Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

all her story, he'll listen!"
    "Wait," said Cadfael, "and I will go and ask."
    "But, Cadfael... two nights ago? No, we never sent for him two nights ago."
    Well, there was no great surprise there. The possibility had been at the back of Cadfael's mind for some time. No, it had been too apt, too opportune. He had found out what awaited him, and removed himself from the scene long enough, he had hoped, to escape the judgement. It made no difference now. "No, no matter, that's understood," he said. "Wait here for me!"
    Abbot Radulfus was alone in his panelled parlour. He listened to this late embassage with drawn brows, and eyes looking inward. And having heard, he said sombrely: "It is high time for her. How can she be denied? You say they have guards enough to keep him safe? Yes, let him go, "
    "And Father Herluin? Should I ask his leave also?"
    "No. Tutilo is within my walls and in my charge. I give him leave. Go yourself, Cadfael, and release him to them. If time is so short for her, waste none of it."
    Cadfael returned in haste to the gatehouse. "He will come. We have the abbot's leave. Wait, and I'll bring the boy."
    It scarcely surprised him to find, when he plucked the key from its nail in the gatehouse, that the nail beside it was also vacant. Everything was happening now with a distant, dreamlike certainty. Daalny had acted, after all; she must have taken the second key during Vespers, from the nail where at noon she had watched the porter hang the first one, but she had had to wait for near-darkness before using it. Now would be her favoured time, now when the brothers would be gathering in the church for Compline. Cadfael left the messengers from Longner waiting uneasily within the gate, and went hurrying round the corner of the schoolroom to the penitential cells beyond, where deeper shadows were already filling the narrow passage to the wicket in the enclave wall, and the mill and the pool beyond.
    And she was there. He was aware of her at once, though she was only a slender additional shadow pressed close within the deep doorway of the cell. He heard the key grating ineffectively in the wards of the lock it did not fit, and her vexed, angry breathing as she wrestled to make it enter where it would not go. He heard her stamp her foot in frustrated rage, and grit her teeth, too intent to become aware of his approach until he reached an arm to put her aside, quite gently.
    "No use, child!" he said. "Let me!"
    She uttered a muted cry of despair, and plucked herself furiously backward out of his grasp. There was no sound from within the cell, though the prisoner's little lamp was lighted, its faint glow showed at the high, barred window.
    "Wait, now, wait!" said Cadfael. "You have a message to deliver here, and so have I. Let's be about it." He stooped to pick up the wrong key, which had been jerked out of the lock and out of her hand when she started away. "Come, and I'll let you in."
    The right key turned sweetly in the heavy lock, and Cadfael opened the door. Tutilo was standing fronting them, erect and rigid, his face a narrow, pale flame, his amber eyes wide and wild. He had known nothing of her plans, he did not know now what to expect, why this confining door should ever have been opened now, at this end of the day, after all permitted visits were over.
    "Say what you came to say to him," said Cadfael. "But briefly. Waste no time, for I have none to waste, and neither has he."
    Daalny stood tense and at a loss far one moment, before she flung herself bodily into the open doorway, as though she feared the door might be slammed again before she could prevent, though Cadfael made no move. Tutilo stood staring in bewilderment from one of them to the other, without understanding, almost without recognition.
    "Tutilo," she said, low-voiced and urgent, "come away now. Through the wicket here, and you're free. No one will see you, once outside the walls. They're all at Compline. Go, quickly, while there's time. Go west into Wales. Don't wait here to be made a scapegoat, go, now... quickly!"
    Tutilo came to life with a shudder and a start, golden flames kindling in his eyes. "Free? What have you done? Daalny, they'll only turn on you..." He turned to stare at Cadfael, braced and quivering, unsure whether this was friend or enemy facing him. "I do not understand!"
    "That is what she came to say to you," said Cadfael. "I have a message for you, too. Sulien Blount is here with a horse for you, and begs that you