‘You can’t be serious,’ the captain said. ‘He’s the son of a great lord. He may be on the outs with his family just now, but they’ll forgive him soon enough. His kind doesn’t marry farm sluts.’
‘She was a virgin a few days ago,’ the Abbess said. ‘Calling her a whore doesn’t make her one. Nor does it make you stand any better in my sight.’
‘Fine,’ said the captain. ‘She’s a fine upstanding lass with impeccable morals and my nasty squire got her to bed. I’ll see to it that he pays for it – both morally and financially. Now can we please talk about the true threat here?’
‘Maybe we already are. So far, no creature of the Wild has done so much harm as your men have done,’ the Abbess said.
‘Untrue, my lady. I swear on my word: I will see to it justice is done for this young woman. I confess that she looked quite unsluttish this morning, and very young. I am embarrassed my squire has acted in such a way.’
‘Like master, like man,’ the Abbess said.
The captain clenched his fists. He mastered himself, unclenched them, and steepled his hands instead.
‘I think you are avoiding the topic. Sister Hawisia was murdered. Her murder was planned. Perhaps she was the target – perhaps you were. The daemon that did the killing had inside help. The men who helped the daemon then fell out among themselves and one killed the other, burying his body on the west road. Shortly after, we arrived. We found a wyvern and killed it. Gelfred and I found a pair of daemons; one died and the other escaped. We scouted and found an army forming under a powerful sorcerer. As of this morning, the woods around us are full of enemies and the road to Albinkirk is cut. Albinkirk has fallen to the Wild, and I put it to you, my lady, that you know more than you are telling me. What is really going on here?’
She turned her head away. ‘I know nothing,’ she said, in a tone that merely showed that she was a poor liar.
‘You cut down the sacred grove? Your farmers are raping dryads? By all you hold holy, my lady Abbess, if you do not help me understand this, we’re all going to die here. This is a full invasion, the first that has been seen since your youth. Where have they come from? Has the north fallen? Why has the Wild come here in such strength? I grew up with the Wall. I’ve been to Outwaller villages, eaten their food. There are far more than we admit – tens of thousands. If they have come to support the Wild directly, we will be swept away in the sea of foes. So what exactly is happening here?’
The Abbess took a breath as if to steady herself, succeeded, and raised an eyebrow. ‘Really, Captain, I have no more idea than you. The actions of the savages are beyond me. And the Wild is just a name we give to an amalgam of evil, is it not? Is it not sufficient that we are holy, and seek to preserve ourselves, our God, and our way of life? And they seek to take that from us?’
The captain met her gaze and shook his head. ‘You know more than that. The Wild is not so simple.’
‘It hates us,’ the Abbess said.
‘That’s no reason to mass against you now,’ replied the captain.
‘There’s burned trees and new fields out east toward Albinkirk,’ Sauce said.
The Abbess turned, as if to reprimand the woman, but shrugged. ‘We have to expand as our people expand. More peasants to feed required more fields.’
The captain looked at Sauce. ‘How many burned trees? I don’t remember them.’
‘They’re not right along the road. I don’t know – ask Gelfred.’
‘They go all the way to Albinkirk,’ the Abbess admitted. ‘We agreed to burn the forest between us and bring in more farmers. What of it? It was the old king’s policy, and we need that land.’
The captain nodded. ‘It was the old king’s policy, and it led to the Battle of Chevin.’ He rubbed his beard. ‘I hope that one of my messengers made it to the king, because right now we’re in a whole heap of shit.’
Michael came in with cups of wine. He flushed very red when he saw the Abbess.
The captain glanced at him. ‘All officers, Michael. Get Ser Milus from the Bridge Castle too.’
Michael sighed, served the wine, and left again.
The Abbess pursed her lips. ‘You wouldn’t abandon us,’ she said, but it was more a question than a statement.
The captain was looking through his window to the west. ‘No, my lady, I wouldn’t. But you must have known there would be a response.’
She shook her head, anger warring with frustration. ‘By Saint Thomas and Saint Maurice, Captain, you task me too heavily! I did no more than was my right, even my duty. The Wild was beaten – or so I’m told by both the sheriff and the king. Why should I not expand my holdings at the cost of some old trees? And when the killing started – Captain, understand that I had no idea that the killings were connected, not until-’
The captain leaned forward. ‘Let me tell you what I think,’ he said. ‘Hawisia unmasked a traitor, and died for it.’
The Abbess nodded. ‘It is possible. She asked to go to the outholdings when, ordinarily, I would have gone.’
‘She was your chancellor? The post Sister Miram holds now?’ he asked.
She shook her head. ‘No. She had more power then the other sisters, but she was too young to hold an office.’
‘And she was widely disliked,’ Sauce said.
The Abbess flinched, but she didn’t deny it.
The captain had his head in his hands. ‘Never mind. We’re here now and so are they. It’s my guess that the Jacks, or the daemons, or both, were going to kill you and seize the Abbey in a coup de main; Hawisia ruined it all somehow, either by confronting the traitor or by taking your place. We may never know.’ He shook his head.
The Abbess looked at her hands. ‘I loved her,’ she said.
The Red Knight knelt by her and put his hands on hers. ‘I swear I will do my best to hold this fortress and save you. But, my lady, I still feel you know something more. There is something personal about all this, and you still have a traitor within your walls.’ When she didn’t answer him, he got up from his knee. She kissed his cheek, and he smiled. He handed her a cup of wine.
‘Not your usual contract, ser knight,’ she said.
‘Damn it, my lady, this is my usual contract: it’s a war between rival barons, except that this time the rival baron can’t be negotiated with or turned from his path or simply murdered, and they are all good ways of avoiding a knock-down fight. But in every other respect you and the Wild are feuding border lords. You’ve taken a piece of his land, and in turn he’s raiding you and threatening your home.’
As the captain spoke, his officers trickled in – Bad Tom, Ser Milus, Ser Jehannes, Wilful Murder, and Bent. The others were either asleep or on patrol.
The Abbess was brought a chair.
‘Park wherever you can,’ the captain said. ‘I’ll try and make this brief. I’d say we’re almost surrounded, and our enemy hasn’t bothered to build trench lines and trebuchets. Yet. But he’s got enough force to close the woods and every road around us. He’s got Outwallers – who are those men and women who live in the Wild, for you godless foreigners.’ The captain gave Ser Jehannes a mirthless smile. ‘I’m guessing he has a hundred or more Outwallers, a thousand irks, and perhaps fifty to a hundred other creatures of the types we’ve already seen – wyverns, daemons and the like.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m guessing our enemy is a potent magus.’
Bad Tom whistled. ‘Lucky we didn’t get ourselves killed trying for their camp then.’
The captain nodded. ‘When you move fast and plan well, you deserve a little luck,’ he said. ‘But yes, I’d say that getting away with that raid seized our luck with both hands.’
‘So now what?’ Sauce asked.
‘First, Jehannes, you are now the constable. Ser Milus, you are now marshal. Tom, you are now first lance. Sauce, you are now a corporal. In one sweep, I’m short three knights. Milus, are there any likely lads in your refugees? The merchants?’