Bethany nodded. It made sense. “I’m going to change. I’ll find you in a few minutes.”
“Change?”
“You don’t expect me to fight in this?” she asked, pulling her skirt out to show the volumes of fabric draping around her legs.
Erin grabbed her arm, keeping her from turning and descending the steps. “I don’t expect you to fight, period.”
“Erin,” she sighed in response.
“No. Bethany you’re not the youngest daughter of the king anymore. You’re the only ruler this nation has. You cannot risk your life.”
“You don’t actually think I’m going to sit inside the castle and wait?”
“I don’t think, my lady, I know. That is your duty, as queen.”
Bethany wrenched her arm free of his grasp, even though the tightness of his fingers would leave bruises.
“And as the queen, I can do what I want.”
Erin smiled sadly down at her. “Then you don’t understand the role of royalty.”
“And you do not understand your role, either, Sir Caldry,” she replied with a glare, emphasizing his title rather than calling him by his given name. Bethany noted the pain in his eyes, but couldn’t take the time to care. “I will return in ten minutes time.”
Erin nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line.
Bethany trotted back down the steps and crossed the bailey.
“Send Cilia to my room,” she ordered the first servant she saw. The man bowed and scurried away.
Her lady-in-waiting met her at the door of her room and quickly helped her dress in a pair of doe-hide trousers, a soft, clean tunic, and a leather vest. She pulled her old weapons out of their hiding places, slipping her leather bracer on to protect her wrist from the snap of the bowstring. She wrapped her belt around her waist and tugged it down over her hips to keep it from shifting. Lastly, Bethany slipped her ankle sheath and dagger into her sturdy boots.
“You really know how to use all this, my lady?” asked Cilia as Bethany picked up her bow and quiver.
“Aye. Had to learn when I was traveling.”
“With Sir Caldry?”
“Yes. Sir Caldry was with me the whole time.”
Bethany noted a blush warming Cilia’s face.
“What is it?” Bethany demanded.
“Nothing, my lady.”
“Don’t lie to me, Cilia.”
The lady-in-waiting chewed on her bottom lip for a second. “It’s just rumors.”
“What rumors?”
“Well, some are saying stuff about the two of you being alone all those weeks.”
“What stuff?” Bethany asked, though she had a pretty good notion of what the gossipers were saying.
“Umm… Tha-that a man and a woman don’t travel together like that, staying together at night, without… umm…”
“Having sex?”
Cilia blushed deeply at the blatant word.
“While I am not what one might call a virgin queen, I have never willingly slept with a man,” explained Bethany, though every ounce of her being wanted to smack the girl for her gossip mongering. “I would appreciate it if you would set the gossipers straight. Sir Caldry is an honorable man. He does not deserve to be discussed in such a way.”
Cilia nodded, her eyes still showing her doubt in their depths.
“Good.” Bethany gripped the younger girl’s shoulder. “Stay safe. And protect the children.”
With these final words, Bethany jogged down the corridor and half fell, half ran down the stairs. She found the bailey teeming with activity. Nearly every castle servant worked to bring the burnable materials into the keep, while others worked to make sure the water barrels on the battlements were full. Yet more were working to light the braziers. Flaming arrows were always better, though Bethany had never had the chance to shoot a flaming arrow herself.
The young queen ran back up to the battlements where Erin stood, surrounded by young boys. He handed a scrap of paper to a boy and sent him on his way. The skinny boys were acting as Erin’s messengers.
“That’s enough for now, boys. Wait over there,” he ordered as he noticed Bethany’s presence.
“You’re a fool, Bethany,” he growled once the boys were out of earshot.
“Aren’t we all?”
To her surprise, Erin smiled.
“Have they made any signs of attack?” Bethany asked, squinting to better see the distant shapes.
“Not yet. But it’s early. They may be waiting until all their troops make it out of the foothills.”
“Is it just me or does this seem a rather small force compared to what Wolfric commands?”
Erin nodded. “It is, but it may be all he could get over the mountains. Reports from the city guards say one group of no more than fifty or so men appeared first. The rest have come in small companies. I suspect Wolfric finally realized he couldn’t move a whole army over the mountains at once.”
“No doubt he also knows we don’t have much left to defend ourselves with.”
Erin nodded again. “Bethany, do you have a backup plan?”
“What do you mean?”
The knight chewed on his lower lip for a moment before replying. “There is a real chance we will lose this battle,” he said in a soft whisper, his voice barely reaching her own ears. “Do you have a plan if the city falls?”
Bethany didn’t know the answer to his question. Part of her mind insisted they would both be dead before the city fell. Another voice in her mind told her to use the secret escape tunnel in the castle walls and run for it if the outcome looked too bleak. And yet she knew she would never abandon her people like that, as much as she might want to.
“There is no backup plan. If the city falls, so do I.”
Erin nodded. “Just wanted to make sure we were on the same plan.”
Suddenly Bethany felt Erin’s rough, warm hands grasp her own. Whatever was going to happen, they were in it together.
“I need to get to the city’s battlements. I don’t suppose I can convince you to stay here.”
Bethany shook her head. She followed him down the steps and out of the castle bailey, leaving the guards to close the castle’s great portcullis. Bethany jogged behind Erin, her townspeople gaping at her as they watched their queen dressed as a man running toward the danger.
They reached the nearest steps up to the battlements. Erin took them two at a time, leaving Bethany to struggle up them. She wasn’t as strong as she had been at the end of their travels. She would have to remember it during the battle.
Bethany and Erin reached the tower where Brom and Jokan consulted. Before anyone could speak, they heard a distant noise over the sound of the soldiers whispered words. Bethany turned toward the valley spreading out below them, only half aware that the noise was coming from their enemy.
The masses of men surged forward, a sound coming up from their throats as they let loose their battle cry. Bethany felt her gut tighten within her. Though she had gone up against poachers and bandits in the forest, she had never experienced the terror of an army running full tilt toward her.
They have to get over these walls, she reminded herself. And her walls were tall.
As the masses dissolved into individual men, she realized they were carrying tall ladders, with metal hooks on the ends. She turned her eyes on Erin, who was already barking orders to the archers.
Bethany suddenly remembered her own bow and quiver. She pulled the bow off its hook on her quiver and began stringing it. Like the other archers, she notched an arrow and waited for Erin’s orders. She watched the army grow closer and closer. Desperately, she wanted to release her arrow. She could easily take one down at this distance.
What was Erin waiting for?
“Aim for those with the ladders,” Erin advised. “Aim! Fire!”
Bethany let her arrow fly, immediately stringing another one. She noticed that most of the arrows found their home in a body, bringing a wave of soldiers down. Had Erin waited to
be sure each arrow took down a target.
“Fire at will,” added the scarred knight.
Like the other archers, Bethany released her arrows as quickly as she could. Her soft muscles began to ache with the work of pulling back the tight bowstring. The pain increased, but she kept firing along with the others. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a lad skid to her side and deposit a fresh supply of arrows into the stand by her feet.
When the leader of a ladder line fell, another man would quickly take his place. The ladders were just beginning to settle into place when Bethany heard a faint noise. Something about the sound made her breath catch in her throat, but she couldn’t recall what the sound was. Slowly, it came to her—the tin lines.
“ERIN!” she screamed as she grabbed a wad of arrows and flung them over her shoulder into her quiver. “The tins!”
Erin’s eyes widened as he too heard the noise.
“Twenty men, with me. Keep those men off the walls,” he added to those remaining.
Bethany followed the men and Erin around the battlements, running at full tilt. Her shorter legs could barely keep up as they ducked and dodged around those fighting on the southern wall. As they rounded the tower and moved onto the eastern battlements, the obstacles lessened, allowing the men to quickly outstrip Bethany. She kept running at a constant pace, not wasting her energy to keep up with the longer legs of the men. She had to have the energy to fight when she got there, whether she was late or not.
As Bethany neared the next corner tower, she noticed the heads of her enemies begin to appear over the battlements. Unspotted, they had rounded the large city and positioned their ladders on the northern wall. Bethany’s fast steps stumbled as she realized Wolfric’s men were in the city. Even from her distance, she spotted Erin jump from the slight rise of the corner tower, bringing his drawn sword down on the first man’s head, splitting his skull.
Bethany felt her heart stop.
Erin may be the greatest fighter she had ever seen, but he was still a man. And men bled. Men died.
“No!” she screamed as another enemy mounted their battlements, cutting Erin off from the other Dothan soldiers.
In that instant, in that one, brief instant, Bethany knew her own heart. She loved Erin, and he loved her. She had seen his love time and again. He had sacrificed for her, not just his life blood but his options. He could have climbed in Gilead’s good graces, but instead he spent his days following her around to keep her safe.
Bethany swallowed the lump in her throat as her shaking fingers withdrew another arrow. She notched it on her bowstring and pulled the line of gut back to her cheek, anchoring it against her chin. Bethany felt tears roll down her cheeks as she drew a deep breath and slowly let it out, calm her nerves.
She waited until Erin dodged away from a swing and let her arrow fly. It struck Erin’s opponent in the throat, dropping him to his knees. Slowly, the dying man toppled off the wall. Erin was already turning to find his next mark.
Bethany wanted to run to her men, mostly to see what sort of crowd waited at the base of the ladders, but she knew she was better able to help at a distance with her bow and arrows. Based on where the heads were appearing over the battlements, she guessed they only had five ladders. The men and Erin worked against those that had already made it over the wall while Bethany took out the men reaching the top of the ladder. She was just settling into a rhythm when she felt a great shudder rock the earth.
The queen glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a spray of stone rise in the air. A second later another boulder flew through the air, hitting the central tower and rocking the entirety of the city walls all the way down to their foundations.
They have war machines! she thought with panic.
Bethany turned back to look at Erin. She was falling behind. Again she notched her arrow and took a man down. She couldn’t deal with the machines from where she knelt, but she could protect Erin’s back.
“Bethany,” Erin cried as he plunged his sword into a man’s gut. “We’ve got this. Set those catapults on fire!”
She didn’t stop to argue, however much she wanted to, but turned and ran away.
The first chance she got, she would tell Erin how she felt. She just prayed it wouldn’t be on one of their deathbeds.
Bethany was panting when she reached the nearest southern tower. She stretched on her tip toes, peering over the battlements. Wolfric had only two catapults in action.
“Take the catapults down!” Bethany yelled at the top of her voice.
She looked down the line of the battlements, noting that most of the men were either engaged in fighting against the few who had made it up the ladders, or were busy keeping the numbers at bay. Bethany ran to the nearest brazier, dodging a blade tip as a man came over the battlements. She knew he was following her, but she couldn’t stop to deal with him. She hoped someone else would.
Just as she skidded to a stop at the brazier, she heard the cry of her pursuer’s death.
Bethany grabbed one of the special arrows and dipped it in the fire. Within seconds it was alight. Bethany notched the arrow, burning the fine hairs off her knuckles in the process. She had never fired at anything so far away before, but assumed she would hit it eventually, so long as no one tried to kill her in the meantime.
She drew the string back and fired, missing the catapults by a dozen yards. With shaking fingers she lit the next arrow, drew it back, and pointed the arrow into the air. The flaming arrow struck a man guarding the catapult. With the third arrow, she lit the left catapult on fire. Even from her distance she heard the men yelling as they worked to put it out. Bethany released three more arrows on the first catapult to make sure they couldn’t put it out.
With the first ablaze, she turned her attention on the second catapult. Bethany had just lit her arrow and notched to her bowstring when a man charged her. Bethany dropped to her knee as she spun, raising the burning arrow and letting it fly into her enemy’s chest. He grunted and flopped to the battlements, the fire quickly spreading across the man’s chest.
Bethany didn’t wait to watch him die, or to think about her actions, but turned back to the brazier. It didn’t take her long to light the second catapult on fire. Once it was done, Bethany ran to the nearest tower and leaned out over the battlements, looking for what damage Wolfric’s stones had done. She noticed a few places where the tops of the battlements had been damaged, and a few cracks in one of the towers, but other than that it looked as though their walls had stood the test.
From her position on the tower, she noticed a larger congregation of her enemy, their lines clumping as too many men tried to climb the same ladder.
“Get the oil!” she said, drawing yet another arrow and beginning to pick off those nearest the top of the ladder.
Her hands were shaking with fatigue by the time the oil arrived. Three strong men appeared, carrying an enormous hot pot. They stepped up onto the ledge and poured the contents of the pot down upon their enemy. The men slipped off the ladder as they screamed. Bethany waited a few beats for the oil to spread across as many men as it might before releasing a lit arrow. The men and the ladder alike burst into flame.
Bethany felt a tired smile pull on her lips. She was just about to look to the next ladder when she heard a cry from a quarter she didn’t expect. She turned to look down into the city, trying to spy the person who had screamed among the various buildings. Suddenly she noticed a mob of men, dressed in Tolad’s colors, charging through the city streets, cutting down anyone unlucky enough to be out in the streets.
Did they make it past our defenses? Where was the weakness? Her mind raced as she scanned the battlements. Though she couldn’t see past the height of the inner castle, she didn’t see any place where their defenses had failed. Where had these men come from?
“Enemy in the city!” she screamed as loudly as she could.
Those not engaged with an enemy looked down, spotting the mob of thirty or forty men rampaging t
hrough the city. Bethany drew another arrow, cringing at the cramp in her arm, and loosed it, taking one man down.
From her distance, she spotted Erin on the far wall.
“Fall back to the keep!” he called. “To the keep!”
Bethany slung her bow over her shoulder and withdrew her sword. “Fall back!” she called, worrying that those around her might not have heard Erin’s orders.
She ran with her men toward the nearest stairs, no longer worrying about the men pouring over the walls. At the base of the stairs, the soldiers split up, taking different routes to the castle’s one portcullis. Bethany didn’t stop to consider as she dashed down one street.
Halfway down the street she heard the sound of the city’s portcullis rising and turned to say something encouraging to the men around her. She glanced over one shoulder, then the other, before stumbling to a stop.
Queen Bethany Kavadh was alone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Erin stumbled up to the castle’s portcullis alongside fifty or more men. His sides heaved and his legs shook with the exertion, warning him that he clearly hadn’t been spending enough time on the practice field. The men tumbled past the gatehouse, collapsing in the bailey.
Only his pride kept him on his feet. Erin turned to the men guarding the gatehouse. At least someone was fresh for the next battle.
“Keep it up a little longer… We still have men out there… Are there archers up top?” he asked in small spurts as he gasped for air.
Sweat was beginning to dribble down his spine, under his thick gambeson protecting his flesh from the pinch of his chainmail. His armor in total weighed more than Bethany, but it had already saved him from a few poorly aimed strikes.
“Yes, sir. Five archers on the gatehouse, two on each tower.”
Erin turned to the men laying in the dirt. “Any of you who can shoot get to the towers. Now, men! Our lives depend on it!”
The men nodded and pushed themselves back onto their feet. They moved as quickly as their tired limbs could manage, working their way up to the castle’s battlements. The walls of the castle were even taller than those of the city. It would be even harder for Wolfric’s men to make it up to the battlements without getting struck by an arrow, a stone, or boiling oil.
The Dothan Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy Page 80
