The Last Quarrel (The Complete Edition) (50 page)

The women were delighted when the children’s cell was opened up and they were split into two groups so they could be with their children and yet not all crowded into one space. Bridgit looked at them enjoying their reunions and did not want to spoil their happiness, but she had no choice. She had to get them used to what was going to happen, and then she had to stop Sean and Seamus’ mad plan for escape. She sighed to herself. Why did people want to rule others? It was nothing but trouble, and she would have walked away from it all without regret were it not for the children.

“Listen to me!” she called, then had to shout again until they stopped and quietened down. They looked at her happily, trusting her, and she hated herself for what she had to say.

“Enjoy this while you can, because it will not last,” she told them grimly. “They intend to use our children against us as a threat. They will take the children away and, if we do not obey them at all times, they will hurt the children.”

Instantly there was an uproar, with children crying, women screaming and hugging them and protesting loudly. She walked among them, waving her arms, getting them quieter, calming them, until they were ready to listen once again.

“I cannot stop this. But I have done all I can to protect them. Nola and Riona and I will look after your children and keep them safe. And you will get to see them once every quarter-moon –”

“No!” one mother cried, clutching her child to her chest. “I’ll never let that happen!”

“Listen to me!” Bridgit roared, her voice lashing at them. “They wanted to
kill some of the children in front of you
, to show you how serious they were. I stopped that happening. This is the best I can do, the best anyone can do. I promise you I shall keep your children safe and I also promise that if Fallon does not come for us then I shall get us home. Somehow, some way. I know most of you don’t know me very well but I swear on my son’s life that I will protect you and get you home.”

She stared around and none could contradict the passion and power in her voice. She had even stilled the crying children.

“I am asking a great deal. But I ask you to trust me now. I will not let one child be harmed. You are all my family now and I shall keep you safe, no matter what it takes or costs me.”

She gazed around them and none had anything else to say. “Hold your children now and prepare for what is to come, when they go with me. Be brave, if not for yourselves, then for your children.”

She nodded to them, and to Riona and Nola. They would not like it but they would go along with it. She hated what she had been forced to do and felt the weight of the promises she had made. Yet she knew she would keep them, or die in the attempt.

With the women believing her, Bridgit turned her attention to the men. She could see they were still planning an escape and she worried about what that would mean. She wanted to get out but she didn’t trust any plan that had come from Sean and Seamus, who seemed to be leading the group. She had seen them arguing with an older, bearded man who looked far more sensible but, from the way the discussions usually went, Bridgit feared the brothers were getting their way. Nobody had ever accused the brothers as being the brains of anything before and she had hoped the other men would be cleverer than that, but it was not just Sean and Seamus. Their two big cousins from Killarney were also there, the ones Fallon had humiliated, and they were intimidating anyone who tried to stand up to Sean and Seamus. They had picked up a few allies: three shifty-looking men who looked like the type Fallon would run out of Baltimore if they wandered in. None of the other little groups of men had the numbers to stand up to them. And of course the older men and boys just went along with whatever was being said. She tried to speak to the men but they refused to listen to her. After having the women accept her as their leader and respect what she said, it was galling – especially as she had been the only one to go inside the city a second time and had seen that their chances were hopeless.

She waited until Sean and Seamus, their cousins and their other three cronies were taken outside to exercise and then called out to the remaining men. “Listen to me: your plan to escape will fail. They have a steel gate across the entrance to the city they can shut in an instant and giant crossbows that will slaughter us,” she called to them urgently.

“Why should we listen to you?” one man asked belligerently. “Who are you?”

“I’m the one who’s trying to save your stupid life!” Bridgit fired back.

An older man pushed through the others. “Shut up, Barry,” he said flatly. “Let’s listen to this lady.”

Bridgit could see the other men quieten down and smiled at the older man. “And what is your name?” she asked.

“I am Ahearn. Me and my crew were taken by these bastards ages ago. I have not seen a way out of what they plan for us, nor been able to plot a course to safety without fear it would sink us all. I’d like to hear what you say.”

“So you know how to sail: could you find your way back to Gaelland?” she asked.

“Aye. Probably. I’d head north for starters. I couldn’t get a sight on sun nor stars on the way here, but I know the night sky. Once we get close enough to Gaelland, I’d be able to find it,” the grizzled old sailor said.

“That’s good to know, but for now, we have to stop Sean and Seamus from leading everyone to their deaths. What do they plan to do?”

“Why should we tell you?” Another man stepped forwards to stand with the first dissenter. “Me and my brother Barry here were grabbed ages ago too. We’re not going to slave for these bastards.”

“You tell me because I’ve kept these women and children alive so far and I plan to keep them that way!” Bridgit told him. “There’s no need to throw our lives away on a foolish escape. When they sacked our village, they did not get many of the men. My husband Fallon will bring them for us. We just need to stay strong until then. He has the Duke of Lunster’s ship, and a priestess and a wizard helping him, and he will not rest until he has us back.”

“Wait!” A fourth man stood up. “Do you mean Sergeant Fallon of Baltimore?”

“That’s right! Do you know him?” Bridgit asked. The man looked slightly familiar but she could not place him.

“I’m Dermot. Used to farm just outside your village. I know Fallon. A good man with a shillelagh, but how can he hope to beat the Kottermanis? We’ve all seen what they can do. What good is a village sergeant with a shillelagh against that?”

Bridgit could feel the men, who had been swinging around to her side, turning against her. “He will come. But if he does not then I will get you out of here. I swear it,” she vowed. “Not now, for they are watching us too closely. We go when we have a real chance of escaping, not when we run out to our deaths.”

“Why did they take you out of here?” Ahearn asked.

“Because Prince Kemal respects me after I made three of his men bleed and kicked the nuts of another up into his throat,” Bridgit said, not really liking using such crude language but knowing they would appreciate it.

“More than anyone else here managed, despite what some have said,” Ahearn said.

“I nearly beat them once. I shall beat them again, by getting us all away,” Bridgit said. “You have to trust me. I went back inside the city and there is no escape from here. To one side is miles and miles of nothingness, a baking place of sand that will kill the children. On the city side they have guards, giant weapons and a gate that drops faster than you can blink. They will slaughter us. Think about it. They have just stolen us and know we have to be furious and hating them. Of course they will be watching us closely now. Only later, when they think us broken, will we have a chance to slip free. Just
trying
to get away is not good enough. We have to succeed.”

The men looked at each other doubtfully but Ahearn nodded to her.

“Bridgit here has been the first one to say anything sensible to me since I was taken,” he declared over the others, his voice rasping but strong. “I say we trust her and ignore those bone-headed brothers and their fat cousins. I have had just about enough of them throwing their weight around.”

There were a few other mutters but none voiced disagreement.

Bridgit was about to say more but Sean and Seamus, their cousins and the other trio of conspirators were led back in by the guards and all the Gaelish pretended to be doing nothing until the guards were back by the doorway, ignoring them.

“What is going on? It looks like there has been a village meeting without us.” Seamus was the first to speak.

“The others have decided to listen to reason. There is no escape from here,” Bridgit said immediately.

“What are you talking about?” Sean demanded. “Tomorrow, when we go out for exercise, we take out the guards and then unlock the cells and we all rush the gate, make it to the docks and grab a ship –”

“You’ll take care of a dozen guards, without any of them making a sound? And how will you get into the city when they drop a steel gate on you?” Bridgit asked.

“What do you know? Nothing!” Seamus spat. “Leave the thinking to your betters. We go tomorrow, so you’d better be ready to move with us.”

“We are not going,” Bridgit told him. “And neither is anyone else. You will die, and they will kill some of the children to make sure we never try it again. And I will not let that happen.”

“And how are you going to stop it?” Sean sneered.

“I will call over the guards and tell them what you are planning. And do you know how the Kottermanis break their slaves? They rape them. You will be bent over a barrel and buggered by half of the guards there.”

Sean and Seamus, in fact all of the men, recoiled at that.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Seamus accused her.

“I would do anything to protect these children. I will even pick out the guards that get to plunge you,” she told them furiously.

“She wouldn’t,” Sean said, but there was doubt in his voice.

“She won’t have to. Because none of us are going to help you,” Ahearn said in his deep voice. “Bridgit is right. An escape now is madness.”

“What, are you telling me all of you are under her spell?” Seamus growled.

“I don’t know about a spell but we have all listened,” Ahearn said, and there was a rumble of agreement.

The big cousins loomed up over Ahearn but took a step back when the rest of the men moved up to Ahearn’s shoulder. Bridgit could see Sean looking around, adding up the two sides and realizing he was badly outnumbered. Worse, his other three supporters stepped back, just leaving the four of them. As for Sean’s cousins, the big men looked to have shrunk in the face of a crowd who would not back down.

“Her husband was the one who got us into this!” Sean cried. “He went hunting the Kottermanis and left us helpless!”

“You were the one who betrayed us by falling asleep when you were supposed to be watching the harbor. If you’d kept your useless eyes open, we’d have all escaped!” Bridgit snapped.

As Sean and Seamus spluttered, Ahearn’s harsh laugh ended the debate. “We listen to Bridgit now,” he said. “Sit down.”

Sean and Seamus protested but their cousins obeyed Ahearn and, after a moment, they slunk away also.

Bridgit locked eyes with the men, who nodded at her. She didn’t let anything show on her face but, inside, she wondered how she was going to get them out of there if Fallon did not come.

The next day, she woke with a start, sensing eyes on her. She looked across at the men’s cell to see Sean and Seamus staring at her.

“We are escaping today,” Sean told her. “We don’t take orders from you and we won’t slave for the Kottermanis. We’ll take our chances elsewhere.”

“You will not!” Bridgit flared. “They will kill children as a punishment!”

“Then that will be your fault,” Seamus told her. “We look after ourselves only.”

They turned their backs on her and refused to speak, even when Ahearn threatened them. The commotion was enough to bring down the guards, who bashed on the cells with the butts of their whips.

“Quiet! Or there will be no exercise!” Erdogan shouted at them.

Bridgit looked across at Sean and Seamus and the sullen triumph on their faces, and despaired. She could see them running, being dragged back and punished – and then Gokmen singling out a couple of the younger children for death, to make sure none tried it again. In that moment she made her decision and stepped up to the bar.

“Erdogan, those two men there are planning an escape,” she said. Even though she despised the brothers, the words felt like ash in her mouth.

Erdogan looked at her, then across at Sean and Seamus and the guilt and horror written all over their faces, then he began shouting.

The shouting continued until Gokmen arrived, striding into the store past where a terrified Sean and Seamus were kneeling in chains, surrounded by guards.

“Listen to me,” he said in a deep rumble, his Gaelish thickly accented but understandable. “You are slaves of the Kotterman Empire. I am the slave master of Adana. You will work, you will do what we say, when we say or you will suffer.”

Bridgit closed her eyes at the thought of what was about to come. She had already told the other women what would happen to Sean and Seamus and explained how the children should be put in the middle of the cells where they could not see what happened, while the women sang, so the children could not hear either.

“I shall make an example of these two. And then I shall take all the children away.”

This statement sent up a wail of fear from the women that only stopped when the guards threatened them with whips.

“They shall be cared for by Bridgit and two other of your women. Unless you disobey our orders. Then one of them will die. Try to escape and one of them will die. Each quarter-moon you will be able to see them, to know that they live. Accept your fate or suffer like these two.” He gestured towards Sean and Seamus, who were dragged out of the store.

“Thank Aroaril we do not have to watch it,” Bridgit breathed.