PART IV Insurrection

While the inhabitants of Llwddawanden were preoccupied with the valley’s internal affairs, unsettling events were underway in the not-so-distant kingdom of Derthwald. There, unbeknownst to anyone outside of a small group of conspirators, the first steps toward overthrowing Derthwald’s rightful monarch were underway.

In an act that would ultimately link the fates of the Druid sanctuary and the Christian kingdom together, the king’s scheming nephew had sent his own men, dressed as palace guards, to a village in the north of Derthwald’s border with orders to foment enough conflict to incite a local rebellion, hoping that the news of the insurgency would draw his uncle out of his fortress stronghold—to be waylaid and assassinated on the way home.

Had Gilberth picked any other village, none of this would have had any impact on life in Llwddawanden, but the village of Caenbwnsa was one of the few outside of Llwddawanden where the inhabitants continued to worship the Goddess and to send the best tribute they could afford to Her one remaining shrine. So as Gilberth’s thugs were swilling ale and taunting the terrified locals, a badly bruised village elder slipped away and went to report this unprovoked assault to the Goddess’s earthly representatives.