War of the Wolf. Bernard Cornwell

even as it was being told. It was a long tale, but the gist of it was that a priest had come from Mercia to talk with King Arthfael of Gwent, and an agreement had been made, gold had been given, and Arthfael had summoned his kinsman, Gruffudd, and ordered him to take his best warriors north to Ceaster.

      ‘The king,’ Æthelstan interrupted at one point, ‘says the priest came from Mercia?’

      That provoked a hurried discussion in Welsh. ‘The priest offered us gold,’ Father Bledod told Æthelstan, ‘good gold! Enough gold to fill a helmet, lord Prince, and to earn it we simply had to come here to fight.’

      ‘I asked if the priest was from Mercia,’ Æthelstan insisted.

      ‘He was from the sais,’ Bledod said.

      ‘So he could have been a West Saxon?’ I asked.

      ‘He could, lord,’ Bledod said unhelpfully.

      ‘And the name of the priest?’ Æthelstan demanded.

      ‘Stigand, lord.’

      Æthelstan turned and looked at me, but I shook my head. I had never heard of a priest named Stigand. ‘But I doubt the priest used his own name,’ I said.

      ‘So, we’ll never know,’ Æthelstan said bleakly.

      Gruffudd was still speaking, indignant now. Father Bledod listened, then looked embarrassed. ‘Father Stigand is dead, lord Prince.’

      ‘Dead!’ Æthelstan exclaimed.

      ‘On his way home from Gwent, lord Prince, he was waylaid. King Gruffudd says he is not to blame. Why would he kill a man who might bring him more sais gold?’

      ‘Why indeed?’ Æthelstan asked. Had he expected to hear his enemy’s name? That was naive. He knew as well as I did that Æthelhelm the Younger was the likely culprit, but Æthelhelm was no fool, and would have taken care to conceal the treachery of hiring men to fight against his own king. So the man who had negotiated with Arthfael of Gwent was dead, and the dead take their secrets to the grave.

      ‘Lord Prince,’ Bledod asked nervously, ‘the king’s son?’

      ‘Tell King Gruffudd of Gwent,’ Æthelstan said, ‘that he may have his son.’

      ‘Thank you—’ Bledod began.

      ‘And tell him,’ Æthelstan interrupted, ‘that if he fights again for men who rebel against my father’s throne then I will lead an army into Gwent and I will lay Gwent waste and turn it into a land of death.’

      ‘I will tell him, lord Prince,’ Bledod said, though none of us who were listening believed for one heartbeat that the threat would be translated.

      ‘Then go,’ Æthelstan commanded.

      The Welshmen left. The sun was higher now, melting the snow, though it was still cold. A blustery wind came from the east to lift the banners hanging from Ceaster’s walls. I had crossed Britain to rescue a man who did not need rescuing. I had been tricked. But by whom? And why?

      I had another enemy, a secret enemy, and I had danced to his drumbeat. Wyrd bið ful āræd.