Jalia At Bay (Book 4) (7 page)

“We will never hold the doors,” Donal screamed as men held down the logs, which were wedged into the ground and against the doors. The people on the other side were becoming organized and using their strength together. One of the two logs was beginning to splinter under the strain.

“We only have to hold a little longer,” Daniel shouted as he renewed his own efforts to hold the logs in position.

There was a whooshing sound and flames spurted out of the gaps in the shutters of the building. The screams in the building reached a crescendo less than a minute later and then the only sounds they heard were those of the fire.

Daniel and the other men retreated as the heat from the burning building became too intense to stay. Donal, Pender and Walt looked at each other in horror as they realized what they had just done.

“It must have been the torches they took in with them,” Donal said in a dazed voice.

“That or the torch I threw in through the window,” Jalia said cheerfully as she came to stand beside them.

“You planned to do this?” Donal asked in shock.

“You couldn’t have kept so many people prisoners. There were more of them than there were of you. If you let them go, they would have killed you sooner or later. There was simply no choice.” Daniel replied bleakly and with obvious regret.

“You would make a good king, Daniel,” Donal said reflectively. “King Haston Trep was just like that. Capable of making hard decisions without flinching, but knowing exactly what he was doing all the time, and sometimes hating it. Just like you.”

9.
              
Taldon’s Fort

The mood in Sweetwater that night was one of sobriety and more than a little shame as villagers made their way back to their cottages from hiding in the forest. The Lord’s House continued to blaze. As it was some distance from the trees, it was decided to let it burn out rather than risking any lives trying to put it out. Pender and Walt were given the onerous task of keeping an eye on the fire during the night and to give warning should begin to spread.

Jalia and Daniel collected their horses and possessions from where they had left them and spent the night in Donal’s barn. Donal invited them to sleep in the house, but Jalia decided she had lost her possessions once that day and she was going to take no chances that night. She wanted to be close to the horses. It was late in the night before they got to sleep.

Jalia heard Daniel rise with the crowing of the cock. It was lucky for the Drenal’s rooster that Jalia was once again knifeless. As it was, she rolled over and tried to ignore the crowing and get back to sleep. There was plenty of time to begin chasing their missing possessions as they had horses and Jalia was tired out.

It was only when Daniel entered the barn with Donal and began to saddle up Jet and Mallon’s horse that Jalia was forced to stir her bones.

“Are we taking Mallon’s horse? I thought that was Donal’s now.” Jalia asked, stifling a yawn in her open palm.

“It is,” Daniel replied. “There is somewhere Donal and I have to go before we can begin chasing your knives.”

Jalia chucked the blanket off and staggered to her feet. She slept fully clothed, something which was not unusual when they were traveling on the road.

“And where exactly are
We
going?”

“If you are determined to come then you had better saddle up Swift,” Daniel replied, deliberately ignoring Jalia’s question. “There are others coming with us and we need to start soon, because they can’t travel all that fast.”

Jalia made a ‘harrumphing’ sound, not dissimilar to that of a horse. She grabbed hold of the edge of the water trough and plunged her head deep into its cold water. She came up for air and swung her hair from side to side to shake the water from it, soaking Daniel in the process.

“There’s food waiting for you in the house. Kayla has prepared cooked meat and bread,” Daniel told her, ignoring his unplanned shower. Kayla was Donal’s wife. She and her daughter, Attala, had been up since Daniel woke Donal that morning.

“Don’t you dare try and leave without me,” Jalia warned as she left the barn to break her fast.

“Do I look as if I want to be castrated?” Daniel shouted after her.

“I thought that you didn’t want Jalia coming with us?” Donal enquired. He didn’t understand Daniel and Jalia’s relationship at all.

“There was never any possibility of Jalia staying behind,” Daniel explained as he tightened the cinch on Jet and moved over to begin saddling Jalia’s horse. “But by doing it this way, she won’t grumble too much when she discovers Dell will be coming with us.”

When Jalia walked out of the Donal’s cottage, she found a small wagon waiting. It was pulled by one of the Taldon horses they had captured. Jalia frowned when she saw it was being driven by Malda and that her son Dell sat alongside her with his left leg in tied up in splints.

“Thank you for sparing my life, Lady Jalia,” Dell said humbly before Jalia could utter a word. “I will not let you down again.”

“You’d better not,” Jalia grumbled, speaking more to herself than to the boy. She ignored the two of them and walked into the barn, planning to have an important word with Daniel, perhaps even four important words.

“What is going on?” Jalia demanded. He turned to her and found her standing, legs apart, blocking his path.

“We have to go to Taldon’s Fort and free the slaves there. Not to mention deciding what to do about the Taldon children.”

“And why are Dell and his mother coming, if I might ask?”

“I will ignore that question and assume you are still half-asleep,” Daniel told her with a grin. He sidestepped her and unhitched their horses, leading them out into the morning sun.

Donal, who looked very embarrassed, led Mallon’s horse out after Daniel. When Jalia stared hard at him, he dropped his eyes to look at the ground. Jalia stomped out of the barn ready to kill anyone who dared to say a word out of turn.

Jalia kept her horse well to the rear of the procession as they made their way out of the village. Kayla and her two children watched them go anxiously, worried for Donal’s safety. The rest of the village seemed to have heard they were leaving as many of them came out to watch silently as the horses and the cart went past. Jalia glanced over her shoulder at the Lord’s House, which still smoldered. The wall still standing fell inwards, sending sparks leaping into the air.

It was only when the village was out of sight that Jalia stopped Swift and banged her forehead hard with her hand.

“I’m such an idiot.”

She sent Swift into a canter to draw level with Daniel and Donal who were leading the procession.

“Dell is Mallon’s heir, isn’t he?” she asked Daniel.

“He was from the moment you killed Adon.”

“You are going to use Dell to get into the fort,” Jalia stated with evident satisfaction.

“We think they only left behind their children, but there might still be the odd adult around. However, the Fort is pretty well impregnable, so we need to get whoever is there to let us in.”

“That’s pretty cunning,” Jalia said. “Hanging around me is beginning to have some effect on you at last.”

Jet chose that moment to lift his head and snort as if in derision. Daniel tried hard to keep a straight face and chose to say nothing at all.

Jalia and Daniel were impressed as they rode along the raised road towards the fort. Donal had explained the layout of the fort, but it is one thing to be told something and quite another to experience it for yourself.

“It would require a large army to take this place,” Jalia said as they approached the gate.

“Only if you have enough defenders,” Daniel said. “If they didn’t, then an attack from several sides would allow the enemy to get a force over the wall.”

“The trouble with that plan is that all your other men get killed providing the diversion.”

“I never said it would be easy.”

“Go away!” a child’s voice shouted from the top of the wall. It wasn’t clear if the child was too short to be seen or was ducking down. Either way, Daniel and Jalia could see no one from where they were.

Dell rose to his feet and swore as pain shot up his leg.

“I am Dell Taldon, and I know you Hala Taldon. My uncle Adon introduced us. Mallon Taldon is dead, as are all those who came last night to attack Sweetwater. I am your clan leader now.”

There was no response for several seconds. Then a large lump of cow dung flew over the wall missing Dell by only a few inches.

Jalia leaned over towards Daniel and whispered softly to him, “This plan of yours is going well so far.”

“Hala, your parents are dead. Who are you going to turn to if not your clan chief.”

“Don’t believe you,” another child’s voice shouted over the wall.

“That’s Pald, isn’t it?” Dell said, showing an aptitude for recognizing voices that was beginning to impress Daniel and Jalia. “If you stick your head over the wall you will see that Donal is riding Mallon’s horse. If that doesn’t convince you, look at the horse pulling the cart.”

For the first time, Daniel and Jalia saw the children’s heads poke over the top of the wall.

“We saw the smoke from burning fires. Mallon burnt your village down,” the girl, Hala, told Dell. She looked to be about twelve years old.

“No, that was our Lord’s House. Mallon and the clan were in it when it caught fire,” Dell explained gently. “Open the gate, Hala, you can’t run the fort on your own.”

“Haf, Lina, open the gate,” Hala said in a choking voice. Nothing happened for long moments.

“We’ll have to go and help them, Hala,” Pald said a few seconds later. “Lina and Haf aren’t strong enough to lift the bar.”

It was several minutes later that the left gate opened a crack. Daniel got down from Jet and helped the children pull one of the heavy wooden gates open.

The gate opened to reveal two pre-teen children, and a girl and boy even younger. Jalia and Donal rode into the compound while Daniel followed on foot.

“Is this all the clan children?” Jalia asked in surprise. “Are there no babies or toddlers?”

“This is all of us,” Hala Taldon said haughtily. “The Taldon’s do not breed like rabbits”

“The population is shrinking everywhere in Jalon,” Daniel remarked to no one in particular. “Couples barely replace themselves these days.”

“It sounds like the people of Jalon are getting more intelligent to me,” Jalia said tartly. “All right you miniature Taldons. Where do you keep the slaves?”

Malda drove the small cart through the gates with Dell sitting in his seat next to her. He looked white, as all the blood had drained from his face and he was about to faint. Standing up had taken the strength out of him. The four children said nothing and looked towards Dell for instructions.

“Where did the adults lock up the servants, Hala?” Dell asked.

“They are in the dungeons, of course.” Hala sniffed disdainfully. “Where else would Mallon lock up his stinking whores?”

Jalia leapt off Swift and slapped Hala so hard across the face that she flew to the ground and started crying.

“They are not whores, because they had no choice,” Jalia told the child, angry words dripping out like venom. “We could sell you into slavery or give you to the men of Sweetwater to use. What would that make you?”

“She knows no better,” Daniel said softly.

“Then she had better start learning fast, if she wants to carry on living.”

“Peasant bitch!”

Daniel stepped between the child and Jalia before Jalia could kill the girl.

“Dell, take care of your clan while you still have some left.” Daniel stepped sideways with Jalia, making it clear that she would have to go through him to get at the girl.

“Hala, you will be whipped for your words,” Dell shouted, trying to defuse the situation. “Apologize to Lady Jalia at once, or you will get far worse than a mere whipping.”

Hala stared defiantly at Dell who stared back at her equally strongly. It was Hala who looked away first.

“I apologize, Lady Jalia,” Hala said without a hint of contrition in her voice.

Jalia clenched her fists and looked into Daniel’s eyes.

“Let it go, Jalia. The slaves have probably been locked up for almost a day without food or water. They should be our concern.”

Jalia turned away and remounted her horse in one smooth motion. She kicked Swift into action and rode towards the buildings at the top of the hill.

“Punish the girl so she never forgets how close she came to death just now,” Daniel instructed Dell before swinging into Jet’s saddle and riding after Jalia.