“I see you have recovered from killing my man back in Warwick,” he said. “But you did not kill Emred. Did you recognize him?”
He was gesturing to the henchman. Kristoph knew the man by sight but not by name. Returning to his bread, he nodded. “I recognized him.”
Alary watched him eat the bread like a lion devouring its prey. It was rather exciting to watch; it gave Alary a sense of power knowing he could starve this man so. Perhaps he couldn’t physically defeat him, and mentally he hadn’t been able to break him, but he could starve him. He could cause the man to eat as if he’d never eaten in his life. To Alary, that was a small victory.
“I have a need to speak with you, Norman,” he finally said. “There are things you should know.”
Kristoph was hesitant to ask the obvious question. He knew Alary was expecting him to. Therefore, he would not. “Oh?” he said.
He didn’t seem concerned, which caused Alary to smile thinly. “We are nearing Kidderminster,” he said. “By late tomorrow, we shall be at my fortress of Tenebris.”
Kristoph had suspected they were drawing near the end of this journey simply because of the increased pace of travel. “I see,” he said. “And once we reach there, then what?”
Alary leaned on the edge of the wagon. “I will not release you if that is what you are asking,” he said. “I still consider you something of value even though you’ve yet to provide me with any real worth.”
“Then why keep me?”
Alary shrugged. “I have told you why,” he said. “If I keep you, the Normans are less likely to force me to their will. News travels fast. I heard last night whilst we supped in the small town of Redditch that the Normans were marching on London. Everyone is fleeing north to get away from them and I know that, sooner or later, they will come north. When they do, you will be my assurance that they will leave me in peace.”
Kristoph was near the end of his bread so he wasn’t hesitant to speak his mind at this point. “I told you that it would not matter. They will come and they will take your fortress whether or not I am your prisoner. Do you honestly believe they would allow one knight to divert their plans of conquest?”
Alary didn’t like that answer. “You seem to have little faith in your worth.”
Kristoph was becoming annoyed. “That is because I have no worth in the grand scheme of things,” he snapped. “Did you really think William of Normandy would bow down to your pathetic plans? By all that is holy, if you are going to kill me, then kill me. If you are going to fight me, then fight me. I have never seen such a foolish excuse for a man in my entire life, so if you are going to do something to me, then get on with it. I grow weary of your idiocy.”
Alary wasn’t used to being spoken to like that. In a fit of fury, he reached out and slapped Kristoph across the face. It was hardly a blow and Kristoph’s head didn’t even move from the force of it, but the sharp sound reverberated.
“I hold your life in my hands and you speak to me in such ways?” he hissed. “You are stupid, Norman. Stupid!”
Kristoph was hoping to provoke the man into unchaining him just so they could have a fair fight. At least if he was free, he would have a chance of survival. He wouldn’t fight; he would run, and they wouldn’t be prepared for it.
Challenge him!
“Mayhap,” he said, “but you are afraid of me.”
“How dare you say that!”
“Then why do you keep me chained?”
“Because you are my prisoner!”
Kristoph cocked a smug eyebrow. “Because you are afraid of what I will do if you remove these chains. That makes you a coward. Remove these restraints and prove to me that I am wrong.”
Alary was so angry that his face was turning red. He landed a few more slaps on Kristoph’s face.
“I do not chain you because I am afraid of you,” Alary snarled. “I chain you because you are an animal and deserve to be chained. When we reach Tenebris, I am going to throw you in the vault and let you rot there!”
That wasn’t exactly what Kristoph had in mind but he took heart in the fact that in order to move him to the vault, they would have to unchain him from this wagon bed. Moving under his own power meant he still had a chance to run, a chance to escape Alary to freedom. It was a chance he was willing to take because he knew that once he entered the vault, the odds of him leaving alive were stacked against him.
“We shall see,” was all he said.
Enraged, Alary ordered him chained up again as the man headed back to his horse. He wanted to make it to Kidderminster by nightfall so that the following day, it would be a short trip to Tenebris where he would lock himself in. Kristoph knew this because he could hear Alary shouting to his men, declaring that there was no army in the world that could breach his walls.
They were the ravings of a madman.
As the wagon lurched forward to continue their journey, Kristoph found himself looking at the landscape, wondering where Gaetan and his brothers were but knowing in his heart that they were out there somewhere. He hoped they made their move soon, wherever they were, because once he was inside the walls of Tenebris, it would make his rescue considerably more difficult. If he couldn’t escape before they were able to help him, then the situation would be dire, indeed.
If you are going to make your move, Gate, now is the time!
“Your assistance against the Men of Bones was appreciated more than you can know,” Antillius said. “You and your men are, indeed, great warriors.”
It was early morning in the village of the Tertium as Antillius and Gaetan stood near one of the big outdoor fire pits where men were warming their morning meal or simply warming their bones. It had rained off and on most of the night, even after the Homines Ossium had been repelled, and only now were people awakening to assess the damage left by the raiders.
Gaetan had only gotten a few hours of sleep himself, staying awake until just a few hours before dawn to patrol the village and ensure that the raiders wouldn’t return. Ghislaine had been moved back to her hut with Jathan to stand guard over her while Aramis had remained with Antillius’ daughters because the trio seemed to have been targeted by the raiders. But the rest of Gaetan’s men had patrolled the village as Gaetan did, well into the night.
This morning, the outlook was a little brighter and the damage seemingly minimal. Gaetan had just finished off a massive slab of bread slathered with the pork and wine sauce from the previous night, but he had steered clear of the “mad Mercian beer”, as he called it. He had consumed the apple drink, sweet as it was, but at least it didn’t make his head swim. Belly full, Gaetan now stood with Antillius, listening to the man’s praise.