“Hasten yourself, Forneria!Do you like that hole so well?”called an impatient man from above.One of the women hurried up the ladder to the hall and her husband.
“How went the battle?”Alienor asked in an undertone when Dagobert pulled her aside to let the other women climb out first.He did not meet her gaze, but grimaced, and she guessed the news was not good.
“We lost the barbican,” he admitted.
Alienor gasped, surprised by the magnitude of the loss.
“The outer gate?”He nodded assent and she gathered Thierry more tightly to her breast.“’Tis so close,” she whispered and Dagobert nodded again.
“Aye, but the stretch of road between the gates is narrow and easily defended.”He spoke with a determination that did not fool Alienor.True enough, the outer gate blocked only the road, for the way the land fell abruptly on either side left no means to build a wall, but the stretch of road between the two gates could be no more than fifty strides.
“They will move the catapult,” she guessed.
“They already have,” he admitted, and her heart sank at the news.
Was it only a matter of time before they gained the keep itself?’Twas grievous indeed to suffer such a loss, and strange after so prolonged an attack.Surely there were even fewer men camped below than there had been the previous summer.
“But how did they come so close after all this time?”Alienor asked.
Dagobert’s expression grew even more grim and forbidding.“They came up the south wall.”
“’Tis a sheer cliff,” she exclaimed in disbelief.
He nodded curtly, his reticent tongue finally loosed with a vehemence that surprised her.“Aye, ’tis a tough climb, and no coincidence that the moon is new this night.They were in the tower afore we knew it and the four knights standing sentry there were the sum of our losses.They had nary a chance in the face of such surprise.”
Alienor hugged him tighter, sensing that he felt the loss of even so few men keenly and wishing she had the words to ease his pain.“Why would they wait so long to attack thus?”
“It can only be that they did not know the way,” Dagobert spoke grimly.“I will find the one who showed them and committed those four good men to their death.”
Iolande approached him then and he said no more, gathering his mother into a hug before he helped his family up the ladder.Alienor saw the weight of his responsibilities heavy on his brow.
Perhaps ’twas the sight of that concern that prompted Alienor to end her month of convalescence after Thierry’s birth a week early.When they returned to bed in the wee hours of the morning and the keep fell into restless silence once more, Alienor curled up close to Dagobert and whispered a suggestion in his ear.
“’Tis too soon, is it not?”he asked, though Alienor saw that the thought had its appeal.
“A week more than the fortnight you suggested, sir.”
Dagobert grinned, the shadows in his eyes already being dispatched.“Are you certain, love?”he murmured, rolling onto his stomach beside her.Alienor smiled, her heartbeat racing that ’twould take but one move of the hand tangled with her hair to slide her beneath his weight.How she yearned for that, again.
“Aye,” Alienor whispered.His eyes flashed, then turned smoky and she felt that there was not enough air in the solar.
“’Tis said a new mother needs her sleep,” he mused, pushing the blankets down and baring her breasts to the cool air.Alienor closed her eyes as her nipples beaded, sighing when his breath fanned across her flesh.
“I need no more sleep this night.”
Dagobert chuckled, the warmth of his hand landing on the smooth expanse of her stomach.“Nor do I, love,” he whispered.“Nor do I.”
Chapter 14
The sky became gray over the brilliant banner flying defiantly from the keep as the days grew ever shorter.There was a new bite in the wind as winter settled around Montsalvat.True to Eustache’s expectations, some of the warriors below did leave when the first snow arrived, but those in the keep were still vastly outnumbered.Weeks passed without any tidings, only the hammering of rocks launched from the catapults, signifying that there was a world beyond the curtain walls.
Kado looked down over the invaders one chilly morning, his eyes narrowing.Any fool could see that even though Dagobert might have abandoned his quest, the king had no intention of abandoning his hunt for the last king of the Rhedae.
That only made good sense to a warrior like Kado, for it would be too easy for another generation to rise from this fortress to challenge the king, even if Dagobert put his family legacy aside.The blood royal ran hot and carried the burden of obligation, though Kado would not speculate on the path his great-grandson might choose.Kado wished to ensure that the boy had the opportunity to choose at all, rather than be slaughtered here when Montsalvat fell to the invaders.
’Twas time to speak to Iolande and propose his plan.
Alienor awakened aloneone cold morning, disappointed that Dagobert was gone.The sky was turning pink with the first light of dawn.She rose to fetch Thierry before he cried, and spied her husband in the bailey below.He was pacing a distance from the east wall and back again, then staring up at the sky.Curious, she paused with the babe to watch.
