message to Owain Gwynedd, and setting in motion the events which were to restore Cadwaladr his freedom, if not his lands, and remove from Gwynedd the threat of war, and the oppressive presence of an alien army.
The only pause he made before leaving was to impart to Cadfael the errand on which he was sent.
Brother Cadfael came very thoughtfully to where Heledd was stirring the sleeping fire in the stone hearth, to prepare food for the evening meal. His mind was full of what he had just learned, but he could not help remarking how well this vagrant life in a military camp suited her. She had taken the sun graciously, her skin was a golden bronze, with an olive bloom upon it, suave and infinitely becoming to her dark hair and eyes, and the rich red of her mouth. She had never in her life been so free as she was now in her captivity. The gloss of it was about her like cloth of gold, and it mattered not at all that her sleeve was torn, and the hem of her gown soiled and frayed.
There’s news that could be good for us all,” said Cadfael, watching her neat movements with pleasure. “Not only did Turcaill come back safely from his midnight foray, it seems he brought back Cadwaladr with him.”
“I know,” said Heledd, and stilled her busy hands for a moment, and stared into the fire and smiled. “I saw them come back, before dawn.”
“And you never said word?” But no, she would not, not yet, not to anyone. That would be to reveal more than she was yet ready to reveal. How could she say that she had risen before the sun, to watch for the little ship’s safe return? “I’ve scarcely seen you today. No harm had come of whatever they were up to, that was all that mattered. Why, what follows? How is it so good for us all?”
“Why, the man has come to his senses, and agreed to pay these Danes what he promised them. Mark has just been sent off to commission Owain, in his brother’s name, and with his brother’s seal for surety, to collect and pay his ransom. Otir will take it and go, and leave Gwynedd in peace.”
Now she had indeed turned to pay due attention to what he was saying, with raised brows and sharply arrested hands. “He has given in? Already? He will pay?”
“I have it from Mark, and Mark is already on his way. Nothing could be surer.”
“And they will go!” she said, a mere murmur within her still lips. She drew up her knees and folded her arms about them, and sat gazing before her, neither smiling nor frowning, only coolly and resolutely assessing these changed prospects for good and evil. “How long, do you think, Cadfael, it will take to bring cattle up here by the drove roads from Ceredigion?”
“Three days at the least,” said Cadfael, and watched her put away that factor in the methodical recesses of her mind, to be kept in the reckoning.
“Three days at the most, then,” she said, “for Owain will make all haste to be rid of them.”
“And you will be glad to be free,” said Cadfael, probing gently into regions where truth had at least two faces, and he could not be sure which one was turned towards him, and which was turned away.
“Yes,” she said, “I shall be glad!” And she looked beyond him into the grey-blue, shifting surface of the sea, and smiled.
Gwion had reached the guardpost, the same by which his lord had been abducted, without hindrance, and was in the very act of stepping over the threshold when the guard barred his way with a braced lance, and challenged him sharply: “Are not you Gwion, Cadwaladr’s liegeman?”
Gwion owned to it, bewildered rather than alarmed. No doubt they were keeping a closer watch on this gate, after last night’s incursion, and this sentry did not know Owain’s mind, and had no intention of incurring blame by allowing either entry or exit unquestioned. “I am. The prince has given me leave to stay or go, as I choose. Ask Cuhelyn. He will tell you so.”
“I have later news for you,” said the guard, unmoving. “For the prince has only a short while since asked that you be sought, if you were still within the pale, and sent back to him.”
“I never knew him change his mind in such a fashion,” protested Gwion distrustfully. “He made it plain he set no store on me, and did not care a pin whether I stayed or departed. Nor whether I lived or died, for that matter.”
“Nevertheless, it seems he has a use for you yet. No harm, if he never threatened any. Go and see. He wants you. I know no more than that.”
There was no help for it. Gwion turned back towards the squat roof of the farmstead, his mind a turmoil of unprofitable speculations. Owain could not possibly have got wind of what was still at best only a vague intent, hardly a plan at all, though he had spent a long time with Ieuan ab Ifor over the detail of numbers and means, and all that Ieuan had gathered concerning the layout of the Danish camp. Too long a time, as it now appeared. He should have left at once, before there could be any question of detaining him. By this time he could have despatched his groom south to bring up the promised force, and been back within the stockade here before ever he was missed. Planning could have waited. Now it was too late, he was trapped. Yet nothing was quite lost. Owain could not know. No one knew but Gwion himself and Ieuan, and Ieuan had not yet spoken a word to any of those stalwarts he knew of who would welcome a venture. That recruitment was still to come. Then what Owain wanted of him could have nothing to do with their half-formed enterprise.
He was still feverishly recording and discarding possibilities when he entered the low-beamed hall of the farm, and made his stiff and wary reverence to the prince across the rough trestle table.
Hywel was there, close at his father’s shoulder, and two more of the prince’s trusted captains stood a little apart, witnesses in some business which remained inexplicable to Gwion. For the only other person in the room was the meagre little deacon from Lichfield, in his rusty black habit, his spiky ring of straw-coloured hair growing stubbornly every way, his grey eyes as always wide, direct and tranquil. They looked at Gwion, and Gwion turned his head away, as though he feared they might see too deeply into his mind if he met them fully. He found even the benevolent regard of such eyes unnerving. But what could this little cleric have to do with any matter between Owain and Cadwaladr and the Danish interlopers? Yet if the business in hand here was something entirely different, what could it have to do with him, and what need to recall him?
“It’s well that you have not left us, Gwion,” said Owain, “for after all there is a thing you can do for me, and therewith also for your lord.”
“That I would certainly do, and gladly,” said Gwion, but as yet withholding belief.
“Deacon Mark here is newly come from Otir the Dane,” said the prince, “who holds my brother and your lord prisoner. He has brought word from Cadwaladr that he has agreed to pay the sum he promised, and buy himself out of debt and out of bondage.”
