Conquer the Night Read Online Free

“Nothing here is for pleasure. It is vengeance, Jay. She is simply to be used, ruined.”
    â€œAye, but … is such vengeance humanly possible if such proves to be the case? I mean, if a maid is preposterously ugly—”
    â€œYou have mercy, Jay.”
    Jay, his helmet in his hand, smoothed back his rich brown hair. “Ah, there’s the word! Mercy! Such a virtue, and lost to Scotland and Scots for so very long, so it seems. You’ve granted mercy to these men.”
    â€œBut you would have me grant mercy as well to the woman who encouraged Darrow in his vicious and bloodthirsty behavior?”
    â€œArryn, perhaps—”
    Arryn leaned downward, his gloved hand curling into a fist that he slammed against his chest. “Sweet Jesus, I cannot forget or forgive what happened!”
    â€œBut she could be quite simply repulsive!” Jay stated.
    â€œThen I will meet her in the dark, with a sack upon her head! Come, we’ve taken the bailey; now the towers must fall to us!”
    He spurred his horse, leaving Jay to rush behind him to his own mount. Angered, restless, still feeling the pursuit of inner demons, Arryn rode hard to the great gate at the main tower. He called out orders, commanding his men to bombard the structure with a ram. Defenders overhead shouted, threatened; they would hurl down oil and flaming arrows to set them all ablaze. One fellow, in particular, shouted down that he would burn with them in hell.
    â€œSeize the great oak shield and continue ramming the gate!” Arryn commanded, and his men quickly backed away toward the shield they had fashioned of heavy oak, a piece of siege machinery that protected them like a wooden roof from the missiles cast down from the arrow slits in the main tower that stretched above them.
    The door shuddered.
    The flames cast down burned, smoked, and went out. The oil dripped off the curve of the shield.
    The ram thundered against the door.
    â€œHold! For God’s sake, we will surrender!”
    Arryn lifted his visor and looked up. The same fellow who had sworn to burn with them all in hell was the one offering the surrender.
    â€œYou protect Lord Darrow’s lady, sir. You would give up so easily?” he queried mockingly.
    â€œYou’ve granted mercy to the soldiers in the bailey. I am Tyler Miller, captain of the guard, and I’ve heard, Sir Arryn, that you keep your word. Swear mercy to us and I will open the gates; thus you will have taken a castle you can still defend.”
    â€œAye, I swear mercy. But I ask again, what of your lady?”
    â€œIt is her command that I surrender,” he said, his voice suddenly tremulous. “She, too, must cast herself upon your mercy. We are too few, we have no more oil, no arrows, and we are poorly armed. And …”
    He hesitated, looking down. “Sir Arryn, we’ve heard of the fate befallen so many of your people. We humbly beg pardon, and swear we were not among those who attacked your holdings. God help us, we were not. These are Lowlands here, and aye, we’ve English in our blood, but many of us are Scotsmen as well, sworn allegiance to the old lord here, the lady’s good father. Aye, he was an Englishman, but … we’re not all vicious dogs, sir.”
    â€œOpen the gates then,” Arryn commanded.
    â€œYour word?”
    â€œI’ve given my word.”
    The great gates to the main tower of the fortress creaked open. Arryn nudged his horse forward, only to realize that Jay had ridden behind him. “Take care—it could be a trap.”
    â€œI must lead the way in,” Arryn murmured.
    He spurred the bay lightly; the horse pranced prettily and swiftly, making its way across the threshold and into the stone entry. Arryn held his sword at the ready—it still dripped the blood of Englishmen—but the threat was not necessary. The soldiers from the inner courtyard had laid down their weapons. There were