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

by Duncan Lay

  “Better than your boy-King?” he asked.

  “As different as night and day,” she assured him.

  She watched him relax and closed her eyes briefly. It was an unpleasant task but necessary. Use Durzu to get rid of Swane and then remove Durzu.

  “We might have to get rid of him,” she said softly. “He is becoming lost in his pursuit of dark powers. I am worried that he might seek to take more than just Gaelland. Zorva does not permit sharing of power.”

  Durzu sat up. “What has he said?” he demanded.

  “Nothing yet,” she said. “But we should not let our guard down.”

  “Oh, there is no danger of that,” Durzu said, reaching for her again.

  She smiled warmly. She had achieved what she wanted. Now it was time to go back to work.

  *

  “We cannot catch them, High One,” Nazim said sorrowfully. “Our men have been weakened by a winter in this village, on little food.”

  Feray wanted to demand that he do more but it was obviously impossible. All of the men looked far thinner than she remembered and while they all bowed and smiled whenever she came close, it was obvious winter had taken its toll. The marching left them exhausted at the end of each day and although they had brought all their food with them, there was little to spare. They had become used to catching fish each day to eke out the oats they had. While they had found a handful of domesticated animals in the nearby woods—obviously missed by the original Kottermani attack—that was nowhere near enough for so many men. The other problem was a lack of armor. The cases of swords and barrels of spears they had loaded onto the ship in Adana, combined with a series of crude weapons that the men had made for hunting and fishing over the winter, meant all had some type of weapon. But none had armor, let alone a shield.

  The long, cold winter had left them all far paler than the crew she had brought with her. That was another concern. If they did manage to catch up with the Kottermani army, it was going to be nearly impossible to pretend they were just another regiment. They would be spotted immediately. But what could she do but press on? There was no other choice.

  “What is that, High One?” Gokmen called, interrupting her thoughts.

  She looked up to see a bird circling above her head.

  “Get away!” Gokmen roared, leaping up and swiping at it.

  The bird evaded him nimbly but still circled Feray.

  “Is it dark magic?” the former slave master asked. “If only we had bows!”

  “I think the Zorva-worshippers would have called for more than a pigeon if they wanted to harm me,” Feray said and extended a hand.

  Instantly the bird flew down, landing on her palm and lifting its leg, to which a small scroll was tied.

  “A message. Perhaps our prayers for help have been answered,” Feray said, stroking the bird gently. She read carefully and closed her eyes for a moment to whisper a prayer of thanks. Her eyes snapped open and she smiled. “Find me something to write with.”

  CHAPTER 70

  Fallon inspected the ranks of men before him.

  “I have to give you a choice,” he told them, his voice carrying clearly to even the back ranks, thanks to some help from one of Padraig’s wizards.

  “The people have deserted us. Our new army has run away. The fyrd has not risen and we don’t have enough men to defeat the Kottermanis. Our only chance is to kill Swane and his witch Dina. If we do that then we can make a deal with the Kottermanis and we all win. Everyone comes back and life can go on. I shall use myself as bait and when they come in, kill them with crossbows. I just need a few men to stand with me, to make it look like there is an army of us, enough to bring Swane and Dina in close.”

  “We will all stand with you,” someone shouted. Fallon looked along the line to see Bran there, the bearded guardsman pushing his way out of the ranks.

  “I cannot risk you all, because it could go wrong. If Swane and Dina don’t take the bait, or the Kottermanis don’t want to do a deal then we shall be fighting for our lives. I know I can kill Swane and Dina but the rest I can’t control. I don’t want your deaths on my hands.”

  “I will not leave my captain to die. If you go, then I go too,” Bran bellowed, and there was an answering rumble from the other men. “I cannot live in disgrace, knowing my life was bought with your death. I will stand with you,” the officer declared, walking over. Brendan held out his hand and Bran clasped it.

  Next moment more men, ones and twos at first, then a wave of them, came forward.

  “Don’t all do this,” Fallon called. “You could die in battle or, worse, on some foul altar to Zorva, or torn to pieces by Swane to terrify the people into never rising against him again.”

  The rush of men slowed to a trickle.

  “There is no disgrace. You can have wives, families, hope for a life ahead of you. Take it,” he called.

  After some milling around, perhaps three hundred remained with him. He looked over them with mingled pride and fear. There were some real surprises in there as well: Fitz, the skinny thief that Bridgit saved, Gannon, arms crossed as if daring Fallon to send him away, and Brasso, Casey and many others that he had trained from farm boys into warriors.

  “Are you sure? Sleep on this, for this is your lives,” he urged them. “Even if it goes wrong for the rest of us, one day there will be a chance to return, to get revenge and to help the people rise up against Swane’s evil. You will be needed then.”

  “We shall be here tomorrow, to get ready,” Bran promised. “If your plan is to work, we need to show the people that we are not afraid. And we shall give Swane nightmares.”

  They raised a defiant cheer then and Fallon had to turn away. “This has to work,” he said.

  Brendan put a thick arm around his shoulders. “It will work, or we die trying,” he said.

  *

  Fallon inspected the quarrel carefully.

  “I had to make it smaller and thinner than the usual one, because the metal shaft is far heavier than even oak,” Brendan explained. “The flights are also smaller, and as thin as I dare make them.”

  “You have made far too many,” Fallon said, gesturing at the table. “I only need two.”

  “But you will need to practice with them first,” Brendan warned. “They will fly differently to what you are used to. We need to set up a target outside the main gate and—”

  “No,” Fallon interrupted. “I shall practice here, where none can see. Don’t forget there are still plenty of people out there who would be happy to see Swane back. It just takes one of them to send a warning and the plan falls into a heap.”

  “It can still do that,” Brendan said.

  “Look, we’ll have three crossbows there and ready. I might miss once but that’s it,” Fallon said. He placed the quarrel down carefully. “I’ll be back later, when it’s dark, so none can see what we are doing here. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be on the ship with the others?”

  “No,” Brendan said.

  Fallon grimaced but patted his big friend on the back before heading out to check on the progress of their other preparations. It was essential to give the Kottermanis the impression they were planning to hold the city walls, so half the crossbows from the harbor had been set up on the wall around the southern gate, where the Kottermanis were most likely to arrive. The other half had been taken to the castle, in case things did not go as planned, in which case they could be turned on the vengeful Kottermanis. Fallon supposed there was a chance they would merely enslave him but he doubted that. After what Bridgit had done, they would not want a troublemaker like him loose in their country.

  More than a score of the crossbows had been lashed to the old city battlements and he watched sweating men attach the last one, bashing iron pins into crumbling mortar and then using them to fix the tall wooden base into place. He gave them a nod and walked on. It was convenient for what they wanted but the state of the wall was a worry. Years of neglect and harsh winters had left much of the
mortar feeling like sand. Chunks of stone could be pushed away by hand and sentries had to be careful not to send pieces tumbling. It would prove to be nothing more than an inconvenience to the Kottermanis. The castle was better, of course, because it had been cared for. But he did not have enough men to hold the castle.

  Fallon walked along the city wall and looked out at the sleepy countryside. Nothing moved out there. The other two gates had been locked shut, Brendan and teams of men nailing huge planks across them. Partly to keep the Kottermanis out but mainly to keep everyone else in. Crowds of refugees heading in all directions would just tell Swane and Dina that he had no hope of holding Berry and they would be alert for a trick. He smiled to himself. They would still expect a trick but, once they were inside crossbow range, nothing was going to save them.

  *

  “The men are making excellent progress. The Kottermanis have thick screens of scouts out in all directions. If Fallon is planning an ambush, he is doomed to fail, for they are checking everything bigger than a rabbit hole,” Kane said.

  “So, the Kottermanis are ours now, eh?” Swane asked with a smile.

  “They might as well be, sire,” Kane replied.

  Swane turned and winked at Dina. “True enough, though! They are ours in all but name and once we have Berry, even that will change.”

  She smiled at him, although it was becoming harder to do so every day. “What is Fallon doing? Is he marching to meet us?”

  Kane shook his head. “The prisoners we have captured all claim that he has summoned the fyrd, but they all ran rather than fight for him.”

  “Oath-breakers!” Swane spat.

  “Yet they serve us by doing so,” Dina said mildly. “Does that not make them your followers?”

  “Still, they should be punished. We should sacrifice some to Zorva and send the rest as slaves back to Kotterman. If they had truly been my followers they would have fought against Fallon from the start. They are merely untrustworthy cowards.”

  Dina stroked his arm. “Yet a King can also be merciful,” she said.

  Swane jerked his arm back. “There will be no mercy when I reach Berry. There will only be revenge.”

  Dina bowed her head. That would never do. Munro might be in a cell but he had done magnificent work. Berry was like rotten wood, ready to collapse at the slightest touch. The people would fall for Swane, if he let them. His lust for revenge would ruin all that. She would have to steer him carefully for the first few days when they were back in the capital. Handled carefully, their rule would be secured and then he could indulge his lust for revenge quietly, over time. She felt like shouting sense into him. Without her, where would he be?

  *

  “It seems your people are fleeing your capital rather than waiting for you to arrive,” Durzu said, inspecting the hundreds of refugees that had been swept up.

  “Where did you find them all from?” Dina asked. She had worried Durzu might betray their new relationship somehow but those years in his father’s court had obviously enabled him to perfect the art of keeping secrets.

  “We took your worries about Fallon seriously, so we have had strong patrols sweeping out for miles, to make sure we are not outflanked. They keep coming back with them. Most have run out of food and are begging for more. What should we do with them?”

  “We have to bring them along, so they can witness our triumph,” Swane said. “And then we can decide how they shall be punished for their disloyalty.”

  “Are we to feed them?” Durzu demanded. “I want my men fresh and ready for battle if Fallon marches out.”

  “Throw them a few scraps,” Dina suggested. “When we arrive, they will be grateful for anything we give them. Besides, we shall arrive in the next day or two, will we not?”

  “Easily,” Durzu confirmed. “The only thing slowing us down is the need to watch out for an ambush. I have been keeping our pace down for that reason. But there is no longer anywhere for them to ambush us, it is open, flat country from here to Berry. We shall march fast and hard and surprise them by arriving a day earlier than they expected.”

  “Fallon will have something planned. But we shall be ready for anything he tries,” Swane predicted.

  “Then we shall have the Emperor name you as his heir and we shall rule Gaelland for you, while you are in Kotterman,” Dina told Durzu.

  She smiled at the pair of them, feeling the undercurrent of tension between them. Still, as long as she was there, that would not get out of hand.

  CHAPTER 71

  “Are you ready?” Fallon asked, trying to keep his voice casual.

  Bridgit looked up from a pile of papers. She scraped them into a rough pile and stood, stretching her back.

  “I think all is ready,” she said. “But I am haunted by the thought of missing one vital thing.”

  He smiled in agreement. Time and again he had gone over things in his mind, searching for another way—but he just kept coming back to the plan of the poisoned quarrel. He had expected Bridgit to come up with something else, or to flatly refuse to allow him to go ahead. At first he had been relieved she had accepted his plan. But, as the Kottermani army got closer, everything was changing.

  He was torn between wanting to wipe out his guilt and being able to see the new baby and watching Kerrin grow to manhood. Sometimes he felt like rushing to Bridgit’s side and announcing they would all flee the city and trust to the secret location of Cavan’s island to protect them. Yet he knew what Swane and Dina were like. They would not be content with merely seizing back Gaelland. And they had magic, both from their tame wizards, and the dark magic from the blood sacrifice. Not even Cavan’s island was safe from that. He wanted to talk out his fears and self-loathing but could not find the words. He wanted Bridgit to tell him he could not sacrifice himself like this, he wanted her to beg him to save himself. There’s a part of me that came up with this plan just to hear that from her, he realized.

  “Are you all ready?” she asked.

  He sighed. “Bridge, you know I don’t want to do this,” he said awkwardly.

  She turned and he saw the mask she’d worn since he had announced his poisoned quarrel plan crack.

  “I don’t want to do this either,” she whispered. “The thought of life without you is tearing me apart.”

  He was at her side a moment later and held her close. If he closed his eyes, then perhaps he could pretend none of this was going to happen.

  “I am so sorry for everything,” he said. “I wish I’d never picked up that cursed last quarrel and landed us in this mess.”

  “Hush,” she said, reaching up to touch his mouth. “We are here now. Wishing we could change the past can’t help anything.”

  “How is Kerrin?”

  He saw her face twist. “He is terrified for you but I have explained everything to him and he has agreed to go along with the plan,” she said. “He will need to see you one last time but I have tried to keep him away because it’s upsetting him too much.” She sniffed. “I feel much the same way. Sometimes I think I can hold it together and then I want to run to you and say this is madness, that we should all go, and hope Rosaleen and Padraig can hide us from Swane and Dina.”

  Fallon tightened his arms around her. “I feel exactly the same way,” he said.

  She looked up at him, her eyes shining with tears. “This plan terrifies me. So much can go wrong. And yet there is a chance we can end up triumphant. I try to see that in my mind but it is washed away by all the things that can go wrong. I dream of seeing you dead and I don’t know if I can go on when that happens.”

  Fallon kissed her head and her face, kissed her tears. Hearing his own fears come back at him strangely made him feel much better. This was something he was finally familiar with: Bridgit was worried and he had to reassure her that everything was going to be fine.

  “This is what we have to do. And I will make it work,” he said. “I have spent my life practicing for this day. All that time in Devlin’s field loosing cross
bows—it has all led to this. I will not fail.”

  Now it was her turn to tighten her arms around him. Here it comes. She will beg me not to do this.

  “Whatever happens, don’t kill yourself,” she begged.

  “What?”

  “It is a mortal sin. You cannot take your own life. I know the thought of being captured by Swane or the Kottermanis must be horrible—it gives me nightmares because I know they are a cruel people. But I want to see you again after this life. Don’t anger Aroaril by ending your own life.”

  Fallon hesitated. This was not what he had expected. She was relying on him to protect her and he couldn’t let her—let any of them—down. He straightened his back. Death was what he deserved for killing Cavan and only sacrificing himself could atone for that. But there was dying and there was dying. He remembered the tales of how Sean and Seamus had died in Kotterman. When it came down to it, could he really throw himself on his own sword? Still, if he fought hard enough, they would have to kill him instead. That was by far the better option.

  “I won’t,” he said. “I swear it.” After all, it was easy enough to say here.

  “I pray every night that I will see you again. I know it is possible and I have offered Aroaril everything in exchange for that,” she said softly.

  He kissed her again. “After all I have done, I thought you might be happy to see the back of me,” he said, trying to add a smile to it.

  She kissed him back, fiercely. “Just because you are a bonehead sometimes doesn’t mean I don’t love you. That has never changed. Besides, if you could put up with my madness for so many years, why can’t I do the same thing?”

  He closed his eyes, so he would not cry, and held her tight.

  “I just want to live quietly, with you, Kerrin and the baby,” he said. “I see now that I am not the hero I wanted to be. Nor the hero that Gaelland needed. I have left death and destruction behind me at every turn. You will rule far more wisely on Cavan’s island. I would be happy to follow your orders.”