The Uninvited Guest Read Online Free Page B

said.
    “ What?” The failed assassin
struggled to sit up but couldn’t manage it on his own. After
watching him try to shift himself without success, Gareth helped
him, half dragging, half-carrying him to rest with his back to the
rough planks of the wall.
    Hywel’s hands were on his hips again.
“You’re telling us you don’t know who you are?”
    The boy gazed around the small room.
“N-n-no. I can’t remember! What happened to me?”
    Gareth was disgusted. “You took a hard
fall.”
    “ I did?” The youth put a
hand to the back of his head and came away with blood.
    Hywel crouched in front of
the boy. At the sight of Hywel’s intense face, the boy dug his
heels into the dirt floor, scrabbling and pressing his back to the
wall. “Wh-what’s going on?” He looked away, presenting his cheek to
Hywel. Pathetic.
    “ That’s what we’re trying
to get out of you,” Hywel said. “You entered the hall just now with
a knife and tried to stab the king with it. You don’t
remember?”
    “ N-n-no, my lord! Please
tell me this is a jest! It can’t be true!”
    “ I don’t believe this.”
Gareth kicked at a clump of dirty straw at his feet.
    Hywel gazed at the boy for a count of three
and then straightened. The boy’s eyes remained wide and he breathed
rapidly, as if in a panic. Of course, if Gareth had been caught
with a knife in the act of trying to murder the King of Gwynedd,
he’d be panicking too.
    Hywel backed off and turned to Gareth,
lowering his voice as he spoke. “It could be true. We’ve seen it
before in men who have taken a fall.”
    “ It could, but it’s mighty
convenient—for him and for the one who paid him to kill the king,
if he was indeed paid.” Gareth surveyed the boy, who put his hand
to the back of his head again, feeling under his hair. “Men have
landed harder and fallen farther with fewer ill
effects.”
    “ And some have died,” Hywel
said.
    “ Who are you?” the boy’s
voice trembled and he pointed towards Gareth with a wavering
finger.
    Gareth glowered at him. “Someone you should
be very afraid of.”
    “ Let’s try this another
way.” Hywel’s eyes glinted.
    Gareth understood what Hywel wanted without
needing him to articulate it. He smirked at his prince and then
stepped up to the youth, grasped him by his shirt, and hauled him
to his feet. He pushed him against the planks of the wall and shook
him once.
    “ Who is your lord? Who paid
you to kill Owain Gwynedd?”
    “ I d-d-don’t know what
you’re talking about!”
    Gareth thrust him against
the wall again. The back of the boy’s head snapped into the wood.
His eyes rolled. Given that he was already bleeding in that spot,
it had to have hurt. The boy was so convincing, Gareth began to
wonder if he wasn’t faking ignorance. He had fallen hard.
    Hywel crowded close, getting right in
Gareth’s face. “Let him go! Can’t you see he’s hurt!”
    Gareth glared at Hywel, and then released
the boy, who dropped to the floor like a child’s doll, legs and
arms splayed.
    “ Listen to reason, my
lord!” Gareth said. “Have you gone as soft in your head as in your
heart? Your father could have died!”
    “ But he didn’t, and this
boy, here, obviously isn’t the mastermind behind the plot.” Hywel
crouched beside the boy again. “Someone will tend to your wounds
shortly. Can’t you remember anything? Anything at all about why you
brought a knife to my father’s hall?”
    “ Prince Hywel—” Gareth
managed a good growl and Hywel’s lips twitched. At that point,
Gareth figured he’d better shut up or they’d both give the game
away.
    “ I will see to this, Sir
Gareth.” Hywel pointed to the doorway. “Stand over there.” He
turned back to the boy. “Now. Tell me what you do
remember.”
    The youth licked his lips, glanced from
Hywel to Gareth, who continued to glower at him. The boy cowered
against the wall until Hywel shifted to block Gareth from his view.
“I-I-I remember coming into the