The Gathering Storm (Crown of Stars 5)

“Why didn’t you stop him?” demanded Ivar.

Ermanrich gave him a look. “When has Baldwin ever listened to any of us?”

“Nay, Ivar, don’t be angry at Dedi.” Sigfrid laid a gentle, but restraining, hand on Ivar’s arm. “Ermanrich’s only speaking the truth, which you know as well as we do.”

“Damned fool. Why couldn’t he wait?” But Baldwin never listened, he just pretended to.

“He probably ran off because he thought he saw Margrave Judith come looking for him,” joked Ermanrich nervously.

“Why should a margrave like Judith come looking for the likes of him?” asked Dedi with a snort of disbelief.

“Hush!” said Hathumod abruptly. “Listen!”

The sound of thrashing came from the trees. Baldwin burst out of the forest, arms flailing.

“A lion!” He hadn’t run more than ten steps into the clearing when he tripped and fell.

They hurried over to calm him down, but as they swarmed around him, he jumped to his feet with a look of terror on his beautiful face. “I found an old hovel over at a rock outcropping, not far from here, but when I stuck my head inside, I heard a cough behind me. I turned around and there was a lion up on the rocks!”

“A Lion?” demanded Gerulf. “From which cohort?”

“Nay, a lion. A beast. Quite tawny and as hungry looking as you please. A second one came to stand beside the first.”

Gerulf snorted. “I’ll thank you not to pull my leg, Son. There aren’t any lions in the north except them as you might find in the regnant’s menagerie. Lions live in the southern lands.”

“I know what I saw.”

“If it was a hungry lion, then why didn’t it eat you up?” asked Dedi with a laugh. “Or was it too busy admiring your pretty face?”

Ivar jumped between Baldwin and Dedi just as Baldwin drew his arm back for a punch. “Baldwin can’t help the way he looks. No need to tease him for it. It’s getting dark anyway. I don’t care to spend a night here inside this stone circle with those barrows as our guardians. Do any of you?”

No one did, not even Sigfrid, whose powerful faith made him hardest to frighten.

“Anything might happen here among the stones and graves,” said Ermanrich. “I’d rather face the lions.”

“We’ll let you go first,” said Hathumod dryly to her cousin, “for then they’ll have a good meal and won’t need to eat any of the rest of us.”

“There’s the path.” Gerulf pointed toward the gap.

“I’d hate to take any path with darkness coming on and wolves howling nearby,” said Ivar.

“Not to mention the lions,” said Dedi.

“You’ll see,” muttered Baldwin.

“How big is this hovel?” Gerulf nodded toward Ivar to show he agreed that they shouldn’t try to go far lest they lose themselves in the night.

“One man could sit inside it, but not comfortably,” said Baldwin. “But right below where I saw the lions the outcropping cuts in and makes a bit of an overhang.”

“That might serve as shelter,” said Gerulf, “enough for one night. We can follow the path in the morning.”

“You don’t believe me!” Baldwin looked from face to face. “None of you believe me! Ivar?”

Drops of rain brushed Ivar’s face. A gust of wind, heralding stronger rain to come, rattled through the trees. “It might have been wolves,” he said reluctantly. Seeing Baldwin’s indignant expression, he quickly went on. “Or lions. I’d hate to fight them out in the open. We’ve weapons enough to fight off ravening beasts as long as we have a good stout wall at our back.”

“There you are, Son!” replied Gerulf cheerfully. “If we can get a fire going, then a good overhang will serve us better whether wolves or lions or even a guivre itself comes a-courting. Better anyway than standing out here and getting soaking wet. You’d have made a good Lion, lad.”

“I would have been no Lion,” said Ivar, stung by this statement. “I’d have been a Dragon, if my father who is count up in the North Mark would have let me ride with them instead of putting me into the church.”