"Wilfrid, call the other thanes hither."
I went to the door of the council chamber, and there was that in my face which bade the thanes spring up and hurry to me with words of question. I looked first at the three Mercians; but their faces were blank as those of the Anglians. They expected naught.
"The king has gone," I said. "You Mercians may best know whither."
One of them laughed, and sat down again.
"You have a strange idea of a jest in Carl's camp, paladin," he said. "What is it? The king gone, with us sitting here at his door, forsooth!"
"No jest, thane, but the truth," I said, taking the tall wax torch which was on the table before them. "Come."
Then they leaped up and followed me into the bedchamber, and stood staring as we had stared. It was plain that they knew as little as ourselves.
"He has passed into the guest hall," said one of the Mercians, looking round him wildly enough.
But that was not possible, for the door was in the outer room whence we had come, and it was barred on both sides.
"We are disgraced," said another, groaning. "Our charge has been made away with, and how we cannot tell. We shall pay for this with our lives."