The Grey Dawn Page 4

  “And you were out at night, why? A breath of fresh air?”

  She shrugged and nodded.

  The man gave a sarcastic bark. “Do you lie often? I really despise liars. I hate to think I’ve wasted a nice evening and good cloak saving one.”

  “ ‘m not,” Ellalee sighed.

  As she felt the warmth returning to her body, the pain in her hands and feet exploded leaving her cringing and stifling moans. Her ankle autonomously jerked in her shivering which rekindled bright pain now that the feeling was coming back. When the pain finally passed, her eyelids drooped, and it proved a pointless struggle to keep them open.

  Chapter Five: The Liar Thief

  It was the cold, grey dawn before Ellalee opened her eyes again. Her troubles poured into on her heart the minute she was fully awake, and she nearly wished she had indeed frozen to death in the darkness of last night. She found she was covered with the horse’s blanket, and the fire still flamed which meant that it had been kept going through the night. A saddle lay beside her as well as the knight’s gear. The knight, as she had begun to think of him, was gone, his sword with him. She started to sit up and then groaned when she instinctively stretched her legs and accidently moved her very tender ankle. She moved the blanket and frowned at her blue swollen toes. This time, she sat up more gingerly, glancing around the campfire.

  The area around the fire was still. Her eyes searched for the wooden stick that she had used as a crutch the night before but couldn’t find it. In fact, the campsite seemed to be swept clean of anything large enough to be useful in helping her make her way back to her cottage. Purposefully? Perhaps it wasn’t nefarious. Perhaps the wood closest to the campsite was used to keep the fire going.

  No matter, her first priority was to locate her siblings. She was panicked at the thought of what may have happened to Daniella and Christopher through the night. Maybe the baker and the fishmonger were dumber than dirt and hadn’t thought to go back to her cottage. While she was thinking of the ridiculous, maybe they couldn’t count to three. She groaned; she had to get going so she could find out what had happened after her unfortunate fall.

  Ellalee sighed as she examined her arms and hands which were scratched, torn, and bruised. Every part of her hurt. She dreaded trying to make her way on her injured ankle, but what choice did she have? Ellalee shoved on her left still-wet shoe onto her foot and frowned at her right shoe. She stifled a scream, pounding the ground with the palm of her hand, as she shoved her right food into its shoe. Pain clouded her vision. She collapsed onto her back, breathing hard, trying to overcome the bright pain.

  It took a few moment to regain her breath and for the stars so bright in her vision to diminish. Working as quickly as she could, Ellalee used the heel of her left foot to push up dirt to quench the fire. She hated to leave the man’s belongings without her supervision, especially because he had obviously left them as a signal to her that he would return, but it couldn’t be helped, situations being what they were. At the least, she could make sure the flames were out so that nothing caught fire. She glanced down and felt terrible about taking his clothes, but really what choice did she have? She could go nowhere in what remained of her boys’ clothes. She groaned again, rubbing her flaming face, though it did nothing to rub away the humiliation of the past night.

  She glanced around the clearing once more. She would have to crawl into the woods until she found a stout branch to help her limp home. She considered her surroundings, trying to determine where in the Wyndale Wood she was, when she heard a horse in the distance. She lurched precariously to her feet, bobbling momentarily on her one good foot in order to avoid her injured ankle and listened. The extra-large britches started to slide down her legs which she grabbed in a handful, wobbling precariously on her one-footed stance. She wondered if there was a rope in the knight’s gear to hold up the pants. She felt like grinding her teeth. The horse was coming this way quickly.

  She dreaded the thought of having a dual of words with the stranger from last night. More than that, she didn’t want to be waylaid by this man. It was imperative that she get home. Nothing for it; she hiked up the britches, carefully got down on her knees avoiding so much as even touching her right foot to the ground and started crawling on hands and knees. She could only go a short ways at a time before she had to stop and readjust the britches. Finally in desperation, Ellalee pulled the pant legs up over her knees shamelessly revealing her ankles and calves for the sake of speed. It was folly. Mere moments later, she heard the horse enter the clearing as she flipped over onto her backside.

  “Escaping? Sadly, I think not,” the voice rang out, seemingly too loudly for the crisp morning air and dappled light of the trees. “You have an appointment in town. I believe you have a brother and sister who are already there.”

  “You’ve seen them? They are alright?”

  The man was still garbed in the black cloak which now bore a long frayed edge. The cowl of the cloak was pulled low over his face so that all she could see clearly was his mouth and chin. Now in the daylight she noted that he had several days’ growth of black stubble covering a strongly shaped chin. Ellalee could see the line from a dimple on one side, but for the rest of his face, she could only guess. Whatever happened to the stranger’s face, it must be gruesome to keep himself covered in such a way.

  He grunted as he slid off the horse’s bare back. “So to say. For now.”

  Ellalee’s eyes widened at the long scar down the horse’s side. The knight kicked dirt onto what was left of the fire dousing fully the smoldering flames, then began saddling his horse properly. Once done, he led the beast over to Ellalee where she had waited in silence. “Get up or I shall drag you to your feet.”

  While the man’s caustic attitude brought fear into her heart, she realized that he was the quickest path to being reunited with her family. Ellalee rolled back over to her hands and knees, grabbed the pants with one hand and pushed off the ground with the other. She hopped several times to avoid coming down on her injured ankle and just barely managed to keep her balance. Clearheaded, she realized that this knight was tall, easily over six feet with broad shoulders. He was intimidating, even more so because he refused to show his face.

  The knight rubbed a thumb across his chin as his mouth drew downwards into a tight-lipped scowl as he noted her clutching the britches in her hand.

  “I hate cutting ropes because you never know when you will need the full measure. It seems you continue to cost me,” he ground out with an open-handed gesture at his cloak. Shaking his head, he grabbed a length of rope from inside a flap of his saddle bag and drew his dagger cutting off enough of a length with which she could secure the britches. “On you go, before I lose patience with you and use the rest of this rope to tie you to the back of the saddle.”

  Ellalee looked indecisively at the saddle of this large destrier and the stirrup which seemed remarkably high in the air and then down at her one leg. How on earth was she supposed to manage? Moreover, she had only ridden sidesaddle. She looked at the knight in despair.

  “I’m learning to despise you,” he grunted, leaping into the saddle in a fluid movement. The knight leaned over and grabbed her under her arms, easily hoisting her onto the horse’s back, behind his saddle like so much a sack of potatoes. Ellalee gasped as he kicked the horse into a trot which forced Ellalee to hold onto him lest she touch her ankle to the horse’s side or fall off and be trampled. She wondered anew what might be wrong with this knight that he kept his face hidden. The cowl must conceal some deformity or injury, and it must be severe.

  As they approached the town, Ellalee could hear a mournful cry. She got shivers from the sound and couldn’t imagine what beast could possibly utter such a desolate noise. It wasn’t until they neared the main gate, that she saw the source. Twenty feet in the air above the gate, a man hung in irons from the gallows swinging in a gibbet. As Ellalee and the knight passed beneath him, she could hear him begging and pleading with the knight for f
orgiveness. Abruptly, Ellalee recognized this man as the stranger, Dessi, from the tavern yesterday.

  “That man was in town yesterday saying that he had stolen from the Earl de Avium. The tavern-keeper told him to leave because he believed the man would be dead by morning. Seems Old Tate wasn’t far off. What a horrible way to die! Have you heard of him? The earl?”

  The knight grunted but otherwise didn’t respond.

  They continued their way into the heart of the town when she heard a loud ruckus ahead. There was a roiling crowd gathered in the town square, shouting and hurling rotten foods and refuse at whoever had the misfortune of being in the pillory. She wondered if Dessi had had friends that were similarly caught and not yet strung up. When the crowd parted for the destrier, Ellalee gasped. There hunched over, head and hands through the wooden stocks, were Daniella and Christopher.

  The knight lifted his voice, “I have found the third.”

  Ellalee’s breath was coming quickly as she looked up onto a raised platform to see the Baron de Bressott. She looked, wild-eyed, over to her siblings and shook her head in horror. They were smeared in the unspeakable, loathsome substances that had been hurled at them. Christopher was doing his best to look stoic; Daniella was silently sobbing and didn’t even look up.

  “Do you, Ellalee McMillon, admit to being the thief who has haunted these markets for over a year?” the baron’s voice boomed over the jeering crowd.

  She looked around the crowd and saw the baker and the fishmonger standing shoulder to shoulder looking immensely pleased.

  “No use lying,” said the baker crossing his arms. “We finally got you, and today you’re going to get exactly what you have coming to you. I’m going to nail your hand to my doorway so I can look upon justice every day until it rots off, and even then I’ll save them bones in a jar.”

  “Enough. Do you admit your crimes?” the baron bellowed over the throng’s heckling.

  The knight jerked Ellalee’s arm tossing her onto the ground. She hit her ankle hard and doubled over gasping. She looked up to the baron and through gritted teeth said, “I’m no liar. I did steal, but only what we needed to survive.”

  “Not true, my lord,” Mistress Bane’s voice sung out over the crowd. “I paid them well for doing the laundry for this castle. This young woman has been employed for the last year and a half by you, your lordship.”

  The angry crowd roiled with insults.

  “That is only partly true. The amount paid was not enough to keep us fed,” Ellalee countered clutching her ankle.

  “Then you are indeed a liar. I know that I pay more than fair wages.”

  “Five copper coins is not enough to see us fed,” Ellalee shouted over the din of complaints raining down on her from the crowd.

  “That’s enough lies for one day. As you well know, I pay a silver each week.”

  Ellalee stared furiously at Mistress Bane who had the audacity to shake her head sadly at Ellalee. If Ellalee had actually gotten that much money, she could have easily afforded food. Angry tears exploded into her eyes.

  “I am no liar. I was paid five copper coins, and sometimes not even that.”

  The baron appeared deeply affronted to be publicly indicted by a common crook. “An admitted thief but not a liar. Well, I don’t believe I have ever met the breed. Do tell me, did your siblings know of your thievery and knowingly partake? Answer truthfully for if you do, and they were unaware of your pilfering ways, I shall release them.”

  Ellalee looked at her siblings. Daniella was fervently shaking her head, and Christopher was trying to mouth answers that she didn’t understand. She knew she had but one chance to save those she loved best in all the world. She steeled her shoulders and said, “No. They didn’t know.”

  Mistress Bane’s smile grew broad, and Ellalee realized she had miscalculated. Her eyes widened at the Baron’s denigrating scowl.

  “You stand convicted of being both liar and thief. Your sister already confessed. We shall cut off both of your hands and slice out your lying tongue. Your tongue shall be first so that we do not have to hear any more of your treachery.”

  The baker crowed with delight, and the crowd cheered. Ellalee felt as though she would retch. She glanced toward Mistress Bane who raised one eyebrow and with a sly grin, patted her pocket, and turned her back as she left to go back to the manor. Ellalee could hear Christopher screaming as two large men came forward pulling her to her feet and hauling her to the center square where a man appeared with a sharp knife and a horrifying pincer-like device that would no doubt hold her tongue as he lopped it off. Another man put his foot on a large log and pumped his ax into the air as the crowd hooted and cheered.

  Ellalee dug in her heels, no longer able to feel the pain in her ankle so great was her terror. Christopher’s screams and Daniella’s pleading sobs rang in her ears. There was little enough resistance that she could offer against the strength of the men dragging her forward. One man savagely grabbed her mouth and shoved his fingers between her teeth, prying her mouth open. She screamed with all she had, trying to bite the man with little success. His hand was large and strong, and his grip was bruising. He seemed to take extra delight in the futility of her struggles.

  Suddenly she gasped as the man let go of her face. She looked and saw the knight’s fist up and realized the baron had called for a hiatus in this morning’s excitement. The crowd booed and hissed at the delay.

  “While I hate to interfere with an obvious act of well-deserved justice, Cousin, I wonder if I might offer an alternative.”

  “I doubt that any course short of blood-letting will appease this crowd, but I would hear you out, of course. I trust there will be justice for these abused merchants.”

  “Of course,” the knight replied. Ellalee wondered who this knight was that he commanded a baron.

  “I will pay each merchant who found themselves ill-used by this woman’s larceny full recompense.” The crowd was listening now. This knight, if such he was, had baited his hook well. However, no knight had funds so readily available. “In return, this woman, her sister, and their brother will work as bondservants at Castle de Avium until the full payment has been redeemed.”

  The crowd was unnaturally silent as they looked with greedy eyes to the baron for response. In one horrible moment, Ellalee realized that this was no knight. This was the villainous Earl de Avium, the man who had, no doubt, already put yesterday’s stranger in the gibbet to die a horrible and slow death.

  “That is generous,” the baron vacillated. “I fail to see the justice. This woman has served my manor and thus far only proved herself a liar thief. I cannot see where you gain, nor where she receives the proper correction for her ill-gotten ways.”

  “In this, I will assure myself of help which is difficult to come by, reputations being what they are. Who knows that death will not soon follow? It seems I run through servants rather quickly. Two have died in just these last few weeks. It occurs to me that whether these three bleed out here or bleed out at de Avium, hardly makes a difference to the accused or the accusers. However, my generosity will help restore the merchant’s loss, and these three will fill de Avium’s ranks, however temporarily, that recently seem to suffer death at a rather greater than usual frequency, even for me.” The earl scratched his chin. “However, should they ever leave Castle de Avium, their punishment should be as you have prescribed with the additional punishment following: they will be flogged, drawn and quartered, burned at the stake, and whatever remains, fed to the castle dogs.”

  There was a savage gleam in the baker’s eye as he realized that not only would the Ellalee likely die at Castle de Avium, but he would get hard coin to cover his losses, both real and imagined. It was a double victory with interest. Others, it appeared, had calculated likewise, and when the baron called to the crowd if they found coin more valuable than blood, found that they, in fact, did, especially given that being interred at Castle de Avium would be nearly as terrible as death itself.

>   The Earl de Avium asked that the merchants make a line as he pulled out a parchment, quill, and ink for his accounting from his saddle bag and untied a heavy bag of coins from his waist belt. The baker by sheer bulk ended up first in-line fearing that funds would be finite in distribution. He announced that Ellalee had stolen three loaves of bread no less than twice a week for the last year. Ellalee gasped. It was preposterous!

  “That’s simply not true,” Ellalee sputtered.

  “Says the liar thief,” responded the baker. “I have no reason to lie.”

  “Except those fat coins,” Ellalee snapped back.

  The fishmonger gleefully reported that Ellalee had stolen no less than five large fish a week.

  “They are lying, your lordship! They are abusing your generosity!” Ellalee said.

  The Earl de Avium turned his cowl toward Ellalee and replied caustically, “Worried about my finances? Silly girl. They aren’t robbing me of my coins, they are robbing you of your years. I expect by the time we are through here today, you shall not leave the grounds of Castle de Avium until you have been dead a hundred years.”

  Ellalee’s mouth fell open. She could hardly take in breath.

  Next came the miller. The shoe maker followed him, which was hilarious given the state of their footwear as the earl had reason to have noticed last night and also for the fact that there was no way to steal shoes that had to be paid for in advance and made to fit. A half dozen others followed as well, holding out their palms to be greased by the faceless earl.

  When the earl’s cowl turned toward the tavern owner, Old Tate gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “She never stole from me.”

  “An honest man? Here? Who would have believed?” Ellalee could see the earl’s mouth curl at the ends as he spoke.

  “Of sorts.” Old Tate said with a wry hoot. “I own the tavern. Where do you think they’ll spend all their ill-gotten gains?” Then he added in a more sober tone, “I’ve no need to hurt this girl. I knew her father, and he was a fair man, dealt with people honestly. I knew this family too. They never did me wrong. Life is hard, and they’ve had their fair share of pain.”