Conquer the Night (51 page)
Authors: Heather Graham
“That's for my castle!” Kinsey spit.
Arryn smiled. “My castle!”
Kinsey lunged. Arryn let him spend his energy, countering every blow.
Then he caught the man at the buckles that held his coat of armor in place, beneath the arm. Kinsey fell back, whitening. Arryn saw the blood.
“That was for Alesandra.”
Kinsey started forward; again, Arryn allowed him his fury.
This time, when he countered, he caught Kinsey at the throat. His enemy wore mail, but no helmet.
Blood spurted.
“That was for my child!” he said in a hiss.
Kinsey raised his sword in renewed fury.
Arryn did not allow it. He pressed forward, knowing that the blood Kinsey was losing had to be draining his strength.
He slashed his enemy across the throat once again.
Kinsey dropped his sword, clutching his throat.
“And that was for Kyra!” Arryn said. He swung again, and again, and again, and again.
“For Scotland! For my people, take it to hell!”
“Arryn! Arryn!”
He paused at last, breathing heavily, amazed to realize that he was nearly blinded by tears. John stood behind him, a hand on his arm.
“He's dead, Arryn.”
And Arryn looked down.
Oh, aye, the man was dead.
Sir Richard's strength was greater than her own, but she could best him; she was certain.
She was not just fighting for herself.
She fought for her child.
He swung, amused, certain that he could keep her backing away, wear her down.
She saw Brendan at her side, pushing himself up from the dirt, rising. He had no weapon. Sir Richard lunged toward him.
“Brendan!”
He turned, leapt aside.
She caught Sir Richard on the side of his head. Brendan saw his sword in the dirt. He lunged for it.
Richard caught his head, but maintained his grip on his sword, though blood flowed from a serious slash.
He couldn't kill her now, she realized. Brendan had his weapon; Jay was rushing toward them as wellâ¦.
Then, suddenly, while taking a step toward her, his face constricted. His body contorted. And slowly, slowly â¦
He fell.
Past his body, Kyra saw Katherine MacDonald. The young woman had thrown the knife that had landed dead center in Sir Richard's back.
Katherine stared at the body for a moment. Then she looked at Kyra. “You're all right! Thank God, thank God, I didn't think we'd make it in time, survive this gamble⦔
Kyra heard a long stride. She swung around, her sword at the ready.
But it was Arryn coming toward her.
“My lady, I know that we are ever battling, but if you don't mind, I'd just as soon not face another sword at the moment ⦔
She dropped her weapon and raced to him. She threw herself into his arms. He caught her and held her tenderly.
Kissed her lips â¦
She heard applause. She turned. Arryn's men milled around, the people of Seacairn milled around, and there was Lord Percy, leading the applause.
“Lord Percy!” she exclaimed.
“Shh! I was never here, my lass. However ⦠where is that incorrigible Father Corrigan? He will fight as if he were St. Michael after the dragon time and time again. That's what happens when an Irish priest winds up nearly killed in the Welsh warsâthen is sent to Scotland. Father Corrigan, where are you?”
“Here, Lord Percy, I am here!” And there he was, and she realized that he had been dressed as a fat shepherd in order to enter the walls with his swordâwhich he had discarded now. “Lord Darrow's men are mostly dead.”
“As they should be!” Katherine whispered.
“It's over now,” her brother said, slipping an arm around her.
“It will never be over!” she said.
“I'm afraid that it won't,” Arryn agreed. “But for tonight ⦔
“My men will see to the dead,” Lord Percy said. “For tonight ⦠young sir, you're going to make legitimate issue of my old friend's grandchild-to-be!”
“Aye, to the great hall, shall we?”
He slipped an arm around Kyra's waist, leading her back to the hall. “But you said that you'd never marry me!” she whispered to him. “You said not to care for you too muchâ”
He stopped, pulling her into his arms. “Did you listen to me then?”
She shook her head, smiling. “Nay, sir, I must admit, I seldom listen to orders and commands. You should be warned. I didn't listen ⦠I adore you!” she whispered.
He bent down and touched her lips with a tender kiss. “Aye, then, things change. Scotland is ours again ⦠and you are mine. If you will have it so.”
“Aye, and gladly!”
“ 'Tis true about the bairn?”
“ 'Tis true, though my heart did nearly stop when Lord Percy announced that we were married as well! Darrow immediately decreed that I must die.”
“I'm sorry. I could wait no longer. In fact, I chafed, worried that Lord Percy would not find Father Corrigan's supply of opium, and keep me assured that he'd stay away from you in the time we were forced to wait.”
Kyra gasped. “My God! Lord Percy! How shall we ever thank you?” she inquired of the man who walked ahead of them.
“You'll remember that I am a good Englishman, and keep my name from all tales regarding this noble occasion!”
She laughed and kissed him.
“Thank your man, Gaston, as well, my lady. For without him, I couldn't have gotten word to Arryn; they'd not have slipped in and taken the places of the priest and executioner!”
“Aye, he'll be guest of honor!” she cried happily. And she could not help but kiss Lord Percy again soundly on the cheek.
And then they were in the great hall, and Father Corrigan, a robe over his farmer's outfit, was marrying them.
Lord Percy gave her in marriage. Katherine stood as her witness, while John acted as such for Arryn.
Ingrid was with them; she had waited in the forest, as Swen had ordered she must do. She sobbed happily throughout the ceremony.
They were all there, all of Arryn's men, all who had so nobly invaded! They drank Seacairn's wine and ale, ate, danced. The pipes played, and she listened, leaning back in Arryn's arms. Listened to the outlawed tunes, outlawed no longer.
“My lady â¦?” he murmured.
“Aye?”
“Well, now that we are legally wed â¦?”
They rose together, and slipped from the great hall unnoticed. Or so they thought, though it mattered little.
The tower room held fresh flowers, fresh sheets, fresh water. The breeze rushed in while a fire burned brightly. Coolness and warmth surrounded them both.
Kyra came into his arms. “I am so glad to be your wife, but Arryn, so sorry as well. You didn't have to marry me; I'd have been glad to be with you, no matter whatâ”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “Ah, Kyra! I couldn't forget what had been; I couldn't forgive myself. Still, even now, I can't help thinking that if I had just been there, if I hadn't met Angus Darrow on that bridge that day ⦔
“Oh, Arryn!”
“It's all right; I'll always have the regrets, but ⦠Kinsey Darrow is dead. And from the ashes of that revenge, I have been blessed. I have you.”
“My God ⦔ she murmured.
“Aye?”
She smiled. “That was beautiful! From such a brusque warrior, whose warning is to take care not to love him!”
He grimaced. “Thank God that you never listen!” he said.
And he swept her up.
And down.
And that night, that first time as man and wife, they made love on the fur before the fire. The golden light played on their flesh, danced in Kyra's hair, reflected as blue flame in Arryn's eyes. And later, as they lay together, Kyra murmured, “Our babe might have been conceived right here.”
He rolled over her, leaning on an elbow to watch her, his eyes grave. “And not on the softness of a true bed?” he queried.
“I'm happy with you wherever we sleep,” she said.
He cradled her closer. “I'm glad,” he said huskily. “Kyra, we have won a great battle. Indeed, in a way, whatever we may win or lose in the future, I think that we have won Scotland. We have won the knowledge, you see, that we can fight and win. But ⦔
“Aye?”
“The English army will return. In greater strength. With greater fury. We may become outlaws again. We may give up Seacairn. Retreat to the Highlands with our wives and bairns. I never really asked you if you were prepared for such a life.”
“I'm not sure that you actually asked me to marry you,” she replied. “I think you just rather announced it. Prepared for such a life ⦠aye. Oh, aye, Arryn! Lowlands, Highlands, I shall sleep with you and gladly, wherever we need be. I am prepared for anythingâexcept not loving you.”
He bent low, whispering against her lips, “Kyra, my love, you are my life, and my soul!”
And he kissed her.
And wrapped her in his arms.
And made love to her.
And the fire burnedâ¦.
And burned.
Far to the south, Edward I, king of England, stepped out of his boat, and upon the shores of his own country.
They called him Longshanks, for he was a tall man, nearly seven feet in his full armor. His eyelids drooped, an inheritance from his father. But those drooping lids covered eyes that were sharp and blue and narrowed now with the fury that had filled him since he had heard the news.
Scotland â¦
“Sire, shall we rest here for the night?” one of his retainers asked.
“God, no!” Edward swore. “We're on to London. By God! We've a new army to raise!”
And he looked to the north.
Aye
.
This time, he would lead the army against the Scots.
Aye, he would lead themâ¦.
Chronology
c6000 BC: | Earliest peoples arrive from Europe (Stone Age): Some used stone axes to clear land. |
c4500 BC: | Second wave of immigrants arrive (New Stone Age or Neolithic): “Grooved ware,” simple forms of pottery found. They left behind important remains, perhaps most notably, their tombs and cairns. |
c3500 BC: | Approximate date of the remarkable chambered tombs at Maes Howe, Orkney. |
c3000 BC: | Carbon dating of the village at Skara Brae, also Orkney, showing houses built of stone, built-in beds, straw mattresses, skin spreads, kitchen utensils of bone and wood, and other more sophisticated tools. |
c2500 BC: | “Beaker” people arrive: Neolithic people who will eventually move into the Bronze Age. Bronze Age to last until approximately 700BC. |
c700 BC: | Iron Age beginsâiron believed to have been brought by Hallstadtan peoples from central Europe. Term “Celts” now applied to these people, from the Greek “Keltoi”; they were considered by the Greeks and Romans to be barbarians. Two types of Celtic language, P-Celtic, and Q-Celtic. |
c600â100 BC: | The earliest Celtic fortifications, including the broch, or large stone tower. Some offered fireplaces and fresh water wells. Crannogs, or island forts, were also built, structures often surrounded by spikes or walls of stakes. Souterrains were homes built into the earth, utilizing stone, some up to eighty feet long. The Celts become known for their warlike qualities as well as for their beautiful jewelry and colorful clothing; “trousers” are introduced by the Celts, perhaps learned from Middle-Eastern societies. A rich variety of colors are used (perhaps forerunner to tartan plaids) as well as long tunics, skirts, and cloaks to be held by the artistically wrought brooches. |
55 BC: | Julius Caesar invades southern Britain. |
56 BC: | Julius Caesar attacks again, but again, the assault does not reach Scotland. |
43 AD: | The Roman Plautius attacks; by the late 70s (AD), the Romans have come to Scottish land. |
78â84 AD: | The Roman Agricola, newly appointed governor, born a Gaul, plans to attack the Celts. Beginning in 80 AD, he launches a two-pronged full-scale attack. There are no roads, and he doesn't have time to build them as the Romans have done elsewhere in Britain. Some 30,000 Romans marched; they will be met by a like number of Caledonians. (Later to be called Picts for their custom of painting or tattooing their faces and bodies.) After the battle of Mons Graupius, the Roman historian Tacitus (son-in-law of Agricola) related that 10,000 Caledonians were killed, that they were defeated. However, the Romans retreat southward after orders to withdraw. |
122 AD: | Hadrian arrives in Britain and orders the construction of his famous wall. |
142 AD: | Antoninus Pius arrives with fresh troops due to continual trouble in Scotland. The Antonine Wall is built and garrisoned for the following twenty years. |
150â200 AD: | The Romans suffer setbacks. An epidemic kills much of the population, and Marcus Aurelius dies, to be followed by a succession of poor rulers. |
c208 AD: | Severus comes to Britain and attacks in Scotland, dealing some cruel blows, but his will be the last major Roman invasion. He dies in York in 211 AD, and the Caledonians are then free from Roman intervention, though they will occasionally venture south to Roman holdings on raids. |
350â400 AD: | Saxon pirates raid from northwest Europe, forcing Picts southward over the wall. Fierce invaders arrive from Ireland: the Scotti, a word meaning raiders. Eventually, the country will take its name from these people. |
c400 AD: | St. Ninian, a British Celtic bishop, builds a monastery church at Whithorn. It is known as Candida Casa. His missionaries might have pushed north as far as the Orkney Islands; they were certainly responsible for bringing Christianity to much of the country. |
c450 AD: | The Romans abandon Britain altogether. Powerful Picts invade lower Britain, and the Romanized people ask for help from Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. Scotland then basically divided between four peoples; Picts, Britons, Angles, and the Scotti of Dalriada. “Clan” life beginsâthe word |
500â700 AD: | The Angles settle and form two kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia. Aethelfrith, king from 593â617 AD, wins a victory against the Scotia at Degsastan and severely crushes the Britonsâwho are left in a tight position between the Picts and Angles. He seizes the throne of King Edwin of Deira as well, causing bloodshed between the two kingdoms for the next fifty years, keeping the Angles busy and preventing warfare between them and their Pictish and Scottish neighbors. Circa 500, Fergus MacErc and his brothers, Angus and Lorne, brought a fresh migration of Scotia from Ireland to Dalriada, and though the communities had been close (between Ireland and Scotland), they soon after began to pull away. By the late 500s, St. Columba came to Iona, creating a strong kingship there, and spreading Christianity even farther than St. Ninian had gone. In 685 AD at Nechtansmere, the Angles are severely defeated by the Picts; their king Ecgfrith is slain, and his army is half slaughtered. This prevents Scotland from becoming part of England at an early date. |
787 AD: | The first Viking raid, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. In 797, Lindisfarne is viciously attacked, and the monastery is destroyed. “From the Fury of the Northmen, deliver us, oh, Lord!” becomes a well-known cry. |
843 AD: | Kenneth MacAlpian, son of a Scots king, who is also descended from Pictish kings through his maternal lineage, claims and wins the Pictish throne as well as his own. It is not an easy task as he sets forth to combine his two peoples into the country of Scotland. Soon after becoming king of the Picts and the Scotia, he moves his capital from Dunadd to Scone. He has the “Stone of Destiny,” recently returned to Scotland, brought there. The stone is now known as the “Stone of Scone.” The savage Viking raids become one focus that will help to unite the Picts and the Scots. Despite the raids and the battles, by the tenth century, many of the Vikings are settling in Scotland. The Norse kings rule the Orkneys through powerful jarls, and they maintain various other holdings in the country, many in the Hebrides. The Vikings will become a fifth main people to make up the Scottish whole. Kenneth is followed by a number of kings that are his descendants, but not necessarily immediate heirs, nor is the Pictish system of accepting the maternal line utilized. It appears that a powerful member of the family, supported by other powerful members, comes to the throne. |
878 AD: | Alfred (the Great) of Wessex defeats the Danes. (They will take up residence in East Anglia and, at times, rule various parts of England.) |
1018 AD: | Kenneth's descendant, Malcolm II, finally wins a victory over the Angles at Carham, bringing Lothian under Scottish rule. In this same year, the king of the Britons of Strathclyde dies without an heir. Duncan, Malcolm's heir, has a claim to the throne through his maternal ancestry. |
1034 AD: | Malcolm dies, and Duncan, his grandson, succeeds him as king of a Scotland that now includes the Pictish, Scottish, Anglo, and Briton lands, and pushes into English lands. |
1040 AD: | Duncan is killed by MacBeth, the Mormaer (or high official) of Moray, who claims the throne through his own ancestry, and that of his wife. Despite Shakespeare's version, he is suspected of having been a good king, and a good Christianâgoing on pilgrimage to Rome in 1050 AD. |
1057 AD: | MacBeth is killed by Malcolm III, Duncan's son. (Malcolm had been raised in England.) Malcolm is known as Malcolm Canmore, or Ceann Mor, or Big Head. |
1059 AD: | Malcolm marries Ingibjorg, a Norse noble-woman, probably the daughter of Thorfinn the Mighty. |
1066 AD: | Harold II, king of England, rushes to the north of his country to battle an invading Norse army. Harold wins the battle, only to rush back south, to Hastings, to meet another invading force. |
1066 AD: | William the Conqueror invades England and slays Harold, the Saxon King. |
1069 AD: | Malcolm III marries (as his second wife) Princess Margaret, sister to the deposed Edgar Atheling, the Saxon heir to the English throne. Soon after, he launches a series of raids into England, feeling justified in that his brother-in-law has a very real claim to the English throne. England retaliates. |
1071 AD: | Malcolm is forced to pay homage to William the Conqueror at Abernathy. Despite the battles between them, Malcolm remains popular among the English. |
1093 AD: | While attacking Northumberland (some say to circumvent a Norman invasion), Malcolm is killed in ambush. Queen Margaret dies three days later. Scotland falls into turmoil. Malcolm's brother, Donald Ban, raised in the Hebrides under Norse influence, seizes the throne and overthrows Norman policy for Viking. |
1094 AD: | William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror, sends Malcolm's oldest son, Duncan, who has been a hostage in England, to overthrow his uncle, Donald. Duncan overthrows Donald, but is murdered himself, and Donald returns to the throne. |
1097 AD: | Edgar, Duncan's half-brother, is sent to Scotland with an Anglo-Norman army, and Donald is chased out once again. He brings in many Norman knights and families, and makes peace with Magnus Barelegs, the King of Norway, formally ceding to him lands in the Hebrides which has been a holding already for a very long time. |
1107 AD: | Edgar dies; his brother, Alexander succeeds him, but rules only the land between Forth and Spey; his younger brother, David, rules south of the Forth. Alexander's sister, Maud, had become the wife of Henry I of England, and Alexander has married Henry's daughter by a previous marriage, Sibylla. These matrimonial alliances make a terribly strong bond between the Scottish and English royal houses. |
1124 AD: | Alexander dies. David (also raised in England) inherits the throne for all Scotland. He is destined to rule for nearly thirty years, to be a powerful king who will create burghs, a stronger church, a number of towns, and introduce a sound system of justice. He will be a patron of arts and learning. Having married an heiress, he is also an English noble, being Earl of Northampton and Huntington, and Prince of Cumbria. He brings feudalism to Scotland, and many friends, including de Brus, whose descendants will include Robert Bruce, fitzAllen, who will become High Stewardâand, of course, a man named Sir William Graham. |
1153 AD: | Death of David I. Malcolm IV, known as Malcolm the Maiden, becomes king. He is a boy of eleven. |
1154 AD: | Henry Plantagenet (Henry II) becomes king in England. Forces Malcolm to return Northumbria to England. |
1165 AD: | Malcolm dies and is succeeded by his brother, William the Lion. William forms what will be known as the Auld Alliance with France. |
1174 AD: | William invades England. The Scots are heavily defeated, William is taken prisoner, and must sign the Treaty of Falaise. |
1189 AD: | Richard Couer de Lion (Plantagenet, Henry's son) now king of England, renounces his feudal superiority over Scotland for 10,000 marks. |
1192 AD: | The Scottish Church is released from England supremacy by Pope Celestine III. |
1214 AD: | William the Lion dies. Succeeded by Alexander II, his son. |
1238 AD: | As Alexander is currently without a son, a parliament allegedly declares Robert Bruce (grandfather of the future king) nearest male relative and heir to the throne. The king, however, fathers a son. (Sets a legal precedent for the Bruces to claim the throne at the death of the Maid of Norway.) |
1249 AD: | Death of Alexander II. Ascension of Alexander III, age seven, to the throne. (He will eventually marry Margaret, sister of the king of England, and during his lifetime, there will be peaceful relations with England.) |
1263 AD: | Alexander III continues his father's pursuit of the Northern Isles, whose leaders give their loyalty to Norway. King Hakon raises a fleet against him. Alexander buys him off until October, when the fierce weather causes their fleet to fall apart at the Battle of Largs. Hakon's successor, Magnus, signs a treaty, wherein the isles fall under the dominion of the Scottish king. The Orkneys and Shetlands remain under Norse rule for the time being. |
1270 AD: | (Approximate date) William Wallace born. |
1272 AD: | Edward I (Plantagenet) becomes king of England. |