Chapter 31

Thomas and his men made their way to the main fortification wall. They watched as the one they had been on was systematically destroyed by the Virdenese trebuchet. His Knowledge Stone had been right. If they’d stayed, they all would have been injured or killed.

When the wall came down, the bombardment stopped. The sun was going down, so it made sense to discontinue the attack.

Duke Charles joined Thomas on the main wall, which would be the focus of the Virdenese attack when the light returned.

“Send your men to dinner and have them get some sleep. Come morning, our enemy will attack. I want you and your fighters well-rested.”

“Have you thought about sending King Edward away?” Thomas asked.

“I already tried, and he made it clear that he wouldn’t go. I want you to assign Torun to personally protect him tomorrow. Put Shepherd in charge of the Royal Guard,” Duke Charles ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

His father’s lips pinched.

“I know that even if I ordered you not to, you’d end up in the middle of it tomorrow. So please take care of yourself. Not just for me or the kingdom, but for Catherine.”

“If something should happen...”

“I’ll take care of her,” Duke Charles promised his son.

Thomas hugged his father, something he hadn’t initiated since he was sent to the woods as a boy. After a moment, Duke Charles pulled away.

“I have plans to make. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Thomas waited until the duke left before issuing orders. He then went to grab some food, after which he would try to get some sleep. He planned to be up before dawn, when he was sure the first attack would come.

Thomas jerked awake in the middle of the night when it felt like a boulder had landed on his chest. He knew he wasn’t in danger because his magic hadn’t flared. Nevertheless, he called on it to see and found his direwolf, who was supposed to be traveling north, looking pleased with herself.

“Good girl, you found him,” Catherine said to Frost. “Now let him up, but if he gets cranky, you can bite him.”

“I thought I told you ... OW!”

Frost bounced back as Thomas leaped from his bed. She crouched down on her forelegs with her butt in the air and tail wagging. Frost still had enough pup in her to want to play games. Nip and chase was one of her favorites. But for Thomas, it usually didn’t end well.

“Quit playing with Frost and kiss me,” Catherine ordered.

“Guard the door,” Thomas told Frost, and then Catherine was in his arms as they kissed.

Thomas broke their kiss.

“I probably smell awful. Let me light a candle, and I’ll clean up first.”

Frost chuffed to let him know that he did indeed stink. Thomas put a cloth into a bucket of water and used it to wipe the worst of his day off of him.

When he was done, he stood naked in front of his wife. She came to him and began draining the thoughts right out of Thomas’s brain, using her smoothly bobbing head.

Catherine had learned that if she helped him reach his rapture, the second time lasted much longer. What made this moment so much more than any before was simple: tomorrow, he might die. This could be his last chance to make love to his wife. Catherine was doing her best to drive him crazy.

Thomas would probably wish he’d slept more come morning, but being with the love of his life one last time was worth it.

When Thomas woke, he broke his fast with his wife and Frost before sending them north for real this time. He hoped they would have a big enough lead to reach safety if the Virdenese army overran their defenses today.

By the time the first light began to peek over the horizon, Thomas had taken station on the wall.

Out of range of Abingdon’s weapons, the field filled with the Virden’s host. Broad lanes now opened where the chevaux de frise had previously restricted movement. As a result, the enemy’s soldiers would be able to run through the beaten zone quickly, minimizing their vulnerability to Abingdon’s artillery.

Virden’s tortoises were already on the move, slowly advancing up the road toward the main gate. Abingdon’s defenders crowded the ramparts and gazed soberly at the sight of an army that outnumbered them ten to one.

A horn sounded one long low note, and the bombardment began. With the outer wall down on the left of their fortifications, the gate was a clear target. Sir Nathan had begun preparations for that event and had workmen busy, as they’d anticipated it to be the target for Virden’s attack.

Thomas could see that the Virdenese foot soldiers wouldn’t move forward until their trebuchet did its work. So, it didn’t surprise him when a boy came to fetch him to the war council.

When he arrived, Sir Nathan was already speaking.

“Now that we know where they’re going to try to break the wall, we can concentrate our efforts in preparation for their breakthrough.”

Duke Charles nodded.

“Good work. Is there anything else we can help you with?”

Sir Nathan thought for a moment.

“Gather all the boulders or rocks you can easily reach. We can use them to shore up our fortifications or send them back to King Doyle. Our biggest danger is running out of supplies.”

A messenger came in and handed Duke Charles a message from the wall. He read it aloud.

The Virdenese trebuchet has found its range. They’ve started to hurl stumps. They are bouncing off the wall and falling into the ditch.

Sir Nathan paled.

“The devils! Once they fill the ditch, their men will have a much easier time of it. I need to get my men moving because they might be able to breach the walls and have men inside sooner than we planned.”

The room went quiet as Sir Nathan hastily departed.

“Man your posts,” Duke Charles finally said.

The enemy’s trebuchet continued to pound the wall. Finally, towards noon, Thomas could see it was only a matter of time before the wall gave way.

He noted that behind the lines, priests heard confessions and granted absolution. Monks were present from the nearby monastery to write letters to their families for the defenders, to be read to them, in most cases, by their parish priests. Most defenders rested. Some prayed. A few, as soldiers always would, found ways to get drunk. Here and there, small groups gambled. Life went on at a murmur under the constant sound of boulders crashing against the timber.

“Hell is empty now,” Leif said as he came to stand next to Thomas.

“What do you mean?” asked Thomas.

“All the devils are here, and they’re about to invite us to join them,” replied Leif.

King Edward found them on the wall. The men took heart at seeing their leader. Then, from a central point in the defenses, King Edward turned toward the rock wall behind the fort, relying on its echo to carry his voice to all his men.

“Men of Abingdon! I am with you at this time, not for recreation or sport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of battle to live or die amongst you all. To lay down my life for my God, my kingdom, and for my people, my honor, and my blood.

“I have striven to give Abingdon peace and freedom. Unfortunately, Virden has come violently upon our land to bring us war. It is up to you to keep your freedom and retake your peace for yourselves, your families, and your posterity.”

The King’s voice echoed from the hills and cliffs behind the fort. Then he became more grave.

“The cost of freedom is always high, but free people have always paid it. One path we can never choose is the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right, not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom.

“Please God, we will secure that here in Abingdon and carry it into Virden so that this mother of murderers will not export her crimes to us ever again,” King Edward said solemnly.

King Edward began to pace as his blood rose.

“What is our plan? To fight with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us. To wage war against a monstrous tyranny unsurpassed in the dark and inglorious catalog of human crime. That is our plan. We have no plan for retreat or withdrawal. We will stand and fight here. If we cannot stand here alive, then let us lie here dead.

“In the battle to come, we shall break the enemy and bring salvation to our people. To those of you who think us too few for our task, I tell you we are few enough, and that if we are few, we are a mighty few. A band of brothers—for those who stand with me today are my brothers—enough and more than enough for the task we have today,” King Edward assured his men.

He paused before continuing.

“Duke Andric said that there may come a day when courage fails, oaths are broken, and friends and family abandoned. But this is not that day! It is not at this place! Abingdon and freedom!” shouted the King.

King Edward was answered by a roar of enthusiasm from the ramparts. And then ... another boulder from Virden’s trebuchet struck the wounded wall, and a broad section of it collapsed into the ditch, covering the stumps piled there with a blanket of rubble.

The Virden drum began to beat, and two long blaring horn blasts could be heard. Then, as one, the Virdenese men-at-arms stood and began to herd the armed rabble together.

Duke Able unleashed the Abingdon siege weapons to demonstrate their greater range. Buckets of stones rained down on the Virdenese forces, who had thought they were safe. Then, not wanting to be sitting ducks, a thousand men charged towards the cloud of dust raised by the collapse of a section of the fort’s main wall.

“Loose at will!” Thomas ordered his archers and crossbowmen.

Their first volley occurred at point-blank range and wrought devastation. The men-at-arms had sent the armed rabble to absorb the initial blow. Their deaths had no effect on the charge as the Virdenese army swarmed the gap. Their howls of victory came up short.

Facing them was another wall, just as high as the old one. Nathan sprang his trap as he dropped chevaux de frise into the open gap to trap a large group of Virden’s men.

Thomas directed his bowmen to turn their deadly fire inward, where the Virden army milled around in confusion. Then, while their numbers dwindled inside their wall, Thomas looked outward at the field of battle.

King Doyle could be seen with General Angen at the rear of the army, gesturing and speaking. Shortly, ten sharpened stakes could be seen rising over the back of the field, soon to be covered by the bodies of both peasants and mercenaries who had disappointed Doyle.

Virden’s army added their great bass drum to the slapping of shields with swords. As their troops reformed and moved toward the newly opened lanes with a measured pace, they were accompanied by an unnerving clamor of:

Boom! Clack! Clack! Boom! Clack! Clack!

Thomas absorbed everything around him. In response to the Virdenese challenge, the defenders pounded the ground with their spear butts and shouted defiance. Then, with a chorus of commands from their leaders, the Virdenese soldiers broke with a shout into a run toward the Abingdonian defenses.

’This is it!’ Thomas worried.

The Virdenese troops had cleared the hedgehogs, so they had a straight shot into the gap. In addition, they’d brought makeshift scaling ladders, slender logs notched with toeholds up which agile soldiers could clamber. They had crosspieces at the bottom, but not the tops, to make it hard for the defenders to roll them. These logs overlay the hedgehogs that had been deployed initially to block the ascent.

Thomas directed his defenders to use large rocks and short logs against the Virden soldiers climbing the wall. Those makeshift weapons swept one log or another clean of attackers. Stunned or dying soldiers littered the ground at the feet of the ladders, but more stepped up to replace them.

They’d saved one hedgehog for use if it looked like the Virden men would reach the top of the wall. Duke Charles ordered it to be used. It was almost the whole width of the breach. Thomas’s men struggled to swing it up and over the wall. Then, in one fell swoop, it swept all the ladders clear.