The Red Knight

‘Lost what?’ asked the Abbess.

The captain shrugged. ‘It’s spiritual. A matter of faith, if you like. Our enemy depends on success as much as on displays of power to hold his place. It is the way of the Wild. Red in tooth and claw. Wolf eat wolf. Every tiny defeat we hand him, every bee sting, causes his allies to wonder – is he as strong as he seems?’

The Abbess nodded. ‘Can we win?’ she asked.

He nodded decisively. ‘We can.’

‘How?’ she asked.

The captain crossed his arms and leaned against the mantelpiece. ‘By hurting him so badly that his allies think he is weak.’

Harmodius shook his head. ‘None of us can take him, lad.’

‘He’s not that bright,’ the captain said. ‘I think that all of us, working together, can take him.’

Harmodius rose. ‘You’re out of your depth,’ he said. ‘He’s more powerful than you can imagine. And even if you hurt him-’ He paused, obviously a man on the verge of saying too much.

The captain sipped wine. ‘I’ve seen him retreat twice now.’

Harmodius spread his arms. ‘I admit he’s cautious.’

‘If his people see him run from us, surely that’s enough.’ The captain looked at the Magus. ‘Isn’t it?’

The Abbess slammed her stick on the floor. ‘Captain. Magus. Surely you don’t believe that we have to raise the siege ourselves?’ She looked at the captain. ‘Don’t you believe that the Prior is coming? The king?’

Harmodius didn’t turn to face her. ‘The king-’ he said. He shrugged.

The captain smiled at her. ‘Lady, I believe the king is a day or two away. But I believe that the essence of a good defence – whether my opponent is a tribe of barbarians, a feudal lord, or a legendary mage, is a good offence planned to keep my opponent off balance. Let me tell you of the next two days.’ He grimaced – for the first time, the others saw the fatigue under his banter. ‘Let me guess at the next two days,’ he said.

‘Tonight, the enemy will cross the fields in force, and endeavour to cut us off from Bridge Castle in two ways. He’ll try to occupy the trench we built, and he’ll seek to destroy our engines.’ He looked at Harmodius. ‘He’ll try it directly. With powerful workings overloading the Hermetical defences of the walls.’

Harmodius nodded emphatically.’

‘His purpose is so that he can storm Bridge Castle. He is only interested in taking it now because the king is on the south bank of the Cohocton. As long as we hold the Bridge, we have the ability to end the siege in an afternoon.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Jehannes said.

‘Sometimes,’ the captain said, looking at the Magus, ‘You know a thing to be true, whatever the evidence. Our enemy is not that good at war. In fact, he’s learning to lay a siege from us, as we hurt him. He learned, perhaps three days ago, that the king was coming along the south bank. I’m guessing based on the tempo of his attacks.’ He shrugged.

Jehannes shook his head. ‘If you are wrong-’

The captain slammed his fist on the table. ‘When, exactly, have I been wrong? I’ve done a pretty damn good job here, and we’ve gone from victory to victory – even when we stumble. We’re still standing, at odds of twenty to one.’ He looked around. ‘Our magazines are full. Our casualties are acceptable. At this rate, if the worst happens,’ he realised he was growing too angry to sway them but his words were tumbling out, ‘then we’ll lose the siege engines tonight, but it will be four more days before he storms the Bridge Castle, it will cost him a thousand creatures to take it. And he still won’t have a chance to take this fortress!’

Ser Milus snorted. ‘I think you just condemned my garrison to death.’

The captain shrugged. ‘I’ll go and command the Bridge Castle and you can command here. This is war. We are not losing. Why are any of you considering surrender?’

Jehannes swallowed heavily.

‘Speak!’ the captain insisted. ‘Why are you all so silent?’

Amicia said quietly, ‘Your eyes are glowing red.’

The Abbess snorted. ‘Every young man would have glowing red eyes, if they only could.’ She got up. ‘But I agree with you, wholeheartedly, Captain. We will have no more talk of truce, surrender, or accommodation. The Wild will kill us if they penetrate these walls.’ She raised her staff. She appeared to grow. Not taller, nor more beautiful, nor younger, and yet, in that moment, she was greater than any of them.

‘Do not be weak, my friends.’ She smiled, and her smile had the warmth of the sun. ‘We are strongest, we mere humans, when we unite. Together we can resist. As individuals – we are no stronger than our weakest.’

She diminished, and sat.

Harmodius sat silent.

Ser Milus leaned forward. ‘Captain,’ he said.

‘Aye, messire?’

‘I agree. He’ll go for us next. Bolster the garrison. Give me fresh troops and more men-at-arms and I’ll hold it a week.’ He nodded.

The captain subsided into his seat. ‘Excellent thought. Take them tonight, when you go back – as soon as ever you can.’

Harmodius shook his head. ‘I still think he is too intelligent for all of us, even if we could all cast in concert.’ He rolled his shoulders like a North Country wrestler preparing for a match. ‘But I’m game. And I admit that the captain has a point. We don’t have to defeat him, only make it look as if he can be beaten.’

The Abbess smiled. ‘Well said. This is the kind of company I love. Let dinner be served.’

The dinner was not rich. There was no roast swan, no peacocks with gilded beaks, no larks tongues. Duels between torsion engines had killed a dozen sheep on the ridge so every mess in the fortress was eating mutton, and they were no exception.

The venison sausage was superb, though, and the wines were as ancient as human possession of the fortress.

The conversation was slow to start but by the second cup of wine, Mag was amused by Tom’s ribald story, and Johne the Bailli roared with laughter at the tale of the student and the hornsmith’s wife. He told one of his own, about a bad priest who disgraced his vows, and Father Henry glared.

The Abbess passed wine. She had the captain on her right, and Amicia on her left. When the talk had become general, she turned to the captain. ‘You have my permission to engage her in conversation,’ she said.

The captain tried to smile. ‘I’m not sure my eyes aren’t still glowing,’ he said.

‘Anger and lust are different sins,’ said the Abbess. ‘Amicia is going to take holy orders, Captain. You should congratulate her.’

‘She has my fullest congratulations. She will make a remarkable nun, and in time, I expect she will make a remarkable Abbess.’ He sipped his wine.

‘She is not for you,’ the Abbess said, but without rancour.

‘So you keep telling me, while dangling her like a tourney prize.’ He took a bite of meat. His tension was only visible in the force he used to cut the mutton.

‘I’m right here,’ Amicia said.

He smiled at her.

‘Once again, you bite her with your eyes.’ The Abbess shook her head.

After dinner, the Abbess held the magi back. Mag was surprised to be invited. ‘My working is very slow,’ she said. ‘I never even know-’ She shrugged.

Amicia put a hand on the seamstress’s shoulder. ‘I can feel every stitch you sew,’ she said.

Harmodius snorted. ‘You share a mixing of gold and green,’ he said. ‘I should have come to this place years ago to have all my notions of Hermetics shattered.

The Abbess said, ‘It is my will that we should stand in a circle, and link.’

Harmodius winced. ‘I’m granting my secrets to every woman in the room!’

‘You have little time for mere women,’ Amicia snapped at him. ‘We’re too patient in our castings, are we not?’

‘Women are all very well for healing,’ Harmodius said.

Amicia raised her head, and a sphere of golden green sat in it. She projected it to a point roughly halfway between herself and Harmodius.