Gemini Thunder (29 page)

The place was empty.

It was a trap.

Jack bellowed at his group to retreat back to the woods as fast as possible.

They were too late. A semicircle of very fierce-looking Viking warriors advanced toward them, cutting off their retreat. They’d been hiding in the trees, and Jack’s group had ridden underneath them to get at the new buildings.

The chaos behind them quickly calmed as Freyja doused all the fires with a flash storm. Twilight had forecast this. As the first three of Jack’s groups made their escapes for prearranged spots, the Viking ignored them and made for Jack’s group.

Which was quickly in big trouble as they were encircled.

Fifty men surrounded by at least two thousand. The lowlanders almost fought each other to be first to get at the throats of Jack’s men.

High in the clouds with Desmond, Twilight watched as the drama unfolded. Freyja would be around here somewhere as well, waiting for his move to try and save the surrounded mercenaries.

Dripping with the deluge and with their horses sliding around on the slushy ground, Jack’s men formed an outward-facing phalange and awaited their fate.

You won’t stop this slaughter with a fancy Norse rune, back-killer. I’ve been waiting for you. Make your move, foul pica boy, I have some interesting counters. Expose yourself to the Norse venefical queen so she can kill you.

Freyja’s words flashed across Twilight’s mind.

Twilight snapped off a salvo of thunderbolts down on the heads of the advancing Viking and moved his position before they hit the ground. Instantly the air where he and Desmond had been received Freyja’s reply. Playing fire and move, they both let more salvos go at each other’s last position. In the meantime the Viking reached Jack’s men, hacking and slashing at the horses. The melee would be short-lived with the lowlanders queuing up to take their turn.

‘It’s time to go,’ said Twilight. ‘We’ll take Jack with us, but the rest are doomed, I’m afraid.’

Suddenly they were back in the woods with a snarling Jack Cat, blood streaming down his face, slashing at the Viking who, moments before, had been about to deliver an axe toward his head.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Twilight as the renegade leader stopped in mid swing, the snarl giving way to a look of complete confusion. ‘We had to get out of there. I could only get one out, and it was getting tight.’

‘I would rather you put me back to die with my men. I could have taken a few more of those vermin Viking with me.’ ‘It’s too late, Jack, they’re all dead now. You will live to fight another day.’

‘Patch was in there,’ said Jack, sheathing his sword. ‘It was a trap. They were waiting for us.’ ‘I know,’ said Twilight. ‘I think we have a traitor in our midst.

It’s time to withdraw the Renegades back to Tintagel.’

‘Promise me one thing,’ said Jack softly. ‘When you find out who it is, you’ll let me have him.’ ‘It’s a promise, Jack. He’s all yours.’

‘I think Freyja has a weakness,’ Twilight said to Desmond as they again walked along the windswept beach later that day. ‘Every time there is an encounter between us, she feels the need to deliver a spitting message of hate directly to my mind.’

‘Can you trace it?’ Desmond quickly picked up the implication.

‘I’m not sure. It will need some work, but if an aura is traceable, a message stream should be as well.’

‘If you can, it could act as a pointer to where she is. It would negate her invisibility.’

‘I’ll start work on it right away. In the meantime I have another major concern.’

‘Oh?’

‘If we do have a traitor in the camp,’ he sat down on the same rock that Bede and he had used, ‘it must be someone at or near the seat of command. That’s the only way they could know what the strategy and whereabouts of Jack’s Renegades were. No one further down the scale has any knowledge of their movements and certainly wouldn’t know that they targeted that new settlement.’

‘Could be somebody actually in the Renegades,’ offered Desmond. ‘Someone close to Jack, like Arrow or Bullwhip.’

Twilight turned and pointed to the dark, looming structure of Tintagel Castle on the skyline.

‘Or someone in there,’ he said. ‘And that is my major concern.’

‘Avalon,’ breathed Desmond.

‘Precisely. If the traitor is close to or a part of the seat of command and is in the employ of Freyja or the Viking, they could find out the whereabouts of my family and Guinevere. That would be the big prize for Freyja. The effects of her knowing their whereabouts are too devastating to contemplate.’

‘Are you going to move them from Avalon?’

‘I have no choice. I thought I would ask the king if they could live with Elswith and the new baby and her brothers in Wales until the Viking have been defeated or I’m sure that Avalon hasn’t been discovered. If they go to Wales, only Alfred, you, and I would know of their whereabouts.’

‘It’s a good place to put them,’ said Desmond. ‘Far away from all the conflict. Avalon is too close.’

‘Another problem. If this traitor is close to the seat of power, he may know of the plans being made for the big battle in the spring. Numbers, training, formations, weaponry, all that military stuff. Guthrum would give his horned helmet and all his amulets to know that. The traitor could also get close to King Alfred. He, assuming it’s a male, could be an assassin. That would put an end to the battle before it started. The soldiers have rallied here to Alfred; he is their talisman and figurehead. It’s as I said to Jack Cat, there are two things this army relies upon—the money and the king. Without either the army and its cause would collapse.’

‘We must end this treachery quickly. Any ideas how we can smoke him out?’

‘Yes,’ said the astounder obliquely, getting up from the rock.

On Twilight’s instructions, King Alfred called all his senior people together in the great hall of Tintagel Castle. This included a number of monks including Bede, Jack Cat, Arrow, and Bullwhip from the Renegades, Baron de Lyones, Edward de Gaini, Gode, William Loy, Sam Southee and several troop captains, Hywel and Classen, Ike Penbarrow, Desmond and Twilight.

‘We are convinced,’ the king said, addressing them, ‘there is a traitor among us due to the events at the last raid on Combe Castle. We lost fifty good men because the enemy laid a trap. That trap would not have been possible without them knowing our plans. The traitor who revealed our plans would have to come from someone high up. No one else could have known what we were going to do. That is why you are all here . . . one of you is the traitor.’

He paused. Everyone shuffled their feet and began to surreptitiously eye the person next to them.

‘Some of you may know that the Wessex veneficus,’ he pointed to Twilight, ‘can read minds. He assures me that no mortal can hide or disguise their thoughts and actions from him when he does this. We have therefore decided to let him read all your minds in order to discover the traitor.’

There was some muttering and gesticulating.

‘If any of you object to this, we will take it as a sign of your guilt, and you will be hanged immediately.’

There was a complete and very sudden silence.

The king spoke again, pointing to de Gaini.

‘Edward has volunteered to be the first one.’

Twilight stepped forward. ‘It will only take a few moments, and you will not feel anything. Neither will there be any lasting damage . . . unless, of course, you are the traitor.’ He gripped de Gaini by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. ‘Thank you, Edward, you’re clear.’ He went through the same process with the baron, Gode,

Desmond, Hywel and Classen, then Bede and the monks. They were all clear. Jack, Bullwhip, and Arrow came forward, then William Loy.

The veteran fighter looked nervous; a tic had started under a large, curved scar by his right eye. And no wonder. His mind had Freyja’s presence all over it. Twilight stepped back. ‘We haven’t met before, William, have we?’ he said softly. ‘No,’ said Loy.

‘Why did you do it?’ Loy’s hand streaked for his sword. Twilight froze him on the spot. He turned to the king.

‘Here is your traitor. He was in the employ of Freyja. He can hear what we say but cannot move.’ Alfred walked up to the immobile veteran fighter and looked carefully at his scarred, immovable face.

‘Edward?’ he said, turning to his very surprised-looking battle leader. ‘This man was your adjutant?’

Edward de Gaini dropped to one knee and said nothing. He had quickly promoted Loy to a position that was a mere heartbeat away from the king. It could have cost the king his life; as it was, it could now cost his own life if Alfred saw fit to punish him. Realizing the implications of what was taking place with her husband, Gode suddenly burst into tears.

‘My liege,’ said de Gaini, looking up. The anguish on his face was palpable. ‘I had no idea. This man slipped through the net in the rush to recruit and train an army. His battle experiences were just what we needed.’

Alfred looked down at de Gaini for a long moment as if deciding what to do, and then he knelt down beside his distressed battle leader and put his arms on his shoulders.

‘Edward, I have never doubted you or your loyalty,’ he said softly. ‘We must learn from this episode.’ He raised de Gaini to his feet. ‘Go to your lovely wife. She is distressed.’

He turned to Twilight.

‘We will hang this man immediately.’

‘No!’

Everyone turned to the cry. It was Jack Cat. Striding purposefully to the front, he jabbed a blunt forefinger at Twilight.

‘You promised him to me,’ he spat venomously.

‘I did and with the king’s permission you shall have him.’

Jack turned to Alfred. ‘This traitor cost me fifty good men and a fine old comrade,’ he said. ‘With your permission, my liege, I would like to avenge their deaths in a fight to the death with this man.’

The king raised an eyebrow toward Twilight and then the Baron de Lyones and receiving nods of affirmation looked at Jack.

‘You realize that if you lose I will be forced to let him go.’

‘You won’t be letting him go,’ said Jack.

‘So be it,’ said Alfred. ‘Give them room.’

Everyone backed away, clearing a large space in the centre of the hall. On a signal from the king Twilight released Loy. This time when he went for his sword he was allowed to draw it.

Both men went instantly into a fighting crouch position, and each had a broadsword in one hand and a long dagger in the other. Although Jack wanted to kill this man more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life before, including avenging the death of his sister, he was too professional to let that desire inform his fighting. This Loy was a battle-hardened veteran and not to be taken lightly. For his part, Loy knew that killing Jack would save his life and get him out of this mess. Circling warily, they both feinted several times with their weapons until Loy lunged with his sword at Jack’s unprotected stomach. Turning aside at the last moment, Jack stabbed downward with his dagger, a blow that Loy parried. They broke apart, the scars on Loy’s face standing out like white crescents. Then Loy attacked with slashing sword and dagger strokes, driving Jack back to a large round pillar. Sparks flew as Loy’s sword strokes met the stone, but that was all they met. Feinting one side of the pillar with his dagger, Jack quickly sprang around the other and slashed at Loy’s head, but the veteran fighter was equally as quick and parried the move. Both of them began to breathe heavily as they moved out to the open space again. As they came together in a flurry of blows, a cheer went up from Jack’s comrades as Loy’s left ear parted company with his head.

‘That’s for Patch,’ Jack cried, grinning mirthlessly. Undeterred by the blood streaming down his face, Loy attacked again. As they came together with their weapons locked, Loy head-butted Jack violently, sending him to the ground on his back. Dazed, Jack struggled to get to his feet as Loy’s sword arced across his body, opening up a wound across his chest and shoulder. With blood spurting from the gaping wound and with a broken nose smashed back against his face from the butt, the renegade leader was in danger of losing. As Loy pressed home his advantage with a small smile of satisfaction playing on his bloodied face, Jack ducked inside a mighty slash and came up under the overreaching veteran. Striking upward, his long, thin dagger sank up to the hilt in the man’s heart. As the life ebbed out of Loy, Jack’s battered face was right in front of the dying veteran. He twisted the knife deeper with a final grunt and watched closely as the light faded from Loy’s eyes.

‘And that’s for Baby Giant and all the others,’ he grunted.

With a final sigh and a clattering of dropped weapons, William Loy fell to the floor, dead.

Even the king joined in the cheering.

When Twilight had opened up the mind of William Loy and discovered the presence of Freyja, the next search was to see if there was any sign of Rawnie, his children, or anything that vaguely pointed to the movement and light of Avalon, Silura, or the lepers. He’d been relieved to find no traces at all of any of it but still decided to leave them with Elswith in Wales. He had also told Alfred that Loy could have had accomplices within the now rapidly swelling ranks, and it was decided to do quick scans of all the incoming recruits who had recently arrived at Tintagel Castle. That took Twilight two days, and nothing untoward was found in any of them.