Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom

man eyed him hard, and turned abruptly on his heel to make for the gatehouse and question the guards. Eliud caught him entreatingly by the sleeve. 'What is it brewing here? Is there news? Such activity in the armoury and the archers drawing arrows... What's happened overnight?'
    'What's happened? Your countrymen are swarming in force along the Minsterley valley, if you want to know, burning farmsteads and moving in on Pontesbury. Three days ago it was a handful, it's past a hundred tribesmen now.' He swung back suddenly to demand: 'Did you hear aught in the night? Is that it? Has that cousin of yours run, broke out to join his ragamuffin kin and help in the killing? The sheriff was not enough for him?'
    'No!' cried Eliud. 'He would not! It's impossible!'
    'It's how we got him in the first place, a murdering, looting raid the like of these. It suited him then, it comes very timely for him now. His neck out of a noose and his friends close by to bring him off safely.'
    'You cannot say so! You don't yet know but he's here within, true to his word.'
    'No, but soon we shall,' said the sergeant grimly, and took Eliud firmly by the arm. 'Into your cell and wait. The lord Herbard must know of this.' He flung away at speed and Eliud, in desolate obedience, trudged back to his cell and sat there upon the bed with only Elis's cloak for company. By then he was certain what the result of any search must be. Only an hour or two of daylight gone and there were endless places a man could be, if he felt no appetite either for food or for the company of his fellow, men, and yet the castle felt empty of Elis, as cold and alien as if he had never been there. And a courier had come in the night, it seemed, with news of stronger forces from Powys plundering closer to Shrewsbury, and closer still to the forest grange of the abbey of Polesworth at Godric's Ford. Where all this heavy burden had begun and where, perhaps, it must end. If Elis had heard that nocturnal arrival and gone out to discover the cause, yes, then he might in desperation forget oath and honour and all. Eliud waited wretchedly until Alan Herbard came, with two sergeants at his heels. A long wait it had been. They would have scoured the castle by now. By their grim faces it was clear they had not found Elis.
    Eliud rose to his feet to face them. He would need all his powers and all his dignity now if he was to speak for Elis. This Alan Herbard was surely no more than a year or two his senior, and being as harshly tested as he.
    'If you know the manner of your cousin's flight,' said Herbard bluntly, 'you would be wise to speak. You shared this narrow space. If he rose in the night, surely you would know. For I tell you plainly, he is gone. He has run. In the night the wicket was opened for a man to enter. It's no secret now that it let out a man, renegade, forsworn, self-branded murderer. Why else should he so seize this chance?'
    'No!' said Eliud. 'You wrong him and in the end it will be shown you wrong him. He is no murderer. If he has run, that is not the reason.'
    'There is no if. He is gone. You know nothing of it? You slept through his flight?'
    'I missed him when I awoke,' said Eliud. 'I know nothing of how he went or when. But I know him. If he rose in the night because he heard your man arriving and if he heard then, is it so, that the Welsh of Powys are coming too close and in dangerous numbers, then I swear to you he has fled only out of dread for Gilbert Prestcote's daughter. She is there with the sisters at Godric's Ford and Elis loves her. Whether she has discarded him or no, he has not ceased to love her, and if she is in danger he will venture life, yes and his honour with it, to bring her to safety. And when that is done,' said Eliud passionately, 'he will return here, to suffer whatever fate may await him. He is no renegade! He has broken his oath only for Melicent's sake. He will come back and give himself up. I pledge my own honour for him! My own life!'
    'I would remind you,' said Herbard grimly, 'you have already done so. Either one of you gave his word for both. At this moment you stand attainted as his surety for his treachery. I could hang you, and be fully justified.'
    'Do so!' said Eliud, blanched to the lips, his eyes dilated into a blaze of green. 'Here am I, still his warranty. I tell you, this neck is yours to wring if Elis proves false. I give you leave freely. You are mustering to ride, I've seen it. You go against these Welsh of Powys. Take