Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series)

by Alex Mellanby

  ‘Oh no,’ cried Mary, grabbing for the wall as she slid down to the ground.

  We all rushed to the wooden bars. The soldiers had started to gather a huge pile of firewood. Smith was with them. He was making some form of platform. They were making ready for our death by burning. How long would it be before the priest came?

  Fire

  -13-

  The advantage of not having any cars was that the priest didn’t come that day or the next. Posy said the first town could be two days on horseback. I suppose it depended on how fast they rode and how quickly they wanted to see us burn.

  The pile of wood grew outside of the barn. Smith told everyone who passed what he was doing and in a loud enough voice to let us hear.

  ‘That’s where we’re going to tie the witch to the stake,’ I heard him say. ‘The middle stake, nice and high up.’

  Mary spent most of the time sitting with her hands over her ears. She didn’t sleep or eat. Jack tried to comfort her but all she would say was: ‘We’re going to burn.’ Over and over.

  I tried to think of an escape plan. There wasn’t much point in going through the door when there were at least two or three soldiers outside. ‘We need to smash the bars on the window,’ I said to Van.

  But almost as though he’d heard my words, Smith arrived with an iron bar and nailed it across the opening.

  ‘Wanted to make sure you stay around for the great occasion,’ he said and laughed.

  Posy left later on that night. The soldiers let her come and go although they always stood near to the door, ready with their swords. In bargaining, we were nearly down to Mary’s last charm on her bracelet. But Sir Henry had said we should be fed. I didn’t know why until I heard one of the soldiers talking.

  ‘He wants to keep them nice and fat, so they burn better.’

  That did put us off our food for a while. I thought Mary had decided to starve herself to death. Jenna wouldn’t let her. ‘Must eat. Alvin’s going to get us out of here. If you don’t eat then you’ll be too weak to run.’

  I caught Jenna’s eye. I nodded, like I was supposed to do. I wasn’t sure why Jenna had faith in me to come up with an escape plan. Or was she just trying to make Mary feel better?

  ‘We could set fire to the whole barn,’ suggested Van. ‘Then run out when the smoke gets thick enough to hide us.’

  ‘Or the soldiers could make sure we stayed inside and burn here rather than on that pile.’ I’d had the same idea and knew it wouldn’t work.

  ‘Dig our way out?’ Van said without much hope in his voice. We sat around and thought about that one for a while. We had nothing to dig with. We kept coming up with plans that couldn’t work.

  ‘At least it’s going to be a big fire,’ said Van on the third day after we had been condemned to death. He peered out of the barred window. Smith had made sure we had enough space to see out. He wanted us to see the fire. ‘It’s a huge pile.’ Van turned back. ‘A huge pile of wood.’

  ‘So we burn fast.’ Kan stayed sitting on the floor. He didn’t get up to see the wood pile. I tried to avoid looking at it as well.

  ‘No we won’t,’ wailed Mary. ‘It takes ages. I’ve seen pictures. It burns all your skin off and you scream and scream and …’

  Jenna slapped her and shouted, ‘Shut up, shut up.’ Then even Jenna fell to the floor and sobbed. I went over and we hugged, but there was no comfort. Mary’s words echoed in my head.

  ‘Maybe the priest will save us,’ Jack failed to sound confident. No one answered him. No one said anything for a while, we listened to the sound of wood being piled up.

  Posy came the next day with a rabbit. ‘Oakes sent it,’ she said as she gave it to me.

  ‘Bet his wife didn’t like that.’ I passed it to Jenna.

  She passed it back. ‘Your job.’

  I started to skin and gut the animal. It was easier using the small knife Mary had brought with her, easier than using pieces of sharp flint in our cave. Pity she hadn’t brought something larger that we could have used as a weapon.

  ‘What reward did Elsa get? For telling the witch story?’ asked Jack.

  We were interrupted by a loud rumbling sound. If we hadn’t been in some ancient village I would have said it was an aeroplane.

  Posy told us more wagons were arriving. ‘Saw them coming up the hill.’

  We heard three or maybe four wagons trundle into the village. Would the priest be on one of them?

  ‘Maybe they bring diesel to light fire.’ Kan was becoming a little more crazy than usual. He kept laughing and walking around the barn, talking to himself.

  Jack said something about needing another 600 years for diesel.

  ‘Maybe it’ll take that long for the priest to come,’ I said hopefully.

  Posy went out to see what was happening. After a while we heard the key scraping in the lock.

  ‘That’s it then. He’s here.’ Van stood and flexed his muscles. He looked as though he was going to fight them, no matter how many soldiers there were outside.

  It wasn’t the priest, only Posy again and she looked excited, almost smiling.

  ‘It’s the king,’ she whispered loudly. ‘We’re not meant to know, but it is.’

  ‘He’s here?’ I asked but I didn’t see why she should be any happier. Perhaps the king liked to travel around and see people burning.

  ‘Not yet,’ Posy said. ‘The wagons are bringing all the king’s belongings. They travel round with them – huge tapestries and clothes and … then there’s the food and wine and …’ She was almost breathless as she told us.

  ‘Has he come to watch?’ Jenna interrupted and took my words.

  Posy didn’t seem to understand. ‘No, he’s coming here to meet Sir Henry. It’s a sort of celebration. The king gave him some award but they haven’t met since.’

  ‘Oh good,’ I said. ‘Has he brought some more wood?’

  Posy kept on babbling. I don’t think any of us realised that this was the biggest event that had ever happened in the village, in her life. That and our burning perhaps.

  ‘They were going to have a jousting competition until …’ Posy stopped as Kan grunted something and her voice cracked. ‘But now he’s come to hunt.’

  ‘He’s allowed to hunt here is he?’ I laughed sarcastically. ‘I mean the lord of the manor lets him, doesn’t cut off his hands or something?’ Posy looked bewildered. ‘Perhaps he could join us on the fire,’ I added.

  ‘Of course he can hunt here,’ she said. ‘The whole moor belongs to the king or to his son. He keeps it for hunting. No one else is allowed to hunt deer on his moor.’ Posy appeared to be quite proud that she knew more about this than us.

  ‘I don’t suppose he might give us a royal pardon?’ Jenna glanced at me and raised her eyebrows.

  ‘I’ll try and ask him.’ Posy sounded as though it might actually be possible. I knew it wasn’t. The king wouldn’t reverse his best mate’s wish to see us dead. Even if it had been Zach who delivered the actual words of our sentence.

  ‘But why you so happy?’ Kan reverting to his accent was at least better than the mumbling he had been doing over the last few days.

  ‘One of the soldiers says the king won’t let it happen while he is here,’ Posy said triumphantly.

  ‘Why?’ I couldn’t understand why the king wouldn’t like to see a few burning witches. Crazily I thought we were the replacement for the fireworks which hadn’t been invented.

  ‘Don’t know,’ Posy was slightly sullen. ‘But it’s good isn’t it?’

  Who was going to be the first to say that it just meant a few more days watching Smith banging up his platform, testing out where he was going to put each one of us and then getting the soldiers to pile up more wood? But none of us said anything.

  �
�There’ll be a feast,’ Posy couldn’t stop sounding excited, it was all too big an event for her.

  ‘At least that Hugh won’t be around to pester you,’ Van said that quietly. I thought there might be other drunken soldiers to take his place.

  ‘Doesn’t the king let his men loose on village girls?’ Jenna said with a whole pile of sarcasm in her voice.

  ‘The soldiers say he doesn’t,’ Posy smiled. Jenna snorted and Posy crumpled. She saw our faces, let out a gasp and pressed herself against Kan.

  If we did have a few days more, was there anything we could do? Even if that meant burning the barn down. One burning death felt pretty much like another.

  Next day the early morning sunlight streamed through our barred window. But as the sun rose higher it became darker and gloomier, so did we. All day long we heard the noise of preparations. In the evening we heard drunken soldiers wandering between the houses. They’d shout something about our execution every time they passed the barn. Sometimes Kan would shout something back, about them being too scared to come in and fight. Then they’d kick the door. I wanted to believe Kan that we were all so brave and fierce, but we weren’t.

  We’d given up planning any escape. Most of the time we spent lying on the floor, uncomfortable and damp when rain spotted through the holes in the roof. Jack poked the fire occasionally but no one felt like boiling up the oats we had. We were just eating bread when Posy or one of the soldiers threw it in. Even Posy didn’t want to stay, although the guards didn’t care what she did.

  On the next day the king did arrive, to the thunder of hooves. I don’t know how many soldiers he brought with him but there was enough noise for a whole army. We soon saw some of them. Instead of the jousting tents, the army set up their camp on the field outside the barn. They were a noisy lot. Making fun of each other, pushing, shoving and some real fighting. They soon learnt about us when they saw the huge wood pile in the middle of the field. It wasn’t long before they came up to the window and poked fun at us.

  ‘We kill soldiers,’ Kan made a last attempt to sound brave but the men outside just laughed. The king’s soldiers found out about Hugh and how some kid on foot had killed him. That gave them new victims. I heard their shouts to the soldiers guarding our barn door.

  ‘Keep them well locked up,’ called one of them. ‘Don’t want to let those children get out and frighten you.’ And they all laughed again.

  That went on until a fight broke out. I hoped they’d all kill each other. We heard Sir Henry’s man – Ralph – trying to stop them. He sounded in a panic. Then the clatter of hooves and Sir Henry’s roar. That stopped everything. The king’s men went back to setting up their camp.

  ‘If they all get drunk tonight there’ll be a real battle,’ said Jack.

  ‘Could be the only chance we have to escape.’ I looked at Jenna. ‘We’ve still got the barn door key. If it’s dark and they’re all drunk then …’

  ‘What about the guards outside the door?’ Mary muttered. ‘They don’t get drunk. We’d have to fight them. Even Kan and Van can’t get us through that lot.’

  ‘Posy was right about a feast. I overheard that it’s tonight.’ Jenna had been listening to the soldiers outside the barn window. I’d avoided doing that because most of their talk was about us and the burning. Jenna turned to Kan. ‘Maybe Posy could get some of their wine and give it to the soldiers outside our door.’

  So that was the plan. We get the soldiers drunk, rush out of the door and run for it. I imagined running in the moonlight, chased by men on horseback, and I had the worst feeling about the other sound I had heard – dogs. If the king had come here for hunting I guessed he had brought his hunting dogs. It was a hopeless plan. They wouldn’t kill us out on the moor. They were going to have too much fun watching us go up in smoke. They’d bring us back. We were the entertainment.

  The barn door was thrown open once more. A crowd of the king’s own soldiers and a man dressed in white stood in front of us. His dirt stained robe trailed on the ground, probably soiled from riding, but there was no mistaking the large gold cross hanging from the chain around his neck. The priest had arrived. He’d come with the king. Maybe the king’s own priest.

  ‘On your knees,’ commanded the man leading the soldiers. He wasn’t one of them. He had no armour, just a sword at his side, the jewelled handle sparkled even in the gloomy light.

  We were too shocked to move. Two soldiers stepped forward. One thumped me in the stomach with his mailed fist and forced me to my knees. The rest of our group knelt quickly hearing my cry. The blow had winded me and I could hardly breathe. Tears streamed down my face. I didn’t feel like a brave witch and I definitely didn’t look like one.

  The priest stepped forward and was joined by a helper with a smoking ball on the end of a chain.

  ‘Incense,’ whispered Mary. I think she sometimes went to church.

  The priest chanted a lot of words, but they were complete nonsense to me.

  ‘Latin prayers,’ Mary whispered again and despite everything happening around us I was impressed. But I didn’t understand why they used a language that no one else understood.

  It went on for a while. The incense smell filled the barn and made me dizzy. When the chanting stopped, the priest didn’t say anything. He pushed out through the crowd, followed by the incense carrier. Was that it? We’d had the prayers and now they could burn us?

  ‘Which of you killed Sir Hugh?’ the jewelled sword man said loudly.

  Since when had Kan’s victim become Sir Hugh? That sounded too important. No wonder they wanted their revenge. Kan had killed a real knight, not one of the ordinary men. Burning was bad enough but were we in even more trouble? No one answered, so Kan must have been thinking the same.

  I was still at the front. The fist hit me in the face. The soldiers made it clear they were going to keep hitting me until someone answered.

  ‘Me,’ called Kan and Van together.

  ‘Two of you?’ The sword man saw the twins and gave a laugh. ‘Well the king wants to meet you.’ The man turned away and his soldiers grabbed Kan and Van. There was no point in struggling, there were too many of them.

  Jenna was off her knees and shouting, ‘You miserable lot of cowards, coming in here and knocking a few kids around. Tell us what’s happening.’

  Their leader looked Jenna over, gave a twisted smile: ‘You’ll burn nicely.’

  They all laughed.

  ‘WHEN?’ screamed Jenna.

  The man turned back. Perhaps he’d not met a girl like Jenna. She wasn’t someone to be ignored.

  He was quieter now, as if he didn’t want the other soldiers to hear, ‘The king won’t see it …’

  ‘Won’t?’ interrupted Jenna.

  The man laughed again and this time he was more friendly. ‘No he won’t. He’s not one for burning witches.’

  ‘So, let us go.’ Mary stepped up next to Jen. I let the two girls take him on. Perhaps he wouldn’t smash them to the ground. My stomach still hurt from the blow.

  The man gave a troubled sigh, ‘Can’t do that. Sir Henry had you sentenced. The king won’t go against it.’ Then the man leant forward and whispered. ‘The king needs his help too much. Nothing we can do. He’s had the priest say it has to happen on the saint’s day, after we’ve gone.’

  ‘So what does he want with Kan and Van?’ I could see that we weren’t going to get any further with asking to be set free.

  ‘We’ll see.’ The man strode out of the door. His soldiers dragged Kan and Van after him.

  The Hunt

  -14-

  As the door closed I turned to Jenna. ‘Good or bad?’

  She gave me the ‘no idea’ look and walked into the darkest part of the barn.

  ‘Maybe if we did make a run for it then the king would let us escape?’
suggested Jack. ‘Didn’t that man with the big sword …’ He didn’t finish.

  ‘Oh yes Jack, he sounded really friendly.’ Mary hadn’t stopped crying. ‘Wait for this saint’s day, whenever that is, see what he’s like then.’

  We were back on the floor, waiting and waiting.

  ‘Where’s Posy?’ Jenna said sometime later in the day. ‘Least she could tell us something.’

  But Posy didn’t come.

  Later the soldiers threw in some bread, but wouldn’t answer any questions.

  Later still they threw Van in. He scrabbled to his feet. At least he wasn’t injured.

  ‘They’re teaching him to ride,’ he laughed. Almost a genuine laugh, not the wild laugh of a condemned man. ‘They’re all crazy,’ he said. ‘Dangerous crazy. It must be this war but they’re all shouting and screaming with laughter at anything. Especially anything the king says.’

  ‘You met him?’ I was surprised, but there was something else odd about Van.

  ‘Oh yes. He sat on some throne-like thing. They brought it with them. Covered in furs, like something from a magazine.’

  ‘I don’t believe they have magazines,’ Jack said.

  ‘Anyway they were all laughing and drinking. Sir Henry made Kan say he was the one who killed the jousting man.’

  ‘How did he get him to do that?’ Mary asked.

  ‘Sir Henry said he only needed one of us. So he could kill either of us and still have one.’ Van didn’t laugh then. ‘He even pulled out his dagger. So Kan stepped forward.’

  I turned to Jenna who had an odd smile on her face.

  ‘What are they going to do with him?’ Even if they were crazy I couldn’t see why they wanted Kan. If these jousting rules were real then Sir Henry wouldn’t kill him. But was that true? Drawing his dagger didn’t sound part of the rules.