Bran. “Or find a way to return it. Please, Mérian.”
“Is there not some other way?”
He raised a hand and squeezed her arm. “Please, Mérian, you’re the only one who can help me now.” He gazed at her in the glowing light of a rising sun and, in spite of himself, felt his desire quicken. On a sudden inspiration, he said, “I love you, Mérian. Come with me. We will go together, you and I—far away from all of this.”
“Bran, think what you’re saying!” She pulled free. “I cannot just run away, nor can you.” Leaning forward as far as the small window would allow, she clutched at him. “Listen to me, Bran. You must go back. It is the people of Elfael who will need you now and in the days to come. You will be king. You must think of your people.”
“The Ffreinc will kill me!” protested Bran.
“Shh!” she said, placing her fingertips to his lips. “Someone will hear you.”
“I failed to pay the ransom,” Bran explained, speaking more softly. “If I go back to Elfael empty-handed, they’ll kill me—they mean to kill me anyway, I think. The only reason I’m still alive is because they want the money first.”
“Come,” she said, making up her mind. “We must go to my father. You must tell him what you have told me. He will know what to do.”
“Your father hates me.” Bran rejected the idea outright. “No. I am not going back. Elfael is lost. I have to get away now while I still have a chance.” He raised a hand to stroke her cheek. “Come with me, Mérian. We can be together.”
“Bran, listen. Be reasonable. Let my father help you.”
“Will he give twenty marks to free me?” Mérian bit her lip doubtfully. “No?” sneered Bran. “I thought not. He’d sooner see my head on a pike.”
“He will go with you and talk to them. He stands in good stead with Baron Neufmarché. The Ffreinc will listen to him. He will help you.”
“I’m leaving, Mérian.” Bran backed away from the window. “It was a mistake to come here . . .”
“Just wait there,” she said and disappeared suddenly. She was back an instant later. “Here, take this,” she said. Reaching out, she dropped a small leather bag into his hand. It chinked as he caught it. “It is not much,” she said, “but it is all I have.”
“I need a weapon,” he said, tucking the bag away. “Can you get me a sword? Or a spear? Both would be best.”
“Let me see.” She darted away again and was gone longer this time. Bran waited. The sky brightened. The rising sun bathed his back with its warming rays. It would be daylight before he could start out, and that would mean finding a way north that avoided as much of Elfael as possible. He was pondering this when Mérian returned to the window.
“I couldn’t get a sword,” she said, “but I found this. It belongs to my brother.” She pushed the polished ash-wood shaft of a longbow out to him, followed by a sheaf of arrows.
Bran took the weapons, thanked her coolly, and stepped away from the window. “Farewell, Mérian,” he said, raising a hand in parting.
“Please don’t go.” Reaching out, she strained after him, brushing his fingertips with her own. “Think of your people, Bran,” she said, her voice pleading. “They need you. How can you help them in Gwynedd?”
“I love you, Mérian,” he said, still backing away. “Remember me.”
“Bran, no!” she called. “Wait!”
But he was already running for his life.
CHAPTER 12
By the time Bran reached the stream separating the two cantrefs, the sun was burning through the mist that swathed the forest to the east and collected in the hollows of the lowlands. Astride his slow horse, he cursed his luck. He had considered simply taking a horse from Cadwgan’s stable but could not think how to do so without waking one of the stable hands. And even if he had been able to achieve that, adding the wrath of Lord Cadwgan to his woes was not a prospect to be warmly embraced. The last thing he needed just now was an irate king’s search party hot on his heels.
Despite his slow pace, he rode easily along the valley bottom through fields glistening with early morning dew. The crops were ripe, and soon the harvest season would be upon them. Long before the first scythe touched a barley stalk, however, Bran would be far away beyond the forest and