Chapter 7: Winter

Two weeks into her reign, the cold rains came in off the Irish Sea. The King had been laid to rest as a Great Warrior. His body was sealed within the castle walls just like the previous Kings. Morath, William the First. and now William the Second. The Queen held her tears until she returned to her chambers then let loose the flood of from her eyes. In her own quarters, Debra was doing the same only she didn't have the strength of character to hold back hers like Nora had. Lady Diana, hugged her Queen trying to comfort. Knowing that Diane loved the King just as deeply, both kept crying until both fell into a restless sleep. Gorman found them when they failed to appear for dinner. Despite his own heartbreak, he couldn't help but laugh seeing the Queen and Diana sleeping in each others arms as if they were two toddlers taking their daily naps. He took a blanket of wolf fur and covered them before returning to his meal in the throne room.

Queen Nora issued a decree that there would be no coronation until the enemy was driven from their land. By now Menon learned of William's death but his joy was short lived due to his failures to scale the walls of the castle. He had lost many of his men from raids carried out by Duke Gorman and the hostile elements. Plus food was running out. Menon sent men into the forest to hunt game. Sometimes they came back with a deer or an elk but by and large they returned empty handed. And there were occasions when his men didn't return at all due to ambushes Gorman set up on a regular basis. He made sure he had only his finest men to fend off the hunting parties. Menon cursed those men as deserters when they were actually dead from these hidden surprise attacks. Menon had already lost over a third of his men from the archers, raiders, ambushers from Gorman's traps. As little as they managed to get from the woods was not nearly enough to feed the eighteen hundred or so left in Menon's army.

Unable to sustain fires, the rains, the lack of food cost Menon more than he ever imagined. He only hoped his son back home ruling in his absence was doing something to mount a rescue. Clear the blockage so they could retreat back home and try another time. Only do things much differently. Take Baytar first and invade with a larger army, with more supplies, and most importantly; no rain of rocks upon their heads that had hindered his men plus killing many of his best men.

It was a difficult decision to make but returning back the way they came seemed as if there was no alternative. Menon weighed every possible means to leave this valley. He sent a team of men to the sea looking for a way to climb down to the waters to escape in that direction. Even if they did succeed in making their way to the shores. how far could they go and what unknowns awaited them? The narrow shoreline to the waters and dry land was much like the passage by which they came. What if a storm came up? What could they do about that? Food was almost impossible to get.

"The mountains from the south were impassible. Along the forest line in Morathia, that too was ended with the mountains since his kingdom was on the other side of these natural barriers. They could go toward Baytar but Felix now held the upper hand against him as his men who were too cold, too weak from hunger to fight. Besides the trip to Baytar was through another forested area making him ripe for ambush and other perils from either Morathia or Baytar or a combination of both.

Neither Morathia or Baytar ever went to war with each other. For some reason they were always on friendly terms. They would fight now. Menon understood that Prince Felix pined over the Princess Nora. Or rather it was Queen Nora now. While there was a chance that Felix the Second and Nora might marry, there would be no hostilities between them. And if they married, there would be no war between the two as long as Felix and Nora lived.

Though the population behind the walls suffered from the siege, they were much better off than the enemy. Men manning the walls now bravely drew their bows when any man of Tordar came within five hundred yards from the castle. More often then not, that man was slain.

Queen Nora issued an order that the people who were noncombatants would only eat two meals a day except for the children. Nora herself did the same. She lost weight but still looked very beautiful. She wore no crown, did not permit anyone to call her Majesty unless she held court or went over the plans for the war. She knew Morathia was winning. Gorman told her that Menon's army were slaying their horses for food and when they decided to retreat, it would be on foot.

The castle was very cold because firewood was running low and she refused to light fires for warmth. Only the kitchen help burned wood to bake bread. The Queen often visited the area to make sure that the cooks were preparing their food in a timely manner. It was warmer down there and she welcomed the chance of holding her hands over the ovens. The hardships were severe but she thought of this in the years to come that this was their greatest moment in the history of her realm.

Besides the large kitchen was warm so toddlers and women expecting were allowed down there. They had a few strict guardians keeping the children in line so they would not bother the women doing the cooking. These were grateful that the meals were cut down to two day. This way after the morning meal was dealt out, the young teen age girls could clean up and wash the dishes while the cooks took naps for a few hours to get up to prepare the for the evening meal. Nothing too fancy but it was filling. Every Sunday they'd cook what animal that looked sick or too old so the people would have a bite of meat or two once a week. Nora even took a bite but only a small piece so someone else could have just a bit more. Sometimes she'd keep a piece of bread from her plate so if she awoke in the middle of the night, she'd have something to sustain her until the morning.

The cold rains kept up day after day. Now and then snow flurries fell with the windswept moisture from the Sea. It was reported to her that Menon's men were grumbling about the severe weather that plagued them. It was difficult for the King to maintain order.

One evening Queen Debra took her meal with her daughter in Nora's chambers. She wanted to sniff out whether Nora and Gorman were secretly sleeping together. Nora should have been angry but she was not. If she had a daughter at her age, she'd be curious too.

"No Mother, we have not fornicated though I have wanted to," Nora said. "But I promised God in my prayers to stay pure and clean for him until our wedding night. The temptation is strong within me but I will not yield to it until we marry."

"And how long will that take?" Debra asked.

"I don't know, ask God," Nora replied.

"When are you going to use the secret passage way? the elderly queen asked.