Page 16 of Touched By Maen Llia
And there was so this morning. She shook Bran hard, then slapped his face, but he did not sit up and wipe wine from his skin, while blinking slowly, the way he normally did.
Catrin went out onto the verandah, her belly churning sickly and her heart working too hard. She stood with her head down and listened for the sound of anyone else moving about the palace. Even at this time of day and, yes, even after a feast, there were people up and about. Cooks in the kitchen, the kitchen boys, the stable boys, the gooseherds, hunters heading out before the sun grew too high, and Eira calling for her breakfast.
The palace was utterly still. She heard snoring, but that was all. And on the other side of the courtyard, the gates swung slowly to and fro in the smallest of dawn breezes. They knocked as they came together. She could see the boot of one of the guards underneath the gate, thrust out as though the man was sitting with his back to the wall…
Catrin swallowed.
Because the palace was so quiet, Catrin heard the outer stable door close with a soft snicking sound, and the clop of hooves moving down the road that led to the bridge.
Someone was awake!
She ran to the gates and thrust one open, slipped through the gap and ran down the road. Ahead of her, she saw Ianto bring his horse to a halt, preparing to mount it. Ianto wore the rich dark robe and cloak and the good boots that he used for important affairs, when he wanted to impress people. His stringy black hair lay over the fur at the collar.
Catrin ran after him. Ianto was a poor horseman, and would take his time mounting. Perhaps he would take two or more attempts. She could catch up with him if she ran, and she was a fast runner.
She came up to the back of the horse as Ianto tried for a third time to lift himself up onto the horse. He had no mounting block here to assist him.
He whirled when he heard her approach, his face working. Then contempt filled his eyes. “You. Of course it is you who escaped the spell.” He picked up the horse’s reins. “Go back, girl. You’ve no place in this affair.”
“Or any, according to you,” Catrin said shortly.
Ianto looked back at her, startled. She could feel her own eyes widening in surprise. Why had she said that?
In the back of her mind, though, she heard Marcus’ voice.That is your power, too. That is why you remind me of him. Knowledge and a lack of patience for what you consider nonsense.
Ianto hissed at her, whirled and walked away, pulling the gelding with him. He stepped off the road, taking the path that wound around the hill the palace sat upon, and up into the higher hills beyond it, where Catrin and the women had gone yesterday.
He didn’t try to mount the horse again. She guessed he would walk until he found something high enough to use as a mounting block, far from here where she could not see him do it.
“Where are you going?” Catrin demanded. “Why are you not back at the palace, tending to everyone who sleeps so heavily?”
“Are youaskingme to curse you, girl?” Ianto demanded.
She was not afraid of curses. Not Ianto’s curses, at least. She hurried after him, catching up. “You have to come back to the palace,” she insisted. “There is something wrong with everyone. Ianto!” She reached for his arm.
He tossed her grip away with an angry shrug and rounded on her, his face working with fury.
Catrin’s arm snagged the saddle cloth on the back of the horse, and it yanked away with a soft tearing sound.
It was only the top cloth of two upon the horse. Catrin stared at the one beneath. It was richly stitched in blue and golden yellow threads. Blue water with a golden island floating on it.
Horror spilled through her. “Brycheiniog,” she breathed. “You’re King Tewdrig’s man!” Her horror increased as she put it together. “That’s where you’re going now. You put something in the wine last night. That’s why everyone sleeps. Why? So you could slip away without explanation? Are you that much a coward?”
Ianto snatched at her hair, and gripped it, pulling her head back so he could lean over her. His face worked as he snarled, “You stupidfool. Only a dullard like you could fail to fall under the spell I cast over the wine.” He shook her. It hurt. “It was to keep everyone asleep while Brycheiniog comeshere.”
Catrin’s neck ached from the taut angle he bent it and she fought to raise her chin to take the pressure of it. “That’s why you insisted yesterday was mid-summer, not today. Your magic doesn’t work on the solstice.”
Ianto sneered. “So, at last she sees it. At last, and too late. You cannot stop this.No one’smagic works on the solstice.” He tossed her away. “Do not follow me, girl.”
Catrin staggered, just barely keeping her feet. She spun and ran back at him, fumbling to withdraw her eating knife. “I don’t need magic to deal with you, Ianto! You are no druid!”
Perhaps Ianto had not expected that she would dare attack him. Or perhaps he had never had to defend himself…or perhaps she was simply moving too swiftly for him to react in time. But it seemed to Catrin, in her frantic state, that Ianto barely raised his hand up to fend her off and he did it very slowly. She easily evaded his fingers, and because he was a short man, she barely had to reach up. She had sharpened the knife only yesterday morning and had not used it last night. The keen blade slashed across Ianto’s throat.
Catrin came to a halt against the horse’s withers, as Ianto staggered away, his hands reaching for his throat. Hot blood sprayed across the path and kept spraying as he reached the verge and sank to his knees.
Catrin stared, her heart pounding and her breath bellowing, as Ianto fell face down upon the withered weeds.
The soil around him turned crimson.
