Chapter One #3
The knight still hadn’t said a word. His helm was turned in her direction and suddenly, he was moving towards her.
He closed the gap rather swiftly, reaching out to grab her harshly by the arm.
Allaston gasped in pain as the knight flipped up his visor, his shockingly bright blue eyes boring into her.
“You had better be the de Velt I seek or this situation will not go well for you,” he hissed. “Convince me that you are who you say you are or I will kill everyone here, including you. Tell me now!”
He was growling and snarling, and Allaston was so frightened that she felt faint.
But she took a deep breath, struggling to compose herself, as she looked into eyes that were the color of cornflowers.
She’d never seen such a bright shade of blue.
Her mind was so much mush, overwhelmed with fear, but she fought to clear it. She had to.
“My… my father is Ajax de Velt,” she said, her voice quaking. “My mother is Lady Kellington. I have three brothers and two sisters, and we live at Pelinom Castle in Northumberland.”
The knight’s grip tightened, nearly breaking her arm. “Name your siblings,” he growled. “Quickly!”
She jolted because he shook her to emphasize the speed at which he expected her to deliver the answer.
“My eldest brother is Coleby,” she said, verging on tears but fighting against them with every breath.
“I have two more brothers, Julian and Cassian. My sisters are Effington and Addington. They are younger than I am.”
The knight’s eyes were blazing, but that blaze was as cold as ice.
It was a deadly glare, something Allaston had never seen before, but she began to suspect that she must have given him the right answer because his grip hadn’t tightened.
Nor had he otherwise displayed displeasure.
In fact, his expression seemed to ease. His features, as much as she could see them through the helm opening, had relaxed.
After several anxious moments, the eyes flickered in a calculating gesture.
“How old is your father now?” he asked.
Allaston swallowed hard. “I… I am not exactly sure,” she said. “I believe he has seen fifty-eight or fifty-nine years.”
“Does he still go to war?”
She shook her head unsteadily. “Nay,” she replied. “He has not gone to war since I have been alive. I have never known my father to fight.”
That seemed to surprise the knight, for his eyes flickered and she thought she saw confusion in the mysterious depths. There was puzzlement at the very least.
“How old are you?” he asked.
“I have seen nineteen years.”
The knight’s sense of confusion seemed to increase. “Your father has not gone to war in nineteen years?” he asked as if astounded by the mere thought. “But he is a warlord. How is that possible?”
Allaston wasn’t sure what all of these questions were about, but as long as she continued answering him, the knight seemed to remain calm. She was determined to keep him calm.
“I do not know,” she said. “He… he did do some warring before I was born. I know because my mother told me, but I have never known the man to fight, even when his liege called for aid. My father sent his men but he did not go.”
“Who is his liege?”
“Yves de Vesci, Earl of Northumberland.”
The knight just stared at her. His grip seemed to lessen as he pondered her words, but the confusion in his expression was soon replaced by suspicion.
“Your father is the most wicked warlord ever to walk the earth,” he finally said. “His atrocities are legend. Surely you know this.”
Allaston was perplexed by the path of the conversation but she was afraid to say the wrong thing.
His grip on her arm had lessened, that was true, but she was positive it would grow brutal again the moment she said something he didn’t like.
She could see it in his eyes, an edginess that bordered on madness.
“I have heard of my father’s past,” she said honestly. “My mother has told us… things. But he has not done that in over twenty years.”
The knight just stared at her. It was apparent that the entire conversation with her had him seriously mystified.
Allaston gazed back at him, waiting for the next barrage of questions and fearful that she would say something to displease him.
He’d already proven he would kill with the slightest provocation.
She didn’t want to become his next victim.
After several long seconds of staring at her, of perhaps mulling over his next move, his grip on her tightened once again and he dragged her over to one of the knights standing nearby. He thrust her at the man.
“Take her,” he ordered. “No harm will come to her. Is that clear?”
The knight reached out and grabbed Allaston by the arm. “Aye, my lord.”
He began to walk away with her in his grip but Allaston dug her heels in. “Wait,” she said anxiously, craning her neck over her shoulder to look at the big knight. “Where are you taking me?”
The knight with the bright blue eyes didn’t answer.
He simply flicked his hand at the knight holding Allaston and the man yanked on her, pulling her away and back towards the bulk of the army.
The knight with the bright blue eyes watched her go, watching her as she disappeared into the darkness and contemplating his next move.
It wasn’t long in coming. He crooked a finger and motioned to the nearest knight.
“Find me one woman and one woman only,” he said. “Make sure she is sane and speaks clearly. I have a message for her to deliver.”
The knight with the big scar across his lip nodded. “Aye, my lord,” he said. “And the others?”
The big knight’s gaze moved to the priory behind them, now burning solidly.
Heavy, dense smoke spit into the night sky and the fire was spreading.
Soon, it would hit the dormitory where the women had come from.
He didn’t want to leave an entire herd of witnesses, witnesses who could come back to haunt him in more ways than he could comprehend.
He was a man who tended to eliminate anything, or anyone, who could contest or oppose him.
He was a man who had learned a long time ago the value of a human life; there was none.
“Take them back into the church and lock them in,” he said, his voice low. “Make sure the doors are secured so they cannot get out. The fire will do the rest.”
The knight with the scar nodded smartly and went on his way, muttering the orders to the other knights and a few soldiers standing nearby and, together, the group of them began herding the women back towards the burning priory.
The women, realizing that they were being corralled to their doom, began to wail and plead for their lives.
Before the big knight turned back for his charger, he saw a couple of his soldiers grab two or three of the women and pull them away from the pack.
As he mounted his horse, he could hear the screams of those women being raped.
It made no impression on him. Nothing in life ever did.
He had a mission and he had since he’d been five years of age.
Nothing was going to stop him in his quest to see his mission completed and now he had what he had come for.
After years of planning, of suffering, and of hard work, his scheme was about to come to fruition as he’d hoped. He finally had a de Velt.
Now, he would set the trap.