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Cade
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AS CADE HAD FEARED, the Saxons were none too pleased about being denied their promised prize. He’d watched them from his vantage point at the Roman fort before shooting his first arrow at Rhiann’s captors. For their part, the Saxons had seen the events on the ridge above the town and now, with some shouting and gesturing, had gathered themselves to take action. Four men had mounted and were headed inland.
“Let’s go!” Madoc returned to his horse and turned its head towards the southeast.
Rhiann clutched Cade’s waist as he spurred Cadfan after Madoc. “We can outrun them, can’t we?”
“Maybe,” Cade said. “Cadfan’s tired and hungry; we all are.”
As if to punctuate that statement, Rhiann’s stomach growled and she pressed her hand to her belly. “My father locked me in my room with only bread and water for three days after I refused my first suitor. I can last out.”
Cade’s expression turned even more grim, aware as she was that she didn’t have a choice, but also knowing, as perhaps she didn’t, that there was a significant difference between sitting hungrily in one’s room, staring out the window in righteous indignation after being misused by one’s father, and riding half-way across Gwynedd without food.
“I’m sorry I made you wait to eat the apples,” he said.
“Do you still have them?”
“You’re sitting on them. After Madoc and the other men captured you, I set your horse free, but not before I transferred your saddle and bags to Cadfan. I would have kept your horse too, but I didn’t want to be burdened with both animals, especially as I didn’t know how far I’d have to go to find you.”
Cade slowed Cadfan, who’d begun to labor under their combined weight, and checked the road behind. He couldn’t see any Saxons, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“We need to hide, not outrun them,” Cade called to Madoc.
“They can’t know the area well, my lord.” Madoc shifted in his seat to look back at Rhiann and Cade. “They should soon give up.”
“Not soon enough,” Cade said under his breath to Rhiann. “Saxons never do.”
They’d ridden a mile from the Roman fort when they reached the Seiont River. It circumscribed Caernarfon, and whether they’d taken the other road due south or this one, which ran southeast, they would have had to cross it. The river was running high from the all rain but looked passable.
“I was able to ford it a week ago,” Cade told Madoc and Rhiann.
When Cade and his men had come this way from Dinas Emrys, they’d scouted up and down the bank, looking for a usable ford besides the one at the road, but there were none. Dangerous rapids flowed only a few yards upstream, and the river widened downstream, deepening as it made its way to the sea.
“Not again,” Rhiann moaned from her seat behind Cade.
“It’s not like you can get any wetter than you are now,” Cade said. The rain dripped off the hood of his cloak and onto his face.
“I’ll go across first,” Madoc said. “No point getting the lady wet before she needs to be.”
Cade nodded, and Madoc entered the water. He splashed his way across and up the other side.
“There’s a dip in the middle you’ll need to watch for,” he said, “but if you skirt that rock, you should be fine.”
Rhiann sighed. “All right; I’m ready,” though she didn’t sound it.
Cade urged Cadfan forward, trying to hurry but aware that one misstep might cause him to lose his footing and send all of them into the water. It took no time at all to cross. As they came up the opposite bank, Cade chanced a look back. Two of the four Saxon warriors were now in sight on the road behind them. Madoc noted them too.
“My lord!” he said in warning.
“I see them.” Cade pulled his bow from its rest on his back. Cadfan danced sideways, responding to Cade’s tension. Fortunately, Saxons are not archers as a rule, and these two were no exception.
“I need you to dismount, Rhiann, and hide,” Cade said. “You’re safer in the woods where they’ll have to hunt to find you if they get past me.”
“I understand, my lord.” She slid to the ground.
Trusting that Rhiann would know enough to make herself secure, Cade pulled an arrow from his quiver, pressed it into the bow and loosed it. The first arrow took the lead rider’s horse in the chest and the second went through the rider’s own heart. The other Saxon checked his horse at the sight of what had happened to his companion. In the time it took Cade to press and loose another arrow, he flattened himself to his horse’s neck so Cade didn’t have an easy target. Cade’s arrow caught the Saxon high in the shoulder. It was a hit that would slow him, but not stop him.
Rather than give Cade another chance, the Saxon pulled on the reins, urging his horse to change course, and head for the field to the left of the road. He was looking for shelter, but he wasn’t going to find it soon enough to evade Cade. He was only a hundred yards from the ford now, easy shooting for a Welsh archer. Cade pressed another arrow, sure he could bring the man down, but then Madoc broke from his posting at Cade’s side. He pushed his horse down the bank and into the river, his sword raised high.
Cade shook his head at the waste of energy and focused again on the Saxon, releasing his fourth arrow. It hit the Saxon’s horse in the neck. The horse stumbled, and the Saxon leapt from his back. Madoc, meanwhile, covered the distance between the ford and the Saxon within a count of ten. The Saxon, with his sword arm useless and his horse down, didn’t have a chance. Madoc launched himself at the Saxon, his hands going for his throat. The man feebly tried to fend him off, but the force of Madoc’s leap was too much for him to counter, and he fell to the ground beneath the Welshman.
Madoc’s horse blocked Cade’s view of the two men, and Cade craned his neck to see beyond it. “What are you doing?”
Madoc didn’t reply.
Cade knew he had shouted loud enough for Madoc to hear, even over the rushing of the river. Irritated with his own slowness, Cade finally admitted what his gut already knew. He cursed himself for not heeding his instincts about Madoc from the first. His only excuse was that the rain had dulled his senses at their initial meeting and he’d been distracted by Rhiann. “We don’t have time for this!”
Madoc still didn’t answer, but his horse shifted, revealing Madoc’s form bent over the body of the Saxon. Blood had seeped from the man’s wounds onto the ground. Then, Madoc straightened, wiped the back of a hand across his mouth, and began to paw through the Saxon’s clothing. He pulled a sack from the man’s waist, along with his belt knife. Stuffing the items into his saddlebags, Madoc hauled himself into the saddle and rode back to Cade. He splashed across the ford and up the bank.
Cade studied Madoc as he reached him, although Madoc didn’t meet his gaze. Instead, he pulled the Saxon’s pouch from his scrip and handed it to Cade.
“I was gathering evidence, my lord,” he said.
“Of what?”
“King Cadfael’s bargain,” he said. “If you are to press your claim to the throne of Gwynedd, some Saxon artifacts may strengthen your case before the Council and confirm Cadfael’s treachery.”
“I plan to take the throne over Cadfael’s dead body,” Cade said. “Between you and Rhiann, we have witnesses enough to Cadfael’s plans. Still, I grant your point.”
Madoc looked relieved, and Cade didn’t press him, willing to defer the moment when he’d have to confront the man. Now, Cade turned Cadfan and headed up the trail to a likely spot where Rhiann might have entered the woods. “Rhiann!”
“I’m here, Cade.” She dropped from the branch of a tree growing a dozen feet into the woods. She was even grimier than before. Leaves had caught in her hair, which had come loose from its braid. Dirt smudged her forehead and cheek and coated her already wet clothing. To Cade, she appeared more beautiful than ever.
“Come quickly,” he said. “We’ve killed two of the Saxons, but we don’t know where the others are. They could have taken the second road from Caernarfon or backtracked to find us here.”
“How long do you think they’ll look for us?” she said.
Without second-guessing the impulse to touch her, Cade leaned down to give her his arm so she could mount Cadfan. She grasped his forearm, and he pulled her up behind him, before urging the horse up the road. “Either they’ll find their dead friends and it will enrage them so they’ll pursue us for hours, or they’ll cut their losses and give up. I’d prefer to get as far away from here as possible to a place where they will no longer be our concern.”
They rode a mile without speaking, the only sound the clopping of the horses’ hooves and the rain on their hoods. Then Rhiann said, “Can I have an apple? It’s all I can think of.”
“Of course,” Cade said.
Rhiann rummaged in the saddle bag and came out with two apples. She turned to Madoc and held one out to him but he shook his head.
“Save them for yourself, Lady Rhiann,” he said. “I’m not hungry now.”
Cade shook his head too when Rhiann offered one to him. She shrugged, took a big bite, and gave a huge sigh. Then she leaned her forehead into Cade’s back between his shoulder blades. He couldn’t suppress a smile at her obvious contentment, even as he trembled at her closeness. He had touched her, and she him, a dozen times since they’d met. Already it was almost a habit, but one Cade knew he couldn’t get used to. The deep well of dangerous energy at his center—the power that he fought with all his strength—wasn’t going to go away.
“How far do we have to go?” Rhiann took another bite. She’d already finished off one of the apples and, after tossing the first core into the woods, started in on the second.
“Fifteen miles,” Cade said.
“How close by were you when Dai captured me?”
“Close enough,” Cade said. “I was on my way back to you, having seen no one, when I heard your call. I trailed you onto the Roman road and then took a path to the east—a shortcut that brought me into Caernarfon more quickly than by the road. By then, I knew there were only three of them. I would not have let your father’s men harm you, but I needed to know how many I faced before I showed myself.”
“I know,” she said, “but I was scared.”
“I would that you were never scared again,” Cade said, “but I cannot promise it.”
Rhiann hugged Cade around the waist, still resting against him. “I’ve seen men die before, but never like that; never right in front of me.”
His jaw was tight with the effort it took to control himself—and the thought of how close she’d come to real harm. Cade pressed his hand to hers. “The priest tells me thou shalt not kill and yet I’ve already killed more men in my life than I care to remember. And I will kill many more.”
* * * * *
CADE DIDN’T DARE LET his attention falter, not even for a moment. They were far closer now to Dinas Emrys than to Caernarfon, but they were riding through some of the most rugged country in Wales, and he had a sleeping girl in his arms. Rhiann had fallen asleep behind him, her head resting on his back. When her arms loosened, he’d pulled her in front of him before she could fall off Cadfan’s back.
Cade supported her against his chest with one arm around her while his other hand held the reins. A stray breeze lifted a lock of her hair and swept it across his face. She smelled so sweet—of faith and innocence—and he longed to stay just as they were: her asleep and him her gallant protector. But it couldn’t last.
The rain had stopped an hour earlier. They’d finally ridden high enough to rise above the fog that had drifted in to obscure everything beyond a dozen yards on any side. Cade looked west, towards the ocean. He could see nothing but a thick layer of white below them, merging with the gray sea and sky. Good. The Saxons would have returned to their boats.
Cade had allowed Madoc to ride ahead of him so he could keep an eye on the man. Madoc claimed to have ridden this road in Cadwallon’s company many a time, and more recently with Cadfael. Cade contemplated Madoc’s straight back and soldierly bearing. Madoc’s left hand drifted to the hilt of his sword as if reassuring himself of its presence. Cade was going to have to deal with Madoc when they stopped, which was going to be sooner than he liked. The sun would set in an hour, and Cade couldn’t risk bringing Madoc into Dinas Emrys.
Slowly they picked their way up one hill, down another, around a third, and up again. Yr Wyddfa (Mt. Snowdon) loomed closer and higher above them with every step, her peaks decorated with snow, even this close to spring.
Madoc spoke, breaking the long silence between them. “I was there, you know, when Cadfael cut your father down. It was I who delivered word of his death to your mother.”
Cade focused again on Madoc’s back, thunderstruck, and tried to marshal his thoughts to make a sensible reply. “You told my mother that Cadfael killed my father?” Why does he confess this? To invite my confidence?
Madoc glanced back, his face completely blank, and then turned forward again. “Of course not. I didn’t see it happen. It didn’t seem anyone did right at the time. I was simply the messenger.”
As Madoc spoke, Cade let himself fall farther behind. It wasn’t so much what Madoc said that bothered him, but how he said it. Every sentence appeared to have deeper meanings beyond the obvious ones, and his words were accompanied by a sneer, a wink, or a stare Cade couldn’t quite interpret.
“I didn’t know what Cadfael had done, then. Nobody did. I told your mother that Cadwallon had died, borne to the ground by the Saxon menace. It was only later that the rumors started.” He glanced again at Cade, who nodded.
“I’ve heard the rumors,” Cade said.
“Your father, Cadwallon, was as fine a fighter king as Wales has ever seen. He defeated three Saxon kings in his day.” Madoc held up a hand to show the significance of the number.
“Unfortunately, he couldn’t defeat that last man, who wasn’t even a Saxon,” Cade said.
“That’s right.”
“So my mother didn’t know the truth when she married Cadfael?”
“No, she didn’t,” Madoc said.
Cade’s foster father had tried to tell him that more than once, the last time not long ago. Cade hadn’t truly believed him. Suddenly, with the reality of Rhiann in his arms, much like the girl his mother must have been at the time, some of the anger and confusion he’d felt towards her all his life eased. It was replaced, just a little, by pity. Cade looked down at Rhiann, her eyes closed in sleep. I had a mother who loved me enough to give me away, and a second one who loved me as much as her own son. Who had Rhiann had? No one. And yet, she’d been strong enough to risk her life for me.
The horses came around a hill and the path crossed through a small clearing. Cade made an instant decision. “We’ll stop here.”
“It’s not night yet!” Madoc said.
Cade shook his head. “Dinas Emrys is still too far away to reach before dark.” He spoke the truth, though not all of it.
Madoc didn’t argue further, just stared up at the fort that loomed far above them. A ray of light pierced the heavy cloud cover and struck the uppermost tower. Cade moved Cadfan to stand beside Madoc and looked with him.
Madoc tipped his chin, gesturing at the fort on its hill. “You fly the Dragon banner above the towers. It’s been a long time since anyone has flown that flag in Gwynedd.”
“It was my father’s flag, and his father’s. Soon the red dragon will fly above all the fortresses in Wales, even Aberffraw.”
“Long ago, dragons lived beneath Dinas Emrys,” Madoc said, and then began to chant the words of the prophecy. Although the words themselves were reverent, his tone was less so, on the edge of mocking:
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“TWO DRAGONS ARE THEY
One red, of our people
One white, of our enemies,
Who lord over us from sea to sea.
But soon one shall come.
He shall raise us up
And drive all our enemies away.”
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“SO THE BARDS SING OF Dinas Emrys,” Cade said, taking the poem as Taliesin had sung it, not in the way Madoc might have meant. “Why do you think it was the first fort I took from Cadfael?”
“You took it from Cadfael, yet you disbelieve that you are the one foretold in the prophecies?” Madoc said. “Taliesin spoke those words of you.”
“Taliesin is gone,” Cade said. “He may have come for me once, but he is long dead, and there is no one left to take his place. We fight now without his help, and I am not so full of my own self as to think that any prophecy he may have left was meant for me. I know who I am.” Or what I am.
Cade had had enough of Madoc. He dismounted, carefully pulling Rhiann down with him. He carried her to a grassy spot to lay her down. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to look at him.
“Shush. Sleep.” He kissed her forehead, and she lay back, instantly asleep again. Cade turned to face Madoc, his hands on his hips.
Madoc dismounted to match him, and they both paused. Madoc tipped his head to one side. “Aahh. I was afraid of this. I thought perhaps you were saving the girl for later, but that isn’t it at all, is it? My help with the Saxons did not convince you of my worth?”
“You helped yourself to that Saxon, as I recall,” Cade said. “I don’t know how you’ve kept your secret from your fellow men-at-arms.”
“I am fortunate in that I’ve been allowed to keep my human shape,” Madoc said. “Most men see what they want to see. Nothing more; nothing less.”
Cade nodded, understanding as only he could. “I’m not most men. How long did you wait before telling Cadfael of my escape?”
Madoc’s eyes lit with an inner mirth, and he dropped any attempt to lull Cade into complacency. “I gave you a head start.”
“You have arisen from the Underworld,” Cade said. “I know your kind.”
“And I know you,” Madoc said.
Cade tipped his head to one side, finding a small smile hovering at the corner of his lips, despite the danger inherent in this confrontation. “Perhaps. The next move is up to you. I’m not in a killing mood at the moment, so if you wish, I’ll allow you to turn around and walk away. Whatever you do, however, I warn you not to touch the girl.”
Madoc smiled again, this time like a cat who had just finished a bowl of cream. “That Saxon was most obliging. I don’t need the girl, though she would be tasty. You, on the other hand, look quite thin—even, shall I say, pale?”
“It’s different for me,” Cade said.
“Is it? How?”
Cade pulled his sword from its sheath. It was the first time he’d held it, and a thrill shot through him as he wielded it. Then he felt the power surge within him, so much so he was afraid he couldn’t contain it. He didn’t have time to question how or why, or what had changed in him when he grasped the sword. “I’m not evil.”
Madoc laughed. “You wouldn’t be, would you, if the prophecies are true. For myself, I gave up thinking in those terms long ago.” He drew his own sword to counter Cade’s.
Cade raised his sword high, ready to strike, but then a stick cracked in the woods. Madoc and Cade looked at each other, instantly frozen. “Tell me right now if they’re with you,” Cade said.
“No,” Madoc said. “It’s the Saxons, perhaps?”
Cade lowered his sword as well as his profile by crouching down. Madoc didn’t bother, sure of his own invincibility. In unison, the two men turned toward the place from which they’d heard the sound come, scanning the trees for whatever or whoever dared to approach them.
Thwtt.
An arrow appeared in Madoc’s left shoulder. He staggered to one knee, and Cade dove face down, not willing to risk even the slight damage an arrow could cause him, not with Rhiann to protect.
“By Cunedda’s arse!” Madoc ripped the arrow from his shoulder and threw himself flat to the ground. “I thought Saxons weren’t archers.”
Cade didn’t bother to reply. On his stomach, he crept forward. He could sense the fear coursing through the veins of the men ahead of him, drawing him to them like a beacon. He reached the edge of the trees and stopped, listening hard. Very slowly, he stood and then moved on silent feet toward their attackers, who, after all, couldn’t be very far back into the trees if they’d been able to see well enough to shoot at Madoc.
Cade felt the man before he saw him. He was unmistakably Saxon, evident by the shape of his helmet and his lack of proper armor. His small bow—far smaller than the Welsh longbows—was drawn, but he jerked it from left to right in quick, uneven movements. He was afraid. He had a right to be, although he couldn’t know the full extent of why.
Cade moved forward, finding that he had never felt the power within him as he did in that moment; that if anyone could see him, they couldn’t help but know it too. The power was difficult to control in the best of times. Holding this sword Rhiann had found for him was like riding an unbroken horse. It worried Cade. Resolved to do without the weapon, he thrust it into his sheath, forcing himself to rein in his power for these last few moments, else he lose control of himself and his surroundings.
Still turned away, the Saxon never saw him coming. Cade came up behind him and stifled the Saxon’s cry with his right hand whilst wrapping his left arm around his shoulders. The Saxon froze at his touch. Cade closed his eyes, finally allowing the wave to rush through him, as if a waterfall was precipitating from the top of his head and falling through him to his feet. Relief flooded his senses, bringing him almost to the point of tears. He shone from within, power pouring from his fingertips with a white light that Madoc had mistaken for weakness.
As the Saxon died, Cade’s body strengthened. Madoc had not been wrong that he was hungry—but not for what Madoc hungered. Madoc was a demon from the Underworld, undead and without a soul, feasting on the flesh and blood of humans. Cade possessed the power of the sidhe themselves, even if in the end he was a charlatan, carrying their gift inside him but never becoming one of them. Most of the time, he could control that power, right to the point where it burst from him, overwhelming whatever hapless creature found himself within his grasp.
Cade stepped back. The man he’d killed stood straight and unmoving, and then slowly toppled over, like a tree falling to earth. He would never move again. With a sigh, Cade turned aside, intending to return to the clearing and kill the remaining Saxons before disposing of Madoc. He’d gone only three steps, however, when he nearly bumped into Rhiann, who stood rooted to the ground much like the Saxon had been, her face whiter than Cade’s. Although Cade was stronger when he released the sidhe-creature within him, at the sight of Rhiann, he pulled the power back inside himself, like suppressing a flame with a quick pinch of his fingers. Even so, it was too late. She had seen him—seen him as he really was.
Rhiann took a step back, tears coursing down her cheeks. She shook her head. “No, no, no!”
She stumbled on a hidden root. Cade reached out a hand to stop her from falling, but she shrieked, recovered her balance, and ran from him. He watched her go for half a heartbeat, not that he had one, and ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t let her run away. Somehow, he’d have to make her understand.
Cade took one long stride after her, and then another.
