Caradoc of the North Wind - By Allan Frewin Jones Page 0,44

follow.

The unbidden idea appealed to her; beaming out in her mind like a shaft of sunlight through heavy storm clouds. To be away from the machinations and deceits of the court would be a fine thing indeed. And what further use was she here? She was unloved and feared by almost everyone in the king’s service. Who would mourn if the Gwyn Braw rode out through the gates of Pengwern never to return?

And as the idea grew in her mind, so she found herself longing for the freedom of the wild hills and eager to see once again the beautiful face of Rhiannon, the Woman in White upon her milk-white steed, and to look again into the glorious, sad eyes of Govannon of the Wood, lord of the forests.

Yes! I will do it! I will be rid of the fetid stink of this place. I’ll no longer be Branwen the witch girl, the tamed and shackled monster of King Cynon’s court. I’ll be the Emerald Flame! The Bright Blade! The Warrior Child of the Shining Ones!

The urge to escape blossomed in her until she almost felt like running to saddle up Terrwyn at that very moment, to ride out into the dying day. Anything to be out of here as quickly as possible.

But she stifled her growing desire to be gone. Even if she were to take such an extreme step, and even if all her followers chose to depart with her, she would not think of quitting the king’s citadel without Linette.

Her enthusiasm waned as reality flooded her mind.

I cannot leave Linette, not even if Llew chose to send an army of assassins to cut me down where I sleep. No, patience will be my guide till Linette is healed.

But then …

When the time came, the king would not even know they were gone until they were three leagues from this place, galloping full-tilt westwards to the mountains.

‘Rhodri, Blodwedd, go! Stretch your legs – walk on the walls perhaps – or go and sit with the others for a while. You haven’t been out of this hut in days!’

Branwen had entered Linette’s hut to find Blodwedd sitting huddled with her arms wrapped around her shins and her chin on her knees, watching while Rhodri sorted herbs from a wicker pannier. Linette lay sleeping by the fire, loaded up with woollen cloaks and furs. The hut smelled of the crushed and pounded herbs, not an unpleasant mix of odours, but very strong and pungent and heavy, especially when Branwen first stepped inside from the clear chill air.

Rhodri looked uncertainly at her. ‘I’ll keep watch,’ Branwen assured him. ‘If she so much as flutters an eyelash, I’ll fetch you.’

Rhodri got slowly to his feet. ‘My aching back,’ he groaned. ‘A walk would do me good, I think.’ He gazed down at Blodwedd. ‘Will you come with me?’

‘I will.’ Blodwedd rose to her feet. She padded to their bed and picked up their two ermine cloaks.

Swaddled in furs to ward off the worst of the late-afternoon chill, the two stepped out, Rhodri’s arm about the owl-girl’s shoulders. Branwen watched them with fond eyes as they went crunching side by side through the mash of grey snow.

The snow had stopped falling and there were tears and rips and holes in the cloud-wrack, through which the sky showed, pale blue and distant, like the promise of a spring that might never come.

Branwen tiptoed to Linette’s side and stooped to lift an edge of a fur covering up higher over her shoulder. Linette’s eyes fluttered open.

Branwen smiled, although the pain in Linette’s eyes clawed at her stomach.

‘Well met,’ she murmured softly. ‘Did I wake you?’

‘I heard voices,’ whispered Linette. Her breath was unpleasant in Branwen’s face – sour, sickly and unwholesome.

‘I sent Rhodri and Blodwedd away for a while,’ said Branwen, determined that Linette would not see her distaste. ‘Rhodri says you are improving mightily with each passing day,’ she lied. ‘You’ll soon be up and about again. By the saints, but you must be sick of this place.’

A weak smile twitched at the corner of Linette’s mouth. ‘You could do one thing for me,’ she whispered. ‘Prop me up a little, so I can see out through the doorway. I’d like to see the mountains, if that’s possible.’

‘Of course.’ Branwen carefully lifted Linette with an arm around her thin shoulders, while she tucked furs under her back and head. She tried not to show how troubled she was by the wasted look in Linette’s