Brother Cadfael 18: The Summer of the Danes

can have, and good riddance, but the ransom is fairly ours, and we'll keep it."
    "If they are in good earnest," said Cadfael, "they have still to do battle for both. For I take it Cadwaladr is still safely in Torsten's keeping?"
    "And in chains again. And sat out this foray with a knife at his throat. Oh, they went away empty-handed," said Turcaill with dour satisfaction. And he rose, and went to join his leader, in conference over his three dead. And Cadfael went to look for Heledd, but did not find her.
    "These we take back with us for funeral," said Otir, brooding darkly over the bodies of his men. "You say that these who came by night were not sent by Owain. It is possible, but how can we tell? Certainly I had believed him a man of his word. But what is rightfully ours we will make shift to keep, against Owain or any other. If you are right, and they came for Cadwaladr, then they have but one chance left to win away both the man and his price. And we will be before them, with the ships and the sea at our backs, with masts stepped and ready for sail. The sea is no friend to them as it is to us. We'll stand armed between them and the shore, and we shall see if they will dare in daylight what they attempted in the night."
    He gave his orders clearly and briefly. By morning the encampment would be evacuated, the Danish ranks drawn up in battle array on the beach, the ships manoeuvred close to take the cattle aboard. If they came, said Otir, then Owain was in good faith, and the raiders were not acting on his orders. If they did not come, then all compacts were broken, and he and his force would put to sea and raid ashore at some unguarded coast to take for themselves the balance of the debt, and somewhat over for three lives lost.
    "They will come," said Turcaill. "By its folly alone, this was not Owain's work. And he delivered you the silver by his own son's hand. And so he will the cattle. And what of the monk and the girl? There was a fair price offered for them, but that deal you never accepted. Brother Cadfael has earned his freedom tonight, and it's late now to haggle over his worth."
    "We will leave supplies for him and for the girl, they may stay safe here until we are gone. Owain may have them back as whole as when they came."
    "I will tell them so," said Turcaill, and smiled.
    Brother Cadfael was making his way towards them through the disrupted camp at that moment, between the lines soon to be abandoned. He came without haste, since there was nothing to be done about the news he carried, it was a thing accomplished. He looked from the three bodies laid decently straight beneath their shrouding cloaks to Otir's dour face, and thence full at Turcaill.
    "We spoke too soon. They did not go away empty-handed. They have taken Heledd."
    Turcaill, whose movements in general were constant and flowed like quicksilver, was abruptly and utterly still. His face did not change, only his startling eyes narrowed a little, as if to look far into distance, beyond this present time and place. The last trace of his very private smile lingered on his lips.
    "How came it," he said, "that she ever drew near such a fray? No matter, she would be sure to run towards what was forbidden or perilous, not away from it. You are sure, Brother?"
    "I am sure. I have been looking for her everywhere. Leif saw her plucked out of the melee, but cannot say by whom. But gone she is. I had her beside me until we were flung apart, shortly before you drove them back through the stockade. Whoever he was who had her by the waist, he has taken her with him."
    "It was for her they came!" said Turcaill with conviction.
    "It was for her one at least came. For I think," said Cadfael, "this must be the man to whom Owain had promised her. There was one close to Hywel, yesterday when you were loading the silver, could not take his eyes off her. But I did not know the man, and I thought no more of it."
    "She is safe enough, then, and free already," said Otir, and made no more of it. "And so are you, Brother, if you so please, but I would remain apart until we are gone, if I were you. For none of us knows what more may be intended for the morning. No need for you to put yourself between Dane and Welshman in arms."
    Cadfael heard him without hearing, though the words and their import came back to him later. He was watching Turcaill so closely that he had no thought to spare for whatever his own next moves should be. The young man had stirred easily and