* * * * *
Oswald jerked awake to find his arm being shaken. He shrank back from the figure that loomed over him.
‘Who...?’ he said.
The figure put its finger to its lips, and went over to wake the others. Oswald caught a glimpse of a motley costume, like a jester’s.
The others mumbled into wakefulness.
‘Who’s this?’ Alfrun hissed, glaring up at the figure. ‘A jester? Has Caradawg decided to keep his prisoners in stitches? Better than chains.’
The jester drew back, and as light from the door shone briefly on his face, he said; ‘I do the jokes, Alfrun.’
‘Edwin!’ they chorused.
‘But you ran away!’ growled Bork. ‘You ran out on us!’
Edwin shook his head. ‘I realised that we’d have no chance if we were all prisoners,’ he said. ‘So I ran off, to come back later and free you.’
‘Couldn’t you have told us?’ Alfrun demanded.
‘But you played up to me so well,’ he said with a grin. ‘Besides,’ he added, ‘I met up with Hywel and his men, and their womenfolk, when they left later. They were all set to drag me back here, but I convinced them that they had a chance to win back their honour and finish off the usurper. They could attack, and free you, and kill the king while they were about it - now that he had no hold over them.’
Oswald frowned suspiciously.
‘You’ve been gone for over a week, Edwin,’ he said accusingly. ‘Your story doesn’t ring true.’
Edwin drew back. Then he gave a shrug.
‘They insisted on going home first, getting their women to safety. Then we had to prepare for the raid, and plot, and plan...’
‘It must be nearly Yule by now!’
‘So I came just in time,’ Edwin replied, ‘And Hywel and his men are waiting up on the hillside. Now. How are we going to get you out of these chains?’
Examination of their fetters proved them unbreakable, even with Bork’s strength. No padlocks for Edwin to pick - the smith had just hammered the links shut.
‘Can’t you magic them open?’ Edwin asked Alfrun, exasperated. ‘I can’t imagine why you didn’t try that in the first place, really.’
Alfrun pouted. ‘We thought of that, oaf,’ she replied. ‘I need time, preparation, materials...’
‘What materials?’ Edwin asked urgently.
‘A stave of beechwood, a bone-handled knife - preferably blessed with running water under the full moon...’
‘Is that necessary?’ groaned Edwin.
Alfrun looked angry. ‘Can’t you find another way of doing this?’
‘No!’ replied Edwin. ‘Now, everyone just stay here, and I’ll run along and get the witch what she needs.’
He disappeared through the doorway. The others exchanged glances.
Oswald heaved a sigh. ‘Don’t get your hopes up, everyone,’ he said. ‘We still need to get the sword from King Caradawg and kill the dragon.’
‘At least we’ll be free!’ Alfrun said. ‘That’s all that matters.’
‘But for how long?’ Oswald asked. ‘If we don’t kill the dragon, then the goblins will conquer us all, and then we will all be slaves.’
It was getting dark by the time Edwin crept back into the stronghold. Few beeches grew in the forest, and even with the aid of Hywel’s men, he’d had a hard time of it.
When he had slipped out of the back, the stronghold had been almost deserted, but now, as he climbed down into the darkness behind the byre, he heard the sound of men talking and laughing. He sneaked a look round the corner.
Caradawg and his men were in the yard, and with them was the wizard, Grimbert. They were heading towards the hall. Edwin watched cautiously as they disappeared within. Then he hurried across the yard towards the prison hut.
Then a slight figure appeared from the shadows where he had been hiding, and stood staring after him. As he vanished into the hut, the figure picked up its skirts, and hurried towards the hall.
Edwin entered the hut. The others looked up, and loudly expressed their relief.
‘Quiet!’ he hissed. ‘Caradawg’s back!’
‘You think we don’t know this?’ Oswald asked. ‘We heard him return.’
‘And we also heard him discussing his plans for us with Grimbert,’ Alfrun added. ‘Tonight’s the night.’
Edwin handed her the materials she had requested. ‘Not if I have anything to do with it,’ he said defiantly.
‘But you don’t,’ said King Caradawg.
Edwin whirled round. Framed in the doorway were Caradawg and Grimbert, surrounded by warriors. A slight figure slipped forward.
‘There he is,’ Ceindrych spat. ‘I told you he’d gone in here!’
‘You betrayed us!’ Edwin snarled.
‘You used me!’ Ceindrych replied. ‘Now I am no use as a foot-warmer.’
Edwin tore the horn from round his neck, and set it to his lips. A booming call resounded through the hut.
‘Stop him!’ shouted Caradawg, as Edwin blew into the horn a second time. Warriors poured into the hut and seized him.
‘Take him outside and kill him!’ Caradawg ordered. ‘But before he goes - wizard?’
Grimbert stepped forward, and lifted a mat up from the floor. It revealed a dark, gaping hole in the earth floor.
‘This leads into the kingdom of the goblins,’ he said. ‘And from there we can reach the cave of the dragons, beneath the ancient ruin of Dinas Emrys. There your blood will be shed to wake the creature that will lead our war of conquest!’
‘Take them down the tunnel,’ Caradawg ordered.
The warriors who were not holding Edwin heaved the fettered prisoners to their feet, and forced them with kicks and blows to climb down into the lightless tunnel.
Edwin, struggling in the arms of the guards, caught a single glimpse of Alfrun’s face as she was forced down into the hole. Her eyes, wide with fear, caught his own for a fraction of a second, and the mute appeal in them wrenched his heart.
Then they were gone, and the guards dragged Edwin out into the yard.
‘String him up, is it?’ one of the guards asked.
‘Why not?’ said another. ‘I’m not fouling my blade with his blood.’
‘Let’s see him cut a caper at the end of this,’ another laughed. He produced a rope and tied it into a noose.
‘Hang him from the gate,’ another said, as they slipped the noose over Edwin’s neck.
He had come so far since escaping Offa’s justice. Had it all come full circle? And now his comrades too were on their way to certain death.
‘Wait!’ a girl’s voice suddenly cried.
Ceindrych stepped forward, and gazed at the helpless thief. Edwin’s heart beat faster.
‘Don’t get in our way, wench,’ growled a warrior. ‘This man’s going to hang.’
Ceindrych shook her head.
‘Kill him, by all means,’ she said, ‘but first…’
She spat in his face.
A roar of approval rose from the guards as her spittle dribbled down Edwin’s cheek. They dragged him towards the gate, the noose tightening around his neck as they heaved him through the mud. One of the guards flung the end of the rope over the lintel. A second grabbed it as it came down on the far side, and heaved it so that Edwin was pulled to his feet, then to his tiptoes. The noose tightened.
He tried to think of some fitting last words, but the blood was pounding in his brain, the noose was tightening, and he could no longer breathe…
12 THE SWORD OF WAYLAND
‘Faster!’ the guard barked, kicking Oswald’s back. The thane turned to glare at his tormentor.
Torchlight hissed in the wet air, flickering from the burning brands held aloft by the guards. But for the prisoners, stumbling in chains at the front, it formed only the vaguest nimbus of light, glowing like a halo around their gigantic dancing shadows.
‘We can’t go any faster,’ snapped Oswald. ‘Not unless you remove our chains.’
The others staggered to a halt, and looked hopefully at the guards. The chief guard turned, and forced his way back down the tunnel. From the far end, a booming conversation echoed down towards them.
‘The prisoners won’t go any faster unless their chains are removed,’ the guard’s voice came.
‘Then free them,’ Caradawg boomed impatiently.
‘No!’ said Grimbert. ‘They must remain fettered.’
There was a pause, while Grimbert’s words bounced back and forth from the rock walls. Then Caradawg spoke again.
‘Then you must carry them! At the double, man! We’ve wasted enough time as it is.’
A few seconds later, the chief guard marched back up the tunnel.
‘Pick them up and carry them,’ he barked. ‘And hurry!’
Guards came forward, and in twos seized the fettered prisoners, lifting them off their feet, while others held torches to illuminate their way. As the captors carried them horizontally down the tunnel, Oswald came into close proximity to Alfrun.
‘Do you have the rune-staves ready?’ he tried to ask, but before she could open her mouth to reply, he was dragged off down the rock-hewn passage. The others fell in behind.
Oswald wondered what was happening to Edwin.
The Sword of Wayland Page 33
