Brother Cadfael 18: The Summer of the Danes

deeply into his mind if he met them fully. He found even the benevolent regard of such eyes unnerving. But what could this little cleric have to do with any matter between Owain and Cadwaladr and the Danish interlopers? Yet if the business in hand here was something entirely different, what could it have to do with him, and what need to recall him?
    "It's well that you have not left us, Gwion," said Owain, "for after all there is a thing you can do for me, and therewith also for your lord."
    "That I would certainly do, and gladly," said Gwion, but as yet withholding belief.
    "Deacon Mark here is newly come from Otir the Dane," said the prince, "who holds my brother and your lord prisoner. He has brought word from Cadwaladr that he has agreed to pay the sum he promised, and buy himself out of debt and out of bondage."
    "I cannot believe it!" said Gwion, blanched to the lips with shock. "I will not believe it, unless I hear him say so, freely and openly."
    "Then you and I are of one mind," said Owain dryly, "for I also had hardly expected him to see sense so soon. You have good cause to know my mind in this matter. I would rather my brother should be a man of his word, and pay what he promises. But neither would I accept from another mouth the instruction that will beggar him. Otir deals fairly. From my brother's mouth you cannot hear his will made plain, he will not be free until his debt is paid. But you may hear it from Brother Mark, who received it in trust from him, and will testify that he spoke it firmly and with intent, being whole of his body and in his right mind."
    "I do so testify," said Mark. "He has been prisoner only this one day. He is fettered, but further than that no hand has been laid on him, and no threat made against his body or his life. He says so, and I believe it, as no violence has ever been offered to me or to those others hostage with the Danes. He told me what was to be done. And he delivered to me with his own hand his seal, as authority for the deed, and I have delivered it to the prince, according to Cadwaladr's orders."
    "And the purport of his message? Be kind enough to repeat it," the prince requested courteously. "I would not have Gwion fear that I have in any degree prompted you, or put twisted words into your mouth."
    "Cadwaladr entreats the lord Owain, his brother," said Mark, fixing his dauntingly clear eyes upon Gwion's face, "to send with all haste into Llanbadarn, to Rhodri Fychan, who was his steward, and who knows where his remaining treasury is bestowed, and to tell him that his lord requires the despatch to Abermenai of money and stock to the value of two thousand marks, to be delivered to the Danish force under Otir, as promised to them at the agreement in Dublin. And to that end he has sent his seal for guarantee."
    There was a long silence after the clear, mild voice ended this recital, while Gwion stood motionless and mute, struggling with the fury of denial and despair and anger within him. It was not possible that so proud and intolerant a soul as Cadwaladr should have submitted, and so quickly. And yet men, even the most arrogant and hot-headed of men, do value their lives and liberty high, and will buy them back even with humiliation and shame when the threat comes close, and congeals from imagination into reality. But first to dare defy and discard his Danes, and then to grovel to them and scrape together their price in undignified haste, that was unworthy. Had he but waited a few days, there should have been another ending. His own men were so near, and would not have let him lie in chains for long, even if brother and all had deserted him. God, let me have two days yet, prayed Gwion behind his dark, closed face, and I will fetch him off by force, and he shall call off his bailiffs and take back his property, and be Cadwaladr again, erect as he always was.
    "This charge," Owain was saying, somewhere at the extreme edge of Gwion's consciousness, a voice from the distance, or from deep within, "I intend to fulfil with all haste, as he asks, the quicker to redeem his person together with his good name. My son Hywel rides south at once. But since you are here, Gwion, and all your heart's concern is his service, you shall ride with Hywel's escort, and your presence will be a further guarantee to Rhodri Fychan that this is indeed Cadwaladr's voice speaking, and those who serve him are bound to obey. Will you go?"
    "I will go."
    What else could he say? It was already