The Ravens of Falkenau & Other Stories Read Online Free

I directed.   "And the great hall is to be made habitable for a company of my men.   The rest are to be lodged in the village.   You will see to that, McDonald.   The Lady Izabela will continue in her duties as chatelaine unless I have reason to remove her."   I turned to the young woman in her old black dress.   "Do not give me reason to remove you.   It will go easier on your people under your supervision than mine."   She nodded shortly, but I could see the taut fury in her face.   "Lady," I said more quietly, "Do not even think of poison.   I am the only thing that stands between you and worse.   I will not loot this castle because it is of more worth to the Emperor intact than carried off piecemeal in rucksacks."   I looked her up and down coldly.   "And you are worth more to me as chatelaine than as whore.   I am more interested in your spreading acres than your spread legs.   The next captain might not feel the same."
    I turned away, but not before I saw the flush of humiliation mount in her face.   As well, I thought.   If this is not taken firmly in hand at the first there will be no controlling her, and I would rather have humiliation than bloodshed.   Especially my own blood shed.   She was not above poison.
    "You, your children and your ladies will continue to occupy your quarters.   I would advise you to remain in them when not engaged in the business of running the castle.   Chambers will be prepared for me and my officers.   You will place at my disposal the rooms belonging to your late husband."
    "It will be done," she said, tight-lipped.

    It was.   The chamber was in the westward tower, looking out over the valley, just at the corner where the tower joined the keep.   It had a huge fireplace, louvers on the windows, Flemish tapestries of a stag hunt, and an enormous carven bed draped in green velvet.   There was a table for my maps and papers, a leather chair, and a twisted iron floor stand to hold candles.   I walked to the windows in the autumn afternoon and looked out across the chasm and the valley at the haze of colored mountains, the faint wreath of smoke that drifted like a dream across the river.
    There had been lights in this room nineteen years ago when I was a penniless boy and Izabela a babe in her cradle.   She was born under the midwinter sign of Capricorn, a fire in the dead of winter's cold with flame colored hair.
    In the great chair of the old lord I wrote a letter to Wallenstein.   "I have taken the fortress of Falkenau."

    The peace lasted six days.   My men were quartered in the town and castle well enough.   Food would be short for everyone in the valley this winter because of the interrupted harvest.   Two of my men were flogged for stealing chickens, but other than that it was quiet, until the night Izabela tried to murder me.
    The room I had been given had only one door, which I kept bolted on the inside while I slept, as mercenaries are not trusting sorts.   I could not go to sleep until late, however, so I had only just banked the fire, blown out the candles and gone to bed when I heard a soft click.   I did not open my eyes, only looked out from beneath the lashes as a panel in the eastward wall slid open on well-oiled hinges.
    With no light to guide her it was dark as the tomb.   I could see the faint white shape of her nightdress, and I cursed myself for not wondering if this castle did not have, as so many did, a private passageway connecting the apartments of lord and lady.
    I didn't wonder for more than a second who my visitor was or what she wanted.   I heard her listen to my even, sleeping breathing, heard the soft sound of the knife sliding clear of the scabbard.   Two footsteps.
    Just before she landed on me I rolled to the side, the dagger sinking deep into the pillow, a cloud of feathers flying up.   She twisted, but I had her wrist in my right hand and the heavy bed covers impeded her.   She fought like a cat, twisting beneath me as