Free The Grail Quest Books 1-3: Harlequin, Vagabond, Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

to disguise his own scorn, 'wants a word with thee.'
    Sir Simon wrinkled his nose at the stench of the river mud. Much of it, he supposed, was the town's sewage and he was glad he was not wading barelegged through the muck.
    'You are confident of passing the stakes?' he asked Thomas.
    'I wouldn't be going otherwise,' Thomas said, not bothering to sound respectful.
    Thomas's tone made Sir Simon bridle, but he controlled his temper. 'The Earl,' he said distantly, 'has given me the honour of leading the attack on the walls.' He stopped abruptly and Thomas waited, expecting more, but Sir Simon merely looked at him with an irritated face.
    'So Thomas takes the walls,' Skeat finally spoke, 'to make it safe for your ladders?'
    'What I do not want,' Sir Simon ignored Skeat and spoke to Thomas, 'is for you to take your men ahead of mine into the town itself. We see armed men, we're likely to kill them, you understand?'
    Thomas almost spat in derision. His men would be armed with bows and no enemy carried a long-stave bow like the English so there was hardly any chance of being mistaken for the town's defenders, but he held his tongue. He just nodded.
    'You and your archers can join our attack,' Sir Simon went on, 'but you will be under my command.'
    Thomas nodded again and Sir Simon, irritated by the implied insolence, turned on his heel and walked away.
    'Goddamn bastard,' Thomas said.
    'He just wants to get his nose into the trough ahead of the rest of us,' Skeat said.
    'You're letting the bastard use our ladders?' Thomas asked.
    'If he wants to be first up, let him. Ladders are green wood, Tom, and if they break I'd rather it was him tumbling than me. Besides, I reckon we'll be better off following you through the river, but I ain't telling Sir Simon that.' Skeat grinned, then swore as a crash sounded from the darkness south of the river. 'Those bloody white rats,' Skeat said, and vanished into the shadows.
    The white rats were the Bretons loyal to Duke John, men who wore his badge of a white ermine, and some sixty Breton crossbowmen had been attached to Skeat's soldiers, their job to rattle the walls with their bolts as the ladders were placed against the ramparts. It was those men who had startled the night with their noise and now the noise grew even louder. Some fool had tripped in the dark and thumped a crossbowman with a pavise , the huge shield behind which the crossbows were laboriously reloaded, and the crossbowman struck back, and suddenly the white rats were having a brawl in the dark. The defenders, naturally, heard them and started to hurl burning bales of straw over the ramparts and then a church bell began to toll, then another, and all this long before Thomas had even started across the mud.
    Sir Simon Jekyll, alarmed by the bells and the burning straw, shouted that the attack must go in now. 'Carry the ladders forward!' he bellowed. Defenders were running onto La Roche-Derrien's walls and the first crossbow bolts were spitting off the ramparts that were lit bright by the burning bales.
    'Hold those goddamn ladders!' Will Skeat snarled at his men, then looked at Thomas. 'What do you reckon?'
    'I think the bastards are distracted,' Thomas said.
    'So you'll go?'
    'Got nothing better to do, Will.'
    'Bloody white rats!'
    Thomas led his men onto the mud. The hurdles were some help, but not as much as he had hoped, so that they still slipped and struggled their way towards the great stakes and Thomas reckoned the noise they made was enough to wake King Arthur and his knights. But the defenders were making even more noise. Every church bell was clanging, a trumpet was screaming, men were shouting, dogs barking, cockerels were crowing, and the crossbows were creaking and banging as their cords were inched back and released.
    The walls loomed to Thomas's right. He wondered if the Blackbird was up there. He had seen her twice now and been captivated by the fierceness of her face and her wild black hair. A score of other