Free Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin Page B

It’s just exchanging an invasion of one lot of damn mercenaries for another, and at least the ones holding William had the decency to protect him when the arrows started flying. And after all, the war’s as good as over with the King in prison. It’s common sense to declare for the Empress now she’s won. At least she’s a woman.’
    Father Nimbus flicked the tears off his cheeks. ‘Well then, sweeting,
what
is it we must we ask ourselves?’
    ‘ “Would Jesus do it?” ’ It was a question she’d grown up with under his tutelage. ‘Yes, He would.’
    ‘Then so must you.’ He picked up his chrismatory box. ‘Take Sir Bernard with you. Oh, and wear the purple bliaut, dear; it gives you gravitas.
Must
have gravitas if you’re dictating terms.’
    She was immensely comforted. This was the most far-reaching decision of her life; if Jesus’s mouthpiece – for that was what this little man was to her – said it was the right one, then it was the right one.
    His voice trilled up to her as he went down the stairs. ‘That’s if those naughty Brabançons
let
you surrender, of course.’
    There was a thump that shook the keep, sending bits of ceiling plaster down on to her head. Cousin Lynessa shrieked and began scuttling around the room.
    Maud ran to the window. A spurt of masonry dust was blooming two floors down while, way below, the ball of rock that had caused it still bounced around the bailey.
    From here, she couldn’t see what had propelled the missile from across the river, but obviously the besieging force had brought up its own engines.
    Fear took the form of fury and flawed logic: ‘What’s the point of firing at me?’ she shouted. ‘What’s the
point
? It’s the outer walls you want down.’
    As if the enemy’s trebuchet masters had heard her, another rock whistled through the air to fall shorter and harmlessly in the outer bailey. They were getting their range; the defensive walls would be next. And how long could
they
stand?
    Kenniford’s own trebuchets were being employed now; seen from the back, they looked like immense, skeletal dragons with a sadly drooping tail in the form of a net. As she watched, the counterweight of the head was released and its tail lashed upwards, propelling the ball it contained into an arc across the river. Where William was.
    Engineered stupidity, so that men could throw rocks at each other like apes. And hit William.
    Grabbing Lynessa, Maud pulled her down the stairs. Halfway, they had to press against the curve of the wall to let by a party winding its way up. Sir John was being carried to his tower room, the woman Kigva tenderly wiping the spittle off his face as they went.
    Maud barely gave him a glance, and hurried on down. Father Nimbus had made a telling point; the Brabançons were unlikely to betray the man who paid them by surrendering to his enemy just on her say-so.
    Stang, when she spotted him, was bandaged and slumped on a bench in the hall. In lifting his stricken commander, his mail sleeve had fallen back, allowing the arrow to bury itself in an unprotected wrist.
    ‘Missed the artery, but the barb went in deep,’ Lady Morgana said cheerfully. ‘I had to cut it out. That’s one mercenary not likely to use a bow again. Nor wield a sword, either. God’s judgement, that is.’ (Stang – a Tewing man through and through – had been little more popular with the ladies of the castle than his master.)
    ‘Did you tell him so?’
    ‘He knows.’
    He did know it; always taciturn, his thin face had become bleak from pain and a future that no longer welcomed him – an incapacitated mercenary
had
no future. The act of courage he’d shown on the allure had served him badly.
    If she’d disliked the man and his profession less, Maud might have felt sorry for him; as it was, she merely took his condition into her calculations. By default, Stang was now the Brabançons’ leader; his despair and the bribe she was going to offer him gave her a better