‘But what about all her other brothers, then?’
‘Well, you see, when this Graelyn – I believe that was his name – betrayed the honour of his blood, Mallona was the only one who spoke on his side, and she and her kin no longer speak, for all that it’s been ten years now. I think her father arranged the match with Beryn as revenge of a sort, although I shouldn’t say that. I mean, he might have thought it a perfectly good match. After all, you can’t tell one old man that another doesn’t have much life left, if you take my meaning.’
When Jill managed to make her escape from the lady’s side, she headed upstairs to Tieryn Dwaen’s chamber. On her way she met a serving lass, carrying a tray with a silver flagon and goblets upon it.
‘Here, silver dagger,’ she called out. ‘You’re with the tieryn’s party, aren’t you?’
‘I am. Shall I save you a few steps and carry that up?’
‘Would you? Some fellow from his grace’s retinue handed it to me and said to deliver it, but with all these guests I’ve got so much work to do.’
‘Of course you do. Rude of him.’
Dwaen, Cadlew, and Rhodry were all sitting in the reception chamber of the suite, the two lords in chairs, Rhodry on the floor by the door. When she brought the mead in, Cadlew rose with a small bow and took the tray from her.
‘Splendid idea, Jill. We found a water jug in one bedchamber, but that won’t do a man any good.’
‘Well, my lord, I’m afraid you don’t dare drink this mead. I’ve got the feeling it’s been poisoned.’
Her feeling was confirmed when Rhodry dipped the corner of a rag in the mead, tasted a scant drop of it, and immediately washed his mouth out with the aforementioned water.
‘Crude,’ he remarked. ‘Cursed crude. No one in their right mind would have drunk more than one sip of this.’
‘Ah by the great hairy balls of the Lord of Hell!’ Dwaen was decidedly pale. ‘Why would someone go to all this trouble to poison the stuff, then?’
‘Why did they put that rat in your bed, Your Grace? To make you squirm, to drag it out and make you wonder when they’ll finally kill you.’ Rhodry glanced at Jill. ‘Think I should go berate the chamberlain?’
‘It won’t do any good, and spreading the news around might do harm. You could go down to the great hall and find out how easy it is for someone to get into the broch.’
Rhodry did just that, but he came back with the discouraging news that it was remarkably easy, even at night, for any well-dressed man who was generous with his small coins. Merchants and travellers did it all the time, mostly to gawk at the dun and maybe to get a glimpse of the gwerbret or his wife. At times, even, after a particularly lavish feast, the gwerbret summoned the town poor into the ward to be given the leftovers. Jill and Rhodry both agreed that the only way they were going to keep strangers away from the tieryn was to raise a general alarm and have the gwerbret put the dun on full alert, a plan that Dwaen outright forbade, much to Cadlew’s annoyance and Jill’s relief. Rousing the dun would give her whole game away.
Since it would be several days before Lord Beryn would arrive at court to answer the formal charges, Rhodry resigned himself to keeping a close watch over the tieryn and hoping for the best. As the tedious time crawled by, he grew annoyed with Jill for leaving the whole job to him. It seemed that the only time he ever saw her was at meals; she was always off talking to the servants, gossiping with the women in the dun, or wandering around town where, for all he knew, she might well be in danger. By the end of the third day he was ready to shake her. They finally got a few minutes alone after dinner.
‘Just where were you this afternoon?’ Rhodry snapped.
‘Talking with the head of the merchant guild. It took me all day to bribe my way in to see him.’
‘What did you want to do that for?’
‘And then I went to the temple of Nudd to talk to the priests. Every merchant who comes through town stops to pray there.’
‘So what? What do merchants have to do with anything?’
‘Lots, my sweet love. I think me you’re going to be surprised.’
‘I don’t want to be surprised, blast you. I want to know right now what you’re up to.’
‘All right. Here come his grace and Lord Cadlew now. Let’s see if they’ll ask the gwerbret a favour for me. I want to speak to our prisoner again.’
Since his own curiosity was running high, Dwaen was willing to do just that, and Coryc himself was more than willing to grant Jill’s boon for the same reason. With four of the gwerbret’s men along for a guard, they all trooped out to the gaol, a long, squarish stone shed, half of which served as a general dungeon for beggars, drunkards, and suspected thieves, and half as private cells for more unusual men. Inside one of these tiny rooms was their prisoner, sitting on a heap of fetid straw. When a guard opened the door he rose, setting defiant hands on his hips.
‘If you persist in refusing information,’ Gwerbret Coryc said, ‘I’ll have you hanged.’
Stubbled and dirty, the prisoner ducked his head in a submissive nod. Several days of bad food and living with the results of the same had erased his contemptuous confidence.
‘This shouldn’t take long, Your Grace.’ Jill stepped forward. ‘Would you have the guard see if he’s been flogged recently?’
Although the prisoner fought and squirmed, a pair of guards pinned him and pulled his shirt up with little trouble. In the torchlight they could all see the fresh pink scars, about ten of them, criss-crossing his back.
‘Very well,’ Jill said. ‘Now, lad, I’ve got just one question for you. Who’s Lady Mallona’s lover?’
Although for a brief moment Rhodry thought she’d gone daft, the prisoner yelped like a kicked dog, and all the colour left his face.
‘So.’ Jill favoured him with a smile. ‘I thought she had one, truly. Was it you? You’re good-looking when you’re clean.’
‘It wasn’t, by every god of my people. I wouldn’t have a thing to do with her when –’ He broke off with a foul oath.
‘So, she was sniffing round you, was she? It’s no wonder you refuse to talk. One word, and you start giving everything away. Very well, then, hold your tongue a while longer. I’ll nose him out sooner or later.’
With a nod to the guard to lock the prisoner up again, Coryc led the rest of them out into the ward.
‘All right, silver dagger, you’ve got some game afoot, and you can blasted well let the rest of us know what it is.’
‘Your Grace,’ Jill said, ‘I’ll beg you a boon. If I’m right, this crime is truly scandalous. So I don’t want to make any charge or raise anybody’s suspicions until we’re assembled in a proper court of law. Of course I’ll tell you if you order me to, but I truly do think we should wait until your malover. Your wife will tell you that I’m trustworthy.’
‘She already has, actually. Very well. Your request’s both fair and honourable.’ The gwerbret looked round with an apologetic smile, since he doubtless knew perfectly well that everyone there was burning with curiosity. ‘After all, Lord Beryn should arrive on the morrow.’
Lord Beryn did indeed arrive during the noon meal. As Dwaen’s bodyguard, Rhodry was sitting next to the tieryn at the gwerbret’s table when from out in the ward came the clatter and bustle of armed men dismounting. The enormous hall fell silent as everyone, noble-born and commoner alike, turned to stare at the door. With ten of his men behind him, Lord Beryn strode in, a tall man, rawboned and grizzled, with sweeping