The Good Knight (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery)

not aids it. Release her and give the Danes with whom you are in league leave to return to their boats. If you do these things, now, without hesitation, I will speak to my father on your behalf.”
    “I did not kill Anarawd,” Cadwaladr said.
    “Nobody said you killed him,” Hywel said, “but you paid mercenaries from Ireland to do the job for you.” He tipped his chin towards the men on either side of Cadwaladr. “Danes such as these. We have enough evidence to convict you with what has happened here, but were we to cage you at Aberffraw while Rhun and I traveled to your seat in Ceredigion, do you think I wouldn’t find more?”
    “And yet you come here with only six men,” Cadwaladr said, the sneer back in place. “You’re still guessing at the truth.”
    “I’m not.” Hywel waved a hand in Gareth’s direction, indicating that he should join them.
    Marveling at the case Hywel had built out of nothing, Gareth obeyed, urging Braith forward. He came into view and Cadwaladr paled. “You! But—”
    “I have not been hanged, as you can see,” Gareth said, closing the door on the trap Hywel had set. “Nor will I be. I am free and in the company of King Owain’s sons. You cannot hide the truth from us any longer, Cadwaladr.”
    But that impertinence, coming from someone he’d dismissed for disobedience and reviled in the years afterwards, was too much for Cadwaladr. The prince cursed, shook his fist once at Hywel, and shoved his way past his men on the walkway. He raced away along the balustrade to where it connected to the upper floor of the hall.
    “Uh oh.” That was Evan.
    “Damn,” Hywel said. “What now?”
    “We need another plan, brother,” Rhun said. “And quick.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

    T hey came for me.
    Gwen had screamed Gareth’s name when the first arrow flew at him, though fear had constricted her lungs and the sound hadn’t traveled all the way down to the beach. She’d felt a change in the atmosphere in the fort a few moments earlier—whether it was the running feet and shouting in the courtyard below her, or simply the sense of urgency permeating the castle—such that when Gareth, Rhun, and Evan had appeared on the edge of the river, and then dived behind the bush to avoid that arrow, she hadn’t been surprised. Terrified for them, but not surprised.
    And it wasn’t going to be just them either. If Gareth was out of prison, with Rhun beside him, then Hywel was here too, proving yet again that he was completely reliable when it mattered most.
    Gwen waited, listening for footsteps outside her door that would tell her change was coming. She didn’t yet know what that change was going to be, or if she would survive it, but she felt that anything was better than spending any more time alone in this bare room. She’d spent so many years here, alone or with Hywel. If her father hadn’t fallen out with Owain, she might have been born, lived, and died at Aberffraw.
    Just as Gareth and the others raced back to the cover of the trees, thankfully unharmed, one of Cadwaladr’s men entered her room. Gwen spun around at his approach, but all he did was elbow her away from the window and latch it. “Prince Cadwaladr’s orders,” he said.
    Then he grasped her arm and walked her out the door to a low stool in the corridor. “Sit.”
    Gwen sat. The guard propped himself against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. She studied him for a moment, and a new coldness swept through her when she realized that she’d seen him before—at Aber, of course, but more importantly at Dolwyddelan Castle, before all of this started.
    “What are we waiting for?” Gwen said, when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
    “New orders,” he said.
    “Where is Cadwaladr?”
    The man glanced at her, his expression unreadable.
    Frustrated, Gwen tried a new line of attack. “I saw you talking to that stable boy at Dolwyddelan,” she said, even though she hadn’t. “Given that he ended up dead, your role in all this seems clear. Maybe you killed the servant at Aber too, after she failed to murder Gareth.”
    The man stared at her hard-eyed, and then looked away, still not answering. Time crawled by as Gwen tried to imagine what was happening outside. At least in the hallway she could more easily hear what was going on inside the castle. Footsteps pounded below her, echoing through the walls, but why the men were running and where they were running to, she couldn’t tell.
    Maybe