Chapter Ten #5
But the fight wasn’t over. Even with Summerlin down, Atticus went on the offensive, chopping at him, catching him in the hand and on the back where the seams of the armor were weak.
Blood spattered from cuts onto the hard, dead ground.
When Summerlin tried to rise, Atticus kicked him in the head and sent him crashing to the frozen earth.
Half-conscious, Summerlin still struggled to get up and defend himself but Atticus stepped on his right wrist, so hard that Summerlin heard bones crack before he let go of the sword he was still trying to grip.
Atticus reached down and yanked the sword from the man’s grasp, tossing it several feet away.
Shoving a knee into Summerlin’s neck, he grabbed the man by the hair and lifted his head.
“Now,” he growled. “Tell me what I want to know or there will be two knights lying in pain upon these frozen moors. Where are de la Londe and de Troiu? My patience wears thin, Summerlin.”
In pain, and at a distinct disadvantage, Summerlin struggled between the innate sense of self-preservation and the unwillingness to divulge Norfolk’s information.
“This is not what honorable men do,” he breathed. “They do not cheat in battle.”
Atticus yanked his hair, snarling in his ear.
“Do not speak to me of honor when you serve a man who paid knights to betray their friends,” he said.
“Norfolk solicited Northumberland knights to betray their comrades. When my brother did not agree to their terms, they killed him. The men you are trying to protect killed my honorable brother because he would not betray his fellow knights. He would not betray me. I know Norfolk wants me worst of all; by all that is holy, I know it. So do not speak to me of honorable behavior when the very man you serve is a snake in the grass, seeking out the next victims of his deceit and treachery.”
Summerlin didn’t want to concede Atticus’ point but he knew there was truth to it.
Norfolk continued to work in secrecy and deceit in order to gain men for Edward’s cause.
He’d known before Towton that Norfolk had secretly solicited support from de la Londe and de Troiu, so everything Atticus said was true.
He grunted as Atticus’ knee grinded into his neck.
“If I tell you where they are, Norfolk will know I have spoken,” he said. “I… I have a wife and a young son at Arundel Castle. If I betray Norfolk, they will suffer.”
“He will not know you have given me any information unless you tell him.”
“There is no one else to tell you but me. He will know.”
Atticus continued to press his knee into Summerlin’s neck for a few moments longer before abruptly releasing the man. As Summerlin collapsed onto the ground, unarmed and battered, Atticus stood a few feet away.
“Summerlin,” he said, “as I see this situation, you have little choice in the matter. Either you tell me what I want to know, or I will lock you up in the vault of Wolfe’s Lair and you will never see your wife and child again.”
Summerlin pushed himself up on his bloodied hands, rolling onto his side and eventually into a sitting position. His ears were still ringing from Atticus’ kick to the head and he struggled to shake off the bells.
“If you lock me up in the vault of Wolfe’s Lair, my army encamped over the hill will eventually come looking for me,” he said. “They will lay siege to Wolfe’s Lair. Are you prepared to withstand an extended siege?”
“If they lay siege, I will throw your dead body over the wall onto them.”
“Then you will never learn the answers you seek.”
“Then tell me what I want to know and I will be merciful.”
They were at a stalemate. Summerlin had no doubt that Atticus would do as he said he would and he didn’t particularly want to be locked up in a freezing vault or thrown over the fortress wall.
He was at a distinct disadvantage with no choice in the matter as he saw it; he wanted to live to see his wife and son again.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain his survival instinct to Norfolk, but he would think of something.
He had no other alternative. With a heavy sigh, he looked up at Atticus.
“Do I have your word that you will release me?” he asked.
“If you tell me everything you know about de la Londe and de Troiu, I will show mercy.”
“Do I have your vow?”
“I told you I would. That is good enough for you.”
Summerlin wriggled his eyebrows; it would have to suffice.
He glanced over his shoulder at the massive edifice of Wolfe’s Lair, wondering what had become of his brother-in-law.
He’d hoped to have an ally in Warenne but it was evident that he had been abandoned.
He scratched his head with a bloodied hand.
“The last I heard, the knights you seek were heading for Wellesbourne Castle,” he said, defeat in his tone.
“Norfolk sent them there to try and elicit a promise of fealty from the older Wellesbourne. Since the younger Wellesbourne serves Northumberland, Norfolk would try to sway the father with the hope that if the father swears fealty to Edward then the son will follow.”
Atticus was quite interested in what he had to say. “Andrew Wellesbourne?” he clarified. “Norfolk is trying to gain the man’s vow?”
Summerlin nodded. “I swear to you on my oath as a knight that my last information on the whereabouts of de la Londe and de Troiu are Wellesbourne Castle,” he said.
“I do not know if they are still there. I was sent north by Norfolk to submit his proposal to you and your father, which I have done. That is all I know.”
Atticus was genuinely perplexed. “So he would try to gain Adam Wellesbourne’s fealty through the man’s father?”
“It would seem so.”
Atticus pondered that information, turning to Kenton, who was standing over near the gates with the empty crossbow in his hand.
He waved Kenton over. As the big knight came near, Atticus relayed to him what Summerlin had told him and Kenton was clearly just as bewildered as Atticus was.
In fact, the usually stone-faced knight sneered as he mulled over what he’d been told.
“What would make Norfolk so determined to destroy Northumberland’s knight corps?” he asked, more of a musing than an actual question. “There are several battle lords that are loyal to Henry, so why single out Northumberland? What purpose could he have?”
Atticus turned to look at Summerlin, who by this time had his attention on du Reims. The knight with the severed tendons had managed to roll himself into a sitting position also, but he was essentially crippled after Atticus’ attack. Atticus spoke loudly to gain Summerlin’s attention.
“Why does Norfolk want so badly to destroy Northumberland’s knights?” he asked him.
“I know.”
The voice came not from Summerlin but from the gates of Wolfe’s Lair.
Atticus, Kenton, and even Summerlin turned to see Solomon lumbering from the gates.
The man was moving slowly and painfully, as he usually did in the morning with the disease that caused his joints to ache and swell.
Atticus went to his father to help the man.