The Bloody Quarrel (The Complete Edition) (11 page)

“Get the wounded over to Sister Rosaleen. And reload. There are supposed to be more of them than this,” Fallon shouted, then hawked and spat, still trying to clear the tang of blood out of his mouth.

He patted Bran on the back and moved among the other guards, who were looking either dazed or ecstatic after what they had been through. The jubilant ones he quickly tried to calm down by making them reload crossbows and watch the rooftops. The shocked ones were different: he quickly spoke to them, offering them a pat on the back or quick jest, anything to get their minds off what they had been through.

He left Rosaleen looking after the wounded, although two of these had died before she could get to them and the rest, although healed, were too weak to do anything else for days.

The rest of the men were formed back into their companies and they watched as Padraig used his magic to put out the fire they had started. Then all turned to gaze at the Guildhouse.

“Do we go in there or check the other side of the square first?” Gallagher asked.

Fallon hesitated. Blood was drying black on the surcoats, hands and faces of most of his guardsmen, while he could feel it flaking off his skin every time he moved. “We check that first,” he decided. There was something about the Guildhouse that did not feel right.

“Who do you want to send?” Gallagher asked.

Fallon glanced back at the men and saw their nervousness. The guardsmen had just gone through a nasty fight, and the villagers remembered the last time they had been inside the Guildhouse. Time to make sure they would follow him anywhere, even to stop Aidan.

“I’ll do it,” Fallon said, hefting his crossbow.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Devlin said immediately.

“Even so.” Fallon grinned at them and strode forwards, approaching one of the windows from the side. He eased under the first window, keeping below the windowsill, aiming for the second. If there were anyone inside, then surely they would be watching the windows at the edges. He would, if he were inside.

There was still a faint stink of smoke and rotten flesh coming out of the building, while its torn and ragged window openings were a stark reminder of the earlier battle there. He crouched low, feeling his heart pound, telling himself it would surely be empty.

Then he pushed himself up, planning to duck back down again, quick as a weasel, once he had seen inside.

As he reared up, a ragged thief appeared right in front of him, directly on the other side of the window, a long knife in his hand, already bringing the blade down towards his face.

Prince Kemal looked out over the water and sighed. Then he turned to look at his family, his wife Feray and sons Asil and Orhan, and smiled.

“What is it, my Lord?” his wife asked, her voice gentle and musical.

Kemal did not need to glance around to see if anyone was listening. His people knew better than to disturb his privacy. They were alone on the high stern deck, looking out over the endless ocean that divided Kotterman from Gaelland.

“I wonder whether we will like it there,” he said. Many men, in fact most men, would not confide in their wives, let alone discuss matters of great import with them. But Feray was not an ordinary woman. He had married her because it solidified his father’s grip on a vital part of the Empire, but he had swiftly fallen in love with her anyway. Their sons were eight and six summers of age and another source of joy to him, although they were less interested in what he was saying and more curious about a pair of dolphins that were swimming alongside the ship.

“How can we not? We will be representing your father and the great Empire of Kotterman, bringing a new province into its boundaries for the first time in one hundred years,” she said.

He chuckled. “I know what we are supposed to do. I question why.”

She cocked her head on one side. “Tell me, my Lord.”

Kemal smiled and enfolded her in his arms. “Do you know why I have taken no other woman?” he asked. “Although my brothers believe an oath to Aroaril is no oath at all?”

“Because you know I would remove your manhood with a rusty knife?” she suggested with a grin.

“Well, that also. But the real reason is I could never find anyone with half as much sense as you. This business with Gaelland concerns me deeply. When my forefathers began to expand our Empire, they could not stop once they had started, because there were always enemies across the border who wanted our riches, as well as allies who wanted our trade. But we have no border with Gaelland and it is a huge distance from my father. And their King is a strange man. We talk to him because we must but he reminds me of a shark. It looks like he is smiling all the time, he even appears foolish on occasion, but then you catch sight of his eyes and you realize there is something evil there.”

Feray shuddered a little. “But surely we have nothing to fear from him? There are too few of them and they are too poor to cause us concern.”

“That is what my father thinks. But all he has done is read the reports on this King Aidan. He has never met the man. Although that is one thing about Gaelland coming under the Kotterman Empire. If we remove Aidan from the throne, it will actually help the people.”

“Do you believe that?”

He smiled. “More than that, I know it to be true. Our agents have been meeting with people from the King’s eldest son, Prince Cavan. Many of the nobles would like to see the end of Aidan’s rule and the Crown Prince assures our agents they would welcome Kottermani rule if their positions are preserved and the lives of their people improved. Obviously I will need to meet with this Cavan myself, as well as the nobles he claims support him. It will influence my talks with King Aidan, although it is up to me to make my father’s dream come true.”

“What are you going to do, my love?”

Kemal kissed her on the head. “What I must. I can never forget that I have three brothers, all of whom would love to sit on the Elephant Throne one day. As you say, Gaelland is the first new province to be brought into the Empire since my great-great-grandfather’s time. My father lusts more for it than he has for any woman. He feels the touch of Aroaril on his shoulder and wants to leave his mark on the history scrolls. If I do not do this, then he will find another who will.”

Her arms tightened around him. “I do not care if you are the Emperor or just a man. I would still be with you,” she said against his chest.

He chuckled. “Let us never put that to the test!”

He might have said more, but his sons came running over then, the dolphins forgotten, wanting to show him how they had been learning the sword, brandishing their wooden practice blades.

“Come then, let us see how good you are!” Kemal challenged them, winking at his wife’s indulgent smile as he defended himself against the children.

Asil, the older of the two, was slim and fast, while Orhan was younger but already stocky and solid through the chest and shoulders, and his blows had the same power as his older brother’s, albeit without the speed.

Kemal fended the two of them off easily, his footing sure and quick, making them bump into each other and occasionally using his wooden sword to tap one of them, all the while telling them what to do better.

“Enough!” he cried finally, as Orhan abandoned his sword and grabbed him around the leg. “I am defeated by you!”

“Really, Baba?” Orhan asked, looking up at his father in delight.

“No!” Kemal laughed, grabbing them both in his arms.

Their laughter echoed across the ship as Feray called down to servants for refreshments to be brought up.

“What are you really concerned about, my husband?” she asked, while their sons sat and ate. “We have planned and prepared for this day, even learning their strange language.”

Kemal grimaced. “Perhaps it is just the thought of living there for several years, away from the sun.”

She chuckled. “Given you spend most of your time inside, that is unlikely to be what’s troubling you.”

He winked at her. “It is nothing I can place my finger on. I was led to believe the people were mere sheep, ruled by an evil shepherd. Yet there are some with spirit there. I have a strange feeling about what we shall find.”

“Then it is lucky you have me to guide you,” she told him. “Who are the ones with spirit you have found? The slaves you took?”

“The same,” he said. “I left Gokmen to watch over their leader, a woman, but I wonder if the roles will be reversed by the time we return.”

*

“The people talk of nothing but how you defied the Kottermanis and saved the women,” Ahearn said. “They see you as a real leader.”

“Well, I still need to lead them out of here. How strong are your chains?” Bridgit asked.

“Steel, tethered to a steel bolt that is sunk into stone,” Ahearn warned. It was the day when the Gaelish could visit the children and Bridgit was back thinking of escape.

“What if you used lamb fat to grease it and tried to pull it out? You can’t do it in one night but maybe over a quarter moon—” Bridgit suggested, then sighed. The men night be able to do it but how could the women hope to pull a bolt out of stone? And trying to break a chain with an axe or a hammer would take too long and make too much noise.

“Maybe we can get the keys from whoever is guarding you.”

“And how will you do that? Your female wiles?” Ahearn asked with a smile, which took any sting from the words.

Bridgit did not smile back. “We shall have the knives and swords or the guards here. I will cut their bloody throats if I have to,” she said.

Ahearn blinked. “Are you sure you can do that?”

Bridgit glared at him. “I know once we step outside those doors, we must succeed or they will kill some of these children. They will have to kill me first and, believe me, I am not ready to die yet.”

She remembered what it had felt like to fight the Kottermanis in Baltimore and did not shy away from what she might have to do. If it came down to it, stabbing a man she had never met to save her unborn child and the children she had come to love had already been an easy choice. Something of that must have shown in her face, for Ahearn gave a wry chuckle.

“I think we did the right thing when we decided to listen to you, although those brothers from your village may not agree.”

Bridgit shuddered at the thought. “Was the end quick for them?” she asked, not wanting to know but needing to.

“Well, if you call a day and a half quick. They weren’t making much noise at the end,” Ahearn said. “Like you with the children, it told us all the stakes we are fighting for. We know if we get captured again, some of us will pay the same price. I know I’ll fight until my last breath to avoid that and so will most of the others.”

Bridgit nodded. “We have perhaps half a moon before they send us to the block and scatter everyone across their Empire. We have to come up with a plan by then.”

Ahearn smiled. “What are you going to do when you get us back to Gaelland?” he asked.

Bridgit had been watching the children play but his words snapped her head around. “What do you mean?”

Ahearn shrugged. “Just that it will be hard to go back to merely being a wife and a mother after you became our leader here. We all trust you with our lives. I can’t speak for the others but that is not something I would do lightly. Aroaril, I wouldn’t even do it for one of the nobles!”

He moved away, leaving Bridgit to think about that. Her mind had been clear. Get back to Fallon and Kerrin and get back to the way things were. But now she realized things would never quite be the same. She was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

*

“When are we going to escape? Look at what they are doing to us!” One of the women showed her blistered hands and her back, where the welts from a whip stood out red against her pale skin.

“You have to have patience. We cannot just walk out of here,” Bridgit said calmly.

But the group of women were beyond calm. “It is easy for you. You sit here in the shade, playing with the little ones, while we sweat and bake out in the fields,” another woman snarled. “We hardly get to see our children. And we are no closer to getting out.”

Bridgit could feel the mood of the women and knew pleading for understanding was not going to work here. Besides, she had had enough of it. Every group of parents coming in had the same thing to say. She felt sorry for what they were going through but the alternative was far worse.

“Listen now!” she snapped. “If you want, I can go to Gokmen and tell him this is not good enough. Then he will kill the children he thinks are too young to make good slaves and put the rest of us on the block, send us all over their empire. You’ll never see another Gaelish face again, nor speak your own language. And you know what happens to those who anger them. You all saw what happened to Sean and Seamus. Do you want that to be you?”

Her anger lashed at them and they wilted before her.

“But it is taking so long!” one of them muttered.

“Did you think we would walk out of here? You are chained up every night and even these children have armed guards. The Kottermanis are not fools. They know we do not want to be here. Only if they think us beaten will they relax. You want to get out of here faster? Stop complaining!”

She glared around at them and they did not meet her eyes. She softened her tone then. “I will try to get you all brought here at once. Then we can break out. I swear I will not see you sold off and I will not leave one of you here or I will die in the attempt. If that is not good enough for you, then say it now, so I can point you out to Gokmen and he can take you away to some Aroaril-forsaken spot in the desert to work as a slave there.”

They were not happy but they were no longer complaining, at least. Their feelings did not worry her, which was strange. A few moons ago she would have been up all night worrying about what people thought about her. Now she did not have time for such silliness.

*

“Faster now! Come on, an orange to the one who does the best!” Bridgit clapped her hands.

She loved being with the younger children but, for once, she was working with the older ones, not one of them under fourteen summers, although none of them were over sixteen summers either.

The parents had gone after a long day of visits and quiet talks and Nola and Riona were with the younger children, trying to comfort them and calm them down. Bridgit wanted to be in there as well, but this was more important.

She had brought several lengths of fabric at the market on yet another visit with Ely and had now fashioned it not into replacement clothes but instead into several long slings.

None of the village children used crossbows but almost all of them had used slings before. They were a handy way of adding some extra food to the table, especially in autumn, when you wanted to save the salted meat and the smoked fish for when the snows came and dinner became truly hard to find.

She had seen the older children hit a running rabbit at twenty paces, or bring down a pigeon on the wing, and decided that sort of skill might be very useful indeed when it came time to break out.

Stones were hard to find but there were a few loose tiles around the house, as well as cracked parts, and these had yielded a small stock of missiles. Naturally she did not want any of the guards to see what they were up to but that was easy enough. After all, a strip of fabric became a cloth belt in a moment, while a stone was suspicious in the hand but innocent when lying in a quiet corner.

She put them through their paces, having them take turns to send a stone whistling into one of the children’s mattresses. It made little sound but she was reassured to see how hard and fast they hit the target. The stones they were using did not look like much but they were the size of the top joint of her thumb and one of those in the head was going to make any Kottermani far less likely to trouble them.

“Good work. Listen now, make sure you keep practicing,” she told them.

They smiled at her and she told them to go and hide the slings, then cuddle their younger brothers and sisters.

She went to join them herself when she ran into Ely. She felt guilty, caught out, as she did so, although there was no reason to be. Ely had not done anything suspicious since they had taken her into their confidence.

“Are you sure of this?” Ely whispered. “We are risking everything by trying to escape. We could stay here you know. The Kottermanis will bring back more of your people and you will have this job for many summers to come. I can stay here and work with you. It is not so bad.”

Bridgit pulled away slightly. “We cannot stay here. My friends have children. Do you think they would stay to see them sold off into slavery? I have a family back home. I must return to them. It is natural to feel fear and to doubt. But you have to believe to get things done. And I believe we can make it home.” She paused for a moment, amazed those words had come out of her mouth. Just a moon ago she could not have said such a thing and meant it.