Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series)

by Sarah Woodbury

  Again, William’s response was more perceptive than David might have liked. He lifted one shoulder, wishing the conversation would end. But William had asked permission to speak, and David had agreed to answer his questions. He could hardly complain if they were more to the point than he expected.

  “You’re right. I wasn’t going to offer him the chance to return to Avalon. Not because I didn’t think he had earned it or because I didn’t wish to, but because it isn’t in my power to grant or deny. Two years have passed since I myself left Lord Callum there, against my will and his. I would have returned if I could have, but even I do not choose the moment when I am allowed entry.”

  “Only those of pure heart can enter Avalon,” William said knowingly. “That’s why Martin died. When your mother left Avalon with him, it was because she was needed here, but it seems to me that he must have been cast out at the same time.”

  David gave William a sharp look, which his squire didn’t see since he had moved on to buckling David’s right bracer. “Who told you that?”

  William looked up. “No one. But it seems obvious, doesn’t it?”

  William had surprised David again. His thinking was clear, even if he was wrong. And it was a wrongness that David would be a fool not to exploit. “Perhaps it is I who have been cast out. That is why I have not been able to retrieve Lord Callum.”

  “Oh no!” William’s face held an eager look. “It is not yet your time. Your sister and mother went to Avalon to save their lives. Isn’t that what happened to you two years ago with the storm in the Irish Sea? You would have drowned if God hadn’t held you in the palm of his hand.”

  At some point, William was going to realize that David was as human as he. But the boy had been a witness to much of what had happened to David and what he’d done over the past three years, ever since William’s father had surprised David by putting William in his care to protect him. William still thought David infallible. “Thank you, William, for your faith in me. I pray I will continue to deserve it.”

  “Do you think I might be worthy to travel with you to Avalon one day?”

  Ieuan had asked David that once, approximately five minutes before the English had shot him and David had taken him to the modern world. David sincerely hoped William’s asking wasn’t an omen of things to come.

  Before David decided how to answer him, Lili stepped through the open doorway. “Only God knows the answer to that question, William. Every day you should bring yourself to account, to ensure that if the opportunity arrives, you won’t be found wanting.”

  “I will do that, my queen.” William bowed. “Thank you.”

  Lili made a dismissive motion with her hand.

  “I will meet you in the outer ward, William,” David said.

  William shot David a bright-eyed look and bowed. “My lord.” He departed.

  David shook his head at his wife. “You are incorrigible.”

  “It’s a good thing I am,” she said. “Otherwise, you would have tried to rid yourself of this story a long time ago.”

  “You are right. I would have.” David stepped past her to look down the corridor. Men guarded both ends, but they were too far away to overhear.

  His men were wary now, and more on their guard. They—like David—had thought everyone safe at Rhuddlan. It was a bit like closing the barn door after the horse had escaped, but security had been beefed up at all the entrances and exits, and nobody came or left without being searched. That said, even the lowliest villager carried a knife at his waist and wouldn’t be asked to give it up. Marty had been where he was supposed to be, with a weapon he was supposed to have. David’s men couldn’t have been expected to read his mind.

  Lili tugged David’s cloak straight around his neck and smoothed the fabric across his shoulders. “I’ve become spoiled.”

  “In what way?” David was beginning to lose feeling in the fingers of his left hand because of William’s over-enthusiastic tightening of his bracer. He began to work at the buckles to loosen them.

  Lili saw David trying to deal with the armor one-handed and brushed away his hand in order to do it herself. “I have grown used to you not going to war.” She tapped his chest, which was hard due to the steel-reinforced layer of Kevlar that lay underneath his armor.

  “I hate to repeat what men have told their wives for thousands of years, but I will be fine,” David said.

  “You don’t know that.”

  David stopped her fussing by taking both her hands in his and bringing them to his chest. “If I know anything, I know that. I have increasingly come to understand that I am here for a reason. I don’t believe that reason has yet been accomplished.”

  “As long as it doesn’t make you reckless,” she said.

  “When have I ever been reckless?” Though perhaps David should have crossed his fingers behind his back as he said this.

  She dropped his hands and gave him a quelling look. “Shall I list the times?”

  David held up a hand. “Scout’s honor. I will behave. It would be stupid to die in such a little war.”

  “You’d better not.” Lili went up on her toes and put her arms around his neck.

  Since she was there, David kissed her. And then again. He didn’t want to leave. By rights, it was bedtime, not the moment to be riding away from Rhuddlan in pursuit of a traitor and his army.

  It was Lili who pulled away. “You’d better go. Arthur is not yet ready to be king, and you don’t want me to change my mind about not coming with you to protect you.”

  “You’re staying here to protect Arthur, Rhuddlan, and all the rest,” David said. “I have already promised to celebrate Christmas at Westminster Palace and I intend to keep that promise.”

  Arthur had been put to bed, but David looked in on him and kissed him too. He didn’t wake, even when David stroked a lock of his blonde hair out of his face. He’d already asked—in his little Arthurian sign language—to cut his hair so he could look like Cadell. David was resisting the loss of his babyhood, but it was a battle he was going to lose, if only because time was against him.

  Ieuan met David as he descended the stairs into the inner ward. “Lili is well?”

  “I didn’t even have to ask her to stay behind. She won’t leave Arthur, and she will help Goronwy defend Rhuddlan if need be.”

  Ieuan shot David a wry look. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Bronwen is the same, not that she has the training for war.”

  They reached the outer gatehouse where the men were gathering. It wasn’t quite midnight. Math had already left, riding east by torchlight. Even now, scouts were scouring the countryside on all sides, calling to service men in outlying areas and making sure Madog was as far away as they thought he was. Those few common folk who owned horses would join the cavalry, and those who didn’t would walk through the night and day tomorrow to arrive at Maentwrog when they could. Welsh armies, like all armies in this time, were composed primarily of citizen soldiery.

  “You didn’t send to Chester for reinforcements,” Ieuan said.

  “You noticed that?” David said.

  “We have good men there,” Ieuan said.

  “Do you know why I didn’t?”

  “Oh, I know why, I just wanted to make sure you did.”

  David raised his eyebrows. “I am Welsh first, Ieuan, and I know my history. I know the poor precedent it would set if my father welcomed English troops, even his son’s, into Wales. I ride today not as the King of England, but as a prince of Wales only.”

  Ieuan nodded, and his expression told David he was not only satisfied with the answer, but he agreed with it.

  “If Madog and Rhys want to start a war with everyone, then England will come to the aid of Wales as an ally,” David said. “But I’m hoping it won’t come to that.”

  It was odd to see Dad mount his horse without Mom at his stirrup to bid him goodbye. David took his place beside him. They would lead a contingent of one hundred cavalry out of Rhuddlan, a combined f
orce of David’s mostly English teulu (the word meant ‘family’ in Welsh, a word heavy with meaning), which the English referred to merely as the king’s guard, and Dad’s entirely Welsh one.

  Since David had arrived at Rhuddlan with his teulu, relations between the two sets of soldiers had been good. Better, in fact, than they historically would have. Prejudice against the Welsh hadn’t exactly disappeared in the few years since David had become the King of England, but victory and prosperity had gone a long way towards fostering peaceful relations between the two countries. It wasn’t only American presidents whose popularity ratings plummeted when the economy went bad.

  David didn’t know how many of his men trusted Dad; he hoped the majority of Dad’s trusted him. But they all trusted Ieuan, which was the most important thing. Ieuan mounted just behind David, flanked by the captains of the two companies.

  “Where do you think they are now?” Dad said by way of a greeting.

  David knew without his father saying their names that he was referring to Mom and Anna, not Madog’s army.

  “You were there almost as recently as I,” David said. “I don’t know where they ended up. If they’re in modern Wales, it’s a small country, and I assume their first step would be to come to Cardiff to find Callum and Cassie. If they ended up in the United States …” He shook his head. The soldiers were forming up behind them, and the shouted orders and stamping hooves were loud enough to prevent anyone else from overhearing.

  “I wish I could have visited it,” Dad said.

  “It’s a big country,” David said. “From Pennsylvania to Oregon where I grew up is the same distance as from here past the Caspian Sea. Of course, if they have far to travel, they’ll be able to fly the distance.”

  Dad made a rueful face. “Your mother, Goronwy, and I drove in a vehicle from Aberystwyth to Chepstow overnight. That’s eighty miles as the crow flies, almost double the distance to Harlech. How much easier it would be to put down this rebellion if we could travel more quickly.”

  “I would take communicating more quickly first,” David said. “I want to talk to Evan. I want to know what is happening at Harlech.”

  “At least our enemies can’t communicate any better than we can,” Dad said.

  “I’ve sent the pigeons to Tudur and Clare, and the rider should have reached Bevyn by now,” David said. “At the very least, the castles we hold should be prepared for attack or treachery.”

  Bevyn, who’d been posted to Anglesey since David became King of England, was the castellan of Llanfaes Castle, one of the new fortresses Dad had built in Gwynedd. In David’s old world, after Dad’s death, King Edward had destroyed the village to build his castle of Beaumaris. He had been intent on squashing the fiery independence of Anglesey and the rest of Gwynedd after Dad was killed.

  In this world, rather than a means to control the populace, Llanfaes and the rebuilt Aberffraw had become centers of power and havens in times of attack on Anglesey. That had been the purpose of Harlech too. Obviously, Madog and Rhys, Dad’s wayward Welsh lords, wanted Harlech for that very reason. They couldn’t be allowed to take it, or Dad might end up burning down his own castle to get it back.

  Dad’s estimation of the distance to Harlech was as the crow flies. By road, it was a bit longer: fifteen miles from Rhuddlan to Caerhun, another ten to Aber, fifteen more to Caernarfon, and then roughly thirty south to Harlech. Even pressing hard, that would be a lot of miles in a day, but that wasn’t the plan. Five miles an hour was a perfectly comfortable speed to ride and would allow the company to reach Aber well before morning. Everyone would sleep through the dawn and then leave again by noon.

  If Father continued to follow his overall plan, he could reach Maentwrog, ten miles short of Harlech, and David could reach Criccieth, by early tomorrow evening. From there, each would have to decide whether to set out for Harlech immediately, or wait until another night had passed. This time of year, the sun went down around four in the afternoon, so they had only eight hours of daylight. If a man needed to see well to do his work, he needed to work fast.

  The road from Aber was well-maintained, and the men around David carried torches, so nobody had to pay much attention to where they were going. Besides, horses saw better in the dark than humans. Ieuan and Carew were speculating about what the army might face when it reached Harlech. Dad didn’t join in and remained deep in thought. David kept looking at him carefully. Finally, after they’d passed Caerhun, he interrupted Dad’s reverie.

  “If you’re having second thoughts about any of this, now would be a good time to speak.”

  Dad blinked and looked over at David. “I’m not having second thoughts.”

  “Then what is it?”

  He didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then he moved his horse closer to David’s so the words he spoke would be for his ears alone. David sensed the others fall back slightly to give them space. “What if they don’t come back?”

  He meant Anna and Mom. “Dad,” David said. “They’ll come back.”

  “How can you be certain?” he said. “Anna hasn’t been to your world since she came to this one nine years ago. And your mother had a life there. She may not have one much longer with me …” His voice trailed off.

  David’s father had outlived the average medieval man by fifteen years. It shouldn’t have been surprising to learn that he was feeling his age and his own mortality, but David didn’t want to hear it or think about it.

  David tried to figure out how to say what he believed to be true in a way that would make his father believe it too. “Anna’s children—and Math—are her life. Mom feels the same about her children and you. She spent fifteen years trying to get back to you. Of all the things you might be worried about right now, that should not be one of them.”

  Dad was silent.

  “What’s this really about?”

  “I have been thinking of late how much living in this world has cost your mother, your sister, and you.” He reached out and grabbed David’s shoulder. “If something should happen to you, if you should fall in battle, it would be my fault. You could have stayed in your world and lived until you were eighty.”

  David stared at him, not actually saying, what the hell? though he was thinking it. “Dad, you are not responsible for my decisions. We’re long past the point where anything I do is or is not your fault. Yes, you and Mom are my parents, but I am a twenty-three-year-old man. I make my own choices, and while they may be rooted in decisions you or Mom made, they are my own. Don’t deny me the right to own them.”

  “My brother, Dafydd—” Dad paused. He really was feeling his regrets.

  David picked up the thread. “Uncle Dafydd made his own choices—bad ones, mostly. I don’t believe there is anything you could have done that would have kept him at your side. You didn’t give him the land he demanded. Too bad. He tried to murder you, he betrayed you three times—”

  “Four.”

  “Okay, four. Whatever. He did that. He would be loving it right now if he knew you blamed yourself for his actions. Even in death, don’t give him that satisfaction.” David was pretty worked up by now, but Dad was still looking downcast. David leaned closer. “Are you ill?”

  He sat straighter in his seat. “No. Of course not. Just tired.”

  “We’ll be at Aber within the hour.” David clicked his tongue at his horse and picked up the pace slightly. He didn’t want to wear his horse out, but it was better to wear him out than Dad. David was worried now. For all Dad’s optimism earlier about how this war could be the first shot across the bow, telling the world that they were serious about forming a united Britain, it was already looking like a lot more trouble than it was worth.

  Chapter Ten

  November 2019

  Callum

  Callum didn’t like their situation one bit. Cassie, Meg, and Anna had an affinity for Oregon, but he felt stranded here, bereft of the resources he’d grown used to having at his command. Worse, the women were counting on him
to get them home safely, and he was worried about what it might take to accomplish that.

  Then Meg put a hand on Callum’s arm and spoke to him like nobody had since his mother died. “This isn’t your problem, Callum. It’s our problem. You have capabilities we might not have, but this isn’t all on your shoulders. We’re in this together.”

  Callum glared down at her. “Do you read minds?”

  “I have spent years watching my son doing exactly what you’re doing,” she said. “I know the look.”

  Cassie felt for Callum’s hand. “He can’t help it.”

  “I know,” Meg said, “and I appreciate everything he has done and will do for us. I’m not asking for him not to do it. But the situation is difficult enough without him feeling like he’s responsible for all of us.”

  “She isn’t saying that we can take care of ourselves,” Anna said, glancing at Meg. “We all need to take care of each other.”

  Callum rolled his shoulders to ease the tension in them and to clear his thoughts. The Wal-Mart was crowded and inherently insecure, but there was safety in numbers. Even with the snow and rain, the darkness, the ridiculous amount of traffic on the road for a Thanksgiving night, and everybody going the same direction, sometimes for hours at a time, Callum had kept track of individual vehicles on the dual carriageway. He was very confident that they hadn’t been followed to Portland from Art’s house.

  Once past Portland and as the hours of driving to Eugene had worn on, however, he’d had to acknowledge his growing feeling of insecurity. It hadn’t dissipated in the three quarters of an hour they’d been in Wal-Mart and, in fact, had turned into a rock of tension in his stomach. If they’d picked up a tail once Cassie turned south, following them wouldn’t have been as difficult, and it wasn’t like they’d done anything to make tailing them hard. They’d forsaken subterfuge for speed. Now that it was nearly two in the morning, there should be fewer cars on the road. The rain that had started to fall wasn’t going to make driving any easier either.