What is Young Devon expecting? Will a lion give way to a cub? The fool. The ignorant fool. If he had brains, he’d be dangerous. He’ll learn the true nature of the powerful. Brainless badger.
—Claire de Murrow
Connaught Castle
（not yet under siege）
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Siege of Arlect Castle
Smoke abounded. It stained the skin, tainted the water they drank, and gnawed at their armor and swords. The smell of it reminded Ransom of his boyhood, of the siege against his father’s castle. This time he wore armor, which had blackened with soot. The taste of ash was in his teeth. He wondered if he looked hard enough through the vapors, whether he’d find that lost boy, waiting to be hung for a crime not his own.
From the haze surrounding Arlect castle, he saw Captain Issoudun’s grimy face appear. The two met, and the captain gave him a knightly salute.
“Ho there, Sir Ransom. It’s nearly dawn. You think we’ll crack this castle today?”
“We’d better,” Ransom said, wiping his mouth. He hadn’t slept much in the last few days of war, but he felt alert and full of vigor. The fighting they’d experienced had strengthened him instead of draining him.
“I think we will,” said Issoudun.
“What gives you confidence?”
Issoudun put his hands on his hips. “They say there are only three ways to breach a castle, lad. You know them, I’m assuming?”
Ransom knew the theory, but this was the first test of it. Thankfully, men like Issoudun had had years of practice during the civil war.
“Surround it and cut off reinforcements,” he said. “Breach the walls with siege engines. Or dig a tunnel beneath one of the walls and then build a fire so strong it collapses the earth and breaks open part of the foundation.”
“Aye, but there be a fourth! Trickery. Never underestimate its usefulness. You trick the inhabitants into opening the gates. The lad’s father is a master of that. We’d best be wary.”
It was good to know. The defenders of the castle had retreated when attacked. Some had argued to the Younger King that he should pass by Arlect and drive deeper into Westmarch to encircle his father’s forces and keep them from retreating into Ceredigion. But Devon had won his first battle in the field outside the town of Spurring, and he wanted another victory to keep the momentum going. Leaving an armed castle behind would limit his ability to maneuver, especially since they didn’t know how many men had holed up inside it. Ransom had been one of those who had argued they should take the castle. But if the siege took too long, it would blunt their offensive, giving the Elder King more time to retaliate and gain allies.
War was indeed like a game of Wizr, an endless one.
“How is Captain Stafford doing with the tunneling?” Ransom asked. Without siege engines, one of their options had been removed, so Devon had decided to undermine one of the walls. Knights had already cut down a tree to make a battering ram, but that was a diversion, to make the besieged knights inside believe they were going to try to breach the gate by force. Meanwhile, sappers were digging beneath the corner wall of the castle. The smoke was there to hide their movement from those guarding it.
“I think he’ll be done today,” the captain responded. “If they figure out what we’re doing, they’ll bring archers to that wall, and it’ll slow us down. But all this smoke helps hide our intentions. I think we have the castellan plenty confused.”
“Who is it? Do you know him?”
“Sir Jude of Wentland.”
Ransom knew the name. “One of Lord Kinghorn’s knights.”
“Oh, you know him?”
In his mind, Ransom could picture the scowling face. “Aye. I trained with him at Averanche.”
“You know Kinghorn, then?”
“Aye, and he’s my kinsman too.”
“Pfah! You don’t say! Mark my words, I think the walls will fall today.”
“I hope so. I’m back to report to the king from the night watch.”
“Well enough. Until later.”
Ransom saluted him, and they parted. Issoudun had been privy to the secret all along, and when he’d learned that Ransom would stay true to the Younger King—and, indeed, had knighted him in Pree—his friendliness toward him had increased. It had turned into outright regard after the first battle, when Ransom had single-handedly unhorsed ten other knights and claimed bounties from each without killing them. Many lives had been lost that day, many dead to be buried, but Ransom had kept it from being a slaughter.