The Dragon and the George (20 page)

"Good enough, as far as it goes," said Giles. "But the gate won't stand unbarred for more than a moment, I think, even if it takes a dozen men together to cut down the wolf. And it'll take more than a moment or two for all of us, even at a dead run, to cross the open ground that I remember lies about Malvera Castle. Because it's from the nearest cover we must come, certainly. They'll have lookouts on the battlements against anyone creeping close, unseen."

"Shoot the lookouts first," Dafydd suggested.

The Welshman had been so silent that Jim had almost forgotten he was there. Now, they all looked at him.

"How, Master Dafydd?" Giles asked, ironically. "With head and shoulders only for target above the walls, and at a distance of close on half a mile? Clearly you've not seen Malvern Castle and the land it stands on."

"I can do it," said Dafydd.

Giles stared at the younger man for a long moment. Gradually he leaned forward, peering closely into Dafydd's calm face.

"By the Apostles," he said, softly. "I do think you mean that!"

"I know what it is that I can do," Dafydd said. "I would not say it, else."

"You do…" said Giles, and paused. "You do… and you'll never have to prove to me anything more about the bow and men of Wales. I know of no man living, or of any bowman in memory, able to make such a shoot and kill the men on watch. There'll be at least three, maybe four, of them on that front wall, or this Sir Hugh is no soldier; and you'll have to kill them all at near the same time, or the last one to fall will raise the alarm."

"I have said what I can do, look you," said Dafydd. "Let us pass on to other things."

Giles nodded.

"The thing at least seems possible," he agreed. He turned to Brian. "There'll be smaller details to keep us busy the rest of today and the evening. Twilight or dawn were the best times to surprise them; and dawn preferable, since it gives us as many hours of light after as we wish. So, we can take our time with the details. Meanwhile, let's agree on the pay for my lads and me. Sir Hugh's men will have some gear of weapons and armor which should come to us. In addition, it's only just that Malvern Castle should ransom itself—say, for a hundred marks of silver."

"If my lady chooses to reward you after she and hers are free," said Brian, "that's up to her. I've no authority or right to spend, what belongs to the de Chaneys."

"There won't be any de Chaneys if Sir Orrin's indeed dead among the heathen, and the Lady Geronde isn't rescued—and you need us for that!"

"Sorry," said Brian.

"All right, then…" The sun wrinkles around the corners of Giles's eyes grew deeper. "Let us have Sir Hugh to ransom. He'll have family or friends who'll pay for his safe return."

"No," said Brian. "I've said he's to die. And he is. Not only I, but the wolf's vowed it. And Aragh's a part of this, as much as you and your men."

"Don't think to take his throat from my teeth, Master outlaw!" Aragh snarled.

"For my lads to risk their lives to gain only some metal and war tools is not enough," said Giles. "We're a band of free men, and they won't follow me at that price, even if I ask it."

He and Brian argued for some little time, without getting to a solution.

"See here, Master Giles," said Brian, at last. "I've no hundred silver marks of my own to give you; but you'll have heard of me as one who pays his due. I'll give you my knight's word to speak of you and your men to my lady; and she's not the sort to let service go unrewarded. If, however, for some reason payment can't come from her, I'll myself undertake to pay you as I manage to gather that sum, or any part of it, until it's all accounted for. Damme, now, more than that I can't say!"

Giles shrugged. "I'll talk to my lads."

He got up from the table and went to gather his men into a huddle at a distance large enough to give their discussion privacy.

"Don't worry, Sir Brian," said Danielle, quietly, to the knight, "they'll agree."

In fact, in about fifteen minutes Giles came back and announced agreement. Behind his back, Danielle smiled at the others sitting around the table.

"Let's get on to the details, then," Giles went on, sitting once more. "Sir Brian, you can hardly wear sword and armor when you drive the provision cart into the castle. On the other hand, you're not likely to be able to do much against men-at-arms, to say nothing of Sir Hugh himself, if you're naked. How to get your weapons and armor into the castle? Perhaps Sir James could carry them in a bundle and drop them to you—but then, there would be the time necessary for you to don them, and once Sir Hugh's men had seen a dragon deliver them to you—"

"Once inside the keep, with only one or two armed men for escort to Sir Hugh," said Brian, "the wolf and I can kill them quietly and make a few minutes in which I can dress and arm myself. As for my weapons and armor, these will be with me in the cart. They'll be hidden under the provisions, and the wolf may lie on top of all."

"And no one," snarled Aragh, "will rummage beneath me to find them—I promise you." Giles nodded, slowly. "Still…" he said to Brian, "even if you appear the perfect innkeeper, or innkeeper's assistant, Sir Hugh and his men are bound to be wary, suspecting some attempt at rescue of your lady—"

"Ha!" said Dick, who had been standing in the doorway of his inn.

He turned about and vanished into the dark interior.

"What ails him?" said Giles, looking at the now-empty entrance to the building.

"As it happens," Brian said, "I'd thought myself about Sir Hugh suspecting me. I've got an answer to that worked out. To start with, I'll go to the castle this afternoon. Ride as close to the walls as I can safely, in armor, considering he'll have crossbows from the walls of Malvern Castle even if he failed to bring some with him; and challenge him to come out and settle the matter by single combat—"

"What silly sort of knight's trick is that?" broke in Giles. "By the scar on your face, you ought to know better than that, Sir Brian. Why should Sir Hugh come out to fight you, when he can simply stay safely in the castle and keep all he's got?"

"Exactly!" said Brian. "I count on him doing just that."

"But all you'll accomplish is letting him know you're outside Malvern Castle."

"Exactly. Then, when he sees the provision cart I'm driving closely pursued by a knight in armor on a white horse, he'll be all the more ready to swing wide the gates, let the cart in and believe the man driving it."

"And how's that to be arranged, unless you've two suits of armor and a twin to wear one of them? To say nothing of the fact—" Giles broke off, abruptly. "By the way, Sir Brian, does this Sir Hugh know you by sight?"

"He does," said Brian, grimly.

"Then what if he's on the wall when you drive up? Do you think rough clothes'll keep him from recognizing you?"

"Dick Innkeeper has a false beard among some stuff left here by several strolling players who could not pay their shot," said Brian. "With that to cover most of my face, I stand a chance; and beyond that—well, I have to take some risks."

"A beard?" Giles hesitated. "That's a thing I hadn't thought of. This innkeeper's a man of possessions. It might work."

"A man with a large cellar," said Brian. He paused and listened, cocking his head toward the doorway behind him. "And here, I think, comes the answer to your objection of a moment since…"

A thumping sound came from inside the inn. All turned to see a shape materialize in the doorway, filling it. It was a shining figure in full plate armor, with beaked helm and closed visor; and in one mailed fist it carried a mace.

"By God!" Giles exclaimed, sitting back down on the bench, picking up his jack and drinking deeply from it. Like all the rest, except Brian, he had half risen to his feet at the sight of the figure in the doorway. "You don't want to startle an old bowman so, Master Innkeeper—if it is indeed you, in that suit. You might have had an arrow through you before you were recognized!"

"That was my own thought, also," said Dafydd.

"Your pardon, Sir James, lady, and my masters," boomed Dick's voice hollowly inside the helm. "As Sir Brian has just said, my cellar is large. And an inn acquires many things from its various guests over a pair of lifetimes—for my father kept it here, before me. But can I not pass for a knight, think you? Particularly on horseback and from a distance?"

"Hmm," said Giles, getting up again to examine the innkeeper more closely. "I'd counsel you not to wear that assortment of metal in actual battle, Master Innkeeper. Now that I look close, you've got parts of four different suits upon you, none of which fits as armor ought. Can you raise your right arm above your head?"

Dick tried. The arm creaked halfway to shoulder height and stopped with a clank.

"Yes," said Giles, "I thought so. Your couter on that arm is overlarge, and your pauldron too small for a man of your shoulder. But from a distance… from a distance, and sitting on a horse, you might pass."

"Good," Brian said, briskly. "Something to eat then, Dick, and I'll ride to the castle to present Sir Hugh with my challenge."

"I'll go along with you," Jim offered. "I'd like you to point out where you want me to land inside the walls."

"I'll go, too," said Giles, "along with six of my lads, who'll each lead five to eight other bows against some particular part of the castle, once we're inside. We all need to look Malvern over and make our plans."

"And I," said Dafydd, "will have a glance at those walls where the lookouts may be standing."

"We might as well make it a bloody picnic," grunted Brian. "Anybody else want to come along, eh? How about you, Sir wolf?"

"What for?" Aragh replied. "I'll go in with you and Gorbash; and stay with you, killing all I find, until it's over and I go out again. That takes no study or planning."

The meal was served, as Brian requested; and a little more than an hour later all those who had spoken about going stood in the cover of a thick clump of beech trees, looking out at the broad stretch of cleared ground around Malvern Castle. Brian, armored and with spear upright in hand, rode his white warhorse forward at a walk to within perhaps sixty or eighty yards of the castle gate. There he stopped, and shouted to the heads whom those in the woods could see showing above the merlons and crenels of the battlements.

"He makes a brave show," said one of the outlaws.

"It's a custom of knights to do so, Jack," replied Giles, dryly.

"You were not wrong indeed, Master Giles," said Dafydd. The Welsh bowman was shading his eyes with one hand, peering at the heads on the walls. "It is, in fact, close to half of one of your English miles. But at dawn the wind should fall, and with no strong cross-breeze I see no trouble with up to six of them. I will mark the nearest crenel to each steel cap I see, then first shoot one watchman and wait for the others to look out, which they will surely all do when they see their comrade struck dead, and no one in view in the open ground. I will have five other arrows stuck in the ground before me, and I will put those in the air so close together that the five looking out will die almost at once—Hold, the knight speaks!"

In fact, Brian had begun to issue his challenge. A headgear brighter than the others had appeared on the battlements and the individual wearing it had called out something. Brian was responding. The fact that he was facing away from those in the forest edge caused a good share of what he said to be lost, even to Jim's sharp dragon-ears. Those words that Jim heard, however, were nearly all obscenities. He had not realized Brian had such a command of colorful language.

"Now, Sir Hugh answers," said Giles, for Brian had fallen silent and the voice that had shouted earlier was making itself heard again—though none of its words were understandable to those at the forest's edge. "It'll be Sir Hugh, beyond a doubt, because of the high crest and visor of the helm that takes the light so. That's a headpiece for horseback."

"Master Giles," asked Dafydd, looking sideways at the outlaw, "is it that you ever wore such a helm and armor yourself, now?"

Giles glanced back for a second.

"If you ever do become one of the family," he said, "you can ask me that again. Otherwise, I don't hear such questions."

"Now come the bolts," commented the outlaw who Giles had addressed as Jack. "Best he turn and ride now. There—he does so!"

Brian had turned his charger and was galloping away from the castle.

"Can the crossbows get through his armor with their bolts at that distance?" asked Jim, fascinated.

"No," said Giles. "But they can cripple his horse—and that's a beast worth twenty farms, if it's worth one. Ah, they've missed…"

A swarm of what looked like little black match-sticks against the blue of the sky was descending around Brian and his galloping steed. Jim was puzzled about how Giles could be sure the quarrels from the crossbows had all missed, when most of them seemed still to be in the air. A matter of the trained eye, he supposed. In fact, by the time he finished his thought the missiles had fallen either behind or to one side or the other of the running horse.

"And that's that!" said Jack, spitting on the ground. "Sir knight'll be in the woods with us here before they can rewind those engines for a second shot. Give me two of our better men and the horse would have been down within ten strides—and the knight, too, with any luck."

Dafydd, leaning on his great bow, looked aside and down at Jack. For a second it looked as if he would say something, but then he turned his attention back to the approaching Sir Brian.

"Good, Master Welshman," said Giles, softly. He had been watching the tall young man. "A slow tongue indicates a wise head."

Dafydd said nothing.

In the next moment Brian came riding into the shadows of the forest and pulled his snorting charger to a stop. He wheeled the animal around, pushing up his visor.

"Half thought they might make a sally after me," he said. "But I see not."

He swung down from the saddle with surprising lightness, considering the weight of metal he was carrying.