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Page 140
and warn Madog; or if Madog did not see her waiting, he might not come to where Simon could spot him. If he let her be, she would doubtless run back to Aber screaming for help, but the latter seemed the least serious. Simon was sure he could subdue Madog and drag him away somewhere more private before Mallt could bring assistance.
Because he could not permit himself to think of Rhiannon, Simon fixed his attention on Mallt and on the southern edge of the stockade where he expected to see Madog appear at any moment. He had not stopped to put on his armor, but Madog was notor had not beenwearing armor either, and he probably did not own a hauberk of steel. Simon drew his sword and held it naked in one hand, his knife in the other. Madog would not escape him, armed or not.
Simon's fixity of purpose nearly undid him. While he stared in one direction, Madog appeared from the west with the silent stealth of the Welsh hunter-warrior. In a flash, he seized Mallt by the arm and drew her backward a few feet. As she began to protest, he stabbed her in the heart.
Simon gasped with outrage and sprang from his concealment. In any other circumstances his sense of honor would have demanded that he give Madog a chance to draw his own weapons and defend himself, but a woman-killer did not merit such courtesy. In fact, if Simon had not needed to learn what Madog had done with Rhiannon, he would have grabbed him by the hair and cut his throat, as one slaughters a noxious animal. Besides, a cut throat was too sweet and easy a death. Simon was sure now that Madog had killed Rhiannon. He planned a long, very long and painful, excruciatingly painful death for Madog.
When Simon leapt out from behind the trees and charged at him, Madog was so startled that he screamed like a woman and turned to run. He was not usually a greater coward than any other man,

 
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