Free Rose Victory - Eagle Series by Eagle Lady Page A

worry overmuch, Ivan.  The beheading will not take long but the pounding, on the other hand, I believe will take a lot longer.”
    “How right you are, Stefan,” Roydon grinned wolfishly.  “And I am so going to enjoy it.”
    “Beheading?  Pounding?”   The young knight’s bemused blue eyes stared at Sir Stefan.
    “He is a raven, not a cock, Roy!  He keeps on repeating everything.”
    “A raven?” Ivan repeated, complete incomprehension etching his features into a slight frown.
    Both Roydon and Stefan burst into laughter while Ivan looked at the two men as if they had gone mad.  Then he turned and head high, he strutted off in the direction of the training field.  The two men laughed even harder as they followed him.
     
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    The boy trotted along beside the small cart that carried the old woman up the steep path towards the castle.  He stared in awe at the enormous structure that seemed to grow from the side of the mountain.  The boy had never seen anything like it.  Not that he ever went anywhere.  This was the first time that Nona, the old woman who had cared for him ever since he could remember, took him beyond the little village near to where they lived.  He remembered going to that village for the first time when he was six.  Bigger, older boys had taunted him, hit him and called him names he didn’t understand when he tried to join in their play.  The next time he returned with Nona, he retaliated.  Even though he was smaller, he bloodied their noses.  They never bothered him again.
    The only home the young boy knew was the little hut up on the wooded slopes of a far away mountain.  In the ten days it had taken them to walk here, he had never seen such an impressive fortress.  He saw plenty of tall stone donjons surrounded by walls and moats and even wooden towers on the long journey, but nothing like this.  The tall towers of the castle before him now seemed to reach for the sky, or for the two eagles that glided effortlessly above the turrets and battlements of the castle.  He liked eagles, the boy smiled behind the coarse scarf that obscured half his face.  When they arrived at this village early this morning Nona had told him to wear it just so.  She also gave him the soft hat that now fell over his face, leaving his features in deep shadow.  When Nona gave her instructions in that particular tone of voice he obeyed without question.
    The boy looked up at the eagles again.  Eagles were wild and free, they could play and soar in the air, go wherever they wanted.  There had been a pair o f eagles on the mountain where he lived and he would often spend hours just watching them.  The beauty of their flight sometimes made tears flow from his eyes and a lump form in his throat.
    Nona said that this would be where he would now live, he was glad that at least the eagles were here to welcome him.  When he asked Nona why they came here, she answered curtly that he came to meet his lord, the Earl of Eagle Rock.
    With that he had had to be content, for the old woman refused to answer any more questions.
    On arriving at the village, and observing the steep climb that reaching the castle entailed, the old woman promptly badgered a kind soul to let her ride up in his cart.  When Nona discovered that the pleasant, unassuming, red-haired man who drove the horse and cart happened to be the castle steward, the expression on her face turned shrewd and determined.
    “I wish you to take me to see the earl,” Nona stated categorically, using that particular tone of voice that the boy knew so well.
    “The steward looked back into the cart, a startled expression on his face.  “I am afraid that is not possible.  Travellers are only allowed into the Outer Bailey. ”
    “I need to see the earl on an important matter,” Nona continued, oblivious to the steward’s surprise that she presumed to insist on speaking to the nobleman.
    The steward again shook his head as he guided the horse over