Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series)
Page 27
Everything David had done and said these last four months had been bent on securing that future, initially in Wales and then in England, as the aftereffects of the rebellion were felt.
As David had predicted, Rhys ap Maredudd had pleaded the innocence of youth as an excuse for his sons’ behavior—and denied his own guilt. But unlike past insurrections, Rhys had gone on bended knee to plead not before the king but before the Welsh Parliament. The members of the Parliament, however, had remained unmoved. Rhys had lost his lands and his life. Dad had called it justice. Mom had sighed and said that some men couldn’t escape their fate. And Lili, ever practical, had declared it necessary.
David couldn’t disagree with any of their assessments, but his vision for the future—of Avalon made real—was forcing him to narrow his focus and look even more closely at every decision he made. And while sometimes an ending seemed like fate or necessity, it was justice that had to be David’s guide if he was to safely travel the treacherous road before him.
Arthur ran straight for the bus, pressing his small hands to the metal side as if it would give way if he pushed hard enough. But the doors were on the other side, and he wasn’t getting very far with his efforts.
“Come with me.” David tipped his head to indicate the direction he was going, and Arthur raced around the bus ahead of him.
All the children had come on this excursion. Bringing them, in fact, had been practically the whole point. The parents had decided it was time to show them—and tell them—as much of the truth about their origins as they could bear. They’d resolved to answer every question the children asked to the best of their ability, no matter how long it took or how outrageous the question.
By now, everyone else had dismounted too, even Dad—with all his former grace. He’d recovered from his injuries and, as always, looked younger than his years. Mom had commented just yesterday that her husband’s workout regimen would put a twenty-year-old’s to shame. But though David hadn’t said as much to his father, they’d both been tempered by the experience at Aberglaslyn. As far as David was concerned, that had been his father’s last battle.
Gwenllian held Elisa’s hand, and the two girls followed David to the front door of the bus. It was the one that had become stuck during the crash but was now restored to its former glory.
One by one, the children scrambled inside.
Lili came up behind David and put her arms around his waist. He reached out an arm, and she ducked under it so he could pull her closer.
“Are they okay to do that?” she said, her eyes following the progress of the children down the aisle. Arthur and Cadell had climbed onto one of the seats halfway along. At first the two boys jumped up and down on it, but then they gave that up in favor of pressing their faces against the glass window.
David laughed to see it, thinking of the years he’d ridden a school bus and entertained himself in the same way. “Yeah.” He kissed his wife’s temple. “They really are.”
The End
Thank you so much for reading Ashes of Time. To sign up to be notified the moment the next novel in the After Cilmeri series is released, please see the sidebar on my web page: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/
You can also follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahwoodburybooks
Continue reading for the a sample of The Good Knight, the first book in The Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mysteries, set in twelfth-century Wales:
Intrigue, suspicion, and rivalry among the royal princes casts a shadow on the court of Owain, king of north Wales…
The year is 1143 and King Owain seeks to unite his daughter in marriage with an allied king. But when the groom is murdered on the way to his wedding, the bride’s brother tasks his two best detectives—Gareth, a knight, and Gwen, the daughter of the court bard—with bringing the killer to justice.
And once blame for the murder falls on Gareth himself, Gwen must continue her search for the truth alone, finding unlikely allies in foreign lands, and ultimately uncovering a conspiracy that will shake the political foundations of Wales.
Sample: The Good Knight
Chapter One
August, 1143 AD
Gwynedd (North Wales)
“Look at you, girl.”
Gwen’s father, Meilyr, tsked under his breath and brought his borrowed horse closer to her side of the path. He’d been out of sorts since early morning when he’d found his horse lame and King Anarawd and his company of soldiers had left the castle without them, refusing to wait for Meilyr to find a replacement mount. Anarawd’s men-at-arms would have provided Meilyr with the fine escort he coveted.
“You’ll have no cause for complaint once we reach Owain Gwynedd’s court.” A breeze wafted over Gwen’s face and she closed her eyes, letting her pony find his own way for a moment. “I won’t embarrass you at the wedding.”
“If you cared more for your appearance, you would have been married yourself years ago and given me grandchildren long since.”
Gwen opened her eyes, her forehead wrinkling in annoyance. “And whose fault is it that I’m unmarried?” Her fingers flexed about the reins but she forced herself to relax. Her present appearance was her own doing, even if her father found it intolerable. In her bag, she had fine clothes and ribbons to weave through her hair, but saw no point in sullying any of them on the long journey to Aber Castle.
King Owain Gwynedd’s daughter was due to marry King Anarawd in three days’ time. Owain Gwynedd had invited Gwen, her father, and her almost twelve-year old brother, Gwalchmai, to furnish the entertainment for the event, provided King Owain and her father could bridge the six years of animosity and silence that separated them. Meilyr had sung for King Owain’s father, Gruffydd; he’d practically raised King Owain’s son, Hywel. But six years was six years. No wonder her father’s temper was short.
Even so, she couldn’t let her father’s comments go. Responsibility for the fact that she had no husband rested firmly on his shoulders. “Who refused the contract?”
“Rhys was a rapscallion and a laze-about,” Meilyr said.
And you weren’t about to give up your housekeeper, maidservant, cook, and child-minder to just anyone, were you?
But instead of speaking, Gwen bit her tongue and kept her thoughts to herself. She’d said it once and received a slap to her face. Many nights she’d lain quiet beside her younger brother, regretting that she hadn’t defied her father and stayed with Rhys. They could have eloped; in seven years, their marriage would have been as legal as any other. But her father was right and Gwen wasn’t too proud to admit it: Rhys had been a laze-about. She wouldn’t have been happy with him. Rhys’ father had almost cried when Meilyr had refused Rhys’ offer. It wasn’t only daughters who were sometimes hard to sell.
“Father!” Gwalchmai brought their cart to a halt. “Come look at this!”
“What now?” Meilyr said. “We’ll have to spend the night at Caerhun at present rate. You know how important it is not to keep King Owain waiting.”
“But Father!” Gwalchmai leapt from the cart and ran forward.
“He’s serious.” Gwen urged her pony after him, passing the cart, and then abruptly reined in beside her brother. “Mary, Mother of God…”
A slight rise and sudden dip in the path ahead had hidden the carnage until they were upon it. Twenty men and an equal number of horses lay dead in the road, their bodies contorted and their blood soaking the brown earth. Gwalchmai bent forward and retched into the grass beside the road. Gwen’s stomach threatened to undo her too, but she fought the bile down and dismounted to wrap her arms around her brother.
Meilyr reined in beside his children. “Stay back.”
Gwen glanced at her father and then back to the scene, noticing for the first time a man kneeling among the wreckage, one hand to a dead man’s chest and the other resting on the hilt of his sheathed sword. The man straightened and Gwen’s breath caught in her throat.
Gareth.
He’d cropped his dark brown
hair shorter than when she’d known him, but his blue eyes still reached into the core of her. Her heart beat a little faster as she drank him in. Five years ago, Gareth had been a man-at-arms in the service of Prince Cadwaladr, King Owain Gwynedd’s brother. Gareth and Gwen had become friends, and then more than friends, but before he could ask her father for her hand, Gareth had a falling out with Prince Cadwaladr. In the end, Gareth hadn’t been able to persuade Meilyr that he could support her despite his lack of station.
Gwen was so focused on Gareth that she wasn’t aware of the other men among them—live ones—until they approached her family. A half dozen converged on them at the same time. One caught her upper arm in a tight grip. Another grabbed Meilyr’s bridle. “Who are you?” the soldier said.
Meilyr stood in the stirrups and pointed a finger at Gareth. “Tell them who I am!”
Gareth came forward, his eyes flicking from Meilyr to Gwalchmai to Gwen. He was broader in the shoulders, too, than she remembered.
“They are friends,” Gareth said. “Release them.”
And to Gwen’s astonishment, the man-at-arms who held her obeyed Gareth. Could it be that in the years since she’d last seen him, Gareth had regained something of what he’d lost?
Gareth halted by Meilyr’s horse. “I was sent from Aber to meet King Anarawd and escort him through Gwynedd. He wasn’t even due to arrive at Dolwyddelan Castle until today, but …” He gestured to the men on the ground. “Clearly, we were too late.”
Gwen looked past Gareth to the murdered men in the road.
“Turn away, Gwen,” Gareth said.
But Gwen couldn’t. The blood—on the dead men, on the ground, on the knees of Gareth’s breeches—mesmerized her. The men here had been slaughtered. Her skin twitched at the hate in the air. “You mean King Anarawd is—is—is among them?”
“The King is dead,” Gareth said.
_____________
The Good Knight is available wherever books are sold.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter One