Once Upon a Castle - Jill Gregory [59]
At that moment the soldier blocking Nicholas’s path drove his great shining sword past Nicholas’s guard and thrust straight for his heart.
“What have you done with my medallion?”
Glaring, Julian bore down upon his wife with deadly rage and grabbed her by the throat. Cren the Astrologer paused three paces from them and folded his arms, watching the duchess’s terrified eyes with satisfaction.
“Tell me, you conniving whore, or I’ll throttle you here and now!”
“Nothing, my lord. I…never…saw…”
“Only you and Cren have access to my chambers and know where it is kept. I need the medallion for the execution today—do you think to save your scum lover Marcus by hiding from me the royal medallion of Dinadan?”
“Stop…stop…I beg of you…”
Arianne, who had just a moment before entered the adjoining anteroom, heard the duchess’s strangled cries and darted forward. Without hesitation, she threw herself at Julian, wrenching his arm to free Katerine from his death grip.
Cren half turned, gesturing to the guards at the outer door.
“Subdue this woman.”
“No!” Arianne cried desperately as she was dragged back. “My lord, let her go…I beg you, don’t harm her!”
At that moment there was a thunderous pounding in the corridors of the castle. She heard shouting, boots stomping, and from a distance came the clash of swords.
“To arms! To arms! The castle is besieged!”
The shout reached their ears, and Julian froze even as Cren gave a hoarse cry of fear.
“You did not foretell this!” Julian cried, releasing Katerine’s throat with a growl as he spun furiously toward the astrologer.
“My lord, the stars do not lie. But they did not show me…”
“Do you know what this means? What I must do now? Quick, the tower!”
Then Julian was gone, the guards whipping aside to let him pass. “Go! Fight! Drive them back!” he screamed as he ran up the corridor, the astrologer striding after him, pale as frost.
Arianne helped the bruised and weeping Katerine to a bench as the other ladies emerged fearfully from the anteroom. “Tend to her,” she ordered, then raced out into the hall.
Which way? Which way had he gone?
It was then that she saw the sweep of a starred black-and-white robe just disappearing around a corner. Cren!
She rushed after him, dashing up the corner stair on slippered feet.
Over the bare hills and through the Great Forest galloped a seemingly endless stream of soldiers. The portcullis had been raised for the nobles and peasants and townsfolk to enter the bailey and witness the executions, and the encroaching armies crashed across the drawbridge in a thundering charge that echoed through the hills and mountains surrounding the south end of the kingdom.
Some troops carried the banner of Galeron—they were led by Count Marcus’s captain of arms. Others waved a strange banner—green with black letters that spelled “Nicholas the Hawk.” These warriors were fierce-looking men astride powerful destriers.
Sir Castor’s men, bearing his own banner, led another charge, tearing through the courtyard and hacking at the black-masked guards who were loyal to Duke Julian.
The fighting was furious and bloody. The crowd shoved and ran and fought and fell. Julian’s troops attacked from above with arrows and from below with swords. They swarmed from the castle like a frenzy of locusts.
All of Dinadan roared with battle.
Blood flowed down the stairway of Castle Doom behind them as Nicholas and Marcus fought their way up. They’d hacked through dozens of men thus far, and their swords were bloodied, their clothes torn, but they fought on with a ferocity that terrified all those who opposed them. A dozen soldiers surrounded the two of them as they reached the head of the stairs, and the clang and hiss of swords rang out in frenzied chorus as back to back they fought.
As Nicholas shoved a soldier down the stairs and sent him crashing into three others who were clambering up, he spotted Katerine watching in terror from the doorway of her chambers.
“Where’s Arianne?” he shouted, blocking the thrust of his opponent.
“The tower room