Bernard Cornwell: Agincourt

“Caesar was barely scratched, my lord,” Hook said dismissively, “nothing but a tear in his hide.”

“And how would you know if you weren’t there?”

“I hear things in the village, my lord,” Hook said.

“I hear things too, Hook,” Lord Slayton said, “and you’re to leave the Perrills alone! You hear me? Leave them alone!”

Hook did not believe in much, but he had somehow persuaded himself that the curse that lay on his life would be lifted if only he could kill the Perrills. He was not quite sure what the curse was, unless it was the uncomfortable suspicion that life must hold more than the manor offered. Yet when he thought of escaping Lord Slayton’s service he was assailed by a gloomy foreboding that some unseen and incomprehensible disaster awaited him. That was the tenuous shape of the curse and he did not know how to lift it other than by murder, but nevertheless he nodded obediently. “I hear you, my lord.”

“You hear and you obey,” his lordship said. He tossed the arrow onto the fire where it lay for a moment, then burst into bright flame. A waste of a good broadhead, Hook thought. “Sir Martin doesn’t like you, Hook,” Lord Slayton said in a lower voice. He rolled his eyes upward and Hook understood that his lordship was asking whether his wife was still in the gallery. Hook gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. “You know why he hates you?” his lordship asked.

“Not sure he likes many people, lord,” Hook answered evasively.

Lord Slayton stared at Hook broodingly. “And you’re right about Will Snoball,” he finally said, “he’s weakening. We all get old, Hook, and I’ll be needing a new centenar. You understand me?”

A centenar was the man who commanded a company of archers and William Snoball had held the job for as long as Hook remembered. Snoball was also the manor’s steward, and the two offices had made him the richest of all Lord Slayton’s men. Hook nodded. “I understand, lord,” he muttered.

“Sir Martin believes Tom Perrill should be my next centenar. And he fears I’ll appoint you, Hook. I can’t imagine why he would think that, can you?”

Hook looked into his lordship’s face. He was tempted to ask about his mother and how well his lordship had known her, but he resisted. “No, lord,” he said humbly instead.

“So when you go to London, Hook, tread carefully. Sir Martin will accompany you.”

“London!”

“I have a summons,” Lord Slayton explained. “I’m required to send my archers to London. Ever been to London?”

“No, my lord.”

“Well, you’re going. I don’t know why, the summons doesn’t say. But my archers are going because the king commands it. And maybe it’s war? I don’t know. But if it is war, Hook, then I don’t want my men killing each other. For God’s sake, Hook, don’t make me hang you.”

“I’ll try not, my lord.”

“Now go. Tell Snoball to come in. Go.”

Hook went.

It was a January day. It was still cold. The sky was low and twilight dark, though it was only mid-morning. At dawn there had been flurries of snow, but it had not settled. There was frost on the thatched roofs and skins of cat ice on the few puddles that had not been trampled into mud. Nick Hook, long-legged and broad-chested and dark-haired and scowling, sat outside the tavern with seven companions, including his brother and the two Perrill brothers. Hook wore knee-high boots with spurs, two pairs of breeches to keep out the cold, a woollen shirt, a padded leather jerkin, and a short linen tunic, which was blazoned with Lord Slayton’s golden crescent moon and three golden stars. All eight men wore leather belts with pouches, long daggers and swords, and all wore the same livery, though a stranger would need to look hard to discern the moon and stars because the colors had faded and the tunics were dirty.

No one did look hard, because armed men in livery meant trouble. And these eight men were archers. They carried neither bows nor arrow bags, but the breadth of their chests showed these were men who could draw the cord of a war bow a full yard back and make it look easy. They were bowmen, and they were one cause of the fear that pervaded London’s streets. The fear was as pungent as the stench of sewage, as prevalent as the smell of woodsmoke. House doors were closed. Even the beggars had vanished, and the few folk who walked the city were among those who had provoked the fear, yet even they chose to pass on the farther side of the street from the eight archers.

“Sweet Jesus Christ,” Nick Hook broke the silence.

“Go to church if you want to say prayers, you bastard,” Tom Perrill said.

“I’ll shit in your mother’s face first,” Hook snarled.

“Quiet, you two,” William Snoball intervened.

“We shouldn’t be here,” Hook growled. “London’s not our place!”

“Well, you are here,” Snoball said, “so stop bleating.”

The tavern stood on a corner where a narrow street led into a wide market square. The inn’s sign, a carved and painted model of a bull, hung from a massive beam that was anchored in the tavern’s gable and reached out to a stout post sunk in the marketplace. Other archers were visible around the square, men in different liveries, all fetched to London by their lords, though where those lords were no one knew. Two priests carrying bundles of parchments hurried by on the street’s far side. Somewhere deeper in the city a bell started to toll. One of the priests glanced at the archers wearing the moon and stars, then almost tripped as Tom Perrill spat.

“What in Christ’s name are we doing here?” Robert Perrill asked.

“Christ is not telling us,” Snoball answered sourly, “but I am assured we do His work.”

Christ’s work consisted of guarding the corner where the street joined the marketplace, and the archers had been ordered to let no man or woman pass them by, either into the market square or out of it. That command did not apply to priests, nor to mounted gentry, but only to the common folk, and those common folk possessed the wisdom to stay indoors. Seven hand-drawn carts had come down the street, pulled by ragged men and loaded with firewood, barrels, stones, and long timbers, but the carts had been accompanied by mounted men-at-arms who wore the royal livery and the archers had stayed still and silent while they passed.

A plump girl with a scarred face brought a jug of ale from the tavern. She filled the archers’ pots and her face showed nothing as Snoball groped beneath her heavy skirts. She waited till he had finished, then held out a hand.

“No, no, darling,” Snoball said, “I did you a favor so you should reward me.” The girl turned and went indoors. Michael, Hook’s younger brother, stared at the table and Tom Perrill sneered at the young man’s embarrassment, but said nothing. There was little joy to be had in provoking Michael, who was too good-hearted to take offense.

Hook watched the royal men-at-arms who had stopped the handcarts in the center of the marketplace where two long stakes were stood upright in two big barrels. The stakes were being fixed in place by packing the barrels with stones and gravel. A man-at-arms tested one of the stakes, trying to tip or dislodge it, but the work had evidently been well done, for he could not shift the tall timber. He jumped down and the laborers began stacking bundles of firewood around the twin barrels.

“Royal firewood,” Snoball said, “burns brighter.”

“Does it really?” Michael Hook asked. He tended to believe everything he was told and waited eagerly for an answer, but the other archers ignored his question.

“At last,” Tom Perrill said instead, and Hook saw a small crowd emerging from a church at the far side of the marketplace. The crowd was composed of ordinary-looking folk, but it was surrounded by soldiers, monks, and priests, and one of those priests now headed toward the tavern called the Bull.