1020. Chapter 1020

After Much Ado About Murder

Episode 8.20

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: He who hath no stomach for this fanfic, let him depart, his passport shall be made, But no crowns for convoy will be put in his purse as I make no money from this. Rating: K. Time: See above.

"I am Sir Richard Castle, Knight of Istria, and commander of St. Katherine's Company of England. I serve Duke Rodrigo of Istria. You have doubtlessly heard of the powers at my beck and call."

The citizens of Spolato had indeed heard of Sir Richard. They had seen a powerful army flee in disorder from Castle's troops. Some of those soldiers had taken refuge in Spolato. Their stories about the battle had only grown wilder with each retelling. Some told of giant flying serpents that had swooped out of the sky to carry off both horse and rider. Others spoke of the very ground opening up to disgorge demons from the bowels of Hell itself. Luckless soldiers had been dragged down and the earth covered over them as if they had never existed. Each man told of more and more fantastic, deadly beast that had been unleashed on Frankopoulos' army. The stories of the deaths of Xanthippe and Frankopoulos were even more terrifying. Xanthippe had supposedly been killed by Lady Katherine with no more than the idle wave of her hand. While Castle and his horse had suddenly grown to four times their normal size and simply trampled Frankopoulos.

Castle spoke again. "Normally, I would destroy your city so that not even its memory survived. But, I must return to my master, Duke Rodrigo and serve him. I invite the city of Spolato to send a delegation of your leaders to examine the corpses and hear my terms." Castle turned and rode away.

Within half an hour a delegation left the city. Although they were richly dressed, Castle doubted they were the city's leaders. Rather, he assumed they were men that Spolato could do without if something went amiss. They examined the corpses and satisfied themselves that the dead were who Castle had said they were. Then they waited for Castle's terms.

"In return for not destroying Spolato, I require ten thousand gold pieces, Venetian ducats, preferably. And I will need food and drink for my men and horses." Castle smiled. "Luckily for you, we have our own carts and pack horses. Simply start bringing out food, fodder and drink and I will tell you when you have brought enough." Castle's smile grew cold. "And, please don't think that you can cheat me. You can't."

The men babbled their acceptance and ran back to the city, rushing through the gates to safety.

Within an hour three heavily laden wagons left the city. This contained the gold that Castle had demanded. The gold coins were either in kegs or leather bags. Castle had two of his men count each container of coins and give him the tally. When they were done, Castle spoke to the man in charge of the wagons.

"There are not ten thousand gold coins here." He said coldly.

The man dropped to his knees. "Please, great lord, I did not assemble the gold. I merely brought it here. I am not…"

Castle stopped him. "There are ten thousand, one hundred and eight coins here. As some are not Venetian ducats, but of lesser vaue, I believe that the amount I required of you has been delivered. Now for the food?"

The citizens of Spolato began bringing our barrels of salted fish, beef and pork. Also, bread, cheese and wine. Castle made sure that everything was checked and no rotten food nor moldy bread was given them. Castle did have some trouble with the wine, since too many men wished to check that the wine had not spoiled. He was quite happy that several barrels of very expensive spices, including pepper, cinnamon, ginger and cloves were included. He did idly wonder where they had been stolen from, but decided there was no point in that.

Castle saw something odd being taken from Spolato in a small cart. He walked over to see what it was when he was intercepted by Alexis.

"Sir Richard, I hope you don't mind that I've asked for a few things on my own."

Castle leaned over to check the contents of the small cart. Instead of the silk gowns and jewelry he expected, he found steel tubes and boxes and barrels of some sort of chemicals needed to make the black powder, as Alexis called it.

"You wish to make more handgonnes?"

Alexis smiled, leaned in and rubbed her breasts against him. Castle gently pushed her away.

"I was sure you wouldn't mind. Once back in Istria, there will be many women who'll want handgonnes. Especially now that Lady Katherine has the one I made for her."

"You made for her?" Castle teased.

"One that I had made for her. It saved both of your lives, did it not?"

Castle nodded. "Indeed it did. Carry on, Alexis. Make as many handgonnes as you please."

Alexis curtsied and smiled. "I shall, Sir Richard. And thank you for having faith in me."

As Sir Richard walked away, Alexis called Magda to her.

"Are the silken gowns and jewelry from Spolato hidden away in our wagon?"

"Yes, Lady Alexis." The girl replied in heavily accented English.

Alexis nodded to herself. "There's lovely green gown that'll be perfect for Lady Katherine. I'll have to think of some way to explain how I got it for her. Perhaps it was the loot from some dead horse archer's saddlebags? They'd want something pretty for their women, would they not? And poor Sir Richard doesn't understand how important it is to have his lady dressed and bejeweled as befits the wife of a powerful man. Of course, Lady Katherine's attendants must also be well turned out. "

Magda smiled, not quite catching what Lady Alexis was saying.

"Never mind." Alexis said. "We need some lead. I'll go talk to one of the so-called leaders of Spolato."

Alexis walked off, swinging her hips and unbuttoning the top of her gown.

At dawn the next day, the company headed north, stopping at the ridge to the north of Spolato where they had fought their battle. Although there had been few casualties, as battles went, the battlefield was now the home to crows and other carrion eaters, happily feasting on the dead.

Lady Katherine wrinkled her nose and put her hand over her mouth and nose at the smell.

Alexis rode to her and held out a square of silk cloth.

"This is infused with attar of roses, Lady Katherine. It will block the foul scents. The wind is blowing to the south, so once we reach our old position, the stench should not be as great."

Kate thanked Alexis, but wondered how the girl had found attar of roses.

Castle was up before dawn the next day. As he stood, watching his army come awake, he saw a rider heading for his tent, whipping his horse to make him run faster. Sensing danger, Castle sent messengers to his captains telling them to make ready their men. Before the last messenger was away, the rider came to a halt before Castle and threw himself off of his horse.

"Sir Richard. I scout to the north. We see our ship, San Gregorio, be chased by four very large ships. Much bigger than ours."

Castle questioned the man, but that seemed to be the extent of his knowledge.

When his captains arrived, he led them to the highest point on the ridge. The San Gregorio was just barely ahead of the other four ships.

"There!" Cried Will Fox. "On the horizon. That's Hamid and the rest of our ships. And they're coming this way."

Paleologos scanned the four oncoming large ships. "They fly the flag of Genoa, a red cross on a white field. They are friendly."

"Or they want us to think they're friendly." Muttered an archer who'd wandered over to try to find what was happening.

As they watched, the San Gregorio dropped anchor as did the larger, presumably Genoese ships. A ship's boat was launched from the San Gregorio. Castle relaxed as he saw that the captain of the San Gregorio, a sturdy Maltese named Cremona who was walking with a well- dressed stranger and seemed to be quite happy. Once ashore, the men walked swiftly to Castle.

"Sir Richard." Cremona said, bowing, "May I present Lorenzo Malatesta, the commander of the Genoese squadron you see. He has a letter for you from Duke Rodrigo."

Malatesta bowed and spoke in Italian. Kate translated.

"It seems that Genoa is now our ally against Venice, although since they have other interests, their assistance consists of small naval squadron, some Genoese crossbowmen and knights, and financial aid."

With a flourish, Malatesta held out a letter and handed it to Castle. He saw that it had been sealed with both Duke Rodrigo's signet ring and that of Sir James Walden. Castle carefully read the letter.

"Duke Rodrigo needs us back in Istria. War between Istria and Venice appears to be imminent."

Cremona spoke. "Begging your pardon, Sir Richard, but we could take you and your lady back to Pola. We could take most of the men in our ships, but not the horses."

Castle at once shook his head. "The Duke needs my army, not me. We can put the supplies from our carts and wagons aboard the ships so we can draw then from the fleet as needed. We'll put the women and those of our men who are ill or wounded aboard as well. That way we'll be able to return to Pola sooner." He turned to Kate. "Kate, would you be willing to…"

Kate shook her head.

"No. I'll stay with you and nowhere else."

Castle set about getting his army ready to march.

Days later, the weary army came over a hill and saw the city of Pola. A tired cheer went up from the men who had been pushed hard by their commander. Castle led the army through the south gate of the city. There waiting for him was a grim-faced Sir James Walden.

"Welcome home, Richard. You have done well in the south. Better than anyone thought. But we must go to see the Duke. Things are not well. Not well at all."

The End

Of Part Two

Author's note 1: Factually, both the arbalest and the handgonne were well known to the soldiers of Castle's day, the arbalest coming into use in the 12th century and the earliest gunpowder weapons were found in Europe from about 1330.

Author's note 2. Next up is Together Again, in which Kate Beckett and her vampire friend, Simone Renoir, again meet up with Colette Stenger, Rita Sullivan and Raina Mavias and some other characters also played by Stana Katic. However, as some of you may already know, my stories no longer show up on FF dot net's Castle page. So, unless you're following me, you may have to search a bit for this story.

Author's note 3: There will be a third part to the story of Sir Richard and Lady Katherine, which I will write in the fullness of time.