The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(114)

She paused, looking deep into his eyes.

“So…will you help us?”

Hans looked at his wife. She bit her lip, then nodded. He looked back at Ayla.

“Yes. I'll do it. I just want to know one thing.”

“Which is?”

“All the enemy has wanted to do for weeks and weeks is to get into the castle to destroy us,” Hans said, his face set in grim lines. “How is getting them into the castle now possibly going to help us to defeat such a vast army? I can't see it. And I'm not risking everything until I do.”

Ayla looked at the other two. Should they tell him this? She wasn't sure it was a good idea. Reuben shook his head.

“No. We can’t tell you what the plan is. If you don't play your role of traitor convincingly enough and the enemy starts to torture you to be sure, you might give away everything.”

Or you might just give away everything in any case, just to save your miserable hide. He didn't say it, but Ayla could read it on his forehead as clearly as if the emperor's best scribe had written it there.

Hans met Reuben’s gaze without flinching. Which, considering the burning gray do-what-I-want-now-or-I'll-hamstring-you-and-gut-you-like-a-pig gaze Reuben was directing at him, was an astonishing feat, in Ayla's opinion.

“No,” he said, firmly. “If you want my help, you'll have to tell me.”

Again, she and the other two exchanged a look.

“All right,” she sighed. “But before that, I want your oath that you will not betray us to the enemy.”

“I swear. On Sir Isenbard's grave.”

Ayla was about to open her mouth when a red-clad hand shot past her and gripped Hans by the throat.

“This is one oath,” Reuben growled, “you had better not break. Understand?”

This time, Hans did flinch. Quite a lot, in fact. He also did some gagging, until Ayla gripped Reuben's arm.

“Let go of him. We need him!”

Reuben scowled. To his great disappointment, he apparently knew she was right.

He let go, and Hans collapsed on the stone floor beside his wife. She stared up at Reuben. Ayla believed that she would have been outraged if she hadn't been so busy being terrified.

Ayla waited until Hans had stopped coughing and gasping for breath. Finally, she asked, “Are you ready?”

He nodded. Not ready to speak, apparently. But ready to listen.

“Then listen to me closely,” she said. “This is what's going to happen…”





The Cage Closes

“Men of Luntberg!” Reuben roared. “To your arms! To victory!”

As one, the enemy soldiers down in the courtyard whirled around to stare up at his blood-red, metallic figure gleaming in the torchlight as he stood high above them on the inner castle wall. Thus it was that, when the first arrows from the outer wall started flying, they hit their targets squarely in the back.

“Ha!” Reuben uttered a roar of triumph.

Even Ayla couldn’t suppress a surge of fierce joy. Unlike the dying men down in the courtyard, she had seen where the arrows were coming from. Unlike the men in the courtyard, she wasn't looking at Reuben. She was looking at the outer wall, where Captain Linhart and about twenty of his men had appeared on the walkway. They were streaming from the towers left and right, out of concealment, into the open.

“Loose, men! Loose!” shouted the Captain.

And the men obeyed his order. Their faces were grim, their hands determined, and the bows in their hands more than ready. As quick and efficient as though the spirit of Isenbard guided their hands, they took up their positions on the wall in a long line, firing volley after volley of arrows into the confused enemy down below. Forty or fifty men were down before the mercenaries had even turned and realized they were under attack. Then another volley hit and took another dozen down.

“Yes!” Ayla sprang up and punched the air in celebration, and several of the enemy soldiers turned again at the sound of her shout. They paid their price for that reaction as arrows embedded themselves in their backs. “Yes! Yes!”

Burchard grabbed Ayla around the midriff and dragged her down again. “Have you gone mad, girl?” he hissed. “Stay down and be quiet.”

Suddenly, Ayla felt guilt wash over her. What was she thinking? “Of course! You're right. I shouldn't be celebrating the death of anybody, even if they're our enemies.”

“Codswallop! Celebrate away, but not anywhere in their line of fire. Some of them have bows themselves, if you remember!”

“Oh.”

Carefully, Ayla raised her head just above the crenels and peered down into the courtyard. Sir Luca had jumped down from his horse and was using the poor animal as a living shield against the arrows. The sight made Ayla sick to the stomach, and she was heartily glad that Reuben had rescued Eleanor from the clutches of that brute.

“Bring out the shields!” Sir Luca yelled. “Form a defensive line!”

The captains of his battalions threw each other desperate looks. It was clear nobody had thought to bring the large metal shields that provided most protection against arrows. This was supposed to have been a surprise stealth attack—not the kind of attack where you burden yourself with heavy, noisy, military equipment.

“A defensive line, I said, bastardi!”