Both crownsworn faltered slightly. ‘Majesty,’ the other began. Nash, their name was. ‘Everything happening—’
‘Does not give you reason to rough-hand townsfolk. What was the charge?’
The courtyard was not empty; the event rolled out like ripples in a pool, stilling all else.
‘They had something suspicious on them, Majesty,’ the first repeated. Levett – Levett, who was on the list of crownsworn Blythe and Pedr had secured for Osian. ‘Something for sorcery, certainly – look.’ Levett held out the item in question: mulchy and earthy, bleeding out of brown paper.
Osian knew it was Meilyr who approached before the sound of his footfall on the cobbles, before he swept into sight, fear burning away to purpose, his freckle-dusted cheeks lightly flushed. ‘Mister Bevan?’ he asked, shocked.
Mister Bevan stirred in the crownsworn’s hold. ‘Mast… Meil…’
‘You know them?’ Osian bit back the dread that came from Meilyr yet again beinghere, in the middle of danger.
‘Yes,’ Meilyr said, ‘and that is a poultice – for a summer rash. I had it made for him.’
‘Master… Meilyr…’
Osian took the offending item. Its herbal tang struck his throat, and he turned it over for show: Meilyr would not lie. ‘Care to explain again?’
Nash looked at Levett, panicked.
‘That’s no proof,’ Levett said, pointedly glancing at Meilyr. ‘It looks like something for a spell. When we asked him to hand it over, he refused.’
Mister Bevan strained weakly to see Meilyr and mumbled through broken lips, ‘They… took our savings. All I had for Sioned… Master Meilyr—’
‘You – you liar!’ Levett shoved Bevan, hard, and he fell to the cobbles.
Meilyr moved to shield him as Osian caught the crownsworn’s wrist.
‘Hold!Is that true, Levett? Nash?’
A panicked pause as Levett recalculated the situation. ‘M… Majesty—’
‘Did you?’
Levett’s gaze flitted nervously. Nash had frozen. ‘Majesty,’ Levett murmured, ‘these people – they’re always late on taxes, and everyone knows they’re to blame for all this.’ Another glance at Meilyr.
‘So you relieved this family of their coin, robbing them like common thieves. Then what did you do?’
‘No, that’s not what happened!’
‘Blythe, see this man taken for medical care.’ He caught sight of more of his knights towards the training grounds. ‘Garrick, Bada! Escort these two to the holding of the dungeons and await me there.’
‘Majesty – no, please, they’re only Denelanders!’
‘They are our people,ours. The oaths you swore to the Crown, you swore to all its people, and you have broken those oaths today. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Garrick, Bada, now.’
The knights moved with detached urgency, and Levett and Nash thankfully went without a struggle.
Blythe stepped in briskly to help Meilyr steady the beaten man to his feet, and Meilyr’s eyes met Osian’s. It was a look Osian had to turn away from, tearing himself free like the tide from the moon.
The courtyard returned smartly to business, and Osian – the ruined poultice weeping through his clenched fingers – decided it would be two bells, at best, before the entirety of Eascild Castle knew what had happened here.
TWENTY-FIVE
Bindweed.
Symbolic of protection, and dangerous obstinacy.