Escape from the Past (31 page)

A single torch burned near the back gate.

“Who goes there?” the guard said.

“Max and Enders,” I whispered. I slid off the horse, glad to feel solid ground under my feet.

The guard waved. “Make haste.”

“Did Lord Werner arrive?” I asked.

“Yes, everything is prepared. I’ll lock down now,” the guard
said. As we walked toward the portcullis, I thought I saw shadows along the outer walls. Like the rock of the walls they were one with their surroundings—waiting.

While Enders hurried into the barn, I stopped in the courtyard. Lord Werner was giving last minute instructions to a group of men who carried crossbows and long-handled axes. They looked fearsome in their chainmail and leather tunics.

“Take your positions,” Werner said. “May
Gott
be with you.”

The men grumbled something and melted into the shadows of the outer bailey.

Werner strode toward me. “I see my loyal knight, Sir Dagonet, has joined us.”

“Yes, My Lord. I’m afraid I’m not much good on a horse.”

“Which makes us wonder how you could’ve traveled so far through the lands,” Werner said, his blue eyes flaming with mockery.

“I know this doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t to me, either,” I stumbled. But the Lord von Hanstein raised his hand to cut me off. “No time right now, brave Max. Fear not. I thank the Lord for your emergence however curious it may be. The hour demands my fullest attention. We shall discuss it later, what say you?”

Somehow relieved I nodded. “What can I do?”

“We are prepared. Take cover.” With that Werner marched toward a small group of knights, his leaders.

“Max.” Juliana came running from the great hall, her hair flowing like a veil behind her. “You’re safe,” she panted while throwing herself into my arms. I breathed a deep sigh into her mane and held her. Amazing how she made me feel alive. Surely, Lancelot couldn’t have felt more contented when he courted Guinevere.

“What happened?” she said, her face inches from mine. I wanted to kiss her. And when our eyes met again, I did just that. I forgot everything but her lips on mine, her body pressed to my
chest. At that moment I was ready to face a thousand Otts and five Schwarzburgs.

“Whenever you can detach yourself from my sister, tell us about your quest,” Bero said. “Your loins must ache you badly that you cannot wait.”

I blinked, returning to earth. It never failed—Bero at his best.

“Good to see you, too,” I said, though I couldn’t suppress a grin and punched Bero in the arm.

“I hear you’re Sir Dagonet, now,” Bero smirked.

“I had to come up with something,” I said. “Let’s go to the barn. I want to lose the rest of the armor.”

While I peeled out of the remaining disguise and told my tale, Bero, Juliana and the entire entourage of squires sat listening. The barn was deathly quiet as I recounted meeting Ott, checking the rooms and planting the poison.

“What did you give him?” someone asked.

“Where did it come from?” another voice said.

“He’s merely uncomfortable for a few days,” I said. “Luanda helped me.”

Bero stared at me. “Now he
will
be a deathly enemy,” he mumbled. “You should’ve finished him.” Without another word he got up and left.

I shook my head. Bero didn’t understand. Life came and went easy in the Middle Ages. It was a different story in the twenty-first century. It was murder.

A low whistle sounded from the entrance of the barn.

“They’re coming. Take your positions.”

Everyone scrambled and I found myself alone with Juliana. I moved closer, holding her to me.

“You’re trembling,” I whispered.

“What if the Duke succeeds?” she said.

“He won’t,” I said. “Not with Lord Werner here.”

With a sigh she buried her head against my shoulder. “I wish I were this confident.”

“How is Lady Clara?”

Juliana looked up, wiping her eyes. “She’s better, but the cold and damp make her bones ache and she has this terrible cough. I made pine needle tea. It seems to help a bit. My Lady thinks
Gott
is punishing her for her sins.”

“She needs a steam bath,” I said.

“What?”

“Next time I’m at Luanda’s I’ll ask her about some good herbs. You put oils like peppermint or lavender into boiling water. Then you breathe the steam. It helps break up the crud and heal the lungs.”

Juliana stared at me. “How do you know so much? Luanda is a witch. Are you not wary of her? And you act as if you were a doctor, a Merlin with secret spells.”

I sighed. She didn’t know the half of it. “I’ll try to explain sometime.”

“Listen.” Juliana had stopped rubbing my forearm. “What was that?”

The faint ringing of metal drifted into the barn. “The attack has begun,” I said as we scrambled out of the straw. Pulling her close, I whispered, “Go and hide with Lady Clara. Just in case.”

I ran to the main gate. In the quarter moon, shadows moved across the open field of the bailey. Behind the closed door in the outer wall men waited with swords drawn. Many were on horses. As I came closer they slipped through the opening. The sharp clang of metal hitting metal erupted outside. Men shouted, screams echoed. I thought of the battle I’d listened to not long ago. The viciousness of the sounds made me cringe. No way I’d ever be able to do that.

I rushed along the wall, its shadow welcome protection. Above me arrows sang. Hanstein’s archers peeked across the heavy stone work taking aim. The unseen enemy fought back, shooting arrows into the bailey. Most of them missed and harmlessly landed in the grass. Chances were good I’d get hit if I stepped into the open. It was probably stupid to be here in the first place, but I couldn’t make myself hide.

The swordfight outside seemed to intensify and spread along the wall and into the trees toward Rimbach. Shouts of pain and fury mixed with thundering hooves, riders shouting commands and attacking from the saddle. I climbed onto the allure, a low-lying walk behind the wall.

Men and horses seethed as swords and spears clashed in close combat. Werner’s men were more agile and easily outdid their enemies. But Schwarzburg had brought plenty of help. He’d expected to drag off the women and children and fill out the vast space of Hanstein. Little by little the battle expanded toward the woods and out of sight.

“Anything I can do,” I shouted to one of the archers. “Fetch more arrows,” he hissed. “Make haste.”

The noise outside the gate grew louder still as I hurried toward the inner courtyard. I trembled just from listening to the horrific sounds—death had arrived at Hanstein’s doorstep. How
could anyone go out there and be prepared to be cut to pieces? What if Werner got killed? I imagined him lying on the battle-field drenched in his own blood, my hands turning instantly clammy despite the cold. If Werner fell, the castle would be lost. Lame Hans didn’t have the same command over the men. He couldn’t even keep his balance to wield a sword. We’d all be taken prisoner.

The courtyard crawled with maids and servants. Everyone had a task except for me. I had no idea where to find arrows, but they surely had an armory. I stopped one of the squires carrying several swords. It was Christian, Werner’s oldest.

“Where are the arrows?”

Christian pointed toward the cellar doors near the keep. “Yonder.”

I returned with armfuls of long and short arrows. The crossbow warriors used short darts with lethal-looking metal tips. The long arrows spanned five feet, their metal tips sharpened to penetrate leather and chainmail. The bows were huge and took the strength of a prizefighter to operate. My arms grew numb with fatigue just from running back and forth delivering supplies.

“Take stock at the towers, they’ll need arrows,” one of the archers said. I stared at the two towers looming in the distance. I ran back, hugging the wall and then sprinting across the open field to the main gate. Suddenly, the bailey exploded in light. Flaming projectiles, arrows and assorted flying objects were landing in the grass and smashing against the castle walls. None were high or hard enough to make it into one of the windows.

Not yet, I thought. The straw and wood beams inside would explode in flames like an oilfield. I passed the portcullis where servants and maids scrambled to fill and deliver water buckets. They darted into the open, dousing the flames and the bailey returned to darkness. It was obvious that the Duke had not expected much resistance and could not maintain a long assault.
And Werner had not only managed to return in time, he had summoned help from neighboring villages in time for the battle.

But Schwarzburg could easily return later starving out the castle, I thought, climbing the left tower. The arrow loops were occupied with men, aiming into the blackness below. It had to be a hundred yards or more and I saw nothing but woods and brush. Soon, I was climbing up and down, supplying the archers upstairs. I saw Bero do the same in the other tower and we waved at each other once.

As dawn sent the first light across the hills, the battle stopped. The Duke’s men or what was left of them vanished while the archers, knights and assorted foot soldiers returned to the courtyard. Some were bloodied, their armor nicked and dented. Several had injuries, but the losses were minimal.

I sighed with relief when I saw Werner pass through the crowd, patting people on the back, inspecting wounds and spreading encouragement. His face looked drawn with lack of sleep, but his eyes flashed the usual energy.

Amazing, I thought. I was ready to collapse just from backup duty. Werner had been up all night and fought a gruesome battle. I slumped down to rest my aching feet. Good thing, I wore my Nikes. I’d never have held up all night in the stupid medieval boots. I felt tired to the bone, but the knowledge of having prevented disaster kept me going.

“We did it,” Bero said, sagging into the straw next to me. “I hear a feast will be ready soon. “They’re preparing the great hall and the cooks are busy.”

I chuckled. If it had to do with food, Bero was in the know. “How can you always think about eating? I’d love to hear Schwarzburg right now. He must be thoroughly disgusted and wonder how he could’ve missed out on a sure thing.”

Bero giggled. But then he jumped up and stared toward the main gate. “They’re bringing the prisoners.”

I slowly followed him. About twenty men, their arms bound
behind them, their clothes shredded, some bleeding, filed into the courtyard. They looked beaten and tired, more like normal villagers and peasants than soldiers. The beadle had probably forced them to fight or they had seen a way to earn a few coins. Most stared at the ground as they shuffled past Werner’s men toward the keep. Nobody spoke, not even the knights.

“Are they going to the dungeon?” I whispered. I thought of my stay with the beadle. It didn’t take long to die in a place like that. I’d never been in the keep which was saved for emergencies. Okay, that was technically untrue. I had been in it but six hundred years later at which time the keep no longer existed except for a few cellars and the nondescript hole of the former dungeon.

“Probably,” Bero said. Abruptly he turned toward me. “Why didn’t you finish Ott? He deserved it.”

“Deserved to die?”

Bero nodded. “He could’ve murdered my sister.”

Who you consider the property of the next man, I thought. I bounded to a stand, my nose an inch from Bero’s. The stress of fighting Ott, the lack of sleep and the battle had taken its toll.

“You jerk,” I hissed. “I risked my neck to save the castle. That I made it to Ott’s place was amazing. Not to mention that I got Lord Werner out in time. That I escaped Ott’s room in one piece is a miracle in itself.” My voice was steadily rising. I knew it but was powerless to stop. “That I managed to get the berries into his drink
and
that he actually ate them is hard to believe. And you ask me why I didn’t kill the guy.”

Bero, a few inches shorter than me, stood his ground. “That’s right. He’s going to come for us. He won’t forget and now he really hates us. He won’t stop looking. Not just you, but Juliana and me. Who knows, he may go after
Mutter
and Adela.”

The fury in me evaporated. I was out of energy. I hadn’t thought about the consequences. Ott was sure to put two and two together. He’d figure out that something in his food or drink
had caused him to get sick. He’d ask about the berries in his wine, soon realizing that I had done it. He’d probably suspected when he passed out.

I hadn’t intended for Ott to know. Why did he have to get off the stupid bed right when I was sneaking away? I looked at my feet. Had I not wasted so much time with my shoes, I could’ve been out of Ott’s room earlier. But then I wouldn’t have planted the berries. I was utterly confused now. Nothing had worked as planned except for saving Hanstein. That had to count for something, but right now I was even too tired to think about that.

“I can’t kill someone that easy,” I said with a shrug. “You don’t understand. Where I come from, people don’t murder someone, even if those people have done wrong.”

Now Bero was getting wound up. “You call attacking Juliana with a pitchfork
wrong.
He’s a coward who full and well knew she might die. You saw her. And he thought nothing of taking her virtue.”

“I remember what I saw,” I said.

“And where
do
you come from, anyway,” Bero said, his eyes squinting with suspicion like the first time we’d met.

“I have nothing more to say.” Drained of the last shred of energy, I turned away. To my surprise, the courtyard was empty except for a couple maids lugging water buckets.

“Max Nerds, My Lord has requested your presence,” a servant shouted across the way.

“Coming,” I said, glad to get away from Bero. Marching toward the great hall I wondered what was going on. I’d really had it. This day had to end sometime.

But the servant wasn’t finished. “And that of your friend, Bero, the tanner’s son.”

I rolled my eyes. Right now, I didn’t want to be anywhere near the jerk.

When I entered, the great hall turned quiet as a tomb. Still reeling from my fight with Bero, I looked at the knights, servants and maids in wonder. They all stared back. At the end of the head table, Lord Werner sat watching, the gas flames of his eyes turned on high. What had I done now?