Page 58 of Highland Slayer
The torches hadgone out.
That was unfortunate because up until that moment, they had been able to see their enemy perfectly clear.
Now, they were looking at darkness.
Bastijn and Willem were close to the gatehouse, just inside the line of trees. The fog was so heavy that they knew they were concealed from anyone looking out from the wall or the gatehouse. They could barely see anything themselves. The fact that the torches went out was concerning, but they knew they hadn’t been seen. Perhaps it was simply a method of conserving fuel.
Perhaps they didn’t need the fires any longer.
But Bastijn suspected it was more than that.
In any case, his men were spread out around St. Margaret’s, inspecting the landscape and gaining intelligence that would eventually help form a plan of attack. This was usual when they were considering an assault on unknown territory. They’d found the place easily earlier in the day, staying out of sight and watching the activity. The even saw the Templar nuns on the wall walk, though they weren’t sure why they were called that. They didn’t dress like nuns, but rather like warriors. Perhaps that was why they had their name.
But it didn’t matter.
The Serpent People could defeat them.
Men could always defeat women. They were confident in that. As they scouted the area around the abbey, they were communicating with each other with owl sounds because therewas nothing more normal than birds of prey hunting in the dark. They usually communicated with birdcalls in a situation like this, and they chose the owl sounds because those birds were particularly active in the nighttime. There should be nothing unusual about that.
Or so they thought.
But the truth was that they’d been biding their time since their arrival. They had been in the trees since dusk, when the gates were still open or, at the very least, there were people milling about the portcullis. At that time, they could have very easily have walked up to the gatehouse and asked if they had seen a strange woman who had come from the sea, but given this was an abbey, they were fairly certain that even if she was within the walls, the nuns would not allow them in, and they probably would not let the woman walk out. Especially since she had probably already told them why she had fled.
Andwhomshe had fled.
No, they didn’t see any successful scenario in asking about her at the gatehouse.
That meant they had to come up with an alternative plan.
It was only an abbey, after all. At least, that was what they thought until they actually got there and saw women armed with crossbows upon the wall walk. That, in and of itself, was confusing enough, but what made it worse was that any woman they did see was dressed like a man. They were in breeches and tunics, with their hair tied back. The men started to think that they were in the wrong place until the bell tolled for evening prayers and they could even hear song upon the air. That told them that they were in the right place.
Even if the right place did seem… rather strange.
Further complicating the issue were the armed women on the walls. That didn’t look like a normal abbey to them, which possibly negated an easy attack. Surely nothing would be easierthan breaching the walls of an abbey, but not when those nuns had crossbows. It was anybody’s guess as to whether or not they knew how to actually use them, but something told Bastijn and Willem that they wouldn’t be carrying such weapons if they didn’t know how they worked.
Nobody wanted to be impaled by a bolt fired by a nun.
That would be most embarrassing.
So, they waited.
“I’ve never heard of nuns defending an abbey like this,” Willem said. “This looks more like a fortress.”
Bastijn’s gaze was on the gates, nearly the only thing he could see in the darkness, and even at that, it was simply a dark spot. “It does,” he said. “That woman in the village did call them Templar nuns, and it is clear that it is some kind of fortification. That was obvious when we could actually see it. Now…”
“Now, it is a great mystery wrapped in the fog and darkness,” Willem finished for him. “They’ve doused the torches and there is nothing for us to see.”
“Mayhap we have seen enough.”
“What do you mean?”
Bastijn sat back against a tree trunk, arms wrapped around his body for warmth. The smell of mildew was pervasive in the air, coming from him, from Willem, and any number of unwashed bodies nearby.
“I mean that I believe those nuns are defending the abbey because they know we are coming,” he said. “Leonore must have alerted them. She would know that we were following her. She would know we are coming for her. She has put them on the defensive, which proves she is inside.”
Willem couldn’t disagree. “She must be in there or they would not be on such alert,” he said. “Some of the men have suggested we make ladders and mount the walls, overpowering the women on guard duty.”
Bastijn grunted. “We can try,” he said. “But the same mist that would shield our movements would also make us vulnerable because we could not see the nuns well enough to place the ladders. We could put a ladder up right next to one.”
