Just when the court thinks Arthur's credit as interim high king will fall through, the tribal kings arrive, including still hostile Gorfydd of Powys, who is as appalled as cousin Gundleus that the latter's reward for bringing him is not freedom but just being spared execution for his attempted regicide. Owain assured Derfel the bloodshed among miners was an accident never to be clarified, but the girl Derfel has hidden arrives as witness with an accusing prince, causing another row among at the new round table, with Gorfydd seeing though the Blackshield ruse. Arthur finally fulfills Derfel's dream by dubbing him knight, to accompany him to Powys, where he is to wed Gorfydd's daughter in order to seal the anti-Saxon alliance.
—KGF Vissers