Serpent (52 page)

Now, everyone was starting to feel the same apprehension that Yestin and Bhrodi were feeling. The horn was somehow key to all of this, a crucial part of the plan that was now missing
. If they couldn’t find it, then it was very possible everything would fail; Edward would expect Rhydilian on the morrow and would be faced with three hundred Welsh and English socked in and prepared to fight. It would bring forth everything William and Bhrodi had been fearful of. It would bring about the end.

But Bhrodi was unwilling to give up. This was his plan and he would see it through to the bloody end; too many people were depending on it. His frustration began to get the better of him.

“It is always in that chest,” he said, looking Penelope as if she could help him find the answers. “The only people who know it is there are me and my
teulu
. No one else would know its worth except….”

He trailed off and it was evident that a thought occurred to him. Penelope was nearly frantic
. “What?” she demanded. “Who else would know its worth?”

Bhrodi was almost afraid to voice
what he was thinking but the more he thought on it, the more it might be a viable possibility. He looked at William.

“When you came to me this morning and we discussed this plan,” he said
, “my uncle was in the room. Do you recall? He came upstairs and hid in the tapestry as we were discussing this very scheme.”

William did indeed recall the tiny little man with the stringy white hair, fighting his way into the room and then wrapping himself up in the tapestry.

“Indeed I do,” he said. “Why?”

Bhrodi’s mind was moving
quickly. “Because he has also been present nearly every time we have discussed Edward’s want of Rhydilian,” he said. “Even if the man is quite mad, he knows about the horn because he is my grandfather’s brother. The man knows everything about Rhydilian. It is quite possible that somewhere in that insane and outlandish mind of his, he understood what we were speaking of. He understood our peril and he understood our plan. Is it possible that he actually took the horn and is now out wandering the marsh, preparing to unleash the beast?”

Penelope wasn’t apt to believe it so quickly. “How is that possible?” she wanted to know.
“He has been in the hall when we have discussed Edward but he never acknowledged that he understood anything. He fights his ghosts and returns to the wardrobe.”

Bhrodi knew that. God help him, he knew that, but he just couldn’t shake the possibility
. He turned to Yestin. “Go see if my uncle is in his wardrobe,” he ordered. “If he is, then we are right back where we started, but if he is not….”

Yestin nodded swiftly and began to run. But the moment he did so, a faint sound, like that of a
mournful beastly cry, filled the air. The knights upon the battlements who had been watching the conversation with Bhrodi suddenly rushed to the parapets, straining to find the source of the sound. They were looking off towards the marsh, into that dark and cold night with the blanket of stars high above. Even William, Paris, and Kieran began to swiftly mount the ladders to the wall walk so they could see where the sound was coming from.

But Bhrodi knew; he knew the moment that heady, rough tone pierced the cold night air.
He’d heard the sound a thousand times before. He looked at Penelope.

“That is the horn,” he murmured hoarsely. “Someone is blowing it.”

Yestin, who had momentarily paused when they heard the first few sounds of the horn, now ran for the keep and disappeared inside. Back in the bailey, however, Penelope was looking at Bhrodi with a mixture of disbelief and apprehension.

“Do you really think it is your uncle?” she whispered. “It is truly possible he understood everything we were saying and is now seeing the final element of your plan through?”

Bhrodi was gazing into her wide hazel eyes, seeing the woman he loved. But it was more than that; she was his strength, his heart, his soul, and the day he found her out in the marsh driving her broadsword into the eye of the beast was the day he had begun to live again. Only he didn’t know it then; all he knew was that his life had been a dead thing, a terrible thing, and now it was pure joy. What Sian’s death had taken out of him, Penelope had put back and then some. He was overflowing with the life and love she gave to him.

“It is not only possible, it is probable,” he
murmured.

Yestin suddenly appeared at the keep entry. “
The old man is gone!” he shouted into the bailey. “Shall I look for him?”

Bhrodi called him off
; there was no need. He knew where his uncle had gone. The horn sounded again and so did a host of distant cries; faint screams began to fill the air. As the English knights watched with amazement from their vantage point on the battlements of Rhydilian, the beast of the marsh, the serpent of legend, emerged from the murky depths to destroy more than half of Edward’s army.

It was a brutal, bloody fight as men tried to fight off the creature with swords, only to see dozens upon dozens of men chopped to pieces by the beast’s dagger-like teeth
. The cries, the fight, went on into the night and Bhrodi, who had practically been lifted to the battlements by William and Paris, watched it all. On that dark and brilliant night, his legacy was saved at the jaws of the Serpent.

Edward
managed to escape along with those fortunate enough to avoid the gnashing jaws, making all due haste back the way they had come. They had no choice, as the creature had virtually blocked their path to the castle, which would have offered quick shelter. They left everything behind – provisions wagons, equipment, and men, all of that as England’s offering to Anglesey’s angry beast, an apology for having come to Anglesey in the first place.

Terror
followed Edward’s men that night because when they reached the ferry over the Menai Strait and there wasn’t enough room to shuttle everyone on the first crossing, many of them plunged into the frigid waters and tried to swim across. By the time Edward crossed the strait and headed back to his encampment at Aber, he had eighty-seven out of the nearly one thousand men he had traveled to Anglesey with. The creature’s feast had been thorough.

Edward
never spoke of that event again. It was hushed-up, a forbidden topic even in the most private of conversations. Even when he managed to conquer all of Wales in subsequent years, the topic of Rhydilian Castle and Bhrodi de Shera was strictly off limits, and the Pendraeth Forest was heavily avoided. No one really knew why, only that Edward had commanded it. He never ventured into that area again and de Shera never ventured out. At least, not that Edward was aware of. It was an unspoken arrangement that evidently made both of them happy. In truth, Edward didn’t want the man badly enough to risk facing the creature of the marsh again.

T
houghts of that terrible night in the swamp gave the man nightmares up until his deathbed. Edward took the truth of that night, and the truth behind The Serpent, to his grave.

Nobody would have believed him, anyway.

Three weeks later

“Papa? Thomas?” Penelope called up the stairs. “Are you coming? Everyone is waiting!”

Penelope could hear hissing and fussing
up on the third floor. Standing next to Bhrodi in the keep entry, they had been waiting for her father and brother for quite some time. Penelope looked at her husband who, in spite of his improving health, still appeared pale and drawn. And sad; he was most definitely sad. She put her arms around him.

“You do not have to do this,” she murmured. “We can quite easily raise the child as our own.”

Bhrodi sighed faintly as he planted a kiss on her forehead. “Nay,” he said quietly. “This is the best thing for the child. Going to live with your father and mother and being raised far from Wales is the safest course of action. No one will ever think a full-blooded Welsh princess to be living with the greatest English knight in all of England. After what Edward did to Dafydd and his family, I am terrified for this child. We must spirit her out of Wales and away from Edward.”

Penelope smiled sadly at him; she knew how hard it was. It had been very hard for all of them with Tacey’s death after having given birth to a very large daughter.
Paris had tried so hard to save the young woman but in the end, it had been too much for her immature body to handle. Thomas had been devastated.

But there were more threats to the Welsh now than ever before; even though Edward had been turned back from Rhydilian, Dafydd and his family had been captured. Edward had shown no mercy in sending Dafydd’s children and wife to prisons all throughout England and in taking Dafydd himself to London to face execution
. Fortunately, he seemed to have forgotten about Bhrodi altogether, which was as they had intended. No one would dare try to reach Rhydilian again with the threat of The Serpent lingering about. Still, Bhrodi didn’t want his niece in Wales. He wanted her safe with The Wolfe where she could grow up without fear. He knew that was what Tacey would have wanted.

As Penelope clung contentedly to her husband, they could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Thomas was first, carrying a chest of things for the baby, while Paris was next, fussing at William, who was
coming down behind him carrying the infant in his arms.

“Paris, get out of my way,” William told him. “You fuss and worry like an old fish wife. If I fall, it is because you tripped me.”

Paris gave him a droll expression. “If you fall, it is because you are a one-eyed knight and have no business carrying an infant,” he said flatly. “Give her to me.”

William would not relinquish his prize and the baby slept peacefully through all of the scolding. Penelope shook her head at the two of them.

“Look at you two,” she said reproachfully. “Fighting over a baby.”

Paris scowled at her although it was good-naturedly. “You keep out of this,” he told her. “This is between your father and me.”

Penelope stuck her tongue out at him. “All of the arguing in the world is not going to force him to turn over the baby,” she said. “You may as well stop begging.”

William grinned as he came off the stairs with the tiny bundle in his big arms
. He made his way over to Penelope and Bhrodi, who strained to get a look at the little girl with the perfect features.

“Is she a good baby, Papa?” Penelope asked. “I have never been around one long enough to have experience with them.”

William was gazing down into the little face. “Aye,” he said. “She is a good baby. Not like you were; you screamed all hours of the day or night. There were times that I was tempted to put you in a basket and send you out to sea.”

Penelope scowled as Bhrodi grinned. “If she does not behave herself, I still may do that,” he said.

Everyone chuckled at Penelope’s expense. “I think you are all horrid,” she said, reaching out to touch the tiny little hand that was exposed through the blankets. “Mama will love her, won’t she? She will be so excited to have a baby around again.”

William nodded. “She will indeed,” he replied, glancing over at Paris. “We have the
wet nurse, correct?”

Paris nodded patient
ly. “I have a wet nurse and two serving women to accompany us back to England,” he said. “Trust me; Lady Tacey will have everything she needs. She will want for nothing.”

William’s gaze lingered on the baby before seeking out his daughter. For a moment, they simply gazed at one another
with warmth and understanding until finally, he smiled weakly.

“I suppose this is appropriate,” he said. “I brought my baby girl to Wales an
d now I leave with a baby girl to replace the one I have given away.”

Penelope could sense his farewell coming and she fought off the lump in her throat. “You will spoil her as you spoiled me,” she said softly. “You will be the best father in the world to her as you were to me.”

William leaned over and kissed his daughter on the forehead. “I have done my job and now it is time for you to do yours,” he said, trying not to notice the tears in her eyes because it would bring on his own. He looked at Bhrodi. “Your niece will be well tended and brought up to love and respect her Welsh heritage. You may come and visit her any time you wish.”