Raymond Brunnus barely noticed the destruction, for it was too familiar a sight to register with him. In the two decades since he’d left his native Gascony in search of profit and adventure, he’d sold his sword to more lords than he could remember, taking naturally to the lawless life of a mercenary. When his nephew, William Arnald, had sent him a message that there were easy pickings in the Limousin and the Viscount of Limoges and the young English king were eager to hire routiers, he’d wasted no time in leading his men north. One of his scouts had reported that the viscount and his nephew’s routiers were besieging a church in the village of Gorre, and he’d headed there instead of the viscount’s city, arriving in mid-morning under an ashen February sky that warned of a coming storm.
Welcomed boisterously by his nephew, he listened without great interest as Arnald related how some of the Duke of Aquitaine’s men had been ambushed, the survivors retreating into Gorre and taking shelter in the church. By the time they were discovered, they’d fortified the building, barricaded the windows and doors, and burned the external wooden stairway leading up into the bell tower. It was a substantial stone structure, could not be fired like the village houses, and they’d apparently gambled that the routiers would soon grow impatient and seek easier prey. That would have happened, too, Arnald admitted, had he not sent word to the viscount. Aimar had ridden the dozen miles from Limoges to see for himself, and once he learned these were Duke Richard’s knights, he’d set men to building a massive, iron-tipped battering ram.
Raymond’s interest quickened, for Viscount Aimar’s personal involvement indicated rich ransoms were in the offing. “So there is someone inside whom Duke Richard will pay dearly to save, then?”
Arnald shook his head. “There’ll be no ransoms.” Seeing his uncle’s lack of comprehension, he took it upon himself to inform the older man of recent developments in the war. “This is what happened. The Duke of Brittany sent for routiers he’d hired earlier in the year, and as they moved into Poitou, they burned and plundered on their way south. Duke Richard raced to head them off, and there have been numerous clashes. Whenever Richard caught any of his brother’s men, he beheaded them right then and there.”
While mass executions were not the norm, they were not unheard of, either, for routiers were considered expendable by both sides, even by the men who hired them, and they could be slain without fear of Church censure and with the enthusiastic support of the people they’d been victimizing. Raymond had long ago become inured to the hypocrisy of his highborn employers, seeing it as an occupational hazard. “Well, from what I’ve heard of Duke Richard, I cannot say that surprises me much.”
“Ah, but he did not just slay Lord Geoffrey’s routiers. He killed the knights, too.”
“Whoa!” That was indeed a different kettle of fish. “The duke and viscount must have loved that.”
“They were raving and ranting like madmen,” Arnald confirmed, and as their eyes met, they shared a moment of grim humor, taking some satisfaction that for once the highborn faced the same risks as their lowborn hirelings. “So…” Arnald continued, “as soon as the viscount heard that some of Richard’s knights were trapped in the church, he saw an opportunity for vengeance, though I daresay he’d put it more elegantly-as well-deserved retribution.” Slapping his uncle fondly on the shoulder, he said, “Come on over and meet your new patron.”
Raymond did not move. “Why the viscount? I’d heard the young king was paying more.”
“Yes, he’s been putting out word that men can make their fortune in his service, but that one has not two coins of his own to rub together. You’d do better with his brother, but Duke Geoffrey is off raiding into Poitou. So between the king and the viscount, go with Lord Aimar. You’ll have a much better chance of collecting from him.”
Nonpayment was not usually a problem for routiers; their lords knew that if they were cheated of their just due, they’d turn on their masters without qualm or compunction. Raymond believed, though, in keeping things as simple as possible, and he accepted his nephew’s advice, saying, “Lead on, lad. Any chance we can fill our bellies ere the assault begins?”
Arnald cast an appraising eye toward the men working upon a huge tree trunk. “They do not have the wheels on it yet, so there ought to be time to eat. First things first, though. Let’s see how much money you can squeeze out of the viscount!”
The Viscount of Limoges had not always been at war with his Angevin overlords; he’d stayed neutral during the last rebellion of Henry’s sons. But that all changed when his father-in-law, the Earl of Cornwall, died and Henry cheated his wife, Sarah, of her inheritance. For that was how he saw it. Henry himself had arranged Aimar’s marriage, and that only exacerbated his grievance. As Rainald’s legitimate son was dead and Rico born out of wedlock, Aimar had expected the earldom to pass to the old earl’s daughters, with Sarah, the eldest, getting the lion’s share. When Henry chose to bestow the earldom upon his son John, he’d turned the hitherto loyal Aimar into an embittered rebel. Until now, Aimar’s animosity had been reserved for Henry and not his sons, but after Richard’s brutal execution of Geoffrey’s Breton knights, the viscount had sworn a blood-oath that this ruthless prince would never again rule over the Limousin.
Casting an eye toward the leaden skies, he hoped they’d be able to launch the final assault while there was still light. He did not doubt that the battering ram would be able to smash through the church’s thick oaken door. It was likely, though, that the men would retreat up into the bell tower once that happened, and they could be difficult to dislodge from that refuge. He did not know what provisions they’d managed to bring in with them, but they had to be running low on food, for they’d been trapped in the church for nigh on a week. Well, if it came to that, they could always be starved into submission.
He’d just accepted a wineskin from one of his squires when a sudden, urgent shout turned all heads. One of their sentries was galloping toward the camp, yelling that riders were fast approaching. Knowing this seasoned soldier would not have been alarmed unless the riders posed a threat, Aimar whirled and ran for his horse, snatching up his helmet. Jamming it down upon his head, he fumbled with the chin cord as he swung up into the saddle. All around him, men were running and shouting, scrambling for weapons and horses. Whores almost inevitably turned up at an army encampment, and some of these women were screaming shrilly even before the riders came into view-clad in chain mail, swords drawn and lances leveled, mounted on horses caked in lather and dust. One glimpse was enough to tell Aimar that they were in for a fierce fight.
One of the lead knights drew Aimar’s attention, for he was spurring ahead of his companions. Encountering a campfire, he jumped his stallion neatly over the flames instead of swerving around it, an act of horsemanship that the viscount could not help admiring, even at a moment like this. The knight had caught Arnald’s eye, too. Darting forward, quick as a snake, he grabbed for the other man’s leg. It was a daring maneuver, but if successful, was guaranteed to unhorse a man. Aimar had seen Arnald drag more than one foe from the saddle this way, for the routier was a big man, as well-muscled as a blacksmith.
What happened next stopped Aimar in his tracks. The knight under attack did not pull back as men usually did; instead he leaned in, and suddenly blood was spurting everywhere, a red haze before Aimar’s eyes. Arnald reeled backward, his face contorted as he stared in shock at the stump where his hand had been. The knight’s sword was already sweeping down again, a powerful blow that all but decapitated the routier.
Aimar heard the command to retreat and was surprised that the order was coming from his throat, for he’d not made a conscious decision to withdraw. But by then he’d recognized the knight bloodied with Arnald’s blood, and his instincts for self-preservation had taken over. The awareness that they were facing Richard himself banished any desire for battle. He was no coward, but Richard was a lunatic. Would he be mad enough to execute a man of Aimar’s rank? The viscount found that hard to believe
, but he knew that men could get drunk on bloodlust and he preferred not to put Richard’s sobriety to the test. Followed by those of his men lucky enough to have reached their horses, he spurred his mount toward the Limoges road, all of them riding as if the Devil were on their tails.
By the time Richard Rode back into Gorre, the trapped knights had ventured out and were quenching their thirst at the village well, easing their hunger with the meal intended for their foes. Not all of Richard’s men had followed him in pursuit of Aimar, and they’d rounded up close to a hundred prisoners, the rest of the routiers having been slain or escaped. Andre de Chauvigny grinned at the sight of his duke; he had a wineskin in one hand and bread in the other, and he waved the loaf over his head in a jubilant, joyful salute.
“I won a right goodly sum on you, my lord,” he laughed. “I wagered two marks that you’d arrive in time.”
That was indeed a handsome sum, for knights rarely earned more than a shilling a day. “How could you lose?” Richard pointed out. “You’d either win or you’d die, and in neither case would you have to pay the wager.”
Andre laughed again. “Fortunately Alan is as thick as a plank, and he never worked that out.” Coming forward as Richard slid from the saddle, he hovered by the younger man’s side, overwhelmed by the intensity of his gratitude, but not knowing how to express it, for banter and mockery were the most common coins of their realm. “Your men said you’d ridden for nigh on two days and nights to reach us.” Not having the words, he playfully offered the purloined wineskin and loaf, joking that all he had was at his lord duke’s disposal.
Richard appreciated his cousin’s insouciance, for he’d not have been comfortable with earnest protestations or lavish praise, not from Andre. “You look like you’ve been wallowing in a pigsty after an all-night carouse,” he said, which was as near as he’d come to acknowledging the harrowing ordeal Andre and the others had endured-hungry, thirsty, and fearing they were doomed. “I came so close to overtaking that whoreson, Andre,” he burst out, “so bloody close! I would have caught him, too, if my horse was not so winded and worn down…”
Some of the other rescued men had gathered around them by now, were beginning to offer their thanks with none of Andre’s nonchalance, and Richard was glad to be interrupted by one of his knights. “My lord duke, what is your wish regarding the prisoners?”
Richard looked over at the routiers huddled on the ground, bound to one another by ropes, subdued and silent, all their bravado gone. He glanced around at the skeletal remains of Gorre, and his eyes took on the winter chill of the February sky. “We will take them with us to Aixe,” he said, “where other brigands will learn from their sorry fate what befalls those who ravage my lands and my people.”
Upon reaching his castle at Aixe, Richard made good on his promise to make an example of the captured routiers. Some were drowned in the River Vienne, others had their throats cut, and eighty men were blinded. Unlike his beheading of Geoffrey’s knights, this ruthless, effective means of denying the routiers’ future services to the rebel lords occasioned little comment. The prior of Vigeois Abbey even noted approvingly of the treatment meted out to these “sons of darkness.”
Entering the Great Hall at Aixe, Andre de Chauvigny soon spotted his duke and headed in Richard’s direction. Richard was conferring quietly with one of his most trusted men, a grizzled serjeant who’d been in his service since he’d been invested with the duchy at age fourteen. He smiled as Andre approached, and once they were alone, he surprised his friend by confiding that he’d instructed the serjeant to escort his young son to Poitiers for safety’s sake.
Andre knew Richard had an illegitimate son, but he knew nothing whatsoever about the child and even less about the child’s mother; Richard was as close-mouthed as a clam about such matters. Agreeing that it was wise to bring the boy to Poitiers, he confessed then that “I do not even know the lad’s name. What was he christened?”
“Philip.” Richard hesitated and then offered up another rare nugget of private information, saying, “She wanted to name him after her father.” His shoulders twitched in a why-not shrug. “I was not about to name him after mine.”
Andre knew better than to pursue that further; Richard’s troubled relationship with his father was as fraught with peril for the unwary as a walk across a thinly iced lake. He asked instead if the rumors were true that the Viscount of Turenne was bringing more routiers to join Aimar and the young king at Limoges. Richard confirmed it, and they began an intense discussion of the rebellion and Hal’s prospects until they were interrupted by the arrival of one of Richard’s knights, just back from a scouting foray.
He was not alone; his men were dragging a prisoner into the hall, a glum-looking man of middle years who was shoved forward to kneel at Richard’s feet. “We saw him galloping along the Limoges road,” the young knight explained breathlessly, “and I was curious why he was in such a tearing hurry. Most men who race the wind are either outlaws on the run or they’re bearing urgent messages. So we stopped him, searched him, and discovered the reason for his haste. He is a courier for the French king, carrying a letter for your brother, the young king.”
He beamed at Richard, his face aglow with triumph and pride, for all knew their duke put a high value upon men who were resourceful and quick-witted. Nor was he disappointed, for Richard responded with heartfelt praise. Delighted that he’d earned his lord’s favor, he produced the royal letter with a flourish. “I did not think it was my place to read it. But I recognized the seal as King Philippe’s, and after a little persuasion, our friend here admitted he was delivering it to your brother.”
“Well done, Ancel.” Richard quickly broke the seal and held the letter under a smoking rush-light. When he glanced up, his face was utterly without expression, as blank as a sepulcher’s graven image, and Andre felt a frisson of disquiet shoot up his spine. “Summon my seneschal and the other members of my council,” he instructed Andre in a voice that was toneless, so dispassionate that the other man’s unease flamed into outright alarm.
Richard had never spent much time at Aixe, a castle he’d taken from Viscount Aimar several years ago, and he’d expended little money on its upkeep. Lacking a solar, they had to gather in his bedchamber. Richard stood by the hearth, his eyes moving from face to face as if taking inventory of the men he trusted.
Robert de Montmirail was his new Seneschal of Poitou. Eleanor’s uncles were not present, for Hugh had died seven years ago and Raoul de Faye was in ailing health. But Raoul’s eldest son and namesake was there, as was Ourse de Freteval, his son-in-law. The Chauvignys were represented by Andre and his cousin Nicholas, who’d served Eleanor with such loyalty; as soon as he’d been released from his imprisonment at Loches, Nicholas had transferred his allegiance to Richard. Guillaume de Forz was, like Andre, a friend since boyhood, and Richard’s cousin Rico had recently earned the accolade of knighthood.
After briefly telling them how he’d come into possession of the French king’s letter, Richard wasted no time in breaking the bad news. “Philippe writes that he regrets he cannot come to fight alongside Hal in person. But he has sent a large band of Brabancon routiers to Limoges. Moreover, he assures Hal that his cousin Hugh, the Duke of Burgundy, is showing considerable interest in joining their alliance. And he claims that the Count of Toulouse is another one who is likely to throw in his lot with them, unable to resist this opportunity to bring me down.”
There was a prolonged silence when he was done. As the men looked around at one another, it was obvious that they were sharing the same thoughts. Richard was already facing a formidable coalition: his brother the young king, his other brother the Duke of Brittany, Viscount Aimar, the Taillefer brothers of Angouleme, several de Lusignans, Elias, the Count of Perigord, the viscounts of Ventadour, Comborn, Turenne, and Castillon, the latter’s brother Oliver, the castellan of Chalus, and Fulcand, Lord of Archiae, as well as several lesser lords who could, nevertheless, contribute men and money. Even with
the Archangel Michael himself fighting on Richard’s side, he could not hope to defeat so many rebel lords if they were backed by the French king, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Count of Toulouse. All of Richard’s battlefield brilliance would avail him little against an army of that size.
But if they were in agreement as to what must be done, none of them were eager to try to convince Richard. The burden should have fallen upon his seneschal, but Robert de Montmirail had only recently been appointed to his post, and he prudently held his tongue. Neither Richard’s friends nor his kinsmen wanted to risk their rapport with their young duke. It was finally Nicholas de Chauvigny who spoke up, as forthrightly as he’d done on the day he’d defied Porteclie de Mauze for Eleanor’s sake.
“My lord, you must seek the aid of your lord father, the king.”
Richard’s failure to flare up at the mere suggestion showed them that he’d already had the same thought, and his common sense was warring with his pride. They waited uneasily for his response, for with Richard, they could never be sure which one would prevail. “I do not see how I can do that,” he admitted after a long silence. “My father and I are hardly on good terms these days. I left his court without his consent, and have ignored all the messages he’s sent since then. And I would rather go down honorably in defeat than grovel and plead for his help.”
Andre cleared his throat. “My lord, send me to the king,” he said, utterly earnest for once. “I will not grovel on your behalf. You have my sworn word upon that. I will simply relate the facts, let the king make up his own mind. There is no dishonor in that.”
Richard looked intently into his face, and then away. “Go, then,” he said in a low voice. “Be sure you take a strong escort, though, for the roads to Angers are swarming with bandits, rebels, routiers, and masterless men seeking to take advantage of the unrest.” His mouth twisted down. “Such is the evil that my brothers have let loose upon my duchy.”
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