“So this was after Gunthar had left for Vervenna?”
“Aye. They missed each other by less than an hour.”
“What happened then? Come on, tell me, Clodio, don’t make me squeeze every word out of you.”
“I’m telling you, damnation! I just can’t talk as fast as you can think. When Theuderic heard about the King and then found out that Gunthar had gone a-hunting for Queen Vivienne, he was angry—wild angry. Next thing I knew he had reassembled all his men—they were already dismissed and scattered by then, you understand, not expecting to be riding out again that day—plus every other able-bodied soldier in the place, and went thundering off to Vervenna at the head of a mixed force, forty horsemen and the last half century of infantry. As he rode off across the bridge he shouted to me that I was to be in charge until he returned. That was the last I saw of him.”
“And you have heard nothing from any of them since? That was yesterday.”
“Not a word. And I know well when it was.”
I looked about me, seething with frustration. “I cannot believe they left you here with no more than a holding crew. Even so, why is the bridge down? Doesn’t that strike you as being unwise?”
Clodio flushed, and his deformed torso writhed in what amounted to a shrug. “Aye, but I didn’t know how to raise it.”
I blinked at him in astonishment. “You didn’t know how to raise it? You pull it up and lock it in place, Clodio. It is not difficult to raise a bridge.”
“Mayhap not.” Clodio was beginning to sound resentful now. “I’m not a fool, Clothar. But that bridge is new and it’s Gunthar’s pride and joy. He was there, hovering over it like a crow over a dead rat at every stage of its building and he was very jealous about protecting the secrets of its construction and its operation. No one has been allowed to touch it or operate it other than his men since it was built. From what they told us, it has all kinds of new and wondrous bits and parts to it and only people trained to handle it are allowed close to the workings. I’ve never seen the machinery being used and neither has anyone else who is left here in the castle, so I didn’t want to take the risk of breaking or damaging something and earning Gunthar’s wrath for my troubles. That’s too easy to do at the best of times. And so I decided to leave the whoreson as it was. Besides, I was expecting everyone to return at any moment. They’re only supposed to be five miles away.”
I bit down hard on the angry response that was filling my mouth and forced myself to count silently from one to ten, aware that from Clodio’s viewpoint he had done nothing wrong and reminding myself that we had had no real indication, thus far, that anything was wrong in any way. Finally I sighed.
“Damnation, Clodio, there is no great difficulty in turning a windlass, no matter how newly built it is. All it requires is brute strength, shoulders on a crossbar, and muscled legs to push the thing around. Call back eight of those people you just dismissed and we’ll raise the bridge right now. Then we’ll go inside and see what remains to be done there.”
Almost before I finished speaking, Clodio was waving to the wall-top guards, who were now all watching us very closely, and I heard voices raised up there as someone relayed the orders Clodio had shouted up to them. As soon as he turned back to me, I laid my hand on his shoulder to soften the impact of my next words, should he decide to object to them.
“As of this moment, Clodio, I am relieving you of duty and responsibility for the safety of the fortress.”
He grunted and nodded his head, once. “Good. I wish you joy of it. Leave me in peace to do what I must do, that’s all I ask. I’ll die protecting people in my care if I have to, but I have no love for bidding others die at my orders. Apart from the women and children—and God knows we have more than enough of those—there are less than forty men left in the entire place and none of them are fit to fight. Not a man of them. They’re all like me, cripples and old men. All the fighting men are out, most of them with the King and Chulderic and Samson. Another group, almost as big, is on the eastern borders, under Theuderic and Ingomer. Then there’s a score more with Brach and the Lady Vivienne, the remaining cavalry squadrons with Gunthar, and the last of the garrison with Theuderic.”
“So what does the full garrison strength stand at nowadays?”
Again I recognized Clodio’s malformed version of a shrug. “Couldn’t tell you,” he said. “Not off the top of my head. Not my responsibility to know things like that. But let’s see. The King and Chulderic took nigh on five hundred with them on the western sweep, and Theuderic took almost as many to the east, although his men were joined by Lord Ingomer’s people and by another contingent, mainly infantry, raised from among the chiefs of the eastern marches. So Theuderic would have more than a thousand at his beck in the east, for it’s a bigger territory with fewer people but more ground to cover than the western borders … but of that thousand, say he had between four and five hundreds from here in Genava. Then Gunthar had his guards—three score of them here, another three score out with Theuderic but under the command of Chlodomer, Gunthar’s right-hand man. The people Theuderic brought back with him are already counted, but then he took away the remaining foot soldiers from the garrison, say forty of those. So what does that give us? Nigh on eleven hundred … more than a thousand men, give or take a score or two. That’s about the right of it.” I nodded, smiling. “An impressive estimate, my friend, for one whose responsibilities have no connection with such things.”
“Aye, right.” He inclined his head, acknowledging my praise. “But where does that leave us?”
I glanced at Ursus. “It leaves us with a bridge down that ought to be up. Let’s change that, for a start.”
Clodio began shouting orders to the men he had ordered down from the battlements above, and while he was instructing them, Ursus turned to me, nodding toward the bridge. “That is excellent,” he said, “and all very well. Raise the bridge and keep the wicked ones out. Excellent precaution. But it has flaws. What about Beddoc?”
“What about him?”
“He’ll be here soon, probably within the hour.” He saw from my expression that I had no notion of what he was suggesting, and so he continued. “You want to keep him outside the gates and away from Gunthar? That’s understandable, except that Gunthar is out there as well, on the far side of the bridge.”
I stared at him, hearing his words and understanding what he was saying, but completely incapable of responding. He spoke on, ignoring my open-mouthed silence. “So, will you keep Beddoc outside the gates to wait for Gunthar’s arrival, or let him inside, knowing that he is Gunthar’s man and therefore your enemy?”
“And knowing, too, that once he is inside we have no one here to withstand him or to influence his behavior,” I added, finally finding my voice.
“Exactly.” Ursus looked at me, one eyebrow raised, and almost, but not quite smiling. “You catch up quickly, no matter how far you lag behind at the outset. I think you’ve grasped the gist of the problem.”
I nodded, slowly. “Aye, but not the solution.”
“There may not be one.” He turned around in a wide arc, gazing at the layout of the castle’s defenses. “Certes, if you raise the bridge no one comes in, but we shut out our friends as well as our enemies. We’ll hold Gunthar and his ambitions at bay, safe outside the walls, but Queen Vivienne will be out there with him, as will your two other brothers and the men who ride with them. And then will come the arrival of Samson and Chulderic. An entire carnival, with good and evil ranged on opposing sides, and all on the lands outside your gates. Do you enjoy the thought of that?”