Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom

me with you! Give me a horse and a weapon, and I will fight for you, and you may have an archer at my back to strike me dead if I make a false step, and a halter about my neck ready for the nearest tree after the Powysmen are hammered, if Elis does not prove to you the truth of every word I say.' He was shaking with fervour, strung taut like a bowstring.
    Herbard opened his eyes wide at such open passion, and studied him in wary surprise a long moment. 'So be it!' he said then abruptly, and turned to his men. 'See to it! Give him a horse and a sword, and a rope about his neck, and have your best shot follow him close and be ready to spit him if he plays false. He says he is a man of his word, that even this defaulting fellow of his is such. Very well, we'll take him at his word.' He looked back from the doorway. Eliud had taken up Elis's red cloak and was holding it in his arms. 'If your cousin had been half the man you are,' said Herbard, 'your life would be safe enough.'
    Eliud whirled, hugging the folded cloak to him as if applying balm to an unendurable ache. 'Have you not understood even yet? He is better than I, a thousand times better!'
    Chapter Twelve.
    In Tregeiriog, too, they were up with the first blush of light, barely two hours after Elis's flight through the wicket at Shrewsbury. For Hugh Beringar had ridden through half the night, and arrived with the dove grey hush of predawn. Sleepy grooms rose, blear-eyed, to take the horses of their English guests, a company of twenty men. The rest Hugh had left distributed across the north of the shire, well armed, well supplied, and so far proof against the few and tentative tests to which they had been subjected.
    Brother Cadfael, as sensitive to nocturnal arrivals as Elis, had started out of sleep when he caught the quiver and murmur on the air. There was much to be said for the custom of sleeping in the full habit, apart from the scapular, a man could rise and go, barefoot or staying to reclaim his sandals, as complete and armed as in the middle of the day. No doubt the discipline had originated where monastic houses were located in permanently perilous places, and time had given it the blessing of tradition. Cadfael was out and halfway to the stables, when he met Hugh coming thence in the pearly twilight, and Tudur equally wide awake and alert beside his guest.
    'What brings you so early?' asked Cadfael. 'Is there fresh news?'
    'Fresh to me, but for all I know stale already in Shrewsbury.' Hugh took him by the arm, and turned him back with them towards the hall. 'I must make my report to the prince, and then we're off down the border by the shortest way. Madog's castellan from Caus is pouring more men into the Minsterley valley. There was a messenger waiting for me when we rode into Oswestry or I'd meant to stay the night there.'
    'Herbard sent the word from Shrewsbury?' asked Cadfael, 'It was no more than a handful of raiders when I left, two days ago.'
    'It's a war party of a hundred or more now. They hadn't moved beyond Minsterley when Herbard got wind of the muster, but if they've brought out such a force as that, they mean worse mischief. And you know them better than I, they waste no time. They may be on the move this very dawn.'
    'You'll be needing fresh horses,' said Tudur practically.
    'We got some remounts at Oswestry, they'll be fit for the rest of the way. But I'll gladly borrow from you for the rest, and thank you heartily. I've left all quiet and every garrison on the alert across the north, and Ranulf seems to have pulled back his advance parties towards Wrexham. He made a feint at Whitchurch and got a bloody nose, and it's my belief he's drawn in his horns for this while. Whether or no, I must break off to attend to Madog.'
    'You may make your mind easy about Chirk,' Tudur assured him. 'We'll see to that. Have your men in for a meal, at least, and give the horses a breather. I'll get the womenfolk out of their beds to see to the feeding of you, and have Einon rouse Owain, if he's not already up.'
    'What do you intend?' Cadfael asked. 'Which way shall you head?'
    'For Llansilin and down the border. We'll pass to east of the Breiddens, and down by Westbury to Minsterley, and cut them off, if we can, from getting back to their base in Caus. I tire of having men of Powys in that castle,' said Hugh, setting his jaw. 'We must have it back and make it habitable, and keep a garrison there.'
    'You'll be few for such a muster as you report,' said