by Tony Hays
“These mercenaries, Tristan, David, Druce.”
That familiar schoolmaster face took shape. “Now, Malgwyn. You have seen a beehive disturbed. The bees fly about, striking everything in their vision, angry, confused, but ultimately they return to the hive.” Merlin squinted at the sun. “About now they will be returning to their hive. It will be another half hour before they realize that their hostages are gone. But though you are away from them, danger is not past. You will be going to Castellum Dinas to treat with Kay and Bedevere and break the siege. I have given you but a brief respite. Though these thugs are unlearned, they are merciless.”
“Is there nothing about this affair that you do not know?”
My old friend smiled. “It is not often that I can surprise people anymore. Now, we cannot waste more time here. All of this commotion will weaken the troops at Castellum Dinas, making it easier for Bedevere and Kay to raise the siege. We have yet more enemies to dispense with.”
“Aye, David, Druce, and Tristan among them.”
Again, Merlin’s eyes twinkled. “Do not be so certain. Now, come. I have horses in a grove just over that rise.”
“What about you?”
“I will join Arthur at Trevelgue. He will need me there.”
I squeezed his thin shoulder. “Keep your head attached. You still have much to tell me. Now I can see you as Doged’s co-conspirator all those winters ago.”
“She told you?”
“Aye, but it is a story well hidden.”
“Good.”
“You must hurry yourself. Mordred’s head may depend on your speed.” I briefed him quickly.
“You know now who killed Doged.”
I nodded.
“Is it as I guess? When Doged wrote to me, I suspected that he was unleashing troubles upon himself. Then, when you told me of the many Dogeds that night, well, I needed little else. The whelp let jealousy control his better sense.”
“That is what I suspect.”
“And which whelp did it?”
I had forgotten that Merlin never made it to Trevelgue before we were ambushed. So, I pulled him to the side and told him where my searches had taken me.
Like me, he was a bit sad. “I have heard of him, only good things really. Doged had spoken highly of him. But what you say makes sense, and you have evidence to prove it.”
“As you know, love makes people do strange things. And I have the unique fibula he lost.”
Merlin nodded. “I will convey this to Arthur, Petrocus, and Ysbail. You will have no friends at this court, Malgwyn, and Mordred will live to bedevil Arthur another day, but sometimes the truth is inconvenient.”
“Are you certain that your wound is so minor?” I still worried about him.
He pulled his tunic back and showed me the ragged edges of the arrow wound, scabbed now and turning a healthy pink around it. “I have injured myself worse with some of my own inventions. Now, go. You and Sulien have little time to waste. But take this bit of information with you: Their leader is not among them right now. And they will not launch an assault against the fortress without him. I heard the others talking as I watched the pack of you brought in.”
“Who are they, Merlin? What lord do they serve? There is a hint of Saxon in their tongue, but they are not Saxons.”
Merlin shrugged. “I hear the same as you, and I have watched them for two days, and I do not know.” He paused. “The girl speaks the truth; she did not betray you.”
With that, he was gone.
I turned to Daron awkwardly. “I am sorry if I misjudged you.”
She did not smile. “I gave you no reason to trust me. And that is unimportant now. The lands between here and Castellum Dinas are teeming with these mercenaries as well as Druce’s soldiers. We cannot use roads and must stay to the countryside. It will slow us down, but it will keep us alive.”
I admired her concentration. “While you were away from us did you have a chance to judge their numbers?” I was obsessed with that. In our world, strategy and tactics were important but not nearly as decisive as numbers. The more men you could field, the better the odds of victory. I looked about at our tiny band. We were not much of a relief force for our friends at Castellum Dinas.
“They are, perhaps, two hundred. Certainly not more.”
“But between Ider, Bedevere, and Kay we have more than two hundred troops inside the fort. They would need twice or three times our number to successfully assault a fortified position.”
Daron shrugged. “I am not a soldier. I am only telling you what I have seen.”
“Very well. We have precious little time as it is. Let us see what manner of men are these.”
* * *
Staying to the forest and off the lanes and roads, we took perhaps an hour to arrive at a ravine some one thousand yards from the fortress. Our refuge was too tree and bramble clogged to provide any benefit for a large force. But our group of three found it perfect.
We had no weapons save the dagger that Daron gave me and another we found on our escape from the camp. We were but two men and a female, more child than woman. And as we crept to the edge of the ravine and looked to the southeast, toward the rising prominence of Castellum Dinas, our eyes grew wide.
Truly, there were two hundred men here or more, arrayed in a massive camp directly in our front. And not all were clad in the ubiquitous gray tunics. Even from a distance I could see the greased topknots of Saxon raiders. In the furor that surrounded the death of Doged and the impending rebellion, I had completely forgotten about Ceawlin and his embassy. An embassy suddenly expanded greatly in number.
I should have known.
I slammed my one fist into the earth. This journey had been cursed from the start.
Ceawlin probably used the confusion at Trevelgue to sneak his men ashore. If they could take Castellum Dinas, leaving Trevelgue in their rear, the people would panic and flee and the Saxons could claim the port without much fighting at all.
I tried to calm myself, tried to put my anger to work. Tactics. I had always been able to see what angle of attack to pursue. And though we were but three and the enemy one hundred times that number, the task was still the same.
“Sulien, work your way around to the north side and see what is there. Come back here.”
“And you?”
“I will look to the south side. Once we have a more complete idea of what is facing us, we can better plan. Regardless, we have little time. If we fail to free at least some of our soldiers besieged, I see no way for this to end well for us. Take no more than an hour to reconnoiter.”
“And me?” Daron asked.
“Stay here and keep watch.”
Her lower lip puffed out in a pout. “Have I not already proved my bravery and loyalty to you?”
I nodded. “You have. If I doubted either of those things, I would not leave you here alone. We need someone here to keep watch on them in case they begin to move while we’re away. You will have to find us and alert us.”
A smile lit her face then, one of the few that I had seen on it. It suited her well.
With a quick nod, we were on our separate ways.
* * *
The brambles grew thick in the ravine, but badgers and such had tunneled through them. Though we were not badgers and I carried more than just a pound more than I should, we used their purpose-built routes.
In truth we could have avoided such subterfuge. The nearest enemy were at least one hundred yards away. And they all wore these strange gray tunics or those of Druce’s or the Saxons. But the Saxons were fewer than I had thought, in truth. Larger than any reasonable embassy, but not a decisive addition to the force.
I saw none bearing the markings of Lord Mark, the soldiers Tristan would have brought. He had not seemed a committed conspirator, but I was still stung by his treachery.
Finally, I saw something to smile about. What we saw was what they had. There would be no reserves. And that made numbers even.
Which
could only mean one thing.
I was wrong. They did not mean to actually take Castellum Dinas. They meant to trap our primary force there, leaving Trevelgue for the taking, to neutralize consilium troops as a force to be reckoned with in the coming struggle. Which meant that Druce was the ringleader of the conspiracy. And that fit very nicely with my conclusions about the killing of Doged. Indeed, it meant that Arthur’s fears that others had learned of the rocks just quarried were not real. While that gave me some comfort, it did nothing to correct the situation as it now stood.
I appraised the ground. I knew that the main entrance was from the north, but there was an older trackway from the east. I suspected that Sulien would find the same thing that I had. The lines were thin, thinner than papyri, but that was not something that could be seen well from the ramparts. Druce had placed his troops at the exact position where the depth of his ranks was hidden by the slope of the hill.
Skirting well below the line of troops, I saw a cache of Druce’s supplies stacked in the opening between the enemy and the lower tree line. He was certainly well provisioned, I thought, as I grunted and tucked my chin into my chest and contemplated the situation.
Bedevere would be in command inside the fort. Kay, chafing in his role as Arthur’s cupbearer, would be anxious for action, to prove himself once more in battle. Young Ider, still a novice in battle, would be eager to match swords with an enemy. The three of them, with the troops I knew that they possessed, could rout the enemy.
Bedevere would have no immediate need to send parties out; the fort had its own spring. But what would Bedevere do? He was renowned for his caution—not that he was ever reckoned as a coward, yet he would move only after careful consideration.
I needed to craft a message that Bedevere would recognize, would understand, and his enemies would not. For if we failed in raising this strange siege, I would not give a silver denarius for Arthur’s or Merlin’s life at Trevelgue. Druce would be emboldened by Tristan’s treachery, and he would not hesitate to move against even the Rigotamos; indeed, he might begin to harbor ambitions of his own for Arthur’s seat.
An idea occurred to me finally, as I was returning to rendezvous with Sulien and Daron. It was a horribly risky quest, but we needed to accomplish two things—arrange a distraction so that one of us could slip into the fort and alert our fellows, but, barring that, a distraction that would reveal the true size of their force, or at least give Bedevere a hint of that reality.
A bit later, after dodging a three-man patrol and fighting the urge to slit their throats, I rejoined Daron and Sulien in our little badger sett. Quickly Sulien and I compared observations and found that we had come to the same conclusions.
“I tell you now, Malgwyn,” he began, “I will take this Druce’s heart from his chest as he watches and feed it to the dogs while it still beats. Anyone who brings the Saxons among us deserves no less.”
With a cold smile, I explained my plan. And my companions’ smiles grew just as chilled.
“Whoever starts the distraction will have little chance of surviving,” Sulien noted.
“Has it not been that way on this entire journey?”
“We both know who it has to be,” Sulien said. “You must be the one to reach Castellum Dinas. Your influence will mean the most with Bedevere. I will take care of the distraction. If God be willing, I will see my family again. If not, what better cause?”
“I will help him.” Daron’s voice sounded suddenly very tiny, very small. “I have no family but you.”
She was brave. Of that I never doubted. “We will see each other again. If not in this life then the next.”
And that was all the good-byes we said.
* * *
Minutes later I was in place at the most likely point. I would have more than an arrow’s flight to cross in the open. And then there was a tree-choked gully in which I could hide, picking my way through to the northern entrance. Once there I would be in far more danger from our own men than I would be from Druce’s troops. I did not think gaining entry into the fort was a problem. For once I gave thanks for my missing arm. It made me very recognizable.
As I crouched in the trees and waited, I shivered in my still-damp clothes, rubbed the cramping in my half arm, cursed Arthur once more for sparing my pitiful life. Every joint and every muscle pained me. I did not know if I had the strength to see this through.
Tribuit.
In recent years, I had not given much thought to that day on Tribuit. Before, I had gone to sleep every night dreaming of my outstretched hand, begging with me, pleading with me to join it in the next life. And an uncontrollable tingle of pleasure would go through my mind as I shuffled closer and closer to that disembodied hand.
Yet, just as the hand was about to grasp my shoulder, it would disappear, and I would howl in my anger … and then awake.
But that had been then, before Arthur rescued me from my self-pity. And here I sat, huddling from the damp, following Arthur’s flag once more with even less chance of success than ever before. Once more, I wished that the Saxon’s sword had been truer at Tribuit. Then, whatever future awaits us beyond this reality would have fed itself on us, engorged on us, and we would be happy in the next life.
I shivered.
And there would be, at least for me, no Mariam, no Ygerne, no coming child. I jerked back as if struck. I continued to be so caught up in this affair that I had nearly forgotten them. Whatever force created our lands and our people should have struck me dead at that moment. They were my very life, and to forget them even for a second was the only unpardonable sin in my holy book.
And that was enough to banish my self-pity and focus me on the task ahead.
* * *
The first hint of trouble came as a thin wisp of smoke, rising from near the enemy’s main camp. At first they did not seem to notice, or rather no one said anything. But within seconds, the wisp turned into a column of smoke, heading for the heavens.
And the shouts began.
Just as I thought, starting a strong fire under their supplies distracted every man there. From my vantage point, I could see streams of men, like lines of ants, hurrying to extinguish the flames, now licking into the sky and growing further with each second.
Sulien and Daron had done their job well.
With a deep breath, I sent a prayer to the heavens and bolted from my nest.
My legs were no longer young and the path before me a gentle slope, but I pushed harder and harder and harder.
The heat within me seemed to boil my stomach and what little was there burned my throat and erupted into the air.
But I did not stop.
Behind me I could hear men shouting and cursing the fire.
Then the shouting changed, and I knew that they had seen me. I tucked my head, ignored the vomitus dangling from my lips, and willed my legs to move faster. I could not spare the energy to worry about Sulien’s and Daron’s fate.
But I had too much distance on the men, even over the broken ground. I heard the unmistakable whish of spears piercing the air close behind, but that was all. The rest was but fading curses and footfalls.
And the tip of the shallow ravine lay just ahead. My legs burned like Druce’s supplies, but I pushed on, expecting guards to pop out at any moment. For that is what I would have done, hidden guards at the most exposed point of this ravine. But I entered the undergrowth unmolested.
And took three steps before a wrapped forearm crushed my throat and threw me backwards.
Blackness reigned and my head pounded. But in seconds the light returned to show a shocked Ider staring me in the face.
“Malgwyn! Forgive me! Lord Bedevere posted us here but bid us hide and wait until an intruder cleared the field before we struck.”
“We must hurry. Take me to Bedevere and Kay now.”
Within minutes we had navigated the ravine and emerged onto the trackway into the main gate. At Ider’s signal it was cracked open enough for the two of us to pass.
Rightly, he had left his men in the ravine.
“What has happened?” Bedevere hailed me from the rampart. “We have had no word from anyone, and it seems the force before us has grown. Where is Arthur?”
I braced my one hand on my knee and caught my breath. “Quick, what do your lookouts see around the fire?”
Kay called the order up the ladder. In just a few seconds, the answer came.
“The supplies are burned, my lord. And from the looks of it, they have far fewer men than we thought.”
Still out of breath, I nodded. “But it is a good force nonetheless. Among them are Druce’s men, Saxons, and these gray-tunicked mercenaries. More than two hundred, I judge.”
“But they would need twice that many to take a defended position,” Kay said.
“They don’t intend to attack,” Bedevere answered, a grin breaking across his stone face. He understood immediately. “They want to block this force from being an influence on affairs at Trevelgue.”
“Aye,” I agreed. “We were taken prisoner by the mercenaries last night as we returned to Trevelgue from Tyntagel.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Kay queried.
“Myself, Sulien, the girl, a pair of common soldiers, and … Arthur.”
The explosion I expected did not come.
Both Kay and Bedevere hung their heads. “Then he is dead.”
Kay spun away, slamming his fist into the parapet. “I warned him about going out unprotected.”
“No!” I shouted. “He is not dead. He dressed as a common man. Those who took us did not recognize him. They were from among the mercenaries and did not know Arthur by sight. David was in their camp, but demanded only to treat with me. He never saw Arthur in our tent. When we escaped, with Merlin’s help, he, Merlin, and two of the men made haste for Trevelgue.”
“Merlin? So that’s where the devil’s been hiding. That was more than a bit of luck,” Bedevere said with a sigh. “So tell us how it lays.”
“Druce’s men were spread thin to give the illusion that they had enough men to storm the Castellum. In truth they had fewer than half that many, and too few supplies for a long siege.”
