Prince of Time (21 page)

“What do we do now?” I said.

“First, we find a place to hide the pack off this horse. It hinders us. I gather it contains valuable items or you wouldn’t have brought it this far?”

“Prince Dafydd needs what’s in it,” I said.

“Then we’ll keep them safe for him,” she said, “somewhere.”

We walked another hundred yards, with Lili veering off the path every twenty feet to check a rock or bush. At one point, she crouched by the river and dug up a plant. She broke off the root, wrapped it and some leaves in a cloth, and stuffed it into a pocket at her waist.

“What is that?” I said.

“Hemlock,” she said. “We may need it.”

Dear God.
I didn’t question her further however, not sure I wanted to know what I was getting into. Finally, after some more forays off the trail, Lili found something else she was looking for: a bush, fronting a rock, under which an animal had lain, but abandoned. She went to Fred and unbuckled the pack. It fell heavily to the ground.

“What is this?” She stopped in surprise. David’s navy blue backpack had come out of its bundle.

“As I said, it’s Prince Dafydd’s,” I said.

Lili stood still, looking at the pack, and then at me.

I didn’t waste time but knelt beside the back and unzipped the pockets, quickly going through them for anything that I should take with me immediately. I grabbed two pieces of beef jerky and one of the four small baggies of coffee at the bottom of the main compartment, underneath David’s sheaf of papers. I lifted up my skirt to stuff them into the back pocket of my jeans, so desperate at this point I was almost ready to pour the coffee grains down my throat. Then, in one of the backpack’s front zipper pockets, I discovered Ieuan’s antibiotics.

Damn that man—he hasn’t been taking them!
There were at least twenty left. For good measure, I took an antibiotic tube too, in case his wound had opened again. I made to slip them into my jeans as well, but Lili stopped me, grabbing them from my hand.

“What is this? What is the writing on this? Where did you get it?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Who are you really?”

“I am your brother’s betrothed, and we don’t have time to discuss this. The English are coming and I think you have a plan for getting Ieuan and the Prince out of Aberedw?”

“I do. But—” She paused, looking again at the pills in one hand, the tube in the other, and then back at me. “These are from the land of Madoc, aren’t they? Ieuan told me all about it when I saw him last.”

“Lili—”

“Are you from the land of Madoc?” she said. “Don’t try to deny it! I saw the clothing you wear under your dress, and this pack, and this vial.” She held up the pills.

“These items are the Prince’s, yes, and yes, they come from the land of Madoc. Can we talk about this later?” I grabbed the pills and stuffed them into my pocket. “Shouldn’t we hurry?”

Lili seemed to shake herself. “Yes.” She shoved the pack and blankets under the rock and spread the bush back on top. We threw handfuls of fallen leaves around the space and backed out of the area to the trail.

“Can you remember the place?” I said.

Lili gave me a withering look. “Of course.”

She tugged Fred’s reins and we walked another half a mile until Lili turned east, off the trail. I plodded along beside her, feeling more and more exhausted with every step. My feet hurt, my head hurt (undoubtedly lack of coffee), I was thirsty despite sharing the last of the water in David’s pack with Lili before we left it, and I figured if I sat down I would never stand again. I was
not
used to this much physical activity, especially on half rations and little sleep.

We left the woods and crossed several open fields before reaching a thatched hut. An old man in a faded brown jacket and a hat pulled over his eyes stood in the yard, hitching a horse to a wagon full of hay.

“Hello, Lili,” he said as we approached him. “What are you doing out with so many English about?”

“English soldiers have passed by here?” she said.

“A dozen or so,” he said. “They didn’t bother me, for they were moving fast and not interested in razing the countryside, or setting fire to it, just yet. A good thing too, with a barn full of crop for the winter.”

“My guess is that you’re delivering that hay to Aberedw,” Lili said.

“You guess right, luv,” the man said. “What of it?”

“Give us a ride?” she said.

The old man surveyed us, and I saw intelligence in his blue eyes, even as they crinkled at me from under his hat. “Introduce me to your friend and I’ll consider it.” He winked.

Lili smiled. “This is Bronwen ferch—”

“Llywelyn,” I supplied. Then stopped, afraid I’d made a mistake, but the old man smiled and nodded.

“The name’s Cawrdaf, but you can call me Daffy. Everyone else does.”

“Thank you, Daffy,” I said.

“What about your horse, there,” Daffy said. “You want to bring him along?”

“I thought I’d leave him with you, in exchange for the ride,” Lili said.

Daffy studied Lili, his head canted to one side. “You in some kind of trouble, girl? Something old Daffy ought to know about?”

“A little,” Lili admitted, “but none that should involve you. We just want a ride to Aberedw. I’ll help unload your hay in the stables and you can be on your way.”

“Humph,” Daffy said. “Don’t know what I think of that. I gather you don’t want it known you’re a daughter of the manor, so to speak?”

“No, Daffy.” Lili looked down at her jerkin and trews. “I think it best if I stay a farm boy.”

Daffy nodded, still not convinced, but put Fred in his barn. After a minute, he returned and climbed onto the wagon seat. Lili stuffed her quiver and bow into the hay and we climbed into the wagon to sit at the back, our feet dangling over the edge. We jerked forward. The road unfolded behind us, rough and uneven, with deeply rutted wagon tracks. We bounced along, but for all that, I leaned against the hay and found myself relaxing for the first time in days.

Lili sat beside me, her hands composed in her lap, her head forward, her chin resting on her chest. I peered at her, thinking she was asleep, but then she straightened. “Has Ieuan said anything of me? I could tell he was embarrassed for you to meet me for the first time, dressed as I am.”

“I think he was too worried to be embarrassed,” I said. “I wasn’t concerned in the slightest. In my country, women dress as men all the time.”

“They do?” Lili said. “And do they know the bow, as well?”

“No,” I said. “Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed yourself? These clothes fit you well and I suspect you wear them often.”

“Whenever I can.” Lili laughed. “Ieuan thinks to find me a husband. There’s a little chance of that as long as I look like this.” She grinned.

“You don’t want to marry?” I said, thinking more of myself than of Lili.

“Marriage would be all right, if Ieuan could find me the right man. It’s babies I don’t want. Unfortunately, you can’t have one without the other.”

I thought I understood. “Your mother …”

Lili jerked her shoulders. “He has told you? My mother died with my little brother, Owain. They survived the birth, but not the fever that followed. That will not be
me
.”

“I’m sorry.” I was at a loss for what else to say.

“And you?” Lili said. “You don’t fear the childbed?”

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” I said.

“Well, it isn’t too late, though I wouldn’t be sorry if you married Ieuan,” Lili said. “In all the hours we’ve traveled today, you haven’t complained once. I wouldn’t have expected that of any woman, other than me, of course. You’re far better than any of the fools at court.”

“For whom you have no patience,” I said, not as a question.

Lili snorted. “Not that it’s their fault. My uncle taught us to read and write—and once he learned, Ieuan taught me to shoot and track through the woods. None of them have a brother such as I, the worse for them.”

It was past midday—of what was becoming a very long day—before we reached Aberedw again. I woke from a nap as Daffy rolled the cart through the gatehouse and turned toward the stables. All my anxiety at the thought of how we were going to get inside the castle was for nothing, as I’d slept through the danger! The castle walls enclosed a space a hundred feet on either side, with a keep centered at the very top of the hill that the walls encompassed. The bailey housed the stables at the bottom of the hill, and when Daffy pulled his horse to a stop, we jumped down.

“Now, you know what you have to do, right?” Lili asked me for at least the third time. I didn’t mind. Her love for Ieuan drove her, and she wasn’t alone in her fears.

“Yes,” I said. “I enter the keep through the kitchen entrance and say that the steward sent me to help with the evening meal. I find where Ieuan and Dafydd are being kept and meet you at dusk outside the stables. If they are in danger, you and I will figure out how to release them.”

“It will depend on where they are, you see,” Lili said. “They’ll be harder to free if they’re in the tower than if they’re stored somewhere more accessible.” Lili gripped my shoulders, standing on her toes to look into my eyes. “You need to be smart and careful. Their lives depend on what you can accomplish.”

“I know,” I said. “I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I will.”

Lili released me, she went off to help Daffy unload the hay, looking very much like the stable boy she very much was not, and I turned towards the keep. A stairway led to the back side and I followed it, huffing and puffing, to the top. The keep was fifty feet square, maybe less; Lili had told me the great hall took up the whole of the second floor. The castellan, Cadoc, would have his apartments above that, with the kitchen and storage below.

My heart was in my throat by the time I reached the kitchen door. I took a deep breath and remembered that throughout my childhood, I’d walked into more unfamiliar places than I could count, and the best policy was always to act if you knew what you were doing. People saw what they wanted to see, and rarely did anyone question someone behaving obviously and normally.

The door to the kitchen was open and I peeked inside, squinting because it was much darker inside than out. And hotter. At least fifteen people bustled about, some even running.

“Don’t just stand there!” a voice said. “Grab that pitcher and bring the water to the master’s room. He’s waiting to wash.”

“Yes, sir, yes, sir,” I said, hurrying into the kitchen. I reached for the pitcher and had picked it up before the man really looked at me. My eyes still saw spots, so he was merely a dark bulk to me.

“Wait,” he said. “Who are you?”

“Bronwen, sir. The steward sent me to help.”

“Oh, well,” he said. “Good. We need the help, what with three of the scullery maids retching their guts out every morning. They’ll be good for nothing now. Hustle along then.”

Three!
“Yes, sir,” I said, and hustled.

A door opened onto a wide hallway on the far side of the kitchen. I trotted along it, past several closed doors before I reached the stairway leading up. A guard lounged at the bottom of the stair and he pinched my rear as I passed him. I would’ve kicked him but thought that ‘Bronwen the scullery maid’ probably wouldn’t have complained, so I refrained. I followed the stairs to the great hall, but kept going up another staircase to the third floor, to what I assumed were the castellan’s rooms.

I knocked. Nobody answered. I was about to knock again when I heard a moan and heavy boots crossing the floor. The door opened inward and I stepped back. Two men shoved their way past me, with a third man hung between them, his eyes closed.

David
.

I knew it was he, less from his face, which was so swollen and puffy it obscured his features, than from his clothing, now stripped to his cream-colored jersey and dark brown breeches. Reddish stains—blood—covered his front. His feet dragged behind him as the men maneuvered him past me and down the stairs.

I stood frozen in the doorway and came to myself only when Cadoc called to me. “You wanted something?”

“My lord. Your water, sir.” I hurried inside and poured the water into a basin set on a table near the door, my hands shaking so badly I was afraid I’d spill the water all over the floor. The room smelled moist and musty—of sweat and blood.

Cadoc sat behind a table littered with papers. A bed dressed with heavy curtains was positioned against the far wall. I finished pouring the water and made to leave, but Cadoc spoke again. “You won’t stay, eh?”

“I’m sorry, my lord,” I said curtsying. “We’re very rushed in the kitchen. I must get back.”

“Later, then,” Cadoc said, and I turned away before he could see my shudder and the sweat dripping off my brow.

I hurried down the stairs and reached the ground floor in time to see the two soldiers coming out of one of the doorways in the hallway near the kitchen. One of them locked the door, and then turned to the guard who sat at the bottom of the stair. He swung his arm and the key sailed across the space between them. The guard caught it, looking satisfied, and the other man waved, before turning to enter the kitchen.

I nearly tripped as I passed the door, I was focusing so hard on
not
looking at it. Once back in the kitchen, the cook proceeded to run me off my feet for the two hours it took to serve and clear the evening meal. Every now and then I poked my nose out the kitchen door, hoping for some fresh air and to check the location of the sun, which by the end of my shift was obscured by clouds. While I watched, rain began to fall.

Finally, as it began to get dark, the cook gave me permission to relieve myself in the outhouse near the stables, as the garderobe inside the castle wasn’t for servants. I hurried down the hill, soaked before I’d gone twenty feet and slipping on the muddy steps. Lili met me at the stable door. She had sticks of straw in her hair but a smile on her face. Most of the soldiers and servants were still in the hall and we were alone.

“I found them, Lili, I found them, but Dafydd is badly hurt. They beat him up.” I couldn’t contain my distress any longer and the words burst from me.