by Martin Owton
She raised the sack containing Broll’s head and Aron decided not to pursue the point.
“You should walk the mist tonight,” he said. “Tell your mother that we have Celaine.”
“Do we need to buy more mushrooms?”
“We should have enough, but I’ll get more anyway. There should be time when we get to Keshan.”
“Then tomorrow we’re going looking for that farm.”
***
Edith woke with Aron’s hand on her shoulder. She didn’t remember going to sleep; she had bathed in the bathhouse, eaten in the canteen then laid down for a moment’s rest in the dormitory. Night had fallen and Maldwyn snored on the bed beside her; she must have been asleep a long time.
“It is time to walk the mist,” said Aron. “I’ve brewed the draught.”
She sat up and looked at his face, lit by the oil lantern that hung from the wall beside them. He held out a mug to her. He looked tired and she wondered if he had had any sleep. She took the mug and pulled a face at the smell of the brew; she should be used to it by now, but it did not get any better. Steeling herself she drained the mug and Aron passed her a second mug of clean water to rinse her mouth. She passed the mugs back then took his hand and waited for the mist, determined to not go back to sleep.
The mist seemed to begin much sooner than she expected, or perhaps she had drifted off to sleep and woken again. As the white clouds rose from the floor she felt her mind lift, she stood up and walked towards the wall thinking of her mother.
For a moment she was confused by the room that emerged out of the mist. It was the room she had shared with Celaine but her mother now lay in the bed. She called out and Lady Alice sat up.
“Edith,” she cried, throwing her arms wide. “Thank Iduna! I’ve been so worried about you.”
Edith stepped into her mother’s embrace. “We have Celaine with us.”
“And you’re all safe? Where are you?”
“We’re in Keshan. We’re looking for Tancred. Celaine has been very badly used and is hurt, but we’re bringing her back.”
“Bring her home as quickly as you can. Tancred is here.”
“What do you mean here? He’s in Nandor?”
“He’s here. In the castle. He’s taken over. I’m a prisoner.”
Anger and hatred of Tancred blazed through her. The mist swirled up concealing her mother and when it cleared she was in what had been her parents’ room. Tancred lay in her father’s bed. She advanced on the bed, murder in her heart, and stood over Tancred before halting. What could she do? Nothing to physically harm him. Wake him and tell him they were coming for him? That would lose them the advantage of surprise. Still fuming she closed her eyes and concentrated on the image of her mother. When she opened her eyes she was back with her.
“Thank Iduna you’re back,” said Lady Alice. “You need to keep focused when you’re mist walking. Now listen. Tancred has about two dozen men holding the castle. Some were our own guardsmen, but he brought fifteen with him. The guardsmen who wouldn’t support him were sent packing. He has Mara so I can do nothing. I don’t know if the town supports him.”
“How did he take the castle?”
“Half the guard were with him. They let him in.”
“What about Thalon?”
“Dead. Tancred killed him. How are you getting back from Keshan?”
“Same way as we got there. We’re waiting for a boat down the coast.”
“How will you get here from wherever you land?”
“Walk if we have too.”
“What about Celaine?”
“She can walk. The hurt is in her mind.”
Lady Alice opened her mouth to speak then paused. “How long before you’re here?” she finally asked. Edith was sure that was not what she had intended to say first.
“Hard to say,” said Edith. “We need to find a boat, and then it’s a few days walk once we land.”
“Eight days then with good weather?”
“At least.”
The mist began to rise around Edith, concealing Lady Alice again.
“Take care of Celaine” were the last words she heard before she woke back in the dormitory, Aron’s hand in hers. Aron jerked awake as she pulled his hand.
“Did you reach her?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered. “She’s safe, but Tancred’s taken the castle.” She glanced at Maldwyn asleep beside them. “Wake him. We’ve got to get back there as soon as possible.”
“Let him sleep,” said Aron. “We’re not going to find a ship tonight, and we’ll all think more clearly in the morning.”
He lay down on his bedroll and blew out the candle lantern. After a few moments annoyance, Edith too lay down and reached for his hand but it took a long time for sleep to find her.
***
“Tell me that again slowly,” said Maldwyn, blinking in the morning light.
“Tancred has seized the castle and is holding mother and Mara,” said Edith. “Half the guard is with him and he brought men of his own. He killed Thalon.”
“I’ll hang every one of them,” said Maldwyn.
“How many men in total?” asked Aron.
“Mother said about two dozen,” said Edith.
“That’s not good odds,” said Aron. “If they’re half decent soldiers.”
“The hired men will give up when we kill Tancred,” said Maldwyn.
“But we may have to go through them to get to him,” said Aron. “What about the other half of the guard?”
“They were thrown out of the castle,” said Edith.
“That’s our force, if we can find them,” said Aron. “How much support does Tancred have in the town?”
“Mother doesn’t know,” said Edith.
“Why would he have any support at all?” asked Maldwyn.
“There are always people who think they can profit from a change,” said Aron.
“And some of our tenants who hadn’t paid their rents,” said Edith. ‘Remember how angry they were. They’d support Tancred if they thought they wouldn’t have to pay.”
Aron remembered the line of tenants awaiting Tumas’s scrutiny when he arrived at the castle. “Yes, some of them.”
“Anyone who supports Tancred will lose their holding,” said Maldwyn.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Aron. “First we have to get to Tancred without him harming the hostages and burning the castle. We were going to take a ship down to Treermouth, and that should still be the plan. Tancred may be watching the road into Nandor from Sarazan, but it’s harder to watch that way.”
“Then we find a ship today,” said Edith. “There’ll be time enough for planning while we’re on board.”
“Then we need to find Dirick,” said Aron.
***
Dirick had been as good as his word, and had already found them a ship by the time they reached him. By midday they had handed back their company livery, quit the barracks, bought rope and a grappling iron at a ships’ chandler and were aboard the ship waiting for the tide. The ship was rather larger than the Cuttlefish with a small cabin for Celaine and Edith. When Maldwyn went to pay the captain he was waved away; the fee had already been paid.
The harbour chain was opened and they sailed out of Keshan harbour, behind them sailed Caldon’s great ship, bound for Cuirport carrying new recruits for the campaign. They cleared the headland and caught more of the wind and the crew put on more sail. The ship picked up speed, riding through the moderate swell and Aron felt the first discomfort of seasickness.
Maldwyn came to join him at the rail and together they watched Caldon’s ship turn away to follow the coast northward.
“I’m glad I’m not on that ship,” said Aron. “I’ve no wish to go anywhere near men who can raise demons.”
“Me too. That was the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen,” said Maldwyn. “After what we’ve been through, I’ve no desire to seek out any more adventure.”
“I di
d not believe I was going to get out of that cave,” said Aron. “Facing Tancred will be a pleasure after that.”
“What I don’t understand about Tancred is how he thinks he will get away with this. Did he think we wouldn’t return?”
“Possibly. Which makes me wonder if he hasn’t set an ambush for us on the road from Sarazan.”
“Not on the way from Treermouth?”
“There isn’t really a clear road from Treermouth,” said Aron. “And the Sarazan road is still the mostly likely way back. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he didn’t have a fellow with a basket of pigeons watching the road out of Sarazan. It’s what I’d do. Anyway, there’s plenty of precedent for what he’s done. Several of the High King’s most loyal supporters gained their titles by the untimely demise of the legitimate heirs.”
“Murder?”
“It wouldn’t be a good idea to say that around the High King.”
“So all he’d have to do to be recognised would be to swear loyalty to the High King?”
“Unless you have influential friends at court, then yes.”
“You know we have no such friends.”
“Then we have to deal with Tancred in Nandor.”
“What are your plans? Going over the back wall with a rope?”
“Possibly. It worked at Sarazan. It depends on how disciplined Tancred’s men are about mounting guard.”
“Thalon always complained about the men shirking guard duty,” said Maldwyn. “Particularly in the rain.”
“Hard to believe that Tancred’s men would be any better.”
“Especially if we choose a dark wet night, and there’s no shortage of those in Nandor.”
“Sounds reasonable to me, unless there’s some secret way in that you haven’t mentioned,” said Aron. “We’ll need someone to look after Celaine while we go in. Someone we can trust.”
“Edith can stay with her.”
“I think Edith will insist on coming with us, and I think we’ll need her.”
Maldwyn did not reply immediately. “There’s mother’s brother,” he said eventually. “He has a house in Nandor town, but Tancred knows where that is and it’s an obvious place to watch. I think mother’s cousins might be better. They have a farm outside Nandor town. Tancred doesn’t know them.”
“And they would help?”
“Yes. Certainly. They’ve no love for Tancred.” He looked out at the horizon where Caldon’s ship could just be seen. “What are we going to do about Celaine? She hasn’t got any better since we found her.”
“Perhaps when she is home and surrounded by familiar things she will improve,” he said after some thought. I can only hope that turns out to be true.
“What do we do if she doesn’t?”
“I don’t know.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
They made their way slowly down the coast dogged by contrary winds, stopping at tiny coastal villages too small to have a harbour where cargo was rowed out to them and lifted into the hold by a derrick and net. Before nightfall they either moored in a sheltered inlet or, on one occasion, berthed in a village harbour where the captain went ashore for the night. Maldwyn, Aron and Thomi slept in the hold which contained four barrels of salted fish and some small crates of pottery. The best that could be said of it was that it was drier than being on deck.
During the day Aron spent as much time as he could manage in the little cabin. Occasionally Celaine acknowledged him, once holding his hand, but mostly she lay in the bunk with her face turned to the wall. He and Edith didn’t feel comfortable talking in front of her so they sat in silence until the seasickness drove him out. Edith stayed with her most of the time and was able to tempt her to eat a little when no-one else was there.
They passed the time playing dice, gossiping and sleeping as there was little actual planning they could do until they reached Nandor. Showers of rain drove them down into the hold frequently and the rolling of the boat continually disturbed Aron’s stomach.
They did not recognise Treermouth when they reached it, and the captain had to tell them this was their port when they moored inside the breakwater. A small boat rowed out to meet them. Four of them climbed down into it by a rope ladder, but Celaine had to suffer the indignity of transfer in the cargo net when she could not be coaxed down the ladder.
“She wouldn’t have done it even before this,” said Edith.
Once they were ashore they wasted no time in acquiring a donkey to carry Celaine. Remembering the discomfort of the shepherd’s hut they had camped in on the journey to Treermouth, they enquired of the innkeeper of any alternative route to Nandor Town that might have better lodgings along the way. They received directions along with warnings that the village inns “weren’t big places like this ‘un”. Thinking they would be superior to the shepherd’s hut they thanked the innkeeper and set out with enough daylight left to reach the first village.
“Taking this way should help keep us hidden from anyone Tancred’s set to watch the road to Nandor,” said Aron.
“You think he’s set someone to watch this place?” said Maldwyn.
“It’s what I’d do,” said Aron. “He must know we left from here.”
“Tancred doesn’t even know Treermouth exists,” said Edith, still clutching the sack with its gruesome contents. “Let alone where it is. You’re thinking he’s much cleverer than he is.”
“I don’t want to make the mistake of underestimating him,” said Aron, though his own experiences of Tancred rather supported Edith’s view.
***
Mara squirmed in her arms as Lady Alice faced the usurper. Tancred, as usual when in her presence, wore a mailshirt and gambeson with a sword on his belt. In addition, two of his men stood between her and him.
“I don’t see how you can possibly expect to get away with this,” she said readjusting her hold on her daughter. “When Maldwyn returns.”
“Maldwyn is not coming back.” Tancred cut across her. “As you very well know, there’s been no news of him for weeks. He has vanished into the wilds. I have written to the High King pledging my loyalty. When he replies, I shall be Earl of Nandor.”
“But you are not heir, Maldwyn is.”
“Do you think anyone close to the King knows or cares? Do you think someone keeps a list of all the heirs to all the titles in the kingdom? No one even knows where Nandor is. Something I shall put right as soon as I’m confirmed Earl.”
His words about the obscurity of Nandor had a ring of truth about them. She had so often chided Baldwin about the need to keep in touch with the court, but her words had fallen on deaf ears.
“And once I’m confirmed my mother will be coming to live here,” he continued. “You’ll need to find somewhere else.”
The casual cruelty nearly overwhelmed her. I will not weep in front of this man.
She readjusted her hold on Mara again to buy the time to compose herself.
“In the meantime, I hope I will be allowed to see to the usual functioning of this castle,” she said. “I have a mind to tend to the garden before it is overrun with weeds.”
Tancred glared at her for a moment before snapping “very well” and marching out of the room leaving the two guardsmen behind. Lady Alice laid Mara back in her cradle and, after a few words with the wet nurse, left followed by the guardsmen. She walked through the courtyard, out of the postern and collected her tools from the small shed at the edge of the gardens.
“Here, make yourself useful.” She handed the toolbox to one of the guards following her. “Carry this.”
Even though it was the middle of the day, she noted, the rest of the guardsmen were lounging around the barracks rather than cleaning their weapons or being drilled on the training ground. She had heard from Glynis reports of fights between Tancred’s mercenaries and the Nandor men. They will pay for this indiscipline when Maldwyn gets here.
She rolled up her sleeves and set to work on the raised beds where the weeds were indeed threatening to overwh
elm the herbs. As she worked she thought about where the ambition and wickedness in Tancred had come from. His mother, of course. Baldwin’s older sister had never liked Alice, never thought she was good enough for the House of Nandor. The old earl, Baldwin’s father, had not helped; spoiling the young Tancred and treating him like his heir even after Maldwyn was born. That’s where it began, but Tancred has built much of it himself. I will see him stopped if it’s the last thing I do.
She wondered if she could do anything to prepare ahead of Maldwyn and Aron’s attempt to retake the castle. She had discussed with Glynis the idea of arming the castle’s womenfolk, but had rejected that when Glynis said that some of the maids had formed liaisons with some of Tancred’s men.
“It’s just the attraction of something different. More fool them.” Glynis had observed sourly.
Surprise was their most valuable weapon and clearly any preparation involving the castle’s women would not remain secret very long. To that end Lady Alice had not even told Glynis of Edith’s contact, though she had no reason to doubt her.
She looked at the castle walls with new eyes, wondering which the weakest point was. The scaffolding around the gatehouse probably, but that was also the most obvious. Here at the back of the castle weeds grew from gaps between the wooden stakes of the wall and some of the stakes were rotted soft; an agile man might even climb the wall without a rope, so many were the possible handholds. Was Tancred aware of this? She doubted it.
She wondered where Maldwyn was. The weather’s been calm these last few days. Surely they should be in Nandor by now. She wished Glynis had been able to find more of the mushrooms so she could reach him or Aron. As she attacked the weeds she seethed with frustration at her helplessness, she desperately wanted to do something to bring about Tancred’s downfall. Waiting silently seemed to be the only thing she could do.
***
Lady Alice’s cousins’ farm was prosperous and solid-looking, a stone-built farmhouse and barns surrounded by a high stone wall set amid fields of barley, and they were very glad to see it after two days walking in the rain. Their circuitous route through the villages had added days to the journey, but at least they had had a meal and a roof over their heads each night. The donkey had proved uncooperative and now carried their packs, Celaine walked beside Edith still in her own silent world.