by Duncan Lay
“He has ordered a muster of soldiers and for a fleet to be ready. He will return to Gaelland with an army,” Gokmen said. “You will have more of your people to look after soon, I think.”
“That will be another thing to look forward to,” Bridgit lied brightly. “Thank you, slave master Gokmen.”
He nodded, she bowed and then left him, her mind racing.
*
“Why does he want an army? Does he seek to take Gaelland, make us part of his filthy empire?” Ahearn asked.
“Well, if he does, we have to get back as fast as possible. If nothing else, we need to warn them what is coming,” Bridgit said.
“How can they stop a Kottermani army? We have no army of our own, just a company or two of guardsmen with each noble and the fyrd, which is us, armed with whatever we have,” Ahearn said. “We have seen their soldiers in armor and those huge bows that they have on the wall. What can we do against them?”
“More there than what we can do here,” Bridgit said crisply. “And once we are there, who knows? There are men who will fight, men like Fallon.”
Ahearn grunted. “You told us that he would come for you and the rest of your village and that has come to naught.”
Bridgit bit her lip at that thought. She had been so sure Fallon would come. It would be the sort of idiotic thing he would do. Having seen Adana and its defenses, she knew that any attack he made would have been doomed to failure. But surely he would have tried anyway?
She shook her head. Now was not the time for such thoughts. They had to get home before they thought about anything else. “That is by the by,” she said. “This is the plan.”
She looked around at the ring of worried faces. This was the fourth group of adults who had come to visit the children that day and none of them had appeared excited about her idea. But none of them could come up with anything better and, try as she might, she could not either.
She took them through how it would work, from drugging the guards, to luring them in and overpowering them, taking their weapons and heading to the docks. Once there, a small group would have to cut the cords on the giant bows while the others hurried onto a ship.
“I have been through the city twice just after prayers and it is quiet,” she said. “But if we do meet some guards, we shall have to put them down quickly and silently. We need time to get to the ship, make sure there is enough food and water on board and secure those giant bows. And the children are not going to be able to run fast, either. We cannot have a panic where some are left behind in the rush for the ship.”
“I can lead the men to take out the bows,” Ahearn offered.
Bridgit shook her head. “We need you to captain the ship. You are too valuable. We cannot take the chance of losing you.”
The other men looked at each other and she sighed to herself. None of the other groups had volunteered either. It sounded like it was going to be a death sentence for whoever was going and the fact she had just stopped Ahearn from going was hardly encouraging them.
“I will lead you. I just need six strong men who can cut through horsehair ropes,” she said, glaring at them.
Ahearn grunted. “You sit back while a woman offers to lead?”
The other men half-heartedly agreed to come along and she felt a trickle of fear along the back of her neck. The chances were they would be cut off and forced to jump into the harbor, swim to the ship and try to climb up a rope to get to safety. She wanted to tell them that she was too important to risk on such a dangerous mission but could not. It had to be done and, if nobody else was willing to take it on, she had to step up. She knew that from Fallon. A leader had to do the things everyone else was too scared to try.
“Rest at night. Eat and drink as much as you can, especially on that day,” she said, changing the subject to something they would be happier to talk about. All were looking leaner as a result of their moon as slaves. The food was generous but the unrelenting work had trimmed them all down. “We shall have extra food and drink and we need to eat and drink all we can, for who knows how much food we will be able to take with us? You may be feeling fear, worrying too much to want to eat but you have to force yourself to.”
They did not look much happier at that idea and she had little else that was pleasant for them to hear.
“Ahearn, you must not pick up a weapon and instead go in the middle of the column, with the children,” she continued. “You are the most valuable one among us. Without you, we will not be able to navigate back to Gaelland. We cannot risk anything happening to you.”
Ahearn muttered something under his breath at that but nodded slowly. “You realize we shall be lucky if any of us get to those ships?” he asked.
“No, we shall all get to the ships,” she said crisply. “That is my worry. You worry about getting us home. That is your concern.”
He grinned then. “By Aroaril but you have the heart of a lion! You can count on us.”
“I always knew I could,” she lied with a smile. “Just be ready to follow me on that day.”
*
“There is a problem with two of your people,” Gokmen said angrily. “You must solve it or I shall be forced to.”
“Take me to them and I shall talk sense into them,” Bridgit said briskly, covering her fear. Surely all of them knew what was at stake now? They had been told to act cowed, to be as obedient as possible, so the guards would think them broken, and relax. Maybe not all had believed her when she said she would get them out, they just had to be patient, but they had understood what they needed to do. She did not want to see anyone else suffer the same fate as Sean and Seamus or, worse, have her plan wrecked by one idiot.
The walk through the city down to the docks gave her time to calm down and clear her head. Ideas were already forming as to how to get them out of there and she had to let this pair know that. Or maybe it was a couple of mothers or indeed fathers who were missing their children. They would be easy to reassure.
Then she saw the pair surrounded by Kottermani guards and her heart sank. Blaine and Carrick. For a moment she thought about leaving them to Gokmen’s punishment but the thought of watching Sean and Seamus scream out their last on the boiling sand made her shudder. She owed it to them to at least try to save these two.
“Leave them to me,” she told Gokmen, then strode onwards.
“What is happening here?” she asked briskly, gesturing for the brothers to move a little away from the guards.
“You need to talk to these guards, make them leave us alone. We need all our strength to make the escape,” Carrick declared.
“Don’t be fools,” Bridgit snapped at them. “And for Aroaril’s sake keep your voices down!”
“They can’t understand us. But you need us, so make it so we can rest this afternoon. We are sick of working ourselves to death,” Blaine complained.
The pair of them loomed over her but she stood her ground, poking Blaine in his large stomach. “You stupid bastards. We can’t let them suspect we are doing anything! For Aroaril’s sake, get back to work!”
“You need us,” Carrick said, flexing his arms. “And you owe us for what you did to Sean and Seamus. Just tell them we are sick and need to rest. We deserve that at least.”
She stared at them in disbelief. “If it was just your lives then I would not care,” she told him. “But you put at risk every child the Kottermanis took. You would have seen them playing around Killarney over the years. Would you like to see them die?”
“Without us they won’t get away. We deserve a little special treatment,” Blaine growled back.
“You want special treatment? I’ll get you special treatment!” Bridgit snarled at him, stepping closer and forcing the bigger man to step back. “I just have to say the word and you will be tupped by every guard here, used like a woman by all those men.”
“You are saying that to scare us,” Carrick complained.
“You should be scared!” Bridgit hissed at him. “They will make your every
waking hour a living hell! Now, I should be happy about that. I should be helping pick out the guards who want to rut you like you would a sheep. But because of what happened to your cousins, Aroaril rest their souls, and because you could be useful, I have sworn an oath to get you home safe. Don’t make me break that.”
She glared at the two of them and they quailed a little before the fire in her eyes.
“But we’ll be too tired to help the escape,” Blaine muttered.
“Grow up and act like a man. At the very least, die like a man. Or,” Bridgit pointed out one of the bigger guards, a man as tall as Carrick, “if you don’t want to be a man, I’ll have him use you like a woman.”
The guard, who obviously did not understand any Gaelish, nevertheless leered at the two men and smoothed his bushy moustache.
“Now, who’s going to work? You on the docks, or the guards on your arse?” she demanded.
That was seemingly enough for the two of them. They both turned and picked up sacks, putting them over their shoulders. She turned, although she could feel their stares burning into her back.
“You won’t have any more trouble with them,” Bridgit assured Gokmen.
He nodded at her, offering a hint of a smile.
But will I have more trouble with them? she wondered.
CHAPTER 24
“Faster!” Fallon roared at the men.
After a quarter moon of training the men solidly with their weapons, he was moving on to the next stage. They still worked with weapons in the morning but, in the afternoon, he drilled them through the city. The Kottermani confidence was a weapon he hoped to use against them.
“Stand your ground then, at my order, run as if you’re breaking. Then reform the line!” he bellowed at the group of fifty he was working on.
At his orders they formed a line bristling with spears, four deep, which filled the road. If the Kottermanis tried to break that, they would be shredded by the massed iron points. But if they stood back and tried to use their bows, his men could not stand. There would be crossbow parties up on the roofs but they would be no match for the Kottermani bows. No, the only way to beat them would be to make the Kottermanis think they were breaking. A soldier’s first instinct on seeing a running enemy would be to chase them. That should bring them onto the spears – and make their advance more ragged as well.
“Duck down!” he roared and the four ranks tried to shelter behind the one line of shields. It was a pitiful protection and he knew they could not hope to withstand an arrow attack like that.
“Now run! Like you mean it! Look scared!”
The group broke up, the tight ranks dissolving, men looking over their shoulders as they ran, some of them stumbling, others nearly colliding with the wall or with each other.
“They are all keeping their spears. That could make the Kottermanis suspicious,” Bran said as he watched with Fallon.
“A second time, yes,” Fallon judged. “But the first time they witness this, they will see what they want – men running from them.”
Bran nodded and they watched the chaotic retreat down the street.
Fallon cupped his hands around his mouth. “Form the line!” he shouted.
It was a clumsy thing compared to their earlier attempt but they shuffled together and the spears came out and soon there was an impenetrable line across the road once more.
“Would you like to break through that?” Fallon asked as they walked down the road.
“Not really, no,” Bran agreed. “But can they do it without you yelling at them?”
“They’d better,” Fallon said flatly.
“Can’t we get the wizards to help us? Surely some magic could help defeat the Kottermanis?”
Fallon grimaced. He had already had that conversation, several times, with his friends. “I don’t trust those bastards,” he said. “Risk all our lives on the Guilds? We rely on ourselves and nobody else!”
*
“How heavy are those?” Fallon inspected the special ladders Brendan had designed. Each of them was more than three times the height of a man and had hooked ends at both top and bottom. They also had close-fitting rungs as, unlike normal ladders, these were designed to get crossbowmen from one roof to another without them having to climb down.
Brendan picked up one with a grunt, but only just. “Two men can move them. Three would be better though,” he said.
“And if they have to dump them?”
Brendan bent to demonstrate. “Pull these iron pins out of the middle and it’s in half. Then you can just kick it off the roof,” he said.
Fallon patted the big smith on the back. “How many have we got?”
“This is the fourth. But we’ll have the rest done by the end of tomorrow.”
Fallon admired the device. It was an idea straight from the child snatchers who had terrorized Berry for moons. The three hundred crossbowmen he had would be split up into ten companies and given these ladders. They could then move across the rooftops, retreating or advancing as necessary to keep raining bolts down on the Kottermanis. From up high they could stay out of the way of the Kottermani bowmen as they reloaded – and also make themselves smaller targets.
“It feels strange to making all these preparations, knowing we will be long gone by the time the Kottermanis get here. I wonder how these lads will go without us,” Brendan said softly.
Fallon nodded. “I know. But for Aroaril’s sake don’t say it too loud!” he hissed.
Brendan hit him on the chest lightly. “Here comes the King,” he muttered.
Fallon was about to hit him back harder and mock him for such a lame attempt at a jest, when he heard the footsteps and turned hurriedly to see King Aidan approaching, Kelty and Regan at his shoulders, a handful of guards behind.
“How is my army progressing?” the King asked brightly, waving them up as they sank to one knee.
“Well, sire. These are the ladders our crossbowmen can use to move from roof to roof, staying one step ahead of the Kottermanis.” Fallon stepped aside to show Aidan the work.
“Excellent! And where will you be during the fight?”
Fallon did not hesitate. “I will be on the roofs, so I can see what is happening. I shall have a few guards with flags and several trumpeters, so they can signal down to the different units. We shall have one of these ladders, so we can quickly get from one point to another. Our whole strategy is to split up the Kottermanis and prevent them from using their numbers. We want them to be confused, for we know what we are doing.”
King Aidan smiled broadly and rubbed his hands together. “Perfect. I cannot wait until we visit slaughter on those bastards! And then you can drag Prince Kemal before me and we shall so terrify him that they will never again cross the sea to threaten us!”
“How will you do that, sire?” Fallon asked innocently, hoping he would get an answer.
But Aidan merely held up his hand. “That is for another day,” he said with a half-smile. “But, tell me, where is your son? I hear he has been helping inspire my new soldiers!”
“Indeed he has, sire.” Fallon bowed his head. “But he is with friends today, taking a break from training men.”
“A wise idea,” Aidan agreed. “Truly, it was a lucky day for this country when you walked into my court! Well, don’t let me stop you. Keep going: I know there must be a hundred things that demand your attention, Captain!”
Fallon and Brendan bowed as the King walked away.
“There’s another who is in love with Captain Fallon,” Brendan muttered.
“I look forward to the day when I break his heart,” Fallon said coldly.
*
That thought accompanied him through the streets as he headed off to the Moneylenders’ Guildhouse, where Kerrin had spent the day with Asil and Orhan. The boy had not wanted to miss a whole day of training but, for the first time, Fallon sensed he was actually happy to play with the Kottermanis. While it was good to see the recruits adopt his son as one of their own, it wa
s even better to see him running around like a normal little boy, rather than a grim recruit, always doing extra running. He had actually been woken one morning by grunts and groans as Kerrin worked out fiercely in their room, even though he would face a whole day of training. Just what had he turned his son into?
The streets were still full of groups of recruits, most of them coming back to the square after training, and he greeted each one, taking their cheers and salutes until it felt as though his face would crack from smiling so much.
He wondered if he might be able to bring them with him. Leaving them to fight the Kottermanis without him seemed like cowardice. There were plenty of ships in the harbor, after all. But then he thought about all their families as well – and the prospect that Cavan’s secret island would not be able to support so many. Even taking down King Aidan and leaving the Duchess in his place was not going to be much comfort, but he could not see another choice.
He checked around carefully before hurrying down a side street to bring him out near the Moneylenders’ square. Even though Berry was overcrowded, this place was quiet, thanks, no doubt, to all the battles and bloodshed scaring people off. But he was always looking over his shoulder as he got close, and liked to double back down an alley or two, just in case. He could never forget that the Kottermanis had agents searching the city for Feray and her sons and the King had his own spies scattered through Berry as well.
Once he was sure he was alone, he slipped into the square to see a ball game under way: the three boys raced around, laughing.
He smiled at that and then tensed as a pair of villagers appeared at his side. “Anyone come around?” he asked.
“Nobody,” they confirmed. “But some of that laughter might be getting a bit loud.”
“I’ll speak to them,” Fallon promised, although he liked to hear Kerrin laugh. It had been a rare enough thing lately.
He walked over to where Feray watched the game, calling out advice. Devlin was about ten paces away, leaning up against a doorway, and he waved to Fallon. Fallon was about to go over to his friend when an impulse made him go and stand near Feray instead, where he clapped as Asil made a particularly fine kick.
