The Pendragon's Challenge (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 7) by Sarah Woodbury Page B

Penda.
    “The Romans built it,” Cade said by way of assurance. “While Dafydd leads the riders, we will get everyone else but a skeleton defense through the tunnel as quick as we can. Those who remain behind will make a show of resisting the Northumbrians, and then we ourselves will retreat.” He looked to Rhiann. “I need you to go with Dafydd.”
    “You need me on the wall, as always.”
    She, as ever, had the power to stop Cade in his tracks just by looking at him. “Rhiann—”
    Hywel stepped between them. “She’s right, my lord. Penda says he has archers, but we have over a mile of wall to defend. He doesn’t have that many. If the tunnel is passable, she can retreat with the rest of us.”
    “She carries my heir.” Cade spoke through gritted teeth.
    Rhiann moved closer. “I will not be used as your mother was—as a thing to barter to whomever the council chooses to replace you. We will live free or not at all. I’m staying with you.”
    Cade grimaced. “It will be just like Caer Fawr all over again.”
    “You needed me at Caer Fawr.” Rhiann put the flat of her hand on his chest and looked up into his face. “That reminds me. I have thought up a name for our son: Geraint.”
    “ Cariad .” Cade almost folded in on himself, and he found that he was unable to answer. Though, of course, he didn’t have to.
    “The archers will defend the north and east walls of the city.” Penda spoke loudly in Saxon, interrupting their quiet conversation in Welsh. “I have thousands of arrows stockpiled.”
    Cade kept his eyes on his wife’s face. “That’s good, because it’s likely we’ll need them.”

Chapter Thirteen
    Catrin
     
    A s Taliesin had raised his arms, perhaps to call down some great power to burst the doors asunder—or at least to open them—Catrin had felt a whisper of the same power that she’d felt on the hill when they’d first arrived in the Otherworld. Then it had pulled her towards the castle, and even though they’d decided to come despite their fears, she’d attempted the whole time to block its call. She had every reason to distrust it, particularly after Goronwy had described the aura around the castle—and then the snowstorm. But still, the essence of the castle didn’t feel malevolent to her.
    And it seemed silly to not even try the doors before barraging them with magic.
    As it turned out, when she pulled on the handle, the door opened easily on greased hinges. Her eyes went first towards the light coming from the middle of the courtyard where a fountain was adorned with trellises of beautiful flowers. A cascade of water spilled from it, and the breeze on her face warmed her from head to toe. Which made the sight of so many men on the ground all around the fountain and in the shadows in the gatehouse barbican all the more horrifying.
    Goronwy pressed up behind her, gripping her upper arms, and then he moved her slightly aside so he could pass. He crouched next to the first body, which lay ten feet away, still within the barbican that protected the courtyard, and put two fingers to the man’s neck. The man’s face was gray with death and chiseled, almost as if it were made of stone, so when Goronwy looked back at Catrin and shook his head, she was not surprised.
    Taliesin and Mabon moved quickly through the gateway, and at last Catrin followed. Although she remained focused on the dead men and bent to look into every face, Taliesin headed for the front doors to the keep that lay on the far side of the courtyard. Those great doors—nearly as large as the doors to the gatehouse—were closed too, and he pressed an ear to the wood to listen. At some point, Goronwy had unsheathed his sword, and he carried it point down. If the men who’d attacked the castle were still here, their small party was in real danger.
    Catrin stood near the fountain with her hand to her throat. “Who could have done this?”
    Nobody answered, least of all Taliesin. His silence may have been in