Chapter Fifty-Five
MEN ARE SHOUTING, horses whinnying, and hooves thundering as hundreds of soldiers scramble toward a burning siege tower. Not wanting to risk standing out, I join them. The regent said she was going to rescind the order to fire the cannon and I can only hope that the king has followed her.
When I am well away from the tent, I lift my fingers to my mouth and whistle the way Aeva showed me. Because the air is already filled with the shouts of soldiers, the clash of swords, and the thud of galloping horses, I do not see my own horse drawing near until she is almost upon me. I launch myself onto her back and instantly feel more secure being upon a horse. My view is better as well, and I can now see over the heads of the foot soldiers.
The king is seated upon a horse, standing in the middle of a cluster of his cavalry, talking with his sister and the captain in charge of the remaining cannon. There is no way to worm my way through the scores of soldiers who now stand between me and my target.
I look around for the hellequin I rode out with. They linger half a bowshot away from the royal pavilion, waiting and looking. For me. Balthazaar in particular seems to scan the crowd more intensely than the others, his brooding gaze never straying far from the tent. Despair seeps into my bones, for every complication added to our simple plan diminishes his chances of returning to the city.
I look back at the king. Even though he is within range of my bow and we are both mounted, there are far too many other riders between us. I can barely see the top of his head. I do not know if my aim will be as true as Arduinna’s, and it would be too easy to miss and waste the arrow on one of the people who surround him. Then our only chance would be lost.
I consider my options. One cannon is still billowing smoke, and one of the scaling towers is on fire, with hundreds of French troops scrambling with buckets so the flames will not spread. The second scaling tower sits abandoned. Our secondary diversion has already launched from the sally port. A hundred mounted French knights are bearing down hard on the escaping sortie—in truth, only a score of hellequin.
They will not last much longer, not when they are that outnumbered.
I glance over at the second scaling tower and calculate its distance from the king. If I were upon it, I could easily see him. It is even possible he would be in range of my bow. The arrow would have a far better chance of striking him if it came from above.
If I can reach the platform.
And if I can avoid drawing the attention of every French archer in the camp.
Deciding this is my best option, I lightly press my heels against my horse’s sides and she leaps forward. I shut out all the noise and confusion on the field around me and focus on the platform that overhangs the wheels of the scaling tower. I grasp the front of the saddle to steady myself, pull my feet up beneath me, then—as I have a hundred times before—attune my body to every movement of the horse and begin to stand up. I have barely reached my full height when the platform is there, right in front of me, and I have no time to think but must simply react so that it does not knock me off the horse. I get my arms up just in time to grab on as my ribs connect solidly with the platform, and I give silent thanks for the two padded hauberks I wear. Then I scramble up on the platform, relieved when I feel the solidness of the wood beneath my feet. Afraid I have been spotted but not willing to stop and find out, I hurry to the beams and trellises of the scaling tower, step around one, and press myself close to it. Only then do I look back to check if I have been seen.
No one seems to have noticed. I glance over my shoulder at the city wall. From there I am in plain sight, but those on the field cannot see me. Or they have not bothered to look up. Either way, it is a small sliver of luck, and I will take it.
As I shrug my bow from my shoulder, I seek out the figure of the king. I can see him better now, and from this height, I should be able to shoot over the heads of his attendants and retainers. Except now that I am here and free from the press of bodies, I realize it is—just barely—too far, and the breeze is coming from the wrong direction. It blows toward me and away from the king, just enough to drag against the arrow, reducing its speed and range, making the shot impossible.
As I watch, his attendants step back. He is getting ready to dismount, and once he is off his horse and among the crowd, I will never be able to hit him.
There are only impossible options left to me. Even though I am not divine or even gifted by nature of my birth, it feels as if all I have struggled with my entire life, all that I have trained for, and all the skills I have practiced have brought me to this moment.
But I had also thought it impossible ever to leave the convent, or confront the abbess, or meet a god face to face, let alone fall in love with one. Impossible things do happen. But only if we make them.
I draw the arrow dipped in the duchess’s blood, then fit it to the bowstring. I lift my bow, the black feathers of the fletching tickling my cheek. Dear Arduinna, I pray as I sight down the arrow. Although I come newly to your service, please let me be your instrument in this. Guide this arrow, for the love you once bore him, for the love you might bear me as one marked by your own hand, but mostly to save all the innocents from the horror of war.
As I pray, the breeze dies down, as if the hand of the goddess is holding it back. But I do not take the shot, for still air will only gain me ten feet, and I need at least thirty. Moments later, I feel a brush of wind against my neck, sending the strands of my hair forward to tickle at my cheeks.
But still, I do not take the shot.
I wait until the breeze sighs past my face and streams down along my shoulder, until I see the grass on the field below me begin to ripple as the gust dances its way downrange. Then, when it is in the best position to carry the arrow forward, I release the bowstring.
In that same moment, ready to dismount at last, the king stands up in his stirrups so that he is ever so slightly higher than those around him. The arrow strikes him in the fleshy part of the arm—praise the saints that he is not wearing full armor—then disintegrates, falling to the ground in a sprinkling of black dust.
I stare in dismay. Is the arrow too ancient to withstand the impact? Or is it part of the magic of the arrow itself?
The king frowns and swipes at his arm. Whatever happened, he has felt it, and that is a good sign. He leans close to examine a rip in his sleeve, his fingers coming away red with blood. I close my eyes, my body going slack with relief.
But my relief is short-lived, for I have been spotted. A small force of French archers has seen me. They drop to their knees in the field and raise their crossbows. I throw myself behind the thick wooden support beam of the siege tower, pray they are not excellent shots, and reload my own bow.
A rapid series of thuds, like hammer blows, descends upon me, the force of them causing the wood to tremble slightly. But no arrow finds me. While the archers are reloading their crossbows, I peer around the beam, raise my bow, and fire a shot. I pick off one, but there are easily a dozen more, and I duck back behind the safety of my beam. As I draw another arrow, I realize there is no way I will be able to take on all of them.
They fire again, one of the quarrels whistling past my ear as it misses the beam. As soon as the volley is over, I turn and take another shot, eliminating one more. Only ten left.
A third volley of arrows pins me behind the beam again, but there are far fewer than before, far fewer than could be accounted for by the two stricken archers.
There is a flash of movement off to my left. I turn and see that two of the archers have pulled out of formation and are approaching me, one on either side. I will be able to hit one, but not both. Merde. I lift my bow to the one on the right, for he is closer to being able to fire. When my arrow buries itself in his eye socket, I turn to face the other archer. But too late; his crossbow is raised, sighted on me.