Page 43 of The Quest for Excalibur
I nodded, lost for words, but with a nub of ice formed already in my heart. Someone needed to reassure Amhar that this wasn’t true.
*
Llacheu turned outto be the better sleuth. After all, he’d had practice when I’d once asked him and Rhiwallon to spy on Merlin. He traced the origin of the rumor back to one of the older boys, Brien. Three years younger than Llacheu, he already had a penchant for the ladies that knew no bounds, and had been loudly boasting, to any boy who’d listen, of a raunchy encounter with Hafren before she’d ended in the lockup.
All avenues of enquiry led back to him, and thence to Hafren. On questioning, by Llacheu and Merlin using methods I didn’t want to hear the details of, Brien revealed she’d whispered it to him during their brief liaison in one of the barns. She’d told him to tell the other boys that Amhar wasn’t a prince and shouldn’t be treated as such, which Brien, with ever an eye to his own standing with Medraut, had passed on with relish. And of course, Medraut had seized upon the gossip with unholy glee.
As Hafren had by now been wearing suitable sack cloth and slaving for some far-off nuns for quite a while, we couldn’t ask her where she’d come by her information. It wasn’t hard to guess, though. Morgana.
That bloody woman. Not content to send some lackey to try to kill me and then make an attempt to banish me back to my old world, she’d also found a way to undermine the relationship Arthur and I had with our son. Though how she’d found out about Melwas’s groundless claim, I had no idea. I rejected my initial suspicion that Arthur had blabbed to someone about it, as he certainly wouldn’t have chosenheras his confidant.
There was nothing for it. Even though it was the last thing I wanted to talk about, I had to come clean to Merlin. This took some plucking up of courage.
When Arthur was busy holding court in the Hall, I sent a message asking Merlin to come and see me in my chamber.
I’d already taken a seat at the table, mainly because my legs had come over weak and wobbly with fear, when he came in through the side entrance.
I’d have to get it off my chest straightaway, before I chickened out.
“Melwas told Arthur that Amhar was his,” I managed, through almost gritted teeth. “Just before he died.” I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. “He-he tried to imply I’d lain with him… willingly.”
God, this was so hard to say, to rake up again after all these years just when I’d thought I’d never have to visit it again.
Merlin’s mouth was hanging open. He shut it with a clack of his teeth. “It was a lie, of course?”
Was that aquestion? Did he maybe think it could have beentrue? Inside me, anger boiled toward the surface, like magma under a volcano, waiting to erupt.
“Of course it’s a lie,” I snapped. “Do you think Arthur would have brought up that shit’s child for eleven years?”
Merlin sat down heavily in the chair opposite mine.
“But that’s not the point any longer,” I said, in a hurry to diffuse the tension arcing through the room. “Arthur knows Amhar’s his. The problem here is that only he and I knew what Melwas had said. And neither of us has told anyone.” I raised my eyes to his. “So how could Morgana have found out, and told Hafren to spread it around Din Cadan? It must have been her. I can’t see who else it could have been.”
Merlin swallowed. “I can’t see that Morgana could have,” he said, shaking his head. “You’ve both kept this to yourselves extremely well.” His eyes searched mine. “I had no idea. And if Arthur had been going to tell anyone, it would probably have been me. Or maybe Cei. Usually, I know everything that goes on within these walls.”
“Magic,” I said, still more than a little shocked at myself for considering it as a possible answer to my question. “She has the Sight. She’s used it on me before. She read my mind, I’m certain, long ago before Amhar was even born. Made me think Medraut might be Arthur’s son by incest. I couldn’t help but have it in my head because it was a story I knew. She couldn’t have thought it up for herself. She just couldn’t. Somehow, she must have hooked it out of my memories and used it against me.”
“You think?”
I nodded. “In my time, it’s all part of the legend most people believe about Arthur. But it’s from a much later date– a story added in just to spice up the legend, by people hundreds of years from now. People with nasty minds.”
I faltered, not liking even the saying of this. “The story is that Arthur grew up apart from Morgawse and… and slept with her unwittingly. Not knowing she was his sister. After which Medraut was born.Youknow the story. I’ve told you before. But I had it in my head when I was looking at Medraut as a baby, because Medraut looked so like Arthur. Morgana must have known… read my mind perhaps… and used it against me. I’m sure she did. Certain, in fact. And it nearly worked.”
Merlin leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. “And you think she’s done the same with this? Plucked a thought… a memory… from inside your head and turned it against you? Even from so far away?”
I nodded again. “I do. I think she’s behind this. No. Iknowshe is. She must have told Hafren to spread it here. It only took one whisper into the ear of a gullible boy, a boy who wanted to endear himself to Medraut, no doubt. And Medraut was more than willing to use it against Amhar. He’s jealous of him. He wants his place in Arthur’s heart, and in the succession. I know it.”
“You may well be right.” He rubbed his chin. “Morgana’s nothing if not resourceful.”
I met his gaze. “I want her stopped. I’ve had enough. This needs to end.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Amhar remained inthe barracks, surly and unresponsive, Brien the troublemaker was demoted to looking after the pigs, and Arthur remained aloof and bad-tempered. News came from the spies in Viroconium that Cadwy was training extra troops recruited from the farms around the city, but so far hadn’t displayed any martial intentions.
This didn’t make Arthur any sweeter tempered, and he could often be found out on the training field, hammering with a heavy wooden sword at any poor warrior brave enough to offer himself up as an opponent. Each night he came to our bed exhausted and silent.
Fed up with my menfolk, I tried to comfort Archfedd, but she stayed upset with her brother and lonely with only Maia for company in the evenings. She had Reaghan during the day, of course. Merlin was teaching both girls now, although Arthur had forbidden them to learn alongside the boys. Instead, Merlin came to my chamber for an hour or two every morning, and the girls sat studiously at the table, brows furrowed over history and Latin, and sometimes reckoning.
