Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series)

by Sarah Woodbury

  Dad nodded. “I need to know where they are, how many men they have, and as much as possible about what they’re planning.”

  “We need to know who Madog has left at Harlech, too,” David said.

  Dad looked at him. “What are you thinking?”

  “If Madog does this right—no guarantees, of course—he will have left his tents and pavilions in plain view, so Evan will have no idea that the bulk of his army has left the field,” David said.

  Justin nodded. “Evan won’t know that he could sally forth and break through those lines.”

  “He could relieve his own siege—” Ieuan was nodding too. “We have to get a message to him.”

  Dad turned in his saddle and surveyed the men who followed him. He had a teulu of fifty, all trusted, all capable of finding a way to Harlech alone if need be.

  “Four would be enough,” David said. “In a little boat, with Madog on the move, they might be able to slip up the back stairway unnoticed.”

  “We’ll address that in a moment.” Dad faced the messenger. “Of Madog’s two thousand men, how many are spearmen and archers, and how many are horsemen?”

  “No more than two hundred on horseback.” The scout’s manner turned matter-of-fact. “The rest are on foot.”

  “That means he can’t move them far,” Cadwallon said. “Or he can try, but we can move much faster. He must have left Harlech almost at the moment he laid siege to it.”

  “Two hundred horsemen.” Justin tapped a finger to his lips. “Would he bring them all?”

  “Cavalry are no use in a siege,” David said. “Say he leaves a minimum of two hundred at Harlech. Most should be bowmen. That leaves him with all of the cavalry and well over a thousand archers and spearmen with whom to march north.”

  “Where will they seek to confront us?” Justin said. He knew very little about the lay of the land in Wales, but he’d studied the maps.

  David knew the road to Beddgelert well. At one time, he and Math had ranged all over Gwynedd for precisely this reason. It was what every lord worth his salt did with his days: exploring the countryside and making sure that he knew every creek, every trail through the underbrush. It served not only to keep his men sharp, but meant that one day, if needed, he could make decisions like this one with full knowledge of the landscape.

  Ieuan scanned the mountains to the south. If not for the clouds, Mt. Snowdon would have loomed above them, fewer than ten miles away. “Madog might seek to defend the crossing at Beddgelert.”

  “Or later, when the road narrows to nothing at Aberglaslyn,” David said. “That would get my vote.”

  “We need to know for sure.” Carew bent his gaze on the messenger. “How much of what you are telling us have you yourself seen?”

  The scout’s eyes went wide, but he answered steadily enough. “Three of us saw him cross the river at Maentwrog and trailed after him until he started up the road to Beddgelert. At that point, I circled around to the north. Once I was clear of them, I rode as fast as I could to warn you.”

  Dad straightened in his seat, resolve in his eyes. “We’ll take the road to Dolbadarn and flank them over the Nantmor. And we’ll do it tonight.”

  Nobody told him he was crazy.

  “We can steal every available man from Bangor and Dolbadarn. And send word to Dolwyddelan so that when Math reaches the castle, he will know what we undertake,” David said.

  “He’ll come late,” Ieuan said. “And he’ll find either clean-up work or, if we’ve lost, the need to finish what we started.”

  “At least he’ll have warning about what he’s riding into.” David checked the sky. It was technically early afternoon, but here at the end of November, the daylight was already fading. “If we do as you plan, Dad, we’ll be working entirely in the dark.”

  “So will they,” Dad said.

  “We cannot assume Madog is going to make a mistake,” Ieuan said. “He has had more time to plan than we have. He won’t assume we’ll walk into his trap unawares.”

  “Nor can we assume he’ll walk into ours,” Dad said, “but that doesn’t mean we won’t lay it just the same.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  November 2019

  Anna

  The cut on Anna��s neck was starting to scab over a bit. With a damp paper towel, she dabbed at the blood that had dried on her neck.

  Mom came out of one of the bathroom stalls and studied the wound. “It looks okay, hon. You can hardly even tell it’s there.”

  Anna looked down at her hands, surprised they weren’t shaking, and ran them under the warm water from the tap. The bathroom was freezing. They had crossed the border into California a bit ago, and Callum had deemed it safe enough for a five-minute break at a derelict gas station in the tiny town where he’d chosen to stop. Anna could forgive him the cold temperature since the gas station had no cameras.

  “How much farther, Mom?”

  “An hour, Callum says.”

  Anna closed her eyes. “I wish we were there.”

  Mom put her arm around Anna’s shoulders. “We will be.”

  They returned to the car. Callum had stocked up on water, diet soda (Cassie’s preference), and junk food. Anna was too tired to be excited about it, but she took a bag of potato chips anyway. Then Cassie’s phone beeped at her.

  “I thought we weren’t calling anyone?” Anna said.

  “She’s Skyping with Jones,” Callum said in a low tone. “The mobile phone company records it as a use of the internet rather than a phone call, and that means it’s less traceable.”

  That sounded good to Anna until Cassie said, “What do you mean we’re not going to make San Francisco?”

  Anna couldn’t hear Mark’s response, but Cassie shot Callum a worried look. He mouthed, ‘speakerphone!’ at her, and she pulled the phone down from her ear and pressed a button.

  “I’m tired of riding blind, Jones,” Callum said. “What’s happening?”

  “Nothing on our end that should concern you right now,” Mark said. “I can bring you up to speed when you get here.”

  At least you’re still saying ‘when’,” Callum said, “not ‘if’.”

  “We’re going to get you here,” Mark said, and there was a grim quality to his voice that hadn’t been in it until now. “But it doesn’t help that a warrant has been issued for your arrest. It’s gone nationwide.”

  “What the hell?” Callum said.

  “Why?” Cassie said.

  “Why isn’t the question,” Mark said. “It’s who issued it.”

  “Then who?” Callum said.

  “The FBI. Anna is wanted for questioning regarding the disappearance of her brother,” Mark said. “The three of you are what they’re calling ‘known associates’. That seems to be the best they could come up with.”

  “They could have charged me with Marty’s disappearance,” Mom said.

  Typically, she was willing to take the pressure off Anna because she was her mom. Anna rubbed her shoulder. “Whether me or you, it hardly matters,” she said.

  “Isn’t there a statute of limitations on something like that?” Mom said.

  “Not on murder,” Mark said.

  Anna didn’t know whether to laugh or to tear out her hair. She leaned forward to speak into the phone. “So it’s our own government that wants us?”

  “So it seems,” Mark said, “but your government at times can hardly be distinguished from the private contractors it hires. Half the police forces in your country are now privately owned. Who’s to say where it ends?”

  “That’s crazy!” Anna said. “When did that happen?”

  “Cities were strapped for cash. Detroit went bankrupt, and that was only the first of many,” Cassie said. “Most forces are staffed by veterans like Callum who came home from the Middle East needing a job. Policing for a private company was familiar and paid well.”

  “How does a city police force make money?” Anna said.

  “By arresting people, of cour
se,” Callum said. “Tickets, fines, confiscated materials.”

  Mom snorted. “That sounds remarkably like the medieval inquisition that David is trying so hard to counter.”

  Callum glanced in the rearview mirror at her. “Much like it, yes.”

  Anna looked from Callum to Mom. “You mean like what happened to the Jews? Trumped up charges or search and seizure, legal or not, so the authorities could confiscate their property?”

  “Land of the free and home of the brave,” Cassie said in an undertone.

  Anna waved a hand. “Okay, regardless of all that, how are we getting to that plane?” She didn’t want to ignore other people’s pain, but they had Mark on the line and were digressing.

  Mark cleared his throat. “I was getting to that. George Spencer, from the consulate in San Francisco, is going to meet you at the car park for the Solano County Fairgrounds.”

  “Wait a minute.” Mom took out her phone and accessed the map function. Anna was surprised Mom knew how to use it. Maybe she’d acquired a smartphone in the eighteen months she’d been here after Anna and David went to Wales. Anna would have had no idea where to start.

  Cassie, meanwhile, started pressing buttons on the dashboard. “Got it,” they both said at the same time.

  “We’re ten miles out,” Cassie said.

  “He’s a bit farther, but he’ll be there when he can. You need to get off the highway and keep a low profile until he can find you.”

  Anna leaned over to look at Mom’s phone. “There’s a Six Flags there.”

  “What’s that?” Mark said.

  Anna spoke louder. “Six Flags. It’s an amusement park. Is it going to be open today, or will we be the only ones in the parking lot?”

  Cassie puffed a laugh. “This is Black Friday, remember? Believe me, it’s open.”

  “What does Spencer look like?” Callum said.

  “Thin, average height, balding brown hair, wicked sense of humor,” Mark said.

  Callum laughed. “Got it.”

  Ten minutes later, they found themselves stuck in a mile-long traffic jam to get into Six Flags, and twenty minutes after that, they pulled into the parking lot of the fairgrounds.

  “The traffic must have been better coming from the south,” Mom said.

  “Why’s that?” Anna said.

  Mom tipped her head to the right, pointing to the black SUV that had just pulled in. “Do any of you drive anything but black SUVs?” she said to Callum.

  He opened his door. “Apparently not.”

  “We have less than a minute.” A man looking very much as Mark had described leaped from his vehicle.

  “What happens after a minute?” Anna said as she got out of the car too.

  “I just dropped off my son and his two friends at Six Flags,” George said. “If either your vehicle or mine is being tracked, a detour into this car park could look like a shortcut—”

  “—or it could look like a meet.” Callum dumped the duffel bag from Wal-Mart into the open rear door of the SUV and got into the front seat.

  “It’s been twenty-seven seconds by my count,” Cassie said.

  “Is it likely someone is tracking you, George?” Anna said.

  George eyed her. “You’re Anna?”

  She nodded.

  “I always assume someone is tracking me.” George shook hands with Callum. “Jones taught me that.”

  The three women piled into the back seat while George climbed back into the driver’s seat with Callum beside him and drove off.

  “What about the rental car?” Anna said.

  “Our office will take care of it on Monday,” George said.

  Callum nodded, removed the battery from the key fob for the rental car, and dropped both it and the fob into the glove box of George’s SUV. He closed it with a snap. “Monitoring George, who has diplomatic immunity, would be illegal, but our adversaries don’t seem much concerned about legality today.”

  “George, do you know the specifics of what we face other than the warrant for Anna’s arrest?” Cassie said.

  Anna still couldn’t quite get over the fact that she was a wanted woman and wondered what people who had known her—if they heard about it—would think when they learned of her new criminal record.

  “I know only that she’s wanted,” George said. “I, of course, haven’t been to the office today, so I have no notion that any of you are fugitives from the law, or else I would never have picked you up. My task is to get Director Callum to his airplane, as ordered by the Home Office. The individuals accompanying him are neither my problem nor my concern.”

  Callum turned to look at Anna, who was squashed on the bench seat between Cassie and Mom. “They don’t know it, but you’re our ideal culprit, and your crime is perfect.”

  “How so?” Mom said.

  “For starters, it isn’t even a crime. Anna’s wanted for questioning in David’s disappearance, but they have no body and no evidence of foul play—only that he was last seen with her. The order to apprehend her will be seen by local police as urgent but not that urgent.”

  Cassie nodded. “If Anna were to be seen, the police would follow her, but they wouldn’t shoot. She isn’t armed and dangerous. She’s wanted for questioning.”

  “I guess that’s something,” Anna said, unable to keep from sounding morose. Being a fugitive might sound adventurous from the comfort of a living room couch, but it felt a lot less fun in reality. She was tired, hungry, and scared. If she hadn’t been with Mom, Cassie, and Callum, she might have curled up into a ball like a hedgehog.

  “Running from the law isn’t as much fun in the living as the telling, is it?” Mom elbowed Anna in the ribs. “When I told you about our flight across Wales three years ago I made it sound less bad than it was.”

  “You managed to make it sound funny, but I knew it was scary.” Anna had thought that and more besides. She and Math had talked about Mom’s trip at length. Talking about it made it easier to think about something like that happening to the two of them. And it could have, if Marty had chosen his target a little differently.

  Anna glanced at Mom. Math was one of the most competent men she knew, and he wouldn’t have begrudged Anna her superior knowledge of the modern world, but it would have grated on him to be so helpless. On the whole, it was better that it was Mom and Anna who had come here. “How does driving in the dark across the Elan Valley compare to this?”

  Mom’s eyes got a distant look. “Your father was ill, so that added to the worry, and he and Goronwy were relying on me to get them through it. I can’t say this is better, though.” She leaned forward and put a hand briefly on Callum’s shoulder. “I didn’t know then as much as I do now about who was chasing us. I would have preferred to keep my innocence, quite frankly.”

  “Hopefully today will be a little less adventurous than that day.” George glanced at Mom in the rearview mirror. “I have the same security clearance as Jones does.”

  “How do you know Jones?” Callum said. “Not that I want to appear ungrateful for the assist from the consulate.”

  “We’re cousins.” George was silent for a minute as he navigated between cars that were going more slowly than he wanted. Once away from the Six Flags’ exit, the traffic thinned considerably. “He’s filled me in on the salient points.”

  “Do we have a plane?” Cassie said.

  “The British government have requested that Director Callum return to Cardiff immediately,” George said. “Getting you a plane wasn’t a problem.”

  “And the rest of us?” Anna said.

  George dipped his head slightly. “The plane is going. Like I said, it’s a small matter to take on a few more passengers.” George reached into his breast pocket and removed two red passports, which he handed to Callum. “Your guests are diplomatic couriers, traveling at the behest of our government.”

  “Thank you.” Callum passed the passports back to Mom and Anna. “I can’t thank you enough. I owe you a favor.”

&nb
sp; George gave a laugh. “One you may regret. As it is, my son thanks you for his surprise trip to Six Flags with two friends.” He shot Callum a look Anna couldn’t interpret. “It might cause an international incident when the American government discover you flew out of Oakland with a fugitive.”

  Anna stared at the elaborate golden seal on the front of the passport. Opening it, her name was revealed to be Anna Llywelyn. Sudden tears pricked the corners of her eyes. Blinking them away, she leaned in to look at Mom’s passport. It said Marged Llywelyn.

  “It’s Black Friday, as we’ve been reminded repeatedly this morning,” Callum said. “Everything is working a touch more slowly than it might be otherwise.”

  “Let’s hope it continues—” George stopped as the SUV buzzed at him. He pressed a button on the dashboard. “Hello?”

  “Good morning, Mr. Spencer.” A woman’s voice came on the line.

  George cleared his throat. “Good morning Consul-General. How may I help you?”

  “An agent from Homeland Security for California stands before me,” she said. “He has informed me that the imminent threat level for San Francisco, specifically the airport, is now at red.”

  “How unfortunate,” George said.

  “He has apologized for whatever inconvenience this might cause us.”

  Everyone else in the vehicle remained absolutely silent.

  “He has also informed me that all bridges in and out of San Francisco are being monitored, and all cars searched.”

  “I imagine that is going to cause many people some difficulties,” George said. “Do we know the specifics of the threat?”

  “No,” she said, and Anna could almost hear her eyeing the agent in her office. “But he expresses his condolences for our losses at GCHQ.”

  Then a man’s voice came on the line, clearly American. “Your Consul-General informs me that a top agent in the Security Service was to be flying home to England today.”

  George didn’t answer immediately, and Anna could hear rustling in the background. Then George said, “Was that a question?”

  “No,” the Consul-General said. “Please come straight to my office once you reach the consulate.”