Prince of Time (22 page)

Lili put her hands on my forearms. “It’s all right, Bronwen; it’s all right. Are they in the tower?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Cadoc’s keeping them in a room off the kitchen, guarded, but accessible.”

Lili squeezed my arms. “Good,” she said.

“We have to save them, Lili,” I said. “I overheard in the kitchen that Prince Llywelyn is ill and not expected to live! We’ve got to get them out of here!”

“I know, Bronwen. I heard that too, but the stories are too vague to be absolutely true. By tomorrow morning we’ll be at Buellt. We must face what is before us tonight, not what happens tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Tell me what to do.”

Having transferred the pills earlier to her scrip, Lili handed me the plastic vial that had contained Ieuan’s antibiotics. “The hemlock juice,” she said. “This is all we have. It has a noxious smell, so you may have to coax the guard to drink it.”

“Coax him?” I said. Lili raised her eyebrows at me, and I realized what she meant.
Oh,
coax
him.

“Do
not
allow him to kiss you after he’s drunk it,” Lili said. “I don’t know that his breath will harm you, but you can’t be sure that a drop of the liquid wouldn’t remain on his lips.”

I was starting to get angry—not at Lili—not at Ieuan—not at David, though God knows I could come up with a good reason for it—but at myself. “Lili,” I said. “I’ve been in your country for fewer than two days, and in the last twenty-four hours I’ve been betrayed by a priest Ieuan thought was a friend, shot at by the English, pinched by a guard while masquerading as a scullery maid, propositioned by the castellan of Aberedw, and now you’re telling me I could have the pleasure of being poisoned as well, while playing temptress?”

“Are you saying you won’t do it?” Lili said.

My anger ebbed. “Of course not. Ieuan and Dafydd are in danger and we can help them.”

“I would go myself, but Cadoc will know me, even if I’m dressed as a boy.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

I didn’t linger with Lili longer, as I didn’t know how quickly the cook would miss me. Braving the rain, I ran up the stairs, but came to a halt once I reached the kitchen, surprised to find it empty. I lowered myself to a stool by the fire, my clothing steaming. A minute later, the cook returned. “The master is looking for you,” he said. “If you don’t want to end up like those three girls you replaced, I suggest you make yourself scarce. I’ll tell him I couldn’t find you.”

“Thank you,” I said. I leapt to my feet and was practically running by the time I reached the kitchen door. I hugged the side of the keep, trying to avoid the wind and rain, and ran into a lean-to a few steps from the kitchen door. I slipped inside. It smelled of herbs. I stubbed my toe on a box, and reaching out, blind in the dark, I felt for it and settled myself onto it.

I don’t know how long I sat shivering, but eventually the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and the dripping inside my shelter slowed, and then stopped. Thinking it had to be late by now, I returned to the kitchen, hoping it would be empty but the cook was still here.

“I was hoping you’d left for home, young lady,” he said. “The master has gone to bed—with someone else, mind you, so you’ve a reprieve for today, as long as you stay out of the way of the men in the hall. Where’s your father? You’ll not be safe as long as you stay here. Aberedw has been without a mistress for too long.”

“I will be gone by morning,” I said.

The cook nodded. “I’ve left some wine by the fire,” he said. “It’s not fine, but at least it’s warm. You may pour some for yourself. I’m going to sleep.”

“Thank you for your help,” I said.

“Don’t waste it,” he said, and left the kitchen.

I looked after him, not knowing exactly what he meant by that last statement, but having every intention of doing as he suggested. I peered into the hallway. A single torch lit the space and a lone guard—a different one from earlier—slouched at the foot of the stairs. He was about my height, so not very tall, with light brown hair and a wispy mustache that must have annoyed him a great deal, since in Wales a male’s manliness was measured at least in part by the luxuriousness of his facial hair.

I ducked back into the kitchen, grabbed a cup, and poured wine into it. I took in a deep breath and tipped in the hemlock liquid. Then I braced myself to do something that was
so
unlike me and sashayed into the hallway. The guard noted me immediately and straightened.

“Some wine for you, sir?” I swung my hips in a parody of Marilyn Monroe, someone the guard had fortunately never seen.

“Baby,” the guard said. “Come sit with me.”

I tried not to smirk.
You’d think that seven hundred years before my time, they’d have come up with something different to call me!
I reached him, handed him the wine, and found myself pulled onto his knee with his arm wrapped tightly around my waist. “Drink it while it’s warm,” I said. “It’s better that way.”

“To you, baby.” The guard raised the glass and downed the liquid in one breath. Some of the wine seeped out from his lips and oozed down his cheek. It reminded me of what Lili had said, and I pulled away from him.

“I’ll get you more,” I said, reaching for the cup.

“But I just want more of you,” the guard said. He tried to grab me, but I skipped away.

“Don’t go away,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” I reentered the kitchen. I didn’t know how long the poison would take to work, so I took my time refilling the cup, my hands shaking the whole time at what might be happening to him.

“Girl!” the guard called. “I’m coming after you.”

Just what I need
.

I’d hoped the guard was required to stay at his post, which didn’t include the kitchen. The guard appeared in the doorway.

“Just a moment,” I said. “I’ve biscuits too.”

“I’m not hungry for anything but you,” he said. “Get over here.”

I took another minute to stoke the fire before turning back to the guard. His face was pale and his breathing shallower.

“Girl,” he said. He grasped the doorframe with one hand, trying to hold himself up, and then slumped to the floor.

I dropped the poker and ran to him. My own breath came in short gasps. I pushed aside his tunic and found the key to Ieuan’s prison on a string at his waist. With one jerk I pulled it free.

I ran down the hall to their door and jammed the key in the lock. I didn’t know how long we had before a change in shift or someone came looking for the guard. I tried not to think of anyone but Ieuan and David.
This can’t be real. This isn’t real. I can’t have killed someone.

I tugged the door open. The light from the corridor illumined the two men on the floor: Ieuan, with David’s head cradled in his lap.

“Hello,
cariad
,” Ieuan said. “I hoped to see you again.

Chapter Twenty

Ieuan

B
ronwen fell to her knees beside me.

“It’s all right,” I said. “Neither of us are badly hurt.”

“I saw the soldiers bring him out of Cadoc’s room hours ago,” she said, stroking a stray hair out of Dafydd’s face. “He looks worse than he did then. How can you say it’s all right?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” I said. “And Lili too, if I guess right. He looks bad, but I don’t believe he bleeds inside, which is the worst fear.”

“His face,” Bronwen said. “Your face.”

“Ach, I’m fine. One of the soldiers caught me off guard with his fist.”

“But Dafydd!”

“I pushed the teeth they loosened back in. If he doesn’t eat anything hard for a few days, they’ll set. They broke his nose and I straightened that too. It might even add an air of mystery to his face that will attract the ladies. Just think about getting us out of here. You and Lili have a plan?”

“Lili has a plan. Can you stand?”

I nodded and shook Dafydd gently. He’d been awake on and off since they brought him back the second time. They’d given us a candle for the evening meal, but it had long since burned out. I’d not eaten what they’d brought, and neither, of course, had Dafydd, but the light had given me a chance to address his wounds. Bad as they looked, they could’ve been worse. They’d not broken any of his fingers, nor pulled his nails.

“Wha—?” Dafydd said, through puffy lips.

“Up you go, my lord.” I pulled him to his feet, wrapped my arm around his waist, and threw his left arm over my shoulder. Bronwen took his other side, though she was so much shorter I wasn’t sure that we weren’t more awkward that way. We had to angle ourselves to get through our prison door and then stumbled toward the kitchen.

“Oh...the guard,” Bronwen said, stopping. A body blocked the doorway and Bronwen ducked away from us to grab the man’s feet and haul him further into the kitchen. Fortunately, he wasn’t a big man, or I would’ve had to help, and Dafydd would have fallen without me.

“You killed him?” I said as we followed her into the kitchen, Dafydd taking two steps for every one of mine. I wanted to hold her but she was acting very purposeful and I didn’t want to distract her.

“Bonwen,” Dafydd said. “He beb?”

“Yes, he’s dead,” she said.

“Bonwen,” Dafydd said again, “welcome to Wales.”

“Was that a joke, my lord?” Bronwen said. And then she made a face. It was the first time she’d called him that and I suspected she hadn’t meant to.

 “He’s not been quite right in the head since they brought him back from his last beating,” I said.

Bronwen pulled open the kitchen door and we went through it, breathing the fresh air, but instantly soaked from the rain that poured down.

“Great,” Bronwen said. “I thought it had stopped.”

“It will impede our pursuers,” I said.

I gripped Dafydd tightly as we navigated the stairs, trying to keep him upright and walking forward. It was so dark we had to move by feel. When we reached the bottom of the hill, Lili appeared out of the darkness of the stables, leading two horses.

“You’re a miracle worker,” Bronwen said.

Lili grasped my free arm. “I poisoned the guard at the postern gate, and the two at the gatehouse are getting steadily drunker on mead I found hidden under a pile of hay in the stables.”

“You’ve done well,” I said. “Let’s not stop now.”

Lili led us along the wall from the stables and around the back of the keep until we faced north. She opened a door in the wall, and we went through it. Dafydd laughed beside me. “De poste’n gate; De poste’n gate; wemind me neber to buil’ a castle wib a poste’n gate,” he said.

“Sssh,” Lili said. “We must get clear before we speak.”

“Lili!” Dafydd replied. “Bootiful girl, Ieuan. Sharp mout’ on her, dough. I don’ envy de man you choose for her husban’.”

“My lord,” I said. “We need to be quiet.”

“Okey dokey, Ieuan. I alway li’en to Ieuan,” Dafydd said.

The river trail that we’d followed from Twyn y Garth picked up again north of the castle. We reached it and stopped to readjust in the shelter of the trees.

“Is he drunk?” Lili couldn’t see his wounds in the dark, or much of anything for that matter. “You’ve carried him the whole way here.”

“They tortured him, Lili,” Bronwen said. “He’s not himself. He probably has a concussion.”

“Dey hi’ me a lo’,” Dafydd said. “Los’ coun’. Dad is ill. Mus’ save him.” His head fell forward, and I shook him gently, not wanting to touch his face to wake him up.

“Dafydd. My lord Dafydd,” I said.

“Wha—? Wha—?” Dafydd woke again. “Dad is ill. Mus’ save him.” Dafydd took a step and would have fallen if I hadn’t stepped with him.

“Can he ride?” Bronwen said.

“We can’t see to ride anyway,” Lili said, “but if you can get him on the horse and lead it, Ieuan, I’ll ride behind Dafydd and hold him up.”

“I ca’ ride,” Dafydd said.

“Of course you can, my lord,” I said. Lili had saddled the horses, which would help Dafydd stay seated, but meant that Lili would have to work not to slide off the back of the horse. Good thing she was so small. It was a flatter saddle than some at least.

I forced Dafydd to the horse. With Bronwen and Lili holding him on either side, I took his foot in my palms.

“One, two, three,” I said, and miraculously, Dafydd understood enough to push off me as I lifted him. He ended sprawled on his stomach across the horse’s back.

“Bee’ here, befo’,” he said, as we shoved him up further, fitting his foot into the stirrup to allow him to claw his way into a sitting position. “Traitor then, too.”

“We will deal with Tudur as soon as we get to Buellt, my lord,” I said. “It’s only five miles from here.”

I boosted Lili up behind Dafydd and she wrapped her arms around his waist. That prompted another comment from Dafydd.

“Oh,” he said, “a girl,” as if he hadn’t acknowledged her earlier. “Do you t’ink she likes me, Ieuan?”

“Of course she does, my lord,” I said.

“What abou’ my nose?” he queried. “B’oken nose, now. Look funny.”

“You look fine, my lord,” Lili assured him. “Not to worry.”

“Okay,” Dafydd said. “We go?”

“Now,” I said. I took the horse’s reins and led him down the trail, Bronwen following with the other horse.

“Wha abou’ guards?” Dafydd said. “Shou’d I sing?”

“There are no guards here, my lord,” I said. “You don’t need to sing.”

“Like to sing,” Dafydd said under his breath. “Good at singing.”

“Yes, my lord,” Lili said.

I kept everyone moving. As I walked and she rode, Lili and I conferred as to the exact location of the ford across the Wye. Twyn y Garth and Aberedw were on the eastern side of the river, while Buellt Castle sat on the western bank, ensuring that we’d have to cross it eventually. I preferred to do it sooner rather than later to elude our pursuers.

We came upon the ford a mile north of Aberedw and crossed it without incident. It must have been nearly three in the morning. I wondered if the guards had changed just before Bronwen released us such that no one would discover our absence until morning. By then, we’d be at Buellt.