the whores enjoying the chance to play mother and nurse.”

  Anna moved in closer. “I don't suppose that you brought extra horses? Since we were hardly silent back there, they may be looking for us soon.”

  “I did, but left them along our route. We rode non-stop, and switched to the fresher mounts when our own could go no farther. You ladies will have to double up with us. The horses are not far away.”

  “It is not Duncan doing this, but only Aymer, I am almost sure,” Reyna said. “If he comes, he may have only the men he brought to Glasgow, and not those still loyal to my father.”

  “Duncan must have known that you were there, surely.”

  “Aymer never brought us inside the wall, but put us immediately in the crypt. Duncan may be unaware.”

  His grip on her shoulder tightened. He had been concerned about physical abuse, but days in the crypt could have harmed her in ways that rods and fists never could. “Were you— did you—”

  “I don't remember much, but Anna and Christiana helped me. In the end, I could face it. So much has become clear. I have much to tell you.”

  “And I have much to say to you, wife.” He tasted again the worry that had owned him while he tore through the hills, careless of safety or prudence as he rode the last miles across Armstrong lands to save time. “You were told to stay in Carlisle.”

  She pressed against him in a snuggling way that made his spike of a
nger very small and brief. “It was foolish, Ian, I will not deny that. And yet I have learned so much. I think that I know who killed Robert.”

  “Aymer?”

  She nodded. “I asked him, and he didn't really deny it. He admitted that if he had had the means, he would have done so. For enough coin, one of the servants or guards might have used the poison for him. He meant to kill you when you came for me, too, so that the dower lands would be his to control.”

  “It makes sense. Land, and strategic land at that. The simplest explanation, and the oldest one in the world.”

  When they reached the horses, Ian gave instructions for two of the men to take the other ladies up behind them.

  “It will be quickest if we head west, toward Black Lyne Keep,” he said as he lifted Reyna onto his own mount. “I sent word to Morvan from Glasgow, and if help is coming it will arrive that way. Do you know these paths well enough to guide us?”

  “I recognize where we are. I think that I can do it.”

  He swung up behind her. Across the clearing, Christiana was thanking her soldier for his generosity in sharing his horse, and Anna was criticizing hers for the way he sat in his saddle.

  Ian took the reins and slid his arm around Reyna. He grasped her tightly and pressed his lips to her neck. “I have much to say to you, wife, and not all is scolding,” he muttered. “I will forever be in the ladies' debt for staying with you. I thank God for delivering you safely.”

  She turned to accept the kiss waiting. “You call me that a lot. Wife. I have always wondered why.”

  “You are my wife.”

  “I assumed it was because you needed to get accustomed to the idea.”

  He laughed. “That, too, but I found that I like the sound of it. And it is something I have never called any woman before. But if you prefer I will use other endearments.” He kissed her cheek. “Darling.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “Sweetling.” His mouth found her ear. “My love.”

  She leaned into him with a contented sigh. “Aye, but wife will do, Ian, especially since it is mine alone.”

  “Let us go, Reyna. We will take it slowly, so you are sure. We don't want to get lost in these hills.”

  They traveled all night without stopping for rest. Ian could tell that Reyna made her choices of the paths relying more on instinct than decision, trusting her childhood rides to have emblazoned the route on her memory. In the utter stillness that heralded dawn, they finally heard the sounds of horses following, and pushed harder in an effort to reach Black Lyne Keep before Aymer caught them.

  It might have worked if the paths led directly to the waste beyond the keep, but instead their route gave out farther south, near the old motte-and-bailey fortress. Suddenly they were tearing down the waste with reckless haste, running from the company thundering up behind. Their horses scrambled down the old bailey ditch and made it up the hill just as Aymer's red head appeared at the crest of the waste's rise.

  Ian peered at the men following Aymer down the cliffs. No more than a dozen. Reyna had been right, and Aymer was doing this on his own.

  He jumped off his horse, brought Reyna down, and called for the men to position themselves around the circumference of the motte's hilltop with their bows.

  Black Lyne Keep loomed in the distance. There was no possibility of help from there. Only a few men remained inside that sealed fortress, with strict orders to remain there.

  Down below, Aymer was also deploying his men around the old castle hill. He had more with him, but he also had a much bigger circle to cover.

  “If you tell one of your men to give me his bow, I will try to even the odds some,” Anna said.

  “They are longbows, and too much for a woman.”

  “I have been using a longbow for some years now, Ian. From this distance I should hit my mark three times out of five. A few bad arms and legs will make Aymer think twice about attacking.”

  He looked at the lady, with her snarl of curls flying wildly around her head and body. If she said she could make her mark three times out of five, he believed her. Calling to the nearest man, he ordered him to relinquish his bow.

  Reyna snuggled in close to him behind a large stone that served as protection from similar assaults from below. Aymer and his men spanned the periphery of the bailey ditch, thinking that they were out of range. Anna tested the bow's tension, then fitted an arrow to it. Stepping quickly around the stones to the edge of the hilltop, she drew the string back to her ear. A second later, a crying curse echoed through the haze of dawn.

  “She is really magnificent, isn't she?” Reyna said with admiration as Anna carried her bow to the other side of the motte. “You should have seen the reaction Aymer's men had to her. She was a challenge they itched to meet. I can understand why they— why you—”

  “You present a much more interesting challenge than she ever did. She was a means to an end for me, and not a very noble end at that. But she and I have something in common, I think. She was born for one man, and she found him. I was born for one woman, and by God's grace I found her.”

  Utter stillness greeted this statement. He pulled his gaze away from his surveillance of Aymer's men and saw her startled expression. He smiled and ran his finger along her jaw. “Well, it was either God's grace or the devil's doing, but if it was the devil, he did not count on you stealing my heart, so his plans to ensure my damnation were foiled.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and he pressed her closer. Such a strange time and place to be saying this to her, but it felt right and natural.

  “I think that my body could float and my heart could burst right now,” she said. “I love you so much, Ian.”

  “And I love you. You have swallowed my ragged soul into the beauty of your own, but it is an enlivening place to be held prisoner. From the start you have dared me to be better than I am. No other woman would have cursed me as you did, and forced me to see what I had become, and then offered the love and friendship needed to pull me back.”

  “Nay, Ian, do not—I only sought safety in those words— you are not—”

  “True words, Reyna.” Truer than she knew. Would her love survive knowing all of it? Not now. Another time. Maybe. “I was fast on my way to becoming the worst of men, and you had known the best. I should warn you, though, that no matter what my resolve, I will never be a Robert of Kelso.”

  She looked up sheepishly. “Well, Ian, as it turns out, even Robert of Kelso was not always a Robert of Kelso.” She told him about her meeting with Anselm, and the reason for Robert's letter. “It was the books, Ian. They are stolen.”

  “You are sure?”

  “It can be nothing else.”

  “Do not judge him too harshly. Looting is customary after battles and sieges. No one considers it theft.”

  “But these are not silks or jewels or silver. They are books. Who would own such things, except clerics? Nay, I will not fool myself. Robert took them from the Church, which is a serious sin even in war, and sought to return them to expiate his offense.”

  He frowned. “David said they were very valuable. I wonder how valuable.”

  “From what I learned in Glasgow, at least three or four thousand pounds.”

  Four thousand pounds. No wonder David had been hesitant to acknowledge Reyna's right to any of them.

  It changed everything. The future they could have and the security they could know. Learning this was like uncovering a hidden treasure. They would not sell the ones Reyna loved, of course, unless misfortune demanded it, but even having that protection against ill fate would affect many other choices.

  He gazed down at her with joy.

  She looked back with wide, innocent eyes.

  He guessed the meaning of her hopeful, earnest expression, and really, truly hoped he was wrong. “You want to send them to the bishop after all, don't you?”

  She bit her lower lip and nodded.

  He sighed, and the brief dream of wealth flew away on his breath. “Hell, you do not make
being good easy, Reyna. Four thousand pounds. Damn.”

  Morvan arrived two days later, when the sun shown high in the sky. Those on the top of the motte saw his company pouring into the distant horizon first, but the sound quickly reached Aymer down below.

  Peering around the big stone, Reyna saw her brother strain to see the thunder's source, and then stiffen comically when the moss filled with men and armor and horses.

  Aymer shouted to his men, and they hurriedly claimed their horses and mounted the wounded and themselves. The little group by the donjon shouted jeers while the red head tore away in the direction it had come. Then Ian strode to the edge of the motte and hailed the arriving army. He sent a man down on the fastest horse to tell them that the ladies were safe.

  The messenger reached the army and it halted.

  “Morvan is there. I can see him. And David too,” Christiana said. “Oh, dear.”

  “They may be just a little angry,” Anna conceded.

  “A little? Because of your willfulness they have disrupted the siege, brought half the army, and now it turns out we don't need much saving after all, and you think they may be a little angry?”

  “My willfulness? You—”

  Ian interrupted with a devilish smile. “Ah, now that I think of it, Anna, Morvan gave me a message for you. In the excitement I forgot about it.”

  “What message?”

  “I was to tell you that he was most displeased about your leaving Carlisle. He was furious with your disobedience. Stomping around with that black look he gets, threatening to lock you away, swearing he would see to it that you didn't sit comfortably for a month—”

  Several of the men brought up horses. In the distance, two tall men dismounted and walked forward from the army. Morvan crossed his arms over his chest and David set his hands on his hips and both waited, their stances eloquently speaking their annoyance.

  “It really does not look good, sister,” Christiana muttered while Ian helped her into the saddle. “It will take a very artful ploy to get out of this.”