The Fallen Princess (27 page)

“Frightened men don’t always think as
clearly as those hunting them,” Godfrid said.

Gwen grumbled to herself, granting him his
point, even if she didn’t like it. Cadwaladr had been a fool to
have abducted her last year, since she and Gareth hadn’t been close
to catching him. Arguably, he had been a fool to have ambushed
Anarawd in the first place. Sometimes guilty men panicked.

“One of the men steps heavily on the outside
of his feet as he walks.” Godfrid looked up at Gwen. “I wouldn’t
have said my man had such a gait.”

“If we find Dewi, we can check his boots,”
Gwen said. “It’s not something I would know.”

They followed the tracks all the way to the
ladder that led up to the hay barn. Gwen sighed in relief when they
reached it and hoped that no spiders had hitched a ride on her hair
when she wasn’t looking. Godfrid went up the ladder first. In order
to open the trapdoor, he had to push at it with his shoulder. Given
the effort involved, Gwen wasn’t sure she would have been strong
enough to lift it.

“Come on up, Gwen.” Godfrid crouched over
the hole and reached down a hand for Gwen to grasp. Gwen’s belly
had grown since the last time she’d climbed a ladder, and she found
it awkward to maintain her balance on the narrow rungs. She grasped
Godfrid’s hand and allowed him to haul her the last few feet until
she stood on the floor beside him.

The hay barn was just as neglected as she
remembered, though it looked as if King Owain had ordered some work
done on one of the walls to shore it up. The intent was to keep it
looking dilapidated but not to allow it to actually fall down.
Godfrid closed the trap door and scattered hay from a nearby mound
across the floor, in order to make it look as if no one had come
through the tunnel.

“What do we have here?” Gwen pointed to a
corner of fabric that Godfrid had exposed. She pulled at it, and it
came loose with a tug.

“That’s King Owain’s lion crest,” Godfrid
said. “Now we know Dewi came here.”

Gwen held it up and made a noncommittal
motion with her head. “We know
someone
was here who didn’t
want to be seen outside Aber in King Owain’s colors.”

“I have failed again,” Godfrid said.

“What was that?” Gwen said, dropping her
arms.

Godfrid laughed. “It is as Gareth has said
to me more than once:
never assume
.”

Hywel

H
ywel was thankful
to be riding out of Bryn Euryn, even if the delay meant that he was
going to miss Tegwen’s funeral. He was already regretting his
father’s disappointment at his absence. Still, Tegwen was dead, and
Hywel’s presence at her funeral wasn’t going to bring her back. His
inquiries at Bryn Euryn, however, might bring her justice.

Instead of taking the high road through
Caerhun and the standing stones at Bwlch y Ddeufaen on the return
journey, Hywel directed his men to the ferry across the Conwy. They
had ten miles to cover, and if they were going to reach Aber with a
few hours to spare before sunset, they couldn’t dawdle. The weather
had remained fine as they left the ferry, but by the time they took
the beach road to Aber, it had begun to rain.

The farther they traveled, the more the wind
whipped the fine sand into swirls over the road and bent back the
bracken and the scrubby trees that managed to survive here despite
the poor soil and constant wind. Hywel hunched his shoulders
against it, cursing at the raindrops that blew into his face.
Before they’d gone half a mile, he was wet, and after five miles,
he was soaked from head to foot.

Evan rode to Hywel’s right, and the closer
to Aber they got, the more alert he’d become. For the last mile,
ever since the road had begun moving inland, he’d ridden with his
hood pushed back and his head swiveling all around.

“What is it, Evan?” Hywel pushed back his
own hood too. Oddly, the rain bothered him less now that he’d given
in to it. He wished he’d realized that earlier. He blinked the
drops out of his eyes and then shielded them with one hand. Having
passed the crossroads where the high road came down from the hills
to intersect with the road on which they were traveling, they were
hardly more than a mile from Aber. Hywel could practically smell
the cooking fires from here.

“Something doesn’t feel right, my lord.”
Evan lifted his spear as a signal to the men. As the company
rounded a curve between a field on the right and a series of
tree-covered hills to the left, they slowed the horses.

“I can’t see or hear anything but the rain.”
Hywel peered southwest, searching for anything or anyone out of
place in the sodden landscape.

Even frowned and put out a hand to Hywel.
“Wait—”

But at that instant, the man to the left of
Hywel grunted and faltered, an arrow jutting from his shoulder.
Hywel had time to rein in sharply before a second arrow flashed
between his horse’s head and his own and landed in the ditch to the
north of the road.

“Get down!” Evan launched himself at Hywel
and dived with him for cover.

Hywel’s men were well trained and flung
themselves off their horses at Evan’s shout. Hywel rolled into the
tall grasses to the right of the road while others found refuge to
the left. Evan threw himself on his stomach beside Hywel, both of
them on a downslope, trying to see through the vegetation growing
on the rise to the south of the road from where the arrows had
come.

“How many arrows has he loosed?” Hywel
said.

“At least three,” Evan said. “Two horses are
down, and Dafydd was hit in the shoulder.”

“The archer had to take him down first to
get to me,” Hywel said.

Evan nodded. “He rushed it.”

“You saved my life, Evan,” Hywel said.

Evan swept his eyes downward. “I did my
duty, my lord.”

Hywel grunted under his breath at Evan’s
modesty, which truth be told was no less than he expected. Evan
went back to scanning the hills to the south. Nothing moved on the
road but the constant rain, and Hywel’s ten men lay still.

“Let me try something, my lord.” Evan raised
one hand high above his head. No arrow shot through it.

“Get them!”

Hywel didn’t immediately recognize the voice
of the man who’d spoken, but at the shout, Hywel’s men surged from
their hiding positions on both sides of the road. Evan pressed a
hand onto Hywel’s shoulder, keeping him down until he determined
the source of the threat. Within a few breaths, three of Hywel’s
men had a fourth struggling on the ground beneath them. Brushing
off Evan’s hand with a sour look, Hywel pushed to his feet.

“As I said, no more than my duty, my lord,”
Evan said.

“You’re as bad as Gareth,” Hywel said.

Evan bowed his head. “You honor me.”

Hywel cracked a smile that he tried not to
let Evan see and strode the twenty yards along the road to where
the man his company had captured lay. “Get him up.”

The man had given up fighting. His hands
were tied behind his back, and he’d landed in a puddle, so he was
even wetter than Hywel. Hywel’s men lifted him from the ground.

“Dewi?” Hywel stared at the man-at-arms,
flabbergasted. “Why did you shoot at me?”

“I didn’t shoot—I didn’t shoot at you. I
didn’t shoot at anybody!” Dewi eyes went wide in panic at the
accusation. “You can see I have no bow!”

“You could have thrown your bow away,” one
of Hywel’s men said.

Evan approached Hywel from behind and spoke
low in his ear. “The other man with Dewi got away, my lord. I have
sent six of the men to scouring the countryside to the south, but I
am not optimistic we’ll find the archer. He could have been three
hundred yards away when he shot at us. If I were he, I would have
loosed my three arrows and run. I don’t know why Dewi is here, but
I don’t think the ambush is his doing.”

“Who was the other fellow with you?” Hywel
said to Dewi.

Dewi chewed on the inside of his cheek.

“You might as well tell me,” Hywel said. “If
you’re missing from your post, this other fellow is too. Who was
it?”

Dewi was used to following orders and, in
Hywel’s opinion, had never been a great thinker. Hywel waited him
out, flicking a hand at several of his men, who shifted with
impatience. Hywel didn’t like waiting, but he could do it if he had
to.

Dewi licked his lips. “It wasn’t my
idea.”

Hywel didn’t allow himself to smile at
Dewi’s capitulation. “Why don’t you tell me whose idea it was? We
can clear this all up in time for the feast tonight.”

“I didn’t want to get involved,” Dewi said.
“Erik said—”

Hywel held up a hand. “Did you say
Erik?”

Dewi nodded.

Hywel shook his head at the name. It
couldn’t be a coincidence. “Go on.”

“Erik said—”

Dewi cut himself off for a second time as
hoof beats sounded on the road. They all looked west, even Dewi,
though his arms were held in a tight grip by one of Hywel’s
men.

Gareth appeared over the rise with Godfrid
(of all people) and another ten men, coming from Aber. Two dogs ran
in front of them, making a beeline for Dewi, their tongues lolling
out. At a whistle from one of their handlers, the dogs halted. They
were within two paces from Dewi by then, and they twitched in
anticipation of bringing him down if only they were allowed to.

Moving forward to greet Gareth, Hywel
congratulated himself that the two of them had ended up in the same
place, though he hoped Gareth knew more about what was going on
with Dewi than he did. The company reined in, and the two dog
handlers quickly leashed their charges. The animals would be well
rewarded tonight.

“My lord.” Gareth dismounted, glancing past
Hywel to where Dewi stood out of earshot. “Thank you for catching
him.”

“I’m delighted to have been of service,”
Hywel said. “What has Dewi done?”

“He and one of Godfrid’s men, a man named
Erik, fled Aber this morning after subduing one of the sentries,”
Gareth said.

Godfrid had dismounted too and held out his
arms to Hywel, who embraced him gladly. “You should know that
someone took a shot at me a moment ago,” Hywel said as the two men
stepped back from each other.

“What?” Gareth examined the terrain to the
south. “Just now?”

“Whether it was Dewi, this Erik both of us
are also seeking, or an as-yet-unidentified third man, we haven’t
yet determined,” Hywel said.

“We spotted Dewi and Erik half a mile up the
road,” Godfrid said. “I don’t recall seeing either with a bow or
arrows.”

“Erik was your man?” Hywel said to
Godfrid.

“And a traitor, apparently,” Godfrid said.
“I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances, but you
need to know that Erik served in Rhos before he entered my father’s
service.”

“Your father tells me that Dewi served in
Rhos too,” Gareth said.

Hywel looked upon Dewi with new eyes, and
then said to Gareth, “You’d better tell me what you’ve discovered
in my absence.”

Heedless of the rain, which continued to
fall, Gareth quickly set forth the events of the past day from his
end. Then Hywel gave Godfrid and Gareth a summary of his
investigations, including the fact that he’d been contemplating a
journey to Dublin in search of Erik.

“How fortunate that I brought him to you.”
Godfrid coughed. “Sort of.”

They walked back to where Dewi stood with
his captors.

“We’ll see if we can get something out of
our prisoner.” Hywel stepped in front of Dewi and took a moment to
examine him. Dewi kept his eyes downcast, refusing to look up. “A
few miles isn’t much ground to cover since this morning. What did
you hang around for?”

“It was Erik’s idea to go to ground until
tonight,” Dewi said, selling out his companion. “He knew of an
empty hut not far from Aber, and we stayed there until we heard the
dogs.” Dewi cast a resentful look in Gareth’s direction. “Better to
run than be caught like a rabbit in a trap.”

“Why did you run from Aber in the first
place?” Hywel said.

Dewi didn’t answer immediately, and the way
he stared at his feet, digging the toe of his boot into the loose
soil of the road, reminded Hywel of when he and Gareth had
questioned Ceri and Llelo.

Hywel continued to wait, his eyes on Dewi’s
downturned head, and Gareth and Godfrid had the sense not to step
in. Most men didn’t like silence and instinctively would fill
it.

Then Dewi’s head came up, and he looked at
Hywel, his face contorted. For a moment Hywel thought he was going
to cry. “I knew I was in trouble the moment I saw her body on the
beach.”

“You speak of Tegwen’s body?” Hywel
said.

“Lord Bran swore that nobody would ever find
her!” Dewi choked up, his words coming out as a strangled wail.

Hywel rocked back on his heels. “What do you
know about my cousin’s death?”

“It was an accident! I swear it! Bran
backhanded her across the face, and she fell and hit her head on
the corner of a table.”

The entire company of men, both Hywel’s and
Gareth’s, had been listening with breath held, but at Dewi’s
outburst, Hywel felt that breath ease out in a quiet sigh as they
settled themselves. At long last, they were hearing the truth or
something close to it.

“You saw it happen?” Hywel said.

Dewi had gone back to staring at his feet,
misery in every line of his body. “I heard it. And then I helped
Bran conceal her death.”

“You personally were involved in leaving
Tegwen’s body in Wena’s hut?” Gareth said.

Dewi nodded.

“Why not bury her in the garden, or the
woods, or drop her in the ocean for that matter?” Gareth said.

“We couldn’t risk being seen, and we had no
tools!” Dewi said. “The house held only a bed, a table, and a few
dishes. The shed was empty. Do you know how hard it is to dig a
grave with a spoon?”