Page 30 of The Bear's Heart

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“Please eat, Arthur,” Eigr said, gesturing to the benches with a curiously formal wave of her hand. After a pause, in which I had the distinct impression he might refuse, Arthur sat down, his back as ramrod straight as hers, but didn’t take anything to eat. Eigr took a place opposite him, while I kept on eating. I was coming to realize where the phrase “eating for two” came from now I was no longer being sick.

“It’s good to see how you’ve grown into a man,” Eigr said, a woman forced into making small talk with her prodigal son. “I see you resemble your father somewhat.”

He picked up a piece of bread and began shredding it into small pieces on the table, his long fingers tearing at it fitfully. “What do you care about my father?”

Cei poured some wine into goblets and passed one to Arthur. “Drink, brother, you’re tired and thirsty.”

Arthur ignored the goblet.

Eigr’s back stiffened with what looked like resolve, and she drew herself up taller. “I cared very much for your father.” She glanced across at Cei. “For both your fathers.”

“You hid it well,” Arthur said, picking up the goblet and draining it in one gulp. “I didn’t see you coming back to fulfill your wifely duties in a hurry.”

She bristled. “He wouldn’t have me back.”

Arthur banged the empty goblet down on the table. “I know. I was there. I saw and heard every moment of your fight. So did Cei.”

She nodded. Was that a hint of what might have been regret in her frosty blue eyes?

“He banished me here.” She was unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. “He wouldn’t let me take my children. I fought him for you. He only let me take Morgawse because she was just a baby. And then when she was twelve he even took her. I was left with nothing…no one.”

“And us?” Arthur said. “What about us? What were we left with? Cadwy, that’s what.” He picked up the flagon of wine and slopped more into his goblet. He really needed to eat something or he was going to get drunk. “He was a man grown, and dangerous, and you left me to his mercy. He would have found a way to kill me in the end if I hadn’t been sent to Din Cadan when I was sixteen.”

“You had your father and Merlin to take care of you, and your brother Cei.”

Arthur laughed, a short bark. “Cei was a child himself. Cadwy made my life a misery whenever he was in Viroconium, and there was nothing Cei could do to stop him other than help me hide. You left me to a miserable childhood without a backward glance.”

“Be fair,” Cei put in, his mouth full of food. “Cadwy wasn’t there that much and when he was, he was taken up with being your father’s battle leader. He didn’t have that much time for going after you.”

Arthur glared at his brother. “You don’t know. You were training to be a warrior with the other older boys. Only Breanna and Merlin stood between him and me, and Merlin was often busy with my father.”

Eigr’s gaze slid to me. “But you survived. And now you’re a man grown yourself, a king, a husband, and soon to be a father.” Her eyes hardened. “And your wife is the Lady of the Ring.”

Merlin, who had been silent throughout this discussion, held up his hand. “But we are here now,” he said, his voice calm and quiet. “And you have seen the Lady of the Ring.”

The pause that followed stretched into eternity. Outside the hall the cries of gulls rose above the noise of the wind. Inside, the flames of the hearth fire crackled loud in the silence.

“Yes. I have seen the Lady of the Ring.” Eigr’s eyes narrowed and her voice hissed in the quiet of the Hall. “I have seen her many times in my scrying glass and always in a sea of blood.” She fixed me with her stare. “She carries death with her, death and destruction.” She looked at Arthur. “You should have gone into the church as I wanted. Your father should have listened to me. Instead, you’ve taken the path to fame, bloody betrayal and death.”

A finger of fear traced its way up my spine, and every hair stood on end. I’d thought I was the only one who knew what might happen here, with my modern knowledge of the legends. How could Eigr have any intimation of what was to come? Unless she truly had the Sight. Maybe she did. After all, her daughter, Morgana, appeared to have it– she’d seen me coming to Viroconium and sent her brother’s foederati after me.

Arthur was unmoved. “You think I’m going to believe your mad predictions any more than my father did? You think your words can sway me even now? Gwen might be the Lady of the Ring, and I might be the king of Dumnonia, but nothing you see in your scrying glass will make me believe she brings death.” He paused. “Death lies ahead for all of us. I am a warrior and a king. If there was no blood in my future, I would be worried. And as for you, you haven’t changed one bit. You’re still as melodramatic as ever. No wonder my father was glad to see you go.”

This reunion wasn’t going well.

Eigr turned her attention to Merlin. “You brought her here. You’ve put in motion the bloody end that is to come. I see it now; she’s veiled in blood. She carries death in her hand and in her heart.”

I was affronted. She didn’t even know me and was casting doom and gloom over my so far very short marriage to her son. Was I going to sit here and let her? I thought I knew what lay ahead for the Arthur and Guinevere of legend, but that might not apply to the real Arthur and me. And surely if I were forewarned like this, I could avert it?

“Arthur is right.” All their heads turned toward me as though taken aback that I might have a voice of my own. “Death lies ahead for all of us. Battles will be fought, men will die, but I have a prediction of my own to make.” I had their attention now, but it was Eigr’s I wanted to hold. I stared into her eyes. “King Arthur, with me by his side as his queen, will become the most famous king of all time. Fifteen hundred years from now, people will still speak of him with awe all over the world, and his battles will have gone down in history. Whatever you see in your scrying glass, nothing will change this. It is his destiny.”

Well, if anyone could make a prophecy like this it should have been me. My eyes met Merlin’s, and he gave me the smallest wink.

Arthur stared at me coldly, most likely wondering why I hadn’t told him this before.

From the opposite side of the table, Eigr fixed me with an even colder stare, possibly indignant that someone would dare to steal her thunder. What might be the extent of her supposed powers? Could she tell how angry I was feeling?

Cei got to his feet. “I think we all need to go to our bedchambers. We can cool off a bit and resume this conversation later.”