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would you do?"
"Block with my shield."
"Ever have someone that big hit your shield hard?"
"No. I could duck."
"Ducking a sword s easier to say than to do. Did you manage it with the blunts?"
"No. But if I had to . . ."
"Had to s a bad time to do your learning."
"He can t hit me with a sword if I m up on the castle wall with a bow and he s down below trying to batter
the door down."
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Harald nodded approvingly.
"Killing safe as you can. Much to be said for it. Ever shot out of an arrow slit?"
The boy shook his head.
"Tomorrow."
The next day, Harald and one of the guards carried a bundle of hay out the main gate, left it on the ground
five feet from the wall. Hen watched.
"Enemy with a battering ram. Where do you shoot him from?"
The boy ran up the stairway to the top of the wall, leaned far over trying to find a way of shooting down.
The guard caught the back of his tunic, hauled him back in.
"I could have done it."
Harald answered, "Could be; some day show you how. Way you were doing it, only question is if you fall
out and break your neck before or after someone on the other side puts an arrow through you. They can
shoot too. Think, boy. Don t want them breaking down the door, killing us all."
Hen thought; Harald and the guard watched. The boy got up, ran along the wall to the door into the tower
of the old keep. Harald gave the guard a satisfied look, followed. Inside, he heard the voice of one of the
women asking Hen what he was doing in their room. Hen said he was stopping someone from breaking
down the front gate and killing them all.
While Harald explained, Hen carefully examined the arrow slits, ending up in one cut into the wall
partway up the spiral stair to the chamber above. Harald looked through a lower slit; there was nobody
near the hay. When Hen had shot his arrows, the two went back down together. Two were in the hay
bundle. The boy collected all eight, went back to his arrow slit; Harald remained behind to be sure nobody
went out the gate at the wrong time. After the fourth round, he heard a step behind him, turned.
It was Yosef. Harald held up a finger to his lips, pointed at the hay, waited. An arrow sprouted out of it.
Another. Another. When the last went home there was a yell from the tower, Hen out the ground floor
door and running for the gate. He stopped when he saw his father.
"Might be some use yet, boy, ever comes to it."
They went out together.
Harald s strength came back slowly, but it came. Alone at night he uncased his bow, warmed it by the fire,
strung it, drew, held at full draw for long seconds before his arm began to shake. By the flickering light he
checked over the lacing of his lamellar war coat, replaced frayed thongs more by touch than sight. He
oiled the ring shirt, patched the padding under it. Spring was a month away, perhaps longer. It too would
come.
52
Visitors
Safe to tell a secret to one,
Risky to two,
To tell it to three is folly.
"The trumpet blew, the King s men in the middle started rolling boulders over and down. Imperials
weren t happy when they saw them coming."
"The rocks wiped out the legions?"
"No such luck. The rocks tore holes in the shield wall. The rest was up to us."
"You charged them? Didn t you tell me that was stupid?"
"Would have been. We poured in arrows from just outside javelin range. Cats on the left, Order on the
right. They tried to reform, but it was too late, and the rocks kept coming. Legionaries are good, but they
die just like other people."
"What about "
They heard voices in the courtyard below. Hen was on his feet first. Harald paused to pull his cloak around
him.
Yosef was there already, Rorik beside him. One of the guards was opening the gate. Two riders came into
the courtyard through the falling snow. The smaller spoke:
"Elaina ni Leonor, my sister Kara ni Lain. We come in peace."
Yosef stepped forward.
"I am Yosef, castellan of Forest Keep for Stephen of North Province. In peace be welcome."
Harald saw her swaying in the saddle, stepped forward. The Lady swung one foot over, slid down; he
caught her as she fell.
Yosef spoke. "The hall is warmest; can you manage her?"
Harald nodded. "Hardly weighs anything." It was true. Despite the mail hauberk, he had carried boys who
weighed more.
The other Lady was off her horse but on her feet. At a glance from his father, Hen took both horses.
Harald carried Elaina up the stairs, through the door Yosef opened. Kara followed.
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Yosef pulled one of the straw pallets in front of the fire; Harald kneeled, put her down gently. In the fire
light, the stump of an arrow stood out from her side. He heard a gasp behind him.
"She didn t tell me."
Footsteps. Hen answered his father s unspoken question.
"Old Jon has them, is rubbing them down."
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