his men on land that used to belong to my good thane, and poaching the king’s precious deer to survive. Pretty soon, they began nodding and agreeing, siding with me in my plight. “Thing is, since then I’ve been on the move all summer looking for this fella they call King Raven. Naturally, when I heard you mention Rhi Bran, my ears pricked right up.”
“You speak Cymru?” asked Siarles then.
“Learned it on my dear mum’s knee,” I told him. “Same mum, in fact, that named me William. I also bothered myself to learn a little Frank so I’d know what those buggers were up to.”
“Why do you want to see King Raven?” asked Iwan. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
“To offer my services,” I replied, “and I’d be much obliged for any help you could give me in that direction.”
“Might we know the nature of these services?” asked Siarles, looking me up and down. He was softening a bit, but still a little brittle for my taste.
“Seems to me that if he is even half the man I think he is, he’ll be needing a strong and fearless hand like Will Scarlet here.”
“What do you know of him?”
“I know he en’t a phantom, as some would have it. I know Baron de Braose is offering fifty pounds of pure English silver for his fine feathered head on a pike.”
“Truly?” Siarles asked, much impressed.
“Aye,” I assured him, “did you not know that?”
“We maybe heard something about it,” he muttered. Then a new thought occurred to him. “And just how do we know you don’t want to claim all that money for yourself ?”
“Good question,” I allowed. “And it deserves a good answer.”
“Well?” he said, suspicion leaping up lively as ever. Siarles, bless him; his grey eyes are quick and they are keen, but he distrusts most of what he sees. Half of it is living in the wildwood, I reckon, where your eyes and wits are your best and truest friends; but the other half is just his own leery nature.
“As soon as I think up an answer good enough, I’ll tell you,” I said. This brought a growl from young Siarles, who wanted to run me off then and there.
Iwan only laughed. He had already made up his mind about me. “Peace, Siarles,” he said. “He doesn’t want the money.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Any man after the reward money would have thought of a better answer than that. Why, he’d have a whole story worked out and like as not say too much and get himself all tangled in the telling. Will, here, didn’t do that.”
“Maybe he’s just that stupid.”
“Nay, he isn’t stupid,” replied Iwan. I liked him better and better by the moment. “I’ll wager my good word against anything in your purse that claiming the reward money never crossed his mind.”
“You would win that bet, friend,” I replied. “In truth, it never did.” Seeing as how Iwan had made such a fine argument for me, I asked, “Am I to be thinking that you know this Rhi Bran?”
Siarles, still suspicious, frowned as Iwan said, “Know him, aye, we do.”
“Would you kindly tell me where he can be found?” I asked, nice as please and thank you.
“Better than that,” said Iwan, “we’ll take you to meet him.”
“Iwan!” snapped Siarles. He was tenacious as a rat dog, give him that. “What are you saying? We don’t know this Saxon, or anything about him. We can’t be taking him to Bran. Why, he might be anybody—maybe even a spy for the abbot!”
“If he’s Hugo’s spy we can’t be leaving him here,” countered Iwan. “I say we take him with us and leave it to Bran to decide who and what he is—aye, and what is to be done with him.” Turning to me, he said, “If we take you with us, do you swear on your life’s blood to abide by our lord’s decision whatsoever it may be?”
Ordinarily, I do not like swearing my life away on the whims of persons unknown, but seeing as he was only granting me the chance I’d been seeking all summer, I readily agreed. “On my life’s blood, I swear to abide by your lord’s decision.”
“Good enough for me,” said Iwan. “Follow us.”
“And see you keep quiet,” added Siarles for good measure.
“I’ll be as quiet as you were when you woke me from my treetop perch just now,” I told him.
Iwan gave out a laugh and, in two quick strides, disappeared up over the