Here Be Dragons - 1 (52 page)

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The night was so unseasonably warm that no fire had been lit in th hearth. But
Joanna had begun to tremble. "I'm so cold . . ." she sai

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'th Chester and Pembroke, calmed the camp by announcing that men ere being dispatched back to England for wagons of flour, bacon, and cheese.
The supply party set out the next day at dawn. At noon the few urvivors staggered, bleeding, back into camp. With the realization that the man they were hunting had become the hunter, that Llewelyn had swung around behind them and cut off access to England, John's captains were hard put to maintain order. By month's end, Llewelyn's grim prediction had come to pass;
they'd begun to butcher their horses.
RICHARD was standing by an open window in the keep of Deganwy Castle, gazing down at their encampment spread out upon the slopes below. To his right flowed the fluid barrier of the Conwy, and beyond, the whitewashed buildings of
Aberconwy Abbey. Richard knew the whiterobed monks would be moving about their daily chores, as if oblivious of the fact that only the width of the river lay between them and an enemy army. He wondered if the monks realized just how lucky they were. The abbey had flourished under Llewelyn's patronage, reason enough in his father's eyes to have treated the monastery as spoils of war.
The silence in the chamber was oppressive, utterly disheartened. His Uncle
Will and the Earl of Pembroke had unrolled a crude map of North Wales. No one else was making even a pretense of productive activity. Richard's older half-brother Oliver was sprawled in a far corner, trying to sleep. So, too, was Oliver's uncle, Fulk Fitz Warin. John's mysterious magnanimity in pardoning Fitz Warin's treason had been resolved for Richard upon learning that Oliver's mother was Fitz Warin's sister. He could not help thinking upon that now, wondering at the perverse inconsistencies in his father's nature, that the same man who'd forgive a rebel for the sake of a onetime bedmate would also undertake the destruction of a loved daughter's husband.
The door opened and Eustace de Vesci entered, followed by Robert Fitz Walter and Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. They squatted down m the rushes, began to pass a wineskin back and forth. But they kept 'heir eyes upon John all the while; Richard could not help noticing how j^ny of his father's barons did that, watched John whenever he was not 'ooking.
De Vesci had left the door ajar. It was jerked back now with a vioence that spun all heads around. Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, °de into the solar. Ignoring the others, he addressed himself to John, " a complete disregard for preamble or protocol. There've been three more stabbings today."

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John got to his feet. "What of it? Soldiers are bound to brawl amongst themselves."
"Indeed, that's so. But in the past when my men fought, it was ovp a wenchnot over bread!"
"I hardly need to hear again about the shortages!"
"I think you do. We're running out of more than food, we're run ning out of time. Do you know a man with an egg can sell it for a penny and a half? That'd buy him an entire chicken back in England! There's not a dog or a hen left alive in the castle, and the pantry, larder, and buttery have been emptied to feed your men, supplies that were to maintain my garrison for months. It took me two months to fortify Deganwy, fighting off the Welsh almost daily. How in
Christ do you expect me to hold this castle now?"
John did not reply, and Chester took a step closer. "How much longer do you mean to deny the truth, that this is a war we cannot win? You need proof? Just go out and take a walk through the camp! So many have taken sick that you cannot get within ten feet of the latrine pits, the stink be so vile! What are you waiting for, until the bloody flux kills off those who do not starve?"
The chamber was utterly still. It had been years since any man had dared to defy John like this. Both Will and Pembroke had come to their feet. Richard took one look at his father's face and he, too, moved forward. But Chester was beyond discretion or prudence.
"You cannot say you were not warned, my liege, because I told you it would likely come to this! I told you this man would be no easy fox to snare, that he'd be too shrewd to take the field against you, that you'd find your quick, clean war of conquest being fought on his terms. Now do you believe me? Now are you ready to admit defeat, to cut our losses whilst we still can?"
"You've said enough, more than enough! I'm beginning to wonder just where your loyalties lie. You've never had any stomach for fighting this man. Why? It could not be that the two of you have reached a private accommodation, could it?"
Chester's eyes glittered, black pools of utter outrage. "I do not deserve that, have served you faithfully. If you call me disloyal for daring to speak my mind, to be honest with you, so be it then. But answer me one question, my lord. Have you so many men whom you can trust to tell you the truth that you can afford to spare even one?"
"Ah, yes, and Scriptures tell us to 'rejoice in the truth,' do the, not?" John said mockingly. But it was a surprisingly restrained r sponse, showed Richard that Chester had unexpectedly hit a ne&e' Chester sensed it, too, was quick to press his advantage.
"I'm not saying Llewelyn ab lorwerth could not eventually be run

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ffa, though I still think it'd be a Pyrrhic victory. But there'll be no 'ctory at a" this time. He's won, you have to face that. It is done, my liege, done/-
John turned away, walked to the window. He stood there for some minutes in silence, staring out at Llewelyn's alpine citadel, the remote, Houd-crested peaks of Eryri. "No," he said. "Not yet."
THE hill the Welsh called Mynydd y Dref rose some eight hundred feet above sea level, offering sweeping views of Conwy Bay, the river, and Deganwy Castle.
Joanna moved cautiously toward the edge of the cliff, was grateful when
Llewelyn slid a supportive arm around her waist.
A high wind was gusting, but the sea was a brilliant sapphire blue, and the light was resplendent upon the grey stone church below; the monastery looked prosperous and orderly and utterly at peace. But the encampment on the far side of the river was a scene of disorder and desolation. Some tents were still standing, flapping forlornly in the wind; the area was littered with debris, scarred by ditches and smoldering campfires; bones and rotting carcasses of dead horses were piled at the water's edge, and when the wind shifted toward the west, it brought to them a sickening stench of death and decay.
"My lord! It's true, they're gone!" Several horsemen were coming up the slope at a gallop. The lead rider was soaked from the river crossing, shivering and short of breath, but he was exultant, stammering with excitement.
"They've pulled out, all of them, even the castle garrison!" He glanced then toward Joanna, said in a lower voice, "You'd best not let your lady cross the river, my lord. The English King left his dead for you to bury."
"That much ground I'm willing to yield up to John," Llewelyn said, and the other men laughed, began to crowd around him, gesturing toward the deserted encampment, interrupting one another freely, Baking boisterous jests and sardonic puns, theirs the grim gallows hu"Wrof the suddenly reprieved. Joanna turned, walked away.
Finding a sheltering boulder some yards from the cliff, she stood
S^ing out to sea, watching as gulls skimmed the wind-crested waves of e bay, circled above her father's abandoned castle keep. She could still ar Llewelyn's laughter, as buoyant and soaring as the birds wheeling
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Llewelyn's laughter. It had been so long since she'd heard him
I L ead; if sunlight were not silent, she thought, it would sound much I e
Llewelyn's laughter. It had been so long since she'd heard him oft.
,( After a time, Llewelyn broke free from the encircling men, came to a
Beside her. His hair was blowing about wildly, and she raised her

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hand, brushed it back from his eyes. As she did, he ca^nt her hand jn his.
"I understand that you cannot rejoice in my victo1^' >oanna> but I hoped you'd not begrudge me the joy I take in it."
"I do not, God's truth, I do not!"
"My poor Joanna; no matter who won, you had to I"56' Jt s OVer now, breila."
He reached for her other hand, drew her t^ward him- "YOU can await me at the abbey whilst I cross over to the can1?' en we " go home."
Joanna swallowed, rested her head for a moment $amst hls ches*. "It is not over, Llewelyn," she said, her voice so muffr lf was a11 but inaudible.
His eyes had seemed full of light, showed golden f5|ints in the sunBut as she looked up at him now, she saw that all th/ llght had been completely quenched;
his eyes were utterly opaque, W& A
"You think he'll come back," he said flatly, and sh/
nodded.
"I know he will, Llewelyn." She moved back into hlS arms' whis' pered, "I know he will. . ."
LLEWELYN knew that Joanna's love for her father blint^d her tO what others saw in John. Yet for all that she was disbelievi*^ er impulses, she still knew better than most the intimate vVOrkmSs of hls mind.
Llewelyn accepted her anguished certainty as ^fim8osPe ' ut neither one of them expected John to act with such f^655' sm§le~ minded resolve, or with such stunning speed.
He at once set about making ready for a second V^elsl? camPai§^ and because he was both willing and able to subordina^ a e s aim, by early July a large army was assembling at the bof .A?WI?C TU
aim
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Blanc Minster by the Normans and Croes Oswallt by '^ , beans time he'd provided for pack horses heavily laden w'' Sa ,'
cheese, flour, and sides of bacon and beef. He'd also sui^1??.116 ^ j ters and craftsmen, brought along laborers as well as 0"
spades, axes, picks, and nails. , ig.
On the second Friday in July they moved into Upfel(( J re-
welyn's cousin and ally, Madog ap Gruffydd, prudent!/ . -n At sistance, let the English army pass unmolested through we|]- the same time, John's allies Maelgwn and Rhys Gry^
coordinated plan of attack from the south. e^
Swinging up the Vale of Llangollen, John crossed 'n ° ^ began pressed on toward the River Conwy. And as he pushed ^ ' ^ (or-
to build Norman castles on Welsh soil. They were has* ^ 6 nters tresses, constructed of Welsh timber by conscripted Enjj'lS

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Rut they were also symbols of power, of the might of the English crown, nd each one cast a foreboding shadow over the countryside it now controlled
Llewelyn was hopelessly outmanned, was forced to fall back before the inexorable advance of the English army/ to withdraw into the deepest reaches of Eryn as John swept all before him First Rhuddlan Castle and then Deganwy were reclaimed, and in the fourth week of July, John's men crossed the River
Conwy It was the first time in well over a hundred years that an English invasion force had penetrated this far into Gwynedd
After sacking the Cistercian monastery at Aberconwy, John encamped his army upon the west bank of the river, then dispatched a large raiding party up the coast With Welsh guides provided by Gwenwynwyn, they made their way through the pass of Penmaenmawr, on to Llewelyn's deserted palace at Aber, which they put to the torch From Aber they rode for Bangor Fawr yn Arfon, the episcopal see for the diocese of Bangor, where they dragged the Bishop from the High
Altar, brought him back a prisoner to John's camp by the Conwy But before they did, they set fire to the cathedral church, burned every house in Bangor to the ground
AT dusk, Llewelyn's young allies, Owam ap Gruffydd and his brother Rhys leunac, rode up from the south Her private chamber having been appropriated for a council of war, Joanna was at a loss as to where to go, unwilling to subject herself to the stares in the great hall She'd thought her husband's countrymen had long ago reconciled themselves to his alien English consort, but during the past weeks she'd come to realize how tenuous that acceptance was As her father's army moved into the very heartland of Llewelyn's realm, there were many who looked upon Joanna and saw not Llewelyn's wife, Davydd and
Elen's mother, saw only John's daughter
Joanna finally climbed the stairwell up to the battlements that enclosed the gabled roof of Dolwyddelan's keep, her need to be alone prevailing over her dislike of heights Even this refuge she had to share w'th several sentries, but they seemed to sense her mood, kept prudently to the other side of the walkway
The keep towered more than forty feet up into the twilight sky By flight the view was breathtaking, affording panoramic vistas of the ^ver Lledr below and the mountains beyond But as darkness de-
*erided over the vale, Joanna's attention was riveted upon the horizon [ j pale reddish glow lit the sky to the north She knew what it was, evvelyn had gotten word hours ago that Bangor was burning

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Joanna set her lantern on the embrasure, unable to take her eye from that eerily streaking sky. By dawn, all of Bangor would be reduced to ashes and charred rubble. Aber still smoldered. How long, she w0n dered, ere
Dolwyddelan, too, fell to her father's army?
By now it was full dark. So absorbed was Joanna in her own pur. gatory that she failed to hear approaching footsteps, started violently when Morgan touched her arm.
They stood in silence for some moments, Joanna studying him through her lashes. She knew he was in his middle fifties, although he looked much younger, for he had a magnificent head of silvered hair and sculptured cheekbones that aging only enhanced. In every sense but the biological one, he was a father to Llewelyn, and Joanna had tried repeatedly over the years to break through that cool, disciplined exterior, to bypass the priest and befriend the man, but to no avail. He kept others at a distance no less effectively than did Adda. Only with Llewelyn did he permit himself the luxury of emotional intimacy, and Joanna often wondered if he'd acknowledged even to himself how deep the bond between them was, that Llewelyn was a son in all but blood.
"Owain ap Gruffydd brought news, Madame, that I think you should know. Lord
Hywel of Meirionydd and Prince Madog have deserted Llewelyn, have gone over to your father."
"Jesu, no! But they are Llewelyn's cousins, his blood kin!"
"They are also frightened men trying to save what is theirs. They see Llewelyn as doomed, do not want to be dragged down with him."
Joanna stared at him in silence, trying desperately to get her fear under control, trying not to panic. Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg and Gwenwynwyn were already fighting for John. With Prince Madog's defection, Llewelyn would be utterly isolated, surrounded, facing enemies on every side.
"If what you're saying be true," she whispered, "then Llewelyn is trapped, trapped with no way out."
"Yes," he said dully, "I know. And so does Llewelyn."
JOANNA could hear angry voices while still in the stairwell. But as sne followed Morgan into the chamber, a sudden silence settled over tn room. All eyes turned toward her, and in many of them she read chilling suspicion, a doubt none would dare to voice in Llewelyn s he ing: Can we speak freely in front of her? Feeling like an intruder in own bedchamber, Joanna settled down as inconspicuously as possio the nearest window seat. ,,(
Llewelyn and Owain ap Gruffydd were standing by a trestle » partially covered by a crude map of Wales and the Marches. J°a nexpected entrance had thrown Owain momentarily off stride. Turn. back to
Llewelyn, he gestured toward the map.
"You need look no farther than this, my lord, no farther than Eryri. VVhat better stronghold could you find? You know these mountains as ievf men do;
they'd never be able to take you."
"What would you have me do, Owain, live like a rebel on the run?"
"There are worse fates, my lord," Owain said evenly, and Llewelyn shook his head.
"You look at the map, but you still do not see. How can you be so blind?"
Unsheathing his dagger, Llewelyn made a slashing cut in the parchment. "John has erected a castle here." Again the blade flashed. "And there. There, too.
At Bala, Treffynnon, Mathrafal, Deganwy, Rhuddlan. Fourteen at last count, Owain, fourteen! Given time, he'll refortify each and every one in stone and mortar, put down roots so deep we'll never be able to dislodge him. Christ, man, do you not understand? He means the complete conquest of North Wales, means to turn all of Gwynedd into a God-cursed English shire!"
None could deny it. Nor could they meet his eyes. Owain mumbled, "I know, my lord, I know. But you've got to think of saving yourself now. It is too late