Conflicting emotions raged within him. He wanted to take his pistols and ride into Black Mountain, blasting the life from Ranaud. He wanted to join Call Jace and be part of a Rigante army that would tear down the keep stone by stone, killing every beetleback in the territory. Neither action would save Chara. And five thousand beetlebacks were now camped around Black Mountain, waiting for the opportunity to wipe out the Rigante.
Kaelin walked out into the pasture, past the cattle Rayster had driven in. Anger and the need for revenge had driven him to kill Bindoe and Campion. Anger and loss of control had caused him to punch Call Jace and shoot Bael. Now was the time not for uncontrolled fury, but for meticulous planning.
Chara Jace would have been taken, with Wullis Swainham, to the keep, and there imprisoned. Kaelin pictured the building and its approaches. Sentries patrolled the walls and other soldiers manned the small guardhouse set within the gate arch. Then there was the open parade ground, and the keep itself. Kaelin recalled the large mess hall on the first floor. There was also a set of steps behind the clerk’s desk, leading downwards. He guessed they led to the dungeons below the building. How many guards would be stationed there? Two? Ten? How could he know?
Anger flared again, but he quelled it savagely. Despair touched him. An army would be hard pressed to take the keep. What could one Rigante clansman, in his seventeenth year, hope to achieve?
Kaelin thought of Grymauch, but there was little satisfaction to be gained from that. Grymauch would probably just take his giant broadsword and walk boldly into the compound in an attempt to fight his way to the dungeons. No, Grymauch would be no help. Aunt Maev would offer better advice. She had an almost uncanny ability to strip away non-essentials, paring down a problem until the answer shone like a jewel. What would she say now?
Kaelin considered the problem. She would say that taking the keep was not the issue here. The objective was to release Chara Jace. How could one man defeat five thousand beetlebacks? Kaelin could almost hear her answer. ‘There will not be five thousand beetlebacks guarding Chara Jace. There will be sentries on the wall, and sentries in the guardhouse. Once inside there will be a guard or guards outside the dungeons.’
If the gatehouse sentries could be neutralized swiftly and silently then the guards on the walls would not enter the equation. They would carry on their patrolling oblivious of the threat from below. Yet they would see intruders moving towards the keep. That problem could be overcome.
Kaelin continued to plan, thinking through each potential obstacle. Then he sought out Rayster, and walked with him out onto the open land behind the milking sheds.
‘Man, that’s insane,’ said Rayster, as Kaelin outlined his plan. ‘I can think of a score of things that could go wrong.’
‘Then I’ll try it alone.’
‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t go with you,’ snapped Rayster. ‘But we’ll need a mountain of luck.’
‘We’ll make our own. Get Senlic to harness the wagon. We’ll leave within the hour.’
Kaelin walked back to the house. Two of the officers were seated at the dining table, having consumed most of a jug of fine wine from a barrel Kaelin had supplied. ‘You are a fine host, Master Ring,’ said Lieutenant Langhorne. The other man raised his goblet to Kaelin and smiled drunkenly.
‘I am pleased to be able to honour those who serve us so bravely,’ said Kaelin. ‘I am going into Black Mountain this afternoon. Is there anything I can bring back for you?’
‘A woman with big breasts,’ said the drunken officer.
Lieutenant Langhorne shook his head. ‘We have all we need, Master Ring.’
Kaelin moved past them and up the stairs. Once in his room he loaded the Emburleys, and tucked them into his belt. Putting a small powder horn, a dozen balls, and a pack of wadding into the deep pocket of a black overcoat he donned the garment. From a drawer in the chest beneath the window he took a pouch of money, adding to it a small store of ten golden coins that had been hidden in the panelling of the wall behind his bed. Lastly he gathered up two wooden-handled knives with four-inch blades, which he slipped into the inside pocket of his greatcoat.