"That reminds me," said Jim. "I have to talk to the Little Men, too, as soon as possible—after I've talked to your father and brothers, of course."
"Say you so?" said Liseth. "Then we will need Snorrl again. I can send Greywings after him, but he will be out of humor if he has to travel a long distance to get back here, after just being with you."
"I will apologize to him when I see him, then," said Jim.
"I would advise you do not," said Liseth seriously. "Snorrl is not like we people. An apology means nothing to him. He does not apologize himself or understand it from others, except as a sign of weakness."
"Thanks for telling me," said Jim.
He should have known that, he told himself. He should have learned it from Aargh. In what other, possibly important ways might he be misjudging Snorrl?
Chapter Sixteen
"I believe," Jim was saying three hours later, when they were finally all assembled about the high table, and the afternoon was drawing to its close, "I've got a plan to deal with the envoy from Scotland with the gold and the Hollow Men both. Particularly, a way to perhaps get rid of the Hollow Men forever."
He paused and licked his lips. He had sat at that table waiting for these others as they trickled in one by one, beginning with Dafydd, and ending with Herrac himself, who—surprisingly enough—took longer to arrive than his sons. As a result, Jim had been killing time, faced with continual servings of food and wine. He had managed to avoid most of the food but had drunk more wine than he would have liked at a time when he wished to be clear-voiced and persuasive.
However, it now appeared that his initial statement to the rest of them had been bombshell enough in its own right to make up for any blurring in his voice while he uttered it.
"Did I understand you to say, m'Lord," said Sir Herrac, his voice overriding and instantly silencing the clamor that had been set up by his sons all suddenly speaking at once, "that you thought you had a way to rid us forever of the Hollow Men?"
"I believe we have that chance," said Jim. "It'll require a force of fighting men from the Border area; and the assistance of some others—whom I plan to go find tomorrow with the wolf Snorrl, if he also can be found by that time to lead me to them."
"Then let us hear it, in God's name!" said Sir Herrac, with more emotion in his voice than Jim had heard there since his mention of his dead wife.
"Yes, m'Lord!" echoed Liseth, her eyes shining. She had been accepted as one of the party at the table, along with Dafydd and Lachlan MacGreggor, whom Jim had also needed there, and whom he had forgotten to mention to her in his first talk of the conference he wished to have.
"That will do, daughter!" said Sir Herrac to her. "Remember you are here on the condition that you listen but do not speak, at least without asking my permission first."
"Yes, Father," Liseth dutifully repeated the litany that seemed to come almost immediately to the lips of all the de Mer children in their father's presence.
"Now, m'Lord James," said Sir Herrac, turning once more to Jim, "I believe you may have been about to answer me."
"Yes, indeed," said Jim. "The plan is essentially simple. With Snorrl I've been able to find a place from which the Hollow Men, once all gathered together, can't easily escape if attacked in a certain fashion. I'm going to try to make each one of them pick up his gold personally—to make sure they'll all be there."
"It will take a large force," said Herrac, "to kill them all, though. I know not how many friends I can bring to our help."
"I thought of that," said Jim. "I suggest that the schiltrons of the Little Men, who fight on foot, with spears, charge the Hollow Men first when they are unprepared, then open lanes through their ranks for the Borderers when the Hollow Men begin to turn and fight."
"The Little Men!" exploded Herrac; and all his sons, as well as Lachlan, began speaking at once.
Herrac quieted them down.
"Go on, Sir James," he said grimly. "The Little Men, you said."
"Yes," answered Jim. "I'd like to see them included in this. Not only because they are hereditary enemies of the Hollow Men, going back even before the time of the present families of folk like you on the Border. But because they may have certain abilities and advantages that we lack; to make sure that when we finish every Hollow Man there will be slain. This, of course, so that none of them can return to life again; and you'll all be free of them, at last."
Herrac rubbed his massive chin thoughtfully with an equally massive forefinger.
"Not all Borderers completely trust and like the Little Men," he said, "though—to be truthful—I know of none who hold any particular feud with them or grudge against them. It is only that there are stories… As to the Little Men's attitude toward we people, I have no idea what that would be. You will have to make sure of that for yourself. But assuming that something like this can be done, and done successfully, what was your plan for getting all the Hollow Men—mark me, all the Hollow Men—into this place where they might be trapped and killed?"
"That too," said Jim, "is essentially simple, although it will make use of some rather unusual methods; and, to be truthful, some magic on my part."
He turned to Lachlan MacGreggor.
"I believe you said something about this envoy being close to the Scottish King?" he said.
"I didna say something about it," said Lachlan, "I said it. Otherwise it couldna be. For one thing, the sum of gold the man will be carrying. It'll be the complete first part of the bribe for all the Hollow Men; and that's a weighty sum for the King to entrust to anyone but one of his closest lap-dogs. So the MacDougall, who will be the envoy, will undoubtedly come himself, as I told ye earlier, mounted and with a small guard of men; and pack horses with the gold loaded on them."
"You know him by sight," said Jim, "this MacDougall?"
"Know him? Och, man, how could I not? I've seen him often enough at court and elsewhere," answered Lachlan. "There's some that think him a braw callant, but he's a wee man in my estimation and over-Frenchified for my taste. What's my knowing how he looks to do with this?"
"I plan to take his place," answered Jim.
Lachlan stared at him, and then let out a hoot of laughter.
"I've no mind to insult you," he said, once he was through laughing. "But you're a little over-large and heavy in the shoulders and upper body to pass for the MacDougall, and nothing in your face that's like his. And even if you were his twin brother, you haven't his airs and fancy manners."
"I know that," said Jim, "but believe me, these are all things that possibly can be remedied by magic."
At the mention of this potent word, everyone around the table sobered, including Lachlan. There was a moment of satisfying silence.
"I believe," said Jim, breaking it and speaking to Lachlan, "you had a plan for intercepting this MacDougall and the gold in any case. A plan you wished to suggest to Sir Herrac, here."
"Aye," said Lachlan, moving a little uneasily on his bench and staring down into his wine cup. He raised his eyes to Jim. "But that was something different, in that it had nothing to do with this talk of magic."
"I assure you," said Jim solemnly, "hic"
The wine that he had been absent-minded enough to drink so much of while waiting for the rest to appear apparently had tripped him up after all.
"You'll not be drunken so early in the afternoon?" asked Lachlan, eyeing him shrewdly.
"No—hic!" said Jim, stumbling over another hiccup. "This is part of a curse put on me by another magician many years ago, that I've never completely overcome. It'll pass. Simply ignore it."
"Indeed," said Dafydd, coming to his rescue, "and I have heard of a man who died of the hiccups, with no magic to combat them."
"Exactly," said Jim. He continued, hiccupping every so often but determinedly ignoring it. "Luckily, it only happens at rare intervals. At any rate, as I was saying, you had a plan to capture MacDougall and the gold, Lachlan?"
"Aye," said Lachlan again, having become suddenly
very cautious and very pronounced in his Scottish accent, "but I'm no' that sure it will run in harness with what you've in mind."
"I'll have to ask you to let me be the judge of that," said Jim stiffly.
He had learned the hard way over the past year that, when in doubt with fourteenth-century people, it was sometimes wise to assert whatever authority you had. "I'm the only one who controls magic at this table," he went on, "and knows how it would work with whatever you had planned. So, let us hear your plan in detail."
"Well," said Lachlan, putting the accent aside, "it's simple enough. I know his route, and when he was due to leave, which would have been a day and a half ago. The place I had in mind to ambush him and his men was a place where the road he will be following passes between two steep slopes well covered with trees. He'll have no more than half a dozen men with him. More would draw attention. He should reach this spot about afternoon tomorrow."
He paused to empty his wine cup and refill it.
"We have enough fighting men at this table," he said, "though I would Sir Brian was able to join us, for he's a man that I would believe no stranger to the clash of steel—to take care of his escort. The MacDougall is no great body with any weapon, except that English broadsword and shield, nor of any great courage, in my opinion. If we cut down his men, before he knows what's happened, he'll have no heart but to surrender—himself and all with him."
He paused thoughtfully for a moment.
"Also," he added, "there's an advantage in taking the man and his gold with just those of us who are here, so that the fewer who know about it the better."
There was a further moment of thoughtful silence on the part of all there.
"There are my five sons," said Herrac, breaking it, finally. "As well as m'Lord James—yourself, Lachlan—and the bowman. Perhaps you are right that we are in numbers to take care of them. But I would not lose one of my family, do you understand, for all the gold that this man could be carrying!"
"You will not," said Lachlan energetically. "I give you my word on't! The men with him will be men used to fighting, true; but we shall take them at such a disadvantage that they will be out of their saddles before they know what's happened. Old friend Herrac, if you would feel safer by taking some of the other fighting men you may have around the castle here, I will not say nay. Not I, any more than you, would wish to see even one of your family badly hurt or slain."
"No," said Herrac slowly, looking up and down the table at the eager faces of his sons. "But we cannot leave the castle without a commander. Giles, you must be the one to stay."
"Father!" exclaimed Giles. "And I the one knight only, among your sons?"
"For that very reason, that I leave you in charge," said Herrac. "With Sir Brian wounded and abed—"
"Forgive me, Father," said Giles, daringly interrupting his parent for the first time that Jim had heard any of his children do so, "but I believe Sir Brian would rise to any trouble, if it should appear. In fact, I spoke to him about when he might be up and about. And he spoke of tomorrow or even the next day. This I know is too soon. But I think if the castle were attacked and he needed to take command, he would do so, wounded or not."
There was a long moment of silence.
"That," said Herrac finally, "I can believe. From what I see of the man—if needed, he would be on his feet and sword in hand, if he bled to death for it."
He sighed.
"All right, Giles," he said, "I give you permission to go with us. After all, any neighbors we have who might essay a move against us should be with us, instead, at the battle with the Hollow Men."
"Thank you, Father," said Giles strongly.
"Actually," said the voice of Liseth unexpectedly, "I could also be useful, if only—"
"Liseth," said her father, turning to her. "Under no conditions do you go. That is understood?"
"Yes, Father," said Liseth, literally between her teeth. "If it is your command."
"It is," said Herrac. "Also, think you a minute. Who else would take care of Sir Brian if you were to go?"
She bit her lower lip.
"There is no one else," she said quietly, "that's true, Father."
"How long—hic—" Jim asked Lachlan, "will it take us to get to this place where we might ambush the MacDougall?"
"Less than a six-hour ride," said Lachlan. "We can leave early in the morning. Then we can be in position by afternoon. Even if he is early and comes that afternoon instead of the morning of the next day, we will be ready for him."
"Well, then," said Jim, looking around at the rest of them for once without the urge to hiccup, "I take it it's settled, we leave early in the morning."
"It is settled, as far as I and my family are concerned," said Herrac. "Since Lachlan has already declared himself for it, there is only the bowman—''
"I will be with you, of course," Dafydd's soft voice cut in on Herrac's.
"Then I counsel we eat and drink now, and to bed early," said Herrac. "We will be rising before daylight, because there will be some getting ready before we leave in the morning. Even though time, according to Lachlan, is on our side."
"Good—hic—" Jim stood up rather hurriedly and stepped backward over the bench he was sitting on to free himself from the table. "In that case I might beg m'Lady to find me once more an extra chamber where I can make my own preparations. They involve magic that may keep me busy for some time. M'Lady, let it not be your room that you give up to me this time. Surely, servants can be found to clean and make ready another chamber?"
"It can be done, and will," said Liseth, rising herself. "Come with me."
"As soon as that is settled, return to eat!" Herrac's strong voice followed them. "M'Lord, you are the most important of us all to this expedition. I would see you fed, given to drink, and released early."
"I'll be right back," promised Jim. He followed Liseth into the kitchen, where she recruited a number of the servants; and they all trooped upstairs onto the same floor where Liseth's own room was. Liseth led them to a room that was filled with old odds and ends of furniture for the most part, as well as other clutter, very dusty and dirty. With amazing assurance and expertise she put all the servants with her to work at clearing the room and thoroughly cleaning it.
"You may go back down to the dinner table, if you wish now, m'Lord," she said, once this was done, turning to Jim. "I will stay a little longer to see that the servants are getting all things done here. There will be a bed, a chamber pot, a cup and a jug of wine and a small table and chair here when you return; if you give them two hours in which to get all prepared."
"Thanks," said Jim. "I'll get back downstairs, then."
He hurried down the curving stone steps that followed the inner side of the wall of the peel tower, finding that his hiccups had vanished along the way. Consequently, he was able to reenter the Great Hall and sit down to dinner with the rest, without that annoying and involuntary interruption from time to time. But he was very cautious about drinking any more wine. When Lachlan pressed him to refill his cup, he once more invoked the name of magic as an excuse to avoid it.
"Too much wine," he said portentously, "can badly alter the spell."
Lachlan, as well as the rest, seemed suitably impressed by this. Jim made himself as good a dinner as he felt able to eat; and when Liseth returned to join them at the table, he asked that a pitcher of small beer be added to the pitcher of wine that was to be set in his bedroom.
As soon as possible he returned back upstairs, to find the dirty and cluttered room completely changed. It was now completely clean—by fourteenth-century standards. The cresset in its wall was alight, and there was more fuel for it piled against the wall beneath it. The bed, the table, the chair, the wine and beer were all as Liseth had promised.
He had thought it wiser to accept the bed, without making a point of not needing it. But now that he was up here without Liseth, he got his rolled-up mattress to put on the floor of his own new chamber. The truth of the matter was, wha
t he wanted was simply a good night's sleep. He closed the door with some assurance that no one, not even Liseth or Herrac, would enter without knocking first. Then he unrolled his mattress on the floor, rolled himself up in it; and was asleep before the cresset had burned out.
It was one of those nights that seemed to pass in a mere wink of both eyes for a second. He went almost immediately asleep, and was awakened, almost immediately it seemed, by a knocking at his door.
"One moment!" he called back.
He unrolled himself and rerolled his mattress, got to his feet, poured some of the small beer into his cup and swallowed, shuddering at the taste of it. It was, however, wet, and welcome just at the moment. Rubbing the last of the sleep off his eyes, he went to the door and opened it. Liseth was outside. He let her in.
"My father is already waking my brothers, m'Lord," she said. "I took it upon myself to rouse you. If I can be of any help in your making ready—"
"That's good of you," said Jim. His mind was too fuzzy at the moment to come up with more than those few words. Meanwhile she had stepped by him, and in the first pale, pre-dawn light filtering through his window, looked curiously at the bed.
"You did not sleep at all, m'Lord?" she asked as Jim went back and picked up his mattress, tucking it under his arm.
"I had certain duties," said Jim, as meaningfully as he could while still not fully awake. "I'm sure m'Lady understands."
"Oh, yes!" answered Liseth. Jim checked suddenly, aware of a sensation inside him that he had been too numb with sleep to appreciate until now. He turned to Liseth, who had also stopped and was looking at him curiously.
"Would you leave me in this room by myself for a few minutes more? It will only be a moment. Let no one else enter."
"No one shall so much as approach its doorway, m'Lord!" said Liseth fiercely. "You can trust me."
"Oh, I do!" said Jim. She went out, closing the door behind her.
Left alone, he hastily began to unlace from their points the leather cord that held up his hose, and approached his chamber pot. It had been a long night and he had not woken once. He urinated in the chamber pot with a great sense of relief, then hastily redid his points and went back out and hastily up to Liseth.