A BAD DAY
Anna hardly recognized the lower city. Civilians ordered to stay clear of the wall area were relegated to neighborhoods several blocks away. If Second Empire broke through the gate, the civilians would evacuate to the middle city. An air of desolation hung over the area with so many shops and taverns boarded up and closed, except for those taken over by the military as field offices or the menders to use as houses of mending. The people she saw were mostly uniformed—the black and silver of the wall and gate guard, and the gray of city guard.
It was noisy. Sergeants yelled for archers to keep sharp on the wall. Carpenters hammered extra bracing onto the gates. Hooves clattered on the cobbled streets as soldiers galloped past her.
She reined Maddie out of the way of menders bearing an injured man on a stretcher. There was rubble in the street where the enemy’s war machines had succeeded in catapulting projectiles over the wall. A contingent of soldiers jogged by in orderly formation despite what appeared to be chaos everywhere.
“Git outta the way!” a drover yelled as he whipped a team of four horses straight at her at full gallop. She gave Maddie a kick and the mare practically jumped across the street. Anna was too surprised to see what was in the wagon, but it must have been something important.
More than a little shaken, she steeled herself and urged Maddie toward the gate in search of Captain Nolder.
“Move, Greenie!” a carpenter yelled at her as he and his helpers lugged more timbers to the gate.
This time she didn’t make Maddie jump, but she reined the mare away from the vicinity of the gate. She knew everyone was at a heightened level of intensity and anxiety, but it still stung to get yelled at. All her life as a servant she’d been harangued and yelled at no matter how well she did her job, and it had made her sensitive to raised voices and slamming doors and the like.
She dismounted and tied Maddie to a post in front of a closed inn, and slung her message satchel over her shoulder. “You be good while I look for the captain.”
Maddie just rubbed her neck against the post with a grunt.
“Good enough,” Anna muttered.
The mare had actually done very well on the ride to the lower city, this time with no one accompanying her. Anna might wish for Lieutenant Mara to be with her, but she was much too busy attending the queen, and had said it was time for Anna to spread her wings anyway. It was time for all of the newest Riders to spread their wings. Riding lessons and weapons training continued with new fervor, but all other classes were canceled, and the green Greenies were now busy conveying messages around the city.
She strode past the gate on Compass Way, the street that ran the perimeter of the city along the inside of the wall, until she found a soldier who had just climbed down a ladder.
“I’m looking for Captain Nolder,” she said.
“Tower three,” he replied, and he pointed her in the right direction before heading off on his way.
She continued on. There was a good deal of activity on the ground beside the wall, but she deemed it easier to make her way on the street rather than climbing up onto the narrow wall walk.
Tower three appeared ahead, and she ran to the entrance. Once inside, she sprinted up the spiral stairs, plastering herself against the wall when soldiers in a rush thundered down the steps.
When she reached the middle landing that opened onto the wall, she asked the archers stationed there, who kept watch through arrow loops, where she’d find Captain Nolder. She’d expected them to point to the stairs going to the top level of the tower, but instead they pointed along the wall walk.
“Be careful,” one of the archers admonished her as she stepped outside.
More archers stood lined up gazing outward between merlons and through arrow loops. She spotted Captain Nolder ahead. He hung out over the wall between a pair of merlons, peering through a spyglass. Wondering what held the captain’s attention, Anna glanced over the shoulder of an archer, then stopped in her tracks. She had not looked out upon the enemy since that day she and Lieutenant Mara had ridden together into the lower city to visit Master Robinson’s saddle shop. Back then, Second Empire had been well off in the distance, but now they had advanced, and had apparently done so since the parley three days ago. They were nearly in arrow range, close enough to make out individual figures of soldiers, and there were thousands of them. Towering overhead were three siege engines.
“Hah! It is broken,” she heard the captain say. “They’re pushing it back to work on it.”
There was chuckling among the archers.
“What’s broke?” Anna asked.
The archer she stood behind turned and grinned. “Their catapult. They’ll probably have it fixed pretty quick, but it’ll give us a short reprieve.”
She supposed such things commonly happened in war. Things broke and needed to be fixed. Seeing the captain ease back from his precarious perch, she approached and pulled out a message from her satchel.
“Captain Nolder,” she said, “I’ve a message for you from General Meadows.”
He handed his spyglass to one of his aides and took the message and opened it. He read through it quickly, then asked, “You have paper and pen with you?”
“Yessir.” She passed him the supplies and the small writing board she carried in her satchel. While he wrote, she looked outward to see what Second Empire was up to. It appeared there was a reorganization of the front line happening.
“Sir,” a lieutenant said, “they’re bringing up the archers again.”
The captain looked up, then thrust his letter at her, the ink still wet. She frantically waved it in the air before folding it and placing it in her satchel.
“Let them waste their arrows,” the captain told his archers. “Don’t shoot unless you are sure of a target.”
Anna thought she’d better move on and get out of the way. She was only three steps along when arrows hissed through the air. Some hit the merlons and wall, but others arced overhead and rained into the street below. People scrambled, but it appeared, miraculously, that no one had gotten hit. She hurried now.
“Another volley,” someone shouted.
She was about halfway to the tower and sheltered behind a merlon with the friendly archer who had told her about the catapult. The arrows whizzed overhead again.
“They’re just trying to soften us up,” the archer explained, “before they attempt a major assault. They’re not real accurate at this range.”
That was reassuring, she supposed.
He moved to peer between two merlons, and before Anna could register what was happening, there was a thunk! and he spun around, an arrow impaled in his throat, and he fell from the wall walk to the street below. It had happened so fast that Anna’s scream came belatedly.
Someone barked orders, and another archer came to take the spot of the fallen man.
“Best get on,” the new man told her in a kindly voice. “And keep your head down.”
Anna ducked and moved, but she was numb all over. After she ran down the tower steps and reached the street, she dashed to where she had left Maddie, fearing stray arrows.
Still in a state of shock, she rode up the Winding Way, oblivious to her surroundings. All she could see was the scene replaying in her mind, of the archer spinning around with the arrow stuck in his throat, and the expression of surprise on his face as he fell.
After Anna delivered Captain Nolder’s message to General Meadows in the throne room where all the war planning was taking place, she returned to Rider stables to brush down Maddie and make sure she was ready for another run if called for. Anna hoped she wouldn’t have to do another, shaken as she was.
Grooming Maddie on the crossties calmed her. The mare wasn’t in her usual snappish mood, which helped, and the quiet of the stables seemed far removed from the activity in the lower city. She was aware of Sir Karigan in the other section of stables helping Riders get off on runs.
When Maddie was groomed to Anna’s satisfaction, she returned the mare to her stall. She was checking her water bucket to ensure it was full and clean when there was a bang! and explosive, “Fekking goat balls!”
Anna rushed out of the stall to see what was the matter and found Sir Karigan hopping on one foot.
“What is it?” she cried.
Fury rolled off Sir Karigan. Anna took a step back. She’d never seen Sir Karigan so angry before. She’d noticed she’d been a bit short of late, and haggard looking, and assumed it was because of the stress they were all under. Even though Sir Karigan was no longer Chief Rider, Lieutenant Mara had her working in that capacity.
“Anna,” Sir Karigan said, “is this yours?” She pointed at the floor.
Her grooming kit. The very sturdy wooden carrier was tipped over onto its side and the brushes and combs strewn across the floor.
“Yes’m,” she replied in a small voice.
“I have very nearly broken my neck, and my toe, too. Do not leave your things in the middle of the aisle.” The last came as a shout.
“I’m—I’m sorry.” It was like being stabbed in the heart to have Sir Karigan raise her voice at her. She got on her knees and started picking up the brushes. “It won’t happen again.”
“It wouldn’t have happened in the first place if you hadn’t been so careless.”
Sir Karigan stalked off, and Anna rubbed tears from her eyes. It wasn’t just being yelled at by the person she admired most, but having that man killed right in front of her, and the other people shouting at her, and everything in an uproar. She missed the colonel, wherever she was, who rarely showed anger and looked out for her. Anna once again began to doubt her decision to become a Green Rider. She just wasn’t tough enough.
When she put her gear and grooming kit away in the tack room, assiduously avoiding Sir Karigan who was preparing Carson’s horse for an errand, she bolted from Rider stables and made her way to the central courtyard gardens where she might have some peace. It would take them longer to find her if they needed another Rider to make a run, and it was not right of her to hide, but she needed time to collect herself, maybe have a good cry.
The gardens were yielding well, it appeared, with tall poles burdened with bean stalks, and plump squashes and pumpkins growing on vines along the ground, neat rows of cabbages and greens, among other types of produce. Gardeners weeded and harvested and watered. Amid the orderly sections of vegetables stood an oasis that was King Jonaeus’ Spring.
She crossed the stepping stones of the trout pond. A frog plopped into the water and shattered the mirrorlike surface. She continued along the path into an area of dense shrubbery and boulders that had not been removed when the ornamental gardens were converted to vegetables. She hoped no one else was there, but when she stepped into the secluded nook sheltered by the boulders, she found that a young woman sat on the rustic bench. After a moment, she realized the young woman was sobbing and that she hadn’t heard it over the burbling of the spring.
Guess I’m not the only one having a hard day.
She started to retreat thinking she’d have to find some other hiding place when it dawned on her who the young woman was. She halted and turned around. “Nell Lotts, is that you?”
“Go away, Mousie,” the servant said, her voice muffled through her handkerchief.
“Now what are you getting on about?” Anna, who had certainly never gotten along with Nell, thought she should just leave and feel some sort of satisfaction that her nemesis was having a worse day than she, but for whatever reason, she did not.
“Go away,” Nell told her again.
Anna ignored her and sat beside her on the bench. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you care? You hate me.”
“I’ll leave if you want, but I’m not having the best day, either. Maybe if you tell me what’s wrong you’ll feel better.”
Nell blew her nose and settled, and gazed at the spring. Anna didn’t think she was going to reveal what was troubling her, but then a short time later, she said, “I’m pregnant.”
Oh, no, Anna thought. “What of the father?”
Nell sobbed again, which answered Anna’s question. The father was either dead, or was disavowing the child, which meant Nell was on her own.
“Master Scrum,” Nell whispered. Master Scrum, who oversaw the general castle servants, would not go easy on her. In fact, he’d be downright harsh and he might even dismiss her outright, which meant Nell would be unable to provide for her child and would be at the mercy of others.
“Was he nasty to you?” Anna asked.
“He . . . He’s the father, and he will not accept it.”
Aeryc and Aeryon, Anna thought.
“I just want to die,” Nell wailed.
The image of the poor archer with the arrow in his throat passed before Anna’s eyes. “No, you do not, Nell Lotts,” she declared. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”