The noise of steel striking steel reached my ears.It sounded like soldiers were training behind the fortress walls.How many were inside?There was only one way to find out.
‘I’m here to deliver some things to someone inside,’ I said.
‘To who?’asked the guard.
Damnation.‘A friend,’ I answered.
‘Bugger off.We don’t allow your kind in here.’
My kind?Blacksmiths?Women?Oh wait, does he think I’m a—
‘Not that kind of friend.’I was dressed in men’s breeches and a shirt that had been worn and washed so many times that it was no longer white but grey.Hardly an outfit to entice a soldier to pay for my company.
‘I said, bugger off!’He reached for his sword.It wasn’t wise for me to draw their attention, so I had no choice but to back up and walk away.
Entering the fortress was going to need some planning.I needed to find a legitimate way to gain access.
I headed back to Cillian, who was working on the colossal piece of metal I had seen him hammering the first day we met.
He looked at me with a smile, and I smiled back before taking Nightmare to the stable.When I returned, Cillian asked to see what I had purchased from the market.I wanted to share the honey cakes and the pine-apple with him, so I cut it up the way the vendor had shown me.
‘This is my new favourite apple.’I ate another slice.
Cillian laughed and shook his head at me.
‘What are you making?’I gestured to the piece he was working on.
‘It’s going to be a plough.’He motioned for me to come over to the table we used as a workshop desk and view the detailed drawing.
‘Most ploughs are wood held together with iron nails and brackets, with one central piece of iron digging into the soil.I’vedesigned this one to have multiple blades that rotate in the dirt as the horse pulls it, making it more efficient at breaking up rocks and much faster for the farmer.’
The design had many parts drawn with precise measurements, and he had labelled each piece to be crafted.Blacksmiths always created basic patterns and designs, but this was the first time I had seen plans as complicated as this.He had a unique talent for this clever type of engineering.
‘This is incredible!’
His cheeks flushed, and he reached up to rub the back of his neck.‘You think so?’
‘Yes.You’re smarter than you look, aren’t you?’I tilted my head, a smirk tugging at my lips.
He chuckled, and we went back to eating honey cakes and pine-apple.
‘What do you know about the people residing in the fortress?’I asked, trying to sound only mildly curious.
He wiped at the juice trickling down his chin from an exceptionally juicy piece of pine-apple.‘They just showed up one day.’He shrugged.‘A lord from Capita with three children is what I’ve heard.They arrived just over three months ago.’
‘What’s with all the soldiers?’I asked.
‘They escorted the family to Murus from Capita.Whoever this lord is, he needs a well-trained militia, which doesn’t come cheap.’Cillian wiped his sticky hands on his breeches as he continued.‘If I had to guess, I would say this lord and his family are hiding from someone or have been exiled.’
‘Exiled by who?’I was getting even more curious about the fortress inhabitants.Cillian shrugged again, but he avoided my gaze.Was he afraid to say more?
‘His militia seem rather well behaved compared with the few soldiers I’ve met,’ I said with a bitter taste in my mouth.Cillian laid his big hand on top of the one I had resting on my knee.
‘You have nothing to fear while you’re staying here.That’s a promise, Caris.’
I nodded but moved my hand from beneath his.Being touched, even out of kindness, made me uncomfortable.He didn’t seem bothered by my withdrawal, which I was thankful for.
That night I lay awake, unable to sleep.I could see the stony facade of the fortress through my little bedroom window.I couldn’t help but wonder if the man, with his hauntingly pale blue eyes and my mother’s blood staining his hands, found peaceful slumber within those cold, unyielding stone walls.
