Lucius replied grimly, "These men are not my people, Your Majesty. My people are the farmers that they … terrorize."
Malachi looked at him sharply. "You know, for nearly two months I've considered you an ally and a friend, but that has not shaken my belief that you're concealing something from us. What is it?"
"I do not believe that this is the best time to discuss that, Your Majesty."
"Given the fact that I might not live to hear your answer or you might not live to give it, I think now is the perfect time."
"I fear that you will stay your hand and not kill all of Edmund's soldiers. I fear you will think that they can be trusted, that they are not all bad. I promise you, Edmund's soldiers are evil. If you only knew what they have done to my people. His father was not a good man, not like you. But he was a better man, far better than his son, and his grandson is even worse. These men, all of them, they take what they want. It doesn't matter who it belongs to." He shuddered again as that story came to his mind and made his stomach twist and turn. He prayed to God that it was not true, but he greatly feared it was. "And I'm afraid that you will be disappointed in our women. The horrors that Edmund's men have visited upon them are unspeakable. Some of them are scarred and disfigured and they will all be afraid of you. None of them will trust you."
Malachi shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot say what the day will bring. I do not expect Edmund's men to surrender, and that is the only way they will live. And as far as your women are concerned …" Malachi shrugged his shoulders again. "Duff told me about Edmund's treatment of his slave, and I've made sure that my men are all aware of the fact that the women of your people been treated very badly by the soldiers. If you think we expect virgin brides, we don't. The relationships that they form with my men are their own and not my business. My men know that I expect them to conduct themselves with honor, dignity, and loyalty. The code of my army is the motto of my clan. 'Fidelis usque ad mortem'."
"Translation?"
"It's ancient Latin and it means, 'Faithful even unto death'. I remember as a child my father teaching me to pronounce it very carefully."
"When did your father die?" Lucius asked with curiosity.
"My father, the King, died when I was ten months old. Septis, my general, married my mother a couple of weeks later. He has raised me all my life. I never think of him as my stepfather, just as my father." Lucius nodded in understanding. "Well, I guess if we are going to do this, we need to get it done. Let's go see if they will surrender."
Lucius said quickly, "I advise you again, Your Majesty, this is a really bad idea."
"I know, but I also know it's what makes me different from them. If I give that up, I am no better than they are."
Malachi, Broderick, Duff, and two other men rode forward. They weren't even halfway between the two armies when they started being fired upon. Broderick swore as he felt something hitting his side. He lost his balance and would have fallen off his horse, but Malachi quickly rode alongside of him and gripped him by the shoulder. Duff, riding up on the other side, grabbed the reins and the two of them took him back to the army. The general quickly moved alongside of them. He gripped his son's shirt and pulled it up. "Through and through, we're lucky it was you and not Duff."
Malachi turned his horse and started giving orders. When he was finished, he turned back to his brother. "Let me guess. You are going to use that wee scratch as an excuse not to get involved in the fight?"
Broderick, still holding his side, turned and glared at his older brother. "It's a very good thing for you Father's here, or I would tell you exactly what you can go do with yourself."
Malachi laughed. "Good, you're feeling better already."
Lucius was staring at the two men in open mouth astonishment. He could not believe they were taking a serious gunshot wound so lightly. The general, catching his eye, started laughing. "You'll learn my lads are not normal. They inherited it from their mother."
"I don't understand what you mean." Broderick pulled up his shirt. Lucius' jaw dropped. The wound was almost completely closed. "You mean they're mutants!"
"I prefer to think of my sons as gifted."
"Well, if you men are done gossiping, I think we have a fight to get to. Their army's almost to us," Duff remarked casually.
"Of course," remarked the general, as he turned his horse and charged into battle.
Malachi had just cut down the man in front of him, when he heard an order to retreat echoing through the enemy army. As he engaged the next man in battle, he took stock of the situation. From what he could see, he had lost very few men, whereas Edmund's losses had been extensive. The man he was fighting swung at his head. Malachi blocked it. "Did I hear your order to retreat?"
"Fuck you," replied the man, as he aimed for Malachi's midsection.
Again, Malachi deflected it. "My mistake, I thought you wanted to live," he remarked casually, as he easily disarmed, then removed the man's head from his body. It hadn't even hit the ground when Malachi turned to a group of his soldiers. "Form up two hundred men, pursue them. Don't engage unless you have to, but I want you to run them for a while. I do not want this to be an easy retreat for them. Pick off any stragglers, but do not kill them all. I want them to make it back to Edmund. Shortly before dark, let them escape you."
"Aye, Your Majesty." The man turned and immediately began bellowing orders as he formed up men to pursue.
A quarter of an hour later, Malachi was standing conferring with his general when Young Alec brought someone up and dropped him in front of Malachi. "I hope you'll forgive me, Your Majesty, but I couldn't seem to bring myself to kill this one," Alec said apologetically.
Both men turned to face Alec. "Why not?" asked Malachi.
"All of the other men I came up against today, they had all done terrible things." The younger man shuddered as he remembered the images he had seen, then he pointed down at the man in front of them. "But not this one. Since he was different, I figured that earned him the right to live."
Lucius, who was walking up, gasped. "Is he dead?"
"No, apparently this one gets to live," remarked Malachi.
"That one's got to be the worst of the lot. That's Edmund's nephew, Richter."
Malachi turned to Alec. "Take him to the healer's. Keep him drugged until we get back to the castle, then we'll see who's right and who's wrong."
Chapter 10
Dunworth Castle, Scottish Highlands
August 14, 2231
Young Alec sat watching the prisoner. The man stirred and groaned. Alec got to his feet, crossed to the door, opened it, and looked down the corridor. No one was in sight. He let out a loud whistle. A minute or two later, Catherine put her head around the corner. She looked annoyed. "You whistled?"
"Aye, would you tell Malachi the prisoner is stirring," he asked nicely. Catherine sighed, looked annoyed, and turned with a huff. He turned back towards the prisoner. The man groaned again. He went and leaned against the wall watching him.
Richter slowly became aware of the fact that he wasn't dead. He didn't know why that kept coming into his mind. It was a silly thing to think when one was waking up. He shifted in his bed, then he realized he wasn't in a bed. He opened his eyes. He wasn't in his room either. Looking around, he started when he saw the young man in the room with him. It all came back to him in a flood. That very nice looking young man had choked him unconscious. I guess I thought he was choking me to death, but apparently he stopped short. Richter opened his mouth to speak, but whatever came out wasn't words. His throat felt swollen and on fire. A voice from the doorway said, "I wouldn't attempt to speak in a normal voice. I'd try to stick to a whisper if I were you."
Richter turned to see four men coming into the room. He got to his feet and went for one of them. "Traitor!" he yelled, which came out a pathetic croak.
Malachi stepped in front of him and grabbed him around the waist, pushing him back. "I didn't keep you alive for you to kill him. Sit down and cool it," Malachi sna
pped, slamming him into a chair.
"You might as well kill me now. I will do and say nothing to help you." Richter snapped, then looked annoyed as he heard himself. It didn't even sound like him.
Malachi turned and glared at Alec. "Alec, next time knock them out, don't choke them unconscious."
Alec, who was apparently the young man, looked a bit sheepish and murmured, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I won't do it again."
Malachi sighed. "Why don't you try that again, this time softly, because whatever you said before, nobody understood."
Richter glared at all of them, crossed his arms over his chest and said slowly and carefully, "You might as well kill me now, I'm not helping you."
Lucius crossed his arms over his chest and said firmly, "I told you, Your Majesty, he's the King's nephew. He will do nothing to help you."
"Time will tell who is right, you or Alec."
Broderick turned to Duff. "I'll bet you a bottle of my best wine Alec is right."
Duff, who had been glaring at Richter the whole time, extended his hand to Broderick. "You're on."
Richter turned his attention on Duff. "Did I wrong you in another life?"
Duff started forward, speaking as he did so, "No, I just got to see firsthand exactly what kind of man your uncle and your cousin are." Broderick grabbed at Duff and pulled him back.
Richter grinned. "You should keep that dog on a leash, Your Majesty. He might be rabid."
Duff jerked and tried to push past Broderick. Malachi held up his hand to Duff. "Control your temper or be somewhere else."
Duff shoved Broderick one last time, turned, and stormed out. "Well, Malachi, if you ever want to get answers out of that one, you can let Duff loose on him. I've never seen Duff this pissed. What did they do to make him so mad?" remarked Broderick.
Malachi cautioned, "Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to." He looked back at Richter. "Well, since you're not in a very cooperative mood today, I guess we'll leave you alone in here with your thoughts. Would you like a book or something to read?"
"Go to hell." Richter turned to stare at a blank wall. The rest of the men left. Richter listened, but didn't hear the door bolt, a key, or anything. He waited a couple of minutes and then he rose and opened the door. He looked to the left, there were two guards at the end of the corridor watching him. He looked to the right, there were two guards at that end as well. He closed the door, crossed to his cot, and threw himself on it. He stared up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head.
Malachi waited until they were a good distance away from the prisoner's room before he turned to Alec and said, "Follow me. The rest of you leave us alone." They walked for a couple of minutes in silence before Malachi decided on his line of questioning. "How sure about him are you, Alec?"
Alec shrugged his shoulders. "As sure as I ever am. I'm not like my mother. I can't see the future or the past that well. I just get glimpses, usually things that show the bulk of their character. But neither when I choked him unconscious, nor when I carried him to you, did I see anything that gave me pause."
"You said you saw things from the others, what?" Alec shook his head. "Let me put this a different way, tell me what you saw."
"They were very evil men, every one of them I touched, every one of them I came near, I could see them doing horrible things. One of the men, when I touched him, I saw him watching some of his men taking turns raping a lass, Malachi. He laughed, as though it was funny. Another one, I saw him beating a woman. He might have beaten her to death, she certainly looked bad enough. These men are drunk on power, Malachi." Alec turned and pointed back to where they had just come from. "But not him, I didn't see any of that. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's a good man. But I think he could be. I think he just doesn't know any better, or maybe he's afraid."
Malachi patted the younger man on the shoulder. "Thank you, I know you don't like to talk about the things you see."
Malachi excused himself and headed for his quarters. Entering his room, he went into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and washed his face. Drying his hands, he went back and sat down on the bed. He sat there thinking for some time, then he went in search of Holly.
Holly was sitting on the grass watching her daughter play. "Moira, stay away from that old stump. It probably has ants in it and you're going to get bitten," warned Holly.
Malachi plopped down next to her. "I don't think she's going to listen," he remarked.
Holly sighed. "They never do, that's why they're children." She hesitated a moment, appraising him. "Something on your mind?"
"Aye, I have a big favor to ask you."
"That sounds ominous."
"It is. It's a big favor, a lot to ask of you."
"Go on."
"Did you hear we brought a prisoner back yesterday?" She pursed her lips together and nodded. "Alec thinks he's a good guy. Lucius and Duff don't. I need to find out what he is. I need to get Richter on our side, or get rid of him. Right now, I don't think he will talk. He's loyal, and I can't fault him for that, but he's hurt and he needs some treatment. I want you to go and take care of his injuries. I want you to bring him all of his meals."
"They murdered my husband and you want me to be nice to one of them? I suppose you probably want me to sleep with him too," she demanded angrily.
"No, Holly, I want you to be yourself. You don't have to be nice to him, and you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, just don't poison him. And though you'll be alone in the room with him, you will never really be alone. I have guards stationed down the hallway. You will be in no danger, I swear."
"I miss Alec's mother," Holly sniffled.
Malachi nodded slowly. "Well, that was random, but I know how you feel. She was one of the few who survived. She kind of took us all under her wing."
Holly sat there remembering the last conversation she had had with Heather. "At least when she died, you and her were on good terms. We weren't speaking. I never had a chance to apologize." Holly burst into tears and hugged him.
Malachi sighed and wrapped his arms around her. "Children and their parents always quarrel. She knows you loved her. But whatever you two quarreled about, she wouldn't talk about it either; but she knew you loved her and she loved you."
Holly pulled away and wiped her tears. "All right, I'll do it, but on one condition."
"Oh dear, I'm not gonna like this, am I?"
"Make that two conditions. Duff can't know about it. He won't like it, and you make sure your guards know that they don't interfere just because they hear me hollering. I am sure at some point in time I'm going to scream at him. And I'm sure whatever you have in mind will be ruined if your guards come bursting in." She looked at him suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"
Malachi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I just don't think he's gonna talk to me or any of the other men, but maybe you'll get him to say something inadvertently. They don't seem to value women very much over there."
Moira started screaming and crying. Malachi and Holly both shot to their feet and charged over. The little girl had several ants crawling on her arm. Malachi and Holly begin dusting her off. "Mommy it hurts, it hurts," she wailed.
Holly cuddled her daughter close. "It's all right my wee one, Mommy will take you inside and put some medicine on it. Then I shall leave you in the kitchen with Cook, who will spoil you rotten and give you all kinds of biscuits and cake while Mommy's back is turned."
"Here, let me carry her for you," offered Malachi.
"No, I have her. I'm sure you have more important things to be doing than attending to a petty bug bite."
"Nothing that that involves the people I love is a petty incident," Malachi said, taking Moira from her mother and carrying her towards the kitchen. Arriving, he set her on the counter while Holly went and fetched whatever she needed.
Holly returned with a jar and a spoon. Taking her daughter's hand, she held it over the sink, then carefully spooned out some lemon juice and droppe
d a few drops on each bug bite. When she was finished she patted her daughter's cheek. "There, wee one, isn't that all better?"
Moira sniffed and said through her tears, "Oh, aye Mommy, that is so much better."
Holly smiled at her daughter. "Well, my darling lass, your Mommy now has to go and do something your Uncle Malachi needs me to do for him. You're gonna have to stay here with Cook while I'm gone. Do you think you can manage to behave?"
The little girl smiled and nodded earnestly. Cook winked at her then smiled at Holly. "I'm sure the two of us can manage. You two be about your business."
Malachi, realizing he'd been dismissed, nodded and excused himself.
Holly kissed her daughter, thanked the cook, and went to the infirmary and gathered up some salve and bandages. Though according to gossip, his only major injury was Alec had choked him unconscious and his throat was completely black. She figured that was a mild exaggeration, but he would probably need something to soothe the inside. She momentarily contemplated giving him something that would make him horribly sick, but wouldn't actually hurt him, then she discarded it. She wasn't that evil. Even if she might think about it, she could never do anything like that. One of the things Heather had taught her as an herbalist was no matter how much you dislike the patient, you must attend to them all equally. They trust you to make them better. You cannot betray that trust. She prepared a powder to put in a warm drink for him, then picking up a few other things, she headed for the kitchen.
Arriving at his quarters, she took a deep breath, balanced the tray with one hand, and opened the door. He sat up when she entered. She rolled her eyes at the sight of him; he was still filthy. She was glad she had brought him a change of clothes. "You need a bath before I can treat you. The bathroom is across the hall, try not to be all day about it," she said harshly.
Richter stared at the woman who just entered. She was nice-looking, but boy, she did not like him, that was obvious before she even opened her mouth; but just in case he had any doubt, her tone cleared that up for him. "Will the guards let me go across the hall?" he asked in a soft whisper. He had learned as long as he spoke in a soft whisper, he sounded normal; otherwise he sounded like a pathetic kitten.
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