Page 42 of Warrior Queen
Here, the painted walls showed signs of having been touched up, and the pillars around the colonnaded walkway had been patched where the render must have flaked off. The round bed in the center blossomed with aromatic herbs, their scent filling the humid evening air.
In the center of each side stood a single doorway.
I turned to Arthur.
He was staring around himself, eyes wide with something akin to shock. “It’s just as I remember it,” he whispered, awed. “This is the courtyard where I lived as a child. That was my room, over there. That was Cei’s. Morgawse was with our mother in Din Tagel.” He pointed to the far side. “Morgana’s was there. It won’t be now. This was the royal nursery. She’ll have moved to better rooms than this, once she was an adult.”
Merlin nodded. “Not that I saw them.”
How bitter he sounded. I couldn’t blame him.
“If this is the royal nursery,” I whispered, leaning closer to them. “It’ll be where the baby is, won’t it?” Although she wasn’t going to be that much of a baby. A good eighteen months by now– a few months older than Archfedd.
Arthur and Merlin nodded in unison. “That’s what I thought,” Arthur said, his eyes traveling around the gloomy courtyard. Long shadows stretched across the flagstones, thrown by the torches on every pillar.
“There’ll be a nurse with her,” Merlin muttered. “I’d bet Morgana’s got her child in her own old room.”
We padded around the edge of the courtyard, instinct keeping us in the shadows even though we’d seen no sign of guards. At Morgana’s old door, Merlin put his hand on the dark wood and pushed it slightly open. We all peered in.
A woman sat on a bench seat with her back to us, head bent, scarcely visible in the darkened room, the dim light of a single candle flickering over her. The nurse. In front of her a cradle rocked back and forth as the woman sang to the child who must be sleeping in it. A strange song I’d never heard before, the tune haunting, the words ancient.
“Dinogad’s shift is speckled, speckled.
It was made from the pelts of martens.
Wee! Wee! Whistling.
We call, they call, the eight in chains.
When your father went out to hunt–”
Merlin pushed the door open wide and stepped into the room. The words of the song cut off short, and the woman leapt to her feet, swinging around to face the door.
Not the nurse. Morgana. Singing her child to sleep.
Eyes widening, her hand went to her heart, as though the sight of her ex-lover had shocked her to the core. But this lasted only a moment. Her hand dropped, she stood up straighter, and her face took on its usual cold superiority.
“You,” she spat, her gaze traveling past Merlin to take in Arthur and me behind him, filling the doorway. She looked me up and down. “I see your taste in clothes hasn’t improved.”
Merlin took a step toward the cradle, and she moved sideways to put herself between it and him. “No.” From the crib came the sounds of a child humming to herself, as though the song had meant something to her, and now it had stopped she had to provide it for herself.
I slid my hand into Arthur’s and gripped it tightly. Hostility emanated from his every pore. No love lost between these siblings.
“She’smychild,” Merlin said, stiffly. “Get out of my way.”
“You think?” Morgana sneered. “You really think you’re the only man I’ve spread my legs for? Fool.”
Merlin faltered as though she’d struck him. For a moment, he stayed silent, then he visibly pulled himself together. “Don’t lie. I know she’s mine. Why would you want a child from any other man?”
Her eyes, black in the dim light, flashed at him. “Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t need anyone else to help me create a powerful woman. My child will surpass both you and me in her powers.”
“Mami?” A little voice, baby sweet, from the crib. “Mami?”
Merlin laughed, mirthlessly. “Condemned by your own words. Get out of my way, and let me see my child.”
She stood her ground. “If I scream, my guards will come.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll tell them you’re brigands, come to rob me. They’ll ask no questions and kill all of you on the spot.”
I didn’t see Merlin move, but suddenly his dagger glittered in his hand, the point under Morgana’s chin. “Try it, then. Don’t think I won’t do it.”
