Night Birds' Reign(135)

“Thank you,” Angharad said to Amatheon after he helped her down.

“Yes,” Achren said, her generous mouth twitching, “if you hadn’t helped her down she might have fallen.”

Rhiannon laughed. “Her experience on a horse being so limited,” she explained.

Amatheon, his eyes alight, smiled. “Tease me all you want to,” he said cheerfully, “I can take it.”

“You should,” Cai said as he dismounted. “Since you can certainly dish it out.”

Trystan, still on his horse, batted his lashes at Amatheon. “Maybe you could help me down too?”

Amatheon, a grin on his face, pulled Trystan from the saddle to the ground. Trystan rolled and instantly got to his feet with an answering grin. The two men squared off, each going into a wrestler’s stance.

“I bet my saddle on Trystan,” Achren said.

“Done,” Cai replied promptly.

“Pardon me,” Gwydion said acidly as he got down from his horse, “but does anyone happen to remember what we are doing here? I ask just out of curiosity.”

“Oh, Gwydion,” Rhiannon said as she, too, dismounted, “you’re such a killjoy.”

“Apparently someone’s go to do it,” Gwydion said shortly. He fixed Amatheon and Trystan with his silver eyes and the two men straightened up, an innocent look upon their faces.

“We weren’t doing anything,” Amatheon said ingenuously. “We were just waiting for you to get on with it.”

“Than wait no more,” Gwydion said.

“Tell us about this place,” Cai said seriously. “What exactly happened here? And when?”

“It happened in the year 275,” Rhiannon replied as Gwydion opened his mouth to answer. “Ten years after High King Lleu was murdered. It was called the Battle of Ynad Bran. Known as the fourth Battle of Betrayal.”

Gwydion gave Rhiannon a hard look at her interruption and she smiled sweetly at him. “Perhaps,” she said graciously, “you would care to take it from here?”

“I would,” Gwydion said shortly.

But Angharad thought she saw the faintest gleam of humor in his eyes. It was a sight rarely seen, and it surprised her.

“It began in 260,” Gwydion said as the others gathered around the grave. “That was the year when Sulia, the Queen of Ederynion, died; the year her husband, King Llywelyn, became unhinged by grief at her loss. King Llywelyn called his three daughters to him after the funeral. There was Regan, the eldest, mistress of Bran the Dreamer. There was Gwladas, the second daughter, wife to King Peredur of Rheged. And there was the youngest, Luched, who was not yet married.”

Gwydion gazed down at the barrow as a slight breeze shook the aspens. “Regan and Gwladas, mindful of the riches they could still get from their father, spoke effusively of their love for him when he asked. But Luched was forthright and honest. She said that she loved her father as meat loves salt. Which is to say that they complement each other. But King Llywelyn took this to mean that she did not love him. In a rage, he exiled her from Ederynion, declaring that she was an untrue daughter.

“Luched traveled to Cadair Idris and told High King Lleu what her father had done. Lleu and Bran, along with many others, tried to get Llywelyn to change his mind, but he was adamant. Lleu offered Luched a place in Cadair Idris. After a very short time Dylan, Lleu’s younger brother fell in love with Luched and, with Lleu’s blessing, the two were married.

“In Ederynion King Llywelyn was becoming increasingly erratic. He became forgetful; sometimes thinking for days at a stretch that his wife was still alive and his mind began to wander more often. His advisors pled with Regan and Gwladas to help him, but they did nothing. The advisors begged Llywelyn to allow Luched to return, but he refused.

“Five years later Lleu was murdered,” Gwydion went on. “Dylan and Luched left Cadair Idris and went to live at Caer Dathyl, at Bran’s invitation. Regan was highly displeased by this and threatened to leave if Bran did not revoke his invitation. But Bran refused to change his mind and Regan left Caer Dathyl, taking their son, Cacamri, with her. Apparently, Bran, who had been disenchanted with her for some time, was relieved to see her go.”

“And his son?” Trystan asked.

“Was more like his mother than his father,” Gwydion replied. “So Bran did not object when she took him. He objected only when Regan wanted to take their daughter, Dremas, also. For Dremas was to be the next Dreamer, and Bran refused to let Regan take her. So Regan, along with her son, went to Ederynion and took over the government of that land, for by this time King Llywelyn was incapable of ruling in any effective way. She dismissed her father’s Captain and installed a man of her own choosing. She got rid of all Llywelyn’s advisors and replaced them with men and women loyal to her.