Hood kr-1

by Stephen R. Lawhead

  King Brychan was first to reach the place. He rounded the bend at a gallop, flying headlong into an armed warhost of more than three hundred Norman marchogi, both footmen and knights, waiting with weapons at the ready.

  Throwing the reins to the side, the king wheeled his mount and headed for the riverbank. "Ambush! Ambush!" he cried to those thundering up behind him. "It's a trap!"

  The oncoming Cymry, seeing their king flee for the water with a score of marchogi behind him, raced to cut them off. They reached the enemy flank and careered into it at full gallop, spears couched.

  Horses reared and plunged as they went over; riders fell and were trampled. The British charge punched a hole in the Norman flank and carried them deep into the ranks. Using spears and swords, they proceeded to cut a swathe through the dense thicket of enemy troops.

  Iwan, leading the charge, sliced the air with his spear, thrusting again and again, carving a crimson pathway through horseflesh and manflesh alike. With deadly efficiency, he took the fight to the better-armed and better-protected marchogi and soon outdistanced his own comrades.

  Twisting in the saddle, he saw that the attack had bogged down behind him. The Norman knights, having absorbed the initial shock of the charge, were now surrounding the smaller Cymry force. It was time to break off lest the warband become engulfed.

  With a flick of the reins, Iwan started back over the bodies of those he had cut down. He had almost reached the main force of struggling Cymry when two massive Norman knights astride huge destriers closed the path before him. Swords raised, they swooped down on him.

  Iwan thrust his spear at the one on the right, only to have the shaft splintered by the one on the left. Throwing the ragged end into the Normans face, he drew his sword and, pulling back hard on the reins, turned his mount and slipped aside as the two closed within striking distance. One of the knights lunged at him, swinging wildly. Iwan felt the blade tip rake his upper back, then he was away.

  King Brychan, meanwhile, reached the river and turned to face his attackers-four marchogi coming in hard behind levelled spears. Lashing out with his sword, Brychan struck at the first rider, catching him a rattling blow along the top of the shield. He then swung on the second, slashing at the man's exposed leg. The warrior gave out a yelp and threw his shield into Brychan's face. The king smashed it aside with the pommel of his sword. The shield swung away and down, revealing the point of a spear.

  Brychan heaved himself back to avoid the thrust, but the spear caught him in the lower gut, just below his wide belt. The blade burned as it pierced his body. He loosed a savage roar and hacked wildly with his sword. The shaft of the spear sheared away, taking a few of the soldier's fingers with it.

  Raising his blade again, the king turned to meet the next attacker but too late. Even as his elbow swung up, an enemy blade thrust in. He felt a cold sting, and pain rippled up his arm. His hand lost its grip. The sword spun from his fingers as he swayed in the saddle, recoiling from the blow.

  Iwan, fighting free of the clash, raced to his lord's aid. He saw the king's blade fall to the water as Brychan reeled and then slumped. The champion slashed the arm of one attacker and opened the side of another as he sped by. Then his way was blocked by a sudden swirl of Norman attackers. Hacking with wild and determined energy, he tried to force his way through by dint of strength alone, but the enemy riders closed ranks against him.

  His sword became a gleaming flash around him as he struck out again and again. He dropped one knight, whose misjudged thrust went wide, and wounded another, who desperately reined his horse away and out of range of the champion's lethal blade.

  As he turned to take the third attacker, Iwan glimpsed his king struggling to keep his saddle. He saw Brychan lurch forward and topple from his horse into the water.

  The king struggled to his knees and beheld his champion fighting to reach him a short distance away. "Ride!" he shouted. "Flee! You must warn the people!"

  Rhi Brychan made one last attempt to rise, got his feet under him and took an unsteady step, then collapsed. The last thing Iwan saw was the body of his king floating facedown in the turgid, bloodstained waters of the Wye.

  CHAPTER

  z

  kiss before I go," Bran murmured, taking a handful of thick dark hair and pressing a curled lock to his lips. "Just one."

  "No!" replied Merian, pushing him away. "Away with you."

  "A kiss first," he insisted, inhaling the rosewater fragrance of her hair and skin.

  "If my father finds you here, he will flay us both," she said, still resisting. "Go now-before someone sees you."

  "A kiss only, I swear," Bran whispered, sliding close.

  She regarded the young man beside her doubtfully. Certainly, there was not another in all the valleys like him. In looks, grace, and raw seductive appeal, he knew no equal. With his black hair, high handsome brow, and a ready smile that was, as always, a little lopsided and deceptively shy-the mere sight of Bran ap Brychan caused female hearts young and old to flutter when he passed.

  Add to this a supple wit and a free-ranging, unfettered charm, and the Prince of Elfael was easily the most ardently discussed bachelor amongst the marriageable young women of the region. The fact that he also stood next in line to the kingship was not lost on any of them. More than one lovesick young lady sighed herself to sleep at night in the fervent hope of winning Bran ap Brychan's heart for her owncausing more than one determined father to vow to nail that wastrel's head to the nearest doorpost if he ever caught him within a Roman mile of his virgin daughter's bed.

  Yet and yet, there was a flightiness to his winsome ways, a fickle inconstancy to even his most solemn affirmations, a lack of fidelity in his ardour. He possessed a waggish capriciousness that most often showed itself in a sly refusal to take seriously the genuine concerns of life. Bran flitted from one thing to the next as the whim took him, never remaining long enough to reap the all-too-inevitable consequences of his flings and frolics.

  Lithe and long-limbed, habitually clothed in the darkest hues, which gave him an appearance of austerity-an impression completely overthrown by the puckish glint in his clear dark eyes and the sudden, unpredictable, and utterly provocative smile-he nevertheless gorged on an endless glut of indulgence, forever helping himself to the best of everything his noble position could offer. King Brychan's rake of a son was unashamedly pleased with himself.

  "A kiss, my love, and I will take wings," Bran whispered, pressing himself closer still.

  Feeling both appalled and excited by the danger Bran always brought with him, Merian closed her eyes and brushed his cheek with her lips. "There!" she said firmly, pushing him away. "Now off with you."

  "Ah, Merian," he said, placing his head on her warm breast, "how can I go, when to leave you is to leave my heart behind?"

  "You promised!" she hissed in exasperation, stiff arms forcing him away again.

  There came the sound of a shuffling footstep outside the kitchen door.

  "Hurry!" Suddenly terrified, she grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him to his feet. "It might be my father."

  "Let him come. I am not afraid. We will have this out once and for all."

  "Bran, no!" she pleaded. "If you have any thought for me at all, do not let anyone find you here."

  "Very well," Bran replied. "I go."

  He leaned close and stole a lingering kiss, then leapt to the window frame, pushed open the shutter, and prepared to jump. "Until tonight, my love," he said over his shoulder, then dropped to the ground in the yard outside.

  Merian rushed to the window and pulled the heavy wooden shutter closed, then turned and began busying herself, stirring up the embers on the hearth as the sleep-numbed cook shambled into the large, dark room.

  Bran leaned back against the side of the house and listened to the voices drifting down from the room above-to the cook's mumbled question and Merian's explanation of what she was doing in the kitchen before break of day. He smiled to himself. True, he had not
yet succeeded in winning his way into Merian's bed; Lord Cadwgan's fetching daughter was proving a match worthy of his wiles. Even so, before summer was gone he would succeed. Of that he was certain.

  Oh, but the season of warmth and light was everywhere in full retreat. Already the soft greens and yellows of summer were fading into autumn drab. Soon, all too soon, the fair, bright days would give way to the endless grey of clouds and mist and icy, wind-lashed rain.

  That was a concern for another time; now he must be on his way. Drawing the hood of his cloak over his head, Bran darted across the yard, scaled the wall at its lowest span, and ran to his horse, which was tethered behind a hawthorn thicket next to the wall.

  With the wind at his back and a little luck, he would reach Caer Cadarn well before his father departed for Lundein.

  The day was breaking fair, and the track was dry, so he pushed his mount hard: pelting down the broad hillsides, splashing across the streams, and flying up the steep, wheel-rutted trails. Luck was not with him, however, for he had just glimpsed the pale shimmer of the caer's whitewashed wooden palisade in the distance when his horse pulled up lame. The unfortunate beast jolted to a halt and refused to go farther.

  No amount of coaxing could persuade the animal to move. Sliding from the saddle, Bran examined the left foreleg. The shoe had torn away-probably lost amidst the rocks of the last streambed-and the hoof was split. There was blood on the fetlock. Bran lowered the leg with a sigh and, retrieving the reins, began leading his limping mount along the track.

  His father would be waiting now, and he would be angry. But then, he thought, when was Lord Brychan not angry?

  For the last many years-indeed, ever since Bran could remember-his father had nursed one continual simmering rage. It forever seethed just beneath the surface and was only too likely to boil over at the slightest provocation. And then, God help whoever or whatever was nearby. Objects were hurled against walls; dogs were kicked, and servants too; everyone within shouting distance received the ready lash of their surly lord's tongue.

  Bran arrived at the caer far later than he had intended, slinking through the wide-open gate. Like a smith opening the forge furnace door, he braced himself for the heat of his father's angry blast. But the yard was empty of all save Gwrgi, the lord's half-blind staghound, who came snuffling up to put his wet muzzle in Bran's palm. "Everyone gone?" Bran asked, looking around. The old dog licked the back of his hand.

  Just then his father's steward stepped from the hall. A dour and disapproving stilt of a man, he loomed over all the comings and goings of the caer like a damp cloud and was never happy unless he could make someone else as miserable as himself. "You are too late," he informed Bran, ripe satisfaction dripping from his thin lips.

  "I can see that, Maelgwnt," said Bran. "How long ago did they leave?"

  "You won't catch them," replied the steward, "if that's what you're thinking. Sometimes I wonder if you think at all."

  "Get me a horse," ordered Bran.

  "Why?" Maelgwnt asked, eyeing the mount standing inside the gate. "Have you ruined another one?"

  "Just get me a horse. I don't have time to argue."

  "Of course, sire, right away," sniffed the steward. "As soon as you tell me where to find one."

  "What do you mean?" demanded Bran.

  "There are none."

  With a grunt of impatience, Bran hurried to the stable at the far end of the long, rectangular yard. He found one of the grooms mucking out the stalls. "Quick, Cefn, I need a horse,"

  "Lord Bran," said the young servant, "I'm sorry. There are none left."

  "They've taken them all?"

  "The whole warband was summoned," the groom explained. "They needed every horse but the mares."

  Bran knew which horses he meant. There were four broodmares to which five colts had been born in early spring. The foals were of an age to wean but had not yet been removed from their mothers.

  "Bring me the black," Bran commanded. "She will have to do."

  "What about Hathr?" inquired the groom.

  "Hathr threw a shoe and split a hoof. He'll need looking after for a few days, and I must join my father on the road before the day is out."

  "Lord Brychan said we were not to use-"

  "I need a horse, Cefn," said Bran, cutting off his objection. "Saddle the black-and hurry. I must ride hard if I am to catch them."

  While the groom set about preparing the mare, Bran hurried to the kitchen to find something to eat. The cook and her two young helpers were busy shelling peas and protested the intrusion. With smiles and winks and murmured endearments, however, Bran cajoled, and old Mairead succumbed to his charm as she always did. "You'll be king one day," she chided, "and is this how you will fare? Snatching meals from the hearth and running off who-knows-where all day?"

  "I'm going to Lundein, Mairead. It is a far journey. Would you have your future king starve on the way, or go a-begging like a leper?"

  "Lord have mercy!" clucked the cook, setting aside her chore. "Never let it be said anyone went hungry from my hearth."

  She ladled some fresh milk into a bowl, into which she broke chunks of hard brown bread, then sat him down on a stool. While he ate, she cut a few slices of new summer sausage and gave him two green apples, which he stuffed into the pouch at his belt. Bran spooned down the milk and bread and then, throwing the elderly servant a kiss, bounded from the kitchen and back across the yard to the stable, where Cefn was just tightening the saddle cinch on his horse.

  "A world of thanks to you, Cefn. You have saved my life."

  "Olwen is the best broodmare we have-see you don't push her too hard," called the groom as the prince clattered out into the yard. Bran gave him a breezy wave, and the groom added under his breath, "And may our Lord Brychan have mercy on you."

  Out on the trail once more, Bran felt certain he could win his way back into his father's good graces. It might take a day or two, but once the king saw how dutifully the prince was prepared to conduct himself in Lundein, Brychan would not fail to restore his son to favour. First, however, Bran set himself to think up a plausible tale to help excuse his apparent absence.

  Thus, he put his mind to spinning a story which, if not entirely believable, would at least be entertaining enough to lighten the king's foul mood. This task occupied him as he rode easily along the path through the forest. He had just started up the long, meandering track leading to the high and thickly forested ridge that formed the western boundary of the broad Wye Vale and was thinking that with any luck at all, he might still catch his father and the warband before dusk. This thought dissolved instantly upon seeing a lone rider lurching toward him on a hobbling horse.

  He was still some distance away, but Bran could see that the man was hunched forward in the saddle as if to urge his labouring mount to greater speed. Probably drunk, rotten sot, thought Bran, and doesn't realise his horse is dead on its feet. Well, he would stop the empty-headed lout and see if he could find out how far ahead his father might be.

  Closer, something about the man seemed familiar.

  As the rider drew nearer, Bran grew increasingly certain he knew the man, and he was not wrong.

  It was Iwan.

  CHAPTER

  3

  Bernard de Neufmarche stormed down the narrow corridor leading from the main hall to his private chambers deep in the protecting stone wall of the fortress. His red velvet cloak was grey with the dust of travel, his back throbbed with the dull, persistent ache of fatigue, and his mind was a spinning maelstrom of dark thoughts as black as his mood. Seven years lost! he fumed. Ruined, wasted, and lost!

  He had been patient, prudent, biding his time, watching and waiting for precisely the right moment to strike. And now, in one precipitous act, unprovoked and unforeseen, the red-haired brigand of a king, William, had allied himself with that milksop Baron de Braose and his mewling nephew, Count Falkes. That was bad enough. To make a disastrous business worse, the irresponsible king had also reversed the lo
ng-held royal policy of his father and allowed de Braose to launch an invasion into the interior of Wales.

  Royal let to plunder Wales was the very development Neufmarche had been waiting for, but now it had been ruined by the greedy, grasping de Braose mob. Their ill-conceived thrashing around the countryside would put the wily Britons on their guard, and any advancement on Bernard's part would now be met with stiff-necked resistance and accomplished only at considerable expense of troops and blood.

  So be it!

  Waiting had brought him nothing, and he would wait no longer.

  At the door to his rooms, he shouted for his chamberlain. "Remey!" he cried. "My writing instruments! At once!"

  Flinging open the door, he strode to the hearth, snatched up a reed from the bundle, and thrust it into the small, sputtering fire. He then carried the burning rush to the candletree atop the square oak table that occupied the centre of the room and began lighting the candles. As the shadows shrank beneath the lambent light, the baron dashed wine from a jar into his silver cup, raised it to his lips, and drank a deep, thirsty draught. He then shouted for his chamberlain again and collapsed into his chair.

  "Seven years, by the Virgin!" he muttered. He drank again and cried, "Remey!" This time his summons was answered by the quick slap of soft boots on the flagstone threshold.

  "Sire," said the servant, bustling into the room with his arms full of writing utensils-rolls of parchment, an inkhorn, a bundle of quills, sealing wax, and a knife. "I did not expect you to return so soon. I trust everything went well?"

  "No," growled the baron irritably, "it did not go well. It went very badly. While I was paying court to the king, de Braose and his snivelling nephew were sending an army through my lands to snatch Elfael and who knows what all else from under my nose,"