Jim looked at Brian.
An evil gleam kindled itself in Brian's eyes.
"Most assuredly, James," he said. "The very armor of Malvinne's men would hamper them, on foot; whereas our light-armored men-at-arms on their horses would be able to run them down and their lances with little trouble. But how do you mean to deprive Malvinne's men of their horses?"
"I just had a thought," said Jim. "We don't want to finish riding to the castle this afternoon, in any case, do we?" He did not wait, for agreement was obvious. "If we hide ourselves along the edge of the woods, but well within it, we can watch, this evening, which is only a few hours off, when they return to the castle. We can count their numbers accurately, as well as getting an idea of what kind of opponents we face. Meanwhile, Wat can go on scouring the neighborhood for bowmen, or anybody else who can fight with us. I've no idea whether he'll find anyone or not—"
"Think not you that," said Brian. "You are already known as a good master, in your household and on all your lands. The word has come back to me. I would venture to say we'll get at least half a hundred men of all ages and description—though how many of these may be useful, I don't know. But do you have further thoughts, James?"
"Yes," said Jim, "see what you think of this. We stay hidden this afternoon and tonight. At night, particularly with the help of local people who know how to move in the woods, we shift around to the woods behind the castle, where we spread our men out in a semicircle; so that they can come at all of Malvinne's people behind the castle at once, from many angles. Meanwhile we'll investigate the manner in which the horses are tied, while they are waiting during the day. It may be that there is something we can do to weaken the means that holds them to their tethers—in such a way that Malvinne's men on the morrow will not realize that the holding of their horses has been weakened."
"Good idea, that," commented Brian.
"Then," went on Jim, "sometime tomorrow we do something to alarm their tied-up horses, so that they break loose. Then we do the best we can to herd them into the woods, or at least away from Malvinne's men. Then the rest of us charge on horseback from the woods, and see what we can do against the men on foot."
"It's a good plan, James!" said Brian. "Fine, indeed. But, how do you plan to frighten their horses into pulling themselves free and running off? Were you perhaps thinking of changing yourself into a dragon and flying suddenly down upon them? That would cause any group of horses to flee."
"I'm afraid we cant use that way," said Jim. "I may not have made it clear, but Malvinne isn't the only magician without magic. I'm another. I was only a D-class magician to begin with, with a small balance in the Accounting Office. I used it up in France fairly early."
"But," Brian stared at him. "The magic in the castle—the invisibility—"
"Thank Carolinus," said Jim. "He allowed me to charge things against his own account temporarily."
"You mean," demanded Brian, "you can work no magic at all now, James?"
"I can work magic," said Jim, "but nothing will happen, because I've got nothing in my account with the Accounting Office to make it work. So my turning myself into a dragon, for the moment at least, is impossible. I can do no more than any one of us can do in our own proper bodies."
"That's a singular damn uncomfortable state of affairs!" said Brian thoughtfully, rubbing the stiff, light brown stubble that had sprouted on the lower half of his face. "I can think of no other way at the moment to frighten those horses enough to make them pull loose and run."
"All horses are afraid of fire," said Jim, "particularly those that are fastened and can't run from it. What if we began matters by having several of our men gallop from the woods near one end of the castle, towing bundles of twigs set on fire behind them? If they came suddenly and went fast, the armored men wouldn't have time to stop them. The burning bundles would frighten the horses by themselves, and the grass out there is long and dry at this time of year. Almost certainly, we could start it to burning, that way—or at least to smoldering. That'd not only scare the horses but give Malvinne's men something to think about."
"By Saint Dunstan!" said Brian. "I think you've something there that could set them all about just as we charge, James!"
He glanced up at the sun for a second.
"There're at least three hours until sunset," he went on. "For my part, I can't wait to get behind that castle of yours and discover how their horses are fastened. But it's best we wait where we are until we've seen them return inside, counted their numbers, and learned what we can from that view of them. I vow it will not be easy to wait!"
"For myself," said Dafydd, "there will be much to do, with our own bowmen and with those Wat may find."
As it happened, recruits from the countryside began arriving almost as Dafydd was saying this. Wat had evidently followed the sensible course of setting up headquarters at the first stopping place he had come to, and sending out messengers from there in every direction.
Jim was amazed at the number of these as they continued to come in. He was forced once more to realize something that he had failed to appreciate fully, about this world that was his home nowadays.
He was quite familiar with the fact that the knights loved to fight; and that the men-at-arms and bowmen were not far behind them in that respect. Once fired up, they were not stopped easily. But it had never really struck him that the friendly and subservient plowmen, woodchoppers, and general workers of this land he owned as the Lord of Malencontri, would share this same cheerful joy at the prospect of what might well be a deadly battle.
Young and old, they came in, from boys no more than eight or nine to white-bearded, stooped, old men stiff with arthritis, with knives at their belts and carrying scythes, mattocks, axes and—if nothing else—plain wooden clubs.
Most of them were not going to be of much use against fully armored and experienced warriors, even if these latter were fighting on foot rather than on horseback. Nonetheless, Jim's heart was curiously touched and his spirits warmed by the eager response of his local people. It was, he gathered, partially attributable to the fact that he was considered to be such a good Lord—although he had never thought of himself as being anything unusual that way.
Apparently, simply not misusing them was enough to get them to consider him to be good. But of even more importance was the fact that they literally could hardly wait to get into a fight. It was mind-boggling to someone from the twentieth century. Apparently, a battle of any kind was excitement—like a latter-day circus or parade—and excitements of any kind were rare bright spots in the lives of most.
These, plus the men-at-arms and archers, spread themselves out among the trees facing the castle, far enough back in the shadow of the trees, so that they could not be seen watching. The sun descended; and just at sunset the two bodies of Malvinne's armored horsemen rode into sight around the two opposite ends of the castle, approached the drawbridge, which was down, and clattered up it and through the gate into the caste courtyard.
"Eighty men, all right," said Brian as the last one disappeared into the shadow of the gate.
"Did I not say so?" snarled Aragh.
"Indeed you did, Sir Wolf," said Brian, "and it was not that I did not trust your counting, but that I had to see for myself—not so much their numbers, but what armor and weapons they wore, and how they rode. These are no ragtag troops, James. They are all veterans and used to the saddle. They will be as used to their weapons when the time comes."
"I didn't have much hope they wouldn't be," said Jim gloomily.
"Nor did I," said Brian. "But, on the bright side, did you also notice that while they rode together, they rode in no particularly comradely fashion? Either they have little love for each other; or the day's waiting, as I suggested, has worn them down to where they will need food and drink to thaw out their good humor."
The drawbridge was pulled up.
"Now," said Brian, "the quicker we move to the back of the castle while there is still light to exami
ne the ground, the better. We'll be in shadow from the castle itself there, which will help to cloak us, but may hide some aspect of the ground as well."
They moved, accordingly, to the trees fringing the cleared ground behind the castle. Here, not only was most of the ground in shadow from the castle itself, but by and large the back of Malencontri was one massive wall of stone, affording few lookout points, except from the battlements at the top.
Jim, Brian, and Dafydd stripped of armor and weapons, and looking as much as possible like locals, moved out to inspect the open space where Malvinne's forces would be hiding in the daytime. They wandered in no particular pattern, but covered the ground thoroughly. There was nothing surprising in their presence, if they were seen from the castle; since it was only to be expected that some of the poorer common sort would comb the ground where their betters had spent the day, hoping to pick up something of value or use that might have been lost or thrown aside.
A low whistle from Brian caught Jim's attention. He looked over to see Brian surreptitiously beckoning him, and went to join the other knight. Brian was bent over a patch of trampled grass, that was very obviously where the horses had been.
"See," he said to Jim under his breath, "their horses are but tied to pegs driven into the ground. It should be possible to scrape away a little earth where peg meets ground, cut partway through the peg and then push the dirt back. That way the peg should hold against any ordinary tug from the horse, but will be easy to break if the animal is really frightened. Let's wait until the darkness is a little deeper, and spend the time marking the position of the pegs. Then we can work on them when we have full night to hide us from any watchman's eyes."
They did so; and about half an hour later a full fifteen hidden figures—Jim, Brian, Dafydd and a number of the new recruits—were busy with knives, more by feel than otherwise, cutting partway through the stakes and then hiding the cut with a thin covering of earth.
They were done, and retreated into the woods before moonlight should show them still down there. It was not customary for the ordinary sort to leave their houses after dark—as much for the need to wake with the sunrise and begin work, as to hide from superstitious fears of what the night might threaten.
Into their small homes the locals took the bowmen and the men-at-arms. Brian, Jim, and Dafydd chose to camp out around a fire in the woods, far enough away and masked enough by trees that the flames would not be seen from the castle. None of the little dwelling places that had accepted those of lesser rank had quarters that Brian considered respectable for a knight to use; and besides, with the three of them isolated this way, they could discuss plans in privacy.
Jim had his own private reasons for not stepping into one of the huts of his own people. Those same huts would be alive with fleas, lice, and other vermin. He had not stayed completely clear of such on his trip to France and back; but he wanted to keep himself as clean as possible until he was able to get into the castle, have his clothes thoroughly boiled and cleaned, and take a bath in the privacy of his quarters with Angie.
The evening was still busy with people coming and going. The bundles of twigs that were to be set on fire had to be made. Dafydd also had specific instructions to give his bowmen. He had managed to pick at least a dozen passable archers out of the thirty or forty who had presented themselves. The job of these would be mainly to keep any bowmen or crossbowmen on the battlements from shooting down into the crowd below once the attack started. At least they could encourage the marksmen above to keep their heads down. The chief men-at-arms also had to be given specific orders.
Still and all, by what Jim judged to be something like ten o'clock, everyone was gone. The fire had burned down, well on its way toward becoming a bed of embers. The three rolled themselves in saddle blankets, and both Dafydd and Brian dropped off, as if tomorrow were to be no different than any other day. It was a knack that Jim had remarked and envied in them before this.
In his own case, he lay awake for some little time, thinking not so much about the fight, as about the conditions under which Angie was being kept in the castle as a prisoner. Comforting himself finally with the belief that it would not pay Malvinne to abuse the three women of the castle until he knew that Jim and his two companions were firmly in his grasp, he finally fell asleep.
He woke, like the rest, at daybreak. They had barely got their campfire going to warm themselves, when several of Jim's locals brought them food and homemade beer for breakfast. Jim, to his own surprise, was as ravenously hungry as Dafydd and Brian seemed always to be. He told himself that perhaps he was beginning to fall into the pattern of things here, after all.
They filled their saddle flasks with beer, and tied packages of some of the food, that would not spoil too quickly, to their saddles; and set about getting their forces in position. This, Brian had emphasized, needed to be done before the armed horsemen came out from the castle, so that no noise or movement should attract attention from either them or the castle beyond.
In due time, the unsuspecting foes came, dismounted, tied their horses to the pegs in the ground, and settled down to a number of games, running from dice to a sort of crude form of chess.
And the hard part began.
Now, as Brian had emphasized the night before, they must wait until the knights, men-at-arms, or whoever Malvinne's fighting men were, should have settled down to what they thought was another weary day of waiting. The wait, this time, was almost as hard on those hidden in the woods around them as on the heavily armored men themselves.
Almost, but not quite. For one thing, those waiting in the woods were in shade, and had relative freedom of movement. The men stationed behind the castle cursed the sunlight loudly and hunted small patches of shade as the sun rose and the shadow cast by the castle dwindled.
Then, finally, came the moment Brian had been waiting for. At midday, servants came out from the castle, bearing a meal for the armed men. To the satisfaction of everyone watching, those being fed ate heartily. Not only was there no need to stint themselves, but clearly they did not expect Jim, Brian, Dafydd, and the rest to show up until somewhere between midafternoon and the end of the day.
Sated at last, they lolled around on the grass, too full even to continue the games with which they had been killing time. Brian—who was the natural field commander, accepted as such by everyone from Jim on down—sent word to those hidden in the semicircle of the enclosing woods to be ready.
Chapter Forty-Three
As the armed and armored men, sated, dozed in the sun that now afforded them no patches of shade at all behind the castle, the raucous challenge of a cock pheasant sounded from the woods beyond the right end of the castle. It was answered almost immediately by a counter-challenge from the woods at the west end.
Suddenly, three galloping horses, their pace hardly lessened by the bundle of blazing twigs each was dragging behind it, raced from each end of the enclosing woods; and came at full speed across the open space, toward each other and the pegged-down horses.
Malvinne's warriors, drowsing on the ground, started up on their elbows, then began clumsily to scramble to their feet. By the time most of them had made it, the six horsemen had passed each other, and the dead brown grass over which they had dragged the burning twigs was alight. The pegged-down horses were screaming in fright, breaking loose from the pegs and running off in all directions.
By now the galloping riders were lost in the trees again, each having thoughtfully cut loose and left behind his burning bundle of twigs. The tethered horses were also gone.
The dry grass burned merrily, setting up a fair amount of smoke; not enough to obscure the field, but enough to get into the noses and eyes of the warriors and make both run with water. While they were still trying to get themselves into some sort of order, a new thunder of hooves attracted their attention, and more horsemen burst on them from the woods all around.
But these were not unarmed locals—as the riders of the first six horses had been. Thes
e were men-at-arms in light armor, with lances, who drove straight for their targets. The targets were those who had just lost their own horses; and scramble as they might to get out of the way and draw their swords, two-thirds of Malvinne's fighters were flat on the ground in minutes, seeing knife-points at their visors and hearing demands to yield.
Fifteen or twenty were still on their feet, and had drawn together into a tight clump, with shields up and weapons ready, in a formidable, hedgehog sort of defense that should not have been as easy to flatten as the individual men had been.
Nonetheless, even the impact of a lance held by a horseman in light armor, riding a relatively light horse, was effective. Those in the outer ring of the hedgehog went down, or were only upheld by their comrades.
Eventually, the hedgehog was split into pieces. At this point Jim and Brian ceased being field generals and entered the fight at first hand. The disheartened men they encountered as they charged on horseback, were in no condition to resist them, it was not long before no warrior of Malvinne's was standing.
Meanwhile, overhead, crossbows had begun to shoot from the walls, and archers outside had begun to shoot back.
Thanks more to the wizardlike archery of Dafydd and his three superb original recruits, than to the skill of the bowmen they had picked up in the field before coming back and the homegrown ones, who—most of them—had never shot at anything much larger than a rabbit before, an end was put to this. Those shooting from the castle were either hurt, killed, or cowed into ceasing.
Brian looked about the field of recumbent bodies.
The Dragon Knight Page 51
