Choose the Sky: A Medieval Romance (Swordcross Knights Book 2) (34 page)

The late winter air bit
. The only thing keeping Luc warm was the thought of finally getting his hands on the elusive Haldan. He was sick of riding through cold, muddy, and icy streams. He was sick of the road, sick of Drugo’s insinuations about his motives, and sick of being away from Domina.

Luc thought a few days of separation would be beneficial. Mina would cool in his absence and he’d be able to decide what to say to her. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d fought with her. Once he brought Haldan to justice and sent Drugo on his way, everything would settle down.

But first they had to actually get Haldan.

“You’re
sure
he’s here?” Tav asked once again as they neared their destination.

“I’m sure,” Luc said, confident in his knowledge. “I sent several of the men-at-arms from Mina’s properties to all the places Haldan had been sighted. Once a man saw him, he sent word to Trumwell.”

“Let’s hope he hasn’t moved on,” Drugo muttered.

“He’s still there,” Luc said.

Soon they arrived at the town of Chepstow, where Haldan had been sighted. The three men halted just outside the village.

“Haldan’s brother lives here, and he owns the inn by the east gate of the town,” Luc said. “That’s why Haldan stays here when he has no other options.”

“If we march in as we are, he’ll see us long before we see him,” Octavian said. “I’m rather recognizable,” he added wryly.

“He’ll know my face too,” said Luc. “He’s surely memorized it, because he’ll want to kill me when he sees me.”

“Worse, Drugo doesn’t know Haldan by sight,” Tav said. “He can’t scout ahead.”

“Actually, that might work to our advantage,” Luc said. “If Drugo plays the part of a mercenary better than a falconer, I have an idea.”

“What is that?” Drugo looked interested despite himself.

“We’ll bind my hands, and give my sword to Drugo,” Luc explained. “I’ll be his prisoner.”

“What’s your crime?” Drugo asked, eyes narrow.

“Being born noble,” Luc told him. “You can simply be a mercenary intending to ransom me to my family. It will just be a coincidence that you’ve come into the same drinking establishment that Haldan happens to be living at.”

“You want him to
buy
you from me?” Drugo asked, catching on. “He wouldn’t be able to afford the price.”

“Oh, I think you’ll find he can. And that will be just the proof you need.”

“Perhaps,” said Drugo. “Either way, it will be enough to take him into custody. Very well. Let’s try it.”

They found an out of the way place to keep their horses and to complete the transition from nobles to a mercenary and his prisoner. Octavian would stay out of sight, but close enough that a loud yell could alert him if something went wrong.

“Keep a dagger in your boot,” Tav muttered to Luc as they got ready. “Just in case you aren’t able to retrieve your sword in time.”

Luc nodded. “If we don’t return in two hours, do as you think best.”

“I’ll do as I think best in one hour,” Tav said. “Good luck.”

Drugo made a most convincing mercenary with only a few subtle changes to his clothes and bearing. His wiry frame, bald head, and calculating eyes fit the part. The assortment of weapons he carried would do the rest of the convincing. Tav bound Luc’s wrists with rope carefully arranged to look tight, but if Luc twisted his arms the right way, the rope would slide off.

“Clever,” Luc noted.

“Learned it from a sailor in Constantinople,” Tav told him.

Then it was time. Drugo, in the persona of a rough mercenary, dragged Luc into the common room of the inn. Considering that Luc’s hands were bound and he was obviously dressed as a noble, all eyes fell to them.

A man wearing a long apron, the mark of a barkeeper, addressed Drugo. “Stopping for a meal?” From his tone, it was clear the man hoped Drugo and his guest would be leaving quickly.

Drugo nodded, but then shattered his hopes by adding, “And a room for the night. Private room.”

“All the private rooms have only one bed.”

“That’s no matter. My cargo here will sleep on the floor.” Drugo gave an evil looking smile, then steered Luc to a table close to the fireplace. Two men were sitting there, but when Drugo grunted at them to move, they did so with alacrity.

A serving girl emerged from the kitchen, bearing a bowl and a mug of ale, which she silently put down in front of Drugo.

“Go back and get some for my guest,” Drugo told her. “He’s got to eat.”

She nodded and vanished as quickly as she came.

Drugo began to eat, and Luc glanced around the inn as well as he could with his head down.

Someone approached, and just from the weight of the footfalls, Luc knew who it was. A huge hand filled his vision as Haldan raised his chin so he could get a good look.

Luc surveyed him in turn. Haldan was outwardly the same—still hale and brash, still blond and bearded, with a toothy, smug grin. But he looked a bit haggard now, as if life wasn’t quite agreeing with him. However, at the moment, he was in a good mood.

“Well, well, well.” Haldan took his hand from Luc’s face—fortunate, since Luc was about one instant away from dropping the act in order to rush at Haldan and punch him squarely in the jaw. He sat on a bench opposite the one Luc and Drugo occupied.

“Thought you looked familiar,” he said to Luc. “Though last time, you were spouting a lot of nonsense about how you were better than me. Looks like the worm has turned.” Haldan looked at Drugo. “What are you doing with him?”

Drugo took a sip of ale, then grunted, “I don’t recall asking you to join me for dinner.”

Haldan grinned wider. “Ah, my family owns this inn, so I’m practically the host! Tell me, what’s your business with the lordling?”

“My business is my own,” Drugo said, not warming up in the slightest. Of course, from everything Luc had seen, Drugo wouldn’t warm up if someone set him on fire.

Haldan didn’t like the answer, for he leaned in with a hand laid meaningfully on the hilt of his dagger. “Come on, friend. I’m just curious.”

“He’s cargo,” Drugo said then. “Going to sell him.”

“Who would pay for him?”

“His family. Ransom for a lord pays better than a shipment of slaves. Especially when he’s the only son. And if his family doesn’t like him much, I’ll sell him as a slave and take the loss.”

Haldan nodded, impressed with Drugo’s business acumen. “What’s a lord worth, if I may ask?”

Drugo named his figure, an amount so high that most commoners wouldn’t see that much over their whole lifetimes.

But Haldan merely nodded. “Well worth the effort.”

“Hardly,” Drugo said. “This one was a handful. Lost a few good men getting him. I’ll be well rid of him.”

“Perhaps I can help with that,” Haldan said.

“Don’t need an assistant to transport him.”

“I meant that I’d buy him now. Today.”

Drugo paused, staring at Haldan as if he were genuinely astonished. Then he laughed. “Don’t imagine you can match the price.”

“You might be surprised,” Haldan said softly.

Drugo put his mug down. “I want the price in coin, not promises.”

“Then that’s what you’ll have. Follow me.” Haldan rose.

Luc spoke for the first time. “Don’t,” he warned Drugo, just as he would if the situation wasn’t an act.

“Shut up,” Drugo hissed. “You don’t tell me what to do.”

He dragged Luc up by the arm, his manner rough, in keeping with his role. Luc stumbled along behind Haldan as he led the way out of the main room and up a flight of stairs. The lack of windows meant that the stairs and hallway were dark as night.

Haldan’s room wasn’t much better, even after he lit a candle.

Drugo kept hold of Luc’s arm. “Well, let’s see if you can put your money where your mouth is. I don’t believe you’ve got a quarter of the amount I want for him.”

Haldan laughed. “As it happens, I have a very generous employer.”

“Doubt he’d want you to spend the money on me,” Luc spat out, truthfully enough.

“You don’t know the first thing about what he wants,” Haldan said. “In any case, I may decide that it’s worth the cost of buying you just so I can kill you myself. You got in the way of my own plan, and made my winter miserable when I should have been living high with my high-born wife.”

Haldan sounded honestly put out about that, as if he’d been cheated. But Luc focused on the first part. “So it was your idea to try to marry Domina by force? Not your employer’s?”

“I saw an opportunity,” Haldan said. “I’d been taking his orders for two years—I was sick of waiting. But then you had to show up and ruin everything.” He glared at Luc. “Now it’s my turn.”

“You say you want to buy him,” said Drugo, in a tone that conveyed how little he cared about Haldan’s motives. “But so far you’ve only offered words. Let’s see the gold.”

The blond man held up a hand for patience. He bent down to yank out a small, locked chest that he’d secreted in a corner. After a few moments of wresting with the lock, Haldan flung open the lid and pulled out an ingot, a slender bar of gold, which he offered to Drugo to inspect. “I admit it’s not in coins, but I think you’ll be satisfied with the quality.”

Drugo took the ingot in one hand, his eyebrows shooting up when he felt the weight. He examined it closely, perhaps looking for signs that it was merely lead painted with gold. But Luc knew it was real enough.

“A swan,” Drugo muttered, looking at the top of the bar. The symbol was distinct,the shape of the swan exactly like the silver coins both men had seen before.

“My employer’s mark,” Haldan said with a shrug. “It’s pure gold. Take it and leave this lordling here. Then our business is concluded. Agreed?”

Drugo looked directly at Luc. “Well,” he said, “if I were the type of man to place a wager, I’d have lost.”

“What are you talking about?” Haldan asked, suspicion replacing his cheer.

Luc gave Drugo a short nod to indicate that he was ready for a fight. Drugo reacted by flinging the gold ingot directly at Haldan, who was so surprised that the bar hit him directly on the nose.

He howled a curse even as he drew his dagger. His nose was already bleeding.

Drugo lunged forward as Luc wriggled free of the ropes around his wrists.

Haldan was a huge man, but he was stunned and not prepared to fight both of them. The scuffle lasted only seconds. By the end, Haldan was on his knees, getting tied up with the very same rope Luc just discarded.

His chin and the shirt below were soaked in red from the bloody nose Drugo gave him. Haldan cursed without stopping, his words mostly aimed at Luc but some saved for Drugo. Apparently Haldan thought there should be some honor among thieves, and Drugo’s turnaround hurt him mightily.

“You ought to know better than to trust strangers you’ve just met,” Luc told him, as he hauled him up to stand. “Now walk. We’re going back to Trumwell. You were eager to get in the walls the last time you were there. Now you’ll get your wish.”

“Go to hell.” Haldan sneered at him.

Luc looked back to Drugo, who had gathered the chest of money and all the other items of interest.

At least some of Mina’s fortune would return to her, Luc thought. He hoped that would soften her attitude a little bit, even if just enough to make her listen to the rest of what he wanted to tell her.

Haldan proved to be a reluctant guest. He struggled all the way from the room, and down the stairs. No one seemed inclined to fight Luc and Drugo for him, and they quickly proceeded to where Octavian waited with the horses.

“Do I need to find a fourth?” he asked, “or can the prisoner just walk behind?”

The prisoner’s response to that was another string of invectives, this time questioning the manhood of his captors.

“Enough,” Drugo said, cuffing the big blond man on the side of the head. “No more words unless it’s an answer to a question we ask.”

“Let’s get back to Trumwell,” Luc said, rubbing his wrists to make the rope marks fade. “A few days in confinement there may cause him to reconsider his position. He’ll talk then.”

Haldan grinned, showing blood between his teeth. “Send the lady of the castle to ask me. I’ll tell her what’s on my mind. She can—”

The words broke off as Octavian smashed the pommel of his sword against Haldan’s thick skull, knocking him unconscious. The blond man collapsed face first into the ground.

“Apologies, Luc,” Tav said as he resheathed the sword. “Did you want to do the honors?”

* * * *

They journeyed back to Trumwell in a better mood than they left it. The roads had improved, and the weather warmed slightly, which helped. With Haldan captured at last, Luc allowed himself some optimism. He could use the information from Haldan’s eventual confession to convince Mina that someone was working against her family—and that Luc was working to help her family. It was fitting, he thought, that he fell in love with a woman who had exactly as much pride as he did. Neither of them was particularly good at admitting mistakes or asking forgiveness. But Luc would do both until he regained Mina’s trust. She was proud, but she was also fair. He’d seen that in all her dealings with the people at Trumwell. If he was honest with her, she’d listen. Eventually.

“Luc,” Octavian said. He rode up beside Luc, looking at him in concern. “What’s on your mind? I called your name three times just now, and you didn’t even look up.”

“I was thinking,” Luc said.

“That much I was sure of.” Tav rolled his eyes.

“I was wondering how long it will take for Mina to forgive me,” he explained.

“Oh.” Tav took a deep breath, considering. “Afraid I can’t help you there. Understanding women’s minds isn’t in my experience.”

“Wise decision,” Luc muttered.

After glancing back to where Drugo rode, leading the prisoner on foot, Tav asked, “Do you wish you hadn’t got married?”

“No,” Luc said instantly. It was true. Despite the less than ideal beginning to the marriage, he didn’t want to think of a life without Mina. “I just wish I’d hadn’t tangled love and politics. They don’t weave together well.”

“Best to unravel yourself from one of those, then,” Tav said.

Luc nodded. “Yes. Though it will be Mina’s choice in the end. She could very well decide  she never wants to see me again. In which case I might have to take the cross and ride to the Holy Land, because I’ll be miserable if I have to live in the same country as my wife who doesn’t want me. Want to join me? I hear it’s warmer there.”