Page 61 of The Quest for Excalibur
As Mabon reached us, Arthur laid his scabbard aside and got to his feet. The young warrior’s breath heaved from the exertion. Warriors have strong sword arms, but running, especially up a steep slope, doesn’t come naturally to a man who’s usually mounted.
“Milord,” the sandy-haired young man, one of Llacheu’s friends, gasped out between pants. Remembering himself, he performed a hasty bow. “Smoke spotted in the east. There’s a fire burning. Thick, dark smoke. Looks like a beacon fire.” The warriors who manned our early-warning beacons kept green branches ready to make their smoke more visible if they had to light their fires. It seemed they’d at last come in handy.
The young man straightened. “It was me spotted it, Milord. Just a trickle to start with, then it billowed up thick and fast. Not a hearth fire. My Watch Commander sent me straight to you.”
Arthur gave him a curt nod. “Where? Show me.”
Mabon moved to point between the clustered buildings, Arthur close beside him. I followed, my nervous heart banging against my ribs. Sure enough, away to the east a column of dark smoke rose straight up into the pale evening sky, there being no breeze to speak of to snatch it away.
Behind us, Archfedd laid aside her own cleaning rag and scrambled to her feet. “Can I see?” She pushed between Arthur and me. “Where is it?”
I picked her up to give her a better view, acutely aware of how heavy she’d grown of late. “There. It’s telling your papa there are enemy warriors in that direction.” I paused, not wanting to frighten her. “That they’re attacking someone over there– a long way off.”
Her hazel eyes widened. “Is it the Yellow Hairs? Are they coming here?”
I shook my head. “No. You’re safe. We all are. But Papa will have to go to help whoever lit that fire. He’s High King, and it’s his responsibility.”
Archfedd’s lower lip trembled. Now she’d grown so big, I sometimes forgot how young she really was. “I don’t like it when Papa has to leave us,” she whispered. “I want him to stay here. With me. I need keeping safe, too. And so does he.”
Was this Badon coming? Was Nennius even correct in his list of battles?
I hugged her close, her sweet-smelling hair against my cheek. “Don’t worry. You’re safe, and he’ll be safe, as well. I know he will. I promise. Mami has special powers and knows these things.”
Not really a lie.
Arthur swung away from the view of the far-off signal fire. “Go and find Merlin,” he said to Mabon, before striding across our hall courtyard to where Cei was sitting on his own front step, oiling his sword. Only he, too, had stopped work when Mabon arrived, and now the sword rested on his knees as he watched his brother’s purposeful approach. I followed Arthur more slowly, still holding Archfedd close.
Just inside the open doorway, Coventina and Reaghan, who’d been working together at their loom, had also stopped work to look up, an anxious frown already formed on Coventina’s brow. Reaghan slid off her low stool and came to stand beside her father, one hand on his solid shoulder, her gaze on Archfedd, eyes wide.
“Trouble in the east,” Arthur said. “Close. A burning beacon off toward Caer Guinntguic.”
Coventina staggered to her feet, one hand to her mouth, the other steadying herself on the frame of the loom. “Oh God.” It came out as a whisper, but carried through the still evening air. “I knew this summer’s peace couldn’t last.” Her other hand clutched at the crucifix she wore around her neck. “But this late in the year?”
Reaghan’s head swivelled to stare at her mother’s stricken face. We all knew what the lighting of a beacon meant, and Coventina had more cause to fear it than some.
Cei rose from the stone slab he’d been sitting on and slid his shining sword home into its sheath, as Reaghan’s small hand fastened onto the hem of his tunic. He stared into his brother’s eyes. “It’s near sunset. Do you want to set off tonight?”
Arthur held his gaze for a long moment before shaking his head. “No. First light will be soon enough. But we can’t delay. I need you to go and organize the men. Let them know what’s happened. I’ve a feeling in my bones that we’ll need to take as many with us as we can. We’ll leave only a skeleton force here.”
Archfedd stiffened in my arms, and I hugged her closer still. Like any child here, she understood the significance of the words “skeleton force”– enough to protect us from isolatated raiders, but not enough should the full force of the Saxon army fall on the fortress. And nowhere for us to run to.
With a grim smile, Cei nodded briefly. Then he buckled his sword belt around his waist and strode off toward the barracks.
Eyes brimming with fear, Coventina met my gaze. She put a protective hand on Reaghan’s ginger hair, then drew her closer, pressing her child’s chubby face against her body. Reaghan put her arms around her mother’s waist and held on tight.
I nodded to her, Archfedd’s downy cheek to mine, conscious of a flow of fellow feeling running like a current between us.
But the difference between us was that I wasn’t about to let Arthur ride off east on his own. Wherever he was bound, I’d be going too.
*
It took threestories to settle Archfedd to sleep that night. Although sometimes content with Maia’s tales of gods and heroes, tonight she’d wanted me and my fanciful tales of lands she’d never see. Perhaps because stories like that contained so many things that could only ever exist inside our heads, she felt they’d take her mind off the crowding fears of her everyday life. God knew, I needed that myself.
I chose the ones she liked the best– where the heroes overthrew the villains and there was a suitable “happy ever after.”Cinderella,The Three Little Pigs, andRapunzel: I spun them out with superfluous detail designed to bore her and send her off to sleep.
At last, it worked, and I extricated myself from her bed and left her in Maia’s watchful care. Shutting the door with as little noise as possible, I retreated into our chamber. It was empty of Arthur, just as I’d expected. He had a lot to prepare for his departure in the morning.
However, with him absent, I took the opportunity to forestall him and pack my own saddlebags with what I’d need for the march and for a battle. Spare tunic and braccae, underwear of course, my own medical kit of clean bandages, honey, healing herbs, sharp needles and tough thread for stitches, and strong spirit for sterilizing.
