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give his closest friend.
Jim managed a sickly smile.
Chapter 4
It turned out they were taking only fifteen of Malencontri's men-at-arms, as
well as Theoluf, Jim's squire, who necessarily had to go with Jim on an
occasion like this. That made sixteen armed retainers, plus three serving
women, two of them for Geronde from Malvern and one for Angie; so that the
total together with the nine men-at-arms from Brian's castle and the
twenty-five from Malvern made up fifty-three extra mouths that the Earl would
have to feed.
This would have been straining the Earl's hospitality if they had been the
retinue of only a single guest. But altogether they were four such, and
gentlefolk of substance, as well; this many followers could hardly have raised
objections.
Jim had only the few minutes necessary to dress himself in proper clothing
for the ride through the wintry day, together with the chain mail shirt and
other light armor that he wore as Brian did for the trip. His best armor
followed him on a sumpter horse under the control of one of the mounted
men-at-arms.
It was not plate armor, for this was not in general usage here yet; and only
the famous or well-to-do had it men like Sir John Chandos and others around
the King himself. But it was adequate to any demands that the twelve days of
celebration should put upon it, except that Jim lacked one item for the
tournament.
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"But I can lend you a tilting helm!" Brian had said cheerfully as they were
mounting up. "You can have my best helm, since the old one will do very well
for me and indeed I intended to take two because I foresaw I would need to
lend one to Giles."
"You're too good to me," said Jim.
"James!" said Brian with real distress in his voice. "Never say that!"
Jim felt like a dirty dog.
The ride through the wintry day happily it had stopped snowing had been
pleasant and almost invigorating at first. But by the time they had stopped to
eat along the way at mid-day and pushed on through an afternoon in which the
decline of the sun matched the decline of their spirits, they were looking
forward eagerly to the walls and comforts of Edsley Priory.
"I would say," said Brian, as they stopped to breathe their horses after
ascending a long slope through the tangled woods, "we're less than two miles
from it, now. The fare they'll be able to afford us, James, will be lenten,
indeed, because of course it is the fasting season, that ends with Christmas.
But I doubt not that the Lady Angela has added some permissible, but more
pleasant foods to our baggage; and I know Geronde has done so why, what's
amiss?"
He stood up in the stirrups, and Jim imitated him. The woods were thick
enough ahead so that they could see no real distance into them. But their ears
had picked up the sound of a horse galloping back toward them; and a moment
later a mounted man-at-arms came into sight, one of the three that Sir Brian,
whom experience with trouble had taught to take no chances, had sent ahead as
a point-party.
"My Lords!" panted the man-at-arms one of Brian's, whose name Jim could not
remember at the moment pulling his horse to a sliding stop before them. "We
heard a noise off the road to our right; and Alfred, going to see what caused
it, found at a little distance another path coming to meet with our road, and
there a place where a party had been set upon and murdered. He came back to
tell us, I went to see, and we heard again the noise that chilled our
bones the sound we had heard before, like the piping of a bird but there was
none alive there to make. Those dead were a gentleman of some age and a young
lady, two common women and eight men-at-arms. All slain. All plundered."
Angie and Geronde, who had been riding close behind Jim and Brian, and
talking animatedly up until this moment, now crowded their horses forward.
"Tell me about this noise again!" commanded Angie.
"As I said, m'Lady," replied the man-at-arms. "It was like the piping of a
bird, but no living thing "
"I want to see this!" said Angie.
She and Geronde pushed their horses past Jim and Brian and started down the
road.
"Wait, damn it!" shouted Brian, putting his own horse in motion, with Jim
half a second behind him. "I crave pardon, Ladies; but hold you where you
are."
He and Jim had caught up with them now. The two women stopped; and Brian
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turned in his saddle to shout back commands to the squires and men-at-arms
behind them. With a good dozen armed men, following and enclosing Angie and
Geronde, Jim and Brian leading them all, they followed the man-at-arms who had
brought the message up the road and into the woods; and so to the place he had
been talking about.
There, one other of the men-at-arms in the point-party who Jim now belatedly
recognized as the Alfred who had just been mentioned was sitting his horse,
like a sentinel over the scene of destruction. Not only human bodies, but dead
horses, were enclosed in a small open space of snowy ground surrounded by the
trees.
"Have you heard it again that noise?" called Angie, as soon as they broke
into the open space.
The waiting man-at-arms turned to look at her.
"Thrice, m'Lady," he said. "It continued for a little time as long as a man
could with good intent begin the saying of his pater noster. I had got as far
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