Read Online Brother Cadfael 18: The Summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters - Free Book Online

trouble here and now if Owain refused his brother's demands. Something is in the planning, and this Bledri knows of it."
    "I fancy," said Cadfael placidly, "that the prince is of your opinion also, or at least has the possibility well in mind. You heard him. He has given due notice to all his men that Bledri ap Rhys is to remain in the royal retinue here, in Aber, and on the road between. If there's mischief planned, Bledri, if he can't be made to betray it, can be prevented from playing any part in it, or letting his master know the prince has taken the warning, and is on his guard. Now I wonder did Bledri read as much into it, and whether he'll go to the trouble to put it to the test?"
    "He did not seem to me to be put out of his stride," said Mark doubtfully. "If he did understand it so, it did not disquiet him. Can he have provoked it purposely?"
    "Who knows? It may suit him to go along with us to Aber, and keep his eyes and ears open along the way and within the llys, if he's spying out the prince's dispositions for his master. Or for himself," Cadfael conceded thoughtfully, "though what's the advantage to him, unless it's to put him safely out of the struggle, I confess I don't see." For a prisoner who enjoys officially the status of a guest can come to no harm, whatever the issue. If his own lord wins, he is delivered without reproach, and if his captor is the victor he is immune just as surely, safe from injury in the battle or reprisals after it. "But he did not strike me as a cautious man," Cadfael owned, rejecting the option, though with some lingering reluctance.
    A few threads of shadow still crossed the gathering darkness of the precinct, ripples on a nocturnal lake. The open door of the bishop's great hall made a rectangle of faint light, most of the torches within already quenched, the fire turfed down but still glowing, distant murmurs of movement and voices a slight quiver on the silence, as the servants cleared away the remnants of the feast and the tables that had borne it.
    A tall, dark figure, wide-shouldered and erect against the pale light, appeared in the doorway of the hall, paused for a long moment as though breathing in the cool of the night, and then moved leisurely down the steps, and began to pace the beaten earth of the court, slowly and sinuously, like a man flexing his muscles after being seated a while too long. Cadfael opened the door a little wider, to have the shadowy movements in view.
    "Where are you going?" asked Mark at his back, anticipating with alert intelligence.
    "Not far," said Cadfael. "Just far enough to see what rises to our friend Bledri's bait. And how he takes it!"
    He stood motionless outside the door for a long moment, drawing the door to behind him, to accustom his eyes to the night, as doubtless Bledri ap Rhys was also doing as he trailed his coat to and fro, nearer and nearer to the open gate of the precinct. The earth was firm enough to make his crisp, deliberate steps audible, as plainly he meant them to be. But nothing stirred and no one took note of him, not even the few servants drifting away to their beds, until he turned deliberately and walked straight towards the open gate. Cadfael had advanced at leisure along the line of modest canonical houses and guest lodgings, to keep the event in view.
    With admirable aplomb two brisk figures heaved up into the gateway from the fields without, amiably wreathed together, collided with Bledri in midpassage, and untwined themselves to embrace him between them.
    "What, my lord Bledri!" boomed one blithe Welsh voice. "Is it you? Taking a breath of air before sleeping? And a fine night for it!"
    "We'll bear you company, willingly," the second voice offered heartily. "It's early to go to bed yet. And we'll see you safe to your own brychan, if you lose your way in the dark."
    "I'm none so drunk as to go astray," Bledri acknowledged without surprise or concern. "And for all the good company there is to be had in Saint Asaph