The Leopard Unleashed

Chapter 26

The snow fell heavily for the next two days, and inter — mittently for the three after that. Hushed beneath a sparkling quilt the world held its breath. Animals had to be dug out of drifts. Some were not found until the snow had melted, and among the victims was an old packman who had been caught out in the first blizzard.

Whether their dwelling was in castle, cottage or hovel, people stayed close to their hearths — mending tools, telling tales, sewing, weaving, drinking, quarrelling, fighting and making love.

Renard spent the first blizzard days either in bed or very close to it, and most of that time he slept, restoring his drained reserves. In his waking periods, he took the opportunity to play with his infant son and enjoy the soothing balm of Elene’s company. The knowledge that this interlude was only a respite, that there might never be such an opportunity again, made the time spent even more precious, each moment to be savoured to the full.

Gradually, however, a degree of restlessness returned to his spirit, a need to go beyond passive pleasures. Elene discovered suddenly that she could no longer beat him at tables and she had to exert every ounce of wit and concentration to hold him at nine men’s morris. They had a wild snowball fight in the bailey that was adjourned, minus snowballs and amid much giggling, snatched kisses and horseplay, to the bedchamber.

That same night upon the wall walk, gazing out on the black and white emptiness of moon, sky, forest and snow, their hackles were raised by the howling of wolves. ‘Human or four-legged,’ Renard murmured to Elene who was wrapped inside the warmth of his cloak, body pressed close to his. ‘They may cry at our gates all they wish, but if they bite, they will find it is more than they can chew.’

The next day he had a grindstone fetched from the armoury and set up in the hall. While Elene plied her needle through soft fur slippers for Hugh, he occupied himself in sharpening his meat dagger and hunting knife, and oiling the razor-keen edges of his sword. He had lost his own at Lincoln, it having become a spoil of war. His mother, eyes liquid, chin firm, had given him the one that had belonged to his father. The hilt was set with Lothian garnets and the grip of slightly worn, shrunken leather still bore the pressure marks of his father’s hand. It had originally belonged to Renard’s great-grandfather, Renard le Rouquin, after whom he had been named, and the Lombardy steel was still as bright as the day on which it had been forged more than a hundred years ago. One day, if it too did not become a spoil of war, it would belong to Hugh.

Judith had also given him his father’s hauberk since his own had been lost at Lincoln. It fitted him well, had needed only minor adjustments to compensate for his being slightly taller and a little less broad. It had been a wrench for his mother, he knew. Piece by piece the fabric of her young womanhood was being unravelled, leaving her threadbare to the world and there was nothing he could do about it. If cozened, she would bristle, reluctant to be openly affectionate except to her grandchildren. While giving him his father’s arms and accoutrements, her voice had been brisk and practical, warning him not to dare sentiment.

Elene had wept openly when he showed her the sword, and put her arms impulsively around him, for which he loved her. With Elene there was never any need to banter, fight or pretend.

The snow started to melt and recede. Elene fretted that she had missed lambing time at Woolcot. Renard closeted himself with de Lorys and the senior knights of the garrison to devise strategies for resisting siege. He sent patrols out and rode down to Ledworth and Ravenstow himself, returning via Woolcot with the reassurance to Elene that the lambing had gone well despite the late bad weather.

Adam visited them with the expected news that Renard had been stripped of his lands by the Empress and declared rebel, his lands promised to Ranulf of Chester. ‘Although she did not give them to him outright,’ Adam had qualified. ‘That awaits her coronation.’

‘Oh,’ Renard said sarcastically. ‘That’s all right then.’

Adam shrugged. ‘It won’t stop Ranulf from anticipating the promise, I grant you, but the way Matilda treats her supporters as if they were serfs, she’ll be queen of nothing. More than one man walked away from an audience with her harbouring second thoughts, myself included. I have known for a long time that she is mettlesome, but with so much iron in her pride, she is riding for a fall.’

‘At the hands of Stephen’s queen?’

‘Perhaps.’ Adam pursed his lips. ‘Certainly those who fled at Lincoln have returned to her in shame and are doing what they can to rally support behind her, but it is the Empress’s own high-handedness that will bring her down. As I said, she treats men of rank like serfs. Naturally they take offence, but how much higher is the insult to the burghers and freemen of the towns when they come suing for peace and she treats them like serfs.’

‘What do you mean?’

Adam spread his hands. ‘To us, a serf is a serf, too far removed from our own situation for a comparison to do more than astonish. To a burgher or freeman, a serf is a symbol of what he once perhaps was, or what he might become if his business fails or his crop is blighted. Too close for comfort, in other words. Matilda does not understand, and it may well be her undoing. Also she has quarrelled on several occasions with the Bishop of Winchester. She needs him more than he needs her, but she’s refusing to see it.’

Renard looked thoughtfully at his brother-by-marriage. Adam had frequently moved in Angevin circles in the past and knew the Empress. His reading of political situations was shrewd and seldom wrong. ‘So, if I can weather whatever Earl Ranulf throws at me and bide my time, I may yet come out of this crisis with little more than storm damage?’

‘It is possible.’ Adam looked doubtful, as if he wanted to add that all things were possible, given miracles. ‘But for safety’s sake, if you want, I’ll take Elene and the babe down to Thornford when I leave. Heulwen would love to see them.’

‘Thank you. I was going to ask that boon of you anyway.’ Renard looked relieved.

Elene, not consulted, just informed of the decision, was reluctant and angry, and refused to go. An evening’s persua — sion resulted in frayed tempers. Renard bellowed at her. She shrieked back at him as she had never shrieked at anyone before and threw a cup at his head. Astonished and diverted at this wild outburst, Renard forgot to argue and took her to bed instead, thereby losing the battle outright.

When morning came, he knew that they need not have bothered fighting, for soldiers were gathering at the foot of Caermoel crag in the growing light, and preparing to lay siege to the castle.

Renard and Adam ascended one of the new towers and gazed down the precipitous slope at the armed men below, small as animated wooden toys. Among them, conspicuous and well out of bow range, Ranulf of Chester sat upon a muscular grey stallion, and beside him was the mercenary who had tried to abduct Elene on her way to her marriage.

‘He’ll lose too many men if he tries a direct assault,’ Renard said. ‘This tower guards the most vulnerable part of the approach path. If they want to avoid arrows in their gizzards, they’ll have to climb the rock face, and by the time they’ve reached the top of that, they’ll be as easy to pick off as wasps from a conserve.’

‘Supposing they come up at night?’

‘The guards will either have their eyes skinned or be skinned themselves. It’s impossible to muffle the sound of a grapnel or climb that crag in silence. I tried it last week.’

‘What, up there?’ Adam looked at him sidelong.

Renard grinned and made a small movement of his shoulders. ‘The hand and footholds are easy enough to find, it’s just the way it goes up, hard and steep that makes it so difficult. By the time you get to the top, you’re gasping so hard that even a child could kick you back over the edge, particularly if you’re hampered by arms and weapons, which I wasn’t.’

Adam’s stare was open-mouthed and comical.

‘It was exhilarating,’ Renard added, a glint of remembered enjoyment in his grey eyes.

‘If you had fallen, you would have been killed!’

‘I knew what I was doing.’

Adam gave a derisory snort. Renard might have matured beyond the out and out wildness of first manhood, but a seam of it still remained to surface and terrify everyone bar the culprit. ‘And Heulwen calls me reckless!’ he said with heartfelt injury.

‘You should have heard what Elene said to me. You’d think she was as sweet as honey to look at her, wouldn’t you?’

Adam grunted. Renard did not appear much set down by his wife’s remonstration if the humour crinkling his eye-corners was any indication. ‘I am sorry. I was too late to get her and Hugh away,’ he said seriously.

‘It might have been a sop to my conscience,’ Renard admitted, sobering. ‘But it will cost Ranulf de Gernons more than he can afford to take this keep. It won’t be easy for us, but our difficulties will be as nothing compared to his.’

‘You sound confident.’

‘I am.’

Adam leaned on his swordbelt. ‘Look, the new tower guards the approach, I grant you that, but what’s to stop him undermining it using a cover of withy screens and green hides? It is what I would do — what every siege commander would do.’

‘For a start, he’d be mining through solid rock,’ Renard said and gently rubbed his thumb along his scarred cheekbone. ‘For another …’ He turned to the steps down. ‘Come with me. I want to show you something.’

At the foot of the tower there was a large, iron-studded trapdoor that gave access to an oubliette — a windowless chamber that could be used either as storage space, or more grimly as a place to put offenders to suffer. Out of sight and out of mind until the victim himself was sightless and mindless too. Adam peered down into the darkness and by the brand sputtering in the cresset saw a wooden ladder descending to a dirt floor and half a dozen dusty barrels. He eyebrowed a question at his brother-in-law.

‘Greek fire,’ Renard said. ‘Olwen was not the only volatile item in the baggage I brought home from Antioch. I took it in lieu of silver from Prince Raymond.’

Adam whistled softly. His glance flickered nervously to the torch to make sure that there was no likelihood of it sputtering near the barrels. Greek fire. Its effect was devastating and the secret of its composition jealously guarded by the Byzantine Greeks who were the only ones who knew how to make it, and thus it was a rare, much-coveted and feared weapon of war. Once it adhered to something it did not stop burning until there was nothing left. Damp and water only made it more combustible.

‘Withy screens and green hide are no protection against this,’ Renard said grimly. ‘It will burn his siege machines into the soil and roast his soldiers alive within their armour.’ Carefully he closed the trap and dusted his hands. He and Adam looked at each other sombrely, for a moment, their breath smoking in the cold air, and then went back up into the ward.

Hamo le Grande listened to the desultory talk of the soldiers seated around the nearest watchfire. Most of it was grumbling. It was a warm spring night, but their purses were empty and even had they been full of the money they were owed, there was nothing up here in the Welsh border wilds to spend it on. The supplies of ale were low and women non-existent.

Gambling was banned because last week a fight had broken out over a disputed dice throw, resulting in two deaths and a severe wounding. They were an army under siege themselves from boredom, dissatisfaction and loss of morale as all their efforts foundered against the solid stone confidence of Caermoel’s walls.

They could not even vent their frustration on raiding the surrounding area since it was deciduous woodland, inhabited by a few woodcutters, charcoal burners and foresters. The game was elusive, requiring trained men and dogs to catch it. Sport for the Earl of Chester, but hardly for his men. The parts that were not wooded were populated by sheep; a diet of mutton soon became monotonous and there was no thrill in the chase.

‘When will Earl Ranulf be back, sir?’ asked Lucas, one of Hamo’s seconds.

‘Later tomorrow.’ Hamo scowled at the keep. They had been trying to locate the source of its water in order to send poison through the system, but it seemed likely that at least one well was fed by an undefilable spring rising straight from the rock and secure within the walls.

‘Do you think Prince Owain will agree to help him take this place?’

‘How should I know?’ Hamo snapped. Earl Ranulf had ridden off to a meeting with his sometime enemy, sometime ally, Owain Gwynedd, with the broad intent of general parley and the narrower purpose of persuading the Prince to co-operate in laying siege to Caermoel. ‘You never know which way the Welsh are going to jump.’

‘Nor FitzGuyon,’ Lucas said with a pained grimace at Caermoel’s walls. The last attempt at assault had been met by a barrage of small, clay pots, seemingly innocuous until they shattered on impact with the ground, or a man, and burst into the deadly flames that were impossible to douse. Since then there had been a noticeable reluctance in the men to go anywhere near the walls.

‘FitzGuyon!’ The word left Hamo’s lips like a red-hot coal. He remembered the fight in the forest and its ignominious conclusion. The blame was his own. He should have pushed on for home. In stopping to rest the horses and make sure of his prize, he had lost it, and the way this siege was progressing, Caermoel was not going to be his restitution. He spat again and stalked in the direction of his tent. Lucas followed, grimacing.

Somewhere in the distance a dog fox barked thrice and was answered. The sound floated clearly on the calm night air. Above the watchfires of the camp, on the keep’s outer wall walk, metal clinked and boots scraped on dusty stone as a guard left his post. The fox barked again and a vixen yammered an answer. Hamo growled a curse at the noisy mating habits of the local wildlife and splashed some cloudy ale into his leather cup.

Renard too was drinking — a pleasant, slightly tart wine from his brother’s vineyards down at Milnham-on-Wye. Caermoel’s hall was built against the inner curtain wall and the single row of windows facing the bailey were unshuttered to the balmy evening air.

Elene sat beside a double candlestick and close to one of the windows where she had been catching the last rays of light. Her needle flew nimbly in and out of a piece of fabric like a bird darting to and from its nest. Renard lounged in a pelt-spread chair, his tunic removed, shirt open at the throat. Standing on the trestle beside his cup were a cluster of wooden toys carved and polished smooth, and seated on his knee, resting in the crook of his arm was Hugh.

The child should have been long abed, but the sudden hot turn to the weather and a sore gum had kept him awake, crying and fractious, until his father in passing had plucked him out of his cradle and brought him to sit in the hall. Hugh’s distress had subsided so quickly that Renard had been forced to laugh at the almost smug expression on the baby’s face as he settled back against his arm.

Hugh gnawed experimentally on the wooden dog he was holding, then threw it down and decisively reached a chubby hand towards the dagger on the belt that Renard had removed with his tunic.

Adam, who was playing chess with Renard, rolled a pawn between his palms and chuckled. ‘You’ve a warrior on your hands there.’

Renard gave a bleak smile. ‘Learning early the skills he will need.’ He picked up the belt and let the baby play with the haft of his dagger, keeping his hand around the sheath to prevent Hugh from drawing the blade. Then he lifted his attention from his son and fixed it on the soldier who was running up the hall towards him.

‘My lord, the signal has come. Three barks of the dog fox repeated. It could not be mistaken!’ the man panted.

‘You know what to do?’ Renard was suddenly alert.

‘Yes, my lord.’ The soldier saluted and left again at a rapid trot.

Elene abandoned her sewing and rose to meet Renard as he handed Hugh into her care. Her throat closed and the words she wanted to say remained locked in her throat. All she could show to Renard was a wide, mute pleading.

‘Better rouse the cook, love,’ he said. ‘We’ll need hot water for the wounded and food for later.’ His eyes gleamed as he stooped to kiss her cold lips. ‘Best tell him to make it pottage. I don’t know how many men William has brought with him.’ Then he gave her a squeeze and hurried after Adam.

Hugh squealed and held out his hands towards his retreating father. Elene bowed her head over his silky hair for a moment and whispered a prayer.

In the stables everywhere was harness and chaos as the grooms and drafted servants worked furiously to saddle up the destriers. Renard caught Gorvenal’s bridle and led him out into the open bailey. Adam mounted his red-chestnut destrier, the progeny of the stallion he had lost before Elene’s wedding, and mustered his own half-dozen knights. Renard had another ten and himself. Then there were eight serjeants who had experience of fighting horseback, and another twenty on foot.

‘Ready?’ Renard enquired of Adam. The torchlight shone on his helm, on the rivets of his mail, and on his smile which was more than half-snarl.

Adam saluted him briefly and returned his hand to the bridle to control his restive horse.

Renard gestured to the guards in the gatehouse and the double portcullises were smoothly raised. There was no sound. Renard had had them thoroughly greased and checked over for this very occasion. The draw-bars on the huge gates were run back and noiselessly they swung inwards.

Silence. On the slopes the watchfires burned and the guards lolled at their posts. From the direction of the fox’s bark, an owl hooted softly and closer to hand.

‘That’s the attack,’ Renard muttered to Adam. ‘We count to a slow fifty, then we go.’

Adam nodded and fastened his ventail, glad that he was not one of the men about to be ground like grain between two crushing millstones.

He had reached forty when the first bellow of alarm was throttled short and the sound of a single sword blade scraping across a shield reached them. There was silence again, suspended like a raindrop trembling on a thread, and suddenly exploding outwards into confusion.

Renard adjusted his grip on his shield straps and unwound the spiked flail from his saddle bow, his lips silently counting. The weapon was much less refined than a sword, but its effect was devastating and excellent for lashing out at men in the darkness when it was difficult to see where to place blows. Behind him he could feel the restlessness of his men, their eyes boring into his spine, holding on his command. In the darkness beyond the gates a shriek of mortal agony rose above the battle clamour. ‘Now!’ he said, and squeezed Gorvenal’s flanks between his knees.

It was not a full charge which would have been suicidal down a haphazard rocky slope in darkness, but Renard took the men down as swiftly as he dared. There were no guards to cry warning of the new assault because they were already caught up in the chaos of the first battle. Awareness only came as Renard hit the outskirts of the fighting.

A soldier attacked Gorvenal with a lighted brand plucked from one of the fires. The stallion shied. Renard altered his grip on the reins and brought the horse under control and round in a semicircle. The soldier fell beneath the vicious lash of the studded ball on the end of the flail. Renard rode over him, leaning over Gorvenal’s withers to take up the brand himself and set fire to the nearest tent. A coughing soldier bolted out of it and Renard struck him down. More tents flared, blossoming the night with fire. Illuminated smoke billowed away towards Wales. A cluster of pitch barrels caught fire and exploded, scattering mayhem. Supplies were trampled, wains overturned and horse lines cut. Men panicked, broke and fled. Those who did not run fast enough or mistook their direction, died. Hamo and Lucas were not among them. Both had sufficient experience of saving their own skins to make the correct decisions rapidly.

Panting, Renard drew rein. Gorvenal sidled and half bucked, a raw patch on his rump where a fragment of molten pitch had burned the hair away. Another knight rode up alongside on a handsome liver chestnut, its hide shining red with the reflection of the fires. William, his face smoke-streaked and ablaze with a triumph as high as the flames, slapped Renard’s mail-clad sleeve. ‘ Cadno! ’ He used the Welsh word they had agreed upon to determine friend from foe in the thick of the fighting. ‘They’re running like coneys from a fox.’ His eyes gleamed with humour at the joke, for cadno was the Welsh word for fox.

Renard coughed, his throat rough with smoke. ‘What took you so long? I was expecting you by last week at the latest!’

‘Business elsewhere.’ William gave a maddening shrug. ‘Earl Ranulf ’s not among this rout, you know.’

‘It had not escaped my attention.’ Renard’s glance focused hard. ‘That was no idle remark. You know where he is, don’t you?’

William glowered. ‘I can’t keep anything from you, can I?’

‘Well?’

‘He’s up the border and across it, meeting with Prince Owain.’

‘Is he now?’

‘One of my men has a brother in the Prince’s service, so I receive regular reports, the most recent only a few hours old. Ranulf asked the Welsh to combine with him in attacking Caermoel.’ He flicked at his horse’s mane, drawing the moment out.

‘All right, have your revenge,’ Renard said impatiently. ‘Just don’t make me wait all night. What did Prince Owain say?’

Grinning William told him.