Chapter 22

Thomas made it outside Buncombe before the alarm was raised. He knew he didn’t have much time before they sent men to pursue him.

He met up with his mercenaries, and they all went up the main road for about a quarter mile before turning off toward where his force was camped. A quarter mile further and they met up with Jacob and the Wildlings.

Frost was with them, and she began her little wolf dance that told Thomas she was happy to see him. He was sure that was only because she was hungry.

“It’s done. I killed both King Hector and General Garamond. Now tell me what you learned about their camp,” Thomas ordered.

Everyone paused a moment to take in what he’d told him. Thomas could see the satisfied looks that King Hector had paid with his life for killing their queen.

“They are nearly five thousand strong. The vast majority is an armed rabble, but they have a good number of trained men-at-arms, archers, and mounted warriors,” Jacob reported.

The armed rabble wasn’t Thomas’s main concern at the moment. They were just regular men who had little or no training, though they were dangerous in close combat where they could swarm and defeat an enemy with sheer numbers. The trained men-at-arms were also not a current concern.

His primary focus was the archers, knights, and cavalry. Archers could become a real problem for Thomas and his Royal Rangers. The advantage his Rangers had was their speed and the ability to hurt the enemy from afar. If the Virdenese moved archers up to support their shield wall, Thomas’s forces could be quickly destroyed.

On the other hand, that level of deployment would take time to put together, during which the Rangers could escape. It would also take time to undo, and the enemy army would be going nowhere while they were reforming. Delay was the most Thomas could hope for, and it would help—so long as he pulled his men back before the enemy archers closed within range.

Cavalry posed a similar danger because they could pursue Thomas’s Rangers. Once they got into close quarters, his lightly armed Rangers wouldn’t last long. The greater concern was the heavy cavalry. Many were knights, but most were sergeants, armed and armored like knights but not knighted, who directed the men-at-arms to keep the rabble in line. Without their control on the battlefield, chaos in the Virden ranks would likely result.

“Did Catherine get off safely?” Thomas asked.

“Yes, and King Edward is going to be pleased when he sees everything you sent with her,” Jacob said.

“Jacob, I have some things I want you to give her if tonight doesn’t go well,” Thomas said as he handed Jacob the coins and the ornate sword.

“I’ll hang on to it for tonight. I brought your bow,” Jacob said as he handed it over with a quiver of arrows.

“Very well. We don’t have much time. You take the men north as we planned and start the preparations. Deploy the Rangers with torches to set the grass on fire. Have them wait for the signal,” Thomas said.

“What signal?” Jacob asked.

“They’ll know,” Thomas said with a smile.

Thomas had a plan to stir things up tonight. If the Virdenese weren’t ready to march north after his visit, he hoped this might get them moving.

Thomas and his men had ridden in a wide circle to get to the far side of the Virdenese camp. A contingent of horsemen had raced north out of the castle shortly after Jacob had left to move his men. Now that they were at war, Thomas was sure those men would not be returning if they ran into either the Royal Rangers or Jacob’s heavy cavalry.

Thomas’s cohort left their horses in a shallow valley, along with the mercenaries. Thomas told the horses to stay, which made the Wildlings smile. Then he and two of the Wildlings left to scout the Virdenese forces.

Duncan was in the lead, with Max, another of the Wildlings, behind him; Thomas brought up the rear. The three of them dodged among the small hills that dotted the landscape. Thomas understood that tonight’s mission probably seemed reckless, but he wanted the Virdenese to begin to fear the night.

A cluster of stunted trees had formed a thicket thirty yards from the Virden fire circles and tents. Thomas and the Wildlings dropped to their stomachs in the grass under the branches and paused a moment to catch their breath. Then Max lifted his head.

“Do you see anything?” Duncan asked.

“It’s hard to tell, but there are men around the fire. I can’t see anything outside the light,” Max said.

Thomas gave himself a mental kick and closed his eyes to draw on his magic. He then made his way around to the other two and touched them.

“What have you done?” Duncan asked with a tinge of fear in his voice.

“I made it so you can see at night.”

The Wildlings took a moment and discovered that he was telling them the truth.

“He’s handy to have around,” Max said.

Duncan started to move, but Thomas touched his arm to hold him still. Thomas reached out with his magic to see what was around him. He found where the Virdenese had corralled the horses and oxen.

“Take out as many archers as you can. Frost and I will create a distraction,” Thomas said to hold the Wildlings in place for a moment.

Before entering Buncombe, he’d ordered the Wildlings to scout the camp, so Thomas was confident they knew where the archers were.

Thomas drew Dragon and got into a crouch as he and Frost trotted between the tents toward their goal. They found one young boy watching the herd, which was penned up in a series of circular corrals. The biggest warhorse Thomas had ever seen stomped its front hoof in the dirt and snorted a challenge.

The other horses in the pen shied away and began to make complaining noises, which woke the boy. Frost tilted her head back and howled. The horses screamed in terror as the direwolf leaped over the fence. Frost grabbed the warhorse by the back of the neck, and with one violent shake, the horse’s neck snapped.

That was too much for the rest of the animals. They hit the fence, and it splintered under their combined weight. Other circle pens suffered the same as all the animals fled from Frost. He could sense her glee at being allowed to chase horses. Up until now, Thomas had forbidden her from doing so.

While that was going on, Thomas heard the whirring noise of slings being used. He re-sheathed Dragon and pulled out his bow. Knights and cavalrymen were rushing to save their horses. Thomas stepped into the shadows and began picking them off in rapid fashion.

When he was down to his last two arrows, Thomas whistled loudly to signal it was time to go. Frost came bounding back. The boy decided to run when he saw her, which caused the wolf’s natural instincts to kick in.

“No!” Thomas barked as Frost pinned the boy to the ground.

The direwolf left the boy there, shaken but unharmed.

She led Thomas to safety, where they found the Wildlings waiting.

Off to the north, he could see fires beginning. Soon the camp would have more to worry about than horses and oxen running amok. That would give his band the cover they needed to escape.

When they caught up with the Rangers, Thomas could see the smiles on all their faces. The fires looked like tiny dots of light in the darkness. A wind gust caused some to wink out while others flared.

Thomas felt a flash of heat coming from up ahead.

“Halt! Griffin, have the men form a line,” he ordered.

“What’s going on?” Duncan asked.

“The Virdenese sent men out after me, and they’re returning. They must have seen the fires,” Thomas explained.

“How big a force is it?” Alek asked.

“About half our size. Ten men at most,” Thomas said.

Griffin spread the men out in a single line, with half on each side of the road.

“On my command, I want volley shots. Three should do it,” Griffin ordered.

“Aim for the horses. It’s easier to hit a large target in the dark. Once the destriers are dealt with, we will encircle them,” Alek added.

“What do you want us to do?” Duncan asked.

“If they manage to get close, use your slings to take down horses,” Thomas told the Wildling commander.

Thomas’s force heard the men searching for Thomas first, and they were coming fast. Thomas saw them before the Rangers did. They were part of the Virdenese King’s Guard, and both they and their mounts were heavily armored.

“Switch to bodkins,” Thomas ordered.

As they got closer, Thomas could hear the jangle of the guards’ armor over the sound of the heavy hooves of the large warhorses.

“Loose!” Griffin commanded.

With practiced precision, all twenty Rangers shot their arrows. As one, they reached for their second arrow and had it in the air before the first had even hit. The lead four horses suddenly went down in a hail of arrows. The men behind them plowed into the downed destriers as they were met with the second volley.

Four men remained on their mounts. Thomas could see they were well trained because they swerved off, two to a side, and charged the Abingdonian line.

To this point, Thomas hadn’t shot an arrow. He drew back and prepared to take out one of the riders when he heard a howl, followed by a snarl. Thomas had forgotten to tell Frost what to do, and she had decided she wanted to scatter the charging horses.

“Arrows fast!” Thomas barked, instructing his men to hold back, not wanting Frost to get hit.

Thomas doubted that a single ordinary wolf would have slowed them down, but the sight of a direwolf with obvious evil intent caused three of the horses to falter. Thomas raised up in his saddle and shot at the lone brave destrier. The instant before the warhorse and direwolf collided, the horse’s knees buckled, sending the rider headfirst into Frost.

Thomas shook his head in disbelief when the man bounced off the direwolf. She ignored him and attacked the dying steed.

When Thomas refocused on the last three Virdenese guards, he found all had been unhorsed.

“Let’s not punch holes in that pretty armor,” Alek ordered to stop the Rangers from filling the downed men with arrows.

Thomas noted that their adversaries were either dead or in no shape to fight anyway. Griffin quickly had the ones who were still breathing disarmed and gathered together. Alek ordered that they take their armor off. A couple were unable to do so because they had broken bones or other injuries. They made their fellow prisoners strip them of their gear.