The Dark Spawn (Battle Lords of de Velt Book 5)

by Kathryn Le Veque

  “Morpeth,” Essien said. “Lord Ashlington is sponsoring them. It has been a long time since we have competed for sport and prize money, Ad.”

  Addax looked at his brother as if the man had gone mad. “Now?” he demanded. “You want to compete now?”

  Essien didn’t back down. “It would only be for a few days,” he said. “The tournament does not start until next month, anyway. All I am saying is that it would be fun to compete if we are not committed elsewhere at the time.”

  “You mean if we are not fighting off a Scots invasion,” Cole said quietly. “Essien, we have responsibilities elsewhere. There will be time enough for a tournament when this is over. The one in Morpeth will not be the last.”

  Essien returned to his food, but he wasn’t happy. And he wasn’t ready to give up, either. “Those were the days,” he said with fondness, trying to coerce his brother into agreeing with him. “Weren’t they, Ad? Destroying our competition in Ghent and Brussels and Roubaix? You should have seen us, Cole. The Black Dragon was unbeatable in the joust and the God of Vengeance dominated in the mass competition. We were unstoppable.”

  Cole could hear the excitement in Essien’s voice as he reveled in the memories of his tournament days. “You were unstoppable because I was not there,” he said, lifting his cup of wine to his lips. “Had I been there, you would not have won.”

  Essien’s dark eyes twinkled. “Would you care to put that boast to the test?”

  Cole took a long drink of wine, belching loudly when he was done. “Of course I would,” he said. “But not at Morpeth. We have more important things to do, Es. The tournament will have to wait.”

  Essien returned to his food, none too happy yet again. “I will hold you to that.”

  “I hope you do.”

  Essien took another bite of his food, his mind still lingering on the tournaments of his past. “It’s strange,” he said. “When I look back on my life, and all of the things I have done in that short time, I think it was the tournaments that I liked the best. The excitement, the money, the women…”

  “It was the women who got you in trouble,” Addax reminded him.

  But Essien waved him off. “I have always loved competition,” he said. “When I was a very young boy, I was always fascinated with games. We had games in Kitara, long ago. Remember, Ad? They were called Qurucu.”

  As Addax nodded, Cole spoke. “What does that mean?”

  “It means The Founding,” Addax said. “It was a festival to honor our ancestors, the ancient Kings of Kitara. There were horse races, music, games of strength and skill. Es and I were too young to compete, but our father did. I swear that I remember him winning every game. Our father could do no wrong.”

  Cole had slowed his eating, watching the brothers as they reflected on their homeland, which was rare. They had been very young when they’d been forced to flee, something neither of them liked to remember, and Cole was aware of that. But it seemed that this reflection wasn’t filled with angst, but of admiration.

  It was a rare good memory of home.

  “What was his name?” he asked. “I do not think I have ever asked you that.”

  “Amare,” Addax said. “He was a man of great vision and great honor, something that threatened some people.”

  Cole sat back with his warmed wine, interested in a rare glimpse into their past. “And these people are the ones who started the rebellion against him?”

  Addax nodded. “Mostly,” he said. “My father had a younger brother, Ekon, who coveted his power. It was Ekon who started the rebellion against my father and stole his throne.”

  Cole nodded faintly. “Surely he would have wanted you dead, too, Ad. You are your father’s heir.”

  “That is true, but we had the loyalty of my father’s servants,” he said. “When the rebellion started, they took Essien and I away, dressing us as servant children. We had a sister, you know. Adanya was her name. I do not know what became of her and that will always haunt me. I am the eldest son, after all. I should have made sure she was protected.”

  Cole had never heard that before. As the music blared and the roar of conversation filled that stuffy tavern, he found himself in a serious conversation with Addax and Essien on a taboo subject. Perhaps it was the wine causing them to speak of things they kept well-buried, but Cole had seen them both drunk before.

  This was something else.

  Perhaps it was simply time to speak on it.

  “You were a child,” he said. “You cannot blame yourself for not being able to help her. It sounds as if you were lucky to escape with your lives as it was.”

  Addax looked at him. “Would you feel the same way if we were speaking about your sisters?” he asked. “Allie and Effie and Addie? How would you feel then?”

  Cole conceded the point. “Guilty as hell,” he said. “I did not mean to diminish your feelings, Ad. I apologize.”

  Addax held up a hand. “You did not,” he said. “I did not mean to be confrontational, but Adanya’s fate has always been with me, like a shadow.”

  “Hopefully, she was helped to escape just like you were,” he said. “Mayhap she is safe just as you are, living a good life.”

  But Addax shook his head. “Do you know what I think?” he said. “I think my uncle spared her to marry her. What better way to assume the throne of Kitara by marrying his niece, the king’s daughter? I do not think she is dead. She is a queen. But it makes me sick to think on it.”

  Cole felt a good deal of sympathy for him. “Do you ever think of returning?”

  A smile flickered across Addax’s lips. “I do,” he said. “I think of it often. I think of the money Es and I earned from the tournaments we competed in and the money your father and William Marshal pays us. I am saving my money so I can buy an army to take with me back to Kitara. An army of the most brutal mercenaries the world has ever seen. I will return to Kitara and I will retake it, someday. At least, that has always been my intention, but since leaving Kitara those years ago, my life has gone in directions I could never have dreamed of. Mayhap I shall return to Kitara, but not now. I still have much more to do here in the land of people who seem to fight so much against one another.”

  Cole chuckled. “And more knights to defeat in the joust.”

  “Exactly.”

  Cole sat forward, looking Addax in the eyes. “You have become my closest friend, Ad,” he said. “The past two years have seen you and I go through a great deal together. We have faced life and death together. I hope you will not return to Kitara without me by your side.”

  Addax smiled warmly at him. “I would not have it any other way, Cole,” he said. “You are my brother even if you do not look like me.”

  “But I think like you. And my heart is the same. That is enough.”

  Addax held up his cup to them and they shared a toast to their friendship. It was a genuine moment between them, the misplaced prince and the spawn of the man many considered the prince of darkness. In a sense, they were both misplaced, both trying to find where they belonged.

  And who they belonged to.

  “But until I accompany you back to Kitara, the world we live in is here and now,” Cole said after a moment. “I feel like my world has changed. Everything I thought it would be doesn’t seem so certain any longer.”

  Addax leaned forward on the table, looking at him closely. “Lady Corisande?”

  Cole nodded slowly. “Lady Corisande,” he said. Then, he snorted. “Odd, isn’t it? Feeling that way about a woman I have only just met.”

  Before Addax could reply, Essien suddenly leapt up from the table and grabbed a serving wench who had just lost her dance partner. Handsome, young Essien could charm even the most frigid heart and the serving wench, once she got over her shock of being grabbed by a strange man, wholeheartedly jumped into the dance with him.

  Cole and Addax watched Essien swing the woman around as she squealed with delight.

  “There he goes,” Addax sighed. “I swear t
o you, we are going to have to flee England at some point because he will have gotten another girl in trouble. If I could only find him a wife.”

  Cole chuckled. “You would only make them both miserable,” he said. “Essien is not ready for a wife yet.”

  “Are you? Again?”

  Cole looked at him, knowing he meant Corisande. “I do not know,” he said honestly. “All I know is that I am away from Corisande and I do not like it. I want to return to her so badly that I can almost taste it.”

  “Are you going to tell your father?”

  Cole nodded. “I must,” he said. “I promised Corisande that I would settle the marital expectations with Audie before I pursued her in earnest. She says she does not want to be the reason for another woman’s unhappiness.”

  “She sounds like a wise woman.”

  “She is,” Cole agreed. “Far wiser than I am. Do I want to marry her? I do not know yet. I hardly know her. But my instincts tell me that she will be the woman at my side for the rest of my life and that thought does not distress me at all.”

  “Then I wish you luck,” Addax said. “You deserve happiness, Cole. I know you do not think so, but you do. What happened with Mary was very tragic, but the sun will shine again for you. Mayhap it will shine with Corisande.”

  Cole lifted his big shoulders. Since it seemed to be a night for confessions, he felt less restraint than usual to confess his own.

  “Mayhap,” he said. “I suppose I have always had the feeling of being cursed because of who my father is. After Mary and Lucy died, I remember hearing my father tell my mother that I was being punished for his sins. I do not think that, but I do feel as if I’ve been cursed by the de Velt name in some ways. But with Corisande… oddly enough, I do not feel any judgment from her. She does not seem to care that I am a de Velt. I feel comfortable with her, more at ease than I have ever felt with anyone.”

  Addax’s eyes twinkled. “Good,” he said. “I am happy for you. In fact, I…”

  He was cut off when the music suddenly stopped and something caught his eye. Both Addax and Cole looked over to where Essien had been dancing with the serving wench only to see that the woman had been yanked away from him and there were now three or four soldiers between the wench and Essien.

  The implication was obvious.

  Cole and Addax were on their feet.

  “Who are ye?” one of the soldiers stepped forward, shoving Essien back by the chest. “Where do ye come from? I’ve never seen the likes of ye around here before.”

  Essien was volatile. He didn’t take kindly to be shoved around, but Addax grabbed his brother before he could take a swing at the soldier.

  Cole put himself between them.

  “That was unwise,” he rumbled to the soldier. “He was minding his own affairs, as should you. Go sit down and I will pretend I did not see you shove my friend.”

  The soldier looked Cole over. In fact, his companions did, too. They could see how big and fierce he was and those eyes… they were terrifying. The soldier stepped back but he didn’t leave.

  “This doesn’t involve ye,” he said. “Yer friend was being rough with Matilde.”

  “He was dancing with her,” Cole said. “He was not being rough with her and you had no reason to intervene, so sit back down. I will not tell you again.”

  The soldier snorted, but it was all for show. He had companions that needed to see how brave he was.

  “And just who are ye to tell me what to do?”

  Cole didn’t take his eyes off the soldier. “I am de Velt,” he said. “Ajax de Velt is my father. If you’ve not heard of my family, then you are either stupid or daft. But if you have, then you know what we are capable of. Now, do you wish to continue this challenge?”

  That brought a reaction from all four of the men. A couple of them reached out to pull the soldier back, away from Cole.

  “De Velt?” the soldier repeated, sounding far less confident than he had only moments earlier. He was an older man and, suddenly, fear flickered across his face. “He’s the one who stormed the borders years ago.”

  “He did.”

  “I remember White Crag Castle,” he said, remembering those horrors from long ago and without the wherewithal to keep his mouth shut. “I remember what your father did to those men. I was serving at Etal Castle at the time and I remember how… God’s bones, what he did to those men. Your father is a monster!”

  He realized too late he probably shouldn’t have said that and his companions pulled him away even further, out of the range of the enormous knight. He had drink in his veins, as they all did, which fed both courage and stupidity.

  But Cole had seen that same fear in the soldier’s eyes too many times to count. He didn’t really care that the man called his father a monster because it was the truth. Ajax de Velt had done some monstrous things.

  He was used to hearing his father called such things.

  And he used it to his advantage.

  “Then you will get out of my sight or I may do to you what my father did to his enemies those years ago,” he said. “Leave now or suffer the de Velt wrath.”

  The soldier turned around and nearly plowed his comrades over in his haste to leave. As the men began to scramble, Addax turned to the musicians and quietly commanded them to start playing again as he dragged his brother back over to their table. Cole remained in place, watching the soldiers leave through the back door of the tavern. When they were gone, he headed back to their table. The buzz of conversation and the music gradually returned to the room.

  Things slowly went back to normal.

  “Well,” Cole said as he sat heavily in his chair. “That was disappointing. I think I was hoping for a fight.”

  Addax grinned but Essien was still angry he hadn’t been allowed to retaliate. Frowning, he poured himself more wine as Addax noticed movement on the far side of the tavern.

  “Cole,” he said quietly. “Look.”

  Cole glanced over his shoulder to see several Scots also leaving through the rear entrance, the one that opened into the stable yard. It was where the soldiers had gone, but it seemed strange that the Scots should follow. They were leaving in the dead of night, heading into a village that had shut down at sunset. The only thing for miles was uninhabited landscape.

  It was most curious.

  “Did you get a good look at them?” he asked Addax.

  “Nay,” Addax replied. “Did you?”

  Cole shook his head. “I did not,” he said. “I am concerned that mayhap there was a man among them who recognized us from our days in William’s royal entourage. It’s not as if you and your brother are not recognizable.”

  Addax conceded the point. “Even if they did recognize us, why would they leave? For what purpose?”

  Cole shook his head. “I do not know,” he said thoughtfully. “But if there was a man among them who recognized us, he heard me give my name as de Velt to the soldier and without a Scots brogue. I’ve been pretending to be MacEacharn for the past two years.”

  That thought hadn’t occurred to Addax. “Then mayhap we should retire for the evening. Or leave altogether. Mayhap they’ve gone to warn others.”

  “They have no reason to, but you may be correct,” he said. “Mayhap we should find lodgings in the stables this night, just to be safe.”

  The decision was made. Cole’s saddlebags were underneath the table along with Addax and Essien’s, and as he bent over to pull them out, the tavern owner approached them.

  The man seemed to be rather nervous.

  “M’lords?” he said, looking at all three of them but mostly looking at Cole. “Forgive me, m’lord, but I heard you say that you are de Velt?”

  Cole looked at the man, feeling intolerant of any nonsense or judgment this night. “Everyone within earshot tonight heard the same thing,” he said, unfriendly. “What do you want?”

  The tavern owner was wringing his chapped, scarred hands. “I thought you should know,” he said. “You mu
st warn the other warlords.”

  “Warn them about what?”

  The tavern owner jabbed a finger at the rear door. “The Scots,” he said. “I did not want to say anything while they were still here, but now that they are gone, I will tell you. I heard them speaking of an army moving south, through the Kielder Pass.”

  That caught Cole’s attention. “A Scots army moving through Kielder Pass?” he repeated. “Are you certain of this?”

  The tavern owner nodded emphatically. “I’ve lived my entire life here,” he said. “I understand the Gaelic. The Scots spoke of it openly, probably thinking I would not know their language, but they spoke of meeting up with the army coming through Kielder Pass. They did not say why, or when, but I thought you should know.”

  Cole was stunned by what he was hearing. “Did they say anything else to that regard?”

  The man shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “But I’m English. If I hear something from those damnable Scots, I am not going to keep it a secret.”

  Cole looked at Addax and Essien, shocked, before digging into his purse and handing over a silver coin to the tavern owner to thank him for the information. As the man scurried away, Essien hissed.

  “What do we do?” he demanded. “They are already coming into England!”

  Cole pulled his saddlebags from underneath the table. “We leave,” he said. “That is what we do. If they are coming through Kielder Pass, they are going to run headlong into The Keld. Es, you ride for Pelinom. Ride hard and tell my father everything. Ad, you and I will return to The Keld and warn them of what is coming. Mayhap William the Rough is moving swifter than we thought.”

  It was a horrifying thought. It had been their understanding that nothing would happen until the summer months, but that was evidently incorrect.

  The time was now.

  On a cold, clear night with a bright moon hanging in the sky and scattered clouds blown around by an icy wind, Essien headed north to Pelinom Castle as Cole and Addax headed back for The Keld, trying to avoid the Scots they knew to be on the same road. They had to ride through forests and across streams, which slowed them down. And when the moon began to sink low in the sky, they were hindered by the threat of complete darkness but, still, they pushed on.