Brother Cadfael 18: The Summer of the Danes

the light. Mark took his arm until he had his balance again, and as courteously released him as soon as his step was secure. Gwion said no word, made no acknowledgement, as Mark needed none. He went before like a herald, torch in hand, straight to the steps of the great hall, and lit them steadily within.
    "We were all in error, my lord," said Cadfael, "in supposing that Bledri ap Rhys had fled your hospitality. He did not go far, nor did he need a horse for the journey, though it is the longest a man can undertake. He is lying dead in the lodging where your steward housed him. From all we see there, he never intended flight. I will not say he had slept. But he had certainly lain in his bed, and certainly put on his gown over his nakedness when he rose from it, to encounter whoever it may have been who walked in upon his rest. These two with me here have seen what I have seen, and will bear it out."
    "It is so," said Brother Mark.
    "It is so," said Gwion.
    Round Owain's council table in his private apartment, austerely furnished, the silence lasted long, every man among his captains frozen into stillness, waiting for the prince's reaction. Hywel, standing at his father's shoulder, in the act of laying a parchment before him, had halted with the leaf half-unrolled in his hands, his eyes wide and intent upon Cadfael's face.
    Owain said consideringly, rather digesting than questioning the news thus suddenly laid before him: "Dead. Well!" And in a moment more: "And how did this man die?"
    "By a dagger in the heart," said Cadfael with certainty.
    "From before? Face to face?"
    "We have left him as we found him, my lord. Your own physician may see him just as we saw him. As I think," said Cadfael, "he was struck a great blow that hurled him back against the wall, so that he fell stunned. Certainly whoever struck him down faced him, this was confrontation, no assault from behind. And no weapon, not then. Someone lashed out with a fist, in great anger. But then he was stabbed as he lay. His blood has run down and gathered in the folds of his gown under his left side. There was no movement. He was out of his senses when he was stabbed. By someone!"
    "The same someone?" wondered Owain.
    "Who can tell? It is probable. It is not certain. But I doubt he would have lain helpless more than a matter of moments."
    Owain spread his hands upon the table before him, pushing aside the parchments scattered there. "You are saying that Bledri ap Rhys has been murdered. Under my roof. In my charge, however he may have come there, friend or enemy, to all intent he was a guest in my house. This I will not abide." He looked beyond Cadfael, at Gwion's sombre face. "You need not fear that I will value my honest enemy's life at less than any man of my own," he said in generous reassurance.
    "My lord," said Gwion, very low, "that I never doubted."
    "If I must go after other matters now," said Owain, "yet he shall have justice, if by any means I can ensure it. Who last saw the man, living?"
    "I saw him leave the chapel, late," said Cadfael, "and cross towards his own lodging. So did Brother Mark, who was with me. Beyond that I cannot say."
    "At that time," said Gwion, his voice a little hoarse with constraint, "I was in the chapel. I talked with him. I was glad to see a face I knew. But when he left I did not follow."
    "Enquiry shall be made," said Owain, "of all the servants of the house, who would be the last wakeful about the maenol. See to it, Hywel. If any had occasion to pass there, and saw either Bledri ap Rhys, or any man going or coming late about his door, bring the witness here. We muster at first light, but we have yet a few hours before dawn. If this thing can be resolved before I go to deal with my brother and his Danes, so much the better."
    Hywel departed on the word, laying his leaf of vellum down on the table, and plucking a couple of men out of the council to speed the search. There was to be no rest that night for the menservants, stewards and maids of Owain's court, none for the members of his bodyguard, or the young men who followed him in arms. Bledri ap Rhys had come to Saint Asaph intending mischief, threatening mischief, and the cost had fallen on his own head, but the echoes would spread outward like ripples from a stone flung into a pool, and scarify the lives of all here until murder was paid for.
    "The dagger that was used," said Owain, returning to his quest like a hawk stooping. "It was not left in the wound?"
    "It was