Page 53 of Peregrine's Call
Tav shook his head. “We can’t fight our way out. Even if all three of us were armed, there’s a garrison’s worth of soldiers to fend off.”
“So we’ll be facing a few dozen swords. Or we’ll be shot dead by the archers,” she added miserably.
“No direct confrontation will work,” Tav went on. “That leaves stealth. We can sneak out of one of the smaller gates during the night.”
“We may be able to get through the door ourselves,” Robin said, “but we need horses and supplies. How will we manage that?”
Tav sighed. “I don’t know.”
She folded her arms on the high stone wall, looking out. “I can’t think of anything he wouldn’t have already tried. Bribe a guard?”
“He’s not sure who’s bribable,” Tav explained. “He could give a guard money, only to be recaptured an instant later when the man reports when happened. He trusts no one.”
“Except us, apparently.” She frowned. “Even if we slipped out ourselves, bearing our weapons and supplies, how would we get our horses out? It’s just too…noticeable.”
“We could do it in phases.”
“How? There’s no way to get horses outside the walls without causing far too much suspicion. And we can’t leave separately. They might letusgo, but the instant Pierce disappears, there will be a massive search party mobilized to find him.”
“We need a distraction,” Tav said, watching the activity happening outside the walls of Willesden. A small group of men herded a few sheep toward the castle gates. “Looks like mutton tonight.”
“They bring in animals,” Robin mused. “Always from the eastern track. The direction we came from. But there are no farms there. Where do the animals come from?”
“Farther afield,” Tav guessed. “Perhaps they sent these men yesterday and they’re just returning now.”
“I saw them at breakfast,” she disagreed. “The fat one in the red cap likes to look at me.”
“So it’s not far to get the sheep.”
“Nor the goats, nor the horses. It’s all sorts of livestock.” Her eyes widened. “The raids! Our suppers must all be stolen meat.”
Tav told her, “He says the raids are not his doing, but the new overlord of Malvern.”
Robin gave an unladylike snort. “We heard about the raiding while we were in the village of Sutton. That’s at least five days hard riding from Malvern. No lord is raiding out that far. These raids are happening closer to home.”
“Pierce is lying, then.” Tav should have known. The man was a liar by nature.
But Robin put her chin on her folded arms, saying, “I agree, but it’s not like him to lie about this sort of thing.”
“Liars lie.”
“Pierce does have a sort of code,” she argued. “When it comes to his loyalties, he’s all over the map, and he treats women and anyone beneath his station like a bug. But he takes the idea of being a lord seriously. I don’t think he would order a secret raid from his own home. It would reflect badly on his honor, and he cares about that.”
Tav considered her words. “If it’s not the old lord of Malvern and not the new lord of Malvern, where does that leave us?”
“The raids are happening, but they’re directed by someone else.”
“Someone who has a lot of sway over the men to get them all to go along.”
“I remember something Irene mentioned to me. She said she only went to Pierce’s bed when he insisted, or when Estmar needed her to. Why would Estmar ever want Irene to go to Pierce, let alone need her to?”
The conclusion she was leading to was simple.
“Irene kept Pierce occupied while Estmar took a group of men out to raid in the middle of the night.” Tav frowned, thinking it over. “Estmar is conducting raids, acting on his own initiative. He doesn’t want Pierce to know about it, so Irene is the distraction. And Estmar and his men have the whole night to ride out, raid whatever target they’ve chosen, and return with the spoils.”
She nodded. “And because Pierce would be suspicious when the castle gets fresh livestock, or whatever else it is they’re stealing, Estmar is instead keeping the livestock close by and under guard. Then, when Pierce gives the servants money to purchase livestock needed for food, Estmar pockets it, and they return with a stolen animal from his store. It’s an excellent scheme…rather more clever than Estmar seems capable of.”
“Perhaps he got the idea from someone else, as a sort of favor for his loyalty.” The idea was unproven, but it felt right. “He acts with far more authority than he should. He did ask me in a roundabout way if I’d like to switch sides. And when we were at the old tower, he mentioned the possibility of keeping livestock there, if guards were manning the tower anyway.”
