Page 15 of The Dragon Ring
“When were you going to tell me?” I asked, as soon as she’d gone, “Or were you just going to spring it on me when you were walking me up the aisle?”
To do him credit he looked uneasy. “Of course I was going to tell you. But I was going to explain it better than that old bat probably did. What did she say? No, let me guess, she told you what Guorthegirn’s wise men, if you could call them that, said. That was all very vague. It could have been interpreted in lots of different ways. You need to know why I chose you.”
I opened my mouth to speak but it was his turn to hold a hand up.
“Any woman could have been given a dragon ring to present to the High King and he’d have believed it was the fulfillment of the prophecy. But I chose you for a reason. It had to be you. Why else d’you think I came and found you when you were just a child? Because I’d seen you. Right across the great void of time that separated us, I’d seen you climbing the hill to the top of the Tor, a little girl in a red coat with ribbons in her hair. You were shown to me. I saw you there, so I came to find you. I knew you were the one.”
“Wait a moment. You saw me? How did you see me?” I had a big pile of questions, but this one would do to start with.
I narrowed my eyes at him. The torch nearest to us crackled with flames, and our shadows danced on the walls.
“I was on the Tor myself. In the center of the stone circle. There’s a spot where I stand where sometimes I’m given visions.”
Was there?
I mentally catalogued that fact for future reference. Perhaps if I went and stood on that same spot, I might find my way back home. It was a straw to be clutched at.
I put it to the back of my mind. “And? What? You saw me, in my time, when I was a child?” How ridiculous that sounded when I said it.
He nodded. “I saw your parents coming up the hill with you and your brother running on ahead, racing you to the summit. Toward me. Where the tower stands in your time is where the stone circle stands in mine.”
Of course, I’d been dragged back into his time when I was standing inside the tower, the moment I’d touched the ring. If so, surely this could be reversed?
“You were laughing. You were happy, even though your mother was dying. You were shown to me for a reason. I stepped forward out of my world into yours and gave you your bracelet, a bracelet I’d been keeping safely for just that moment. I knew you were the one that had been foretold. I knew that only you would do. But you were not ready. I would have to wait.”
Well, that was a blessing, at least.
“So, you didn’t snatch me when I was a child because I ‘wasn’t ready’?”
He nodded. From beyond the door to my left came raised voices. Something was going on out there in the great hall.
Merlin had heard them too. He stepped closer. “The evening meal is about to begin. They’ll be waiting for us. With Arthur absent, the High Table is mine and so yours, also.” He held out his hand.
I hesitated. I had so many more questions I wanted to ask him, but my stomach was growling with hunger and the thought of that roasting venison was more than tempting. I put my hand in his.
“Do you promise to answer all my questions later?”
His fingers, long and lean and brown, closed over mine. “I promise I will do my best to answer them.”
Deciding that I would have to accept his promise for the sake of my stomach, I let him lead me through the door and out into the great hall.
Chapter Five
The Hall blazedwith light. Torches burned in iron brackets on every pillar, and in the center, where the deer had been roasting, the fire now blazed afresh. Some of the tables had been pulled out from the sides, and a crowd of outlandish looking people were seated at them on long benches. At this end of the Hall the high table stood on a raised dais, two ornately carved, high-backed chairs set behind it.
The noise of the people died down as Merlin led me onto the dais. Every eye fixed on us. A sweating, ruddy-faced man, who was cutting great wedges of the venison, stopped what he was doing and wiped his glistening forehead on his sleeve. I hesitated, blinking in the smoky atmosphere, as Merlin’s hand at the small of my back urged me forward.
He pulled back one of the chairs, and I sank onto the cushioned seat as graciously as I could, conscious of how every person present was scrutinizing me. Cheeks flaming with embarrassment, I arranged my skirts.
Merlin didn’t take the other seat straight away. Instead, he set his feet wide apart, chin up, and addressed the listening assembly. “The Lady Guinevere is here at last.” He possessed all the flair of a ringmaster introducing the lions in a circus. “She is the Lady of the Ring. The prophecy you all know has been fulfilled. Today is the first day of a new era.”
A roar of approval went around the Hall as people thumped the tables with fists and goblets and shouted their delight. The story of my arrival must have spread around the fort like wildfire.
Someone to the right shouted, “The ring, show us the ring!” Others echoed the call.
Merlin seized my hand and held it up, the torchlight catching the gold and making it shine like a star.
An awed gasp sibilated around the Hall. Merlin returned my hand, and I folded it in my lap, overcome by how easily the crowd had accepted his words.
