Midnight Shadow (33 page)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

B
ria arrived at Castle Delaney that evening. Her grandfather raced out of the keep to greet her in the inner courtyard, as did numerous servants and concerned peasants. Bria hugged her grandfather, but was surprised her father was nowhere to be seen.

“He is searching the countryside for you,” Harry explained. “Are you all right?”

Bria nodded. “I couldn’t find Mary, Grandfather. Kenric moved her.”

Harry stared at her in sympathy. “At least you tried.”

“And I will try again and again until she is free.”

Her father returned hours later and summoned her to his solar. When she was younger, a trip to his solar had spelled fierce discipline. She knew she was in trouble. And what father in his right mind wouldn’t discipline his daughter when she’d been missing an entire night?

She entered her father’s solar and closed the door behind her. A colorful tapestry depicting a coronation hung on one of the walls. To her right a warm fire flickered in the hearth, and a large bed stood near the far wall. Just before her, four chairs surrounded a wooden table engraved with knights and horses.

Bria stood at the door, urgently wanting to leave as soon as possible so she could plan her rescue of Mary.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I didn’t mean to stay out all night,” she admitted, “but I couldn’t get home.”

“What do you mean?” her father demanded.

Bria looked down at her entwined hands. “I missed Terran, and I wanted so much to see him,” she said quietly. At least that much was true.

“I told him,” a voice said.

Bria whirled to find her grandfather standing just inside the door of the solar.

“Forgive me, child,” he said. “But when you were missing this morning, I had no choice.”

“I do not appreciate being lied to and deceived, Bria,” her father said, drawing her gaze once again.

“It wasn’t like that, Father,” she pleaded. “I never meant to lie to you. But the less you knew, the better off you were. This was something I had to do.”

“Something you had to do? Dressing up as a man and stealing the taxes? Don’t you realize your life is in danger?”

“Every moment,” she admitted. “But if I don’t protect those people, who will? It is my duty as Terran’s wife –”

“To behave like a criminal?”

“To take care of the people now.”

“Your duty now is to do as your husband wishes. I’m sure he wouldn’t want you stealing his coin.”

“It’s my coin as well,” Bria argued.

“Tell her,” Harry urged.

Her father’s lips thinned, but he remained silent.

“She has a right to know,” Harry said. “If you don’t, I will.”

“Knowles is going to execute Mary at dusk tomorrow,” her father whispered.

“What?” Bria gasped.

“I heard it when I was looking for you.”

“They’re going to execute an innocent woman!”

“Talk to your husband,” her father suggested.

Bria waved her hand. “He won’t listen to me.”

“You don’t need to take up the sword. There are other ways.”

“There is only one way!”

“Never mind that,” Harry said. “It’s a trap.”

“I know,” Bria said, turning to face him. “But I have to go.”

“You will not go anywhere,” her father ordered.

“Father, Mary will be killed if I don’t go. I can’t allow that. If I’d stayed with Mary in the beginning, maybe she wouldn’t have been taken. But I left her. I ran away.” Bria stood her ground. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“No, you won’t,” her father said.

Bria didn’t like the tone in his voice. She didn’t like the intolerant look in his eyes. She scowled slightly. “Father, ever since you came back from the war –”

“You will not speak of it,” he commanded, moving his injured hand behind his back with his good one.

“We must speak of it. You hide behind your wounded hand. Instead of conquering it, you let it rule your life. You should be proud of it. You received it fighting for something you believed in. I haven’t seen you fight for something you believed in in a long time.”

“Enough!” her father roared. “I’ve heard enough of your speeches and your schemes. You can do no more for Mary than I can. If Knowles chooses to kill her, you will not interfere. He is your husband. You should obey him instead of fighting him and stealing from him.”

Bria glared at him for a long moment. Hurt and anger welled within her, but she refused to give in to it. “I used to admire you. You used to be strong and brave, a man I wanted to be like. Now all I have for you is pity.” With that, she whirled and stormed from the room.

Harry shifted his gaze to his son.

David Delaney turned away from his father’s piercing gaze, holding his useless arm close to his body. Harry saw the agony on his son’s face. “She’s right, you know,” Harry said gently. “You haven’t been the same since the war.”

David turned his back on Harry and gazed into the dying fire.

“I think you’re angry with her because you’re envious. You’d do the same thing... if you could.”

“The devil, you say!” Delaney spun and faced his father. “I’d have stood against Knowles without lying about it.”

Harry stepped forward and placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You still can,” he said.

***

Bria stared down at the tunic in her hand. Who would have thought all those years ago when she and Mary and Garret had played the Midnight Shadow together that she’d become him? That the Midnight Shadow would be real?

Who would have thought all those years ago she would have fallen in love with the enemy? How could Terran execute Mary when he knew Mary was her friend? Bria clenched the fabric in her fist. It will end now, one way or the other.

Bria donned the black leggings and black tunic. A sense of destiny filled her, a sense of calm and direction. She bent to the bed to pick up the cloaked hood and stared at it for a long moment.

For Garrett. For Mary. For the people who had been wronged and robbed and beaten by Kenric.

She would face Kenric and defeat him. She was no longer afraid of him. But what of Terran? Could she confront him? Could she beat him? Would she have to?

Bria finished dressing and raised the black hood over her head to become the Midnight Shadow once more.

Chapter Forty

T
erran stood silently in the Great Hall, staring into the flickering flames of the hearth, his arm resting on the stone mantel, a mug of ale dangling from his fingertips. But he didn’t see the orange-red flames biting at the logs, nor did he see the brown bark turn to charcoal black as it burned, and he was completely oblivious to the gray and white smoke swirling up from the fire. All he could see in his mind’s eye were two blue eyes. Two startlingly blue eyes staring at him from behind a mask.

Kenric stood behind him, his words barely heard. “Oh, how she begged for mercy,” he chuckled, “looking up at me with that piteous face. My mercy. As if I have any to give!” Kenric laughed aloud.

Terran ground his teeth. He’d known his cousin had a vicious streak, but to hear him talk about the girl like this made his stomach turn. She was just bait to catch much larger prey. Innocent bait... he pushed aside the memory of Bria’s voice defending her friend.

Not only would he capture the Midnight Shadow. His ploy would also show him who the traitors were. He wasn’t sure which of his men sided with Kenric. He had to expose them all or he could never keep Bria safe.

“She was trembling so much she could barely –”

But how could he defeat him if he didn’t know how many loyal men would fight Kenric’s traitorous dogs? He clenched his teeth. “Is the trap all set for dusk?” he asked, cutting off his cousin.

Kenric nodded. “Aye,” he replied. “I’ll have men stationed around the walls and throughout the crowd. Double posts of guards near both gatehouses.”

“Leave the gates open so it’s easier for him to get in,” Terran ordered.

“He’ll get in, but he won’t get out.” Kenric smiled. “After tonight, the Midnight Shadow will no longer be a threat.”

***

Kenric leaned against the wall of one of the battlements, his gaze trained on Terran. His cousin spoke earnestly with the farmer who’d found Bria after Kenric had poisoned her.

Sir William joined him. He glanced around, his gaze coming to rest on Terran in the courtyard below. “Everything is going as planned. The men are ready.”

Kenric nodded his head, but remained quiet.

Below them, Terran nodded and clasped the farmer’s arm before turning toward the keep.

Kenric shook his head. “He’s never concerned himself with the peasants before.” His eyes narrowed. “What’s he up to?”

***

Terran stared down at the inner courtyard from his room in the keep. People packed the small square from stone wall to stone wall. He found himself transfixed by the play of events outside his window; he hadn’t moved for hours, watching as the usual traffic of carts and peasants and merchants gave way to meandering knights and curious farmers. They formed a massive sea of eager onlookers, all eyes locked on the execution platform in the middle of the courtyard.

“It’s time, Terran.”

Kenric stood in the doorway. Terran nodded to his cousin, but for a moment he couldn’t move. The thought of what was to come left him momentarily paralyzed. Am I doing the right thing? he wondered. Will this trap work? What if the Midnight Shadow gets killed? What if Bria... He forced the questions to stop lest they drive him mad.

Terran took a step toward the door. “Mary shall not be harmed,” Terran ordered.

“Of course not,” Kenric said. “The plan is to capture the Midnight Shadow.”

Together they proceeded down the stairs to the open keep doors. Terran paused on the steps of the keep and looked out over the murmuring crowd. Two dozen guards had positioned themselves in two lines leading from the stairs to a viewing stand, making a path for him. The viewing stand was a small, rectangular structure about three feet off the ground, providing an unobstructed view of the execution platform.

Terran walked past the guards, aware of the silence following him like the wake of a boat. He could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on him, and he slanted a gaze at the crowd. Some onlookers were clearly angry. Others looked afraid.

Frowning, he climbed onto the viewing stand and took his place at the front. Kenric took up a position behind him.

Suddenly, the people in the crowd shifted, craning their necks toward the commotion of shuffling peasants and shouts of protests beginning near the rear of the crowd.

Terran turned to see Mary being led toward the executioner’s platform. She was dressed in a drab brown tunic reaching to just below her knees. Her hands were bound in front of her with thick rope. Her head hung to her chest, her shoulders slumped. He felt sorry for the girl; he guessed how terrified she must be, but comforted himself with the thought that she was really in no danger.

The guards shoved her forward. The girl was so small the guards seemed like towering giants. She moved slowly through the crowd, which moved ever closer to her, everyone clamoring for a look at the doomed girl. For a moment, it seemed the crowd had actually swallowed her up. But she reappeared amidst the throng, moving ever closer to the executioner’s platform.

The guards shoved people out of the way as they led Mary to the stairs of the platform. A few in the crowd surged forward as if to help her, but the guards roughly pushed them back.

Sir William, the captain of the guard, stepped up the stairs to join them on the viewing stand, his eyes scanning the crowd.

“Any sign of him, Captain?” Terran asked.

Sir William shook his head.

Terran’s gaze moved over the crowd. The sun had begun to dip over the horizon, and the anxiety bottled up inside him drew his nerves taut.

Mary reached the stairs to the execution platform. A brown-robed monk took her elbow and began to lead her gently up the wooden steps. She stumbled once as her legs gave way beneath her, but the monk kept her on her feet with a firm grip on her elbow.

The guards stationed throughout the crowd drew closer to the executioner’s platform, making a tight circle around it. As Terran’s gaze moved back over the crowd, his eyes stopped on Mary. She was staring at the large block of wood sitting ominously on the platform. A wicker basket was positioned next to it, sitting beneath the indentation carved into the block. The poor girl was visibly trembling.