Chapter 9

 

26 August 1288

Montgomery Castle

 

Anna

 

“We’re going to keep this simple,” Anna said. “I’ll disable the guard who opens this door while you use my knife to skewer the one behind him.”

“And the third?” The amusement in Edmund’s voice was unmistakable, but Anna was deadly serious.

“I don’t know,” Anna said. “I figure we’ll solve that problem once we’re in the anteroom.”

Edmund laughed. “Well that’s honest, anyway. I was beginning to think that there was some truth to the rumors.”

“What rumors?” Anna said, though she thought she might know.

“That you play Morgana to your brother’s Arthur.”

Anna grimaced with annoyance. “I hate that.”

“As well you might,” Maud said, “if it weren’t true.”

“It isn’t!” Anna gestured to Cadell, who remained in the far corner behind the bed with Hugh. “And what about him? Do you think he’s David’s son?”

Edmund started. “What did you say?”

Anna reddened. “Sorry. I heard a hateful story about King Arthur and his sister that originated in France. It’s a new one.” Or has it not been written yet? Anna couldn’t remember. And maybe in this universe, it had never been written.

Movement came from the guardroom. Anna kilted her skirt to give her legs more freedom and took her place to the right of the door, so she would be on the guard’s weaker, left side (provided he was right handed—likely, but not guaranteed by any means). Edmund stood ten feet from the door, his hands at his sides, in an unthreatening stance. The door swung open, and a serving woman entered the room with a tray of food.

A guard followed close behind. He stood on the threshold, surveying the room; then took a second step, putting him a foot and a half inside the door. “Where’s—”

Before he could properly formulate his question, Anna thrust her right foot at the side of his left knee. His leg collapsed, dropping him to his hands and knees. He was bigger and heavier than Anna had hoped, and though his left knee could have been broken he came back up, twisting to the left so he could see her. Her elbow met his temple, however, and though she hadn’t expected that she could hit him hard enough to put him down, she must have hit him just right because he went down anyway.

To his credit, Edmund didn’t hesitate or stay to watch. The instant the guard hit the floor, he leapt over him and was out the door. By the time Anna had subdued the first guard and was ready to follow Edmund into the guardroom, Edmund had driven her knife to the hilt in the second guard’s chest. He’d been slow to draw his sword. His surprise at this sudden attack still showed on his face in death.

Maud, for her part, had clapped a hand around the maidservant’s mouth to stop her from screaming. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just want our freedom,” she said, in Welsh.

The woman nodded and subsided. Carefully, Maud removed her hand.

“Where’s the third guard?” Anna asked Edmund.

“Not here. Perhaps he went to the latrine?” he said. “His absence is a gift that we must use.”

Anna crouched before Cadell, terrified that he was terrified, and that she’d scarred him for life. Spending the rest of his life in a cage in Bristol Castle, however, would have been far worse than witnessing his mother subdue their captors. Maud had blocked the boys’ view of Anna’s attack with her skirts, but hearing it may have been bad enough.

Cadell pulled out his wooden sword and held it with both hands in front of him. Anna touched the tip with one finger. “You okay?”

Eyes wide, Cadell nodded.

“Do you feel better with this in your hands?”

Another nod.

Anna picked him up and took him with her into the guardroom. Maud followed, Hugh’s hand in hers.

“Come!” Edmund grabbed a lantern from the guardroom table and led the way out of the room and down the stairwell. Anna tried to move quietly, but it was difficult to keep her feet from thudding on the stone stairway with Cadell on her hip. Edmund shot a glance back at her when he reached the next floor down. The sound of the evening meal echoed up the stairwell from the hall, one floor below.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to go down those stairs. Edmund took them into the corridor and along it to the far end. He opened a narrow door, which didn’t lead onto the battlements as Anna had supposed, but into another stairwell. She wanted to ask where they were going, but decided that she wouldn’t break the silence. Besides, a word from her might encourage Cadell to speak. Both he and Hugh had been far too quiet for far too long. Normally, Cadell talked nonstop from waking to bedtime, and from her short exposure to Hugh, the same could be said of him.

The stairs led down and kept on going. Blindly, Anna and Maud followed with their boys. At one point, Hugh started to ask how much farther they had to walk, his child’s voice echoing among the stones, but Maud shushed him.

“It’s all right, Maud,” Edmund said. “My brothers and I played down here many times. We could shout, and no one would hear us.”

“Where do the stairs lead?” Anna said.

“Out,” Edmund said, as he reached a door at the bottom of the steps.

He pushed it open. At his appearance, the lone guard in the room shot to his feet. “My lord!”

“Hello, John. I’m leaving now. Will you raise the alarm when I’ve gone, or do I have to kill you?”

Anna knew what Bevyn would have advised her brother to do in this situation—kill him—accompanied by his characteristic growl. David had changed so much in the last few years, she didn’t know if he would have heeded Bevyn or not.

“M-m-my lord!” John said. “I never wanted any part of thi—”

“No doubt,” Edmund said, in that dry tone of his, “but you are part of it. If I let you live, I expect you to lie through your teeth and deny we came this way.”

“Yes, my lord!” John said.

Anna hoped John wouldn’t betray Edmund, whom he appeared to respect. At the same time, what did it matter? The castellan would send men after them once he discovered them missing, regardless of how they’d escaped. As long as John didn’t run to the hall immediately and report their absence, they had a good head start. She longed to be free with Cadell and heading west.

“Have a look outside. We need to know if anyone is on the other side of this door.” Edmund pointed to the exterior door behind the guard. “And remember, I have a knife in your back and a Welsh witch with me.”

Thanks for that. Anna caught the wide-eyed look John sent her, and she shot back a daggered one, first at him, and then at Edmund’s back, which he, of course, didn’t see. John lifted the bar, his fingers fumbling not to drop it, and pushed open the door.

The sky had darkened in the minutes since they’d left their prison. The sun had fallen behind the hills to the west and left this part of the castle wall in shadow.

“I see no one,” John said.

“We were never here,” Edmund said.

“Yes, my lord,” John said, and then added, “Good luck!”

They’d certainly had good luck up until then, though Bevyn might have argued that she’d made her own luck. Together with Maud, Hugh, and Edmund, Anna and Cadell slipped out the door. They perched on the edge of the grassy slope that descended fifty yards at a steep angle to a little valley below their feet, and then up again to a stand of trees directly opposite their position.

Following Edmund, Anna slipped and skidded down the hill, Cadell still on her hip. When she reached the bottom, she shifted him to ride piggy-back and took off up the further hill at a crouching run. Anna would have put Cadell down, but he might have tripped and she couldn’t have him crying.

All the while, she kept her ears open for a shout from the battlements. Her footsteps pounded dully on the soft earth, but no shout came from above them. Maud and Hugh kept pace beside her, with Maud’s breath coming in airless gasps by the time they reached the trees.

They entered the darkness of the woods. Anna slowed to catch her breath and rested a hand against the rough bark of a pine tree. Edmund directed a wry smile at her. “Remind me in future that a successful attempt to escape my own castle is a good way to discover holes in my defenses and poor discipline among the garrison.”

“You may dislike it in principle, but I’m thanking the Lord for it,” Maud said, hugging Hugh to her. “What now?”

Anna set Cadell on his feet. “We start walking. And then I need a horse.”

“You need a horse?” Edmund headed further into the woods with long strides that Anna and Cadell struggled to keep up with. “And what of us?”

“You are Norman.” Anna picked up Cadell again in order to trot beside Edmund. Maud followed suit. “Surely you don’t want to come all the way to Aber Castle with me?”

“My husband is a hunted man,” Maud said, gasping again between her words. “My son is in the care of your brother. Where else would I want to be?”

“We should not go to Aber, but south, to Caerphilly, and speak with your father, the king,” Edmund said.

“Papa should already know about the planned attacks in the south. By the time we find him to warn him what Clare intends for the north, it will be too late,” Anna said. “I’m going to Aber.”

“As am I!” Maud said.

Edmund slowed slightly, glancing from one woman to the other. Even in the dim light of the forest, amusement showed plain in his face. “Then I am your guest as well, my princess. I hope you have a plan for getting us there in one piece.”