**Not even to save Cedric and his companion?**

Dafydd swallowed hard at this unwelcome thought. Deliberately betray two more of his kind? He glanced around the table at his captors all eating the poorly cooked sausages and bread the innkeeper had brought. Sir Andrew took a sip of the wine then spat it out over his shoulder to the dismay of the person sitting behind him. He tossed the dregs of his cup into the fire looking disgusted, then ate the bread and meat before him. He didn't appear to like them any better than he'd liked the wine.

Dafydd turned his attention to the single burned sausage and stale heel of bread set down at his own place. He forced himself to eat at least half the food although his stomach didn't appreciate the contribution at all. His wits were dull enough without deliberately making himself weaker through hunger. He was too occupied with his new dilemma to pay much attention to the bad food in any case.

**They are nothing to me,** Dafydd thought of the two young men just gone. **They have money, food, and horses while Cedric has nothing. Even if I were to tell Sir Andrew about them, they'd be better equipped to escape the Custodes. If Sir Andrew is distracted with hunting them down, it might give Cedric just the chance he needs to get away.**

Dafydd kept his eyes on his plate, amazed and miserable at his own cool ability to justify betraying more Deryni to the Custodes whether he knew them or not. Those young men might escape the Custodes, Dafydd allowed. But once he'd told Sir Andrew about them, their eventual capture was far more likely. The Custodes Knight had a terrible, relentless patience when it came to hunting down fugitive Deryni. Regrettably, he was also very experienced and skilled at it by now. And he'd get dogged assistance from Sir Wynton who had everything to prove to his superior after his blunder in the village the day before. Once the young men were prisoners, Sir Andrew would simply resume his hunt for Cedric and his companion.

**That young man had a good face and kind eyes,** Dafydd thought, toying with the crust of his bread. **Whatever I do, I will condemn one pair or the other to capture and possibly death at the hands of the Custodes.

**But if I say nothing, Sir Andrew will just go on hunting Cedric. When the Custodes find him, he'll *know* who's betrayed him.**

On foot with no refuge and being pursued by men on horseback, Dafydd doubted that Cedric would remain at liberty longer than another day or two at most. But those two young men would be barely out of the inn yard and away. If Dafydd were to speak up now, the chase would be on at once and no one would benefit but Sir Andrew. Yet if Dafydd kept silent, the trail would be cold, and he himself would come in for one of Sir Andrew's more painful beatings for having withheld the information. After that, he'd be no use or protection to anyone for at least a week while he recuperated.

Dafydd sighed heavily. After the last two years awful choices were nothing new to him.

"What's the matter?"

Dafydd looked up to meet Sir Andrew's speculative look. The Custodes knight watched him through half-closed eyes, and Dafydd had to swallow hard. He was already under suspicion after yesterday's events. He must decide now if he were to distract Sir Andrew with the possibility of additional prey.

"Nothing, my Lord," Dafydd murmured, looking fixedly back down at his plate.

"If you were to tell me where I might FitzHamon and this companion of his, we could all stop tramping about in this mud and rain, and be comfortable back at Ramos, you know," Sir Andrew told him. "I feel the cold and wet too, Dafydd. But I'm not going back to my superiors empty-handed.

"Come, now, cooperate with me in this, and I might even arrange to let you see that little wife of yours as a reward."

"I don't know where they are, sir," Dafydd whispered. He kept his eyes on his plate, knowing from the sound of Sir Andrew's voice that he was smiling in the coaxing way he could employ when he chose. Dafydd didn't trust that smile; it had never boded any good for him. As for seeing Sian, contact between the sniffers and their families was generally forbidden, and if pressed, Sir Andrew would deny ever making the offer.

"Perhaps we should go back to the village and search again in case someone there has been sheltering them," was all Dafydd said aloud.

"And FitzHamon told you nothing yesterday?"

"How could he have told me when we never saw each other?" Dafydd asked. "My Lord, you saw for yourself. I never stirred from the smithy shed, and FitzHamon never knew I was there. Even if he had, he'd never have spoken to me after seeing me in your company."