Dark Under the Cover of Night (The Kingdom of the East Angles Book 1) (9 page)

Chapter Six

Raedwyn
awoke from a deep slumber and had a few moments of reprieve, before reality
came crashing back and emptied over her. She stifled a groan and wished the
oblivion of sleep could have continued indefinitely.

“Sleep
well?”

The voice
in her ear made her stiffen.

“Excellently,
thank you,” she replied coldly.

Ignoring
how warm and safe Caelin’s body felt curled around hers, Raedwyn pushed away
from him and sat up. A misty dawn greeted her; the new day had brought with it
gray skies and a light drizzle. Raedwyn’s cloak was damp and her limbs had
stiffened during the night. She stood awkwardly and flexed her stiff knees and
ankles.

“I feel
like an old woman,” she complained.

“A night
sleeping rough will do that to you,” Caelin replied. He got to his feet and
brushed himself off. Then he reached into the leather pack he carried and
pulled out a loaf of coarse, unleavened bread. He ripped it in two and tossed
half to Raedwyn.

“It isn’t
much as I didn’t have much time to gather provisions.”

Raedwyn
took a hungry bite of the bread. It was stale and heavy as a brick but it
tasted heavenly. She chewed wordlessly as Caelin doused their campfire with
water. Finishing their breakfast, they took a drink from the river before
Caelin filled two bladders with water and passed one to Raedwyn.

“Try to
ration it,” he warned her, “as we’ll be leaving the river now and I don’t think
we’ll cross another before we reach our destination.”

Raedwyn
nodded wordlessly. Caelin was distant this morning; his dark eyes were
unreadable as they brushed hers.

The lack
of sun and the persistent drizzle made them both ill tempered and so they
started their journey without much conversation. Caelin instructed Raedwyn to
walk in front of him so he could keep an eye on her. They turned back on
themselves, not taking the river but striking out into the middle of the
woodland instead.

Raedwyn
pushed her way through wet, spiky undergrowth, and as they travelled she felt
her spirits sink lower and lower. She could only blame herself for this.
Perhaps, she should have been biddable and done as Ceolwulf ordered her. She
had been proud, had thought that since she was of Wuffinga stock she would defy
him as one of her brothers surely would have.

They
rested briefly when the sun was high in the sky; a pallid orb barely visible
through the thick cloud cover. There was no food for a midday
meal so they sat in silence for a short while, sipped some water and rested
their legs. The silence between them was beginning to oppress Raedwyn. She was
not a chatterer but she did like to have a little conversation. Caelin avoided
speaking with her, except when necessary.

“I know
you must think me a stupid woman,” Raedwyn said finally. “My father did overprotect
me and my mother taught me to have an independent spirit. I am unused to being
told what to do and I’m afraid it’s made me foolhardy.”

Caelin
turned to face her and a pained expression passed across his features before he
shook his head.

“We both
know you’re not stupid Raedwyn,” he said softly. “I only said that in anger.
You’re foolhardy perhaps, but certainly not stupid.”

He sighed
then and ran a hand over his face. Raedwyn could feel the tension emanating
from him. “You’re a survivor Raedwyn. Your father would be proud. I’m just
sorry you had to be involved in this bloody feud.”

Caelin got
abruptly to his feet and stretched, shattering the fragile connection between
them.

“Come
Raedwyn, the day wanes and we still have a distance to travel.” He reached down
and grasped her hand, pulling her up next to him. The feel of Caelin’s hand in
hers made Raedwyn’s stomach arch upwards as if she had just jumped off a cliff.
She let go of him, her palm still tingling from his touch and strode off ahead.

“Raedwyn!”
Caelin called after her.

Composing
herself, Raedwyn turned coolly back towards him.

“What?”

“You’re
going the wrong way.”

Caelin
smiled then, his aquiline features softening as he did so. He pointed to the
right of where Raedwyn stood. “We are traveling in that direction.”

***

  The
weather worsened as the day progressed. The drizzle increased to a steady,
drumming rain. It had been a wet summer, and with each hour that passed Raedwyn
cursed the rotten weather that plagued her homeland. Her cloak and skirts were
sodden, dragging her down as she walked. Finally, she was so wet it did not
matter if she got any more soaked, so she pushed back her hood and let the rain
sluice down over her face and hair. She turned her face up to it and found the
steady tattoo of raindrops on her skin oddly relaxing. Raedwyn glanced over her
shoulder at Caelin and saw he too had pushed his hood back. The rain had
plastered his long dark hair against his skull. He blinked water out of his
eyes and gave her a half-smile.

“Enjoying
yourself?”

Raedwyn
threw Caelin a sour look and turned her back on him. She had never felt so
uncomfortable. She was completely soaked. The coarse material chafed against
her skin and her boots squelched with each step.

The light
began to fade in late afternoon, earlier than usual owing to the bad weather,
and Raedwyn wondered how much farther they would have to travel before
Ceolwulf’s camp hove into sight. Then, so suddenly that it made Raedwyn squint
and shield her eyes against the glare, the rain stopped and shafts of sunlight
pierced through the cloud, warming her face. Raedwyn realized then that it was
not as late in the day as she had supposed. The bad weather had cast a shadow
over the world. The surrounding trees sparkled in the late afternoon sun and
steam rose off the ground, creating an ethereal mist that curled like witch’s
hair through the trees.

Moments
later, the trees fell back and Raedwyn walked out onto the edge of wide, flat,
open land. Clumps of brambles and black thorn punctuated the featureless heath
that eventually stretched to a flat horizon.

Raedwyn
turned to Caelin with a frown.

“Where are
we?”

Caelin
stopped beside her and looked around, making sure they were alone.

“The
woodland ends here. To the north stretches open country. Uffid Heath is
directly north-west. Your father should be making camp at the far northern edge
of the Heath as we speak.”

Raedwyn
stared at him, her frown deepening. “Why have you brought me here?”

Caelin
took a deep breath before answering. “You are free to go Raedwyn. You must
hurry for my father’s men will still be searching this area for you.”

“You’re
letting me go?” Raedwyn breathed, scarcely believing him. “But why?”

Caelin
smiled. It was an expression tinged with many emotions, all of them bittersweet.

“I have
tried to fight against it Raedwyn,” he said, his smile slipping slightly, “but
in the end you got the best of me. I cannot take you back to my father for I
know it would be signing your death warrant to do so, and I cannot have your
death on my conscience.”

Raedwyn
stared at him, stunned, before speaking.

“Your
father will kill you for setting me free.”

“Only if
he knows I found you,” Caelin replied, impatience creeping into his voice. “If
I come back empty handed he will be none the wiser. Now go Raedwyn, before I
change my mind. Travel swiftly towards the horizon.”

He pointed
towards to the north-west. “It will be nightfall in a couple of hours.
Hopefully you should reach your father before then.”

Raedwyn
continued to watch Caelin before she stepped forward and gently kissed him on
the lips. Her mouth tingled as she pulled away from him.

“Thank you
Caelin,” she said softly.

He nodded
curtly and backed away from her, his gaze shuttered. “Go!”

Raedwyn
clumsily pulled her sodden hood up over her head while Caelin moved back inside
the trees; a shadowy, cloaked figure watching her.

Raedwyn
turned, not daring to look back at him. She wrapped her cloak around her and
struck out northeast across the heath.

Under the
sheltering boughs of the forest, Caelin watched until Raedwyn’s cloaked form
was nothing but a speck in the distance. When Raedwyn had vanished from sight,
Caelin tore his gaze away from the far horizon and pulled up his hood. With one
last glance at the now empty heathland stretching behind him, Caelin
disappeared into the trees.

***

It was
almost dark when Raedwyn spotted the tents in the distance. Her legs ached and
her feet dragged heavily, but she managed to break into a run. Two warriors
guarding the far edge of the encampment saw her approaching and strode out to
meet her, weapons at the ready. As she drew closer, Raedwyn pushed back her
hood and they gasped in recognition.

“Raedwyn!”

A surge of
relief flooded over Raedwyn – Ceolwulf could no longer reach her. She still could
not believe that Caelin had released her. Raedwyn gave the guards an exhausted
smile and let them lead her towards the encampment.

“Raedwyn!”
Raedwald, King of the East Angles, enfolded his daughter in a bear hug that
nearly suffocated her. Raedwyn finally extricated herself from his embrace and
saw tears brimming in her father’s eyes. Watching him, Raedwyn found she could
not speak for a moment, and when she did, her own eyes overflowed with tears as
she hugged her father again, burying her face in his chest.

“Yes
father, I escaped them.”

“Did they
hurt you?” Raedwald’s voice hardened. “Did any of Ceolwulf’s thugs defile you,
Raedwyn?”

Shocked by
the brutality of the question, Raedwyn drew back and met Raedwald’s suddenly
cold, hard gaze without flinching. “No father.”

Naked
relief flooded across the king’s face.

“How did
you manage to escape?” Eorpwald, his face shining, stepped forward to greet his
sister. Raedwyn awkwardly hugged her older brother, realizing as she did so
that she had not embraced Eorpwald since they were children. Eorpwald seemed
genuinely pleased to see her and Raedwyn realized with a pang that she had
always been overly hard on him. Since childhood, she had made unfavorable
comparisons between her two brothers, and that had been unfair to Eorpwald.

Raedwyn
took a deep breath before answering her brother. Then she told them of her
capture, of Cynric’s death, of Ceolwulf’s settlement deep within the woodland,
and of her escape from Ceolwulf’s hall. The only elements of the story she left
out were Caelin, and her wandering off, lost, in the wrong direction. In her
story she made it appear that she had lost her way before finding it again,
slipped past those tracking her and made her way to where her father camped.

She did
not mention Caelin once.

Raedwald’s
chest puffed out in pride at the conclusion of her tale.

“You are
indeed of Wuffinga descent, dear Raedwyn.” He grinned at her, the lines of care
and grief on his face smoothing out a little. Since her abduction, he had aged
a decade in just a handful of days. His once blond hair was now nearly
completely gray and there were deep grooves either side of his nose and pouches
under his eyes. “You have made your father a proud man this day.”

A fire pit
roared inside her father’s tent and Raedwyn seated herself next to it. She
removed her wet cloak and hung it up to dry. Her gown was sodden, dirty, and
ripped about the hem from trudging through brambles and spiky undergrowth.
However, she had no other clothing to change into. She took off her boots and
put them to dry by the fire. Plump wood pigeons were roasting on a spit and
Raedwyn slowly felt days of accumulated tension fade from her as she sat
quietly sipping a clay mug of mead and listening to her father, brother, uncle
Eni and cousins Annan, Aethelhere and Aethelwold.

They spoke
of the upcoming battle, of tactics and of Ceolwulf’s most likely method of
attack. Raedwyn realized, listening to the Wuffinga men, that Ceolwulf and his
rabble would be hard pushed to defeat her father and his
fyrd
. Raedwyn
focused on her father as he concluded their discussion.

“I want
Raedwyn well away from here long before the battle begins,” Raedwald instructed
the others. “Let her rest a little here and then I want an escort of warriors
to take her back to Rendlaesham.”

“What of
the reinforcements?” Annan spoke up. “Should they still await your orders?”

“Now that
there is no risk to Raedwyn, send word they are to join us at the rear just
after sunrise,” Raedwald ordered.

“You have
more warriors waiting father?” Raedwyn asked, remembering Ceolwulf’s demand
that Raedwald bring two-hundred spears and no more, otherwise her life would be
forfeit.

“Ceolwulf
should know better than to dictate to me,” Raedwald replied, his blue eyes like
two chips of ice. “Another two hundred spears await two leagues north of here.
They have my order to attack after the battle is underway.”