Medieval 03 - Enchanted

me?”
    “Aye.”
    “Then do so.” Dominic turned to Erik.
“Is your wolfhound a reliable, er, scout?”
    “Aye.”
    “Can you send it to patrolling all the places
more than one or two men might hide beyond the keep’s
walls?”
    “Aye.”
    “Please do so. Quickly.”
    Erik whistled. The sound was as clear and carrying
as that of a pipe.
    Stagkiller materialized from the shadows just
behind the gatehouse. Erik spoke to him in an ancient tongue. The
wolfhound looked at Erik with unearthly golden eyes, then turned
and trotted through the open sally port. A heartbeat later
Stagkiller vanished into the darkness and wind.
    Beyond the moat, a horse snorted and a knight spoke
sharply. Harness and chain mail trappings jangled as the horse
shied.
    “Go,” Dominic said quietly.
    Simon walked out into the wind. His mantle lifted
and whipped, showing flashes of the luxuriant white fur lining.
    The knight’s horse snorted again and stepped
sideways. Though it lacked a war stallion’s muscular power,
the animal had a lean, long-legged look of speed about it. In the
torchlight the horse’s coat was as pale as the lining of
Simon’s mantle.
    “Lord Charles, Baron of Deguerre,” the
knight said loudly, “comes not far behind me. Will Lord
Dominic le Sabre, called the Glendruid Wolf, receive the
baron?”
    “Aye,” Simon said, “if the baron
will agree to leave all arms and armor at the gate. Lord Dominic
permits no arms inside, unless they are locked in Blackthorne
Keep’s armory.”
    “By the Cross,” the knight said,
shocked. “Who are you to order the Baron of
Deguerre?”
    “Lord Dominic’s brother and his
seneschal,” Simon said succinctly. “My words are
his.”
    “You are Sir Simon, called the
Loyal?”
    “Aye.”
    “Husband to Lady Ariane?”
    “Aye.”
    “I will take your brother’s cold
welcome to the baron.”
    The messenger turned his horse, spurred it, and
galloped back into the night.
    “What do you think he will do?” Dominic
asked Simon as he walked back into the gatehouse.
    “Leave enough armed men beyond the
keep’s wall to lay siege,” Simon said.
    “Erik?” Dominic asked.
    “I agree,” Erik said. “The baron
will come inside with a handful of spies and assassins. When he has
estimated the strength and temper of the keep, he will
leave.”
    “Will he lay siege?” Dominic asked
Erik.
    Erik shrugged. “That depends on how much
weakness he finds inside and what excuse he can cobble together to
justify a battle, if that is what he seeks.”
    “Have you any other insights, Learned or
otherwise?”
    Erik narrowed his eyes until they were little more
than gleaming yellow slits reflecting torchlight.
    Dominic waited. However impatient he might become
with the heart-stopping risks Erik was willing to take, he
respected the Learned man’s tactical abilities. It had taken
a brilliant strategist to pull victory from the ruins of Amber and
Duncan’s forbidden love, and peace from the endless turmoil
of the Disputed Lands.
    “There are many possibilities,” Erik
said finally. “Too many. The baron could be bent on seeing
his daughter well settled with an unexpected husband, or the baron
could be bent on war, or he could be anywhere between.”
    “Aye,” Dominic said softly.
    “How is your Glendruid wife sleeping?”

Erik asked.
    “Badly.”
    “She dreams?”
    “Yes.”
    “Even in the day?”
    Dominic’s breath caught. “At supper.
Yes.”
    Erik’s hands went to the sword that
wasn’t there. His fingers flexed and he sighed.
    “Then there is more wrong than
Geoffrey’s death put aright,” Erik said simply.
    “What else is there?” Simon
demanded.
    “I don’t know,” Erik said.
    “Nor do I,” Dominic said. “But I
know this—if there is a weakness, Baron Deguerre will find
it.”
    The sound of horses cantering toward the keep came
clearly in a pause between gusts of wind.
    “He comes,” Duncan said.
    “Aye,” said Dominic.
    “Armed?” Simon asked.
    Silence stretched like a harp string, then Dominic
shook his head.
    “Nay,” Dominic said. “The baron
is shrewd indeed. He will spy out the keep from the inside before
he decides if he is insulted by my cold welcome.”
    Erik gave Dominic a quick, slanting glance,
realizing that the Glendruid Wolf had hoped to anger the baron
enough so that he would refuse to pass through the keep’s
gates.
    “Subtly done, wolf,” Erik said
softly.
    “But unsuccessfully,” Dominic said.
“Now we will have to