216 Days (Violent Delights Book 12)

Chapter 17: The siege according to King Henry of England, December 6, 1421

Screams echo around me. Another town on fire. Another plum of smoke. Another set of lives the bastard knows he cannot save. And he must sit in his castle. Watching me burn the country he swore to protect. If he thinks he's protecting it. Perhaps he's just doing it for the thrill of the game.
As I am.
I hope so in a way. I hope he sees this and knows it's all for him. All the lives are on his hands. All that blood. It is all on him. Because of him. Because he will not yield.
Not that I want him to yield. Oh no. What fun would that be?
I'm having the time of my life.
Jack understands. He comes with me for every single raid. Watches as I walk through the smoldering flames. We route out the villagers, and send them running. Sometimes the bowmen fire after them. Sometimes not.
Either way we burn their fields. No crops will grow there now. We burn the houses. The animals if we cannot butcher them we slaughter and throw into the Marne. Soon it will be too polluted for the garrison to even drink from it. So we'll get them there as well.
Yes, Jack understands. He enjoys the fire too. Edmund doesn't I don't think. Not the same. He brought up Catherine the other day. Asking if I was hoping for the baby to be a boy or a girl. I hadn't thought to hope for anything. But I said girl because a girl probably wouldn't long for the crown. Either boy or girl can inherit I've made sure of that long since, so I wouldn't mind a girl. Since there is going to be a child I suppose. Edmund asks odd questions like that. I've left him with Arthur for that reason. He can drive him mad.
I'm enjoying myself. I haven't enjoyed myself this much all year. It's beautiful. We don't even have any skirmishes. They don't put up a fight. It's just fires.
Everywhere.
It's just perfect. It's beautiful. I always liked to play with fire. When I was a boy, my mother warned me. She'd always stop me from sticking my hands into the flames. I learned to be quick. Drag logs out onto the stone floor to watch them smolder. Slowly light the edges of my shirt and watch the flames lick hungrily towards my skin. My mother said she'd pray for me. I don't know what she thought she was praying about.
I love this. This is so melodic. I get to hear the flames. Watch them rise. House after house. I just walk through the streets. Enjoying the burning. The great burning of this land. They said it couldn't be mine. So I set it on fire.
I'm genuinely glad we did this. I'm pleased the Bastard didn't give up. I'm glad he ruined my bridge. It's so much better this way. Now he knows everything he has caused. He knows he's worth ten thousand fires. Nobody else would do this. He knows it's just he and I now.
I don't recall when I was last this happy. Well. I'm forgetting everything. Supplies are a constant problem. I have work to do yes. But I am at least reaping my reward.
Perhaps the first few months of Harfluer? Or before. As we readied to go to France for the first time. And everything had to be in place so I worked day and night. And Richard and I would sit up all hours going over every final scheme. And I would work well into the night. And he'd wake and hang an arm around my neck and whisper to me to to go bed and his lips would brush my cheek as he did. Then he'd go knowing I wouldn't follow.
He knows I don't follow now. I hear him but in among the fire his words mingle with my thoughts and I am peacefully far from separating them.
I should have done this earlier. No, then I wouldn't be enjoying it now. Never mind. We'll do it again. And again. And once Meaux breaks we'll go on deeper into France. I have the funds. I have everything. And we never have to leave here.
Because here in the flames the world is quiet. All sounds seem hushed. My head fills with smoke. And I'm trapped in every pleasant memory. And I am not allowed to leave. Just burning. Leaving no room for anything else. I'm a god here. A god of war. The stars shine bright overhead. I follow one. Onward. Across France. To Jerusalem. The promise land. I'll liberate it through fire too. Everything. Cleansed with my eternal fire.