Bridge of Swords (52 page)

‘What are they doing?’ Rhiannon pointed to where two of Broyle’s men were stoking a fire, heating the tips of their swords inside the flames.

‘We need the truth out of them. After what they did to you, you’d probably like to take the knife to them yourself.’ Broyle chortled.

That gave Rhiannon pause. As much as she wanted to lash out at Huw and Sendatsu, as much as she felt betrayed, the idea of torturing them made her feel even more sick.

‘What are you going to do to them?’ she demanded.

‘I don’t think you need to worry yourself about that. Sergeant Broyle and his men know what they are doing. Don’t concern your little head about it. Come with me now.’ Hector’s grip on her arm was firm and he began tugging her away.

But as much as Rhiannon was delighted to see her father, his declaration that all would go back to the way it was, he would
make the past months seem like a bad dream, did not sit well. For all the wrong Sendatsu and Huw had done her, they had also shown her she was a strong woman, able to make decisions on her own, able to take action. Whatever else had happened, she did not want to go back to being a little ornament, totally dependent on her father. Now she had tasted freedom, she would not walk so easily back into the cage he offered.

‘Wait! Father, listen to me,’ she said sharply. ‘Trust me, please! I told you I know everything about their plans, about them. I can tell you and King Ward everything you need to know.’

Hector smiled thinly. ‘I am sure you can. But he does not want to hear it from you. We shall leave now …’

‘Aren’t you listening to me?’ Rhiannon cried, fighting back against his pull. ‘Father, none of this is necessary …’

‘Get her out of here, Hector. We need to go to work,’ Broyle grumbled, holding up a sword with a glowing tip. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time to get my hands on these two.’

‘Come on, dear.’ Hector began pulling Rhiannon away but she dug her heels in and ripped her arm free of his grasp.

‘Who is in charge here?’ she demanded. ‘Father, if these men are truly under your control, then order them to stand down. I will tell you now about Sendatsu and why he is here …’

‘Of course they are under my control!’ Hector blustered. He glanced over at Broyle, who was staring flatly at him, flanked by his men, all of them holding swords. ‘And I am instructing them to get the knowledge from this filthy Velshman and his elven accomplice!’

‘So you won’t even listen to me?’ Rhiannon gasped. ‘I have a voice here. I thought this was all about rescuing me?’

‘And it is!’ Hector snapped. ‘But I know what is best for you and you need to obey me now!’

He reached for her again but she stepped back, knocking his hand away.

‘No,’ she said.

‘What?’ Hector asked dangerously.

‘I will not obey! I am trying to tell you everything you need to know and you won’t listen to me. Why can’t you see that …’

‘Enough!’ Hector roared, swelling up. He had tried to be patient with her, tried to be kind, but the frustrations of the last few months bubbled over. ‘I see you have been in this dirty little country too long! You will learn your place again. I spend months looking for you and when I finally rescue you, this is all the thanks I get!’ He loomed over her, sure she would crumble and fall down, beg forgiveness, as she had always done in the past. He added the final threat, the trick that had always worked on her. ‘Your mother would be ashamed of your behaviour!’

But that was a different Rhiannon.

She felt the habits of a lifetime urge her to give in, to obey whatever her father told her. Then she ignored them, as her mind sifted through what he had been saying.

‘But if you have been looking for me all this time, why did you not simply ride up to the village by yourself? I would have seen you and come running out!’

Hector paused for a moment, thrown by her question. ‘Well, that elf would have spitted me on an arrow before I got close! Anyway, what has that got to do with anything? I am ordering you to follow me now. I should have known this would happen — I knew he was trouble from the start. The Velsh have a smell about them, you can tell them right away,’ he snarled at her, towered over her.

Rhiannon looked at him anew. Perhaps he did fear that Sendatsu would kill him from a distance if he had ridden in, although that did not quite seem right. But there was another point there.

‘You’ve said it again,’ she said slowly. ‘That you knew Huw was Velsh. But I was the only one who knew. You thought he was from Forland, from Browns Brook.’

‘I found out — I have ways and means …’ Hector defended but she interrupted him now.

‘No. You would have denounced him. You did not know he was Velsh but you just lied to me and told me you did. Why did you lie?’

Her voice was calm but inside all was boiling. Could no man she loved tell her the truth?

That was too much for Hector. ‘You dare accuse me of lying?’ he screamed at her. ‘You will regret that!’

‘So it was a lie,’ Rhiannon said flatly. ‘And if you were lying about that, what else have you been lying about?’

‘How dare you?’ Hector’s voice shook with anger. ‘After all I have done for you, this is how you repay me? You should fall on your knees and beg forgiveness! No other man would have looked after you like I did, would have devoted themselves to your dream …’

Once, Rhiannon would have fallen on her knees and apologised. Once she would have accepted what her father said without question. But that time had passed.

‘Was it my dream — or was it yours?’ she asked. ‘Tell me — was what Huw said the truth? Were you planning to sell me to Ward?’

Hector goggled at her defiance. He had never imagined such a thing could happen. She had been under his thumb for so long, to see her stand up to him was impossible to believe. On top of what she had already put him through, his anger surged out of control. He backhanded her across the face, sending her to the ground.

Both Huw and Sendatsu surged forwards — or tried to — their bonds held them in place.

Hector glared down at Rhiannon, who lay on her stomach.

‘That was for your own good,’ he told her. ‘You asked for that. Now stand up and follow me and we can discuss what is going to happen next.’

Rhiannon pushed herself to her knees and wiped away a trail of blood from her mouth, where her lip was split.

‘Now I can believe those men were under your command,’ she said bitterly. ‘But I do not know what else to believe.’

‘Believe the evidence of your eyes! That Velsh bard said I was dead and I stand before you, ready to accept you back, ready to forgive your mistakes.’ Hector held out his arms, restraining himself from hitting the insolence out of her.

‘But was that his only lie? Or were you really planning to whore me to King Ward? For I shall not be sold off to any man.
I will never trust another man enough to get into bed with him.’ Rhiannon forced herself to her feet.

For a moment Hector thought about trying to come up with a convincing story to persuade her but then he saw the look on her face and lost control. His dreams, his plans, everything was built around getting her to walk willingly into Ward’s bedchamber. There was no chance of that now. Everything was turning to ashes, because the stupid little bitch had run away. Well, if she could not be persuaded, she would be taught her place.

He stormed forwards. Rhiannon stood her ground. She did not believe he would hit her again. He had never raised a hand to her before; his domination had always been through persuasion and guilt.

But he was past all restraint. He struck her again, this time with his fist, sending her crashing to the ground.

Rhiannon lay there for a long moment, her head a whirl of pain, trying to come to terms with what was happening. She could feel her cheek and eye swelling already as she pushed herself to her knees.

‘You will never hit me again,’ she stated flatly. ‘And you can forget about me doing anything else you want. I shall make my own life …’

‘Seize her!’ Hector ordered, driven beyond the borders of reason.

Broyle and one of his men dropped their swords and grabbed her arms, hauling her roughly to her feet.

‘You think you have a choice here?’ Hector raved. ‘You will do what I tell you, one way or another! You are too valuable for me to give away. Do you know how much I have had to put up with over the years? I spent my whole life developing you for the court, so you would restore my fortune after your stupid bitch of a mother ruined everything for me. I listened to your idiotic fears, put up with your whining, I pretended to enjoy your company while I trained you and changed you from useless to useful. After all I have done, you don’t have the right to do anything other than what I tell you. You will return with me and you will bring
us back into the king’s good fortunes in his bed — or you will be beaten every day until you beg to do what I want!’

Even Huw and Sendatsu stopped struggling as they listened to Hector snarl at Rhiannon.

Rhiannon stared at her father. His words cut deep inside, hurting more than the blows he had given her. But she would not let him know that.

‘Thank you, Father, for finally telling me the truth,’ she said carefully. ‘Now I know where we both stand.’

‘So are you going to listen to reason or do I turn you over to Sergeant Broyle here?’ Hector snapped.

For answer, Rhiannon collected the blood still running into her mouth from her cut lip and spat it into his face.

‘You little bitch! You are even worse than your mother!’ Hector howled. ‘Tie her up!’

‘We don’t have enough rope,’ Broyle warned.

‘Then use the reins from their horses! I don’t care what you do but I will not tolerate that!’ Hector wiped away the bloody spittle.

Broyle held Rhiannon, twisting her arms tight behind her back as his men collected reins, then tied her hands together, lashing the other end to a branch, forcing her arms up high.

‘Who do we start on first?’ Broyle asked eagerly.

‘I’ll take the bard, you work on the elf?’ Ricbert offered.

‘No need for gags any more,’ Broyle agreed. ‘But we had better hurry. Some of their friends might decide to come looking for them if we tarry here too long.’

‘Father, listen to me. There is no need to do this,’ Rhiannon said desperately. ‘I can still tell you all you need to know …’

‘But I don’t think we can quite trust you, missy.’ Broyle leered.

He pulled the gags out of Sendatsu’s and Huw’s mouths.

‘Why don’t you try and hit a man, instead of your daughter, you fat bastard?’ Sendatsu shouted at Hector.

‘Oh, I plan to,’ Hector said conversationally, stepping up to Huw.

Huw glared at him, hating him for what he had done to Rhiannon as well as what he had done to them both.

Hector stared back at him with loathing. This was the man who had wrecked his careful plan, who had turned his own daughter against him. He let his rage build up to the level where he could not stop it and then unleashed a series of punches, hitting Huw in the face and body, not stopping until he was puffing and barely able to throw another fist, and blood was running from Huw’s mouth and nose and his eyes were swelling shut.

‘Is that all you have, you bastard?’ Huw spat out blood and tried to look defiant. He had been able to roll his head with most of the blows but enough had struck to leave his head ringing like a bell.

‘I shall be back, after Corporal Ricbert has finished,’ Hector promised.

Rhiannon had tried to close her eyes and ears to the beating but the sound of fists on flesh, as well as Huw’s grunts of pain, had been too much.

Sendatsu had watched Huw being hit and knew his own turn was next. Broyle was heating up swords in the fire and grinning at him. He tried to tense himself, prepare himself for the pain, tell himself that it would not be that bad — but he was still deathly afraid.

Working briskly, Ricbert tore open both Sendatsu’s and Huw’s tunics.

‘Look at the elf — he’s covered in scars as it is,’ Ricbert declared.

‘Let us go now, or suffer the consequences,’ Sendatsu told them defiantly.

The Forlish roared with laughter.

‘Let’s add a few more scars.’ Broyle withdrew a sword, its tip glowing, and walked over, pressing it against Sendatsu’s ribs.

The smell of burning flesh was thick, Sendatsu’s scream was terrible to hear but the worst thing for Rhiannon was the sizzling sound.

Huw tried to dodge his blade but there was no way he could move in his bonds. The sight and sound of what had happened to Sendatsu made the anticipation even harder — and it was as
bad as he feared, a searing agony that whipped through his body. Although he tried not to, he screamed, part of him hoping that might even carry to the village, have his dragons hear and come to their rescue.

‘That was too loud. I think we should put the gags back in before the next one,’ Hector suggested.

‘I thought you were going to question them?’ Rhiannon said raggedly.

‘That can come later. Now we are just giving them a lesson. The Forlish are not to be defied. This will pay them back for all the good men they killed,’ Broyle said with relish.

Two more swords were brought from the fire and the hot tips drawn down and across Sendatsu’s and Huw’s torsos, leaving ridged red burns behind. The pain of the second one was, if possible, even worse than the first, which still flamed. The pair of them bucked and shrieked at the agony of it, their cries muffled by cloth.

‘What about the girl? Do we give her a blade also?’ Ricbert asked.

‘No — her skin must not be broken, only her spirit,’ Hector ruled. ‘If she is damaged goods anyway, perhaps you need to use a different sort of blade on her to bring her to heel …’

Broyle’s throaty laugh made Rhiannon’s skin crawl.

‘Leave her alone!’ Huw screamed around his gag, trying to use anger and hatred to block out the agony from his side.

‘Do you want to watch? You know, that might hurt him more than a hot blade,’ Broyle mused.

‘Father! You can’t be serious!’ Rhiannon cried.

‘You brought this upon yourself,’ Hector said coldly. ‘It is your fault. You pushed me to this. You must learn to obey me without question.’