Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (33 page)

Under other circumstances, Meg would have
been out there nursing the fallen, regardless of her skill, but at
the moment, the forty lost and scared twenty-first-century people
were the higher priority. If Mark took on their welfare long-term,
he would be occupied for many months to come and be doing them all
a great service.

“
So, Mark,” Cassie said.
“What do you want us to do?”

Mark cleared his throat and surveyed the
people on the bus. They’d quieted in the last few minutes and now
watched Mark intently. Cassie raised her eyebrows, still waiting,
but with a smile hovering around her lips.

Mark took in a breath and handed the pen and
notepad to Cassie. “The job, I guess.” He nodded to the crowd
before him. “Let’s start with everybody’s names.”

Chapter
Twenty-one

November 1291

Callum

W
hile the bus had been crossing that black expanse, Callum had
spared a single moment for regret. But almost immediately his sense
of responsibility had kicked in, along with an unexpected wild and
irrepressible joy. The feeling had startled him with its intensity
and left no time for fear. He hadn’t admitted until the bus crashed
into the battlefield how very much he’d missed the Middle
Ages.

He wasn’t much pleased about arriving in a
bus full of modern people, however. The others were trying to be
matter-of-fact about it, but that was going to take them only so
far. There were elderly people on the bus, college students, and
obnoxious Americans. Callum counted six kids ranging in age from
three to fifteen. Anna and Bronwen, wherever she was at the moment,
were going to have their hands full dealing with whatever medical
issues they’d brought with them.

And they had just given David yet another
headache he didn’t need.

Callum hadn’t even begun to think about what
he’d left behind in Cardiff: a destroyed courthouse and City Hall;
MI-5 and the Project in disarray; and a world blown all to hell. He
had meant to leave it behind, but not like this. He’d meant to say
goodbye.

With the help of Samuel, who was larger even
than Mike, Jeffries and Cobb dragged the ugly American out of the
bus. The dead men who lay not only under the bus but all around it
had the desired effect of shutting Mike up the instant he saw
them.

As they hauled him across the field to where
Ieuan and some of his men had corralled those of Madog’s men who
weren’t overtly injured, Callum took the opportunity to quiz Cobb
about his credentials. As it turned out, he’d served in Callum’s
former unit and was coming off a stint in the Middle East. He
peripherally knew Jeffries. That shouldn’t have been surprising
since the community of veterans in Cardiff was small.

Madog’s men sat in rows with their hands on
their heads. The fog that had covered everything twenty minutes ago
was burning off, leaving mist behind. Heedless of the wet grass,
they plunked Mike down at the end of one row. Samuel stood over
him. He’d taken up his role as Callum’s lieutenant without missing
a beat, though his eyes had a wild look to them that belied his
calm exterior.

“
Who’s this?” Ieuan
gestured to Mike. He hadn’t blinked at the appearance of Cobb or
Jeffries. Callum wouldn’t have blamed Ieuan if he’d at least
wondered more about Jeffries, whose coloring was rare indeed in
medieval Wales.

“
His name is Mike,” Callum
said, clasping Ieuan’s proffered forearm and clapping him on the
shoulder with his other hand.

Ieuan raised his eyebrows.

“
That’s all I know about
him except that he spoke insultingly to Anna and Meg and implied
that he might hit them.”

That prompted a growl of anger from Ieuan,
as Callum knew it would.

In the past, Ieuan and Callum had
communicated in a hodgepodge of English and Welsh but, in Callum’s
absence, Ieuan’s Middle English had become a thousand times better
than Callum’s Welsh. Now, for the benefit of Jeffries and Cobb,
Callum switched temporarily to modern English. “Lord Ieuan is one
of King David’s chief advisors and his wife’s brother.”

“
What language were you
speaking with him?” Cobb said.

“
That’s 1291 English,”
Callum said.

Cobb’s face blanched, but then he got his
expression under control. His hands went behind his back. Callum
recognized the stance immediately. Cobb had just put on his mission
face.

Callum nodded his understanding. “This is
just another mission. Treat it as such.”

“
Yes, sir,” Cobb
said.

Though Callum had harbored doubts about
Jeffries, his fellow agent had been in the game from the moment he
and Callum had abandoned his car, so Callum kept his gaze on Cobb.
“You could return to the bus now if you like, or you could stay
with me. I myself am an advisor to the king and must speak to him
now that we’ve dealt with Mike.”

“
Was King David the kid who
got on the bus right after it crashed?” Cobb said.

“
Yes,” Callum said, “and he
hasn’t been a kid for a long time.”

“
Yes, sir,” Cobb said. “If
it’s all right with you, I’ll stick.”

Before turning away, Callum lifted a hand to
Ieuan. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you.”

“
Glad to have you back
where you belong,” Ieuan said. “Where’s my pizza?”

Callum laughed. “We didn’t bring any with
us, but we did bring the next best thing: ingredients. By next
year, you might be able to make your own.”

Ieuan smiled. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Callum stepped close to Samuel. “While I
confer with the king, could you go back to the bus? Cassie is there
with Queen Meg and Princess Anna. I’d like someone I can trust
protecting them. With all this—” he gestured to the chaos of the
battlefield, “—anything could happen.”

“
Of course, my
lord.”

Callum gripped Samuel’s shoulder. “It’s good
to see you, Samuel.”

Samuel brought his hand up and gripped
Callum’s upper arm, neither man finding it possible to speak.

Callum cleared his throat and turned back to
Cobb and Jeffries, who’d been following their conversation without
comprehension. “Come with me, both of you.”

Mike had been watching them too, though
they’d all moved too far away for him to hear what they’d been
saying. Now, he called out, “What about me? You can’t leave me
here!”

Callum looked back at him. “Before long, you
will be given the opportunity to rejoin your companions from the
bus. In the meantime, I suggest you consider your behavior and
modify it to reflect your current circumstances.”

Mike’s expression grew confused.

Jeffries leaned in. “I’m not sure he
understood what you said, sir.”

“
He’ll learn, or he won’t,”
Callum said.

Cobb, Jeffries, and Callum strode across the
stubble field towards David, who was meeting with Carew and Math.
David saw him coming, and even though they’d greeted each other
earlier, David took two steps towards Callum and then embraced him,
lifting him off his feet in the process, which was no small
feat.

Carew and Math came after him, grinning
too.

“
I hadn’t realized what a
calming influence on our young king you’d had until you’d gone,”
Carew said, clasping Callum’s forearm in greeting. “It’s good to
see you again.”

“
It’s good to be back.” As
Callum spoke to Carew, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at
David. Math, of course, knew that David was from the twenty-first
century. Ieuan had been there. But Carew wasn’t yet party to that
level of truth. And then Callum decided that it didn’t matter that
he wasn’t. Whether they called the place they’d come from the
twenty-first century or Avalon, it was a different world. It might
as well
be
Avalon.
The double-decker bus sitting in the middle of the field was proof
enough of that. Callum could feel it rising up behind him, drawing
everyone’s eyes, even as they directed them away again, as if they
were having trouble looking directly at it.

Putting a brave face on what had to pass for
the truth, Callum looked at it with Carew. David, however, was
looking at Cobb and Jeffries. Callum had forgotten them in the few
moments it had taken to greet David.

He gestured with one hand. “Sire, may I
introduce you to Peter Cobb and Darren Jeffries.”

David stuck out his hand to each man in
turn, and they shook. “Sir,” they both said.

“
Sire,” Callum corrected
them. “‘My lord’ in a pinch.”

They bowed their heads and repeated in
unison, “Sire.”

David smirked and clapped each man on the
shoulder. “You’ll do just fine.” He looked past them to the bus. “I
can’t say the same about everyone else.”

“
We put one of the
Americans—Mike—with Madog’ defeated soldiers,” Callum said. “I’m
hoping it will force some sense into him.”

“
What about those guys?”
David pointed to where Anna, wearing jeans and the purple parka
she’d borrowed from Cassie’s aunt, was conferring with three modern
people and three medieval people.

“
Those are medical people.”
Callum decided not to worry about what people might think about the
oddity of Anna’s clothing.

And then he had more important concerns.

Three riders appeared from over a rise at
the south end of the field. David wasn’t wearing his helmet with
its red plume, but the lead rider must have recognized him even
from that distance because he made a beeline towards him. “What’s
this?” Callum stepped in front of David, automatically resuming his
role of protector.

David put a hand on his shoulder. “Harlech,
I hope.”

Callum gave him a questioning look. He
hadn’t known there was a problem with Harlech, but the messenger
soon answered his unspoken question before David had to.

“
Sire!” The lead rider
threw himself off his horse and went down on one knee before David.
“I bring word from Harlech. We are besieged by—” His mouth dropped
open as he finally noticed the great looming bus behind the
king.

“
By Madog ap Llywelyn,”
Carew said dryly. “We know.”

“
Did Sir Evan send you?”
David said.

The man managed to get his expression under
control, though his eyes kept straying towards the bus. “Yes, my
lord. He requests aid to relieve the siege.”

David frowned. “Has there been no sign of
the messengers we sent to you?”

“
I left Harlech by sea in
the night,” the man said. “We had not received word from you by
then.”

“
That’s no surprise, I
suppose.” Math bent his head to the man, who remained kneeling
because David hadn’t given him leave to rise. “Are our men
mustering at Maentwrog?”

“
Yes, my lord. We rested
briefly there. They are waiting for the king.”

By ‘king’, he meant Llywelyn, not David.
Callum felt the medieval world settling in around him once again.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been gone for two years, but more that
he’d put on an old shirt that he’d unearthed from the bottom of a
trunk. It was foreign and familiar at the same time.

David surveyed the field. “It might feel
like this war is over, but it isn’t. We need to gather every man
capable of riding.”

Nobody questioned that decision, even with
the long night they must already have had to have fought a battle
here at dawn.

Carew dismissed the messenger and his
companions with a wave of his hand.

They bowed and headed for the river where
horses had been picketed. While the companions had been talking,
Llywelyn’s men had swung into action like a well-oiled machine—not
to prepare for battle, but to manage the aftermath. Cooking fires
were already burning. Men were hauling water from the river, and
those who were healthy were moving among the fallen, bending to aid
those who could be saved. Villagers from Beddgelert and Aberglaslyn
were present too. At times like this, the Welsh were one big
family, and if Callum knew David at all, Madog’s injured men would
be receiving the same care as Llywelyn’s own.

“
If I am to serve you, my
lord, I need armor and a horse,” Callum said.

David’s expression turned grave. “Sadly,
neither should be difficult to acquire, even in your size. I need
you to stay here, though.”

“
Stay here?” Callum
said.

“
You made one kind of
example of Mike, Callum. Cobb and Jeffries will be of another
kind.” David stepped closer. “This is a nightmare. These people are
stuck here forever. Every member of our family is finally here by
choice.
Every one
.
But we have to acclimate forty people who aren’t here by choice and
can never, ever return to what they knew.”

“
Conscripting them might
not be the best idea we’ve ever had,” Callum said.

David’s eyes went to Cobb and Jeffries, who
were standing side by side like cardboard cutouts, with their feet
spread and their hands behind their backs. “Can either of you
ride?”

“
Yes, sire.” They spoke
together, but Callum saw a flicker of unease in Jeffries’ eyes that
might indicate he wasn’t telling the exact truth.

“
This is the deep end of
the pool,” David said.

“
Sink or swim, sir,” Cobb
said.

Callum nodded, understanding as few
could.

David spun around and headed back to Math
and Carew, moving with them to mount his horse in preparation for
the next stage of the war. Callum didn’t feel dismissed. David was
telling him that he believed him competent to whatever task faced
him, and he needed to be getting on with it.