This time the silence was chiller and more detached, and lastedlonger. Then the abbot said levelly: “Ask what you have cometo ask. Let it be plainly said.”

“I ask your leave and blessing,” said Cadfael,“to go with Hugh Beringar and attend this conference atCoventry, there to ask before king and empress where my son isheld, and by God’s help and theirs see him deliveredfree.”

“And then?” said Radulfus. “If there is nohelp there?”

“Then by whatever means to pursue that same quest, until Ido find and set him free.”

The abbot regarded him steadily, recognizing in the voice someecho from far back and far away, with the steel in it that had beenblunted and sheathed as long as he had known this elderly brother.The weathered face, brown-browed and strongly boned, and deeplyfurrowed now by the wear and tear of sixty-five years, gazing backat him from wide-set and wide open eyes of a dark, autumnal brown,let him in honestly to the mind within. After years of willingsubmission to the claims of community, Cadfael stood suddenly erectand apart, again solitary. Radulfus recognized finality.

“And if I forbid,” he said with certainty,“you will still go.”

“Under God’s eye, and with reverence to you, Father,yes.”

“Then I do not forbid,” said Radulfus. “It ismy office to keep all my flock. If one stray, the ninety and nineleft are also bereft. I give you leave to go with Hugh, and seethis council meet, and I pray some good may come of it. But oncethey disperse, whether you have learned what you need or no, thereyour leave of absence ends. Return with Hugh, as you go with Hugh.If you go further and delay longer, then you go as your own man,none of mine. Without my leave or my blessing.”