Part 31 (1/2)
”If I thought the challenge of clipping your wings would help her recover sooner, aye. Gladly.” The Wolf's grin faded and he looked at Sir Roger. ”You are certain she is safe enough?”
”She is safe,” De Chesnai nodded grimly. ”You would be disturbed to know how many of the castle's inhabitants care naught for the name of Lucien Wardieu.”
”A situation we shall do our d.a.m.nedest to rectify,” the Wolf promised tersely.
”You can start by telling us exactly where this eagle's eyrie is,” Alaric said, his brow knitted in a frown. ”The longer you delay, the more my neck itches and tells me I should have remained a Benedictine.”
”The eyrie is on the cliffs, my lord,” Eduard volunteered. ”Halfway down to the sea. The cell itself is no more than a crack in the rocks, and the path leading down is scarcely wide enough for one man to pa.s.s another. Of course”-he overcame a tremor in his voice and squared his shoulders manfully-”I have climbed down several times and will do it gladly again for the chance to help rescue Lady Servanne.”
Lucien strained to see the boy's face through the shadows, wondering again at the madness and hatred that had conspired to bring them all to this point in life. Eduard was his son. A man nearly grown and him not even knowing there had been a seed sown.
”How is your leg, boy?”
Eduard smiled lamely, feeling his pulse quicken at the sound of the Wolf's voice. This tall, fearsomely bold knight was his father-a stranger, yet one who brought a calming, deep-felt peace to a heart that had always reviled in the notion of carrying the Dragon de Gournay's blood.
”M'sieur D'Aeth unknowingly did me a service by plying the hot iron to my wound. The bleeding was stopped and the flesh sealed. I can use the limb, my lord, and will do so as required.”
”What is required,” Lucien said slowly, ”is a quick way out of here. We have men camped nearby in the woods-men with strong bow arms and tempers frayed from inactivity.”
”If they could be gotten to,” Sparrow contributed eagerly, ”they could certainly put a burr up the Dragon's a.r.s.e and distract his attention away from our true purpose.”
”And let us not forget the rabble outside the gates. They were strongly in favour of Randwulf de la Seyne Sur Mer and could easily be roused into keeping the guards on the walls looking out to the moor.”
”My lord?” It was Eduard again. ”I think ... I mean, I am convinced there is a way to get out of the castle un.o.bserved.”
All eyes turned to the young squire, who wiped his cuff across his mouth to dry the sweat beaded on his upper lip. ”There is a small, seldom-used gate in the east wall which opens out onto the lower slopes of the sea cliffs. The fishermen sometimes use it when they need more fish than the seneschal allows them to catch, and it gives access to smugglers too, those who cannot gain entry by the main gates.
The keeper can be rendered deaf, dumb, and blind for the proper amount of coin, and since he knows me well enough, he would not ask too many questions, nor look too closely at any companions I might have with me.”
Lucien regarded the boy with a steady eye.
”It would be dangerous to move the wounded out that way,” Friar said quietly. ”But better than waiting to be picked off here like overripe fruit.”
Sir Roger de Chesnai, cradling his injured arm, stood up. ”My shoulder makes me near useless as far as wielding a blade or a bow, but my legs are strong enough to carry me all the way to Lincoln if need be. I will take my chances with the gatekeeper's sight, but I hesitate putting the same faith in your men-if and when I find them-or to count upon them holding back their arrows long enough for me to explain why they should trust me.”
A long, drawn-out sigh of exasperation drew attention to Sparrow. ”Mor dieu! ”Mor dieu! 'tis true, they will skewer him sooner than ask his name. Moreover, they have learned too well how to hide in the greenwood; it will take a kindred eye to find them.” 'tis true, they will skewer him sooner than ask his name. Moreover, they have learned too well how to hide in the greenwood; it will take a kindred eye to find them.”
The Wolf arched a brow. ”Are you volunteering?”
”Certainly not! You need me here to help rescue your little dove from her cage.”
Lucien smiled the kind of smile that boded ill will for the recipient. ”Let me put the question to you another way: It must be well past midnight now; how soon do you think you can find the men and return?”
Sparrow threw his arms up in the air, decrying the Fates who were obviously determined to remove him from the hub of the excitement. ”Very well, no need to beg. I will go. After midnight, you say? Then dawn at the earliest-a.s.suming I get through the gate, and a.s.suming the faeries do not turn the moor into quicksand by moonlight.”
Lucien and the others looked up at the sky. A bank of heavy black clouds scudded across a faintly lighter, star-splashed backdrop, bringing a sharp salty tang to the air. The moon would be full and bright when it reached its apex but for now was still too low on the horizon to do more than hint at the speed and ma.s.s of moving cloud. There was likely a storm somewhere out at sea-a blessing for those who would need the darkness for safety, a curse for anyone trying to feel their way down a narrow path etched into the side of a cliff.
”Sir Roger ... do you think between you and these four -Cedric, Sigurd, Gadwin, and Eduard-you could manage to buy or steal a cart from the villagers outside and have it down the coast a mile or so, before dawn?”
Sir Roger de Chesnai, hardly renowned as a cart-stealer, puffed his chest and glowered past Eduard to the three wounded foresters he had already helped haul up the escape shaft. ”I would have to have a d.a.m.ned good reason for doing so!”
”The reason, my lord,” said Lucien, ”is that I do not know how well or how poorly the Lady Servanne has fared. Regardless, we certainly cannot expect her to run across a moor after all she has been through.”
Chagrined not to have thought of it himself, Sir Roger's chest deflated and he nodded solemnly. ”Tell me where you want the cart and it shall be there.”
”My lord-” Eduard was flushed warmly with a mixture of anger and impotence. ”My leg may be a hindrance for running, but my arms are scarcely bruised. As I said, there is an inlet where the men go to fish, and in that inlet are boats. They are st.u.r.dy and agile, and if one knows the currents-as I do-one can slip in behind the breakwater and bring the vessel close to sh.o.r.e near the base of the cliffs. If you know the way to the eagle's eyrie, then you must also know the small bay of which I speak.”
”I recall sneaking out at night and doing my fair share of fis.h.i.+ng there as a boy,” Lucien said evenly. ”I also remember currents that could smash a boat straight up against the rocks if the oarsman chose to follow the wrong one.”
The boy stood, and to the surprise of no one, was nearly as tall as the Wolf, and possessed the same uncompromising tilt to his jaw.
”You need another avenue of escape, my lord,” he reasoned. ”Sparrow could drown in a quagmire, Sir Roger could run his cart right into the hands of the Dragon's mercenaries. I know the currents. I will not choose the wrong one.”
”I could break your arm as a deterrent,” the Wolf said with equal logic. ”Then you would not be able to row at all.”
”No, my lord. Nor would I make a very good squire to you with a game leg and a crooked arm.”
Lucien returned his son's unwavering stare for a full minute, then had to lower his gaze to control the pride tugging at his lips. ”Very well, if you are determined. But you will not go alone. Gil!”
Gil Golden looked up, startled. ”No! You need me on the cliffs!”
”I need you below,” Lucien said firmly.
”There is nothing wrong with my arms or my legs,” she protested, looking from the Wolf to Alaric. ”My bow can be of more use here, protecting your backs. You know it can!”
Alaric chewed his lip savagely, and after a glance from Lucien, took Gil by the arm and led her several feet away into the deeper shadow of an ancient apple tree.
”I want you to go with Eduard,” he said softly. ”He cannot handle a boat alone.”
”But-”
”I do not not want to argue, Gillian. This has nothing to do with my wanting to send you out of the castle to keep you safe-G.o.d knows, I would despair of calling anywhere safe at this moment. Nor has it anything to do with you being a woman, for you have shown the courage of ten men since this whole thing started. No, the plain truth is, we need you want to argue, Gillian. This has nothing to do with my wanting to send you out of the castle to keep you safe-G.o.d knows, I would despair of calling anywhere safe at this moment. Nor has it anything to do with you being a woman, for you have shown the courage of ten men since this whole thing started. No, the plain truth is, we need you and and your bow arm down below. G.o.d willing, if we should somehow succeed at freeing Lady Servanne, and if we should survive the descent to the beach, I would rather know your bow was waiting for us at the bottom instead of taking the risk of having it silenced at the top.” your bow arm down below. G.o.d willing, if we should somehow succeed at freeing Lady Servanne, and if we should survive the descent to the beach, I would rather know your bow was waiting for us at the bottom instead of taking the risk of having it silenced at the top.”
Gil's mouth opened to protest, then closed again as a tremor pa.s.sed through her chin.
”Besides,” he added gently. ”You know yourself, you are terrified of heights. You can scarcely climb a tree without turning as green as the leaves. The cliffs drop six hundred feet straight down, with the darkness and the wind there to hamper our every step. You would never make it down.”
”How did you know?”
”It was one of the smaller things that gave your secret away,” he said, smiling as he tenderly laid his hand against her cheek.
For once Gil did not pull away from his touch. She bent her head forward and rested her brow against his chin, and her sigh was like a chorus of angels' voices in his ears.
”Such a foolish weakness,” she whispered.
”Nothing ... absolutely nothing about you, Gillian, is foolish or weak,” Alaric stated flatly. ”And if we come through this ... when when we come through this, I intend to prove how much I love you, and to prove how much stronger we both can be if we share our pain and our love together.” we come through this, I intend to prove how much I love you, and to prove how much stronger we both can be if we share our pain and our love together.”