Darkest Knight Read Free Page B

dissipated as worry took its place. Had Archie also betrayed the location of their camp? The king’s soldiers would kill everyone under his care. It annoyed him to ask this man for anything, but he needs know.
    “Will any of my men be joining me?”
    The constable turned around, and the grin on his face made John clench his fists.
    “Archie was verra talkative. By now the king’s men will have destroyed your wicked camp in the wood. Orders were clear. Kill them all.”
    Eyes blazing, the rage in his belly warming him, John swore viciously. “I will see every one of them dead.”
    The man sneered at him. “No, you’ll be dead. Seems you won’t be staying with us long. Lord Denby has the ear of the king, and you will die three days from now.”
    John swore in every language he knew. He cared not for his own life, but with the knowledge he was responsible for so many deaths, he would never forgive himself.

Chapter Five

    This morn, like every one since John arrived at the tower, he woke to the sound of metal scraping against metal. The guards banging on the bars with a metal cup as if they were all animals in a cage. At least his gold provided a warm meal. The routine was monotonous, and John took to marking a line on the wall each day. The constable was misinformed. For he did not die in three days. No, he bided his time, waiting for the king’s pleasure to give the order. More likely Denby was the cause.
    After a se’nnight, John was weary of the dull days. When the heard the keys, he stood waiting, pulling his cloak around him. He would not grant Denby the satisfaction of hearing he had taken ill with fever.
    “Rabbie. What are you doing here?”
    The boy waited until the guard retreated down the corridor before he spoke. The lad tried to be brave, but his eyes leaked, the anguish on his face warning John of terrible news.
    “Gone. They are gone.”
    Fear dug its claws into his heart. “Who is gone?”
    “Soldiers came. So many. They burned our home.” He hiccupped. “They killed everyone. Even the babes.”
    The boy met his gaze, and John had the feeling he was looking into the eyes of an old man.  
    Rabbie whispered, more to himself than to John, “They killed Magda. She was tending the sick. Soldiers chained the door and fired the hut.” He dried his face on a dirty, torn sleeve.
    “I’ve never heard such screams. ’Twas awful.”
    A blade sliced through John’s battered heart. Magda had been with him from the beginning. ’Twas she who found him wandering in the wood, half-dead after being attacked by a group of bandits. He could no more imagine a world in which she did not take breath as he could believe the sky green and the grass blue. Silently, John vowed he would avenge her. In this life or the next. He handed the boy a cup of ale.
    “They will be missed. Tell me how you escaped?”
    Rabbie sniffled. “I’d gone fishing for supper. I heard the screams and smelled the fire. I hid like you taught us.”
    The wretched look on the boy’s face must look like his own, John thought. He laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
    “’Twas the right course. The soldiers would have cut you down. Know I will avenge our people.”
    Rabbie looked at him with hope in his eyes. “Do ye have a plan to escape? I can help.”
    The boy looked around to make sure they were unobserved. Then he reached behind him down the back of his breeches. He grunted and pulled out a cloth-covered bundle. When he opened it, John saw the pouch within. He stifled a chuckle.
    “Nasty guards searched me but didn’t find it.”  
    John opened the bag, the gold gleaming in the candlelight.
    “You did well.” John placed the bundle within his cloak. He could use it to bribe one of the guards. At eight years old, the boy had seen a lifetime of tragedy, and yet he was as brave as a warrior.
    “I would have died if you hadn’t saved me when I was a babe. There must be a way to rescue you from the tower. To repay you for all you