Undercurrent: Part XXV

“Llinos? Llinos, what's wrong, sister? Why are you crying?”

Huw hadn't seen his little sister for over a week now and that was not normal. They'd spent at least an hour or so each day together every day ever since the death of their mother Erilys, either here at the Trade House or across the way at the Bardic Hall where Huw studied his craft. There had been a few times in the past where one or the other of them had been busy and missed a day but they had never been apart for more than one day even during the previous year's chaos here in The Hook.

Never, that was, until now. Seeing Llinos crying like this made Huw feel like a cur. He crouched down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders.“Linnie, I'm sorry. I was supposed to write a ballad on something that happened during the siege of The Hook and I got all caught up in it. I'm sorry I stayed away so long. I won't let it happen again. I came yesterday but they said you were feeling ill and didn't want any company. Are you still sick?” He tried to set his hand on her forehead to see if she was feverish. but she moved her head and pushed the hand away. “Llinos, are you mad at me?”

She shook her head. “N-n-no.”

“Then what's amiss? Is one of the others bullying you? Tell me and I'll set them straight, I swear! ”

Llinos looked up at him, a copy in miniature of their mother, wiping tears away from striking grey eyes. “It's all my fault, Huw. Please don't hate me.”

“I can't hate you, never you. You're my sister.” Huw shifted now to fully sit on the doorstep beside her. “Now, tell me. What's made you cry?”

She looked down at her hands. “I lost it, Huw. “she whispered. “I lost Mama's harp.” She began to cry again.

“Are you certain, Linnie? Could you have left it someplace and forgot where you left it?”

The glare she gave him was so much like Erilys' when she'd caught him doing something wrong . “I am NOT a ninny, Huw ap Gethin. It was Mama's! I wouldn't just leave it lying around.” She wiped at her eyes once more. “I put it away and the next day when I went to take it out, it was gone.”

Huw nodded thoughtfully. “That's not losing something, Linnie. But somebody took it. Does anyone else know where you keep the harp?”

She took a few seconds to think. “Only Ewan. I told him where I keep it back during the Troubles, in case something happened to me. He was supposed to tell you where it was so you could have it.” Llinos frowned. “But, Huw, Ewan's my friend. He wouldn't steal Mama's harp. It's not worth anything to anyone but us, right, so why would it be worth stealing?”

He hugged her shoulders. “I don't know, Linnie. But I'll find out.”

************

Ewan turned out to be a scrawny eleven year old with unruly brown hair and a slightly runny nose. Huw regarded him with all the suspicion that a more mature thirteen year old would have for male friends of a younger sister. He had cornered Ewan in the Trade House dining hall.

“Hello, Ewan. “ Huw slid on the bench next to the other boy. “I'm Llinos' brother Huw …” he paused as the boy's chin began to tremble. “…and I want to ask you what you might know about her harp. It's gone missing you see.”

Ewan jumped up so fast he knocked over his dinner plate as everyone in the dining hall turned to stare at the racket. “I didn't want to do it! I didn't! He'll kill me! He'll kill my da!”

And then he burst into tears.

Huw looked around. The Trade House staff and students were now giving him hostile stares. “Here now, Ewan, no one's going to kill you. Where is the harp now? Why did you take it?”

“He told me to do it!” Ewan settled back onto the bench but leaned as far away from Huw as he could. “He said Da owed him money from the games and `less I did what he said then he'd make an example of my Da.”

“And he said stealing the harp would cancel the debt?”

Ewan paled; stealing was forbidden in the Trade House. He nodded miserably. “He didn't mention the harp, just anything that had belonged to Llinos' and your Ma. Something that you might miss, he said.”

Huw nodded but didn't speak again right away. Somebody had bullied poor Ewan into stealing not for profit but for revenge and he had a pretty good idea who the only person in all of Camelot might be to do such a thing. Asking the next question was only a formality. “Who put you up to this, Ewan?”

************

In the privacy of a room on the second floor of Fat Henry's Cador the innkeeper poured himself a glass of win and sat back in his chair. A small decorated harp case sat on the desk before him and he mockingly toasted it with the liquor. “Bit by bit, Erilys, bit by bit I will have my vengeance.” He took a sip of the wine.

Something stirred in the shadows in the far corner of the room. Cador stared as they seemed to stretch and then parted to reveal a man lounging against the wall.“Really Cador, I would think you'd have better and more important use for your time then revenging yourself on two children.”

“Milord. You hadn't returned for so long. I thought …”

The Shadowlord laughed as he moved across the room to Cador. “Not hardly, fool. Pour me some of that wine.” He settled into the chair opposite the tavern keeper. “Then I want to hear everything there is to know about current affairs in Camelot.”