Free Footsteps in Time by Sarah Woodbury Page B

bracers worn with use.
    He laughed, but
not at David.
“Yes,” he said. “And someday, that fate will be yours, God
willing.”
    As they rode down the
road to the valley floor, David kept glancing out of the corner of
his eye at Math. Math sat very straight, his hands on the
reins just so , his
shield held at exactly the right angle. Without saying anything,
David tried to copy him. David had a sense, all the same, that Math
was watching him and knew what he was doing. David decided he
didn’t care. Father wouldn’t have brought Math to Castell y Bere if
he didn’t trust him, and if he didn’t think David had something to
learn from him.
    “ Today we ride west,” Bevyn
said above the clopping of hooves and the murmur of boys, “to the
sea.”
    David’s ears perked up at
that. He hadn’t yet seen the sea, even though it was fewer than ten
miles from Castell y Bere. They forded the River Dysynni, to the
northwest of the castle, and then followed a trail along the north
bank of the river. When the river cut south, the trail continued
west to the sea and the village of Llangelynin. They rode without
stopping through what in the summer would be rich farmland, and
less than an hour later reached the beach.
    David breathed in the sea
air. His eyes strained forward across the water, but the low clouds
hanging on the horizon blocked the view towards Ireland.
    And America.
    “ The sea is in my blood,”
Math said. “My family’s lands lie in the south, at Dinefwr Castle
in Ystrad Tywi but I was born at Aberystwyth, in the old castle
that Edward destroyed. That castle sat on a headland, overlooking
this sea, and was beautiful, not like the half-finished ruin that
Edward thought to build.”
    “ Who has it now?” David
said.
    “ Gruffydd ap Maredudd.
During Holy Week a year ago, we took Aberystwyth, Hawarden, Flint,
Llandovery, and Carreg Cennen in one night. We’ve won and lost
these and more in the last year, but Aberystwyth is still
ours.”
    “ Were you
there?”
    Math laughed again. “No. The rebellion
was all your uncle’s idea at first, you know. Your father didn’t
join the fight until nearly summer. We’ve had some defeats and a
few victories, most notably at the Menai Straits in November.
Edward has waited two months to attack again. It will come, and I
pray we will be ready.”
    “ I don’t know that I’m
ready,” David said.
    “ You are,” Math said, “else
your father wouldn’t be letting you fight.”
    Bevyn spoke above the murmuring of the
boys. “We will split up, today,” he said. “I’ve a new lesson for
you. You’ll need to find your way home without my help.”
    “ Now
that’s going to be interesting,” Math said. He tipped his head to David and Owain, indicating they should
ride with him.
    Llangelynin didn’t have much of a
beach and within an eighth of a mile of the shoreline, a rocky
escarpment rose over two hundred feet above it, forming a ridge of
land that descended only slightly to the farmland on the other
side. Further east, the land fell nearly to sea level, before
rising again to the foot of the mountain range of which Cadair
Idris was the highest peak.
    Two miles north, however, which is
probably why Bevyn suggested they take that route in the first
place, the escarpment receded and it was possible to ride around it
inland.
    “ So the first step is
done,” Math said. “Now tell me the direction of Castell y
Bere.”
    David thought about it and pointed
southeast.
    “ No,” Owain said. “It is
directly east, perhaps ten miles.”
    Math shook his head. “Make it five and
you’d be correct,” he said. “We rode south from the castle along
the Dysinni, before cutting east. Five miles riding is less than an
hour’s work, but there’s a twelve hundred foot mountain between us
and the castle. Should we go over it?”
    Owain and David slowly shook their
heads, both thinking harder now. “No,” David said. “We go around
it.”
    Math nodded. “North