Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (11 page)

“
You will relieve Harlech
with men and supplies from the sea,” Dad said.

David stared at him. “You want me to handle
the baggage? Not even to fight?”

“
There will be plenty of
fighting to go around before the end, and you know it,” Dad
said.

Goronwy was glancing worriedly from David to
his father. He cleared his throat and changed course. “We don’t
know the full extent of Madog’s plan, sire. It might be to draw you
from your seats of power, leaving Rhuddlan, Aber, and Dolwyddelan
vulnerable.”

“
We will ride through
Gwynedd, and anyone who opposes us will be swept away,” Dad said.
“I’ve done it before.”

“
I know,” David said, and
then shut his mouth on the rest of what he wanted to say before the
conversation turned into a real argument. He would use the time
between here and Caernarfon, where their forces would have to part,
to dig a little deeper. David had fought in plenty of battles—with
his father and without him. David sensed there was more to this
decision than his father’s worry about his dotage or David’s
safety.

Dad nodded and turned to look at the map
tacked to the wall. Math had opened his mouth to speak or argue,
but David shook his head to stop him. “I’m just visiting, and for
all that I am a prince of Wales, I know Gwynedd far less well than
he. We’ll let it go for now.”

Math chewed on his lower lip, clearly
wanting to continue the conversation, but then he nodded. He and
Goronwy stepped to Dad’s side to look at the map with him. Carew,
Justin, and Samuel remained behind. Both Samuel and Justin spoke
and understood Welsh, but David could hear them analyzing the plan
in English.

Carew spoke low to David. “It isn’t the best
use of you. Anyone could sail from Criccieth to Harlech.”

“
I know that.”

“
For us to have just heard
of Madog’s coming today, he must have force-marched his men through
night and day,” Carew said. “With two castles already taken and
Harlech under siege, Madog will have had to split his force. And
his men will be tired.”

David glanced to where his father was
discussing the disposition of men with Math and Goronwy. “I won’t
say you’re wrong.”

Carew pressed his lips together as if he,
too, wanted to discuss this more, but then he tipped his head
towards the map, silently suggesting that they look at it with the
others.

David decided to pretend that their
disagreement hadn’t happened. “Tudur, Clare, and Wynod should see
about putting pressure on Rhys from the south.” Tudur was all the
way in the southeast corner of Wales at Chepstow, but if Rhys took
a few more castles, Tudur might find his lands threatened too. “If
Rhys thinks he can send his sons up here to help Madog take what
isn’t his, then he should face some of the consequences of his
actions at Dryslwyn.”

“
I should have deprived
Rhys of all his lands long ago,” Dad said.

“
You were making peace out
of war at a time you could afford to be magnanimous,” Goronwy said.
“You gave Dinefwr and Carreg Cennan to Wynod, a gift for which Rhys
has never forgiven you. That, however, is his problem, not
yours.”

Dad growled, “It’s my problem now.”

Math, meanwhile, traced the road leading to
Harlech with one finger. “If I ride south from here, through the
standing stones at Bwlch y Ddeufaen, and swing west to Dolwyddelan,
gathering men to me as I come, I can meet you at Maentwrog in two
days’ time.”

“
I will count on your
coming.” Dad waved a dismissive hand, which all of the others took
to indicate that they should depart, leaving David alone with his
father. Dad moved to sit behind the table. Maybe he had meant to
dismiss David too, but David didn’t go.

And then David laughed inwardly. Nobody
dismissed him anymore. He left only when he wanted to. He didn’t
share the thought with his father, who was in a foul mood.

David pulled one of the chairs beside Dad’s
desk closer and sat in it, his elbows on his thighs and his head
down. He was suddenly exhausted, which wouldn’t do at all. They had
a long way still to go tonight.

“
Son.”

The word was heavy with meaning. Maybe even
with a bit of an apology on Dad’s part. David sat back in the chair
with his elbows on the arms and his hands folded in front of his
lips, looking at his father over them.

“
You look just like me when
you sit like that,” Dad said.

David didn’t move, glad to hear the
affection in his father’s voice. “I’m concerned that Madog’s plan
is about more than the taking of a few castles. You are concerned
about it too.”

“
Valence haunts you still,
two years on. Not everybody is as intelligent as he was.” Dad
tucked his cloak closer around himself. The fire was dying, but no
servant would dare to enter to stoke it if it meant interrupting
this meeting.

“
I don’t deny it.” David
rose to his feet and tossed a few more logs on the fire.

“
Valence was in a class
above Madog, who is ten years older than you and still untested.”
Dad looked David up and down. “Scrawny too, in
comparison.”

“
It is my experience that
intelligence and size can be inversely proportional.”

Dad chuckled. “I have no idea what you just
said. I can tell you that Madog has had to borrow men from Rhys.
He’s a tool, nothing more, getting his hands dirty so Rhys doesn’t
have to.”

“
What about Rhys?” David
said.

Dad made a face that
said
maybe.
“We can
guess what else might happen tomorrow or next week, but we must
address what faces us today. Quickly. I told the hall that we were
prepared for this war and had a plan, but the truth is that Madog
has caught us on the hop.”

“
You only half lied,” David
said. “We do have a plan. We just hadn’t come up with it
yet.”

Dad tipped back his head and laughed. “Oh,
how I’ve missed you, son.” Then he sobered. “I still think what I
said earlier today is true: this war could be a blessing in
disguise.”

“
You mean my plan to create
a united Britain?” David said.

“
It begins here,” Dad said.
“When we crush Madog and Rhys, we show every lord in England and
Wales that what happened to Valence was not a one-time thing—that
you and I are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the peace and
maintain the unity of our country.” He gazed at David through a
count of ten. “And then, if all goes well, we give our power
away.”

Chapter Seven

November 2019

Anna

W
hile Mom seemed so calm and matter-of-fact about the time
traveling thing and Anna was trying to follow her lead, it wasn’t
really working. Her initial adrenaline had carried her through
their arrival and down the hill to the road. It had been cold
outside, but Anna hadn’t realized that she was frozen all the way
through until Star handed her a blanket and Jim turned the heater
on high.

She’d sat in the back of Jim’s truck and
shivered—with fear and anticipation and the shock at having
survived the bout with time travel at all. The whole day kept
playing like a movie reel in her mind. She still hadn’t come to
terms with Marty’s betrayal, much less their arrival in Oregon,
followed by the sudden appearance of Cassie and Callum.

Anna wanted Math. She wanted her boys. For
the first time, Anna truly understood what it must have been like
for Mom when Aunt Elisa called to tell her that Anna and David were
missing. It was as if fate had ripped out Mom’s heart, thrown it
onto the floor, and stomped on it. Mom had been forced to live
alone for a year and a half. It must have been unbearable. And yet,
she’d had to bear it. Anna wanted to be as strong as her mother,
but she didn’t know that she could be.

Anna looked to the front of the truck where
Mom had found a seat between Art and Callum. Anna was in the back
with Cassie, who’d given Anna her gloves, but Anna’s hands still
weren’t warm, and she tucked them between her thighs. Art started
the truck and drove away from the store—in total silence. After the
initial rush of joy at being reunited, none of them knew what to
say to each other. Anna certainly didn’t.

Cassie and Anna hadn’t spent as much time
together as Anna would have liked. Callum was the Earl of
Shrewsbury and David’s advisor, which meant that he traveled a lot.
Because Cassie was married to Callum, she traveled with him. It had
been more than two years since David had returned to the Middle
Ages without them, and Anna was a little worried that Cassie might
have become a different person.

But then Cassie glanced at Anna, her eyes
bright, and Anna knew it was going to be okay. “How have you been?”
the two women said together.

Everyone laughed, and the tension
evaporated. Anna rested her head back against the seat.

“
Tell us how you got here,”
Cassie said.

Art drove down a long, straight road while
Mom related the events of the afternoon so far.

Cassie squeezed Anna’s hand. “You must have
been terrified!”

“
I was,” Anna said. “Even
so, I’m sorry Marty died. If he’d been able to hold on to me, he
would have come with us.”

“
You’re a very nice person,
Anna,” Mom said. “I would never have wished him dead, but I’m still
too angry at him to mourn him.”

“
From your description of
what he did to you, Meg,” Callum said, “he’d become a better man in
Scotland than he’d ever been before.”

“
Maybe he’s not dead,”
Cassie said.

“
He fell from the top of a
tower at Rhuddlan,” Mom said. “I can’t see anyone surviving the
fall.”

“
And then there was that
scream he let out,” Anna said. “Do you think one of the archers got
him, Mom?”

Mom shrugged, but she turned in her seat and
caught Anna’s eye. Yeah, she thought so too.

“
Happy Thanksgiving,”
Cassie said, deadpan.

Mom turned back to face the front. “Is that
what brought you two to Oregon?”

“
We’ve come every year
since we came back to this world,” Cassie said. “Given what’s going
on with our jobs, it seemed especially important to be here this
year.”

“
Your jobs?” Mom said.
“David is going to want to know all about what happened after he
left.”

“
Good things happened at
first,” Callum said. “If you’d arrived a year ago, you would have
found a very different situation from what faced you and
Llywelyn—and David too. Unfortunately, with recent budget
cuts—

“—
my job ends December
1
^st
,”
Cassie put in.

“—
we’ve been trying to come
up with a way to still be here for you when you needed us even if
we’ve been sacked,” Callum finished.

Anna leaned forward. “What
exactly are you talking about? What do budget cuts have to do with
our
traveling
?”

Callum shifted in his seat so he could look
at Mom and Anna at the same time and gave a two minute summary of
what had happened to him and Cassie after David returned to the
medieval world.

“
You wouldn’t believe what
it took to bring me to life again, legally speaking. It was only
all resolved—” Cassie glanced at Callum, “—what, nine months
ago?”

Callum nodded.

Art hadn’t said a word the whole drive, but
he spoke now. “Now that your friends are here, if you disappear
again, I won’t let anyone declare you dead.”

Cassie froze, and Anna took a moment to
absorb that comment. It meant that Callum and Cassie might want to
return to the Middle Ages with them when they went.

“
Thank you, Grandfather,”
Cassie said softly. Callum’s arm had been lying along the top edge
of the front seat behind Mom’s head, and he moved his hand so he
could grasp Cassie’s hand.

“
I’m sorry your jobs
haven’t worked out,” Mom said.

Cassie shrugged. “Your appearance today may
change everything.”

Mom frowned. “Are we going to find MI-5
agents beating down the door?”

“
At the moment, Mark Jones
is the only agent who knows you’re here,” Callum said.

“
We’re hoping it stays that
way,” Cassie said.

“
But how long we can keep
it a secret, I don’t know,” Callum said. “Our colleagues in the CIA
pulled out a year ago. They may have their own people on this, but
if they continued the Project, they did it without telling
us.”

“
The CIA can’t work inside
the United States,” Anna said.

Callum gave her a completely blank look.

“
That’s—that’s the law,
right?” Anna said.

Cassie gave a brief laugh that was more of a
scoff. “I’m not sure we can count on strict adherence to the law.
Your arrival here would be counted as one of those ‘drop
everything’ events if Callum’s office had anything to drop.”

“
But you’re right,” Callum
said. “Neither the CIA, MI-5, nor my office have jurisdiction
inside the United States. I have no authority to act, either to
take you in or to let you go.”

“
That’s convenient,” said
Mom.

“
It is, isn’t it?” Cassie
grinned. “It means we are currently acting as concerned citizens
only, helping friends in need. Whether Callum would be remiss in
not reporting your presence is something that he can debate with
his boss when we get back to Wales.”