Page 75 of The Quest for Excalibur
An uneasy silence followed.
Cadwy’s beady eyes slid to Merlin’s immobile face, perhaps hoping he’d learn more from Arthur’s advisers than from the king himself. “You are certain of this?”
Merlin regarded him from stony eyes. Like me.
Arthur nodded. “We are. Aelle and his men landed on the south coast– the messenger didn’t say where– and marched north. He seems to have passed within a couple of miles of Caer Guinntguic, but he left them be. Whether because he feels he has bigger eels to fry, or because he’s Cerdic’s uncle, I doubt we’ll ever know. Possibly a mix of both.”
Dubricius frowned. “Have you asked him to send men?” Too much fine living had filled out his mailshirt, stretching it tight over his potbelly, and a double chin rested on his chest, obscuring his neck. Nevertheless, he had a look of toughness about him beneath the fat. This was a time when churchmen could easily double as warriors. Just as Bishop Germanus had done sixty years ago when he’d led the famous Alleluiah Victory.
“I have,” Arthur said. “And asked them to meet us here. We’ve had no reply as yet.”
“You think he’ll come?” Cadwy asked, unable to stop his lip curling again. He was himself half Saxon but seemed to have chosen to forget that. Nobody reminded him.
Grim faced, Arthur nodded. “I do. He swore loyalty to me, to the position of High King. He will come.”
Beside me, Llacheu fidgeted as though in disagreement. If only my scanty knowledge of Badon had been more specific, I might have felt less like him. Good thing someone was feeling confident.
“Those two heathen armies will have combined by now and be headed west,” Dubricius said, rather stating the obvious.
Arthur shot him a frown. “They’ll be following the Caer Ceri road. Why else are we waiting here if not to cut them off and halt their advance?”
I itched to make a comment, but restrained myself. With difficulty.
Cadwy, as tall as Arthur but twice as wide, his natural bulk enhanced by a well-padded mailshirt and the huge bearskin he wore as a cloak, grunted. “You’re sure of that?”
“As sure as I can be,” Arthur said, with a nod in Merlin’s direction. “I have my seer’s advice on this.”
Not strictly true, but if he wanted to hide where he’d got his information, then that was fine with me. The less I had to do with Cadwy, the better.
Cadwy snorted like a bull about to charge. His very being was more bull-like than human– he’d have been great at playing the Minotaur… or a bad-tempered version of Hagrid.
I’d never have marked him and Arthur as brothers. Or even half-brothers. Now Cadwy’s hair had gone gray, not even their coloring hinted at consanguinity. His face, red and shiny with sweat, had puffed up so much his eyes peered out from folds of sagging skin, and broken veins threaded his overblown cheeks.
His piggy eyes slid sideways once again to stare at Merlin. “I notice you have your necromancer with you.” His upper lip curled in a sneer yet again. “You think he knows, then? Sees them coming?”
Arthur nodded. “He does. I have it from reliable sources that my information is correct.”
How I hoped he, and I, were right on that.
He set his hands on his hips. “And if you didn’t believe it yourself, you wouldn’t be here. I take it Morgana saw their coming as well.” Not a question. A statement.
Cadwy’s fat lips parted in a grin. Time had not been kind to his dentition. “She did.” He barked a laugh, harsh and coarse. “Told me not to come. Told me to leave you to your fate, then take your empty seat at the Council of Kings.”
I edged closer, the better to see Arthur’s reaction, already in my head composing how I’d write this in my book.
Llacheu’s hand on my arm held me back. “Not too close,” he whispered.
Arthur let his gaze run from his brother’s dusty boots to his face. “Then whydidyou come?”
The air between the two brothers tingled as the tension rose. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find my hair standing on end, from all the electricity buzzing back and forth.
Cadwy cleared his throat and spat copiously on the ground once more. “Because for once, she has it wrong.” He showed his alarming teeth again. “I could have done what she wanted– let you ride out against the Saxon host alone… and fall. But if I did that, how long would it be before they came knocking on the doors of Viroconium? I’m not a fool.” He wiped his hand across his mouth and laughed again, this time with true amusement. “She wasn’t pleased aboutthat, I can tell you.”
I had the feeling he’d enjoyed refusing his sister. What kind of relationship did they have that he was glad to get one over on her? Maybe not so close as I’d always assumed.
All around us the shadows had crept closer as the night drew in, the sky in the west darkening as the light pursued the vanished sun over the horizon. The torches blazed and sparks floated skywards.
Arthur laughed as well. “I’d have liked to have seen her face when you told her ‘no’.” For just a moment, a hint of camaraderie existed between the two estranged brothers, a suggestion of what might have been possible… once.
