12 - ÁEDÁN

"Thanks, you can leave now". The healer nodded and left the tent. "What do you think, Erc?", Áedán then asked his most trustworthy personal guard.

"I think the healer brought good news".

"Good news, you say? Just because he finally allows me to get out of the tent after two days that I am segregated here?".

"He said that the bruise on your head is healing", answered Erc defensively, "and that you shouldn't feel dizziness anymore".

According to the healer, the blow from the spear had caused a bruise on his head and it had unbalanced his blood, whatever that meant. He had been ordered to rest for two days. Now, apparently, the balance in his blood had come back to normal.

Standing up from his cot bed, Áedán laughed loudly. "I obeyed the healer's instructions", he said, "only because it suited me. For two days I didn't have to deal personally with the Britons and I have been following the negotiations from our camp at some distance from the Rock, through Rónán's reports".

Then Áedán called loudly: "Commander Rónán! Are you still out there?".

The general peered into the tent: "Yes I am still here, my toiseach".

"Come in. According to the healer I can resume my activity".

"That's good news", said Rónán entering the tent.

"So, finish telling me what you were saying when we were interrupted".

"In short, the Britons can't wait for us to leave. Today Neiton even declared that we are not required to help them find Tutgual's missing son and his family anymore".

"Really? Just the other day he was adamant in that matter, now did he suddenly change his mind?".

"It looks like they are really wishing that we go away soon. They are also trying to reach quickly an agreement on the dislocation of our troops on their territories", answered Rónán.

Áedán touched his beard pensively: "Are they really going to agree to our terms? Those Britons are even more stupid than I thought".

"They insist", replied Rónán, "that King Conall promised a new era of peace and collaboration between their kingdom and ours".

Áedán walked to a stool, sat on it and asked Erc to pour him some ale. Then he spoke to Rónán: "My cousin Conall, yes, surely he's waiting for me to go back soon. Well, and what did the conspirators say about my absence at the negotiations?".

"They accepted my explanation about your temporary ailment, without questioning".

Aédán finished drinking from his cup: "Actually, I don't care about what those idiots think. They are useless. If that's all, you may go, commander".

Rónán nodded and exited the tent.

The mention of his cousin Conall put Áedán in a bad mood, but that stirred his willing of carrying on with his secret plan. After a while, he spoke very softly to Erc: "How is our... person under special surveillance?".

"I went to visit him earlier", answered the guard, softly too, "and he was still looking unconscious... But the healer told me that he's not dying anymore and that sometimes he's awake, though not speaking".

"I think", said Aédán standing up, "it's time for me to go and see him". If that person was starting to wake up and was going to survive, it was better to act sooner than later. It looked like the time for staying at Alt Clut was getting shorter.

Accustomed to the warmth inside the tent, he found that the air was chilly outside. It was cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain soon. The area surrounding the Rock of Alt Clut was mostly swampland, but Áedán had found some decent ground where to set up his camp. Even if the air was kind of foul, he was feeling safer here, at some distance, rather than at the gate of the enemy citadel.

The soldiers in the camp saluted and greeted him, showing their happiness and relief for their leader's recovery. Áedán knew that his indisposition had to do also with his own grief for the fate of his wife's father and family. He had never been in touch with them, but now he felt like somehow he had just shot a mortal blow to part of his own interests.

Staying for a couple of days in the tent, though, had turned out to be useful. He had been able to keep watch over the prisoner through Erc, who had come regularly to inform him of that person's condition.

He arrived at the tent where the badly wounded were lying. It was actually just some rags sewed together and fastened to some poles to cover the wounded from the rain. The soldier on watch recognised him and saluted him.

"Tell every attendant to get out for a bit, I only need a little while", Áedán told the soldier, and he did what he was ordered to do.

Once everyone was out, Áedán entered with Erc.

It was stifling there, a stench of purulent wounds and sweat was spreading all around. About twenty wounded soldiers were laying or crouched on the ground. Most of them looked unconscious. Pretending to check on each of them, Erc was actually leading Áedán to the one of their interest, the only one who was not Dalriatan, even though no one knew that besides Áedán and Erc.

Suddenly that made Áedán think that the dead and wounded in the enemy lines must have been many more, and Tutgual's Royal Guard had been exterminated.

Erc touched Áedán's arm, interrupting his thoughts, and murmured: "He's the one". The man Erc was pointing at was laying on the ground, looking unconscious. His face was all covered in bandages, besides his eyes, his chin and a lock of ash blond hair. His naked body was also partially wrapped in a bloody stained bandage.

Áedán had enough of waiting. He kneeled down and whispered into the man's ear, even if it was bandaged: "I, Áedán mac Gabráin, am the leader of the Dalriatan warband in this very unfortunate expedition. Since my father was King of Dál Riata, just like your father was King of Alt Clut, we speak as equals. Your father is dead. His cousin Neiton map Guipno is now Guletic of the Rock".

The man was still laying still, only his chest was moving slowly at the rhythm of his breathing.

Áedán carried on: "I saw you three nights ago, during the battle on top of the Rock, dressed in a night vest and fighting like a demon. I recognised you after I heard your servant calling you by name. Just in that moment, one of my soldiers unarmed you and hit you straight on your face with his sword. He was going to kill you, but I called him and I stopped him. I ordered him to hide your unconscious body behind a hut, out of the midst of the battle. While the defenders of the Rock were being chased or killed, I found a dead soldier of yours who had ash blond hair as you have, and I disfigured his face. I ordered the same soldier who almost killed you to dress you in the other soldier's fighting armour, and to dress him in your night vest. After that, with his face unrecognisable and his body mutilated, dressed in your night vest and laying on the ground not far from where you had fallen, he could have been mistaken for you. And that's what happened. We did that operation hidden behind a hut. My soldier, who was the only one to know about that, was killed shortly after, in the last fights of the battle".

Clearly it had not been an accident, and Áedán hoped that the man in front of him was listening and that he could grasp the hint. But he was still laying apparently unconscious.

Áedán's legs were aching, kneeled down in that position, but he decided not to give up and he carried on speaking softly: "The conspirators who betrayed your father and your clan are your father's cousins, some of them at least. Neiton and his cohorts are already enjoying their power by now, very much so! They decided to recognise you in that soldier's body who was wearing your night vest. Your wife and children are held captives, but at least they are still alive. The same cannot be said about two of your brothers".

Áedán noticed that the man's eyelids moved. He bended close to his head and carried on speaking, as softly as he could in order not to let anyone around hear: "My king ordered me to come and conquer Alt Clut because he made a deal with Neiton. He compelled me to act so, but that deal they made goes against my interest. As you probably know, some of my clan's legacy lays in Manau and my interest is to cultivate good relationship and exchange with the clans of Alt Clut. I promised my wife that I would have tried to avoid her family's extermination. I couldn't save all of you, but at least I managed to save you, brother-in-law. I will tell you, I nurture a hope that you can take back the Rock from the usurpers who took it from your father".

The man opened his watery eyes, and tried to speak. Behind the bandage, his voice sounded hoarse: "I want...". He coughed. Then he tried again: "I want... I want to see... my wife and children...".

"Is that an order, Guletic Morcant map Tutgual?", replied Áedán in a whisper, beaming.

The man looked at him for a little while, his eyes now alive with tension, sunk in a bandaged face, then he said: "Yes", in a weak voice but with a resolute tone.

Áedán got even closer to the man's face, as he told him: "I will do all that is in my power to obey, King Morcant".