The Battle for the Castle (15 page)

“This way,” William whispered. “You want to come this way.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gudrin move, and before anyone could stop her, she had leapt onto the opening between two merlons. She began to sing in a high clear voice. It was some song she must have learned at the convent and there seemed to be no particular tune but her voice rose and fell in a gentle roll.

“
O let the earth bless the Lord
,

O ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord
,

O all ye green things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord
,

Praise him and magnify him forever
.”

She sang about the whales and the beasts and the cattle and the seas and the floods and she called on them to bless and magnify the Lord, and while she sang, the monster rat turned first his head and then his body toward her. As he turned, his soldiers turned too, and with a nod from their leader, they began to advance on the castle.

“That's it,” William cried, pulling on her skirts. “You got them. Now come down.”

When they helped Gudrin from her post, she turned and looked at William with wide glazed eyes as if she were in some kind of trance. It was the same look she had given him when he had dragged her up onto the overturned dory, and for a moment, he was tempted to slap her.

“Gudrin, listen to me,” he shouted. “You've got them now! They're headed this way. Now, wake up. We need you.”

She looked startled and then sorry. “I'm ready,” she said in a calm voice. “What is it?”

“Your uncle. I think he's in shock. He's no use to us like this.”

“Uncle,” Gudrin said. She shook his shoulder. Dick went on mumbling to himself and counting some invisible threads in his tunic.

“Jason, you and Gudrin take him down to the dungeon,” William said. The strength in his voice surprised
even him. It was as if somebody else were speaking for him. “Hurry. I will take his place at the drawbridge. Go, now.”

“Will you be all right?” she asked.

“Yes!” he screamed. “For God's sake, just get him moving. We have no more time.”

Jason and Gudrin stationed themselves on either side of Dick and led him away. Once or twice he dug his heels in and tried to turn around, but they kept him moving, Gudrin whispering encouragement in his ear all the while.

William and Brian ran for the gatehouse. Once inside, they each grabbed a chain and watched through the arrow loop in the wall. The rat army flowed over the crest of the hill like a great black oil spill, marching evenly, in formation, making subtle direction shifts as the road turned with no apparent signal from their leader.

With one hand still on the chain, William picked the binoculars up from around his neck and watched as they drew closer. “They look like robots on remote control,” he muttered to Brian.

“Pardon?” Brian said.

Of course Brian didn't know what a robot was. “I mean how does the leader communicate with them?” William said.

“Animals have their ways,” Brian replied.

William kept the binoculars trained on the leader until the monster rat passed out of sight under the gatehouse arch. Then he switched it to the followers and saw in their eyes the same dazed, powerless look that he had noticed in the movement of their limbs. Rats scurrying around with their noses to the floor were creepy enough, but these half-human rodents marching to some unheard tune scared him even more.

“He must have some strange power over them.”

“There's the end of them,” Brian warned. “Just coming over the hill. Get ready.” In the distance, they saw the surface of the road again as the final wave of the long, black rat river rolled up toward them.

“No sound,” William whispered. “On the drawbridge. No hoofbeats, drums, people marching.”

“Reach your hand as far up the chain as you can,” Brian said in a steady voice. “We want to raise the drawbridge swiftly with as little warning as possible. Trap them before they even know it's happening. I'll give the signal.”

William dropped the binoculars and took a deep breath. His heart was banging inside his chest the way it did just before a gymnastics meet. He tried to still it, taking the air in deeply, letting it out just as evenly, listening for the count from Brian.

“Come on,” Brian said in a low, teasing voice. “Good boys, follow the leader. There you go. One,
two, three, PULL, BOY, PULL WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!” he roared, and neither one of them cared anymore who heard them as they hauled on the chains.

Once the drawbridge was up, they secured it and crept out along the wall walk to the northeast tower. William was dying to peek over the edge into the courtyard, but he kept his head down. They stood for a moment behind the thick wooden door at the bottom of the tower steps to gather their strength.

“When we come out, we'll be just behind the well,” Brian whispered. “Then duck through the side door to the armory. It's a short distance from there to the dungeon. You go first and I'll cover your back. Ready?”

William nodded. Would he ever be ready for this? “Ready,” he said.

The moment they pulled the door open and tried to run, they were fighting their way through a moving sea of black bodies. With every step, William felt the soft furry mounds under his feet, snapping at his pants, scurrying across his sneakers. He stopped every so often to knock the bodies off his legs, but their teeth were sharp and once he felt the pain of a puncture. At the door to the armory, he looked back. Ever the soldier, Brian had stopped and turned to face the advancing enemy with his sword. The rats easily avoided the slashing blade, ducking past it time and time again to sink in their teeth.

Suddenly, the huge rat started for Brian. William saw the rear ranks part to let him through. The more the guard lashed out with the sword, the more frenzied the rats became in their attack. They were crawling over each other to get to him. And still the huge rat advanced, intent on his prey. He turned his gaze on the man, and when their eyes met, a strange stillness settled over Brian. He froze in position and dropped his sword. His will to fight was being drained away by something in the rat's eyes.

“NO!” William roared, and he threw himself at the squirming mass to get back to Brian. He shielded the man's eyes with his hands and Brian trembled as if released from some spell.

“Now, run,” screamed William. “For the armory door. I'll cover you.”

The monster rat had turned its attention on William, but before it could get any closer, William dropped into a series of whirling handsprings that threw the rats hanging onto his legs into space. The rest of the animals retreated in confusion.

William gauged the distance close enough, and when he came up from his last turn, he bumped into Brian who had just made it to the armory door. The two of them lurched through the dark space toward the dungeon.

Jason was waiting for them. He shoved the door open just far enough to let them through. Brian stumbled
into the room and collapsed on the floor. William backed in right behind him with one last futile kick at the surge of rats chasing at his heels.

The next few moments were filled with confusion. With screams of horror and rage, Jason and Gudrin beat uselessly at the three furry bodies that had managed to slip through the door and into the room. Finally, Jason snatched up a shield and slammed it down on two of the bodies at once. The third disappeared into the dark recesses of the dungeon behind them.

“Is that all of them?” William gasped as he sank to the floor.

Jason lifted the shield slowly and looked at the flattened bodies. He kicked them aside in disgust. “One got away,” he muttered. “It's in here with us somewhere.”

Gudrin dropped to her knees beside Brian. She tried to stop the flow of blood from his legs with her skirts.

“Are you all right?” Jason asked.

William didn't answer.

“Your leg is bleeding,” Jason said. “Come on, I'll help you get your pants off.”

William lay down and allowed Jason to strip off his jeans. He didn't even care whether Gudrin saw him half naked.

“It's not too bad,” Jason said. “Just one small bite above the ankle.”

“It's throbbing,” William whispered. He felt somebody wrap a warm wet dressing on the place where it hurt. The pain shot up his leg, but it felt oddly distant, as if his leg and his wound belonged to another person. He felt nothing more for a long time.

He heard a voice first. Then something moved through his hair, and with a cry, he struggled to a sitting position.

“It's all right,” Gudrin whispered to him. “It's only me. How are you?”

“My leg hurts,” he said.

“I've brought you something to drink,” she said, and he let her put the tankard to his mouth. When he tried to turn his face away after the first bitter swallow, she took his chin in her hand and made him take the rest.

“Yuk,” he spluttered. “What was that?”

“Something for the pain. It will make you sleep again. I've put a dressing on the bite. Sorrel and mustard root. It will speed the healing.”

“Brian?” he asked.

“Resting for now.” It must be pretty bad, he thought.

“The rats?”

“We're safe in here,” she whispered with her mouth close to his ear. “Calendar's cat got the last one. Hush, now.”

When he slid down to the pallet, she sang to him, a soft little tune about the sky, and he let the words wash over him and then he slept again.

He woke later to a scraping noise, like someone digging a tunnel.

“What's that?” he said into the air.

“The rats,” Gudrin's voice answered him from across the room. “They're gnawing on the door.”

He propped himself up and looked around. She was sitting on a bench against the wall, stripping leaves off some weedy-looking plants. Brian was snoring gently on his pallet and Dick was walking in tight circles in the darker recesses of the room.

“Jason,” William called.

“Right here,” Jason said from his perch under one of the torches. He was sorting through his pile of armor.

“What time is it?” William asked.

Jason consulted his watch. “Three in the afternoon, I think. It's easy to lose track down here.”

“So how long have I been asleep?”

“One full night,” Gudrin said. “And half of another day.”

William struggled to his feet and tested his leg. A sharp pain shot up through the muscles, but once he rested his full weight on it, the pain turned into a dull throb.

He shot Jason a desperate look. “Where do we—”

Jason pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “Go around the corner. There's a garderobe. I'm sure our jails at home don't have such nice bathrooms,” he added with a grin.

On the way back, William stopped and looked into Brian's face. The man was still asleep, taking in air in ragged, uneven breaths. Wet dressings covered most of his legs, which Gudrin had left exposed to the air.

“Brave man,” William whispered to his comrade.

“He's got two bites on his stomach,” Jason said. “They must have crawled in under the chain mail shirt.”

“He should have run the way I did, but he turned to fight them,” William said. “They were all over him when I went back.”

He limped over to the bench and Gudrin put a trencher on his lap. Bread, figs, some dried meat. He wolfed it down. “How's the food and water holding out?”

“Not bad,” Jason said. “Miss Gudrin, here, is quite the chef.”

“What about Dick?”

“He just keeps walking around and around in a circle,” Jason said. He glanced at Gudrin.

“He's talking to Tolliver's mother,” she said quietly. A shudder ran through her thin shoulders and William decided to change the subject.

“How long has the gnawing been going on?”

“It started soon after you and Brian came in,” Gudrin said. “The door is thick,” she added, but her voice faltered.

The sudden silence between them made the scrabbling at the door seem even louder in the cold room.

“I hate that noise,” William said, shoving his fingers into his ears.

“Get used to it, old buddy,” Jason mouthed.

“Did you bring your dagger?” William asked. “The one from the castle in the attic?”

Jason produced it from the bottom of his backpack.

William grabbed the dagger and hobbled across the room. He shoved it through the crack under the door to distract the rats, but the weapon wasn't long enough. Nothing stopped the scrape of the rats' teeth against the wood. He threw the dagger away in disgust.

“I've got Sir Simon's sword if you want something longer,” Jason said. “But it won't make them stop. Nothing does.”

“Boost me up,” William said to his friend. “I want to look through the window.”

Jason shrugged. “I've already tried that too. You won't be able to see anything. It's too dark out there.”

“Let me try anyway,” William said.

Jason made a step with his hands, and William put his good leg into it and pushed himself up. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darker room outside, but even when they did, he saw what Jason meant. The walls of the castle had been built for defense, not for light. All William could see was the vague movement of shadows in the darkness as if the floor of the room were covered with a huge undulating rug. He rested his forehead against the iron bars of the small window for a moment and fought back tears.

“Okay, let me down,” he muttered to Jason, who lowered him carefully until his foot touched the floor. “I hate this,” he said. “I hate being trapped in small places. It makes me crazy.”

Jason and Gudrin stared at him without saying anything. He knew what they were thinking. Don't complain, old buddy, you're the one who got us into this mess.

It had sounded like such a good idea back then, but here they were, trapped in the dungeon with one wounded soldier and a man who had gone off his head and what sounded like a million rats gnawing at the
door. And Gudrin and Jason were both expecting him to find a way out.