Warden of Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 8)

by Sarah Woodbury

  “Elf?” Lili said.

  “ELF is the acronym for the Economic Liberation Front, which claimed responsibility for the bombing at Cheltenham back in Avalon,” Callum said.

  “What were the group’s aims?” I said.

  “That wasn’t yet clear by the time we left,” Callum said. “Fostering chaos, certainly, but we had no manifesto from them. There was the usual talk about corruption at the highest levels of government. It was all in a file that crossed my desk a year ago. We flagged it and passed it on. Believe me, after the bombing of GCHQ, if I’d ever made it back to my office, I would have looked at it more closely.”

  “As I recall, their aims were along the lines of ‘economic equality for all’,” Cassie said.

  Peter leaned into the conversation. “Thinking about what Lili asked, I have a crazy idea: what if Lee somehow knew you were going to be on that bus?”

  “That’s not possible.” Darren shook his head at his friend. “We didn’t even know we were going to be on that bus until twenty minutes before we boarded it.”

  “Lee wanted to make a statement. Had I not woken, had George the soldier been less nosy, we would all be dead.” I shook my head. “It was like using a trebuchet to kill an ant.”

  Bevyn cleared his throat. “You are no ant, sire.”

  “That may be, but I would be surprised if Lee doesn’t see me that way. I am nothing to him,” I said.

  Callum stood with his hand on the hilt of his sword, which he’d had the foresight to put on before he left his room, urgent summons or no urgent summons. “People become terrorists for different reasons. If Lee’s actions arise from a desire for disorder and anarchy—in other words, to disrupt the social order—then it’s easy to see why working against David and the monarchy would be a given for him. If he wants something else—power for himself, for example—then killing David should lead to him getting it. Given that he’s an outsider, though, I find it hard to see how.”

  “Because he’s working for someone else,” Lili said.

  “That’s another option,” Callum said. “He could be a hired gun.”

  “Not with pounds and pounds of C-4 in his bag,” Cassie said. “He brought that with him. I think we have to conclude that he was at least partly responsible for the bombing in Cardiff.”

  “And up until now, I have assumed that the Cardiff bombs and the ones that went off earlier at GCHQ in Cheltenham were connected,” Callum said. “I’m wondering now if that assumption was mistaken.”

  “I’ll leave you to it.” Lili said abruptly, turning on her heel. She headed to where Bronwen knelt on the ground nearby, hovering over Catrin and Arthur.

  My own stomach roiled as I watched her go, and I forced myself to damp down the anger that I wasn’t sure would ever go away, even if we caught Lee and hanged him from the nearest tower that was still standing.

  I turned back to the others. “That leads to my next thought: yesterday, because of the fist he painted on the wall, we learned that Lee’s focus is on Ireland,” I said. “At the time, we didn’t discuss the IRA because we saw him as a murderer rather than a terrorist. I think we need to reexamine that assumption.” Back in Avalon, the Irish Republican Army, the military arm of the Irish resistance to English rule, had operated for most of the twentieth century but had disbanded during the peace accords in the late 1990s.

  Cassie tugged on her braid, which she tended to do when she was thinking. “It’s been twenty years since the IRA was active.”

  “We all know how long these hatreds last,” I said.

  Ieuan’s brow furrowed. “I fail to see the connection between Lee blowing up Canterbury Castle and the unrest in Ireland.”

  “Ireland is under the Norman thumb—my thumb,” I said. “We all know it. Lee would bomb Canterbury for the same reason that the IRA used to bomb London—and why they may have bombed Cardiff last year: to draw attention to its cause.”

  “Except we’re only guessing at his motives,” Cassie said. “Lee hasn’t sent out a manifesto, and if you died, the future king would be far less likely than you to change course.”

  “The crazy thing is that I am trying to change course,” I said, “but it would do no good for me to revoke my barons’ rights in Ireland. They’d rebel against me.”

  Cassie made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat. “Lee hasn’t even been to Ireland!”

  “Not while he’s been in this world,” I said, “but it wouldn’t stop him from working with emissaries from Ireland, given the opportunity.”

  Callum nodded. “There’s no reason Lee’s goals would have changed just because he found himself in the Middle Ages. In fact, as King David and I discussed yesterday, he could have been filled with a greater urgency because this is when the subjugation of Ireland started. He might think he has the chance here to stop it before it really sets in.”

  “It’s already been a hundred years,” Ieuan said. “The barons aren’t going to give up on estates that their families have held for several generations.”

  “We know that,” I said. “That’s not to say Lee does.”

  He cleared his throat. “And I might as well point out the precedent. It isn’t all that different from what you and your family have accomplished.”

  I raised one shoulder. “I can’t argue with that. I wouldn’t have argued with Lee if he’d ever talked to me about it.”

  “Getting back to Callum’s original question,” Darren said, “someone must have warned Lee that he was under investigation.”

  “Maybe so,” Ieuan said, “but until we find out who, we can’t know if it was out of innocence or intent.”

  “It could simply be that Bevyn’s arrival forced Lee to move up his plans slightly,” Cassie said. “Lee could have intended to depart within hours of when he actually did. What if he set the timers early yesterday morning, after the latrine cleaners finished their work, and they were always supposed to go off tonight?”

  “The cleaners do work only at night,” Ieuan said.

  “Lee and the others were allowed to roam unchecked throughout Canterbury and wherever else they’ve been these last three months,” I said. “How long would it have taken for Lee to worm himself into the confidence of a few of the guards here at Canterbury?”

  “We’ve been here just three days, and I did have men watching him.” Callum grimaced. “Though it seems now that Lee was running circles around them all along.”

  “Lee made few mistakes. You meant to have him under surveillance only when he left the castle, right?” I said, and at Callum’s nod, I added, “If he’d been seen going in and out of the latrines would your men have said anything to you about it?”

  “Perhaps not. We’ll never know now, since they can’t remember anything after the evening meal two days ago.” Callum looked towards the destroyed castle. “I wish I could take them at their word.”

  “If they knew something, Lee would have killed them and hidden the bodies, not dosed them with poppy juice,” Bevyn said. “They’d be buried somewhere underneath that rubble.”

  Callum looked down at the ground. I reached out a hand to grip his shoulder, frustrated as Callum and far more at fault than he. “We’re going to shake this off. Everybody is alive, and because Lee set off the bombs by timer rather than by remote control, he might not know that we’ve only lost a castle. We can stand here and blame each other, or we can work towards making this right.”

  “David—” Bronwen joined the circle, having left Catrin with her nanny. “Does Lee speak Middle English?”

  “I asked him once if he wanted help with it,” I said. “He laughed and said it would be a waste of my time because he was sure he’d never get it right.”

  “Which means he’s completely fluent,” Bronwen said. “We brought him here, and he’s been way ahead of us from the start.”

  Callum raised his hands. “We’re going in circles. I think it would be better if we table this discussion for now. We need to look at what is right in fron
t of us. We can talk about the why of it later. All we have right now is speculation and no answers.”

  I turned to Ieuan. “We need to know who among my men interacted with Lee and the others most often. Did they have friends among my teulu? I have no intention of accusing anyone but Lee of treason just yet, but I would bet my crown that money changed hands. Somebody is going to know something about something, and with the sight of the explosion fresh in everyone’s minds, we might get answers now that we won’t get later.”

  “Yes, my lord.” Ieuan jerked his head to Bevyn and Huw, and the three of them moved away into the crowd.

  “Cassie, Lili, and I will talk to the women,” Bronwen said. “I agree that somebody is going to know something.” Bronwen and Cassie moved off.

  “That’s a start.” I rubbed my forehead, trying to ease the headache that had taken up residence above my right eyebrow. Carew so far hadn’t added to the conversation. He often didn’t when those of us from Avalon got going, whether because he found our conversations hard to follow, or because he never spoke unless he had something to contribute.

  Now, however, seeing me rub my forehead, he went to one of the horses and returned with a water skin. “Drink.”

  I did as he ordered, closing my eyes as I felt the cool water slide down my dry throat. Everybody was going to need food and water soon. I had hundreds of people whose needs had to be met, and a destroyed castle that could no longer meet them. “We have two things before us, then: finding Lee, and getting our people someplace safe.”

  “We should retire to the Archbishop’s palace for what’s left of tonight,” Carew said.

  “Some of us can stay there,” I said. “Before the riot, I would have agreed to shelter with the Archbishop in a heartbeat, but it’s no longer my first choice, not with Acquasparta there. Additionally, Peckham’s palace can’t take in as many people as we have here.”

  Then my eyes narrowed. “Did anyone think to release our heretic?”

  “He left the castle after the evening meal,” Darren said.

  “What about his family?” I said.

  “The men you sent to find them and bring them to the castle were unsuccessful. They went to the lodgings the heretic indicated, but there was nobody there, and the landlord claimed to have no idea who we were asking about.”

  “That’s … odd.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Well, nothing to be done about him for now. We have bigger fish to fry.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Callum was looking at me carefully. “I know that look, sire. I’ve never liked it.”

  I met his gaze, interested that Callum was back to referring to me by my title. “We could stay here for the rest of the night, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s time to go.”

  “Tell us your plan,” Callum said. “I can see you have one.”

  I put my hand on Carew’s shoulder. “I want the women and children out of Canterbury, and I need a place where they can be safe. Where can they go?”

  “Chilham Castle,” Carew said immediately. “Five or six miles.”

  “Who holds it?”

  “Alexander Balliol, cousin to the King of Scotland,” Carew said.

  I swallowed down a laugh. If anyone owed me one, it was John Balliol. “That sounds promising. How many men do you need?”

  “What? No, my lord. I won’t leave you—”

  “Thirty should be enough,” Callum said, answering for Carew. “Any more and it will slow you down too much. You should be able to reach it before dawn.”

  I was still looking at Carew, who glowered at Callum before turning back to me. “Sire—”

  “I am placing my wife and son in your care,” I said, “and my unborn child.”

  That shut him up.

  “That’s only half a plan,” Callum said. “Tell me the part I won’t like.”

  “First of all, if I leave Canterbury now, it will look as if I’ve abandoned this city and these people.”

  Callum gave a reluctant nod. “It will look like that.”

  “But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep Lili and Arthur safe,” I said.

  Carew’s jaw firmed, finally acquiescing. “You are correct, as usual, sire. I will care for the queen and prince.”

  “Second, we were expected to die, right? Obviously, we did not. And that means we have a very narrow window where our enemy doesn’t know what we’re going to do. There are a hundred horses in the stables just over that rise.” I pointed with my chin to the west. With so many men at Canterbury, there were too many horses to lodge inside the castle. “With the horses we have here, we have enough to mount a strong force to protect both Lili’s company and mine.”

  “What are you thinking of doing?” Callum said.

  “We,” I said.

  “We, then.”

  “We are going to find Lee,” I said.

  “How? The king can’t search door-to-door through Canterbury.”

  “Of course not—”

  “Sire.” Cassie appeared at my left shoulder, holding the elbow of a sobbing woman, who held her arm across her waist as if her stomach pained her. “Beatrice, here, has something to tell you.”

  Beatrice wore a nightgown and cloak, though she had boots on her feet, and her dark hair had come loose from its night braid. She looked as if she was in her late twenties, though she could have been younger. As Cassie stopped, the woman looked up, saw me, blanched, and then put her head into her hands to sob some more.

  “Who is she?” I said.

  “She was brought into the castle from the town to help with the extra work caused by your arrival,” Cassie said. “I overheard her talking to her friends just now. I think it’s important that you listen.”

  Beatrice continued to cry, though the overt sobs had lessened as she realized that everyone’s eyes were on her.

  “Tell him.” Cassie prodded Beatrice’s arm.

  “Do you know something about the explosion and who did it?” I said.

  Beatrice took a trembling breath. “I know about Lee.”

  “Tell me,” I said.

  Beatrice licked her lips. “He-he asked me to keep watch early yesterday morning for him—for him and the other men he was with, Mike and Noah.”

  “Keep watch where?” I said.

  “In the keep. Outside the toilets.”

  “When was this exactly?” I said.

  “Shortly before dawn,” she said. “I remember because it was dark when we started. I was still tired and hadn’t wanted to rise.”

  “Why would he want you to watch outside the toilets?” I said, not because I didn’t know, but because she needed to speak for herself. I didn’t want to put words in her mouth, even if it would make this go faster.

  “I-I don’t know,” she said, and then at my skeptical look, she put out an imploring hand. “He didn’t say. At first I thought he might be ill, but then he went from toilet to toilet. He couldn’t have been sick in all of them.”

  “When he was done, what did you do?” I said.

  Now Beatrice looked shamefaced. “I looked inside. But I didn’t see anything! Not anything that would have caused that!” She flung out a hand in the direction of the ruined castle.

  “Why did you do as he asked?” I said.

  “He was in favor with-with—”

  “With me,” I said.

  Beatrice ducked her head in a nod. “I thought—I thought he might—he said—”

  “What did he promise you?” I said.

  “I could become a permanent maid,” she said. “Leave the inn where I usually work.”

  I caught the scoff Cassie immediately swallowed down. To distract Beatrice from Cassie’s disbelief, I said, “Did he give you money too?”

  “No. No money, but he bought me this.” She held up her wrist to show the slender silver bracelet adorning it. She’d traded my life and hers for a trinket. It was easy to blame her, but of course, the blame really lay with me.

  “Do you have any idea where
Lee might have gone?” I said.

  The tears came again. “I don’t know! I swear it!” She glanced again at the ruined castle.

  “He wasn’t your friend.” Callum stepped in. “He meant for you to die with all of us.”

  “I know.” She pressed her sleeve into her eyes to dry her tears. “He met men—I don’t know who—in the Old Bull Inn where I work most days.”

  Callum nodded as if he knew the place she was talking about. “When was this?”

  “Two days ago,” she said.

  “Again, you actually saw him meet these men yourself?” Callum said.

  Beatrice’s shoulders sagged in resignation and exhaustion. “I was giving my cousin, who owns the place, a hand in between my duties at the castle. I couldn’t tell you what they said, though. They were foreigners.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “They spoke English funny,” she said, “and when they talked to Lee they spoke in French.”

  Twenty-four hours ago I would hardly have thought twice about Frenchmen in Canterbury. Lee could meet with whom he liked. But yesterday I hadn’t known that the pope was worried about me going to war against King Philip, or that he supported Philip’s claim to the Duchy of Aquitaine. That Lee was meeting with Frenchmen seemed too much of a coincidence to dismiss.

  “Is there anything else you can tell us about Lee that might help us find him? Anything at all?” I said.

  Halfway through shaking her head, Beatrice stopped. “Well, he was having some trouble with his foot.”

  “His foot?” Cassie said.

  “His big toe where it met the nail was full of pus.” She made a face. “I told him he had to have the nail pulled out or he might die. He didn’t want to do it.”

  “When was this?” I said.

  “Last night. I mean—the night before this one.” Beatrice was looking at me sideways.

  “You were with him all night?” I said. “This is the night before the morning he asked you to watch the corridor while he was in the toilets?”

  She nodded.

  I tipped my head to Cassie. “Anything else?”