Page 24 of The Bear's Heart
One cold night in Caer Baddan, on our way to Viroconium, Merlin had told me that Arthur hadn’t seen his mother since he was seven or eight. She and his father, Uthyr, had fought ferociously over his future, and Eigr had taken herself off to Din Tagel in a huff, along with her youngest child, baby Morgawse. The old slave woman, Breanna, brought him up, until his father banished him from Viroconium to Din Cadan as a rebellious teenager. But, as far as I knew, his mother had made no effort to get in touch with him since he was a child.
“She wants to see Arthur.” Cei kept his eyes on his fingers, which were now digging into the flesh of his thighs through his thick braccae.
I was surprised. “Will he want to seeher? Do you want to see her?”
He looked up. He had startlingly blue eyes. I wondered if his mother might have the same blue eyes. He was nothing like his younger half-brother. His thick, rusty-colored hair, high-cheek-boned face, wide, strong shoulders, and big-boned, muscular frame contrasted strongly with Arthur’s narrower horseman’s build, and his dark eyes and hair. He shrugged. “I saw her two years ago. She rules my lands, but I visit every so often to keep an eye on her. She’s a good steward.”
“Has Arthur never been with you?”
He shook his head. “He’s always had an excuse. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven her for abandoning him to Cadwy’s cruelty.”
“But she abandoned you, also.”
“I was older, nearly a man grown.”
I raised my eyebrows.Ten or eleven. Still a child, in my opinion.
He went on. “Arthur needed her more than I did. He needed her to protect him from Cadwy. I didn’t. Cadwy had nothing against me. I hadn’t usurped his place in their father’s affections. But whether it was against her will or not, she left Arthur with Uthyr and at the mercy of his half-brother. It was me that heard him crying tears of anger and frustration into his pillow at night, after Cadwy had given him a beating, and when he thought no one was listening.”
I tried to remember what Merlin had told me about this. A long time had passed since our talk and much had happened in the meantime.
“Why did she do it?”
“Hah!” He uttered a bark of rough laughter. “She and Uthyr fought over what Arthur was to become. He was a second son and she wanted him to go into the church. Uthyr thought otherwise. She told him that if he didn’t, Arthur would indeed become the king Uthyr wanted him to be.” He paused. “But he would be betrayed by his own kin, and his kingdom would fall in rivers of blood. She’d seen it in her scrying glass. She has the Sight– or claims she has. Uthyr didn’t believe her. They fought. I was there. I saw them and so did Arthur. The whole of Viroconium must have heard their shouts. He won, of course. He was the king. He took Arthur, and she locked him out of her bedchamber. And that was the beginning of the end.”
I shifted uneasily, and he kept going. “She packed her things and left Viroconium. She wanted to take all her children, but Uthyr would only let her take Morgawse, who still needed her mother. She left Arthur, Morgana and me behind. She turned her back on us all, but it was Arthur who was most affected. He thought it was his fault she’d gone. Not once did she ask for us to visit, not once did she come back to Viroconium. She’s stayed in Din Tagel all this time. She never talks of Arthur when I visit. They’ve been dead to one another for sixteen years.”
“Yet you visit her.”
His lips came together in a thin line. “She rules my lands for me. When I became a warrior, Uthyr couldn’t stop me from going. I found she ruled well. I was still half a boy myself, but I recognized that I could leave her in charge, because where I wanted to be was serving the High King, and near my brother. Someone had to stand between him and Cadwy.”
I’d never before realized how Cei saw himself as Arthur’s protector. It made me see their relationship in quite a different light.
“And do you still think he needs protecting?” I asked.
Cei’s mouth widened into a rueful grin. “Sometimes.” His eyes met mine.
“From his mother?”
“Perhaps.”
I guessed there was more to tell, but at that moment Arthur came hurrying into the courtyard garden from the public rooms at the front of the house where he did his daily business with the magistrate of the town. He was wearing his customary dark tunic and braccae and carried the simple gold circlet he wore as a crown in one hand.
Cei got to his feet. “Brother.” The two of them embraced.
“I came as soon as I heard you were here.” Arthur’s eyes were alight with pleasure. “But the magistrate here goes on and on, and it’s hard to shut him up politely.”
“The perils of being a king,” Cei said, laughing, and clapped his brother on the back so hard Arthur staggered.
“What brings you here?” Arthur asked.
Cei sobered on the instant. “We have a summons. A messenger came to Din Cadan from Din Tagel. Our mother requests our presence.”
The sparkle went out of Arthur’s eyes, and his dark brows came together in a heavy frown. “She requests our presence?” His voice rose in a mix of astonishment and anger. “A summons? After all these years of nothing?”
Cei had the look of a man who’d been expecting this reaction– resigned and sympathetic. He laid a hand on Arthur’s arm. “She says she’s asking to see you because now your father is dead, and you’re a king, there’s no one to stop you coming.” He glanced at me. “And she wants to meet your queen.”
Arthur’s eyes flashed with anger. “So after all this time she thinks she can click her fingers, and I’ll dance to her tune?”
