Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series)

A novel from the
After Cilmeri
series

Ashes of Time

by

Sarah Woodbury

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Woodbury

Cover image by Christine DeMaio-Rice at Flip
City Books

http://flipcitybooks.com

Ashes of Time

November 1291. Meg and Llywelyn gather their
family at Rhuddlan Castle to celebrate their seventh anniversary
and David’s twenty-third birthday. But the joyful reunion goes
grievously awry when an old enemy raises the banner of rebellion,
followed immediately by an even more catastrophic betrayal by an
old friend.

Meanwhile, facing war at every turn and
still haunted by his decision to leave Cassie and Callum in the
modern world, David chooses a dangerous path forward, one that will
either change the course of the future forever—or burn his world to
ashes.

Ashes of Time
is the eighth novel in the
After Cilmeri
series. Other books in
the series include a novella,
Winds of
Time
, and seven novels:
Daughter of Time
,
Footsteps in Time, Prince of Time, Crossroads in
Time
,
Children of
Time
,
Exiles in
Time,
and
Castaways
in Time
.

www.sarahwoodbury.com

To my readers

Thank you for traveling in time with me

Books in the After Cilmeri Series:

Daughter of Time
(prequel)

Footsteps in Time
(Book One)

Winds of Time

Prince of Time
(Book Two)

Crossroads in Time
(Book Three)

Children of Time
(Book Four)

Exiles in Time

Castaways in Time

Ashes of Time

The Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mysteries:

The Bard’s Daughter

The Good Knight

The Uninvited Guest

The Fourth Horseman

The Fallen Princess

Other books by Sarah Woodbury:

Cold My Heart: A Novel of King Arthur

The Last Pendragon

The Pendragon’s Quest

Pronouncing Welsh Names and
Places

Aberystwyth
–Ah-bare-IH-stwith

Bwlch y Ddeufaen
– Boolk ah THEY-vine (the ‘th’ is soft as in
‘forth’)

Cadfael
– CAD-file

Cadwallon
– Cad-WASH-lon

Caernarfon
– (‘ae’ makes a long i sound like in ‘kite’)
Kire-NAR-von

Dafydd
– DAH-vith

Dolgellau
– Doll-GESH-lay

Deheubarth
– deh-HAY-barth

Dolwyddelan
– dole-with-EH-lan (the ‘th’ is soft as in
‘forth’)

Gruffydd
– GRIFF-ith

Gwalchmai
– GWALK-my (‘ai’ makes a long i sound like in
‘kite)

Gwenllian
– Gwen-SHLEE-an

Gwladys
– Goo-LAD-iss

Gwynedd
– GWIN-eth

Hywel
– H’wel

Ieuan –
ieu
sounds like the cheer,
‘yay’ so YAY-an

Llywelyn
– shlew-ELL-in

Maentwrog
– MIGHNT-wrog

Meilyr
– MY-lir

Owain –
OH-wine

Rhuddlan
– RITH-lan

Rhun
– Rin

Rhys –
Reese

Sion
– Shawn

Tudur
– TIH-deer

Usk
– Isk

Cast of
Characters

David (Dafydd)—Time-traveler, King of
England

Lili—Queen of England, Ieuan’s sister

Callum—Time-traveler, Earl of Shrewsbury

Cassie—Time-traveler, Callum’s wife

Llywelyn—King of Wales, David’s father

Goronwy—Advisor to Llywelyn

Meg (Marged)— Time-traveler, mother to David
and Anna

Anna—Time-traveler, David’s half-sister

Math—Anna’s husband, nephew to Llywelyn

Ieuan—Welsh knight, one of David’s men

Bronwen—Time-traveler, married to Ieuan

Nicholas de Carew—Norman/Welsh lord

Evan—Castellan of Harlech

Cadwallon—Llywelyn’s captain

William de Bohun—David’s squire

Justin—David’s captain

The Children

Arthur—son of David and Lili

Catrin—daughter of Ieuan and Bronwen

Cadell—son of Math and Anna

Bran—son of Math and Anna

Gwenllian—daughter of Llywelyn

Elisa—daughter of Llywelyn and Meg

Padrig—son of Llywelyn and Meg

Map of North Wales

Chapter One

November 1291

Meg

S
earching for the twins when they didn’t want to be found was a
thankless task and one Meg had been at for the last ten minutes.
The inner ward of Rhuddlan castle was a maze of wooden buildings
built three stories high along the inside of the stone curtain wall
and included a chapel, two kitchens, sleeping rooms, and the great
hall on the opposite side of the inner ward. The outer ward
contained many buildings too, among them two stables and a
forge.

In the inner ward, narrow passages ran
between the rooms and the curtain wall, and circular staircases in
the towers connected the levels to one another. Up ahead was the
castellan’s office, which doubled as a receiving room. Llywelyn had
taken it over for himself while he was here. Meg thought she heard
the giggle of young voices farther along the passage through which
she was walking, but they faded before she could catch up to
them.

If someone had told Meg ten years ago that
she would give birth to twins at the age of forty-two, she would
have laughed. If that person had prefaced the statement with the
assertion that Llywelyn would be the father, Meg probably would
have cried. By thirty-two, she’d already spent ten long years
without him. It would have been a relief to know she had to spend
only five more.

Meg walked into the receiving room just as
Lili said, “Stewing again?” Meg’s daughter-in-law perched on the
table behind David, her hands going to the muscles in his broad
shoulders and her thumbs pressing hard. Arthur, their son, played
with a wooden horse at their feet, his blonde head bent as he
focused on his toy.

“
Did you sleep at all?” Meg
said.

“
A few hours,” David said,
which Meg thought might not be a complete untruth. She’d woken up
in the night herself and passed him in the corridor.

David handed her a letter.

“
What’s this?” She took it,
scanning it with a dubious expression on her face. It was from
Tudur, Llywelyn’s counselor at Chepstow Castle. After reading the
first page, she passed the paper back to David. “Really? Madog and
Rhys challenge us now?”

“
They want more land—or in
Madog’s case, his father’s land back,” David said. “Rhys resents
Dad’s interference in Deheubarth and feels that he favors his
cousin, Wynod.”

“
Of course Papa favors
Wynod.” Lili’s blue eyes flashed. “Which one of them has stabbed
him in the back a dozen times, and which one has always been
loyal?”

“
Tell that to Rhys,” David
said. “He wants Carreg Cennan.”

“
He can want it all he
wants,” Meg said. “He isn’t going to get it. That he still retains
Dryslwyn is bad enough.”

“
According to Tudur, Rhys
is telling himself that Dad’s hold on Deheubarth isn’t as strong as
it once was, especially with the new reforms he’s introduced,”
David said.

“
At your urging,” Lili
said.

“
At my urging,” David
agreed. “This is my doing, more than Dad’s.”

“
Nonsense.” Llywelyn looked
up from what he was writing, entering their conversation for the
first time. He ran a hand through his still dark hair, which had
less gray than Meg’s own brown locks, and looked at his son with
amusement and pity. “You have enough to trouble you without taking
on the petty politics of Wales.”

“
It will be my problem if
Rhys gets up to his old tricks,” David said, “and brings Madog
along for the ride.”

“
Your mother tells me that
in your other world Rhys was sold to King Edward by his own men and
then executed for treason.”

“
When was this?” David
said, looking at Meg, who’d come around the table to hug her
husband from behind as he studied the papers in front of him. The
man was as ridiculously handsome as he’d been when she’d first met
him.

“
Rhys betrayed Edward—after
betraying your father long before—in 1287.” Meg straightened, her
hands resting on Llywelyn’s shoulders. “Edward finally caught up
with him in 1292.”

“
So you’re saying that what
Rhys is doing now is in his nature?” David said. “Since King Edward
is dead, he naturally rebels against you instead?”

“
I’ve been dealing with
that old sot since I took my first steps to the throne of Wales.”
Llywelyn leaned back in his chair, twisting his torso and
stretching his arms to get out the kinks after sitting too long.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve been expecting something like this
from him for years. Tudur knows that.”

“
So I guess you don’t need
my help after all,” David said.

“
Son—” Llywelyn dropped his
arms.

David waved a hand. “I’m sorry. I’m feeling
melancholy.”

Lili pushed at David’s shoulder. “It’s the
lack of sleep. Besides, your only job this afternoon is to sit at
the head of the table and eat!”

Arthur looked up at the excitement in Lili’s
voice, abandoning his horse to tug on his mother’s leg and ask to
be picked up. Lili lifted him up and kissed his cheek. Then Arthur
put out his hands to Meg, which was a rare gift since he didn’t
always condescend for her to hold him, and she took him in her
arms.

“
This democracy thing isn’t
easy,” David said, taking Meg’s place at his father’s side and
peering over Llywelyn’s shoulder to look at the papers he’d spread
before him. “We should alert your allies that we might have to act
without Parliament.”

“
Already done,” Llywelyn
said.

“
It would have been nice to
enjoy our anniversary in peace without rumors of war—” Meg broke
off as Cadell, Anna’s eldest son, hurtled into the room, his small
sword raised high.

“
Arthur!” Then he caught
sight of the adults arrayed in front of him and pulled up.
Sheathing his sword in his belt, he sauntered towards them, an
insouciant grin on his face and an irrepressible sparkle in his
hazel eyes. “I have something to show you!”

Arthur instantly squirmed to get down,
abandoning Meg for his six-year-old cousin.

Then a horde of small
children—three-year-old Catrin, of the brown curls and green eyes;
Bran, a black-haired, blue-eyed miniature of Math, even at only
two; and the blonde-haired twins, Elisa and Padrig, who’d been born
shortly after Bran—surged through the doorway behind Cadell. The
decibel level in the room rose to that of an airplane engine. In
other words—deafening.