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Maiden’s Tower
They all mounted up and continued down the road in the same formation as before. Though they were with fewer men, it didn’t change the way they conducted the advance. The wounded cultists had been gagged and tied securely into the supply wagons. Ala had no expectation of being able to make them talk even if they decided to torture them, which she wanted no part of. These Mahr followers were a rare breed of fanatic and their presence in Westmarch was yet another development that made Ala feel as if she was missing vital information to understand what was going on. She felt as if the campsite upstream from Thetwick that Martha had described was likely the answer to what had happened to the bandits that had been plaguing Sheffield. The religious warriors they had encountered and the relationship between the Marchmains spoke of a far deeper and more insidious plot that she had ever imagined and she didn’t yet understand what the motivations of the Constable and Count of Oakharrow might be. Was the King of Selinus involved too? It was possible, and the religious warriors certainly seemed like they probably originated further away than Oakharrow. She parked her thoughts when it came time to branch off with the scouts to check Maiden’s Tower.
Ala and two cavalry men rode out ahead to make sure the ruins were deserted. They left the road, and made their way through the trees to the remains of the keep. She need not have worried, it was as quiet as Ala remembered. She stayed there while the two cavalrymen rode back to escort the rest of the command to the side. There wasn’t much left of Maiden’s Tower except a few low walls, but the original builders had chosen the site well. There were only two ways up to the top of the hill which could be managed by horses, the rest was too steep and hard to climb on horseback. A natural spring bubbled up, offering fresh water, and the view was excellent. It was one of Ala’s favourite places in the Westmarch. It was also where she had been spotted practising with her sword and fire four decades ago when she hadn’t been living with Bernard for long. She hunted around for a while until she found the stone with the half common and half elven inscription. It was where she had left it last, carefully hidden, but it was thoroughly overgrown. She couldn’t help but smile that it was still there.
They settled in and made camp. When dark came, it was a clear, bright night and they could see almost all the way to Thetwick. Ala looked in the direction of the town, seeing a glow on the horizon that did not spell much good. Something was burning tonight. After the evening stew Myrthe came out to find her. She’d been very preoccupied with Caerel for much of the journey.
“I’m sorry Ala, I haven’t been giving you much attention, have I?”
“It’s alright Myr. You and Caerel are having a thing. Who knows how long that will be possible. Enjoy it.”
“You’re very understanding, Ala.”
“As well as long lived.”
Myrthe giggled about that, “did you come here often when you lived in Thetwick?”
“I used to come here very often actually, it was my refuge until the militia started taking up the bulk of my time. I used to come here to practice.”
“Sword stuff?”
Ala nodded.
“Do you know anything about the ruins?”
“Not much. There’s a stone with an inscription on it, over here. I’ve read it many times, though parts of it are cracked and damaged. Here, I’ll show you.”
Ala showed Myrthe the stone and lit her fire so the Myrthe could read.
“That’s such a useful skill… let’s see…. De Baerle… let me think for a moment… oh yes, I know, the Marquesses of Thetwick. Oh Ala, I bet this used to be the De Baerle keep!”
“What do you mean?”
“A while ago… I can’t remember exactly when, but there was no male heir to become Marquess of the Westmarch. The daughter of the Marquess… was it Annette de Baerle? I think so… anyway, she married a Duke of Taladaria. Bryan, maybe?”
“Is that how the Westmarch became a part of Taladaria?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s so cool that we’re camped exactly here!”
“Having dynastic fantasies are we?”
Myrthe looked at her with feigned annoyance. “It’s a fling, Lady Alagariel. Just a fling.”
“Well, I think your fling is surreptitiously looking for you,” said Ala. With her elven eyes she could see Caerel making the rounds in the dark. It was obviously an excuse to look for Myrthe.
“I shall go see if that unlikely conclusion is true,” Myrthe declared. Before she went she turned to Ala, “thank you for showing me this, it’s such and interesting piece of history… is this where those farm boys thought you were a fire wraith too, by the way?”
Ala nodded, she had told Myrthe the story of the Chad and his Wraith Hunters on the road to the Ford Inn, though she had understated the bits about the fire.
“That makes it even better! Goodnight, Ala!”
“Goodnight.”
They had set up a watch roster that had everyone taking one of five two hour shifts. She meditated for two hours and then joined two of the watches during the darkest part of the night. Elven night vision was a lot better than that of humans. She talked quietly to the guards on duty, finding out where they were from and getting acquainted. Most of them just answered her questions correctly, they were unnerved by any noble and a comely elven one was too much of an unknown to allow anything remotely like a normal conversation. Only one of them dared to ask any questions.
“Good evening guardsman,” said Ala, causing the man to jump when she was making her rounds again. “How goes your watch?”
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” He said irritably, then realised who he was talking to. “Sorry, sorry milady, you startled me.”
“Relax, guardsman. What’s your name? I’m Alagariel.”
“I know milady. I’m Kendrick Hawk-eye. Well met!”
His attire marked him as one of the archers. He wore padded armour, leather wrist braces to protect him from mishaps with the bow string and a warm woollen cloak to protect against the night’s chill. Besides his longbow and two quivers he had two short swords at his belt, more like long knives than swords. He had keen eyes, somehow he reminded her of a hawk or another bird of prey. That must be how he got the name.
“So Kendrick, how goes the watch? Anything of interest?”
“All quiet so far milady, except for that glow over the horizon, just off Thetwick. I think it’s campfires.”
“How can you tell? I can just see a glow. Have you been here before, do you know Thetwick?”
“I’m actually from Greythorn milady. I grew up there… got into… well a little bit of trouble. Not that that’s hard in Greythorn.”
“May I ask what happened?”
He shrugged. “Nothing to be proud of. We were starving one winter. I stole something and was recognised. They hang you for that. I ran.”
“A hard life.”
“Aye, that it is, in Greythorn. So, I ran all the way to Peyrepertuse and joined up. I did pass through Thetwick on the way. Was there for a few weeks before I learned of the Duke’s Regiment and decided to try my luck.”
“Is the story about the Witch of Greythorn actually true?”
He smiled. “I don’t rightly know. Old timers believe it. Or well, somebody or something definitely razed the whole castle in one night.”
“Just the castle? I thought the story was the town too?”
“No, that was razed when they built the new castle. Pretty sure of that. In fact, among the poor, the Witch is celebrated. She was Baroness too right? They only De Crequy that ever looked out for the people of Greythorn, is how they talk about her.”
“People don’t mind that she was… you know… a Witch?”
“Don’t suppose they think about it much. In the stories I heard, she gave the Baron his comeuppance. That’s seen as a good thing. Of course, the De Crequys went bad again mighty quick.”
“The Witch of Greythorn is such an intriguing tale. Anyway. What makes you think there are campfires over there?”
“I was curious milady, I climbed what’s left of the tower. You can just make out the pinpricks of light. I have good eyes, archers have to. They say elven eyes are even better. Maybe you could climb up to have a look too? I’d like to be sure I wasn’t crazy. I’ve seen what a field of campfires looks like before, but I was in the middle of it then.”
It was a bit presumptuous of course, a guardsman asking a lady to climb a tower in the middle of the night. It seemed like a good idea to Ala though.
“Good idea Kendrick.”
She climbed the tower easily and found her balance on the highest remaining wall. The last time she’d been up on top of the tower had been years before. She looked in the direction of the glow. The extra couple of yards made the difference. There were quite a few pinpricks of light. It was difficult to count properly, but she judged at least twenty. She shared the analysis though. Thetwick wasn’t exactly in the direction she was looking. These were definitely open air campfires. The site would be a couple of hundred yards up the creek, exactly where Martha had said it would be. As she stood on the highest point of the tower, balancing on the irregular wall, she suddenly thought of Talathiel and what she had said. The feeling was unmistakable. Ala quickly climbed down the tower.
“Well, milady what do you think?”
“I think those pinpricks look a lot like campfires. At least twenty. The forces at Thetwick have increased since Martha saw them,” she spotted Kendrick looking blank at the name so she clarified, “you remember, the woman at Ford Inn, who gave evidence to Lord Caerel?”
He nodded, understanding who she was referring to.
“Anyway, more men than she reported are there now. I’ll inform Lord Caerel, but first I have to do something. I’ll be back in a minute, I expect.”
“Yes milady,” said Kendrick, looking even more puzzled.
She walked down to the spring, which trickled gently down the hill. She was pretty sure it must be connected to the rivers and so to the world’s waterways, she reasoned. She took the vial, shook it for a while, and poured it into the spring’s little head water. It was so quick she wasn’t really sure it happened, but it looked like the water fluoresced for a moment and that the glow disappeared down the hillside at unimaginable speed. Nothing else happened. She waited for a moment. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but nothing else seemed to happen. So, she walked back to Kendrick’s post.
“I’ll tell Lord Caerel about the sighting first thing in the morning Kendrick. I’ll be sure to mention it was you who spotted it.”
“Oh that’s not important milady. Just so we don’t wander into an army unprepared.”
“It was good thinking Kendrick, climbing the tower. I wouldn’t have thought those few yards would make the difference.”
“Just thought it was worth a try milady.”
“Good work.”
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