Page 47 of Warrior Queen
Relieved, I nodded. “Yes. He told me he’d seen them coming here.”
He let me go and strode over to our bed. “My men are outside the walls. I’m not happy with that if the Saxons are coming. We need to send out scouts to find out from which direction they’ll arrive. Or did he tell you that as well? I’ll go and ask him.”
He unbuckled his sword belt and threw it on the bed, then turned toward the door into the courtyard. Merlin and Cei had rooms beside ours.
I caught his arm. “He’ll be asleep.” I wanted the chance to speak to Merlin before he did. Explain why he’d have to lie.
“Well, he can wake up,” Arthur snapped. “I’m his king.”
I got between him and the door. “No, don’t go. It… it wasn’t him.”
Arthur had never seemed so tall, his face in shadow from the oil lamp that burned behind him. No doubt my own face was thrown into stark nakedness by that same light.
I couldn’t see him frown, but I heard it in his voice. “What d’you mean? Did you make this up? Why did you say it?” He shook his head. “Old Coel believed you, and so did I. What madness is this that you think you can order our battle plan?” His voice rose. “How many times do I have to remind you that you’re a woman?” He loomed over me, large and threatening.
I’d backed myself into a corner in more ways than one. I licked my lips. “I told you because Iknowit.” My voice sounded small and feeble against his angry rant.
He recoiled. “Youknowit? How?”
I swallowed. I’d have to tell him. He needed his army here in York, not riding on a wild goose chase to the coast. “Because it’s written down.”
Silence filled the room, our breathing loud.
“Where is it written down?” Arthur asked, his voice laden with menace.
“In a book.”
“A book?”
I nodded. “A book written by a monk. Probably. He wrote down your battles. A list of them. Lots of scholars don’t think they were real.”
Arthur caught my arm again and this time pulled me over to the bed to sit on it. Facing me, he stared into my eyes, his watchful and wary, as though perhaps he didn’t want to hear this, yet something was driving him on to question and listen. “Tell me about this book.”
I compressed my lips for a moment, thinking hard. “I’ve never read it. My father did, but he only told me bits. I was a child. It wasn’t the sort of book I even wanted to read. So I don’t know much.”
“Tell me what you know.”
Inside, a huge part of me felt an overwhelming relief at being able to tell him. The rest of me screamed warnings not to let too much slip. I shoved the screaming to one side. I’d tell him only what he needed to know. No need to elaborate too much.
“Tell me,” he repeated, more gently, and this time he took my hands in his, warm and somehow persuasive. His dark eyes were limpid pools, the magnetism of his personality luring me on to disclosures I didn’t mean to make.
“There’s a list of your battles. I can’t remember all of them.” Small white lie. “And one of them is at the City of the Legion. Most people think that means Caer Legeion or– or Deva. Do you even know Deva? Does it still exist?”
He nodded. “I know Deva.”
“Well, Ebrauc is a city of the legion as well. There were three that held Roman legions. I think it must be here. You’ll fight a major battle right here. And win.” That was enough. He didn’t need to know more.
He stared into my eyes appraising me, making me shift in discomfort. “Is that the only battle you know?”
I tried to stop myself from fidgeting under his compelling gaze. What was he doing? Hypnotizing me? “No. There were others. You’ve already fought them. With every one you’ve fought, it’s become clearer to me that the list was right. The River Glein, the Dubglas. Bassas. Celydon Wood, Caer Guinntguic, Breguoin. They were all on the list my father told me about.”
Arthur’s grip on my hands tightened. “And after Ebrauc? What then?”
I stared back into his eyes, willing myself to keep calm, but sinking ever deeper. “I-I don’t know.”
He studied my face, and I schooled myself not to flinch. I’d told him once that I couldn’t tell him anything about my world, but now I’d opened the floodgates, would he be content with the little I’d given him?
His shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh. “On second thought, I don’t want to know.” A bitter note tinged his voice. “What man wants to know his future? Only a fool. Don’t tell me anything more.”
