"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.
"No one paid us any heed at all," Alan told them. "Why would they? We were just two humble folk attending the market, ye ken?"
"Well and good," said Bran. "So now, what did you discover?"
"It is true the town is full of Ffreinc," began Alan, "but they trust their numbers a little too much, it seems to me." He went on to explain that the soldiers were everywhere to be seen-at the entrance to the town square, before the abbey gate, clustered around the guardhouse tower-but almost to a man they appeared bored and lax. "You can see those fellas idling here and there, dicin' and drinkin' and what-all. They swagger around like little emperors all, and most of them don't carry weapons-maybe a dagger only."
"No doubt they know where to find a ready blade smart enough when pressed to it," observed Iwan.
"Oh, no doubt," agreed Alan readily. "But I'm just saying what I saw."
"What about the sheriff?" asked Will. "Did you see that rat-faced spoiler?"
"I did not," answered Alan. "Neither hide nor hair. Plenty of soldiers though, as I say."
"You found where they keep the supplies?" asked Bran.
"We did, Lord," answered Alan. Looking to Noin, he nodded. "Noin here did that easy as please and be thanked."
"I went to the church when they rang the bell for the midday mass," Noin reported. "There were but a few townsfolk and a merchant or two, so I knelt in the back and waited for the service to finish. Then I followed the monks to the abbey, pretending that I was hungry and in need of food for myself and my poor starving children three."
"You told them that?" said Scarlet, chagrined at the barest suggestion that he was no fit provider for his family.
"It was only pretence," she said lightly. "But I have been pared near enough to the bone to know how it feels. To their credit the priests took pity on me and let me inside the abbey walls. I was made to wait in the yard while they fetched a few provisions."
"And you saw where these were kept?" said Siarles.
"Oh, aye-made sure of it. There is a granary behind the bishop's house. It looks new to me-wattled and thatched like a barn, but smaller."
"They brought you food from these stores?" asked Tuck. "You saw this?"
"Aye, they did-brought me some grain and a rind of salt pork," Noin told him, "and a handful of dried beans. There was plenty more whence that came, believe me."
"There must be," mused Iwan, "if they are about giving away food to needy Cymry."
"At least," suggested Siarles, "they are not over-worried about running out of provisions anytime soon."
"They will be running out sooner than they know," said Bran. "What else?"
The raiding party listened to all that Alan and Noin had to say about the troops and stores. When they finished, Bran praised their good service and sent them on their way back to Cel Craidd, saying, "Tell the others we're going ahead with the raid. If all goes well, we will return before dawn."
So Alan and Noin continued on their way, and the raiding party settled down to wait, watching a pale blue velvet dusk settle over the Vale of Elfael below. The stars winked on one by one, and the raiders sat and talked, their voices a low murmur barely audible above the liquid splash of the nearby stream.
It is so beautiful, thought Tuck, so peaceful. "Ach, fy enaid," he sighed.
"Second thoughts, Friar?" asked Siarles, sliding down beside him.
"Never that, boyo," replied Tuck. "But it does seem a very shame to violate such tranquillity, does it not?"
"Perhaps, but it will be far more tranquil when the Ffreinc are gone, Friar," answered Siarles. "Think of that."
"I pray that it is so." Tuck sighed again. "It is a beautiful valley, though."
They talked a little while, and then Tuck closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, to be awakened sometime later by Siarles jostling his shoulder. "Time to be about the devil's business, Friar."
Regaining their saddles, the party rode down into the vale, circling around to the north of the town and the abbey fields. They came to the edge of a bean field which lay just beyond the stone walls of the monastery Abbot Hugo had erected. "If I heard it right, the abbot's storehouse is just the other side of that wall," Iwan pointed out. The wall, like the abbey and town behind it, was an indistinct mass, black against the deeper, featureless blackness of a moonless night.
"Owain and Rhoddi," said Bran, "go and rouse the others. Bring them here-and for the love of God and all the angels, tell everyone to keep quiet." The two warriors turned and rode for the forest's edge north of town. As soon as they had gone, Bran said, "Tuck, you will stay with the horses and keep order outside the walls. Tomas and Scarlet-go with Iwan. Siarles, you come with me. Once over the wall, meet at the storehouse." The old sly smile played on his lips as he said, "Time for Rhi Bran y Hud to fly."
The raiders urged their mounts forward across the leafy field, now black beneath the hooves of their horses. A few paces from the wall, they stopped and dismounted. "God with you," whispered Tuck as they hefted first one man and then the next up onto the top of the abbey wall. When the last raider disappeared, the friar turned to look for Rhoddi and Owain, but could see nothing in the darkness.
He waited, gazing wide-eyed into the darkness and listening for any stray sounds from the other side of the wall, but saw nothing and heard only the sound of the horses breathing and, once in a while, chafing the ground with an idle hoof. After a time, there came a whispered hiss from somewhere above his head. "Ssssst!" Once, and then again. "Ssssst!"