To Carry the Horn

Chapter 22-1

CHAPTER 22

At dinner that evening George finally got his opportunity to meet Edern. He was interested to see that Edern was seated to Gwyn’s right, after Idris. It was a place of honor, certainly, but also well separated from their sister on Gwyn’s other hand. Eurig’s comments about Edern’s dislike of her were borne out by the stern countenance he maintained throughout the meal whenever she spoke, and the effort he made to confine all of his own conversation, what there was of it, to the immediate family seated to the right of him.

George swapped places with Rhian so that she could be nearer her grandfather, and Rhodri joined him at the end of the table on the same impulse.

“Does he ever smile when he isn’t looking at his grandchildren?” George asked Rhodri quietly.

“Not always then, either. He used to smile at their father, but they remind him too well of what he’s lost. No blame to them for it.”

“What happened?”

“We can’t talk about it here, we’ll be overheard. After dinner.”

George caught Edern studying him occasionally during the meal, and once he leaned over his grandchildren to speak to him directly.

“How are you enjoying your stay, kinsman?”

Interesting. He calls me ‘kinsman,’ unlike his sister. “I’m enjoying it very well, sir. The challenge is absorbing, the people are welcoming, and I’m very pleased to discover family here. It’ll be hard to leave when my job’s done. I’m only sorry that my opportunity came at such a cost.”

Edern nodded soberly. “My brother has invited me to join him tomorrow. We’ll try not to interfere with your training requirements.”

“I look forward to it, sir. We’ll try to give you good sport.”

At the end of the meal, as things quieted down, Eurig rose from his seat with Brynach, and walked up on the dais to stand in front of George, drawing all eyes.

He spoke loudly so that all could hear him. “Huntsman, my kinsman Brynach tells me he wishes to study the hunting of hounds. I seek your permission to apprentice him under your mastership, to employ him as you see fit in this learning until such time as he may be released by you or relinquish the work himself. I pledge to maintain his costs, in horses, in clothing, and in such expenses as may arise until this term is completed. How say you?”

There was dead silence in the hall. George had risen when Eurig’s speech began, and glancing down at the seated Gwyn, he could see by his stiffened body that this was a surprise to him as well. Eurig had played his own political card in the game, in strong and public support of Gwyn. George felt compelled to warn Eurig about the danger Brynach was getting into, but not in public like this and besides, looking at Brynach’s shining face, he couldn’t spoil this glorious moment for him with mere prudence.

He replied, projecting his voice clearly, “I am pleased to accept Brynach as apprentice to the study of hunting with hounds, to guide and support him to the best of my ability until such time as I release him or he relinquishes the work himself.”

He turned to Brynach and extended his hand across the table. “Welcome, Brynach. Please join us in the kennels after dinner.”

Brynach clasped his hand, stammered out a reply, and followed Eurig off the dais, unmindful of his footing.

George sat down abruptly in his seat as murmurs rose in the room. “Is this how it’s usually done?” he asked Rhodri.

“The last apprentices were Rhys and me, and those weren’t formal, just part of our family’s diverse training. Before that, it would’ve been Islwyn, who was Iolo’s family so again no formal apprenticeship… No, the most recent time something like this has happened would’ve been Merfyn’s apprenticeship, perhaps thirty or more years ago, and I would’ve been too young to witness it. I don’t doubt that Eurig made up the wording on the spot, just now.”

“The sly old badger. Glad he’s on our side,” George said. He thought about the tangle he would leave behind in a few days. “What’ll happen after the great hunt, when I return?”

“That will be for the two of you to work out with a new huntsman, I imagine.”

“So I should just make it up as I go along, is that it?”

Rhodri shrugged.

George considered, then turned to Rhian on his left. She and her brother had been as startled as anyone. “Please come, both of you,” looking past her at Rhys, “to kennels this evening.”

Rhodri surprised him. “May I come, too?”

“You’re always welcome.”

“Good.” He grinned. “We can have a party.”

Rhodri filled in the story of Rhys ab Edern for George as they walked over to the kennels.

“Rhys was Edern’s youngest son, and the younger the child, the closer the parent. He was still young when he sired Rhys Vachan, less than a century, I believe, and the birth of Rhian so soon after was an even stronger blessing, so close as they are in age.”

“What happened to him?”

“Remember, this was only about twelve years ago. Rhys and his consort were summoned to Edern’s father’s court. They were to bring their children, but Rhian wasn’t much more than an infant, so they decided to ignore that part of the invitation and bring the children another time. They left them in the care of a nurse in Rhys’s household and took the way that would send them to Rhys’s grandfather. Only it didn’t.”

“I don’t understand,” George said.

“The way entrance they used was in the correct spot, and the token activated it, but it was a false way, one that had been overlaid on the real one just a few feet in front, and they were sent with all their companions to a place unknown. Some of the group had traveled with them just to see them off, and it’s by their accounts we know what happened.”

“Gwyn was brought in to look at the situation, and I helped him, as best I could at the time. The invitation enclosing the way-token was shown to be false. When we tried to find the false way, it was gone or hidden.”

“No wonder Gwyn didn’t want to linger on the other side of the way at Daear Llosg.”

“Right. He didn’t want to spring a similar trap.”

“So, were they killed?” George asked.

“No one knows for sure. None of them have been seen again, and we must assume the worst since if they were being held merely as hostages we would’ve heard by now. Edern put a steward in charge of his son’s estate to hold it for Rhys, but he couldn’t leave the children there, subject to some other hostile act, and he wanted to devote himself to pursuing the villains who had attacked his family. So Gwyn offered to foster them.”

“Is that what usually happens to orphans?”

“Yes, but there’s more to it than that. This was no random attack but the act of an enemy who took time and care with the plot and had special abilities with the ways that are unfamiliar to us. Enemies we have in plenty, but Rhys ab Edern was too young for it, so they must be enemies of Edern or his close kin. None of those, so far as we know, could have made that way-trap. The best speculation I’ve heard runs that this was an old enemy allied with a new or hidden power, whose trap only partially succeeded.”

“And everyone’s lived with that uncertainty for twelve years?”

“Yes, and they’re now very alarmed at recent events, of hidden ways with unknown owners, of sneak attacks on Gwyn, of tunnels through our palisade, and, most of all, of the mysterious death of our huntsman, preceded as now seems clear by successful attempts to weaken our ability to conduct the great hunt that go back twenty years or more.”

“So you think it’s all connected,” George said.

“Wouldn’t you? I have my own partial theory. I think the only person who seeks the failure of the great hunt is Gwythyr ap Greidawl, for the ancient grudge. I think he must be behind the loss of Islwyn and Merfyn, beginning twenty years ago. I’m less sure, but I suspect he was also behind the attack on Rhys ab Edern and his family twelve years ago, since there was no one accessible to him in Gwyn’s direct line equally vulnerable, and he hates us all. But I don’t know where the way knowledge is coming from, I can’t see how the murder of Iolo was managed, and there are just too many loose ends. I could suspect Creiddylad of almost anything, but not of working in combination with Gwythyr who repudiated her, nor is she skilled in these areas.”

“Someone told me Edern isn’t usually here, that he was probably called. What about you? Would you normally come back at this time of year or were you summoned?”

“Gwyn called me to come immediately. I believe he sent an urgent summons to Edern, too. Edern hasn’t been here for years, and I was surprised to see him. Perhaps he senses the hand of whomever killed his son, and wants to be in on the fight. If anything, he’s more suspicious of Creiddylad than I am, blaming her for whatever plot resulted in the loss of his son.”

They had lingered outside the kennel gates for this conversation, for privacy. George saw Rhys and Rhian headed their way, with Brynach, and tapped Rhodri on the shoulder to call his attention to it.

He turned to wave at the others and opened the gate for them all.

There were so many people in the huntsman’s office for the evening meeting before a hunt that Ives and Benitoe had to bring in additional chairs of their own. Alun, with excellent forethought, had supplied sufficient mugs and beer to get them started.

George began with introductions. “Ives, Benitoe—you may have missed the news that I’ve just accepted Brynach here as an apprentice for learning about hunting with hounds.” Brynach smiled shyly at them across the room. “This raises interesting questions about everyone’s status, and I wanted to sort that out first.”

He continued, “This will be old hat to some of you, and please correct me if I’m suggesting something that doesn’t sound right or proper, since I don’t know what you’re all accustomed to. Just bear with me.

“First, Ives is kennel-master. His word is law here in kennels, and you’d be well advised to heed it anywhere else, too. Doesn’t matter if it’s ‘your job’ or not. We all in agreement about that?”

Heads nodded all around.

“Alright, then. Rhodri has graduated from this particular school and doesn’t count.” Rhodri took a comic bow and Rhys found something to throw at him, which he ducked.

“Rhys, like Rhodri before him, is going through an accelerated course of exposure which will be followed by some other form of learning altogether, all of this to fit him for rule. Or so I understand.”

“That’s right,” Rhys said. “I’ve been whipping-in under Iolo for two years, and this great hunt was to be my last. Next will be history and politics under Ceridwen and my foster-father, and my outdoor work will all be related to farming.” This last with a grimace.

“Now, Benitoe. You’ve joined as what I would call a professional, someone who makes his living at this. You have some experience, will be learning more, and expect to stay for the long-term. That’s not an obligation on your part, just an assumption on mine. Do I describe rightly?”

“Yes, that’s how I see it, too. Just as Ives is a professional.”

“Alright. Rhian, now, is what I would describe as an amateur, someone who doesn’t currently make their living at this, though that could change. She is, in any case, not of age to make that decision. Our newest member, Brynach, falls into that same category, but he’s an official apprentice. The only difference in status that I see between Rhys, Rhian, and Brynach is that the first two are amateurs who are not apprentices because they have additional obligations and may be short-timers, whereas Brynach will be treating this as his primary responsibility for some time. Correct?”

Rhian objected, “This is my primary responsibility, too.”

“Agreed, but like Rhys you’ll probably have a series of temporary roles to fit you for estate or domain rule, not so? In which case, this is just the current one and I should expect to either lose you later, in this role, or for you perhaps to make a different decision when you’re of age.”

“I suppose so,” she said.

“Alright, then. Here’s what I intend. Rhys and Benitoe, you’re free to participate or not, as you choose, but I encourage you to come. Starting next week, I’ll begin a course of study for Rhian and Brynach. It will include reading and discussion, kennel management and hound maintenance, hound management and hunting, and breeding and training. Since so much of this will be practical rather than theoretical, I want to see all of you at the meets, doubled up as appropriate. For now, that means Rhian with me and Brynach with Benitoe. We’ll change that around sometimes.”