The Poisoned Quarrel: The Arbalester Trilogy 3 (Complete Edition)

by Duncan Lay

  Fallon shivered, not just from the cold. While the others were around he could pretend to be confident but, at times like this, when he was alone, the doubts came back.

  Was fighting here arrogance? Was he leading these men to death and destruction? Without them, there was no hope of Bridgit and the others holding on to Berry. He found himself swinging from confidence to fear. He could defeat men, but what magic could his enemy muster?

  Caley chuffed at him and he patted the dog’s head. She placed her paw on his knee and he could not help smiling.

  “What would I do without you?” he asked her.

  “Fallon!” Devlin called and he looked up to see the farmer racing over. “Gallagher and the others have caught up!”

  Fallon hurried over, Caley at his heels, to see far more men than he had expected. He quartered the long line by eye and counted them swiftly. More than two hundred! Bridgit must have stripped the city! He felt sick at the thought. What if he won and returned to find Berry in flames?

  “Looks like you’ve been busy,” Gallagher said cheerfully as he rode up.

  “Where did you get these men from? How many are left with Bridgit?” Fallon demanded.

  “Well, I am pleased to see you as well,” Gallagher said wryly. “Have a little faith in us, my friend.”

  “There’s no time for that,” Fallon said irritably. “I have no time to listen to you babble about Aroaril. Has Berry been stripped?”

  Gallagher kicked his feet of the stirrups and dropped to the frozen ground.

  “First, given we are about to take on the forces of Zorva, ignoring Aroaril might just destroy us all—”

  “Just answer my question!” Fallon snarled. “Ever since you fell into Rosaleen’s bed you’ve been spouting about Aroaril. We’ve put up with it because we want to see you happy but this is not the time to rely on divine intervention!”

  Gallagher poked him in the chest with a broad finger. “Leaving aside that there is probably no better time, I meant have a little trust in us!” he growled. “Do you think we would leave the families unprotected?”

  Fallon subsided, but only a little. “Then where did all the soldiers come from?”

  Gallagher crossed his arms. “We rounded up all the wounded men from the battle. They don’t need two legs to sit guard or two hands to loose a crossbow. And the women are dressing up as guards to walk along the city and castle walls, where they will look like warriors but nobody will see them.”

  Fallon thought about that for a moment, then grudgingly nodded. “Sorry,” he said.

  “And for insulting Aroaril as well as me? I thought you might be happy I rediscovered my faith. I seem to remember you praying long and hard for Aroaril to protect both Kerrin and Bridgit.”

  Fallon saw the anger in his friend’s face and sighed. “Aye,” he admitted. “I’m just on edge. One mistake here will kill us all.”

  Padraig and Rosaleen rode up to hear his last comment.

  “That’s why we’re here, son. To stop you from being an idiot,” the old wizard said happily. “I love it how I am now the wise one that everyone admires.”

  “That might be going a little far,” Fallon said.

  “There you go!” Padraig said approvingly. “Once you can joke, things are bound to get easier.”

  Fallon rubbed his face. Despite his words, he did feel better. As well as two companies of battle-hardened veterans, there were plenty of people wearing either the robes of Aroaril or of magic. “Right. Well, now that you are here, we need to find Swane’s camp and get ready to give him a proper welcome once he’s finished fighting his way over the Spine.”

  “He won’t have much in the way of magic left after that,” Padraig said confidently.

  “I pray not,” Fallon murmured to himself.

  *

  Dina shivered as she looked up at the tall peaks of the Spine, the mountains that split Gaelland into two unequal parts. She had never walked across them before and hoped to never do so again. Finbar had been supremely confident this could be done but she had never imagined it would be so hard or that the damned mountains would go on for so long. Already three of the wizards had collapsed, their hearts giving out under the strain. The snow had to be melted to open the road wide enough for supply wagons and horses to get through, then kept clear, while the men and beasts had to be prevented from freezing to death each night. It had been cold in Meinster but nothing could prepare for the mountains. It took a ridiculous amount of effort just to keep the fires going through the night. Although they had plenty of supply wagons with them, they were rapidly emptying them, particularly the ones filled with firewood, for there was nothing to be found in the pass. Then there was the need for fodder for the horses. If the horses were going to be able to charge across a frozen field and slaughter Fallon’s traitors, they had to be strong. The wagons that carried food for the men were emptying even faster. The wizards were devouring food every turn of the hourglass, while hot stew was the only thing that was keeping many of the men marching. The mercenaries, who had set off cheerfully enough in the hope of a pardon, gold and the chance of plunder, were a miserable rabble, their morale falling the higher the pass rose. Several had already been left behind to die.

  It was not easy for her either, although she was sleeping in Swane’s tent, protected from the elements and with plenty of firewood. But there was no thought of bringing out the filmy dresses that Swane enjoyed so much. She was swathed in as much fur as she could find. With Meinster and Ryan already on the other side of the mountains, setting up camp, there was no challenge to her authority anyway. She hoped those two had everything ready, because while they were making good progress, there would be precious little supplies left when they finally got out of this damned pass.

  She looked back down the line of tired men slogging forwards and shivered again. Her future relied on Finbar and his wizards now and then Ryan and Meinster. She hated relying on other people. They always let her down. And destroying Fallon was too important to be left to chance.

  CHAPTER 20

  “Ryan, counsellor to Prince Swane and Earl Meinster, seventeenth of that line, you are guilty of crimes against the people of Gaelland and against Aroaril. Have you got anything to say before you die?” Fallon invited formally. The pair of them were tied to tree trunks, so tight that they had no chance of moving.

  Taking Swane’s camp had been ridiculously easy. With Finbar and the other traitor wizards obviously concentrating on getting Swane across the Spine, Padraig had been able to find the camp, which was set up by a thick wood beside the main road, using his winged, feathered scouts. Then it had been a simple matter of surrounding the camp and killing the handful of sentries before capturing and disarming the company of men who had been snoring away in the many crude shelters they had been making, obviously in preparation for a large army’s arrival.

  Devlin and Brendan were going through the supplies Ryan had stockpiled, planning to take as much as possible and then destroy the rest. But the guards Ryan had brought were a problem. They could not be let go, and Fallon was reluctant to just kill them. Ryan and Meinster, on the other hand, were another matter. A much easier one.

  “Don’t kill us, we can help you,” Ryan said urgently.

  Fallon chuckled. “And why should I want help from such as you?”

  “Because I know the Prince’s plans and I know what Duchess Dina is doing to help him.”

  Fallon laughed. “And why should I believe you?”

  “Because I hate the Duchess!” Ryan cried. “I would gladly see her dead and if you had not attacked us, we would have killed her. Let us go and we shall deliver her to you.”

  Fallon laughed. They must think him an idiot! “You will not be released, but you will tell me everything you know,” he said.

  “Will you promise us our lives at least?” Meinster begged.

  “I will promise you nothing but an eternity of agony if you do not start talking.” Fallon strode right up to the bound pair. He
knew if they had been able, they would have leaned back, but the cold bark was holding them in place.

  “King Aidan liked to burn witches alive. Apparently that was the best way to rid us of Zorva-worshippers. Having destroyed plenty of them, I know they can die in other ways. But, if the heart has been taken, then fire is the only way,” Fallon spat at them. “Perhaps we should use fire to make sure.” He whirled to face Meinster. “Did you hear how your father died?”

  The answer was written all over the young Earl’s face but he dared not speak.

  “I broke his arms and legs and burned him under braziers of coal. Now that was a horrible death. But it will seem like a merciful one compared to what I give you, unless you start talking!”

  Urine steamed in the freezing air as Meinster wet himself, while Ryan went limp in his bonds.

  “I might let one live, if they speak first,” Fallon invited.

  Instantly they both began to shout, spilling out all they knew. Fallon waved to a pair of scribes, who began taking hurried notes as the pair competed to talk.

  “Come and get me when they are finished,” Fallon told Brendan, as the two tied men gabbled out Swane and Dina’s plan to trap him at Lake Caragh.

  Fallon left them to it and went to inspect the food and firewood they had taken.

  “There’s too much for the wagons we have,” Devlin said.

  “Get the men to eat their fill and carry all the food they can and see what is left then. I would rather it sit in our lads’ bellies than in a fire.”

  “And the guards we captured? Maybe we could use them as human packhorses, get them to carry supplies for us,” Gallagher suggested.

  Fallon looked over at the miserable-looking group of men sitting in the snow, surrounded by a company of crossbowmen. “Then we will need to guard them at the other end, and we need every man we have.”

  “Then what do we do?” Devlin asked. “Do we break their hands so they can’t fight?”

  Fallon shook his head. “No. We shall let them go.”

  He could feel his friends staring at him. “But strip the bastards first. By the time Swane gets here, they will be half-dead and he’ll never be able to use them. The ones that live will be a burden on Swane.”

  “But most of them will die without clothes and a fire out here,” Rosaleen said hotly.

  Fallon was spared from answering when Brendan hurried over.

  “They spilled their guts, the pair of them. It seems Dina has used the Guilds’ money to hire every outlaw and lowlife in the east. For a pardon and promise of gold, they have scraped together a couple of thousand madmen who they plan to send at us until we use up all our crossbow bolts, at which point they will send in the cavalry,” the smith explained. “But that’s not the worst. Seems Dina is now the lover of Swane and dreams of being his Queen.”

  “There’s a couple made for each other,” Fallon spat.

  “There was a few other things but nothing important. The scribes are making lists of the Guilds helping them and the wizards as well,” Brendan added.

  “So which one do we let go?” Rosaleen asked.

  “Neither of those two. We are going to let go the other guards.”

  “Fallon, we cannot send men out into this without clothes,” Rosaleen said.

  “What else are we going to do? They will be trying to kill us and our families if we meet them on the battlefield. Would you rather we killed them now, or crippled them? There is no good way this ends for them. This way we leave it up to them.”

  “Still!” Gallagher groaned.

  “They shouldn’t have come trying to kill us,” Fallon said. “But I will let them have a fire. Get all the spare firewood and stack it around Ryan and Meinster. They can stay warm by huddling around those two as they burn.”

  He glared at them as they stared at him in horror.

  “This is a battle between good and evil,” he growled. “We have to win.”

  “As long as we remember which side we are supposed to be on,” Rosaleen said stiffly.

  “We are not going to beat Swane by playing nice. He killed our friends and wanted to sacrifice Kerrin to his foul god. I will not let him get another chance. And I do not do this because I want to. We have to enrage Swane and make him follow us, so we can lead him into the trap we have spent so much time preparing. Now, if nobody else is going to help me, I will do what must be done.”

  “This is wrong,” Gallagher said. “And you know it.”

  “I will do whatever it takes to win,” Fallon retorted, feeling their eyes on him as he strode off, only Brendan by his side.

  CHAPTER 21

  Dina had actually begun to fear they would never make it out of the pass alive. As more and more wizards grew so exhausted they could not work any magic, it became harder for the others to protect the small army of men and horses.

  The skies had been leaden all day, spitting snow down at them in increasingly heavy flurries and they had struggled to make ten miles. The camp for that night had been terrifying, because there was nothing to keep the fires going but the men themselves. Even though she was in Swane’s tent, Dina could not sleep and sat by the flickering brazier, three fur cloaks pulled around her in an attempt to keep warm. It was hard to imagine getting warm again, let alone beating Fallon.

  But they survived the night and the clouds melted away the next morning, leaving the sky blue and sparkling. A score of men had frozen to death and twice as many were nursing frostbitten fingers and toes. But the clear skies showed that they were almost out of the pass and the whole column cheered up, pressing forwards with new vigor, driven on by Captain Kane. Dina congratulated herself for choosing him to lead the army.

  “We shall eat and rest in the shelters that Ryan and Meinster have prepared for us. Two days should be enough to put smiles back on faces, and then we shall march for Lake Caragh and bring Fallon to battle, where we shall destroy him,” Swane announced.

  Dina nodded agreement but she would have been happy just to get warm again.

  The thought of spending another night in the pass was enough to spur them all on and they hurried out of the Spine as the sun began to set, shining in their eyes.

  “Looks like Ryan has set a fire ready for us,” Swane said, peering ahead at the thin column of smoke that rose out of the trees.

  “Then let us get there before nightfall. We can push men and horses hard, knowing they can recover there,” Dina agreed.

  Many of the mercenaries were exhausted but the lure of shelters and fires and food inspired one last effort. Even so, night was falling, with long shadows leaning back towards their eyes when they arrived at the campsite.

  “It smells like roast pork,” Swane said, sniffing appreciatively.

  “Strange. I thought they only brought beef,” Dina said.

  Then strange figures began to emerge out of the shelters, stumbling and even crawling towards them.

  “Kane! Get some guards here!” Dina cried, as the pitiful, naked creatures held out their hands.

  “My lady, these are some of my men,” the guard captain said, swinging down from his horse. “The ones sent through to prepare for us.”

  “Where is Ryan? Where is Meinster?” Swane demanded.

  Most of the shivering, naked men were unable to respond but a couple pointed.

  Dina looked around, expecting to see the pair walk out of the trees with an explanation for this, but there was nothing. The next moment Swane cried out and she followed his quivering hand to see the remains of two trees, each reduced to blackened, misshapen stumps.

  “Don’t tell me—” she began, and then thought of how much she had been looking forward to roast pork and had to swallow down bile.

  She followed Swane over to see two charred husks that could have once been men, lying in the remains of the fires.

  “Fallon will pay for this! He will burn as they have!” Swane raged.

  Dina nodded agreement, although her mind was elsewhere. This left her unchallenged as S
wane’s adviser, but also meant she had a real problem. The young Prince was like his father in that he hated to change his mind. But following Fallon was foolish. They needed to make Fallon fall into their trap, not the other way around. How was she going to steer him away from this when he was so obviously furious – and the men and horses were almost out of food?

  *

  They set off the next morning, with Swane still vowing revenge. They had burned the wooden shelters to stay warm and eaten the last of the food.

  “We shall take it from anywhere we can find it now,” Swane said. “But meanwhile we chase Fallon until we can destroy him.”

  Dina was sure of one thing. They could not do that. It was what Fallon wanted and, while she hated the man passionately, she had a grudging respect for him as a warrior and leader.

  “We need to think again about what we are doing, sire. Fallon did this deliberately, knowing what Ryan meant to you,” she said gently. “But we will not avenge him by falling into Fallon’s trap.”

  “What trap? He has stolen our supplies and run away! First he killed my father, now he has killed Ryan. He was the only one who cared for me, when even my own mother and brother turned away from me.”

  “The only one until now,” Dina said gently, stroking Swane’s face. She was tempted to say that Ryan had outlived his usefulness but felt that Swane was not ready to hear it yet. A few gentle hints might help but they would take time. And she was not sure how much of that they had. She trailed her fingertips down his neck, thinking that might divert him.

  But Swane knocked her hand away.