Medieval 01 - Untamed

her.”
    â€œShe comforted me.”
    The money Dominic had given to the vassals at his wedding feast fell like a silver rain into the bowl, coin after coin returning, mute witness to the vassals’ regard for their Glendruid lady. With the coins came whispered words that told of love beyond price.
    â€œShe healed my hand.”
    â€œWhen my wife needed her, she came.”
    â€œWhen everyone called me cursed, she cured me.”
    â€œI am blind. Her voice is my light.”
    Finally no one remained on the steps of the forebuilding but a boy who couldn’t have been more than nine years old. At his heels limped a large, tattered dog. Dominic looked at the boy’s carefully clenched hand and wondered what a child so young would have to offer, and why.
    As though to give himself courage to speak, the boy buried one hand in the hound’s thick ruff as he thrust out his other hand. On his palm was hisgreatest treasure—one of the Turkish sweets Dominic had given to his vassals along with the silver coins. The sweet had been nibbled at one edge only, as though each day the boy took just a bit of the rare treat, savoring it.
    â€œShe saved my dog when a snare caught him.”
    The boy dropped the sweet onto the pile of coins and fled. The hound followed like a ragged brown shadow.
    Dominic tried to speak, but could not. Like drops gathering into rills and creeks until a mighty river was born, the gifts and words told the meaning of Meg’s life to the vassals of the keep. She was peace and hope in a world of war and famine. She was sunlight and laughter and healing when everything else was pain.
    She was all that and more to the warrior who had married for land and sons, and had received life and love.
    Finally Dominic was able to speak.
    â€œOur heart has been stolen.”
    A low sound rose from the people.
    â€œIf she isn’t returned to us alive and laughing,” Dominic said, “there will be a harrowing of the north such as will never be forgotten.”
    The noise became a growl as though of a beast aroused.
    â€œI will hunt down the Reevers and their families one by one, and I will kill them where I find them, man and woman and child.”
    Sound rippled darkly, a beast prowling, unleashed.
    â€œI will burn their homes, slaughter their stock, and poison their wells.
    â€œI will tear down their stone fences, slay their game, and salt their fields until nothing can live therein.
    â€œThen I will leave the cursed land to the unshriven ghosts I’ve made!”
    A savage cry of assent echoed through the bailey.
    Slowly Old Gwyn climbed the last step and stood before the lord of Blackthorne Keep, seeing for the first time what the vassals already had seen.
    From eyes shaded by a battle helm came as many tears as there were silver coins heaped in the bowl.
    â€œI have waited a thousand years for this day,” Gwyn said.
    With quick, sure motions, Gwyn fastened a heavy silver pin to Dominic’s black battle cloak. When she stepped back, sunlight struck the ancient pin, making the silver wolf’s head burn. Clear crystal eyes flashed and glittered as though alive.
    A great shout went up from the vassals as they greeted the Glendruid Wolf.
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    A T dawn, knights mounted on chargers galloped forth from Blackthorne Keep, heading north. Steel weapons gleamed and clashed with every motion the war-horses made. Behind them the drawbridge was lifted and the gates were bolted shut.
    The Glendruid Wolf had gone to war.

28
    â€œN O ,” D OMINIC SAID FLATLY to Duncan. “You would be recognized and slain out of hand. Don’t speak of it again. If you weren’t valuable to me alive, I would have killed you twice over by now.”
    Duncan and his knights had found Dominic in mid-afternoon on the northbound cart road. The Scots Hammer and the Glendruid Wolf had been arguing ever since. Duncan looked up to the oak branches overhead as though expecting to find help in the delicate green flames that burned at the tip of each twig.
    â€œIf someone isn’t inside the palisade when we attack,” Duncan said through his teeth, “Meggie could well be killed before my ‘renegade’ knight can stop it.”
    â€œDo you think I don’t know that?” Dominic shot back. “That’s why I’m going inside the palisade as soon as it’s dark. I’ll be able to sneak past the—”
    â€œGod’s blood!” Duncan