Page 5 of Always
“I’ll save you too—”
“No!” Although everything within me demanded I drop my gaze and told me I was dishonoring the king with my familiarity, he held me captive with a sudden fierceness in his expression. “Keep the princesses safe until the time is right.”
I nodded, hoping the move would reassure him. I’d do as he asked, but I wouldn’t abandon him. When I’d joined the elite guard, I pledged to serve the king with my life. I would die for him if need be. I couldn’t leave this room without him.
“Go now,” he said, as though reading my mind. “It is too late for me and for the rest of the people here. But not for the princesses. Not if you help them.”
With that, his eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he released a long gasping breath. Then he didn’t move. He simply stared at the canopy overhead, his eyes wide and unblinking.
My wildly beating heart stumbled to a halt.
He was gone. I’d seen enough dead men to know.
A piercing scream wafted from a corridor somewhere in the castle, the kind of tortured scream that told me the Saracens had made it into the residence, likely through an open window or even a garderobe hole.
I closed the king’s eyes. Then I quickly kissed the tips of my forefingers three times and pressed them to his heart. He’d been right. I was too late to save him. But I could honor his last wish or die trying.
Around me, the king’s chamber succumbed to a mass of confusion as the realization of the king’s death began to penetrate the retinue. I tucked the velvet bundle into an inner pocket under my chain mail and at the same time crossed to Baldric. “We must hurry to the queen’s chambers.” Baldric nodded curtly, and I followed him out of the king’s private rooms down the long, deserted hallway.
“What shall be done with the rest of the nobility and castle staff?” Baldric asked.
If the enemy had already infiltrated the fortress, we had no time to institute the evacuation plan. The king had known it, and Baldric knew it as well. While I had no wish to leave everyone behind, I had to make the princesses my first priority. “We’ll pray that if they surrender and pledge fealty to Ethelwulf, that he will show them mercy.” At least those who weren’t killed by the Saracens could pledge fealty.
“I will defend you until you are safely away with the princesses,” Baldric said. “Then I’ll return to protect those who remain.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose even as awhooshof putrid air assaulted me. A faint line formed in the arched doorway of a nearby alcove. “To your left!” I warned Baldric as I drew both of my weapons and ducked.
Talon-like fingers raked the air where my face had been only a second earlier. A shadowy figure screeched in anger at missing me but spun like a sandstorm. I pivoted and brought my sword down reflexively, a lunge that only anticipated the Saracen’s next move. If my instincts were wrong, I’d pay with the curved scimitar embedded into my chest digging through my flesh.
My sharp double-edged blade severed something. I didn’t wait to see what but immediately thrust my dagger upward. It connected too. A fading scream told me my blades had done their job on my opponent. I spun halfway with my bloodied sword and aimed it for the back of the Saracen who had sprung upon Baldric. At my thrust, the thin wraith froze in midair and then crumpled to the floor next to his companion.
Baldric jumped back, his weapons at the ready. But the two bodies on the hallway floor lay motionless. Blood pooled almost black around the brown-skinned men wearing robes that had likely once been white but were now grimy and tattered. The stench of their filthy garments and unwashed bodies was offensive even for a seasoned soldier like me. But I couldn’t complain since their odor had alerted me to their presence and given me the split second I’d needed to react.
The outstretched hand of one of the Saracens revealed long fingernails filed to deadly sharp points. Fresh blood covered them.
I glanced to Baldric. He shook his head, answering the question before I could ask. If he hadn’t been injured, then we had to pray the blood didn’t belong to the newborn princesses.
We both started forward at the same time, running, our feet pounding in urgency. The queen’s chambers were located on the opposite side of the keep, strategically positioned so that if the king was besieged first, the queen could still make her escape.
“There.” Baldric nodded to a half-open door.
I bolted ahead of him, my speed exceeding his. As I burst into the chamber, the weeping of the women surrounding the queen’s bed turned into frightened gasps and cries of alarm.
In one wide glance, I took in the pale, lifeless face of the queen centered in her large canopied bed, a noblewoman brushing the long golden hair and another helping to style it. Still another was laying out an elegant gown, clearly intending to dress the queen in preparation for her funeral. The midwives were in the process of cleaning up towels, sheets, and tiny glass bottles that had likely contained every herbal decoction that had ever been created for child birthing.
All eyes now focused on Baldric and me, and filled with terror. I didn’t have the heart to tell them we were the least of their concerns. That the king was dead now too. That Ethelwulf would be in control of the castle by the end of the night. That without the king and queen, Ethelwulf would finally lay claim to Mercia. That they would become his vassals—if he allowed them to live.
“The princesses?” I asked even as I began to wind through the room toward a door I assumed would lead to the nursery.
One of the midwives, sagging from both exhaustion and dejection, pointed toward the inner door. “That way.”
I wasted no time, not even with words of thanks. I threw open the door to find a smaller chamber, one that had been decorated for a newborn babe with an elaborately carved crib, light-colored tapestries and blankets, cushioned chairs positioned near the hearth, and a wardrobe displaying an assortment of infant clothing.
Two maidservants knelt in front of leather satchels. At the sight of Baldric and me, their whispered chattering came to a stop. Their eyes widened, revealing both confusion and fright.
“I’ve come for the princesses,” I said in a tone that brooked no arguing.
At my pronouncement, a young woman stepped forward. I didn’t need an introduction to know she was of noble birth. Her beauty gave that away. Younger than the ladies I’d seen in the queen’s chamber, this woman had long dark hair, as lustrous and rich as prized mink. Her face was perfectly symmetrical, her cheekbones high, her chin petite and delicate, her nose elegant. Thick lashes framed her wide eyes. I surveyed her face in an instant then focused on the opal button at her collarbone holding her cloak closed.
