The Robber Knight's Secret

19. The Walls of Jericho

Ayla stood on the walkway of the outer wall, watching the doom of her people slowly rise into the sky. It was a dark, cloudy night and not much natural light fell on the land, but the entire enemy camp was ablaze with torches. Especially the area around the trebuchet was literaly burning with activity. Ayla supposed what she saw were hundreds of tiny people hurrying in a circle around the giant siege weapon, carrying building material or ammunition. However, from up here, it looked like nothing so much as a great, malignant eye with a glowing iris and a pupil lit with hellfire.

In the middle of the hellish eye stood the trebuchet. It was so high now, it didn't look like a spiderweb anymore, but like an insect itself, sitting patient, waiting to strike.

And strike it would. Soon.

"They're not going to make it in time," she whispered, terrified at how weak and thin her voice sounded up here in the cold air. "That thing is going to smash us to pieces."

"Milady, d-don't s-say such things," Dilli protested. The maid stood beside her mistress, shivering in the cold night wind in spite of her thick woolen cloak, eyeing the sheer drop beyond the wall with trepidation. Ayla knew that Dilli wasn't comfortable with being up here, at the very highest point of the outer wall. That her maid and best friend had come all the same warmed Ayla's heart. And her heart needed all the warmth it could get right now. Most of it was filled with ice-cold dread at the thought where Reuben was at this moment, what he was doing, or worse, what was being done to him.

"Why not?" she asked softly. "It is true."

Reuben fighting alone among hundreds of enemy soldiers... Reuben in chains, at the mercy of the Margrave, Reuben being led to the executioner... The images kept dancing past her inner eye in an endless dance of death.

Stop it! she chastised herself. You are the lady of Luntberg, not some lovelorn fool or a child, cowering in a corner. What would he say if he saw you like this?

That thought sent a jolt through her. She knew without a doubt what Reuben would say. He would not be touched, would not be glad that she was going to pieces because she was afraid for him. Oh, some part of him might be—the part that was too busy being in love with her to care about anything else. But the part of him that was rough and tough and ruthless, the part of him that made him the red robber knight, wouldn't be touched at all. That Reuben would tell her to get off her ass and do something.

Yes. He would definitely use the word "ass." And probably a few curses too. Ayla knew the thought should have made her cringe in horror, but for some reason, it made her smile.

She felt her spine stiffen with resolution.

"Gather the women and children."

It took a moment for Ayla to realize that the words had come out of her own mouth. Dilli needed a moment longer. She blinked at her mistress, taken aback.

"Milady?"

"You heard what I said. The women and children. Call them together. Now!"

"What... up here, Milady?" Incredulously, Dilli looked around at the narrow walkway.

"No, of course not! I want them in the inner castle courtyard, in front of the keep. Tell Captain Linhart to search the castle and bring all of them there."

Dilli, still perplexed, but showing obvious relief at the fact that she would be getting off the wall, dipped a hasty curtsey. "Yes, of course, Milady."

"And get Burchard, too. Tell him I want him there yesterday!"

"As you wish, Milady. But... if I may ask, why?"