Ieuan
By early afternoon, Ieuan found himself standing in a field not far from where his company had hidden themselves two weeks ago, binoculars to his face, studying the terrain around Beeston Castle. Cadwaladr and his men had long since left off watching the place. With the army surrounding the castle on all sides, it wasn’t as if they needed to hide in the barn anymore, and Cadwaladr had resumed his duties as captain of Llywelyn’s teulu.
This time it was Callum, rather than Math, beside Ieuan. Roger Mortimer remained where they’d left him, penned inside his high walls. He hadn’t hanged anyone from the battlements yet, which he could have done in retaliation for the arrival of the army. David had decided to take that risk, and had gone to Constance with bowed head to tell her that he wouldn’t be trading England’s safety to save her husband.
At the same time, Roger had to know that the hostages he held were the only thing keeping David from assaulting the castle with all the power at his disposal. Until a friendly force—namely the army of King Balliol—marched to Mortimer’s aid, or David’s army finished constructing its siege engines, they were at a stalemate.
Humphrey de Bohun appeared at his right shoulder with Edmund Mortimer in tow. “Is it true what they’re saying?”
Ieuan dropped the binoculars from his eyes. He could not mistake the combination of fear, anger, and worry in Humphrey’s voice. “I don’t know what they’re saying, but if they are telling you that the king has taken your son to Avalon, then yes, it’s true.”
Humphrey’s hands clenched into fists. “You should have come to me yourself and told me. I shouldn’t have had to find this out from your men.”
Ieuan didn’t think he should have to justify his actions to Bohun, but the man had lost his son and deserved a gentle reply. “I went to your tent, and you weren’t there. I asked that you come to me, so that when I told you, you wouldn’t have an audience.”
Bohun glared at him for a moment, and then subsided, closing his eyes briefly, maybe even to hold back tears.
Ieuan stepped a little closer. “This happened to me, remember? You’ve been to the hospital at Dinas Bran. Believe me when I say that what we can do here is a fraction of what can be done for William there.”
Bohun swept a trembling hand across his brow. “It’s my son. My only son.”
Edmund Mortimer put a hand on Humphrey’s shoulder and squeezed. The two men were similar in age, both in their forties, cousins as well as lifelong friends.
Callum nudged Humphrey’s elbow. “It is regrettable that this happened, Humphrey, but Avalon is the best place for him if he was wounded by the assassin’s bolt.”
“And where is this assassin?” Humphrey spoke through clenched teeth. “I will kill him with my bare hands!”
“He was in custody and not talking when we left,” Ieuan said. “His identity was not yet known.”
“I would have made him talk.”
“So will Bevyn,” Ieuan said.
Angry as he was, even Humphrey couldn’t disagree with that assessment.
“He had two arrows in him,” Callum added. “Nobody is taking this lightly, believe me.”
“William saved the king’s life,” Ieuan said. “Maybe that’s of no comfort, but he was doing his duty as he saw it.”
“They were both moving when the bolt hit William’s back,” Callum said. “William was trying to protect David, and David was trying to move William out of the way in order to take the bolt himself.”
“Where was William hit?” Edmund said.
“We don’t know.” Callum grimaced. “Somewhere on his right side. He was alive when he went to Avalon, I can assure you of that. I can also assure you that with treatment in Avalon, with exercise and patience, a year from now he should hardly be able to tell that it happened.”
Ieuan didn’t meet Callum’s eyes. He was talking through his hat, as Ieuan’s wife liked to say, because really they had no idea how bad the wound was. Instead, Ieuan looked at Bohun. “You still with us?”
“God help me.” Bohun let out a groan. “But yes, I’m with you. William fights better with his left hand than with his right anyway.”
Ieuan had noticed that, actually, but had chosen not to say anything in case it sounded like an excuse for why William’s loss was less serious than Humphrey felt it to be.
Callum nodded. “What’s the situation with Roger Mortimer?”
“No change,” Edmund said shortly. “My brother hides behind his walls. Honestly, at this point, I have no idea what he’s thinking.”
“If he knew what was good for him, once he knew that David was alive, he would have retreated to France,” Callum said. “A fortnight is a long time to wait for retribution—or rescue.”
Edmund shook his head. “If he flees, he knows David will come after him. There’s no place he can run. His lands are in Aquitaine, which David rules, and the King of France remains an ally of England. He will have no interest in harboring someone who arranged for the murder of an ally, especially David, who saved Philip’s life.”
“Roger bet everything on a single throw of the dice.” Humphrey de Bohun shook himself, as if trying to reorient his mind to the task at hand rather than what it had been stuck on, which was William’s welfare. “Scotland is his only hope.”
Ieuan gestured to the mountain before them. “It must be as we guessed. Mortimer is waiting for Balliol to come to his rescue.” He pinned Humphrey and Edmund with his gaze. “He still hasn’t left Barnard Castle?”
“No,” Edmund said.
“Why not?” Ieuan folded his arms across his chest. “What is he waiting for?”
“David’s death?” Edmund said. “Perhaps the assassin was given a fortnight to accomplish his deed, on the chance that it would be all they needed, and they’d be back to where they’d hoped to be after Ireland: David gone and them in control of all Britain.”
“David’s quick arrival in the plane undoubtedly caught Balliol on the hop as well,” Callum pointed out. “He was hoping he had weeks, and he’s had only days.”
“All the more reason to leave Mortimer to stew in his own juices,” Humphrey said. “We can starve him, and he will eventually surrender.”
“Not before we succumb to dysentery,” Ieuan said.
“This was Plan A, which has not worked,” Callum added. “Besides, Balliol will eventually get off his duff and march to his rescue.”
Ieuan looked to the castle. “David isn’t here, but we must remember his reasoning: Roger has hostages, and he will hang them from the battlement before he surrenders.”
“So what are we going to do?” Humphrey asked.
Ieuan explained about the elimination of not only Plan A but Plan B as well, since that had involved David’s personal appearance at Beeston—not to beg, but to put forth an ultimatum. When he finished, Humphrey looked disgruntled. “I don’t see how this Plan C can ever work. You’re relying on a woman.”
Ieuan laughed. “Haven’t you noticed by now that these women from Avalon are cut from a different cloth than most of the women of your acquaintance?”
Bohun’s frown deepened. “They seem the same to me. Headstrong. Willful.”
“And courageous,” Edmund added lightly.
Bohun relented. “I’ll give you that. But they’re newcomers. Inexperienced. Because she’s a woman, Sophie would never have fought, but George is green too.”
“Why do you say that?” Callum said.
“I asked if he’d ever wielded a sword in battle. He told me no.”
Callum gave a low laugh. “You phrased the question in such a way that he could not answer yes.”
Ieuan himself didn’t understand what exactly being a cop in Chicago meant, but Callum had said the words with respect and with the implication that George knew how to handle himself under difficult circumstances. Chad Treadman might not be a man to trust, but according to Ted, Meg’s brother-in-law, he sought out the best and the most competent to work for him. That would be David’s saving grace in Avalon as well as theirs here.
Leaving the binoculars with the man who’d taken up the post of watching the castle, they made their way to the large pavilion Ieuan’s men had set up some distance from the main army. Roger Mortimer couldn’t mistake the army around his castle. He even knew that it was his brother who led it. Their plan, however, was predicated on the fact that he would be distracted by this sibling rivalry and so focused on the enemy at his front gate that he would not be paying attention to the one at his back.
That was where Sophie, George, and a handful of warriors, Constance, Ieuan, and Samuel among them, came in. Bohun wasn’t wrong to worry that so much was riding on the newcomer twenty-firsters, but in a way that was their strength too. Ieuan could think of a hundred things that could go wrong with their plan, but Sophie didn’t know about any of them firsthand. That was why she would have people with her who did know.
Ieuan pulled aside the tent flap and gestured Humphrey and Edmund inside. Most of the Avalonian equipment was displayed openly in the back of a cart, around which the tent had been put up, and she, George, and Mark were bent over what Mark called an ‘electronic tablet’. The presence of the equipment was the reason for the pavilion’s more distant location and its closed flaps. The fewer people who knew about the strange devices, the better.
Ieuan knew what electricity was by now, though he wasn’t so comfortable with what he was seeing that he could take it for granted like these twenty-firsters did. Still, he tried to be nonchalant and asked as he approached the trio, “Do you have what you need?”
Sophie made room for Ieuan, while Callum peered over Mark’s shoulder. The image on the screen in front of him showed Beeston Castle, and Mark was alternating between a picture of what it looked like now with what it looked like in Avalon, where it was a ruin of its proper self. The perspective was unique and startling, in that they were looking at it from somewhere above. With a swipe of his finger, Mark could spin the image to view it from all sides, like a cook walking around a tiered cake.
Ieuan looked away before the spinning image made him queasy.
“We’re just confirming the best path to take. If there are differences between what’s out there now and Avalon’s version, we want to know about them.” Sophie looked over at Humphrey. “What we do here can’t be accomplished without your part of the plan.”
Humphrey had barely glanced at the screen. Perhaps from his angle, it had been distorted or too dark to make anything out. Ieuan had noticed that many of his peers simply didn’t want to know what the twenty-firsters were up to. Warenne, in his refusal to accept a radio, had been that way. Bohun had adapted to the sophisticated communication equipment well enough, but electronic tablets were apparently a bridge too far.
Instead, Humphrey turned entirely away in order to clap Ieuan on the shoulder. “Edmund and I will leave you to it. We must get back to the lines and prepare the men for what we do tonight.”
Sophie took a step away from the table and engaged Humphrey again. “I am very sorry about William, but I truly believe he will be fine. He’s in the best of hands where he’s gone.”
Humphrey paused a pace from the door and turned back. “I appreciate your sympathy and your confidence.” He bent his head in a slight bow. “Godspeed.”
“To you as well.” Sophie’s curtsey was somewhat stilted, but in the last two weeks she’d learned to accomplish it with little fuss.
Mark and George bowed as well, though the blank expressions on their faces were a clear sign that they didn’t believe in bowing.
Ieuan, who didn’t have to bow to Humphrey, walked him to the door. His ten men were waiting by their horses.
“Can they really do it?” Humphrey said.
“You saw them, Humphrey.” Edmund’s tone was dry as he hauled himself into his saddle.
Ieuan nodded. “I gather you are ready too?”
“Of course. We’ve been ready.” Humphrey paused, as if debating whether or not to say what he was really thinking. Most of the time, Humphrey was as forthright as any man, and this time turned out to be no different. “You do realize that nobody has ever entered Beeston except through the main gate.”
“We do.” Ieuan opted not to tell him that Beeston had been taken by this method, just not for another four hundred years and during another civil war against a different king. Humphrey knew about Avalon, but they still didn’t talk about time travel in his presence. That really might be a bridge too far. Ieuan didn’t think William had known the truth either before today.
Bohun shook his head. “You are mad, all of you.” He was still shaking his head as he rode away, but Ieuan saw also that he was grinning.