“My chemise.”
He smiled, desire glinting in his eyes.“By all means, do not let me interfere,” he teased.
“You cannot,” she began to protest, surprised as his expression turned grim.
“Aye, you need not state it fully, love,” he said quietly.“You have made it clear enough that you abhor my touch.”
Alienor was completely confused and uncertain as to what she should do.Did he think she cared naught for him?
“My lord, that is not...”she began, but Dagobert dismissed her words with a gesture.
“I have neither the strength nor the will for this discussion now, Alienor,” he said and she saw the fullness of his exhaustion.He pierced her with a bright gaze.“Should you wish to join me abed this night, I vow I will not force my desires upon you.”
He took to the bed then and the sound of his sigh tugged at her heart.But he rolled to face the opposite wall, leaving Alienor to wonder as she washed her chemise.
’Twas nigh midnightwhen they departed on the last leg of their journey.The mountain paths they took to avoid the main roads were treacherous in the darkness.They were no more than tracks for the goats, and difficult to discern even in daylight.Progress was slow and conversation impossible as the horses walked in single file.The relatively short distance remaining to Montsalvat took an unbelievable amount of time to transverse.
Fortunately, the rain had ceased.Dagobert was glad that he had spent so much time playing in the mountains as a child, for he knew these paths as well as the lines on his own palms.They could never have made this journey otherwise.
Alienor rode silently behind him and he felt her hurt as surely as if ’twere his own, though he could not fathom its cause.He had awakened to feel the softness of her breasts pressed against his back and her soft breath on his shoulder.He had feigned sleep a little longer that he might savor the bittersweet touch of her flesh against his own.She had awakened all too soon of her own accord and slipped away.He knew that the chill against his skin in her absence was only a foretaste of how he would feel when she left his side for good.
When the stars began to fade and the moon sank below the horizon, they reached the last turn.He dismounted, holding his very breath as he crept to the lip of the path and stared at Montsalvat.
The fortress was virtually at a level with where he lay, although a great chasm filled the space between them.The bottom of that chasm was rough and uneven with sharp rocks and smaller peaks.Montsalvat crouched on a peak shaped much like a sugar-loaf standing on end.It was encircled by a chasm, then much larger peaks of similar shape.The lone road snaked its way across the rough countryside, rising from the coast far in the south before curling around the foot of the mountain and rising to the fortress itself.Dagobert took a deep breath of that familiar tinge of salt on the wind.
His heart sank when he saw the myriad tents clustered around the road before it began its steep ascent to Montsalvat.Their colors were so numerous and they were sufficiently distant that they could not be readily distinguished one from another.
Ten thousand men.
A defiant banner flew proudly from Montsalvat’s tower.He saw that the attackers had tried to encircle the base of the mountain, a single line of tents making a haphazard path across the uneven terrain.
Predictably, the forces had been focused on the southern face with its road and he could only surmise that the commander either knew naught of the goat paths or considered them impassable.The ring of attackers was sparse on this the eastern side and his hopes gained new vigor from the realization.’Twould be easy to get to Montsalvat at night and they would not be the first to undertake the journey, of that he was certain.
Judging the amount of time they had left before the sunrise, he chose a suitable spot to conceal themselves in the valley below and headed back to his horse.On the morrow, they would have to proceed on foot and leave the horses.
“’Twill not be so difficult to manage,” he told the expectant women.He did not miss the flicker of dread in Alienor’s gaze nor the assessing gleam of Iolande’s.Fortunately Alienor had seemed strong lately, that fact easing some of his fears that the climb would be too strenuous for her.Had it been any but the east face, he would not have her attempt it: though there were ways to reach the fortress on all faces of the mountain, the other sides were arduously steep indeed.
In silence they made quick progress down this last leg of the path, reaching the place Dagobert had chosen well before the sky turned pink.The site offered more than adequate concealment even for the three horses and they settled in for the day, so close and yet so far from their destination.
That night,Dagobert turned the horses loose, hoping the beasts would not be discovered in time to foil their plans.The destrier led the other two and seemed to be making a path back to the last town.Fortunately, they had precious little to carry other than the clothes they wore on their backs.
With a smile of encouragement for his companions, he stealthily led the way to the ring of knights they must somehow cross.He was considering the relative merits of two apparent breaks in the circle when a man’s harsh whisper made him freeze.
“Who goes there?”
Dagobert’s heart sank.Were they to get no closer than this?He turned slowly to confront the figure crouched in the shadows to his left, noting with relief that Alienor was close behind him.He was astonished when Iolande gave a little gasp of delight.
“Roger!”she whispered with obvious pleasure.
The man’s hooded head tilted to one side.“Countess Iolande?”he asked quietly.
Dagobert watched as his mother stepped forward to embrace the man.Alienor threw him a questioning look but Dagobert could only shrug in response, giving her hand a supportive squeeze when she slipped it into his own.
“Are you still taking messages to the keep?”Iolande demanded of the stranger, continuing to keep her voice low.
He nodded.“I have one from the Count de Foix this night,” he confessed in kind.
Iolande nodded her approval.“Dagobert, do you recall Roger?His mother, Adalays, lives in the village.”
