“I do not regret sending Loxbeare and de Dere to eliminate the root of the problem.”
David snorted softly. “If you had not asked them to do it, I was going to do it myself.”
Christopher looked at him, his eyes glimmering dully. “Don’t you think you’re a little old?”
David pursed his lips wryly. “I would not be so smug if I were you,” he said. “I’m still younger than you are.”
“At our age, that means nothing.”
They started to laugh at one another, an unexpected moment of levity in a situation that had them both on edge. But as the laughter died away, Christopher fixed on his brother.
“It’s not just Cheltenham, you know,” he said quietly. “Cirencester is a threat as well. He may be moving on Cheltenham’s orders, but he is most definitely a threat. His son is the one who would benefit the most from Roi’s death.”
David thought on that before standing up and moving for the door. Christopher watched him go.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
David looked at him. “To tell the other Executioner Knight that very good point,” he said. “Let the Loxbeare brothers and de Dere handle Cheltenham. I would say Peter might be interested in taking care of Cirencester himself. For his brother.”
Christopher nodded faintly, feeling sick and saddened by the entire situation. “For his brother,” he whispered. “And David?”
“What is it?”
“Do not tell Dustin,” he said quietly. “If one of us must shoulder the burden of worry before we have any news, let it be me.”
David understood. He left the solar to speak with Peter and the others, and everyone who was bound for Cicadia, Pembridge, or other points east was cleared out of the bailey within the hour.
The long wait, for Christopher, had begun.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Near the village of Colesborne
He hadn’t arrivedyet.
Cheltenham, that was.
Riggs found himself outside of the village of Colesborne, literally waiting for another army to show up and fight him off. Robin’s knight had returned to Cicadia Castle, undoubtedly, to tell Cheltenham to muster the army and move south, but so far, the army hadn’t shown up. Riggs was burning and pillaging at will, but it was more of a show than anything else, simply to scare the villagers and create chaos.
Cirencester wanted to make a lot of noise more than he really wanted to damage anything, so his tactics had involved things like opening corrals to scatter livestock or cleaning out chicken houses. If he saw a decent horse, he had his men grab the horse and run with it. It was really just harassment, but it was meant to look like trouble.
Trouble that the de Lohr army would fall right into.
It was just him and about eight hundred of his men. His son, Flavian, had remained at Totterdown Castle because Riggs didn’t want the lad involved in a fight. He wanted to keep his son safe while he wrangled an earldom for him. Riggs had evenwaited three days before taking his army up north, time enough for Robin to send word to Roi about a battle that hadn’t started yet, so if Roi had received word over the past couple of days, he was surely on his way.
Riggs was unaware that the message had already gone out, days ago.
At the Withington Turn, as he’d told Mathis, the road led down to a river crossing that was thick with trees. Riggs was already putting archers in those trees because the best thing to do would be to lure Roi into that area and let the archers take him out. Riggs knew that his knights, well armed as they were, still wouldn’t have a chance against a knight of Roi’s ability, so the safest thing would be to use the archers. A neat, clean job of taking down a de Lohr knight with the least amount of risk.
That was the plan.
Of course, Mathis couldn’t lead Roi into the area. There was a chance they’d hit Mathis with an archer barrage, and Riggs wanted to keep Mathis safe. The future Earl of Cheltenham would need a knight like that. Therefore, it made the most sense to keep his army near Colesborne until Roi showed up, and then have the man chase the Cirencester army down the Withington Turn and into the area where the archers would be waiting.
Then they would have him.
Therefore, three days after Riggs sent Mathis back to Cicadia Castle, the Cirencester army spent most of the time simply harassing the village and the outskirts. For fun, they lit some fires that spat black smoke into the air, like a beacon for the de Lohr army. Riggs wanted to make it easy for Roi to find him, and he was doing everything he could short of sending out invitations. The fires and harassment went into the fourth day, all day, and through the night. But on the morning of the fifth day since Mathis had delivered those fateful words—the time is now—an army was sighted at dawn coming from the west.
When Riggs was informed by his scouts, he knew the moment of triumph was upon him. Cheltenham still hadn’t arrived yet, but that didn’t matter. Roi had come, as they’d planned, and Riggs couldn’t wait for Robin to show himself.
