"Someone knew, by the rood," Bran observed, indicating the worried Noin before him.

"Forgive me, my lord, but she made me promise not to say anything until after she had gone," Noin said, looking down at her feet. "I did try to persuade her otherwise, but she would not hear it."

"I was halfway down the trail for going after her," said Will Scarlet, pushing forward to stand beside his wife. "Would'a gone, too, but by the time we found out, it was too late. Merian was already home, and if anything was going to happen to her…" He paused. "Well, I reckoned it already did."

Bran took this in, his fists clenching and unclenching at his side. "I leave you in charge, Iwan," he snarled. "And this is how my trust is repaid? I am-"

"Peace!" said Angharad, speaking from a few steps behind him. Pushing through the gathered throng of welcomers, the Wise Banfaith planted herself in front of him. "This is not seemly, my lord. Your people have given you good greeting and the same would receive from their king." She fixed him with a commanding stare until Bran remembered himself and, in a somewhat stilted fashion, thanked his champion and others for keeping Cel Craidd in his absence.

Tuck, drawing near, gave Bran a nudge with his elbow and indicated Alan a'Dale standing a short distance apart from the group, ignored and unremarked. So Bran introduced the Grellon to Alan a'Dale and instructed his flock to make the newcomer feel at home among them. Having satisfied courtesy, Bran retreated to his hut, saying he wished to be left in peace to rest after his journey.

"Rest you will have," said Angharad, following him into the hut.

"But not from you, I see."

"Not from me-and not until you learn that berating those who have given good service is beneath one who would account himself a worthy king. Angry with Merian you may be-"

"She disobeyed me-"

"She must have had good reason, think you?"

"We discussed it and I told her not to go," Bran complained, throwing himself into his hide-and-antler chair. "Yet the moment my back is turned, what does she do?"

"Your Lady Merian is a woman of great determination and resourcefulness; she is not one to be easily dominated by others." Angharad gazed at him, her eyes alight within their wreath of familiar wrinkles. "It is her own mind she has followed-"

"She has disobeyed me," Bran said.

"This it is that tears at you?" replied the banfaith. "Or is it that she might have been right to go?" Before Bran could answer, she said, "It matters not, for now there is nothing to be done about it."

Bran glared at her but knew that pursuing this argument any further would avail him nothing.

"Too late you show the wisdom of silence," Angharad observed. "So now, if you would put away childish things, tell me what happened in the north."

Bran frowned and passed a hand over his face as if trying to wipe away the memory. He gave a brief account of finding the king of Gwynedd a captive to Earl Hugh and riding into Caer Cestre to free him. "The long and short of it," he continued, "is that we failed to persuade King Gruffydd to rally the tribes to our support. We cannot count on them for any men."

The old woman considered this, nodded, but said nothing.

"Not one," said Bran. "We are worse off than when we began," he concluded gloomily.

Into the fraught and fretted silence of the hut there drifted a soft, lilting melody sung by a clear and steady voice-a sound not unfamiliar in Cel Craidd, but this one was different. Angharad went to the door of the hut, opened it, and stepped outside. Bran followed and felt his anger and disappointment begin to melt away in the refrains of the tune. There, surrounded by the forest-dwellers, his head lifted high and with a voice to set the glade shimmering, Alan was singing his song about Rhi Bran and the Wolf of Cestre.

When Bran learned that Sheriff de Glanville had returned to Saint Martin's with a force of fifty soldiers, he said nothing, but took his bow and went alone into the greenwood. Siarles was all for going after him, but Angharad advised against it, saying, "Think yourself a king to bear a king's burden? His own counsel he must keep, if his own mind he would know." And, to be sure, Rhi Bran returned that evening with a yearling buck and a battle plan.

First, he determined to do what he could to even the odds against him. The fine, dry summer had given way to a blessedly mild autumn, and the harvest in the valleys had been good. Most of the crops would be gathered in now against the lean seasons to follow. The granaries and storehouses would be bulging. Bran decided to help his people and, at the same time, hit the Ffreinc where it would hurt the most. He would attack in the dead heart of the darkest night of the month.

The moon had been on the wane for several days, and tonight there would be a new one; the darkness would be heavy and would aid his design. Early in the morning, Bran sent spies into the town to see what could be learned of the disposition of the sheriff 's troops. Noin and Alan had been chosen-much to Will's displeasure. "I have no objection," Scarlet complained, "so long as I go along."

"They know you too well," Bran reminded him. "I don't want to see you end up in that pit again-or worse. One glimpse is all the sheriff would need to put your head on a spike."

"But you don't mind if my Noin's sweet face ends up decorating that bloody spike," he griped.

"Scarlet!" The sound was sharp as a slap. "You go too far." Angharad shuffled forth, wagging a bony finger. "A proper respect for your king would well become you."

Will glared at her, his jaw set.

"Now, William Scatlocke!"

"Forgive me, Sire," offered Will, striving to sound suitably contrite. "If I have spoken above myself, I do most humbly beg your pardon."

"Pardon granted, Will," Bran told him. "A man would have a heart of stone who did not care for his wife. But the raids I have in mind succeed or fail on what we learn. We need to know how things sit in the town before we go rushing down there."

Will nodded and glanced to Noin, who pressed his hand. "I have gone to market before, you know. That's all it is-just two folk going to market."

"You had best leave now," said Bran. "Stay only as long as it takes to find out what we need and then hurry back. We will wait for you at the ford."

"There and back and no one the wiser, m'lord," Alan volunteered. "Alan a'Dale will see to it." To Scarlet, he said, "They've never seen me before, and I can talk the legs off a donkey if I have to. We'll be back safe and sound before you know it."

Bran commended them to their task, and Angharad spoke a brief blessing of protection over them and the two departed. The rest of the Grellon began preparing for the night's activities: weapons and ropes were readied, and five riders were sent to the holdings and farms in the valley to warn the folk about King Raven's plans and to enlist any aid they could find. In the end, there were so many willing volunteers that they chose only the most hale and hearty to help and told them where to go, and when.

Tuck decided that he would best be served by a new staff, so took himself into the wood to find a sturdy branch of ash which he cut to length and then shaped. As he worked, he found great satisfaction in reciting a few of the Psalms that the young Israelite warrior David composed when seeking deliverance from his many enemies.

By the time the sun began its long, slow plunge into the western sea, all was ready. The raiders, eight in all, departed for the ford to meet the spies. Alan and Noin were already waiting at the forest's edge when they arrived. Will Scarlet was the first to see them and ran to where the two sat beside the stream near the ford. "Is all well?" he asked, and received a brushing kiss by way of answer from his wife.