The Battle for the Castle (14 page)

“I'm not leaving you, Uncle,” said a clear voice from the doorway. They whirled around. Gudrin was standing at the top of the steps with a candle in her hand. The flickering light picked up the dark hollows under her eyes and the patches of dried brown blood that stained her skirts. She looked like a ghostly visitor from another world. “I have lost my mother, aunt, and grandmother,” she said. “I will not leave you, Uncle.”

“Gudrin, you are not to disobey me,” Dick said,
but his weak voice betrayed him. How could he bear to have both his son and niece leave him now? William wondered. Besides, he wanted Gudrin to stay.

“We will need her,” he said. Gudrin looked at him with a mixture of surprise and relief.

“The fisherman died a few minutes ago,” she said, her chin raised and her voice still clear. “But I was able to ease his pain. With the poultices. Grandmother taught me well.”

“Your grandmother did know what was upon us, did she not?” Dick said, his eyes raised to Gudrin's. “And I paid her no mind, I treated her like a bad child.” A shudder ran through his whole body and he put his head in his hands.

Gudrin slipped onto the bench next to her uncle and put her arm around his shaking shoulders.

When Brian came back with the castle plans, William spread them out on Dick's table and stared at them for a long time in the flickering light of the candles.

“We need to get from the wall walk to the dungeon without crossing the courtyard,” he said to Brian. “These stairs by the northeast tower, are they still usable?”

“Yes. Sir Simon sealed off the lower doors in that tower some years ago, but they could be reopened. The staircase comes out just between the well and the armory.
Here,” Brian said, pointing with his thick finger. “In this corner of the courtyard.”

“And the dungeon is next to the armory?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Once the rats are all in, two of us will raise the drawbridge and make a dash for the dungeon where the rest of us will be stationed with enough provisions to wait out the siege.”

“It's a daring plan,” Brian said. “Trap your enemy and then go into hiding.”

“But will it work?” Jason asked.

“Who knows?” Gudrin said. “For the moment, it seems to be the only plan we've got.”

Dick stood up. “Ring the bell,” he said to Brian. “Wake everybody and order them into the courtyard. They must get on the road and away from here as soon as possible. Gudrin, you are in charge of the buttery and the division of the stores. Brian, get two of your guards to bury the fisherman and his horse in the field outside the castle walls. Then I want the carpenters to move the bar from the outside of the dungeon door to the inside. Boys, you are to prepare Tolliver for his journey. Hurry, all of you. We don't have much time.” That sounds like the old Dick, William thought as the group scattered to carry out their assignments.

They found Tolliver riding circles around the courtyard on William's bicycle.

“I know it's the middle of the night, but I couldn't sleep,” he called out as he swept past the first time. “I thought I'd get in some night training with the bike light.”

“Save your strength,” Jason said as Tolliver pulled up panting. “You're going to need it.”

“My father said I could go?” asked Tolliver when he'd heard the plan.

“He agreed that you are the one who must go,” William said, lying a little. “You know the way, and with all the training you've gone through, you have the muscles we need. Pretend it's a race, Tolliver. Just get there as fast as you can and send Sir Simon and Deegan back with the token. It's our only hope.”

“I shall not disappoint you, Sir William, I warrant you that.” Such a big speech, William thought. It scared him to think their entire plan depended on this one boy's courage and his leg muscles. What if he didn't come back? What would they do then? He shook his head as if to throw off the bad thoughts. He couldn't afford to think too far ahead.

He found Dick in a corner of the courtyard, issuing orders to the guards. “Tolliver will be ready soon,” William said. “I am sure he will want your blessing on his journey.”

Dick saluted him. “I am coming now.”

Up above, the chapel bell began to toll—an eerie
insistent warning in the black night. William wondered if the rats could hear it as they made their way up the road from the coast.

All through the night, the courtyard was abuzz with activity. Under Gudrin's sharply delivered orders, the scullion boys ran frantically between the buttery and the stables where the horses were being prepared for the journey. People packed their meager household belongings into burlap sacks and slung them over the backs of the restless horses. The children were stirred out of their sleep and carried into the center of the courtyard where they were propped up against each other to await the departure. The younger ones toppled over and fell asleep again while the older ones watched the chaotic comings and goings in amazement. Nothing like this had ever happened before in the castle.

Soon after sunrise, the caravan was ready. Dick appointed Alan, the second-in-command under Brian, to lead the refugees. He was quite distressed at being sent off with such a raggle-taggle band of civilians, but Dick and Brian were firm with him.

“Go all the way to the border of Inglewich,” Dick told him. “Tell whoever you meet that they must take what they can carry and follow you. Move the group along as fast as you can. We do not know how long we shall be able to hold this pack of vermin in the castle.”

“Should you meet Sir Simon coming back this way,” Brian said, “I give you permission to return with him and fight as becomes your station.”

“Thank you, my liege,” said Alan. “This feels a most unseemly job for a soldier,” he added, looking over the crowd of crying babies and stamping horses.

“If we have managed to defeat the rats, we will hoist the Hargrave pennant at the top of the north tower,” William added.

“And if there is no pennant?”

“Blow a horn three times and then storm the castle,” Dick said in a low voice. “God alone knows what you will find in here by then.”

Brian and Alan saluted one another. Then Brian turned sharply on his heel and marched off with Jason to raise the portcullis and lower the drawbridge. With a command, Alan stirred the people to their feet, and slowly, the unruly group began to make its way across the drawbridge. Two guards herded the final stragglers along. William stood and watched until they turned the corner. All that was left were the pink rays of early morning sunshine sliding into the corners of the dark courtyard. Then with a great clanking of the chains, the drawbridge was raised again.

William found Gudrin sorting provisions in the dungeon. It looked as if she had thought of everything.
Water had been drawn from the well and stood about in heavy wooden buckets. The stone floor was covered with hay and sweet-smelling herbs, and five pallets were spread out in a row. William realized suddenly how exhausted he was. He longed to lie down and sleep but there was work still to be done.

“What's all this?” he asked, pointing to a pile of armor and a shield.

“Jason's idea,” she said. “He brought those things in from the armory. And his precious bicycle. It's over there in the corner.”

“I don't know what a rat could possibly do to a bicycle,” said William. “Although maybe the big one would try to ride it. Who knows? It may come in handy. What else do you need?”

“It will be dark down here all the time,” she said. “Bring me four of the wall torches from up above. And warm coverings for the pallets.” She looked around. “Dungeons were not built for comfort.”

“At least this is strong,” he said as he pulled the heavy wooden door toward him. “And I'm glad it has the window at the top because I hate being closed into spaces.”

“I brought Calendar's cat down here,” Gudrin said. “Seems more use than a bicycle against a horde of rats.”

“Don't get on Jason's case,” he warned. “We're
all going to be living in a pretty tight space for a while.”

She didn't answer, so he went away to carry out her requests.

By midafternoon, their preparations were complete and Dick said they should all try to rest. “We will get precious little sleep in the hours to come,” he said.

“Do we dare sleep now?” Brian asked.

“The fisherman said they come at night,” William said. “So by sundown, we must be ready on the ramparts.”

Without any further discussion, they each took a pallet.

“I can't ever sleep during the day,” Jason said into the air.

“Don't worry,” said William. “Even with the torches, it feels like night down here.”

And those were the last words anybody spoke for some time.

They ate supper in the courtyard. When William saw the amount of food Gudrin had prepared for them, he wondered if she had slept at all.

“I'm starving,” Jason said as he settled down. “I don't even care what this stuff is.”

When they had finished eating, Dick ordered them to leave the remains of the food on the table. “Some tempting morsels for the vermin,” he said.

“But, Dick, I thought we were supposed to be the tempting morsels,” Jason said. “I hope these rats don't choose some dried-up old figs and boars' ears over me. I've gone to a lot of trouble to develop these muscles,” he added, slapping his thighs.

“I wouldn't want to have to chew on those legs,” William said. “They've been exercised into pieces of tasteless gristle.”

“After all the tumbling you've done, your muscles wouldn't exactly be my idea of dinner either,” Jason said, leaning over and grabbing William's upper arms. “Like chewing on leather. And what about Brian's hamstrings? After a life of horseback riding and marching. No, thank you. A piece of flesh like that might drive a self-respecting rat right back to the glories of garbage.”

Brian grinned into his tankard. Gudrin was laughing so hard that the tears began to run down her face, and finally even Dick had to smile.

Gallows humor, William thought. He'd read the phrase somewhere in a book and now he knew what it meant. He looked up at the sky. The light was fading and so was their laughter. It was time.

“Brian and I will take the first shift,” Dick said. “You three are to go down in the dungeon and wait for us.”

They all shook their heads.

“I order it,” Dick said.

They shook their heads again.

“We'll wait on the wall walk with you,” William said. “As soon as we see something coming, we'll go down.”

“That's right, Uncle,” Gudrin said. “None of us wants to be locked up in the dungeon any longer than we have to.”

Dick looked at Brian.

“We will have plenty of warning,” the captain said. “They might as well come up with us. Even with William's binoculars, we could use their young eyes.”

“I don't know what use I am, giving a lot of orders that nobody obeys,” Dick said grumpily. “Well, come on then, the lot of you.”

Gudrin slipped her arm through her uncle's. Jason and William took up positions on either side of Brian. The small but determined force made its way to the ramparts.

They spread out along the two sides of the wall walk that faced the southeast. Brian, who was stationed in the tower that looked directly onto the road, kept the binoculars. Occasionally someone would call for them, and the others would hold their posts tensely, waiting for news. The night was curiously quiet, and William hated how loudly their cries sounded in the stillness. He felt as if he were with the rats tramping up the road with their ears cocked for human voices.

Scudding clouds covered the moon. He kept one eye on Gudrin and one on the road. She would know before the rest of them when danger was coming. It was hard to see her, and he wished for more light and then changed his mind. If he could see more clearly, then so could the rats.

Gudrin said his name, once, quietly, insistently.

“What?” he called back.

“They're coming,” she said. “I can hear them now.”

He sucked in his breath and listened. Nothing. Not a birdcall or a rolling pebble or the rustle of a tree branch. She must have the hearing of a dog.

“Warn the others,” she said. “Quietly.”

He left his post and tiptoed up to her. “You're sure?” he asked.

“Positive,” she said. “Go now. Hurry.”

William went from Jason and Brian to Dick and they gathered around Gudrin.

“Any minute now,” she said. “Down there between the trees where the road dips. That's where we'll see them first.”

Brian handed William the binoculars and he focused them on the spot she had described. A minute went by, maybe two, and then he saw the first shadow of movement against the pale surface of the road. Suddenly the road was filled with dark moving shapes.

“They're walking upright,” he reported in a horrified whisper. “On their hind legs. In formation. Like soldiers in a battalion. I can only see a couple of lines at a time because of the trees. There's the big one in the middle. Now he's gone.”

Jason had trotted a little ways down the walk. “I see them from here,” he called. “They're coming pretty
fast now. There are so many of them. Like a long fat moving snake.”

Dick stared. “I had no idea what—” he whispered and then his voice dropped to silence.

Brian stirred himself. “Sir, we must take our positions.”

Dick didn't answer.

William glanced over the wall again. “Look, they've reached the fork in the road.”

The first line of rat soldiers drew to a stop and waited for instructions. The ranks parted as their leader made his way to the front. For a long time, he stood without moving and stared down the road. Suddenly, the moon came out from behind the clouds and the whole scene was tinged with a wash of silver light.