Brother Cadfael 18: The Summer of the Danes

considering it. "Yes, let him come. A man who spurs straight in to me man to man is worth hearing."
    Turcaill went back jauntily to the guardpost, in time to see the horseman rein in at the gate, and light down empty-handed to speak for himself. "Go tell Otir and his peers that Owain ap Griffith ap Cynan, prince of Gwynedd, asks admittance to speech with them."
    There had been very serious and very composed and deliberate consultation in Otir's inner circle of chieftains since Cadwaladr's defiance. They were not men of a temper to accept such treachery, and make the best of their way tamely out of the trap in which it had left them. But whatever they had discussed and contemplated in retaliation suddenly hung in abeyance when Turcaill, grinning and glowing with his astonishing embassage, walked in upon their counsels to announce: "My lords, here on the threshold is Owain Gwynedd in his own royal person, asking speech with you."
    Otir had a sense of occasion that needed no prompting. The astonishment of this arrival he put by in an instant, and rose to stride to the open flap of his tent and bring in the guest with his own hand to the trestle table round which his captains were gathered.
    "My lord prince, whatever your word, your self is welcome. Your line and your reputation are known to us, your forebears on your grandmother's side are close kin to kin of ours. If we have our dissensions, and have fought on opposing sides before now, and may again, that is no bar but we may meet in fair and open parley."
    "I expect no less," said Owain. "You I have no cause otherwise to love, since you are here upon my ground uninvited, and for no good purpose towards me. I am not come to exchange compliments with you, nor to complain of you, but to set right what may be misunderstood between us."
    "Is there such misunderstanding?" asked Otir with dry good humour. "I had thought our situation must be clear enough, for here I am, and here are you acknowledging freely that here I have no right to be."
    "That, as at this moment," said Owain, "we may leave to be resolved at another time. What may have misled you is the visit my brother Cadwaladr paid you this morning."
    "Ah, that!" said Otir, and smiled. "He is back in your encampment, then?"
    "He is back. He is back, and I am here, to tell you, I could even say, to warn you, that he did not speak for me. I knew nothing of his intent. I thought he had come back to you just as he left you, still your ally, still hostile to me, still a man of his word and bound to you. It was not with my will or leave that he discarded you, and with you the sacred worth of his word. I have not made peace with him, nor will I make war with him against you. He has not won back the lands I took from him, for good reason. The bargain he made with you he must abide as best he may."
    They were steadily gazing at him, and from him to one another, about the table, waiting to be enlightened, and withholding judgement until the mists cleared.
    "I am slow to see, then, the purpose of this visit," said Otir civilly, "however much pleasure the company of Owain Gwynedd gives me."
    "It is very simple," said Owain. "I am here to lay claim to three hostages you hold in your camp. One of them, the young deacon Mark, willingly remained to ensure the safe return of my brother, who has now made that return impossible, and left the boy to answer for it. The other two, the girl Heledd, a daughter of a canon of Saint Asaph, and the Benedictine Brother Cadfael of the abbey of Shrewsbury, were captured by this young warrior who conducted me in to you, when he raided for provisions far up the Menai. I came to ensure that no harm should come to any of these, by reason of Cadwaladr's abandonment of his agreement. They are no concern of his. They are all three under my protection. I am here to offer a fair ransom for them, no matter what may follow between your people and mine. My own responsibilities I will discharge honourably. Cadwaladr's are nothing to do with me. Exact from him what he owes you, not from any of these three innocent people."
    Otir did not openly say: "So I intend!" but he smiled a tight and relishing smile that spoke just as clearly for him. "You may well interest me," he said, "and I make no doubt we could agree upon a fair ransom, between us. But for this while you must hold me excused if I reserve all my assets. When I have given consideration to all things, then you shall know whether, and at what price, I am