Years of missions, death, and triumph had come down to this moment.
The Marshal’s agents were leading a group of about five hundred men from the de Winter army, their mission to find Sean and to secure the White Tower. But they weren’t moving with confidence – there was too much uncertainty for them to do that. They carried heavily smoking torches with them, but there were shadows in every corner, at every turn. On this moonless night, every movement was dangerous.
Men were dying everywhere.
They were over by the Tower now, that enormous structure of stone and wood, soaring into the night sky. As they were running towards it, a woman and two men fled past them. The woman was weeping, in between the men, who were practically dragging her away. As she was shuffled off into the shadows, Kevin and Bric kept leading their group towards the entry to the Tower, but that came to an abrupt halt when they saw men running out of the darkness towards them. It took them a moment to realize it was William Marshal and another man dragging a massive body between them.
It was Sean.
Kevin thought he might have let out a gasp of panic. He couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that he recognized his brother’s limp form, even in the darkness, and he ran towards them. Reaching out, he grasped for his brother, but he didn’t have a chance to speak before The Marshal was barking commands.
“John is coming from the White Tower behind us,” he said. “Bric, move your men over to the entry immediately. Prevent them from following us. They want de Lara and the man has been mortally wounded.”
That was enough for Kevin. He shoved the other man holding up his brother aside, taking the burden himself. He found himself looking into his brother’s half-conscious face as Caius, a man of extreme strength and a close friend of Sean’s, took The Marshal’s place at Sean’s side.
Together, they had more than enough strength to bear Sean’s burden.
“Go,” William hissed as the sounds of sword fighting began to fill the air. “Your fellow Executioner Knights will buy you time to get Sean away, but you must hurry.”
“Go where, my lord?” Kevin asked, his voice full of anguish. “We cannot take him to Farringdon House. It is too far. He needs a physic immediately.”
“I am a physic.” The man whom Kevin had shoved aside spoke irritably. “My cart is this way. We can take him out of this place to somewhere safe so long as we can get through the Byward Tower.”
“Take him to Rossington House,” William said quickly. “It is near Aldgate and it is safe. And de Lohr holds the Byward Tower, so he will let you pass. Move!”
More sounds of heavy sword fighting, the kind of fighting when broadswords of big knights went up against broadswords of big enemies. It was the king’s men against The Marshal’s men in an all-out battle that had been building up for years. The torches that the de Winter army had brought were illuminating the scene, and Kevin could see Maxton and Kress and Achilles engaging in a massive battle with some of the king’s guard. Cullen, an enormous knight with a heavy sword, was in a nasty fight with a particularly large soldier. Everyone else was fighting for their lives, too, trying to give them time to get Sean away.
Kevin knew they had no time at all to delay. With his brother securely in his grip, he began to move.
“Come on,” he hissed to Caius. “Help me!”
Between Kevin and Caius, they followed the old man to his cart, which was parked in the darkness near one of the massive, barrel-shaped towers that secured the walls of the Tower of London. The cart was a wooden one, with tall sides and a bed full of straw. A nervous horse was harnessed to it and as they heaved Sean into the straw, someone came up behind them and grabbed Sean’s legs. Kevin and Caius looked up to see Morgan de Wolfe, Caius’ second in command. Between the three of them, they easily situated Sean on the bed of hay.
“What do you wish of me, Cai?” Morgan asked quickly. “Shall I go with you?”
Caius shook his head. “You are needed to fight,” he said. “Make sure the king’s men do not follow us. Where is my squire? Where is William?”
Morgan pointed in the general direction of the Byward Tower. “He is with his father and the de Wolfe army holding the bridge with de Lohr’s men.”
Edward de Wolfe, Earl of Wolverhampton, was tight with Christopher de Lohr and had been for many years. The de Wolfe army had only arrived within the hour, long enough for Caius to lose sight of his squire when the young man rushed to aid his father. De Wolfe and de Lohr, holding the Byward and Middle Towers to protect the drawbridge, made for an awesome alliance.
“I shall find him,” Caius said. “Go back with The Marshal and find me at Rossington House when this is over if I do not find you first.”
As Morgan nodded sharply and fled, the old physic jumped into the wagon bed beside Sean.
“Drive us away from here,” he barked at Kevin as he hovered over Sean. “My job is to keep this man alive. Your job is to get us away from this place.”
There was panic in his voice, something that threatened to unravel Kevin’s control. He couldn’t even take the time to look at his brother or talk to him. He was afraid that if he did, he would break down and all would be lost.
Therefore, Kevin forced himself to focus. He did his best thinking when he was in battle mode, pretending he didn’t have a dying brother to get to safety. They needed to leave the Tower.
He had to get them out of there.
“Cai,” he said. “Get into the bed of the wagon and protect Sean with your life. We could not help him earlier, but we can help him now. My brother deserves that much.”
Caius nodded as he leapt into the back. Kevin could tell that Caius, too, was in battle mode. He was Sean’s very best friend in the world, so he knew that Caius was as shaken as he was. But they were also professional knights and this was a combat situation. They had a job to do at the moment and collapsing with grief at Sean’s condition wouldn’t help matters.
There would be time enough for that later.
Kevin leapt onto the small bench of the wagon, collecting the reins and whistling at the horse to get it moving. The animal was very nervous from all of the battle sounds going on around it, but it worked to their advantage. As they neared the Byward Tower, which had the only bridge across the moat at this point, a soldier startled the little horse and it panicked.
It began to run, with Kevin trying desperately to control it, and he managed to steer it through the Byward Tower and across the drawbridge. At that point, they’d reached the Middle Tower and the Lion’s Tower, where actual lions were kept by the king to strike fear into the heart of his enemies, but also to impress his visitors. Kevin managed to pull the horse to a halt because he couldn’t go any further.
Crowds of battling men were clogging the tower entrance.
Mercifully, the lions had been taken to a safe vault beneath their tower to protect them from the siege, but the Middle Tower had been badly damaged by the de Lohr war machines, specialized catapults that had been brought all the way from the Welsh Marches and reassembled for the assault on the Tower of London.
An ally of the king had arrived and was battling de Lohr and de Wolfe for control of the tower. Caius, now standing up in the cart bed, watched with Kevin as de Lohr and de Wolfe men pushed back the onslaught of troops bearing the colors of the House of de la Londe. A French family with a nasty reputation, who had been given lands near Colchester, had come to the aid of the king.