The Battle for the Castle (13 page)

They did as they were told, grateful, it seemed, that somebody was taking charge. Jason and Tolliver went
back to their courtyard endurance runs. Every so often, they called up to Brian to let down the drawbridge, and they would circle the castle on their bikes. Jason called it a reconnaissance.

“What does that mean?” Tolliver asked over supper that evening.

“It's a military word,” Jason said under his breath so Dick couldn't hear. “I read it in a book somewhere. It means you're checking out the enemy movements.”

“Have you found anything?” Gudrin asked. She had slept all afternoon and looked better, William thought.

“Nothing so far.”

“Something will happen tonight,” she said.

“How do you know?” Jason asked.

She shrugged.

“Gudrin knows things,” said Tolliver. “She always has.”

“What are you children whispering about?” Dick cried from his end of the table. “I've never seen such glum faces. Come and join me in the courtyard. I long for a turn around in the fresh air to settle my stomach after this healthy repast.”

William pulled Gudrin aside. “If you really think something will happen tonight, then we should take turns on the watch.”

She nodded. “You and I can take the first and Jason
and Tolliver the second. Tell them we shall wake them at the third hour of the morning.”

The night was dark.

“I miss electricity,” William said to Gudrin as they strolled back and forth along the ramparts.

“What is elec— Whatever?”

“Something that was invented about six hundred years from now. It's like that flashlight you used in the boat but electricity comes through wires in the walls. Instead of candles, you pull a switch and a light comes on.” William looked out over the fields. “The darkness is so black here,” he said. “Back where I live, even when you don't have your lights on, somebody else does, and the whole world seems brighter.”

They nodded to Alan as they passed the main gatehouse. He had been assigned by Brian to the first watch of the night, and he seemed mystified and a little put out by their appearance.

Gudrin liked carrying the binoculars, so William let her. Every so often she set both elbows on the turreted edge of the wall walk and swept the landscape from left to right, always ending with a long look at the road leading up from the coast. This time she spotted something.

“What is it?” William asked impatiently.

“A horse walking slowly. No saddle. There is a
sack slung across its back. No, wait. It's not a sack, it's a person.”

She gave him the binoculars.

“It's a man, dressed very poorly,” William reported to her as they made their way back toward Alan. “A peasant, I guess, and his clothes are hanging in tatters. He's lifting his head, now he's dropped it again. He must be very tired or ill. The horse looks in pretty bad shape too. I can't see much more. It's too dark.”

“If he carries the milk sickness, we must not let him into the castle,” she warned.

“But he's come for help,” William said. “We have to do something.”

The horse stopped on the other side of the moat and dropped its head to nibble in the sparse grass. The rider struggled to a sitting position and called out, “Hallo. Open the gates.”

“Your name, sir?” William called.

“What matters my name when I have only hours to live. I have come as a warning. Lower the drawbridge.” He collapsed once more against the steed's bony neck and looked as if he might never move again.

“Do it,” William said to Alan.

“But, sir, we know not if he is an enemy.”

“You heard him. If he is, he certainly cannot harm us now. But keep an eye on the road behind him to be sure he has not been sent out as a diversion.”

William and Gudrin pounded down the twisting tower steps. Through the thick walls, they could hear the grinding and clanking of chains as the drawbridge was lowered and the portcullis raised.

Alan called orders, and two guards with torches materialized on either side of Gudrin and William as they waited in the courtyard. Then William heard Dick's voice behind him and the hushed mutterings of a gathering crowd. He didn't turn around because he couldn't drag his eyes away from what was coming across the drawbridge.

Both horse and man were bleeding from what seemed like a thousand bites. It was a wonder that anybody, animal or human, could go on walking and breathing with so much blood running from their wounds. The horse swayed to a stop and then looked as if it might fall over.

“Get the man down,” Dick ordered as he pushed his way past William. Two more guards rushed forward to obey him. The crowd parted and hurried to make a bed for the man by piling up their cloaks and woolen wraps.

“It's the fisherman,” Gudrin whispered to William. “The one who told us the ship had come back.”

As William knelt beside the dying man, he could see that she was right. It was difficult to recognize the face because of the bites in his right cheek and above his
eyebrow. William stripped off the man's shirt and as gently as possible, he pressed it against the face wounds. Gasps of horror ran through the crowd.

“Stand back,” Dick said. “Give them room.”

“It's you,” the man croaked in a hoarse voice as he grabbed William's sleeve and pulled him closer. There was a surprising amount of strength left in his arms, perhaps from all his years of hauling nets. “You know about the death ship, don't you? You and that girl.”

“Yes,” William said. “What is it?”

“They come in the night,” he whispered. “They eat everything alive. People, dogs, horses. Everything with flesh on it. So many of them crawling. Everywhere.” He closed his eyes as if that might take the horror of the memory away.

“The rats,” William said in a low voice.

“You wake up and they are already on you, on the babies,” he muttered with his eyes still closed.

“Quiet, now.” Gudrin had knelt down on his other side. “I have something to ease the pain but we shall have to move you.” Someone had run for a woolen covering and she tucked it around him. Then she directed the guards to slide a piece of board underneath his body so that he could be moved.

“Where shall we take him, Miss Gudrin?” Brian asked.

“To my bedchamber. We are fortunate it is close to
the buttery,” she said. “Gareth, boil water for me,” she called out to one of the scullion boys who was standing at the edge of the crowd. He ran to do her bidding.

As the man's face rose slowly from the ground, he opened his eyes again and stared directly at William. “I came to warn you,” he said. “They're headed this way.”

“We'll be safe in the castle,” William said. “With the drawbridge up, we'll be safe.”

“They swim,” the fisherman said. “They tunnel. They climb. They gnaw through anything. So many of them. Nothing stops them, I'm telling you. Nothing. They follow the leader. The big one. They watch him all the time.”

“How much time do we have?” William said as he strode along beside the makeshift stretcher.

“A day at the most. Maybe two.” Then the fisherman's head rolled back and he said nothing more.

Jason found William in the courtyard after the fisherman had been borne away.

“I almost puked when I saw that,” Jason said. “How could you stand to get so close to him with all that blood?”

“I don't know,” William said. “Somebody had to try and do something. He told me the rats are headed this way.”

“Boys, I want you to meet with me in the tower room,” Dick ordered as he brushed past them. “Immediately. Brian,” he called out as he strode away.

“The general commands,” muttered Jason. “And we obey. What are we going to do?”

“I don't know,” said William. “But we'd better make up our minds pretty soon. I don't think we have much more time.”

They trudged up the tower steps, Brian and Dick ahead of them.

“This place is so dark,” Jason said. “It gives me the creeps.”

“It is the middle of the night,” William replied. Whenever Jason was nervous, he filled the silences with chatter and William found it hard to pay attention to him. A hundred thoughts were running through his brain at the same time. What was Gudrin doing with the bleeding fisherman? Where were the rats now? What if Deegan never brought the token back? How would he and Jason get home? He closed his eyes for a moment and let his feet feel their way up the steps. Home. His soft bed, a heated house, lights at the flick of a switch. He missed all the comforts of the twentieth century. And most of all he missed his parents who were frozen in their own time, not missing him because they didn't even know he was gone.

“Now, gentlemen,” Dick said when they were assembled in his room. “I have gathered you together to make a plan for the defense of the people and Sir Simon's castle. That poor man has suffered some hideous torment that seems beyond imagining. Young William, it is the rats you told me about, isn't it?”

“Yes, Dick, the ones we saw coming off the ship. They are headed this way. He says they eat everything alive, everything with flesh on it.”

“But, sir,” Brian said. “Rats do not normally behave
this way. They are not carnivores. They serve us well by ridding us of our offal.”

“These rats are led by a huge one,” Jason said. “We saw it. It's taller than Dick. It must have them under some kind of control.”

“That's why we saw the garbage and the bones floating in the river,” William blurted out. “The rats are acting abnormally, like crazed cannibals.”

Dick put up his hands. “Where are they now?”

“Traveling along the road from the coast. The fisherman came to warn us. He says we have a day, two at the most, before they reach us.”

“Let me think,” Dick said. They stood in silence while he took one turn about the room and then another. The cat followed him, curling in and out of his legs as he walked. He stopped and turned to face them again. “My plan is twofold,” he announced in a solemn voice. “First, everybody who can, must leave. We will give them the horses and as many provisions as we can spare. A small number of us will remain behind as a decoy for these vermin. We will defend the castle until the end.” He took a deep breath and his voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “I would hope that the three of you will choose to stand beside me in this desperate hour but each of you must speak for yourself.”

“I am at your disposal, sir,” Brian said.

“You mean you want us to be the bait for them?” Jason asked.

“In a manner of speaking. We must distract them, hold them here, so the others can get away.”

Jason frowned. “How are we going to do that?”

Dick faltered. “I'm not exactly sure, young man. That is what we must work out here.”

“How many are in the castle now?” William asked.

Brian cocked his head. “With the children and the stable hands, some seventy or so.”

“Let me think out loud for a minute,” William said. “A crowd of people that size will move slowly. Even if they take the horses, many of them will have to walk. And of course, as they travel through the countryside, others will join them and slow them down even more. The rats will overtake them soon enough. So, I agree with Dick. We have to distract the rats, lure them away. The question is how do we do that and manage to stay alive at the same time?”

“Nice of you to think of that,” Jason said.

“Young Jason,” Dick said sternly. “I would remind you of the trust Sir Simon left you in the form of his sword.”

Jason looked embarrassed. “I know, sir. I stand ready to fight with the bravest of them.”

William cut in. “I do not mean any disrespect, Dick, but what will swords do against a plague of rats?”

A frown crossed Dick's face and his shoulders sagged suddenly.

“No,” William went on, his mind racing. “We must trap them in here. Lure them in and haul up the drawbridge.”

“Then what?” Jason asked.

“Find a place in the castle to wait out a siege.” William snapped his fingers. “We need a plan of the castle.”

“In Sir Simon's bedchamber,” Brian said, picking up a candle. “I will go for it.”

“Good,” William said. “We also need somebody to bring back Sir Simon and Deegan with the token.”

Dick looked bewildered. “The token?”

“You remember, Dick,” William said impatiently. “The one I snatched from Alastor. One side shrinks people and the other side makes them big again. Deegan stole it from me when he went off with Sir Simon. If we get it back, we can shrink the rats with it.”

“Brilliant plan,” Dick said, brightening suddenly. It was clear that he hadn't thought much beyond the diversionary tactic.

“I'll go,” Jason said. “On my bike.”

William studied him. “Not a bad idea. A bicycle wouldn't leave a scent the way a horse would. And you're the obvious one because you've got the most endurance on the bicycle. But you don't know the way. And frankly, we need you here.”

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Jason asked.

“Tolliver,” William said softly.

“Exactly.”

“No, he's only a boy,” Dick cried.

“Listen to me, Dick, it would get him away to safety.”

“And he rides really well now,” Jason added. “I've been training him ever since we got here, Dick. His legs are almost as strong as mine.”

“Yes,” William said. “And he is a brave boy. You have taught him well. He knows the way to Inglewich. If he were to leave in the next few hours, by morning he would have put many miles between him and the—” he paused, “—and what's coming.”

Dick sank onto the bench wearily. “So much to think about,” he said. “I want Gudrin to go with the rest of them.”