So Lleu and Gwydion captured the fortress at Mur Castell with ease. Gwydion did not linger there. He set off after his creature Blodeuwedd, moving steadily up the winding mountain paths, never pausing, but always gaining on the fleeing group of woman as they stumbled along high crags and on the cliffs that bordered a deep mountain lake. The woman saw him as a speck far below, now lost to sight, now appearing. Each time he appeared he was closer, and in their terror they continually looked behind them to gauge Gwydion's progress. And their fear was their undoing. One by one they lost their footing and fell screaming through the air down into the icy mountain lake. At last no one was left but Blodeuwedd, who had led them all to their deaths. She panted on alone, scrambling through the dirt, not flower-like now. And at her back she always heard the wizard making his inexorable way up the mountain behind her, moving neither fast or slow.

At last Blodeuwedd could go no farther; she could only wait. Some minutes passed before Gwydion appeared. He contemplated the woman he had made and said, "I will not kill you. There are worse fates. I will let you go in form of a bird. But for the shame you brought on Lleu, you shall be a bird that never show's its face in the light of day, a predator hated by other birds. You will always hunt alone. "He raised his hand, and in place of Blodeuwedd stood a taloned owl. "You will not lose your name, "added Gwydion before he turned to leave. And indeed, in Walse the owl would always be known as blodeuwedd, or "flower face" Gwydion returned to Mur Castell, where Lleu was in command, and together they waited for the messenger they knew would come from their enimy. Goronwy was unlikely to risk their invading Penllyn. A herald finally arrived, asked what Lleu would take as payment for the crime. The herald carried back this word from Lleu: "Tell Goronwy that this is the least I will accept: He must stand where I stood when he cast the spear. I will stand where he stood and cast the spear at him as he did at me"

When Goronwy heard this, he turned to his kinsmen and said, "Will no one take the blow in stead? It was the custom in Wales that leaders had champions who stood for them to spare the Kingdom's princes. But there was no man who would stand for the dishonorable Goronwy. Only silence answered him. He traveled to the river Gynvalael, where Lleu waited. He stood where Lleuhad, and Lleu raised the spear. But Goronwy cried, "Lord grant me a boon. A woman brought me to this pass. For that I beg you, let me hold a stone between me and the blow" "I will not refuse you, "said Lleu, a generous man, and he stayed his hand while Goronwy lifted a stone that lay on the riverbank and clasped it before his body like a shield. then Lleu cast. the spear shot through the air, straight to it's mark, piercing the stone and the body of Goronwy, so that his back broke and he died.

So Lleu was avenged. The years went by and Math was, it was said, succeeded by Gwydion and then by Lleu. The stone that Goronwy had used for a shield, pierced with its hole, was still to be seen hundreds of years later, and it is called the Stone of Goronwy. The place of the spear throw was called the Hill of the Battle.

THE END

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