The Cerberus Rebellion (A Griffins & Gunpowder Novel) (13 page)

A small fleet sat at anchor in the bay. Fifteen swift corvettes, six schooners, five sloops, and five frigates were arranged on the outside of the harbor. Between them and the city sat two dozen merchant ships, huge and slow. The fleet had rolled their sails against the brisk wind and Hadrian could just make out the tiny cutters that carried men and supplies between the ships and the docks.

Those ships would carry his soldiers and the soldiers of twelve other nobles to Aetheston, to satisfy their king’s summons. A tent city had gone up on the slopes around the fortress as more than one hundred thousand troops had encamped around Strong Castle.

More ships were expected within a fortnight.

Hadrian pulled his cloak in tighter around his shoulders, adjusted the griffin head brooch that held it in place, and exhaled a white plume of breath. He rubbed his unshaven jaw and turned back toward the castle’s yard.

The hamlet of Fallcrest could be seen from the western ramparts, a bustling port famous for its spice market and expansive deep water docks. Strong Castle was a modest fortress, perched on a two hundred-foot cliff above the city that it had been built to protect.

The castle’s outer ramparts had been cut from the cliff’s thick gray stone; they were eighteen feet thick and stood eighty feet tall. As castles went, the fortress was oddly shaped. The two sides that faced the cliffs, west and south, were straight. The north and east sides curved from the north end of the western wall to the east end of the southern wall. Round towers marked the ends of the curved wall and a curved gatehouse provided entry to the inner keep.

The castle itself was cut from the creamy marble that had brought the first settlers to the area. Surrounded by a moat, accessible only by a drawbridge, and the main gatehouse, it stood one hundred feet tall, a square directly in the center of the castle. A small path encircled the moat on the outside and led from the stairs to the drawbridge. Hundreds of guards paced the walls and dozens milled about in the gatehouse.

The inner keep was already a nest of activity as hundreds of stewards, maids and pages scrambled about the castle on the business of their various lords. The nobles had been given quarters in the keep and they had each brought a contingent of guards and servants.

Passing the kitchens, Hadrian smelled brewing coffee, fresh honey bread in the oven, and bacon frying in huge pans. His mouth watered and he turned toward the meal hall.

Where the passages were a flurry of chaotic activity, the meal hall was the epitome of quiet and order. Tall windows in the east wall and lanterns on the other three bathed the room in golden light. The sigils of House Strong and his three honored guests hung at the back of the hall.

A dozen long tables had been arranged on the north and south sides of the hall, with long benches set behind them. Three nobles, seated by importance, sat behind the head table on a raised dais against the west wall. Another four sat at the table directly in front of the dais.

Baron Haldane Strong sat at the center of the high table, as was his place as Lord of the Keep. Though younger than Raedan by a few years, he looked older.

Earl Arnold Croft of Garroway sat three spaces down from Strong, on his left. He was short, pale and fat. He laughed at something Haldane had said, but the mirth never reached his cold blue-gray eyes.

Cedric McKinley sat to Arnold Croft’s left. Two empty plates were around him and a third plate of food was in front of him. He didn’t appear to be involved in any of the conversations that were being carried on by the other nobles.

Lord Stanley Cobern, Baron of Mantyre, Darrik Blackmer, Baron Black River, and Edgar Woff, Baron Great Bridge, sat with Raedan.

“
My Lords,” Hadrian announced as he strode across the marble floor. The gathered nobles looked up from their conversations and greeted him. He took the stairs to the dais in two long strides and found his seat, four spaces to the right of Haldane.

His placement on the dais with the dukes and earls had caused some complaints among the other barons, especially those with territories that were wealthier or more populated than his own. But Hadrian would soon be the lord of two baronies and control as much land as several of Ansgar’s earls.

“
Earl Chadburn’s train arrived in the night,” Haldane Strong said. Slayton Norwich was the last of the nobles expected to arrive overland. “And there was a signal from Fort Morden an hour ago: Lord Seward’s fleet has entered the bay.”

“
Excellent.” Hadrian put some bacon and honey bread on his plate and waved to a steward. “Eggs, please. Four of them.”

“
Yes, milord.” The steward bowed and disappeared through one of the hall’s side doors.

“
There isn’t enough forage to host this many soldiers,” Hadrian noted. He poured himself a horn of mead and took a sip. Sweet honey.

“
Indeed,” Darrik Blackmer agreed. “And there are more soldiers arriving every hour. The latest estimates put our force at one hundred and fifty thousand. With those coming by sea, we’ll be close to three hundred thousand.”

“
Mostly the soldiers from the duchies,” Hadrian said. “I was told that Lord Seward called his full levies as well. Ninety thousand soldiers.”

“
And Lord Ridley only brought a fourth of his full levies,” Haldane pointed out. “Though I wonder why he bothered with anything more than his personal guard. We’ll need to sail by White Ridge on our way to Aetheston. He could have left them there to wait.”

“
I’m sure Lord Ridley wants to make a show of his contributions,” Cedric said. “He is barely a man and the opinion of his peers likely weighs upon him.”

It likely weighs less than you,
Hadrian thought.

A boom interrupted Hadrian as the doors were flung open by a pair of guards.

The Dukes Dalton Croutcher and Preston Ridley strode in, a throng of nobles behind them. Raedan loomed massive among the smaller men around him.

Jerren Weston, Rodger Fletcher, Trevyn Barton and Austen Towles, Claybourne Blakely, Tristen Burkes, and Spencer Alvey, barons all, followed behind their liege lords in a cluster.

“
My Lords,” Preston Ridley said by way of greeting to the gathered nobles. At just nineteen years old, he was a shadow of a man. He sat to Lord Strong’s right, the place of highest honor.

The Duke of White Ridge stood a pair of inches shorter than Raedan but had none of the mass of the Clyves; it was a joke among his servants that he resembled an elf more than a man. His fair skin was marked by a thick batch of freckles and he had the wisp of a mustache growing on his upper lip. His large, light blue eyes betrayed both his intelligence and his inexperience.

His father had not been loved by all of his nobles and lesser lords, but the nobles sworn to other duchies had come to respect the wildly successful merchant duke. His territories had seen an unprecedented increase in trade volume and the territories that swore allegiance to him had benefited from the trade agreements that he had secured.

“
Earl Chadburn will be joining us shortly,” Dalton promised. He sat to the left of Baron Strong. “His train arrived very early this morning. We expect Lord Seward and his remaining lords will be here by midday.”

“
Then we can get underway?” Cedric asked. By the looks on the faces around him, he was not the only hopeful person.

“
We will make our arrangements once Lord Seward arrives,” Dalton said. “But the plan is to move within the week.”

“
Good. My men grow weary of waiting,” Cedric said brashly.

“
I’m sure that everyone wants to get underway as soon as possible,” Dalton agreed. “But we’ll not move without a plan.”

A tone in Dalton’s voice that caught Hadrian’s attention. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but a quick glance at Raedan told him that he wasn’t the only person who had heard it.

The servants poured into the hall with more trays of sizzling bacon, flagons of honey mead and sweet wine, and loaves of honey bread. Plates of eggs were brought to those nobles that requested them and sausages were soon ordered as well.

Hadrian carried on a conversation with Dalton, mostly about Raedan’s arrangements to marry Earl Garroway’s daughter. The tone in his liege lord’s voice was a concern that sat in the back of his mind as they talked until he could stand no more of it.

“
You’re hiding something,” Hadrian whispered. His voice was so low that Dalton could hardly hear him.

“
I am,” Dalton confessed. He took a long drink of his mead. “But all will be revealed when Lord Seward and his nobles arrive.”

“
Why did you wait so long?” Hadrian was confused and insulted. He had held himself as one of Dalton’s closest friends and advisors.

“
It’s not a personal slight,” Dalton said quickly. “We told no one of our plans. You will see why.”

“
I see.”

A dozen ideas raced through Hadrian’s head as he slowly drained another horn of mead. None of the thoughts had any solid evidence, at least as far as he knew. If the dukes of Western Ansgar had something planned, it would not have been planned in the short time since the arrival of the King’s Summons. It would have to be something that they had been planning for a long time. The recent events would only be a trigger, or had merely quickened their actions.

Hadrian’s thoughts wandered to the massive encampments around Arndell. Dalton could have called his full levies from the population of his largest city, but it would require nearly every able-bodied man to answer the call. A city the size of Arndell could not sustain the loss of every man of fighting age, not even for the time it would take for the rest of the soldiers to be summoned. Which meant that Dalton had called his full levies before the message from the King had reached him.

“
A word, brother?” Raedan asked. His eyes were insistent.

“
Of course,” Hadrian said and turned to Dalton. “With your leave, Your Grace?”

“
By all means.” Dalton waved a hand dismissively. But his suspicious eyes gave lie to his casual attitude.

Raedan led Hadrian through one of the small doors on the side of the room. Once on the other side, he slid the bolt into place and looked down the passage to ensure they were alone.

“
They’re hiding something,” Hadrian said before Raedan had a chance to ask. “From the way Dalton said it, it’s a pact between the dukes only. No one else knows.”

“
I don’t like this,” Raedan told him. A trace of panic flashed in his younger brother’s eyes. “We were told to attend today’s meetings without our advisors or guards or lesser lords.”

“
I noticed that condition as well,” Hadrian said. The nobles held the ability to have their guards with them at all times as a fundamental right of their titles. To have that right refused was both unusual and alarming. “I’m sure that there is a good reason for the exclusion of our advisors and guards. We’ll just have to wait for Lord Seward to arrive.”

“
I’m going to make preparations, just in case,” Raedan said. He fingered the onyx stone in his heavy amulet.

“
Just don’t do anything too direct,” Hadrian implored. He fell silent at the sound of heavy footsteps.

"Ah, the famous Lords Clyve.” Slayton Norwich’s thick white cloak flapped behind him as he strode around the corner.

The earl was one of the few nobles of Ansgar who could claim that they were taller than Raedan. House Norwich had intermarried with noble houses from Nordahr, Beldane and Steimor more than any other house in Ansgar. He was older than Hadrian by several years but had not so far been afflicted with gray hairs.

“
I hope that your journey was uneventful?” Hadrian asked with a smile. He and Raedan bowed slightly. “I had heard there were storms.”

“
Some wind, some snow,” Slayton confirmed. Hadrian stepped in front of the door; Raedan slid the bolt out of the lock. “Has the gathering started already?”

“
We are expecting Lord Seward’s ships by midday. Once he and the last of his nobles arrive, we are to get started,” Hadrian announced. “Do you have any ideas as to why we’ve gathered here?”

“
I had thought it was to enjoy the scenery,” Slayton said with a smile. Hadrian was not amused. “Fallcrest has the most extensive deep water harbor on the main rail lines between Arndell and Aetheston. White Ridge has larger ports, but the rail lines aren’t as well-kept and you would have to circle around the mountains to get to the city. And I supposed the dukes want to get us all on the same page before we go before the King. Make sure that we all know what they intend to do.”

“
As if there is much choice in that.” Raedan shook his head.

“
I suppose we’ll have to wait until midday.” Slayton breathed deeply. “Is that bacon?”

***

By the time Lord Putnam Seward, Protector of the Southern Shore and Duke of Sea Watch, arrived at Strong Castle, half of the nobles gathered in the great hall were drunk. And several of them had fallen asleep in their chairs.

The duke’s arrival was unannounced and uncelebrated. He and the last of his nobles strode into the hall an hour before midday. They still wore the thick cloaks and woolen clothes that had kept them warm through the brisk winds of the bay.

Putnam Seward was a few years older than Raedan and a hand shorter. Gray had crept into his short orange hair at the temples and had spread to his thick beard. His dark brown eyes were cold and humorless.