“Later,” Kerr snapped. The other shelf that had formed their corridor groaned and shuddered as a body slammed against it, but it didn’t topple over; the soldier slumped down to the ground, blood masking his features and pooling across the stone.
Niel reached over, grabbed Isalde by the back of her dress, and hauled the girl up. He tossed her towards Kerr; Ayla grabbed the maid into her arms with a sob.
She let Kerr shepherd them towards the stairs then, stumbling through the darkness, nearly losing her footing as her heel caught on something soft and wet that soaked through her slipper. She prayed desperately it had come from the shelves and not a man.
Light at the entrance of the tunnel; an armored soldier with a torch in hand—she screamed and grabbed Isalde tight;he’s on our side, Kerr bellowed, and pushed her forward, until they reached the stairs, and she climbed, fell, galloped up them practically on all fours, all dignity gone and the screams of the dying still ripping through her ears.
Kerr wasn’t with them anymore, she realized. Ayla didn’t know when he’d turned around and gone back to Niel, but it was one of the other soldiers pushing her through the kitchen now, as Sarella grabbed at her arm and asked what had happened. The soldier pushed her on, into the frigid great hall. Isalde tried to slip away and was grabbed by the wrist; the soldier pushed her down on the bench next to Ayla at one of the hall's long tables.
Ayla looked down at her damp slipper. Oil. She’d stepped in something oily, from one of the broken jars, not… except therewas still blood, sprayed on her. Her hands shook. They would not stop shaking. Was Niel alive? Wereanyof them alive? Eleven to one, until Kerr joined, and it had still been a slaughter.
Niel was there then, suddenly. She could hear his voice, demanding whether anywhere else had been breached, and something in her unclenched. No, the men answered; all was calm outside the walls, the enemy was not attacking on multiple fronts. She looked up hopefully, terrified what she’d find. Four limbs, and two eyes. She couldn’t say more than that, but he hadn’t lost those.
“Ivar, I want that tunnel sealed so tight a rat couldn’t squeeze in. Kerr, have them search the castle,” the knight ordered a group of soldiers. “Better than you did the first time.No stoneunturned.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Suddenly the knight was crouching in front of her. She stared into his eyes and drew a shaking breath. He was covered in blood. She didn’t think it was his.
“The key,” Niel said. “The dungeon key.Do you know where it could be?”
And she might have been terrified enough to admit she'd taken it out from her mattress and hung it with a jumble of bells in the chapel, where it blended in beautifully, metal-on-metal, except her throat wouldn’t work, and all she could do was stare at him and open and close her mouth like a fish.
“Get her upstairs, soon as you’re sure it’s empty,” Niel said, and then he wasn’t looking at her anymore. Why did he need the keys to the dungeon? Was there something down there, another tunnel? Or perhaps they wanted to lock somebody up. One of the soldiers. Ditmar’s soldiers.
But there had been dismembered bodies and there had been an arm lying on the ground and blood, so much blood, and it had been soloud,she had not known death wasloud. A week agoshe hadn’t seen anyone killed, and now for the second time she’d watched Lord Niel… she’d watched him…
Someone fetched Isalde. She didn’t know why, or where to. She couldn’t even watch as the girl was led away. All she could do was stare at a small bloodstain on her knuckle and think,I don't even know whose that is.
She didn’t know how long passed before Megh pulled Ayla to her feet and led her gently upstairs, escorted by two soldiers.
“Not my bedchamber?” she whispered as Megh took her up higher than Ayla’s room.
“They’re searching it now,” Megh answered.
They reached the solar. Megh quietly closed the door in the soldier’s faces. Ayla shivered as Megh wiped her face with a wet cloth and stripped her bloody clothes off, then offered Ayla clean things that had been draped over a chair when they arrived. Ayla recovered enough to help dress herself. The tears started falling, then, but she was silent as her shoulders rocked and Megh held her.
“You’re safe,” Megh whispered. “You’re safe, you’re safe. They were only in the cellar. They haven’t found any others. You aren’t going back to him.”
“But those men,” Ayla whispered raggedly.
“It’s war,” Megh answered. “It’s not your doing, lady.”
She nodded at Megh’s words, but it wasn’t so simple.We’re here to save you,the man had said. And she didn’t want saving; didn’t want to go with them, not to Ditmar. But they were dead now, those men. Had they died for her? She was a noblewoman; the lady of the castle under siege. She was a piece on the playing board, and no matter whether she chose her own moves or allowed a man to do so for her, she was part of it. Perhaps they would not have attempted the tunnel if they had not been desperate to get her out.
There was a heavy knock on the door. With a gasp Ayla accepted a handkerchief from Megh and wiped her eyes dry, blinking wet lashes and turning away to hide her face as Megh opened the door.
“Leave us,” Lord Niel said to Megh, his voice hard as stone. “I need to speak with Lady Blackfell.”
Sworn Oath
He thought he would be calm by the time he came to speak to her.
But the memory of Ayla turning to run towards him, only to be hauled back around the corner by a group of armored soldiers, intent on returning her to the pathetic excuse of a man she’d married, kept burning furiously in Niel's mind. His pulse raced, long after it should have slowed.
The solar was a round room, its windows not covered with glass but instead by wooden shutters. One of them was thrown open, providing a view of the sprawling army camped below.
And in front of him, the castle’s lady stared at him with tear-stained cheeks. She’d changed clothes.
