Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (10 page)

Arthur listened while sucking on his finger,
as he often did when he wasn’t entirely sure of what was happening.
When a woman introduced Arthur to her seventh son, who was the same
age, David could tell that both he and Arthur were making real
progress. The two boys eyed each other warily. But then Arthur took
his forefinger from his mouth and squirmed to be put down, which
meant that he’d decided the little boy might be a viable
playmate.

An hour later, Ieuan, Carew, and Goronwy
joined David by the fireside, and a small group gathered to discuss
the state of politics in Wales. David found his breath easing out
in relief. He made mistakes all the time, but some were
correctable.

The door to the great hall swung open.
“Sire!”

David turned to look. He didn’t recognize
the messenger, but Dad, who’d been sitting at the central seat on
the dais, rose to his feet. The messenger strode down the hall
towards him, and David drifted along in his wake. If Marty hadn’t
half killed the steward, the messenger would never have been
allowed to get this far, and David had been remiss in not
appointing a replacement immediately. News, whether good or bad,
should have gone through Alan to David and should not be shouted to
the whole castle without either Dad or David knowing the gist of it
first.

“
I will speak to the guards
at the gate.” Goronwy had come with David and spoke low in his ear.
“Who should replace Alan?”

“
I trust your judgment,”
David said. “You, certainly, for the time that we’re here if it
pleases you, but I’ll need another soon. Better to choose him
now.”

“
I’ll see to it after we
hear what the messenger has to say,” Goronwy said.

David picked up the pace, striding towards
Dad and the newcomer, who stopped a few feet from the dais and
bowed.

“
What is it?” Dad
said.

“
My lord! Sire!” The
messenger looked from David to Dad and back again, and then went
down on one knee, which was probably the best choice he could have
made. “I bring news from the west. Harlech is under siege, and
Carndochen and Cymer have fallen.”

David cursed under his breath. Stunned
whispers that rose to anxious chatter swept around the hall. David
spun around and raised his hand, calling for his people’s attention
yet again. As everyone had their eyes riveted on what was happening
at the front of the hall, it took only a few seconds before the
crowd quieted enough for David to speak.

But then his father came around the table to
stand beside him, and David bent his head, gesturing that he should
take the floor. It was David’s castle, but Dad was the King of
Wales.

“
We’ve had several shocks
today, but this isn’t one of them,” Dad said. “Dafydd and I have
been watching this situation closely and have already developed a
plan to respond.” Dad canted his head to David. “As of this moment,
we are at war.”

David nodded. “All men-at-arms should see
their captains immediately. We will send out a general call for
every man who can hold a spear or shoot an arrow, and for the
rest—” He swept his gaze around the hall, looking at the old, the
children, and the women, “—you should remain here where you will be
safe.”

As David had hoped, this little speech both
settled the people down and brought those who should be moving to
their feet. He placed a hand on the messenger’s shoulder. “Come
with me.”

“
Yes, my lord.” The
messenger swallowed hard. David hadn’t meant anything by the words
and hadn’t thought his tone was particularly harsh, but perhaps the
man was realizing for the first time that he’d done something
wrong.

“
Father?” David
said.

“
Indeed.” Dad headed for
the door.

David looked questioningly at Lili and
Bronwen. If they were going to build this new world order, women
needed to have a say in war as well as peace.

Lili and Bronwen looked at each other,
however, and then Bronwen said, “We’re good.”

“
We’ve got seven kids to
care for between the two of us, and I trust you to do whatever
needs doing.” Lili waved a hand at her husband.

David eyed Lili carefully. Her bow was
upstairs in their chamber, a stone’s throw away. “Really?”

“
You can always ask us if
you need our help,” Bronwen said. “And we’ll be happy to second
guess you later if you like.”

David laughed, and Ieuan kissed the top of
his wife’s head. They departed, moving down the south corridor
towards Dad’s office with a phalanx of men. Samuel fell in beside
Justin, and the two men nodded at each other. Samuel had been
Callum’s eyes and ears in Shrewsbury since before Callum’s exile in
the modern world. Like Carew, he’d come to Rhuddlan to consult with
David—and instead found himself in the middle of a war.

David honestly was glad to think about
something else besides the loss of Mom and Anna. Once in the
receiving room, David, his father, and their advisors formed a
half-circle around the messenger, who shifted from foot to foot,
gazing from one lord to another. He hadn’t often seen so much
authority gathered in one place.

Dad said, “Speak.”

The messenger cleared his throat and spoke
as if reciting word for word what he’d been told. “I bring news
from Harlech. Madog ap Llywelyn is attempting to reclaim
Meirionnydd for himself, with the help of Rhys and Maredudd, sons
of Lord Rhys ap Maredudd. Overnight, Madog took the castles at
Cymer and Carndochen, and he besieges Harlech even now. I fled just
ahead of them.”

“
Evan sent you?” Carew
said.

The messenger bowed his head. “Yes, my
lord.”

The captains of
David’s
teulu
had a
distressing habit of becoming so good at their jobs that David was
forced to elevate them to ever higher positions of authority. Which
then required David to find new captains. After becoming King of
England, David had very reluctantly parted with Evan, who’d become
his captain after David lost Ieuan to Bronwen. Evan’s change of
position wasn’t because he had in any way failed in his post, but
because he’d proved to be capable of far more. Dad and David needed
men they could trust. Evan was one of them, and David’s father had
given him command of Harlech and its forces.

Since Evan’s departure to Harlech, David had
promoted a half-Norman/half-Saxon Englishman named Justin to be his
new captain. Justin had distinguished himself during the battle of
Windsor two years ago.

Dad’s expression remained calm—unnaturally
so. Underneath the façade, the fact that Madog had so easily taken
Carndochen and Cymer had him in a rage.

“
Harlech has never been
tested,” Goronwy said.

“
But Evan has,” David
said.

After consultation with Mom, Dad had
abandoned Castell y Bere after the English burned it in 1283 and
built new castles to defend Gwynedd, one of them at Harlech, a
stone castle built on a high bluff that made it possible to fortify
it directly from the sea. King Edward, if he’d lived, would have
built an iron ring of castles (as the history books said) all
around Gwynedd to control the unrest he’d created in the populace
by murdering Dad. With Edward dead instead, Dad had focused on
defense against outside threats, rather than inside ones. Though,
with David’s ascension to the throne of England, even that had
become far less of a concern.

Until now.

“
How many men does Madog
have?” Math said.

“
Some two thousand,” the
messenger said.

“
Where did he find two
thousand men to betray Wales?” Cadwallon said. He’d been a boy when
he’d ridden in Aunt Elisa’s minivan outside Buellt six years ago.
That he’d matured into a responsible young man was due in no small
part to his near-death experience at the hand of Humphrey de Bohun,
who’d left him for dead along with several others of David’s guard.
Cadwallon’s recovery had been long, but he’d come through,
eventually rejoining Dad’s company and rising to captain. Still,
Cadwallon retained a touch of innocence about him, and he was quick
to show both enthusiasm and ire on Dad’s behalf.

“
Madog and Rhys have been
sowing unrest among their men for forty years,” Dad said. “Besides
which, a good soldier goes where his lord points. Many men believe
that it isn’t their place to question their orders.”

“
We can’t pity Madog or his
men. This rebellion must be put down.” Carew swept a hand through
his blonde hair, which was receding from his temples now that he
was approaching forty. “We can give no quarter.”

Dad nodded at Carew, but then transferred
his gaze to David, his eyes questioning.

“
Do you think I might
object?” David said. “Rule of law is all. Madog commits treason in
marching on Meirionnydd, and his transgressions must be met with
the strongest force possible. Afterwards, the moment the battle
turns in our favor, I would hope that the killing could cease. I
don’t like seeing any man die after a cause is lost. Then will be
the time for mercy. But that time is not now.”

David hadn’t always understood that. He
hadn’t been raised to be a soldier, and growing up in the modern
world had not prepared him for the realities of ruling a medieval
kingdom. But three years as the King of England had shown him the
necessity of being selectively ruthless. William de Valence had
swung at the end of a long rope because sometimes harsh measures
had to be taken. Even so, Valence had been tried before a jury of
his peers and found guilty of treason. His death was a consequence
of the rule of law.

Democracy might be making inroads into this
new medieval world they were trying to create, but Dad was still
the King of Wales and held the reins of power. Someday, if David’s
vision of a united Britain came into being, he might not have the
unilateral power to wage war. Perhaps it was hypocritical of David
to be glad that change hadn’t yet come. For now, men were dying and
would continue to die until their king responded in force. Or gave
in.

None of the men collected in the room saw
that as an option.

While David wouldn’t necessarily call
himself a violent man, violence had become part of his life, and
the potential for it was there always, latent and coiled inside
him, waiting to be called forth as needed. David had killed men
with his own hands. If Rhys and Madoc had their way, David would
kill more. The taste of it was like ash in his mouth, dry and
bitter.

Callum had told David of his Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder. In hearing Callum describe it, David wasn’t sure
that his friend had anything on David himself or many of the men he
knew. How could something be considered a disorder when more men
had it than not?

“
It’s fifty miles as the
crow flies from here to Harlech,” Math said.

“
Then we’d better get
started,” Dad said. “Send out a call. We must leave Rhuddlan before
midnight to reach Aber before dawn.”

With a nod from David, Ieuan left to take
charge of the men who’d gathered here at Rhuddlan. He remained
David’s right hand man among the troops the way Goronwy had been
Dad’s before he’d become less able to ride. Dad filled the gap
Goronwy had left with Cadwallon and others, like Carew and David,
even if their counsel was available only occasionally. Dad had yet
to find another companion as capable and trusted as Goronwy, and at
this stage in his life, David didn’t expect him ever to do so.

“
Any who are able to ready
themselves for battle within two hours should come with us. Those
who come late can make their way to the muster at Maentwrog,” Dad
said.

“
I’ll send out riders.”
Cadwallon bowed and departed too, taking the wayward messenger with
him.

Cadwallon meant that he would be sending
word to all the commotes in Gwynedd and Anglesey; the messengers
would be shouting something akin to ‘the British are coming!’ in
order to roust the common men and send them marching to Maentwrog.
This ancient village was located at a ford of a river, far enough
from Harlech that the troops could marshal there without being
detected by those besieging the castle, but close enough that the
march to Harlech wouldn’t exhaust them.

Then Dad looked hard at David. “You will
come to Harlech by way of Criccieth.” Criccieth was Dad’s castle on
the southern Lleyn Peninsula, situated on a promontory at the
seaside. It also happened to be where Mom had come through from the
modern world the first time, and where she and Dad had met.

Math rubbed at his chin. “You want him to
arrive by sea?”

“
That doesn’t make sense.”
David shook his head. “You need me and my men at
Maentwrog—”

Dad put up his hand. “Your safety is
paramount, son. You are the King of England and upon you all our
hopes rest. It is gratifying to know that were any danger to befall
you on your journey across the sea, you would be kept safe.”

Safe in the modern
world
, he meant. David ground his teeth and
tried again. “I can bring the full force of England to bear against
Madog. Surely—”

“
I am not in my dotage
yet!”

David put both hands up, palms out. “I
didn’t say it. I didn’t even think it.”

“
Madog and Rhys challenge
me now because they are thinking it,” Dad said. “My son may be the
King of England, but if I run to you whenever I am challenged, from
where does my authority arise?”

David wasn’t going there, not in a million
years. “I don’t see how sending me to Criccieth is going to help.
It’s farther away. It will take longer.”