Footsteps in Time (24 page)

Sitting up, David half
bowed. “I would be honored, young sir, if you would accompany me on
my journey.”

Grinning like a madman, Huw climbed
out of his covers. David joined him by the fire and while Huw
stirred the pot, his father pushed aside his blanket.

“
You wish to depart, my
lord?”

“
As soon as possible,
Aeddan,” David said. “I understand from Huw that three of you will
accompany me.”

“
Yes, yes,” he said, “if
that’s agreeable, my lord. I have my bow and Rhys and you each have
a knife. We have no horse to carry us, but Dinas Bran can be
reached in a day of steady walking.”

“
That’s my intent,” David
said.

Aedden dressed quickly and was out the
door to rouse his brother-in-law. Shortly thereafter, the whole
family woke. After a small meal, with a pouch of dried meat and a
water skin, they began to walk up and out of the valley, heading
east across the crags, making for the main road.

As they walked, David
learned something of his companions. Aeddan had told him that he
and his brother-in-law had participated in the defeat of the
English. Given the great bow across his back, David believed him,
though he had no memory of seeing him in battle. Aeddan’s
brother-in-law, Rhys, carried a wicked-looking knife, which he said
he looked forward to using on anyone who stood in their way. But
his true talent was his voice.

“
You’re a bard?” David
said.

“
No, not a bard,” he said,
a little ruefully. “I couldn’t live that kind of life, always
moving from place to place, never laying my head in the same spot
twice. My wife wouldn’t love me for that. I sing for my own
enjoyment and that of my kin.”

“
Sing for the prince,”
Aeddan said.

Rhys shrugged, and to David’s delight,
began a long ballad about King Arthur. It was repetitive enough
that near the end David joined in on the chorus with
Huw.

“
You will have a fine
voice, my lord,” Rhys said, “when it settles more. You sang for us
two years ago, but it was a mite different then.” He glanced shyly
at David, seeing if he would take his gentle teasing without
offense.

“
It was, wasn’t it,” David
said, thinking that his voice was the least of the changes that had
happened over that time.

The song had distracted all
four of them, and it seemed that in no time at all, they reached
the high road to Dinas Bran. As they turned east, however, a lone
horseman galloped out of the forest to their left, drawing his
sword as he rode.

It was Marchudd. Aedden took one look
and disappeared into the forest behind them.

“
Father!” Huw
cried.

David didn’t look.

“
Never mind him, son,” Rhys
said. “He’s doing what needs doing. Keep your attention
ahead.”

“
But—”

“
Boy. Obey your uncle,”
David said.

Marchudd cantered forward, stopping
four horse-lengths from David. “You think you can stand against
me?”

Rhys and David had already pulled out
their knives and Rhys spoke out of the side of his mouth. “Spread
out, my lord. I’ll slit the horse’s throat if he comes toward you.
If you run, he can’t catch you.”

David understood that Marchudd wanted
him to run. Seeing their knives, Marchudd dared not come closer,
but if David ran, Marchudd could take him down from above. None of
these machinations mattered, however, because Aeddan hadn’t run
away. He’d merely found better ground for shooting.

Thwt!

An arrow appeared in Marchudd’s chest.
His face went from astonishment to ghastly white, before he toppled
backwards off his horse.

Aeddan returned at a run. “I’m sorry,
my lord, if you intended to bring him to Dinas Bran as a captive. I
decided he didn’t deserve to live.”

“
You think I mind?” David
said. “Carry him into the ditch and leave him. We will take his
horse. I see my sword hanging from his panniers. I’ve missed
it.”

The others wanted David to ride the
horse, but he threw Huw up on it instead. The boy had never seen a
man killed, and despite his protestations to the contrary, he
needed time to recover.

Leaving Marchudd beside the road, the
companions set out again. To David’s surprise, however, just as
when he’d traveled with his company, one by one, people stepped
onto the road to walk with them. They weren’t very talkative, but
every few minutes David would find a different man beside him. He’d
introduce himself, David would shake his hand, and then he’d fade
into the background to be replaced by another. Bevyn had raised the
countryside, so everyone knew what had happened to David, and
wanted to make sure he was all right.

The crowd grew from an initial ten, to
twenty, to fifty, and still they walked. A family might join the
march for a half an hour and then fall off the back of the group to
turn for home, only to be replaced by another family coming from
the woods. They shared their food and David took some for himself
when they offered it. Children ran in every direction. After a
while, Huw dismounted from Marchudd’s horse to allow smaller
children to ride him.

With this train of friends, David
progressed towards Dinas Bran at a steady pace so by early
afternoon, he approached the end of his journey. The road followed
a ridge to the west of the castle, but required that they descend
into a valley, through a village nestled along the River Dee, and
then up the thousand foot height to the castle.

Over the next few hours they picked
their way out of the hills into the valley. At some point, someone
at the castle must have grown alarmed at their numbers, because as
they reached the valley floor, a host of cavalry appeared on the
road around the mountain, flags flying.

“
I shall sing a new song in
your hall,” Rhys said. “If you permit it, my lord, I shall sing of
this day.”

David turned to the people behind him,
now quiet, as they too had noticed the horsemen. “I would like
that,” David said. “As long as you make Aedden the hero. And Huw.”
David tousled the boy’s hair.

Then David raised his voice so all
could hear. “I thank you with all my heart,” he said. “Please know
that you are welcome to dine at the castle with me this evening.
Wales has survived only because of men like you.”

Several men nodded, and then came
forward one at a time to pay their respects. But by the time David
finished greeting the last person, the rest had gone and he stood
alone again with Rhys, Aeddan, and Huw.

“
The cavalry are upon us,”
Aeddan said, with a nod for David to look behind him.

And they were. Math’s banners streamed
in the wind. David strode forward to greet his brother-in-law. When
Math saw that it was David and not an enemy, he spurred his horse
ahead of his men. He reined him in almost on top of David,
dismounted, and embraced him. “By St. Winifred’s ear, man!” he
said. “You have led us on a merry chase! Your mother and sister
have been sick with worry.”

“
It was not my intent,
brother,” David said, laughing as Math patted him up and down to
make sure he was alive and uninjured. “Did you send word to my
father?”

“
Bevyn wanted to, but your
mother stopped him,” Math said. “He meant to resign his position,
but she refused him, telling him to find you first. She gave him
three days.”

“
Are our three days
expired?” David said, confused now about how long he’d been
away.

“
Tonight,” Math said.
“Bevyn intends to return tonight.” And then, with a bemused grin,
he said, “He’ll be pleased to see you, my lord.”

“
It was no more his fault
than mine,” David said. “He can’t blame himself.”

“
You can’t stop him, my
lord. He feels responsible, as he should, but not at the cost of
his position or his life.”

“
Is that what people fear?
That he will lose his life for his failure?”

“
It’s been known to happen
when a prince is angry,” Math said.

“
My men should expect
mercy, Math, and be surprised when it’s not forthcoming, not the
other way around.”

Turning from him, David waved his
companions forward and introduced them.

“
Thank you, for your care
of Prince Dafydd,” Math said formally. “You will be well
rewarded.”

“
We didn’t do it for a
reward,” Aeddan said.

“
Of course not,” Math
said, “but you have families who are in your charge and you will
accept your reward for their sakes, if not your own.”

Mollified, Aeddan, and Rhys
nodded.

Huw had no such
inhibitions. “Are we really going to the castle?” He hopped up and
down. “Will we dine in the hall this night?”

Math laughed and patted the boy on the
back. “Surely you will. Come. You are my guests.”

Math signaled two of his men to come
forward, and with David on Marchudd’s long-suffering mount, Huw
with Math, and Rhys and Aeddan awkwardly riding pillion behind two
of Math’s men, they rode up to the castle of Dinas Bran.

Chapter Seven

Anna

D
avid and Math came through the castle gateway and Mom dashed
across the courtyard to greet him.

“
We’ve been so worried.”
Mom threw her arms around David’s waist the moment he
dismounted.

“
Sorry, Mom. I wasn’t as
careful as I should’ve been.”

“
What are you going to
tell your father?” she said.

“
I’ll tell him I wasn’t
careful. He knows that our downfall has always been trusting those
who aren’t trustworthy. We’ve never been defeated by the English
except when a Welshman opens the door and lets them in.”

David looked up at Anna.

She took the last step down
and into his arms. “Are we ever going to be safe?”

“
No,” he said. “I don’t
think so.”

Anna didn’t want David to be right, so
instead of stewing about it, she took him inside to bathe and
change and eat until he couldn’t eat anymore. It was pretty
wonderful for her to have him in her ‘house’, to be the lady of the
manor, to welcome his companions as heroes, which pleased Huw to no
end, and to sit beside Math in the hall, with everyone she loved
around her.

It was only later that
David described his capture in private to Math, Mom, and Anna.
Eventually the story would get out, but Anna didn’t want everyone
to know it all until Bevyn arrived.

“
This isn’t an easy thing
to hear,” Math commented as he sprawled in his chair beside Anna.
“If I could never walk alone, I’d go mad.”

“
That’s the problem,” David
agreed. “We’re vulnerable to betrayal by one we thought a
friend.”

“
The alternative is to have
no friends,” Anna said.

“
Not exactly a solution,”
David said. “Neither practical, nor possible, and even if it were,
what kind of life would I live then?”

As the sun faded from the castle
walls, the guard shouted that Bevyn and his men were coming. They’d
gathered in the valley before making their somber way up the hill.
David and Anna climbed the battlements to watch them ride
in.

“
Bevyn submitted his
resignation to Mom, and now he’ll submit it to me,” David said.
“What do I say to him?”

“
As you told me once, the
stakes are always too high here, David,” Anna said. “The sad truth
is that Bevyn didn’t foresee danger coming from your own company.
He did fail to protect you.”

“
So I should hang
him?”

“
Of
course not,” Anna said. “What does our sensei always say?
We learn more from failure than
success
.”

“
He’ll
learn from this,” David said.
As his men
approached, David walked down the steps and through the gatehouse,
to stand alone to wait for them.

They certainly were a disheartened
group. They didn’t even notice him until one of the men beside
Bevyn signaled him to look up. Anna was looking forward to seeing
Bevyn’s expression when the belief that it was truly David won out
over his disbelief that it could be.

There it was.

“
Dafydd!” Bevyn roared and
spurred his horse forward.

His men cheered another “Dafydd!” in
Bevyn’s wake, and traveled the hundred yards between them in ten
seconds. The wave of men crested and passed around him until they
encircled him. Bevyn leaped off his horse and wrapped his arm
around David’s neck.

“
Young pup! Young pup!” he
shouted, hammering him on the back.

There was laughter all around, and
David greeted each man with a handshake and thanks for diligence in
their search. He worked his way through the crowd until he faced
Bevyn again. As they looked at each other, silence fell, and slowly
Bevyn settled on one knee.

The silence was so complete, Bevyn’s
words might have carried all the way down to the village. “My life
is yours, my lord,” he said. “I failed you.”