Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (24 page)

William, whose Welsh was perfect, had been
shadowing David this whole time. He made sure they were out of
earshot before he spoke. “They don’t think much of Normans, do
they?”

“
No, my friend, they do
not.” And if William was only discovering that now, he wasn’t as
smart as David had always thought.

William looked down at his feet, thinking it
through. They didn’t have much light to see by other than a few
sputtering torches and campfires carefully tended to keep from
smoking. They’d posted dozens of men on the heights to the west and
south of the camp to give warning if any enemy scouts came this
way. So far, Madog had sent scouts north along the road to
Beddgelert, the direction from which he believed Dad would come,
but he hadn’t sent his men this far east.

“
I suppose I always knew
Welshmen from Gwynedd felt that way,” William said. “It’s different
in the March.”

The March was the border between England and
Wales which had been fought over the by the Welsh and the Normans
for two centuries.

“
The Welsh and English rub
along fine when they understand each other better,” David said. “My
own
teulu
is proof
of that. But these Welshmen live far from the border. And if it
makes you feel any better, they think Welshmen from the south are
foreign too.”

That prompted a smile from William. “Madog
is very sure of the trap he has laid, isn’t he?”

“
It seems so, and that
worries me,” David said.

“
Are you worried that we’ve
got it wrong?” William said.

David stopped walking and turned to look at
him. “Yes.”

“
What would happen
then?”

“
Then we may
die.”

William swallowed hard. “We may die
anyway.”

“
That’s true.” David
started walking again. “Still, Madog can’t hide his men any more
than we can truly hide ours. Our current advantage is that we know
where his men are, and he only thinks he knows where we
are.”

William chewed on his lower lip. He seemed
about to speak again, but then he raised a hand to someone beyond
David. David turned to see Samuel waving an arm above his head.
William and David wended their way through the men and entered
Dad’s tent. Cadwallon, Ieuan, and Carew were already there.

“
It’s nearly time,” Dad
said.

David contemplated his father and decided
that it was his duty to air his objections one last time. “I don’t
like you putting yourself in harm’s way like this.”

“
Nor does anyone else,”
Carew said.

Dad shot Carew a quelling look, which Carew
pretended not to see, rocking back and forth on the balls of his
feet. “In fact, none of us want to see either of you leading your
companies.”

“
Leading from the rear
isn’t leading,” David said, though modern leaders would disagree.
At some point—and David wasn’t sure when in history this had
happened—kings and rulers had started appointing men other than
themselves to lead the actual fighting. It was probably when kings
stopped being warriors. And it made sense not to sacrifice the
brains of the operation to a stray arrow. But it also meant that
the men ordering the death of other men never got their hands
dirty, and that wasn’t how David worked.

“
You are too valuable to
risk,” Carew said. “Madog is a petty lord. He isn’t worth your
life.”

“
We’ve discussed this
already,” Dad said. “Madog’s scouts cannot be completely
incompetent. They will have reported to him that I rode from Aber
and intended when I left to take the road through Beddgelert. It is
why he set up his ambush here. Consequently, I’m the best person to
lead the company that rides through the gap. All men know what I
look like, and what’s more, Madog hates me. My presence on the
field has a better chance of upending his reason and encouraging
him to behave recklessly.”

David put up a hand. “Madog knows me
too.”

Madog had come to David’s court at
Winchester when he’d summoned all his lords to him, and then he’d
gone to Brecon when Dad had summoned the Welsh Parliament.

Dad shook his head. “How do
you say it, son?
I can sell
this
.” He turned to Cadwallon. “We can,
can’t we?”

Cadwallon nodded, rather more vigorously
than David would have liked.

Dad smiled and then brought his attention
back to David’s face. “My men will be loud and arrogant, riding
through Beddgelert with torches blazing. We want Madog and his men
looking forward, unaware that you and Ieuan are leading companies
by different roads.”

Beddgelert lay two miles west of where Dad’s
company was currently camped. Dad, riding with Carew and Cadwallon,
would lead his two hundred cavalry to a small track between two
ridges that would allow him to skirt Beddgelert to the north and
bring him onto the road about half a mile above the village. He
would then ride south through the town, across the bridge, and into
the gap, following the eastern bank of the river Glaslyn.

Madog’s army would be waiting for him on the
other end of the gap, arrayed on the western-facing downslope of
the Nantmor. Dad would be caught between the river and the narrow
passage behind him, with no way forward, sideways, or back.

That was Madog’s plan. The counter plan—as
proposed by Ieuan—had two additional components. Ieuan was to lead
the spearmen and bowmen on foot over the top of the mountain
between here and Aberglaslyn. In turn, David was to take the rest
of the cavalry around the back of the mountain and come in at the
southern end of the valley, effectively catching Madog’s men in a
pincer movement. He would drive into the back of Madog’s force
before Dad and his men were slaughtered.

“
This had better work,”
Ieuan said, echoing David’s thoughts.

“
It was your plan,” David
said. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”

“
It seemed like a better
plan when it was I who was the bait, not the king,” Ieuan
said.

“
I have done this many
times before.” Dad looked at David. “Did you know your mother saved
my life by warning me of an ambush farther south on this same
road?”

David blinked. “I did not know that.”

“
It was a long time ago,”
Dad said. “That time it was Goronwy who rode through the gap and I
and my men who fell upon our enemy. It will be the same
again.”

All this small talk, this banter of words
that made it sound like they were planning an expedition to look at
the standing stones on Anglesey, was, of course, a front, a cover
for the truth that lay beneath: they were going to war and no man
knew if he would come out the other side as whole as he went
in.

Depending on how the next few hours went,
history might view this fight as a little war, inconsequential in
the broad scheme of things. David hoped that was the case. But men
had already died—at Carndochen, Cymer, and Harlech—and no matter
how effectively they surprised Madog, men were going to die today.
One of them might even be him.

“
Make sure your bowmen
position themselves higher up the mountain than Madog’s bowmen,”
David said to Ieuan. He knew better than to tell his brother-in-law
his job, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. “It’ll be like
shooting fish in a barrel with us as the fish if you
don’t.”

Ieuan nodded and refrained from sneering or
otherwise calling David to account for his mother-henning. Then the
tent flap flipped up, and Justin poked his head inside. “My lords,
two more scouts have returned.”

“
What do they say?” Ieuan
said.

“
Madog’s men remain settled
in at Aberglaslyn,” Justin said. “They have extinguished their
fires and their torches and wait for us in the dark.”

“
They’re going to have a
long wait.” Ieuan chewed on his lower lip. “Could this be a cover
for movement to a different position? Perhaps they intend to ambush
us in the gap as we originally feared?”

Justin shook his head. “The messengers
report no such movement. Two more scouts remained behind to watch,
and I will send the others out again.”

“
What about Madog’s
scouts?” Dad said. “Surely he has many too.”

“
We spied two men at the
bridge at Beddgelert,” Justin said.

“
That’s all?” Ieuan said.
“What about farther north?”

“
None that the men have
encountered,” Justin said, “but I report only what I was told.
Madog appears to have no intention of facing you until Aberglaslyn.
Those two scouts will give him plenty of warning of your
approach.”

Dad nodded. “They will run as soon as they
see our torches to warn Madog that we are coming. I wondered if he
might post a small force at the bridge, but he must want to lure us
into a false sense of security, and make us believe we have a free
road until Maentwrog.”

Now William’s brow furrowed, and he turned
to David. “May I speak, my lord?”

“
Of course,” David
said.

“
You are riding to war. You
would have scouts patrolling ahead of you,” he said. “Why would
Madog think you wouldn’t discover his army on the
hillside?”

“
He believes me in my
dotage,” Dad said.

William looked nonplussed.

“
If he does, he’s an
idiot.” David scrubbed at his hair with one hand. “Maybe Madog is
an idiot, but I’m pretty sure that Rhys’s sons are not.”

“
What I fear is a second
force coming behind us and blocking the road back to Beddgelert
once King Llywelyn has crossed the bridge,” Cadwallon said. “Such a
force might be encamped to the west of the Nantile Ridge, opposite
this position.”

“
Have the scouts checked
that location?” David said.

“
Yes, my lord,” Justin
said.

“
And found nothing?” Carew
said.

“
And found nothing,” Justin
said, “but in the dark and moving quietly, with the fog that has
begun to creep in, they could be a hundred yards away, and we would
never know it.”

“
Have our scouts check
again,” David said. “We must be sure. At the very least, if
something is amiss, a lone man can warn my father before he reaches
Beddgelert, even if the rest of us are already on our
way.”

“
Yes, my lord.” Justin
bowed and departed. Dad gazed after him, rubbing his chin, and then
he nodded as if he’d decided something.

His expression made David wary. “What is
it?”

“
Madog’s movements are
dependent upon mine. He wants to surprise me with battle. That is
all very well and good, but it is our movements that worry me. Once
I cross the bridge at Beddgelert, my force will be as vulnerable as
any force I have ever led. Even if we traverse that mile at a walk,
if you have fallen behind, we will arrive at Aberglaslyn before you
and be defeated. And if we are wrong, if Madog intends to descend
on us from the cliffs above the gap, I would prefer to take that
distance at a gallop.”

Ieuan’s jaw remained tight. “We will do what
we promised. But no rider could reach either of us in time, no
matter how fast he rode or how important the message.”

“
Sound your horn when you
cross the bridge, Dad,” David said.

Dad raised his eyebrows. “That will ensure
that Madog, too, knows that I am coming.”

“
His men will have warned
him already.”

Dad’s expression turned thoughtful.

David continued speaking. “Not all horn
calls are the same. Some are for setting forth. Others are for
battle. I’m not suggesting a war cry. It would be natural for you
to sound your horn to call the people of the region to you. If
anything, such an act would reassure Madog that you know nothing of
his movements.”

“
Would Madog know the
difference between one call and another?” Samuel, who would be
riding as part of David’s company, had been keeping silent in one
corner.

“
His men would. The sons of
Rhys would.” Cadwallon stood with his arms folded across his chest.
“Who are these men that they would support Madog’s rise against
you? This is treason. How do they not see it?”

“
It’s only treason if they
lose,” David said.

“
It doesn’t matter who they
are,” Dad said, cutting off further discussion. “We will answer
that question after we defeat them.”

As when they departed from Aber, the others
took his statement as a dismissal. With bows and nods, they left
the tent to prepare their men.

David stayed behind and turned to meet his
father’s eyes. “It does matter. If there are Welshmen among Madog’s
men who might be loyal to you under different circumstances, and we
gain the upper hand, we must give them the opportunity to lay down
their arms.”

David’s father studied him for a moment and
then gave a quick nod of his head. “I agree. If we can.”

Chapter
Fifteen

November 2019

Meg

O
nce the plane had taken off and was level, Meg pulled out her
phone and waved it at Callum. “Can I call my sister?”

“
Call her,” he
said.

“
Wait!” Anna put out a hand
to her mother. “You can call from an airplane? Since
when?”

Meg looked up in mid-dial. “They’ve had the
technology for while now, even if they wouldn’t let you do it.” She
bit her lip. “You were gone, sweetheart. I think I read the first
article about it during the year and a half I had to live without
you.”