Once Upon a Castle - Jill Gregory [34]
If she failed to free Marcus from the dungeon of Castle Doom this eve, all would be lost. He would be hanged in three days’ time, and their distant cousin Julian would then have succeeded in cruelly subduing both his own lands of Dinadan and those of her beloved Galeron. Whatever these neighboring kingdoms had once known of peace and prosperity would be lost from that time forward. If she failed…
You shall not fail, Arianne told herself, quickening her pace as the shadowy outline of the inn’s stables came into view. Her soft lips pressed together in determination. Duke Julian will find that Marcus and I are not to be betrayed and bested so easily. He will discover that despite his treachery he has not yet won.
A sudden pounding of hooves sent her dashing for cover behind an oak tree, her heart skittering as she scrambled to conceal herself.
A pair of destriers ridden by Julian’s black-masked knights came up the road, less than a stone’s throw from her hiding place. Arianne crouched, scarcely daring to breathe, as deep voices reached her straining ears.
“‘Tis a night for sleeping in a soft bed with a pretty maid,” one of the soldiers grumbled, “not for patrolling when the whole damned countryside’s asleep.”
“Me, I’d rather be here than inside the walls of the castle.” His companion’s voice rumbled through the woods. “The duke heard a report earlier that Lady Arianne of Galeron had been found at the border. It proved false, but that, taken with the gypsy’s prediction in the square yesterday about Lord Nicholas returning to wrest the kingdom away, put the duke in the devil’s own black rage. Word is he struck down the minstrels playing at his supper and had the gypsy woman whipped and locked in the dungeon.”
The soldier beside him gave a snort of laughter. His companion joined in and then continued, “Heard tell he imprisoned the messenger bearing the false report as well. He ordered that none of the prisoners in the dungeon are to be fed for three days.”
“He needn’t be so nervous. Lady Arianne will be found,” the other soldier said with comfortable assurance, his voice fading as the horses moved off. “She can’t stay in hiding forever.”
The other man’s reply was drowned out by the clatter of hooves as the horses turned onto the paved road to the inn.
Arianne drew in her breath. She found that she was trembling with rage. No food for the prisoners for three days!
Marcus, she thought, choking back a cry of despair for her brother. So Julian planned to starve him right up until his hanging.
Fury rose in a bitter tempest within her. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to drive her dagger through Julian’s heart herself, plunge it deep until his life’s blood spilled across the castle floors.
But she quickly gained control of her emotions. If all went as planned tonight, Marcus would be freed within the next few hours. They would flee together, hide, and make their way to the secret camp where Felix, the captain of Galeron’s troops, was gathering Marcus’s scattered knights. Then they would plan how best to recapture Castle Galeron from Julian’s marauders—
Arianne’s thoughts broke off suddenly as black wings beat the sky above her head. She glanced up to see the crow wheeling, cawing harshly, toward the looming towers of the castle.
Arianne shivered. For a moment she feared that the crow was spying on her, carrying tales of her presence just outside the castle walls to Julian himself. But she shook off that absurd idea. Julian knew nothing, not even that she was here in Dinadan, for she’d been in disguise. No one, perhaps not even Morgana, her own lady-in-waiting, would recognize Lady Arianne of Galeron in the plain-gowned tavern wench who served ale and mopped floors at the Jug and Spoon Inn near the river road.
Standing in the windy darkness, the trees bending and sighing about her, Arianne stared for a moment at the castle that the villagers had of late dubbed Castle Doom. Even through the gloom, the outline of the towers and turrets