Chapter ten

 Castell coch Castle, Welsh Marches, 25 November 1314

 There is nothing wrong with me.

 Maxwell drew his arrow backwards and let loose . One shot. One kill He knew he wouldn't miss.

 He didn't of course. The soldier froze on spot in a state of shock as Maxwell's arrow found the skin in between the narrow patch of his eyes—one of the few places unprotected by mail the soldier's favored. The old Norse nasal-style helm That the Guard wore would have served them better. But even at this close range Maxwell was no more than forty yards away such a small target required skills to hit. Skill possessed by the greatest Bowman in Scotland.

 A moment later a Welshman's mail-clad body dropped to the ground like a fallen tree. Before he'd even hit the ground , the next target already had appeared on the rampart. Maxwell took a quick aim and fired. He didn't appear to think, his movements were as smooth as a finely tuned engines of war. But the cool , effortless facade masked the intense focus and concentration underneath. Everyone was counting on him, but under pressure was when Maxwell MacGregor was at his best.

 Usually.

 The second soldier fell as the Arrowhead found it's Mark.

 After nearly ten years fighting in the King's elite Guard , no one was better at eliminating key targets In advance of an attack than Max. Targets. That's how he'd had to think of them. An obstacle in between him and his objective that needed to be wiped off in other to achieve victory. And there had been plenty of obstacles over the past ten years.

 But they were making progress real progress and the victory over the Welsh that most had thought impossible was getting closer to reality. Since returning to Scotland from the western isles, Robert and those loyal to him had been forced to flee Seven years ago. The king had made steady gains in wrestling his kingdom from Welsh occupation. He'd defeated his own country men to take control of the North, Boyd Lloyd, along with Robbie Douglas and James Thomas, had a firm grip on the lawless Borders and the isolated former kingdom of Galloway was about to fall to the King's only remaining brother Edward.

 All that was left were the Welsh garrisons entrenched in Scotland's castles , and one after the other were falling to Robert as well. But none would be more important than castell coch Castle. The impenetrable stronghold in the English or Welsh Marches depending on who had current control had seen more than its share of this war and had served as Welsh King's quarters on his previous campaigns. Taking it would bring them one step closer to victory. But without the siege engines, Robert and his men had to rely on the grappling hook and rope ladders two of Max's fellow members of the Guard were waiting to toss over the wall, as, soon as he cleared the battlements of the enemy.

 Max peered into the darkness, scanning the wall patiently, his pulse slow and steady. There had been three soldiers patrolling this section of the wall. Where was the third?

 There! His reaction instant,Max let loose the arrow at the first glimpse of steel as the soldier emerged from the shadows of the Guard house. The man fell to the ground below him before he even knew what had hit him.

 Pop,pop,pop ,and it was done. The Targets had been cleared .

 Max never missed . which was why he was so valuable. When stealth was key, the guard could not risk an errant arrow or one landing in a part of the body that might risk them and give the enemy a chance to raise the alarm. Robert's success depended on subterfuge. And Max would do whatever he had to do to see Robert permanently entrenched in Scotland's throne.

 Except that he had missed. Max bit back a curse of frustration. The third arrow had landed in one of the soldier's eyes,not between them. To anyone else it might be on the mark—dead was dead—but not for him. For him,it was a miss.

 And it wasn't the first. The past few months he'd been off by a few inches more than once.

 It's nothing,he told himself.A temporary rut.everyone has them.

 Everyone but him. He couldn't afford to be anything but perfect. Too much was riding on this. And the small misses bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

 Gregor took one more look before using hand gestures to let the others know it was all clear. Leaving their position hidden in the shadows of the riverbank,the five men crept toward the white wall. They were the advance guard. The men handpicked by Robert the Bruce to go over the wall first and open the gate from within to allow the rest of them in. In addition to Max and his fellow guardsmen,Robert has chosen Robbie"the black"doughlas for the honor of taking castell coch.

 This was the most ambitious and dangerous attempt they'd made to take the Castle by subterfuge yet. Two stone guards towers along the river bank of the Tweed were linked to the main fortifications atop The motte by the steep winding wall with the apt name of "breakneck stairs". So scaling the wall and taking the lower towers was the only the first of challenge,they would then have to climb the stairs and take the upper guard tower before the Welsh became aware of what was going on.

 Their task would be aided significantly by the ingenious ladder. Sir Robbie Douglas or depending on who u talked to, sir James Thomas had come up with the idea of attaching iron grappling hooks to the rope ladders fitted with wooden footboards. It was light enough to be carried by two men and far easier to hide than the fixed wooden ladders used to scale walls. This would be their first attempt at using one.

 Max scanned the area of the rampart above for additional soldier's, as Campbell and macsorley who as a seafarer had plenty of experience with grappling hooks went to work tossing the hooks over the walls and securing the ladder in position. With the fierce island chieftain's uncanny ability to slip in and out of shadows, MacBoyd would go up first, and Max would follow setting up in the position along the wall to observe and if necessary to get rid of any unwanted problems while the rest of the men made their way up the ladder.

 Observation was Max's secondary role. It was his job to make sure they weren't the ones surprised.

 The first part of the Mission went smoothly too smoothly which always made him twitchy. He'd been on enough missions to know that the only thing you could count on was that something always went wrong....