Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [26]
“Your Grace, never would I order such a cowardly thing! How could you believe it of me, attacking a woman!”
“His lordship forgets himself again. As of yet, I believe naught, one way or another.”
Beryn started to speak, but just then two guards appeared, shoving their way through the crowd and dragging the prisoner along with them.
“You!” Beryn snarled. “You little bastard! What by every god are you doing here?”
“My lord!” Coryc snapped. “Do you know this man?”
“I do. His name’s Petyn, and I had him flogged and kicked out of my warband not long ago. He was stealing from me.”
Although everyone in the crowd gasped, Coryc turned to look at Jill, who was smiling to herself as she stood out of the way near the wall.
“All right, Silver Dagger,” the gwerbret said. “It’s time for you to spill everything you know.”
“So it is, Your Grace.” Jill came forward and made a reasonable curtsy, seeing as she was wearing a pair of brigga. “Petyn, let’s start with you. There you were, publicly shamed, turned out of the warband without a copper to your name. I’ll wager you rode south. Where did you meet the man who hired you?”
Petyn shook his head in a stubborn no.
“I know what he looks like,” Jill went on. “A stout fellow, with a high voice, and he’s a merchant pretending to be a scribe. He deals in perfumes and incenses, actually. He was a friend of Lady Mallona’s brother, and he was kind enough to bring her news every now and then, until Graelyn died last year. That’s the brother’s name, Your Grace—Graelyn. But this incense seller was a rich man, and I’ll wager he offered Petyn plenty, especially since he had him round up four other lads for the hire.”
“Here!” Lord Beryn’s voice rose to a squeak. “Are you talking about Bavydd? He used to stay in my dun with us, just every now and then.”
“So that was his name, was it? He gave a different one to the priests of Nudd here in town, but I figured it was a false one. Come on, Petyn. Are you really going to hang for a man who wouldn’t lift a finger to help you?”
“I’ll hang no matter what I do, you little bitch! Why should I say anything? You seem to know the lot already.”
“What is this?” Coryc slammed one hand down on the table. “Jill, are you saying that this merchant is behind these murder attempts?”
“Not exactly, Your Grace. I don’t think for a minute that he wanted to kill the tieryn. He wanted to push Beryn and Dwaen into open war and let them kill each other. Or maybe he was hoping you’d believe it was all Beryn’s fault, and you’d hang him for breaking your ban on the blood feud. Then he, Bavydd I mean, could marry the Lady Mallona and take her away.”
“I see.” Dwaen’s voice was more a sigh. “Beryn, I owe you both an apology and some restitution for this.”
“No doubt,” the gwerbret said. “But that will be a separate matter. Jill, I take it you’re laying a formal charge of attempted murder, as well as adultery, against this Bavydd, a merchant of Cerrmor.”
“I’m not, my lord. He was just a tool.”
Everyone was staring at Jill now, from the priests of Bel to the lowliest servant in the crowd. Rhodry had never heard such a crush of people keep such a silence.
“Well, you see, Your Grace,” Jill went on, “they could have run off together any time and been safe in Cerrmor, under another gwerbret’s jurisdiction, before her husband could track her down. Bavydd’s wealthy. He could pay Lord Beryn three times his wife’s marriage-price when the matter came to court, and I’ll bet his lordship would have taken the money, too, and not pressed the matter, because everyone tells me he didn’t much fancy her anymore. So why this elaborate plot? Your Grace, it had to be someone who hates Tieryn Dwaen, and there’s only one person under great Bel’s light that it could be.”
Involuntarily, the gwerbret glanced at Beryn, but Jill shook her head in a mournful no.
“Your Grace, you’ve all been looking for a man, haven’t you? Women hate just as bitterly and as well. Your Grace, everyone tells me that Lady Mallona doted on her son, and he wasn’t just her only son, he was her only child.