[The deBurghs 07] - Reynold De Burgh: The Dark Knight (15 page)

‘Peregrine, why don’t you take the women back to the hall, so that they can rest out of the sun?’ Reynold suggested.

The boy nodded, but Mistress Sexton reached out to touch Reynold’s arm. ‘You will rebury the bones, won’t you? And all that went with them?’

Her expression was so stark that Reynold was tempted to take her back to the manor himself. But he no longer trusted himself with her comfort, so he merely nodded. As Peregrine led the women away, Reynold stood watching until their figures disappeared behind a copse of trees.

Then he turned his attention to the gaping hole before him, one square sunk even deeper into the bowels of the skeleton of a ship, and he shook his head. It was the end of the road, for the hopes of the villagers, for the work that had kept them occupied, and for the time that they would spend in Grim’s End.

‘What are you going to do now?’ young Alec asked.

What else was there to do? Reynold frowned as he gazed out over the scarred earth. ‘We return everything to the ground, and then we fill it all in.’

Sabina slipped into her room, shut the door behind her and slumped against it. Weary and overwhelmed, she was eager for a few moments to herself. Ursula remained in the hall, which was just as well, for Sabina was not sure how she felt about her attendant’s revelation.

She could see that Lord de Burgh thought it nonsense, but he did not know all, and Sabina wondered whether she should tell him. Reluctant to disclose her father’s dying words to everyone, she had said nothing out by the mound. And what could it possibly matter? They had looked under the grim and found only the bones of the dead.

Sabina shivered. She tried not to dwell on the fact that they had desecrated a grave, but she couldn’t help it. Old
fears returned, childhood notions that to disturb the mound was to rouse the dragon. Even though now Sabina knew that there was no worm and that no action had stirred it back to life, their troubles had started not long after someone else had wanted to defile the mound.

Sabina told herself that she should be glad that the dark suspicions she had refused to consider had at last been proven wrong. And yet, even now she hesitated to remember the moment she had tried so hard to forget—when her betrothed had returned.

Shaking, Sabina made her way to the room’s sole chair and sank down upon it, stifling a sob at all that had happened since. She dipped her head low, eager to bury her face in her hands, but a noise within the room made her look up. And as though her very thoughts had conjured him from the air, Julian Fabre stepped out of the shadows.

Sabina half-rose from her chair, a cry upon her lips, certain she had seen a ghost or some figment of her imagination that meant she was truly going mad.

‘Greetings, my love,’ he said, flashing a set of white teeth that anyone would envy. He had always been the handsomest man in the village, with his shock of dark hair and startling green eyes, and he had made the most of that beauty, using it to seduce and charm, to turn attention away from the ugliness hidden inside.

‘Struck speechless, are we? That has to be a first,’ Julian said, as he stepped closer. ‘Unlike most women, little Sabina always had her opinions and voiced them far too often.’

Sabina’s breath caught, and she felt panic press down
upon her.
Not now
, she thought.
Not now
, when she needed all her wits about her. Staring at him, unblinking, she thought of Lord de Burgh and how he had steadied her only a little while ago.

‘Not much to say? Well, that’s fine because, for once, I’ll do the talking.’ Julian walked around the small space as though it couldn’t contain him, his intensity making him unrecognisable to her as the boy she had once known.

‘I thought you lost your precious knight when the mound caved in,’ he said. He picked up her silver hairbrush as if it were suddenly of great interest to him, then glanced at her under his long lashes. ‘Thought I’d have to swoop in and take over.’

Sabina gasped.

‘Surprised? Oh, I keep an eye on what is mine—or I make sure Urban does.’

‘Urban!’ Sabina whispered, still unable to believe that her father’s loyal steward would work against the Sextons.

‘Yes. He is practically worthless, but I needed him to keep me informed while I remained out of sight,’ Julian said, as he roamed the chamber. ‘It was very accommodating of you to do all my work for me, though I don’t know if I should be insulted by your sudden change of heart. Why would you refuse to let me dig up the mound, only to help a stranger do so?’

Julian shook his head at her, as if in reproach. ‘I can only imagine that you have become more desperate over the past few months, for he cannot be more persuasive than I.’

Sabina simply stared at him, uncomprehending. He looked the same as he had when she’d last seen him all
those months ago, but his clothes, obviously once fine, were frayed and worn, his hair too long and ragged.

‘Still quiet, I see. But now I really do need you to speak, for I see that your precious knight is filling in the mound,’ Julian said. He eyed her intently. ‘So where is the treasure?’

‘There is no treasure,’
Sabina said wearily. ‘Just as I told you before. There was nothing in that mound but a dead man.’

‘Really? That would be most unfortunate.’

Blinking at him, Sabina finally recovered herself. This was no ghost or vision, but a real man, the man she had once thought the embodiment of her girlhood dreams. Yet he had broken all vows and abandoned all honour, and now he had set Urban to spy upon her? ‘Why are you here, Julian? What do you want?’

‘I would think that’s a bit obvious, Sabina, but then you were never one to think the worst of people, were you? Trusting little Sabina. Naïve. Honest to a fault. Full of righteous goodness.’ He moved close to her and reached out to lift her chin with one long finger, which Sabina slapped away.

Far from offending him, the action seemed to please the man Julian had become. ‘At first I just wanted to get rid of everyone, but you proved far too stubborn. Foolish, stubborn Sabina, clinging to her visions of honourable knights and worthy wars. But then I began to think you might be useful.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Sabina asked, her heart in her throat. ‘What are you saying?’

‘Why, that I am
The Dragon
.’ Julian threw the words
over his shoulder as he resumed his pacing. ‘Since you refused to let me dig into the mound after I asked you so nicely, I had to find some way to have it to myself. And it was a clever scheme, you must admit, even though you refused to go. When you would not leave, I thought perhaps it was fate, throwing us together again. I began to think we might resume our relationship, after I had found the riches, of course, and became worthy of you.’

‘
What
?’ Sabina surged to her feet. ‘You think that wealth would make you
worthy
? You come in here, acting as if you’ve done nothing wrong, when you attacked my village, scattered my people and killed my father?’

‘I didn’t kill your—’

‘You killed my father!’
Sabina screamed. She saw the alarm on Julian’s face, but she couldn’t stop. Her heart pounded, yet with anger, not fear. ‘And then you think you can
marry
me, take to your bed and your life the woman you most wronged in the world? What sort of a monster are you? You are most assuredly a worm, but the kind that crawls upon the ground and slithers through faeces, hiding in the dirt.’

The words had barely left Sabina’s mouth when she heard a faint sound, as though of the beast itself, yet it came from the skies outside, not from the man standing before her. ‘If you are The Dragon, then what is that?’ she asked, eyes narrowed.

Julian cocked his head to one side. ‘It appears that I am needed elsewhere. But, first, tell me where the treasure is,’ he said, advancing on her.

‘
There is no treasure
,’ Sabina shouted. For a moment,
all was quiet as she stood facing him, and then she heard a knock upon her door.

Turning, Sabina hastened with the bolt, for fear Julian might prevent her from escaping. But it swung open, revealing young Peregrine, with his sword drawn. Fearing for the boy, Sabina was reluctant to let him in, yet when she turned, the room was empty.

Julian had disappeared, just as surely as the last time he had been here.

Reynold put the bones and all else back into the square hole that marked the very bottom of the mound and was filling it in with the different-coloured soil when he heard something eerily familiar. It was not the sound of flying fire, but that of the dragon’s roar none the less, and Reynold climbed out of the pit as quickly as possible, a wary eye upon the skies.

‘Did you see anything?’ Reynold asked Alec, the only other person left at the mound.

The boy shook his head; loathe to leave him alone, Reynold took him along as they hurried to the manor. Even though he knew no worm hovered above them, Reynold crouched low to the ground as he ran, keeping to the tall grass as much as possible before racing to the copse of trees at the rear of the building.

There they halted beneath the cloaking greenery, Reynold holding up a hand to silence Alec. Although he expected no trouble, in the past days and weeks Reynold had grown lax, and now he cursed himself for sending the women back to the hall without his protection.

His glance through the leaves was one of caution
only, an automatic gesture, so he bit back a grunt of surprise when he saw a dark figure climbing down the side of the stone structure. As Reynold gaped, the figure turned, revealing itself to be a man, slender and agile, with a face so handsome as to bring Reynold’s brother Stephen to mind.

Reynold’s initial fear that a passing thief had attacked the last of the villagers turned into something else entirely, especially since the man was coming from above—where Mistress Sexton’s window lay.

‘That looks like Julian Fabre, the blacksmith’s son,’ Alec whispered. He turned to Reynold, his eyes wide. ‘Mistress Sexton’s betrothed.’

The hushed words rang in Reynold’s head like a shout, and he reeled as though the boy had struck him. The pain that lanced through him was far worse than any ache in his leg, and he could hardly bring himself to speak, lest he howl his anguish to the skies. ‘You go inside,’ he managed to whisper. ‘I’m going to follow him.’

Reynold had no idea what the figure was up to, but he was not about to allow the man Mistress Sexton had claimed was dead wander in and out of Grim’s End at will. Were the two of them lovers? Reynold’s hurt was joined by anger and frustration, and he felt a fool to have thought Mistress Sexton different. He wondered just how far her deceit went, but he could spare no thoughts for her perfidy now when he needed all his wits about him.

With a bitter twist of his mouth, he acknowledged his fate: to be betrayed by the woman he loved.

S
abina hurried down the stairs, Peregrine close behind her. Although she wanted to hide in her bedchamber, it was no longer a haven. Indeed, the only place where Sabina felt secure now was with Lord de Burgh.
By his side. In his arms.
But as she rushed to the hall, anger, fear and worry for him dogged her footsteps. What if Julian came upon Lord de Burgh in the pit and buried him, for good this time…? Sabina stopped at the bottom of the steps, her breath lodged in her throat.

‘Are you all right?’ Ursula asked, her own face pale and drawn. ‘We heard the dragon’s roar and didn’t know what to do. What happened?’

Sabina shook her head as she tried to breath.
Not now
, she thought, desperately.
Not when Lord de Burgh might be in danger
. She focused on him, on his tall form and his beloved face, while she grasped Ursula’s arm.

‘Julian. Julian was in my room,’ she finally managed. ‘Julian Fabre.’

‘
What?
’ Ursula’s voice rang with shock, and Sabina could hear Adele’s gasp.

‘But I thought he was dead,’ Adele said, an expression of terror on her face. ‘Was it
his
remains that were disturbed in the mound?’

‘No, he is no ghost,’ Sabina said. ‘He is alive and well.’
Too well
. She paused to draw a deep breath as Alec raced into the hall.

‘Did you see Julian?’ the boy asked, his eyes wide.

Even as Sabina nodded, she looked past the boy for a familiar figure, but Alec was alone. ‘Where is Lord de Burgh?’ she asked. ‘I thought you were with him.’

‘Lord de Burgh went after Julian,’ Alec said. ‘We saw him sneaking from the manor, and Lord de Burgh set out to follow him.’

Sabina felt her heart contract with fear. Although she had faith in Lord de Burgh, in his skill and his strength, Julian held to no knightly code. He was dangerous and devious. And what if he were not alone?

‘Come, sit down,’ Peregrine said, as if divining her thoughts. Taking her arm, he led her to her chair and Sabina sank into it, while Peregrine gathered the remaining residents of Grim’s End around the trestle table.

‘For the moment, let us all stay here, for I don’t think Lord de Burgh would want us to separate. If need be, we can go to the cellars or the roofs—’

Ursula interrupted him with a gasp. ‘Are you saying we will be attacked?’

Peregrine shook his head, and his calm authority was so like his master’s that Sabina felt her tension ease.

‘No, but I would have us be prepared, so please
follow my direction, if necessary. For now, we will await Lord de Burgh’s return, and perhaps you can tell me what I need to know about our enemy.’

‘Is Julian our
enemy
? Surely not—’ Ursula began, but Peregrine held up a hand in the manner of his master and turned to Sabina. ‘Who is Julian Fabre?’

Sabina hesitated to answer simply because she was unsure what to say, but Peregrine’s steady demeanour helped her gather her thoughts. Ignoring Ursula’s sputtering, she focused on the squire. ‘Julian is the son of the village blacksmith. He was always clever and ambitious, and well favoured among the villagers,’ she said, with a glance toward her attendant.

‘At first, he planned to follow in his father’s footsteps, but to work only upon armour. It was more prestigious to cater to knights, he claimed, but then that was not enough and he wanted to become a knight himself. And so he planned to join Edward’s crusade in the Holy Land.’

Sabina paused, looking down at the fingers entwined in her lap. ‘It was then that Julian asked my father for my hand. We were both very young, but he agreed we could marry upon his return.’ It was an agreement Sabina now rued, but the Sextons saw few knights in Grim’s End and were impressed by the qualities required to join that select fraternity. Sabina, especially, was dazzled by the image of such a noble character, strong and dashing and honourable.

But Julian Fabre had turned out to be none of those things. Perhaps he never had been and had hidden his true nature behind vaunted objectives, a glib tongue and a sheen of dazzling charm. And far away from Grim’s End in the wretched heat of foreign climes, he revealed himself.

‘But he did not return,’ Sabina simply said. ‘At first, his father claimed that he was missing, and we waited, but as the years went by, we lost hope.’ Sabina’s mouth twisted at the word. ‘And other stories began to trickle into Grim’s End that told, not of noble deeds, but of a newly sworn knight who fled, deserting his countrymen in the midst of battle.’

But still Sabina held fast, refusing to believe such things about the man to whom she was pledged until one night he appeared in her bedchamber, hiding from his father, from her father, and from any who would call him traitor. ‘And then early this year, he came back,’ Sabina said.

‘When?’ Ursula asked. ‘You said nothing!’

‘And why would I speak of it?’ Sabina asked. ‘Offering no apology for his long silence, he dismissed the accusations against him with his usual ease and charm, focusing instead upon a gold coin he had found while hiding in the ruins near the mound. I told him that it could have been dropped by any passer-by, but he insisted it was just as the old stories said: the treasure lies beneath the grim.’

Ursula ducked her head, obviously embarrassed by whatever part she had played, while Sabina continued. ‘I told him we had no fortune, that he of all people should know that. And when I refused to help him defile the dragon’s burial place or speak to my father about such a plan, he simply…disappeared.’

Afterwards, Sabina tried to forget his very existence, especially since she neither heard nor saw any more of him. ‘As far as I know, he never approached his family, and his father began to say he was dead, for that was pre
ferable to the rumours. I, too, declared him dead, rather than face the curiosity of the villagers.’

Sabina had even forbade Ursula, who doted on Julian, to speak of him, but she shook her head now at such folly. ‘I might have convinced myself he was gone, but he stayed nearby, wreaking havoc on his own family, on the people he once called neighbors.’

At Ursula’s curious look, Sabina spread her arm toward the steps. ‘Just now, upstairs, he called himself
The Dragon
! He is to blame for all this, the attacks on the people, the animals, my father…’ Sabina could not continue, while the residents of Grim’s End exclaimed in horror.

Peregrine, alone, seemed unsurprised by her revelations. ‘He must have learned to send fire through the air in the Holy Land, just as Lord de Burgh guessed. And the other sound…You said he was a blacksmith? Perhaps that was the sound of a bellows.’

‘Surely not,’ Ursula protested.

‘It would have to be a large one, specially made,’ Alec said. ‘But, yes, that is what it sounded like sometimes, the roar of a bellows!’

‘He used the old legend against you, taking advantage of people’s fears,’ Peregrine said.

Sabina nodded. ‘He thought we would all go, but when I did not, he set Urban to spy upon us.’

‘Urban! That coward,’ Ursula said, with a sniff of disgust. ‘I never liked him.’

‘Do you suppose this Dragon set Urban to digging on purpose, with the hope that we might do his searching for him?’ Peregrine asked.

‘Perhaps,’ Sabina said. ‘He bragged about us doing his work.’

‘Or else Urban grew impatient with the waiting and decided to have a look himself,’ Ursula said.

‘But if he knows we found nothing, why did he come here and accost you?’ Peregrine asked.

Sabina shook her head. ‘He kept asking me where the treasure was even though I told him we had found nothing.’

For a long moment, there was silence in the hall, then Peregrine spoke, his expression thoughtful. ‘He must think you know something.’

‘About what?’ Sabina asked.

‘About this legend of treasure or hoard of coins,’ Peregrine said. ‘That’s probably why he’s let you stay, in case he might need you to provide him with some secret information or lead him to it.’

‘To
what
?’ Sabina asked, exasperated. ‘We’ve already looked under the grim. Whether that means the dragon or Cyneric the Grim or some ancient ship, there still was nothing there. I don’t know anything else.’

‘Perhaps you do,’ Peregrine said. ‘Think.’

Sabina shook her head, but she searched her memory, repeating again what they had already discussed. ‘As Ursula said, the treasure lies under the grim. That’s what she heard my grandfather say, and that’s what my father told me.’

‘What did your father say?’ Ursula asked, leaning forwards. ‘When was this?’

‘When he lay dying before his own manor, stricken by the man he would have taken in as a son…’ Sabina’s throat constricted, and she took a moment to compose
herself. ‘He made me swear to hold the village together, to keep his home and his heritage. And he said, “
If you have a need…look under the old grim.
”’

‘The old grim,’ Peregrine repeated. He gave her a speculative glance. ‘You are certain he said old?’

Sabina nodded, though she was impatient with such nonsense. ‘What is the difference? Of course the grim is old. Grim’s End was founded years and years ago.’

Peregrine looked pensive. ‘Yes, but what if there are two dragons, one old and one new?’

‘There is only one mound,’ Alec said.

‘Yes, but the mound is not specified, just the word
grim
, which has been passed down by the Sextons throughout generations,’ Peregrine noted. ‘Where might there be another grim?’

It was the mention of the Sextons that made Sabina draw in a sharp breath. ‘The church,’ she said. ‘The Sextons have always tended the churches, and the dragon decorated the side of both, the new church and the old one.’

Ursula was on her feet in an instant. ‘It must be buried beneath the ruins, where Julian found his coin.’

Alec, too, had risen and was headed toward the extra implements that they kept in the hall for working the mound. ‘Let’s go see!’

Sabina glanced at Peregrine, unwilling to do anything without Lord de Burgh. ‘But you told us to remain here,’ she said.

Unlike his master, who was always decisive, Peregrine appeared uncertain. ‘We can wait, or we could look now, while we know that your betrothed is well away.’

‘
He is not my betrothed
,’ Sabina said, rising from her chair. She wished now that she had kept her father’s message to herself, for she saw no point in any further digging. Whatever words had been repeated over the years were just that, words meant to comfort the living in the throes of grief, tales as fanciful as Gamel’s ramblings.

But Ursula was already headed toward the doors, and Peregrine, though much to be admired, was still enough of a boy to want to join Alec in the search. Sabina, alone, seemed reluctant, dreading the prospect of uncovering even more remains, this time in holy ground.

‘What about Lord de Burgh?’ Sabina asked. What if he returned to find them gone, or, worse yet, needed their help?

Peregrine obviously did not share her concern, for he smiled in grim assurance. ‘Lord de Burgh can take care of himself.’

Still, Sabina kept a watchful eye on the area as they left the manor. The others, except for Adele, seemed too eager, while each step towards the old church filled Sabina with a sense of doom. She might have halted them, but she didn’t know whether it was the fears that made her uneasy or legitimate worries. She had been stricken too often when faced with nothing to trust her instincts any longer.

So she simply followed behind as Alec led the way, hopping over the crumbling side of one old wall with ease. He combed the inside, pushing aside tall grasses and pieces of old tiles, while wondering aloud about the best place to dig.

‘The dragon is over here, on the outside,’ Ursula said, pointing to the only wall that still stood mostly intact.

Sabina shivered. Was there some significance to that fact? She had often thought that everything in Grim’s End might fall to dust, but the dragon would remain. Yet, there was no dragon, only an old ship and the bones of a dead man.

‘There’s a grim inside, too,’ Alec said, but Peregrine was already standing before the smaller carving.

‘Repent and Seek Your Reward,’
the squire read aloud. He turned to Sabina, as though the words held a meaning that only she could divine. ‘Perhaps this indicates where the treasure is hidden.’

Sabina shook her head at what she had always viewed as sound religious advice. And yet, even to her, the word
reward
now seemed fraught with import. She drew in a sharp breath, and Peregrine, seeing her response, turned and began to dig below where the message was carved.

Distancing herself from the others, Sabina sat upon an old stump, away from the ruins, and tried to contain her growing sense of dread. If only Lord de Burgh would return…But such thoughts invariably choked her, so Sabina concentrated only on the forms of the two boys, Peregrine and Alec, digging below the church wall.

How long would they work before everyone agreed that there was no hoard of gold hidden in Grim’s End? Or would they simply move on to another spot? Sabina frowned, for surely they would decide the Marking Stone was next, full of some subtle meaning beyond denoting boundaries.

Sabina distracted herself with such thoughts for a while, but it seemed that hardly any time had gone by
when Alec gave a shout. Ursula and Adele crowded round Peregrine, and Sabina heard their gasps, yet was afraid to join them, for fear ’twas someone’s grave they had disturbed.

But then they parted, looking to her as one, and Sabina finally rose and walked to where they all stood. She saw nothing upon the ground, but when she reached Peregrine, he held out a piece of jewellery, gold with some kind of gemstone blinking in the light of the lowering sun.

Peregrine handed it to her, and Sabina clutched it tightly, her knees weak. She said nothing, but sank upon a fallen stone nearby to study the precious item more closely. It looked none the worst for having been entombed, and for how long? But Sabina knew that one piece of jewellery did not constitute a hoard. The item could have been lost here or gifted to the old church, though she knew of no one in Grim’s End who had ever possessed such a thing.