Prologue #3
“I work in the shadows,” Sean said simply, looking at the eyes upon him. “It was my sense that it would be better to send a few men to capture Canmore rather than an army.”
“But we must make a statement, Sean,” William reminded him.
Sean cocked an eyebrow. “And you are with de Velt,” he said. “But my suggestion of a few well-trained men to capture Canmore would have been far less destructive. There might be a leak in the dam, but the dam would still hold.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that the Scots would not be aware that we knew of their plans,” Sean insisted softly.
“The situation would be shaken, but not fractured. There would be no sense of urgency to begin their plans in earnest. As it is, de Velt’s charge may bring about the execution of the Scot’s scheme sooner rather than later because sending The Dark Lord into Scotland is a decisive offensive.
It is a clear sign that we know of their plans and, ultimately, it is an act of war. ”
“I agree with The Marshal,” Gart, who had also remained largely silent, spoke up.
“What you say is true, Sean, but we must act swiftly and decisively. The Scots and their Norse allies will think twice about invading Northumberland if they know they will have to face armies like de Velt. It is the perfect deterrent.”
Sean and Gart had a long and friendly history. There was no nastiness in Gart’s counter, simply honesty. Therefore, Sean simply shrugged.
“Indeed, it is,” he said. “But it is also highly aggressive. As I said, I work in the shadows. Sometimes things are accomplished better, and more swiftly, that way. Right now, we’ve got three of the best agents in England serving the house of de Velt and Cole is one of them.
He could have taken his men into Fountainhall Castle, captured Canmore, and made it back to England before anyone was the wiser. With a lot less death.”
“And no impact,” Gart said quietly.
As he and Sean grinned at each other over their differing opinions, Christopher spoke up. “Three agents?” he asked William. “Who are the other two?”
A hint of a smile crept onto William’s lips. “You will not believe it,” he said. “They have been serving de Velt for the past two years.”
Christopher was curious now. “Who has?”
“The Princes of Kitara.”
That drew a strong reaction from Christopher and David. In fact, all of the knights reacted in some way, but not in a negative fashion. In fact, there was delight in their expressions at The Marshal’s revelation.
“Are you serious?” Christopher gasped. “Addax and Essien al-Kort?”
When William saw the recognition, he snorted.
“I knew you would be shocked,” he said. “Those young men you took under your wing and helped train on the sands of The Levant those many years ago have never lost their loyalty to England because of you. You gave them a chance when no one else would and they have never forgotten that. At least, that is what they told me when I met with them a couple of years ago, when they first came to England’s shores. ”
As Christopher’s jaw dropped with surprise, David spoke up. “But how?” he asked. “You never mentioned this to me at all and you knew of my relationship to them. The last I heard, they migrated north with Thuringian knights, but we lost track of them after that. Where did they go?”
William took another gulp of wine before answering.
“Nay, I did not mention it, mostly because they were some of the agents working in stealth for me in the north, and the less everyone knows, the better,” he said.
“But I knew, eventually, that the time would be right to tell you, so now you know – the royal blood of that powerful and mysterious kingdom is now part of my stable of knights, and they have been utterly flawless.”
Christopher shook his head, still in disbelief, but there was pleasure there. The pleasure of friends he thought he had lost. “Not even Jax told me that,” he said. “I cannot believe they have been in England for two years and I never knew.”
William nodded. “As the story goes, they were in the service of a Flemish duke who is allied with Jax de Velt and that is how they came into the man’s service. He adores them.”
“But how did they get from The Levant to the Flemish lord?”
William held up a hand. “Those Thuringian knights you spoke of,” he said.
“But that is a story for another time. For now, we must focus on what is happening in the north. Four weeks ago, I sent a missive to Cole and Ajax de Velt and asked them to unleash their army on Fountainhall with the intention of capturing Canmore as a prize. I instructed them to muster their army and march for Scotland on the first of the month, which was more than five days ago. My guess is that they have already arrived and that the siege is progressing in earnest.”
Christopher snorted ironically. “If I know Jax, and I do, the siege is probably already over,” he said. “Jax de Velt has never laid siege for more than a couple of days in his entire life. I would wager that the battle is finished and Canmore is already heading for England.”
William, however, saw no irony in the statement. He was a man who controlled England, and with it, thousands of men, lords, and armies. He never did anything without a specific motive in mind, and his motive in sending Jax de Velt into Scotland was quite plain.
Gart had said it best.
Impact.
With this much at stake, he wanted impact. But things could go wrong and sometimes, they did. William could only hope this was not one of those times. Therefore, he simply nodded coolly to Christopher’s suggestion.
“Let’s hope so,” he muttered quietly. “God, I hope so.”