Brother Cadfael 06: A Virgin In The Ice

gathered to him the lawless, restless, masterless men of two or three shires, happy at seeing England torn in two, and its open wounds inviting their teeth.
    Cloud was settling low overhead. Cadfael turned and made his way back to his mule, and with heightened care led him, still in the shelter of the trees, down to the opening of the ravine, and waited and listened for a while before mounting and riding. He went back the way he had come, and never encountered a living soul until he was well down towards the lowlands. There he could very well have branched left and descended to the highroad from Cleobury, but he did not do it, preferring to retrace his course all along the road the reivers used. He needed to know it well, for the night's snow, if it came as was now customary, might grievously disguise it.
    It was dark by the time he came out on to the road within a mile of Bromfield, and made his way thankfully and wearily home.
    Hugh Beringar did not come back until Compline, and rode in tired, hungry, and for all the cold, sweating from his exertions. Cadfael went to join him over his late supper, as soon as he came from the church.
    "You found the place, then? Reyner brought you word where last night's devilry fell?" He was answered by the grimness of Hugh's face.
    "And told me what you were about at the other end of it. I hardly thought to find you home before me - faith, or at all, undamaged! Need you always be the one to put your hand straight into the hornet's nest?"
    "Where was it they burned and slew, last night?"
    "At Whitbache. Barely two miles north of Ludlow, and they strode in and out again as freely as in their own bailey." It fitted well. Their way home from Whitbache would run below the hut to the old road, just as Cadfael had witnessed it. "I was back in Ludlow when your man came, I fetched Dinan out to come with me. Every house pillaged, every soul hewn down. Two women escaped by running away into the woods, and carried their babes with them, all that ails them is cold and horror, but the rest - one man may live to tell it, and two young lads, but all hurt. And the rest, dead. We've taken them into the town, the quick and the dead. They're Dinan's people, he'll see them cared for. And have blood for their blood, given half a chance."
    "Both you and he may have your chance," said Cadfael. "Reyner Dutton found what he was seeking, and so did I."
    Hugh's head, inclined wearily back against the wall, jerked erect again sharply, and his eyes regained their brightness. "You found the den these wolves are using? Tell!"
    Cadfael told the whole story in detail. The clearer the picture they could draw now of the problem confronting them, the better the chance of dealing with it with little loss. For it was not going to be easy.
    "As far as I can see, there is but that one road to them. Behind the fortress the ground still rises somewhat, to the rim of the cliff. Whether their stockade continues round the rear of the bailey I could not see. With that drop at their backs they may have felt it unnecessary. I daresay the rocks could be climbed, in a better time of year, but in this ice and snow no one would dare attempt it. And being the men they are, I fancy they have store of stones and boulders ready in case any should venture."
    "And the place is indeed so strong? I marvel how they've contrived so much building in secrecy."
    "A place so remote and harsh, who goes there? A few holdings clinging to the lower slopes, but what is there to draw an honest man above? Not even good grazing. And, Hugh, they have an army within there, the scourings of God knows how wide a swathe of middle England, labour in plenty. And Clee Forest at their feet, and stone all about them, the only crop that summit bears. You know and I know how fast a castle can be reared, given the timber and the need."
    "But runaway villeins turned robber, and petty thieves fleeing from the towns, and such fry, do not build on such a scale, but make themselves hovels in the woods," said Hugh. "Someone of more weight has the rule there. I wonder who! I do wonder!"
    "Tomorrow, if God please," said Cadfael, "we may find out."
    "We?" Briefly and distractedly Hugh smiled at him. "I thought you had done with arms, brother! You think our two are within there?"
    "So the tracks would seem to show. It is not certain that those who slept in the hut through the night, and ran down to meet the horsemen, were Yves and Elyas, but man and boy they were, and do you