Page 75 of Warrior Queen
“Cadwy wasn’t expecting us then. He will be this time.”
I regrouped. “All the more reason for me to come. Someone needs to make sure you stay safe.”
“Merlin’s job.”
“Surely you’re not taking him back there again? Where he’ll see Morgana?”
He put an arm behind his head to support it. “I don’t care about Morgana. He’ll be there to advise me, not mope over her.”
“Pfft.” I tapped his chest again. “I don’t think he should go. Too dangerous forhim. He’s still in love with her, and we all know how devious she can be.”
He fell silent. I was snuggled in the crook of his arm, so I fiddled with the dark hairs on his chest for a moment or two, knowing how much he liked that. “And Cei will want to stay with Coventina, won’t he?”
Arthur, who’d been almost purring like a cat, shook himself to wakefulness. “No. Cei’s coming with me.”
That surprised me. “Oh. Well, if he’s coming too, then you should definitely take me. You’re both going to need my… tact.”
He slid the arm that was around my shoulders down and tapped me on the bottom. “Are you saying I lack tact?” He chuckled. “Or rather that you have more tact than I do? That’s funny. Since when did you developtact?”
I ignored the insult. Why rise to it? “What about Theodoric? Is he coming?” We hadn’t seen him all summer long, as he’d been off with the fleet at Caer Legeion, and out to sea chasing Saxon and Irish pirates. He pretty much did as he wanted when he wasn’t either in his home port or here. Since Uthyr died, he’d hardly been back to Viroconium where he’d once been stationed.
Arthur shook his head. “I’ve not been able to get word to him for some time. If he meets up with us in Viroconium, then all well and good, but if not, it won’t matter.”
I ran my hand down his concave stomach, feeling his muscles tighten. “You’ll miss me if you don’t take me with you. I’m not a queen who stays home and twiddles her thumbs while her king’s away.” My hand crept lower.
He chuckled again. “Don’t I know it. In your own way you’re as much of a witch as my sister.” His voice hitched. “You thinkthiswill make me change my mind?”
I grinned, slithering down the bed. “Yes.”
“Damn it,” he muttered, as I reached my goal. “You might be right.”
*
We set offthe next day a little after first light. We would have been away earlier, only a repeat performance of the night before had been required to convince Arthur he needed to take me with him. Which had been a fun way to start the day.
Autumn mist, promising good weather, swathed the plain, giving it the appearance of a soft white sea, with isolated trees and high ground poking up out of it like islands. Far in the distance, the tall hump of the Tor stood out like a beacon. A beautiful day to be setting out.
Riding down the curving track around the hill plunged us into the mist, the cool damp air beading on our horses’ manes and in our own hair. We passed almost silently through the village where the people were beginning to stir– with threshing to be done and their vegetable patches waiting to be dug. Hairy pigs had been turned out in the stubble fields to root, manuring it at the same time, and by the little stream a small boy, as early a riser as we were, sat fishing with a long pole and a string of plaited horse tail.
Merlin fell in beside me as we approached the edge of the forest. I’d not succeeded in persuading Arthur to leave him behind. “How did you get him to let you come?” he asked.
I grinned and tapped my nose. “We women have our ways.”
He frowned, perhaps remembering how Morgana had so easily lured him. “Well, no acts of bravado required. You’ll need to keep your head down and out of the way of certain people.”
I chuckled. “You mean Morgana, don’t you?” He’d ridden close enough for me to tap his leg. “And you? Will you be keeping out of her way?”
He sighed. “How can I? I want to see my daughter.”
Of course. How hard must it be to know she was there but not be able to have any contact with her. An argument for establishing modern access rights. Fat chance of that.
Alezan, full of the joys of autumn, skipped sideways as a pheasant flew out of the undergrowth and flew noisily away, carking as it went. Bloody birds. Weren’t the Romans responsible for introducing them to Britain?
We rode in silence for a while longer as the forest thickened, following a track that in bad weather would have been nearly impassable. Lots of low-lying wetlands lay to the north of Din Cadan. Ahead, Arthur rode alongside Cei, talking to him volubly, his voice carrying back.
Eventually, Merlin broke the silence between us. “I don’t want her growing up not knowing her father.” He paused. “Like me.”
He so very rarely volunteered any information about himself, my ears pricked with interest. “Did you never know your parents?”
