Carolus subjected me to a long, brooding stare. Then, seeing that I was swaying on my feet, he added, ‘You may sit.’
Gratefully I sank down on a stool.
‘Tell me what you know about my nephew,’ he commanded as soon as the two servants were out of earshot.
‘Count Hroudland is. . dead, Your Majesty,’ I said. ‘He and Count Anselm and Eggihard died defending the rearguard of your army.’
‘When and where did this happen?’
‘Yesterday, just short of the mountain pass. The rearguard was ambushed and badly outnumbered.’
‘By whom?’ The question was delivered in a flat voice.
I told him about the Vascons, and all that had happened from the moment we had been ambushed. I omitted any details about the foray to find the rumoured Graal. I did not want to give the king any indication that Hroudland might have been irresponsible.
When I finished my description of the catastrophe, the king sat very still.
‘Strange,’ he said quietly. ‘Last night, just as I was falling asleep, I thought I heard the sound of a horn. Not once, but several times, far in the distance.’
‘The battle took place half a day’s ride from here, Your Majesty. No sound could carry that far,’ I said.
He gave me a strange look.
‘Maybe I was already asleep and dreaming,’ he said. ‘You would understand that.’
I was too exhausted to make any reply.
‘I should have paid more attention to the rearguard,’ Carolus continued, as if speaking to himself. ‘It was my mistake to let them lag so far behind.’
My moment had come.
‘They were betrayed,’ I said.
His head came up sharply and he stared at me.
‘How do you mean “betrayed”?’
‘The enemy knew when and where to ambush the rearguard, the size and number of its troops.’
He drew his eyebrows together in a scowl.
‘Have you any proof?’
I pointed to Osric standing at a distance behind the cordon of soldiers.
‘That man can tell you. He is an envoy from the Wali of Zaragoza.’
‘A conniving Saracen,’ muttered Carolus, but he beckoned to the soldiers. ‘Bring that fellow over here.’
The guards searched Osric for hidden weapons, and then led him to the little tent. Once again the king’s memory for people astonished me.
‘Haven’t I seen that limp before,’ he demanded as Osric stood before him.
‘He was my servant in Aachen,’ I intervened. ‘Now he is a free man and in the service of Wali Husayn of Zaragoza.’
‘I’m told that my rearguard was betrayed.’ There was an undertone of menace in the king’s statement.
‘That is what Wali Husayn has instructed me to inform you.’ Osric managed to be respectful yet very sure of himself.
‘Why would the wali want to do that?’ growled the king.
‘He wishes to re-establish good relations with Your Majesty.’
Carolus gazed at Osric thoughtfully.
‘So this is some sort of peace offering?’
‘That is correct,’ said Osric.
‘Is he prepared to identify the traitor?’
Osric nodded.
Carolus turned his shrewd grey eyes on me. There was no warmth in the look he gave me, only calculation.
‘Do you know who betrayed my nephew?’
I shook my head.
‘I only know that we stood no chance.’
Carolus’s voice took on an edge that was chilling.
‘Name this traitor,’ he demanded of Osric.
‘He is one of your inner council, a man called Ganelon,’ Osric replied. ‘He has been supplying information to my master for months.’
Osric and I had discussed this moment while he was stitching up my shoulder wound. It was then, to distract me from the needle’s pain, he had told me why Wali Husayn had sent him as an envoy to Carolus.
‘The wali intends to destroy Ganelon. He holds him responsible for what went wrong with the plan to invite Carolus into Hispania.’
I had sucked in my breath, stifling a yelp as the needle pierced my flesh.
‘I remember when you met Hroudland and me outside the walls of Zaragoza,’ I’d said, ‘and refused us entry to the city. At that time you told Hroudland that it was Ganelon who persuaded the king to turn on his ally, the Wali of Barcelona, and make him a prisoner.’
‘And later? Did you see the look on Wali Suleyman’s face when he rode into Zaragoza after Husayn had paid his ransom?’
‘He looked crushed. I felt very sorry for him.’
‘He was deeply ashamed. When Wali Husayn greeted him, he drew back from his embrace. Since then Suleyman has scarcely emerged from his living quarters.’ Osric had given a grunt of annoyance. The cotton thread had snapped again. I’d felt the loose end slither through my skin as he’d pulled it free of the stitch hole. ‘Saracens value family honour. Wali Husayn and Wali Suleyman are brothers-in-law. To humiliate one is to humiliate the other.’
‘So Husayn seeks to avenge his brother-in-law’s dishonour?’
‘Already he’s recovered much of the ransom he paid. That was his agreement with the Vascons, and it makes things somewhat easier between himself and his brother-in-law.’
‘Is that why Husayn agreed so easily to the payment of such a huge ransom?’ I’d asked.
Osric hadn’t answered, and instead re-threaded the needle, this time with the horse hair. Finally he’d said, ‘He was already planning how to get the money back. His spies would have told him that the Franks would soon have retreated over the mountains. That meant passing through Vascon territory. When we stayed overnight with that Vascon shepherd, he told us himself that he was on good terms with the Vascons.’
‘So now it remains for him to destroy Ganelon. Just how will he do that?’
‘With your help we dispose of Ganelon using the same weapon he plotted to use against Hroudland.’
I had forgotten the note that Ganelon had asked Husayn to sign, that had promised a payment of five hundred dinars, with me as the named person to collect the money but without an eventual recipient named. Ganelon had planned to accuse Hroudland of selling out to the Saracens and produce the note as evidence.
My friend’s brown eyes had searched my face.
‘Sigwulf, it will mean lying to Carolus.’
I had hesitated.
‘I’m not sure I want to get mixed up in this. Hroudland and Ganelon hated one another. But now Hroudland is dead and I have no quarrel with Ganelon. There was a time when I believed he was trying to have me killed to get at Hroudland through me. But this wasn’t true.’
‘You have a different score to settle with Ganelon.’
I’d looked at my friend questioningly.
‘Have you thought what would have happened to you if Ganelon’s plot against Hroudland had succeeded?’ he’d asked softly.
It had taken me a moment to grasp the subtlety of the Wali of Zaragoza. He had known he could count on me to help him once I’d realized that if Carolus believed that I had acted as a go-between for Hroudland collecting bribes I would also have been branded as a traitor and put to death.
