Caitriona, part four

My head snapped up and Maelwys’ hand went to his sword hilt. The rider stopped.

He was tall, dark-haired and dark-eyed, with a beaten sword strapped to his belt but a kind hand on the reins. For a moment he sat there, looking, first at the destruction and then at us.

“Is this Ardnurchar?” he asked hesitantly.

“It was.”

The young man bowed his head. “I am sorry.”

“So am I,” I said simply. “It was my home.”

“I heard of the attack. I had to come and see if Eochan was here. Where can I find him?”

I regarded him curiously. Every caer in Pyridain surely knew that Eochan had been killed. “He died in the raid,” I told him. “Not many made it out alive- hardly any of the warband. Not even the best of them survived.” I looked away, trying to hide my tears, but a glimpse of the old hall choked me with sorrow and now I could not speak.

Maelwys put a comforting hand on my shoulder and spoke for me. “You will find nothing here. I am sorry.”

“Then Eochan’s daughter is next to rule, is she not? Did she survive?”

I was about to answer but Maelwys silenced me. “She is not here, either. It will be some time before peace returns to our caer, but we would have her rule and none other.” I heard the steel in his voice and knew he was protecting me. To my mind the dark-eyed fellow did not seem to be one who would take advantage of my absence by setting himself up as king regent, no matter who he was, but Maelwys was not taking any chances. “We are simply stopping on our way home and there is nothing for you here. You would do better to search among the living for those you are looking for.”

The stranger’s expression did not change. “I am not going to harm anyone or anything here. But I promised Ganieda I would find her daughter if anything ever happened.”

The mention of my mother’s name startled me. “Ganieda?”

“My mother. She was married to a man named Rhys before he died and she married Eochan, and I am their son. Aneirin. I am looking for my sister.”

I stared at him in shock, mouth agape until I found my voice again. “I am Cait!”

“Caitriona?” Aneirin’s dark eyes showed hope for the first time since he had ridden in. He dismounted and stood before me, offering a hand to help me up. “This has been a meeting too long delayed- praise God you are alive!”

“Are you a believer, too? I ought to have known Ganieda would raise her son as she raised her daughter.”

A smile lifted the corners of my brother’s mouth. “For five years, yes. My foster family raised me in a way that would have pleased her as well.” He hugged me kindly. “The rumor in Londinium is that you are dead. I despaired of ever finding you, but I had to try.”

Maelwys stood at my shoulder. “Who do they say will rule Caledon?” The mistrust had faded from his voice when he realized that I trusted Aneirin but he was still a little wary.

“There is nothing but speculation. Some say that another clan is holding her captive, saying she is dead, so that their king can take over. I did not believe it myself- it would be impossible to keep such a secret.”

Maelwys’s mouth twitched and I almost laughed out loud. Those rumors were not as far from the truth as Aneirin had thought, though they were not the reason I was with the Derweddi.

“Drew thinks so, too,” I said wickedly to Maelwys, who bit his lip to keep from grinning.

His eyes danced a merry blue jig. “He knows there has been no one come for you and was loath to let you leave, even with me.”

Aneirin looked back and forth between us curiously. “Who is Drew? Your husband?”

Now Maelwys and I both laughed uproariously. We laughed in merriment and in relief, glad to have the stress of the past hours fading a little.

“N-no,” I gasped. “Drew is Maelwys’s dog. He thinks it is his job to keep me inside the caer.” I caught my breath with a minute's effort, realizing how good it would have been to laugh until I could no longer- but this was not really the time. “This is Maelwys, Aneirin. I am staying with him in Derwedd until I can reclaim Caledon.”

“Maelwys?” Aneirin’s eyebrows raised. “King Cernach’s son Maelwys?”

Maelwys nodded. “Cernach is my father.”

Aneirin understood why we had been amused at the rumors now. “So it is not all wrong, then,” He chuckled, “Only you are not being held for ransom. I am glad Edwynn did not have the right of it, though.”

Maelwys stiffened. “Who?”

“Edwynn. A warrior from-”

“From Armorica, part of a band of warriors who call themselves the Wolves, is that him?”

“Yes. I do not like the man much myself but everyone else in Londinium seems to trust him enough.”

Maelwys’s eyes flashed emerald. “He is not a man to be trusted. Anwyn is their leader, a power- hungry traitor of a fool who planned to gain a son’s favor of my father and then take my inheritance as well as my place as Cernach’s son. When he send his band to to kill me two months ago they were too cowardly to attack the caer but instead ambushed our hunting party and wounded Cait.”

I shuddered at the memory and felt the scar of the still-healing wound over my ribs. The one across my throat was nearly gone, but for a white line, but the one on my side was slower to heal and still pained me.

“Why Cait?” Aneirin asked. “Surely he did not mistake her for you.”

“No.” Maelwys shook his head. “They assumed she was part of my band and attacked without discrimination. They meant to kill all of us but we instead killed all of them.”

“Good man,” Aneirin nodded firmly. “Next time I see Edwynn I’ll hang him. I wonder why he would spread rumors when he knows the truth.”

Maelwys shook his head. “I do not think he knows it was her. Anwyn wants me out of his way and if he could anger enough men by telling them that I held Cait for ransom then he could get them to demand her back.
“He expects I would refuse, saying I did not have her, and he is right, though his reason is wrong. He would call my refusal greed and order the warriors to take me.”

Aneirin whistled. “You two really do not like each other, do you. Thank you for protecting my sister.”

“It is my blood oath to see her safely established on Yr Widdfa's throne,” Maelwys said solemnly, “And I will do anything in my power to see it done.”

“As will I,” Aneirin pledged. “I swore to Ganieda to keep her safe, and I shall keep my promise.”

The rapid hoofbeats of a horse startled me and I turned around in alarm. Maelwys laughed. “It is Alector. He must have either found something out or given up.”

I blushed. “In my astonishment at finding my brother I had forgotten he was gone.”

Alector tethered his horse and walked over warily, his hand on his sword.
“Peace, Alec,” I smiled. “This is Aneirin, my half-brother. He heard about Aedd’s attack and came to find me.”

Alec’s jaw dropped. “Your half brother? Here? God be praised, how fortunate. If we had not gotten delayed at the river we would have been gone by now.” He held out his hand to Aneirin. “I am Alec. I am pleased to meet you.”

My brother took Alec’s offered hand amiably. “Well met. God be praised, indeed- I had visions of my small sister alone and in danger but I see she is not alone at all.” He grinned. “I think I am hardly needed. Yet I have sworn to protect her too.”

Alec shook his head, smiling. “I think we all have.”

I was the first to wake in the morning- or so I thought at first. I had fallen asleep near my newfound brother, and Alec was on the other side of the ashes from the night’s fire. Maelwys- Maelwys had been on my other side, but he was not there now. I was only the second to wake.

“Your weirs are still in good working order.” Maelwys stood beside me with a spearful of fish he had found in the wood-woven fishing wiers the fisherman had set up some years before. The idea of the wier was that it was a permanent strong net of branches across a section of the river, and caught more fish than the men could themselves. All they were left with to do was remove the fish and clean it.

“I had forgotten about that,” I admitted. “I am glad they can still be useful. Let me restart the fire.” I made a new fire of the banked remains of last night’s and spitted the fish over it, and soon the others had woken up to the smell of fresh cooking trout. Aneirin shuffled drowsily over to me, mussing his bed-head hair still messier, while Alector was wide awake as soon as the smell of breakfast woke him.

“Cait,” he said, “you are a very miracle worker. You knew I dreamt of trout and so you made it for me of nothing!”

I laughed. “It could be my miraculous powers were influenced by the fact that I knew you would dream of whatever I made. And it was Maelwys who found your fish, in the weir. Judging by what I remember of our weir, even in late August there should be more than enough fish to last us a month.”

Aneirin blinked sleepily at us. “Which weir?”

“The village weir.” I waved a hand in front of his eyes teasingly. “I am not sure you are awake yet.”

“Nor am I.” He turned around, ambled back to his bedroll, and curled up with his head under his cloak. “Wake me when there’s something to do.”

Alector shrugged, happily taking Aneirin’s fish himself. Maelwys sat next to me and said, “I am glad your brother has fit in so well already. He is not slow to make friends.”

I glanced over at him, or what I could see of him beneath his cloak, and smiled. “He has my mother’s gentle character and his clan’s mettle. He and Alector could have been brothers. And he has a mind like yours, I think.”

We let our horses rest for the morning while the four of us discussed what to do next. Aneirin's ride from Londinium had been several days, and all the horses were tired.

Aneirin was all fire and motion, once he was awake. He and Alec watered the horses while discussing with utmost brevity whether Picts ought to be hanged by the toenails or strapped backwards to a green horse’s back and sent through the woods. Maelwys chuckled and said, “He reminds me of you.”

“Who, Alec? Because of his blue eyes?”

His eyes glimmered azure for a moment. “No, your brother.”

I gave him a skeptical shrug. “His eyes are dark, his hair is sable, and he is tall and broad- shouldered.”

“You are both built like a willow wand- if you were a boy, you would be very near his height. And you are both easy- moving and graceful. And spirited.”

“I am not sure whether that last one is a complement to me.” I smiled. “But thank you. What makes you say Aneirin is spirited?”

The gleam in Maelwys’s eyes was obvious this time. “Maybe he is not, but you are. But,” he added thoughtfully, “he is a warrior, and seemingly a good one at that.”

Aneirin and Alector returned then, having decided that the next offending Saecsens would be first hung by the toenails and then tied by those toenails to the back of a green horse and let loose.

“Now then, Cait,” Maelwys said when they described their plans to us in detail, “what is it you want to do now?”

I looked around the once- fine caer helplessly. “I do not know. I had hoped- wished, at least- that there would be someone here who could tell us where the rest of the survivors are. They cannot all be gone, though I doubt Aedd stopped once he had burned Ardnurchar. All the land we rode through on our way- all that used to be inhabited. He does not want to make me sorry, he wants me dead.”

Aneirin frowned thoughtfully, and Maelwys whispered, “See? You even bite your lip and frown the same way when you are thinking.”

Aneirin looked up and winked. I whispered back, “And we both have better hearing than you think.” A smile from my brother.

He said seriously, “In Londinium- four days from here, if you know where you are going- there were some men and a few women who came through late in the afternoon one day. They said they were fisherman, but they did not want to say where they were from. I think, as I thought then, that perhaps they were from Caledon and not Llogres.”

“If they were from Caledon, they were running from Aedd,” I replied. “I am glad Yr Widdfa is not very large, or there would be thousands upon thousands dead. At least he does not seem to have an interest in killing everyone in Caledon to find me. How long ago did these people come through?”

“A month ago or so. I waited to set out until my searching would attract only a small amount of attention- they said you were dead, before, you know.”

“You set out at the right time, and I am glad you did. I think perhaps we should assume that most of the survivors either went north, toward Caer Dyfi, or across Mor Hafran into Llogres.”

The four of us discussed possibilities and the best ways to search, taking our time over our decision and wondering what to do if we found any of my kinsmen. Aneirin was all for bringing them into Llogres, where his own warband would guard against Aedd’s cruelty. Maelwys agreed with his idea of hiding and protecting them but was uneasy about Gaul’s proximity to Llogres and promised that Cernach would gladly keep any and all survivors in Derwedd where it would be dangerous and difficult for Aedd. It was a well- known rumor that the only thing the king of Gaul feared was Rome, and the Wall was a short five days’ ride from Derwedd. Before Aedd could reach Derwedd, several Caledonian warriors could have a garrison of Roman fighters in Derwedd. They would be glad of the chance to rid Britain of Aedd Mac Caenan anyway.

As we talked, Aneirin’s horse whinnied, exciting my mare and irritating Dwyn, who liked his peace and quiet. Alector’s mare was looking off in the distance, ears pricked and head high. I peered curiously over the hill.

“What is over that way, Cait?” Maelwys asked.

“Nothing, really. A forest a half hour’s ride off but before that, just the plain.”

“Morin whinnies if he sees a shadow move,” Aneirin said. “It may be nothing.”

It was not nothing. Just before they rose over the crest of the hill, I heard, “There are tracks here, Llew. New ones.”

Three men rode into sight, and they stopped abruptly when they saw us. The rider in front called back, “There is more than tracks here, Llew! Come up here!” Five more riders came to join the three.

“Who are you and what are you doing in Ardnurchar?” Called the leader of the five new riders. They were just far enough off to make their features indistinguishable.
I stepped forward, ignoring Maelwys’s cautioning hand on my arm, hope rising.

“Llew? Llewis mac Ronan, is that you?”

The young man leapt off his horse, ran to me, and swept me into a haphazard embrace. I wept on his shoulder exclaiming happily how I had always hoped he was alive and then Llew set me down with a jubilant smile. “Caitriona, you beautiful girl, I thought you were dead!”

He noticed when he looked past my shoulder that my companions were strangers.

I beckoned them forward and said to Llewis, “This is Maelwys ap Cernach, who found me and has kept me safe; his friend Alector, who lived in Mor Effren with Maelwys for several years; and my half brother, Aneirin, who found us just yesterday. Maelwys, Alec, Aneirin, this is Llewis, the war leader of Yr Widdfa and one of my best friends.”

Llew smiled and called the rest of the warriors over.

“Caitriona!” they crowed, “We thought you’d never come!”

I greeted each of them and introduced them to my companions, then asked hesitantly, “Where are the rest? Are- are you all that survived?”

Seithenin answered solemnly, “We are it. And five with the people in Caer Seiont, who are perhaps sixty in number. The rest are not from Ardnurchar but the attackers did not kill them or burn their caers. He merely frightened them away and told them not to return, which is why they are mostly staying east, waiting for the trouble to be over.”

“Thirteen,” I murmured. “Seithenin, where is your brother?”

Kian’s bright face peered over the men in front of him, and he called, “Here, Cait.”

“And you, Eoinn? Where are yours?”

The young lad’s face clouded as he replied, “Gone.”

“Collen, Cuall, Justyn, Merryn, and Guistan are in Seiont,” Llewis told me. “The rest were lost in the fight.”
“I am so sorry, Llew,” I whispered, leaning my head sorrowfully on his shoulder to keep my tears at bay. “If I had only married Aedd. If I had consented... all my kin would be alive.”

I felt Llew’s arm strong around me and he said softly, “They all would have stood in your way had you thought to go with Aedd. As would I, and those remaining. And we are still here.”

By the silence I became aware that my companions and Llewis’s warband were watching each other awkwardly, and I shook my pity off. Soon the warriors’ horses were tethered near ours and I learned that they had been hunting.

They had been successful; Kian and Teirn had a buck between them on a makeshift litter, and a boar had been quartered and carried back as well. They had been gone since the afternoon before and had welcomed the diversion of a long hunt; with nothing to do and no people to protect, they had seen no need to return by nightfall.

Maelwys rekindled our fire while Alector, in keeping with his character, made friends with the warband, and Aneirin spoke quietly to Llewis. As we ate, Aneirin and Llew told the rest of us what they had been discussing, and we decided together to go to Caer Seiont the next day. If we left early, we would reach it the evening of three days after. The rest of that day my kinsmen and I devoted to the time we had missed- they told me first of their last five months, and then I told them of mine, with interjections from Alector and even Maelwys. They listened eagerly, exclaiming over my misfortunes and crowing over my days riding as a part of the warband. Most especially they enjoyed my account of the warriors and life at Derwedd, vowing that they would be sword-brothers of Maelwys’s band before a month was done and claiming they would be happy to live in Derwedd as long it took to restore Yr Widdfa. This pleased Maelwys and Alector, and Aneirin, too, for his loyalty lay with me and my land though we had been together but two days.

Just before we were about to turn in for the night, Maelwys, Aneirin and Alector spoke to Llewis for a moment and then pulled me aside. “We feel,” said Alector- designated to speak most likely because Maelwys knew my tongue and neither wanted Aneirin to incur my displeasure- “We feel that it would safest for you if you were not to be found with the rest of the people until we are home and safe. I know, Cait,” Alec added apologetically, “that you would like to be with your friends but Llewis agrees with us that we ought to go back separately. That will protect both you and your people.”

To their surprise, I agreed readily. “But Llew?”

“What of Llew?”

I glanced at my old friend, laughing with Seithenin and Kian. “I would have him with me, now we are back together. If you are all truly fine with his presence. I know Seithenin can lead the rest very well himself.”

Maelwys and Alector exchanged glances. Then Alector spoke for them both. “He is welcome, if he will leave his band. Unless Aneirin has anything to say against it.”

My brother wore a strange half- smile. “I do not mind. Until yesterday it was my fear that I myself would be politely sent home- I would not deny him what I desired most.”

“Thank you. It is a good plan, Alec.” I left t them to ask Llew if he would come with us.

“Would I leave you for the world if you wanted me with you?” He teased, tugging a strand of my hair. “Yes, of course I will come; though let me say you are safe from an army with that prince friend of yours nearby.”

I followed his gaze to Maelwys, serious, staring at the ground as though he would melt it with his look. He was a striking figure in the flickering half-light, and surely an imposing one to any enemy.

“He is a puzzle, that one,” I said a little ruefully. “But I have grown to like him a great deal. And even to trust him, lately.”

Llewis laughed. “He seems like a good friend and a formidable foe. His friend and your brother, too, I think I will like.”

More to come...