Page 16 of The Quest for Excalibur
Merlin grimaced. “Who else is there? I don’t think it would be Caw. He’s too far off, up beyond the Wall and the Caledonian Forest. And we still have his son down here, as hostage.”
We did indeed. But eight years on, Gildas, now a monk at Ynys Witrin, would not be wanting to return to his father’s court, and surely Caw had found another son to replace him in his affections?
I bit my lip. “That only leaves… Morgana.”
He nodded, and turned to the boys.
With one last glance toward the wagon, I went inside to find Alezan, my heart troubled by what he’d just suggested.
Arthur joined me five minutes later, having supervised the girls tying up their ponies in two of the stalls. He slipped in beside his big bay horse, Taran, a present from King Garbaniawn of Ebrauc, after his old horse, the beautiful Llamrei, had been killed at the Battle of the City of the Legion. He brushed in silence for a few minutes, whistling tunelessly between his teeth. I continued grooming Alezan, who’d begun to molt.
When I moved to start her other side, I found him leaning on the wooden partition, chin on his folded arms, a loose curl of his dark hair flopping over his eyes and making him look even more devastatingly attractive than usual. No wonder Hafren couldn’t take her eyes off him. Powerandgood looks. He raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said, bending over to brush Alezan’s girth area.
He sighed. “You’re not much good at lying.”
I straightened up, glancing down the row of stalls to where Merlin and Cei were chatting as they readied their own horses. “All right. I’m pissed off. I don’t like that girl, Hafren, and I don’t trust her.” The words came out in a rush, discontented and sharp.
His eyebrows shot up. “Don’ttrusther?” He rubbed his nose, a twinkle in his eyes. “What’s she done? Are you sure you’re not annoyed because she was flirting with me?”
I leaned my weight against Alezan’s warm flank and frowned. “Well, yes, that’s part of it. I’ll freely admit I don’t like her doing that. But even before she did, I sensed something in her– something bad. Right off, as soon as I met her when they arrived here in Din Cadan. Something I didn’t trust. I’ve got a bad feeling about her.” I paused. “Not the other two, I don’t think. Just her.”
His grin went a long way to dismissing my fears. “You’ve no need to worry. She can flirt all she likes, but I only have eyes for one woman.” He reached out a hand and tapped me on the nose with his dirty forefinger. “This one right here. Get Alezan saddled, and let’s be off. The children’ll have their ponies ready before us at this rate.”
I managed a smile, but for some reason his disregard for my worries didn’t quite put me at ease. I couldn’t rid myself of the uneasy feeling that something was brewing. Maybe I did have the Sight, after all, or maybe it was just women’s intuition. I gave myself a shake and lifted my saddle and bridle from the end of the partition where they lived.
With our horses saddled, we led them out into the cobbled yard, where the children were already mounted up, the girls on their small ponies, Medraut on his chestnut and Amhar on Saeth, Llacheu’s old black cob. Llacheu himself had moved up to a proper warhorse three years ago, which although it wasn’t appreciably bigger than Saeth, was better trained. A warhorse served as an extra weapon for a warrior. Saeth was enough for a boy in training, but not for a warrior.
We adults mounted and settled ourselves comfortably in our saddles. Nothing like the sort of saddle I’d learned to ride on, these were four horned, much like Roman cavalry saddles. The horns came in useful for hooking on your shield and weapons to carry to war, as well as bedrolls and sundry baggage, although we had nothing extra to carry with us this morning.
The leather curtain at the back of Hafren’s wagon moved, catching my eye. Was that her sly face peeking out at us? At me, this time, not Arthur?
I turned my back on her and jog-trotted the few paces to catch Alezan up with Arthur’s horse as we set off.
At the foot of the slope, the fortress gates swung open to allow our party through, and we clattered down the cobbled road between the huge defensive embankments, skirting the patches of rapidly melting snow.
The wide plain stretched away, the colors of winter still upon it, dull grays and browns, patchworked with the soiled white of stubbornly resistant snowdrifts. Spring had just begun to touch a few of the trees in the forest with the faintest blush of green. Give it a week or two, and no more snow, and that fresh green would be everywhere. My heart swelled with delight at the thought. I loved the birth of spring after the long death that was winter.
On the farmsteads that populated the plain, the small, square fields remained too wet to work, but the farmers and their families had taken advantage of the drier weather to start repairing field walls and filling in potholes in the muddy roads. Dust clouds hanging in the air outside some of the barns told us they must be threshing the last of the winter’s wheat, and house doors stood wide open, indicating the housewives had begun their spring cleaning, for want of anything else to do.
We rode eastwards, as to the west the lower-lying land had been made soggy and impassable by the amount of melting snow. The two girls’ ponies had to jog-trot to keep up with our larger horses, and behind Arthur and me the two boys fell into an argument about whose pony was the faster.
Cei and Merlin brought their horses in beside us.
Alezan laid her ears back in bad temper, as even at her now advanced age, she didn’t like other horses coming too near.
“Now we’re not within the fortress,” Merlin said. “What are you planning to do about Cadwy’s weapons caches?”
Arthur glanced back at the boys, who were badgering Llacheu to race with them. “We don’t know yet what he wants those weapons for. Now the weather’s turned, we’ll be hearing from my spies if anything untoward is going on. We’ll soon find out if he’s been mustering more troops or buying Saxon foederati.” He shrugged. “But until then, I have to go on the pact of non-aggression he made with me, and believe he meant it.”
Cei shook his head. “You’re a fool to trust him. There’s not a reliable bone in his body.”
Arthur sighed. “But if I don’t trust him, what then? For the good of Britain, I have to. We need to present a united front against our enemies, or we’ll be lost. And I have to lead by example. If I show distrust of my own brother, the king who should be closest to me, how can I expect the other kings to trust one another? Or me?”
Merlin caught my eye. “What about you, Gwen? Do you trust Cadwy?”
I frowned, unhappy at being put on the spot. But I’d been present when Arthur and Cadwy had made their pact. I’d seen Cadwy’s face when they’d clasped hands. “If Arthur thinks we should trust him, then trust him we should,” I said, hoping I was right.
