Page 7 of The Road to Avalon
Arthur shot him the sort of glance that threatened he’d deal with him later. “Let us hope that’s not what Karstyn has planned for us this evening.”
For once Amhar didn’t seem to notice his father’s sarcasm. He grinned across the table at his older cousin, more cheerful than he’d been in a long time. “How is it you’re here? I didn’t think to see you before tonight.”
Medraut smiled widely, revealing large white teeth, a little overcrowded on his bottom jaw. “I met your father today in the palace, and he invited Cinbelin and me for dinner. Such an honor to dine at the table of the High King.”
Was that a sarcastic undertone I detected, or was I just being hyper-critical?
As the servants continued serving the first course, oysters again, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Arthur and Merlin exchanging glances. Cei, who was seated beside Cinbelin, had engaged the tipsy but cheerful young prince in conversation, but Bedwyr and Gwalchmei were watching Medraut and Amhar just as I was. I doubted either of them had forgotten his autocratic and bullying ways as a boy at Din Cadan. However, it looked as though Amhar had.
In between tipping oysters down his throat with lip-smacking greed, Medraut chatted to Amhar, and I listened.
“Cinbelin and I were in the palace today with his father. He was to meet with King Caninus, and he wanted to take Cinbelin as well, soIgot to come. Such an honor. Cinbelin and I are like this.” He crossed his fingers. “We’re closer than brothers.”
A hint of jealousy flashed across Amhar’s face, swiftly controlled. The thought that Medraut was deliberately trying to instill this emotion occurred to me only to be quickly dismissed. What did he have to gain from doing that?
Medraut downed another oyster. “And who should we meet there but my uncle.” He inclined his head toward Arthur. “I was never more pleased to see someone in my life. And of course…” He leaned forward across the table, arching his brows. “It did my credibility with Cinbelin no end of good to see my uncle embrace me like a lost son.”
This time Amhar wasn’t the only one to give him a hard look. But Medraut was of the sort for whom hard looks meant nothing. Hide of a rhino, that one.
He threw his head back and laughed. He had a loud, raucous laugh, almost a roar, that made everyone turn their heads to look at him. No doubt he’d intended that. “You should have seen the faces on my friends who were there attending their kings. They all thoughttheywere the most important of the young warriors. They soon saw I was, not them.”
Hmmm. I doubted this would go down well with Amhar, but he seemed to have himself under control, although the light of excitement had gone from his eyes.
He managed a laugh himself. “Wait until they seemewith him then,” he said, with false bravado, and laughed again, but his laugh sounded brittle and fake.
I kept an eye and ear open for Medraut, watching for any sign of his old bullying ways returning, but he was the picture of jovial politeness with everyone. He chatted with whoever gained his attention, showing more subservience than that initial speech would have led me to expect, and seemed to want to include Amhar in his circle, constantly talking aboutusandwe.So much so that after a bit, a wide smile spread across Amhar’s face to replace that initial hint of jealousy.
I couldn’t help but worry that he seemed to be fast reverting to his old state of hero worship for his older, stronger cousin. I chastised myself for jumping to a too hasty judgement of Medraut, and then again for not believing my gut instinct. Everything I knew about my nephew pointed to him being just what I feared. A threat to both Arthur and Amhar.
Amhar had always been an easily led boy, and I’d been glad when Arthur had removed Medraut from his circle of friends. I might have to do something decisive now, though, to make sure this relationship didn’t pick up where it had left off seven years before. Although if Medraut had firmly tied himself to Cinbelin, and thus to Alt Clut, maybe I didn’t have to worry quite so much. Fool that I was.
After a bit, I found Medraut watching me out of eyes that for a moment could have been called calculating, before he veiled them and smiled cheerily at me. If he was to be my enemy, which I feared he was, then I needed to get to know him better.
I smiled in return, but something told me he wasn’t fooled and already knew I didn’t like him. Maybe that had been why he’d so deliberately greeted me with a kiss. I metaphorically girded up my loins for battle. “Tell me, Medraut, what have you been up to since you left Din Cadan.”
He set down the leg of chicken he’d been gnawing and wiped his greasy fingers on a cloth. “I’ve been here and there, doing a variety of things, some more fun than others. I imagine you know the story of how I left Dinas Brent?” He raised his heavy brows, a challenging look in his eyes. Asleazylook that had me disguising the shiver I felt.
I nodded. “I did hear that, yes.”
He grinned, fingering a gold coin hanging on a chain about his neck. He must have seen my eyes go to it because he held it up. “A gold aureus from one of the old emperors. My father gave it to me. We looted a ship in the Middle Sea, and this was part of the booty.” He turned it to show me where someone had drilled a hole for the chain. “Do you like it?”
I shrugged. “The gold coin of a long dead emperor and nothing more.” I touched the ring on my finger, considering how that had come to me from another such man. An emperor of Rome, but one who’d married a British princess. “You sailed with your father, then?”
He nodded. “Far and wide. I liked the life at sea. After I left Dinas Brent, I went to my mother’s house in Caer Legeion.” A frown lowered his brows. “I soon found out I couldn’t stay there with her, though. She thought I was the child she’d left behind at Din Cadan and treated me so. When my father returned with his fleet, I asked him to take me with him, and he did. She kicked up such a fuss.” The frown lifted and a smile of pure pleasure flitted across his face. But whether it was from the memory of his sea voyage or how he’d upset his mother, I couldn’t tell.
Maybe he was just a boy who’d needed the guiding hand of his father all along. Theodoric had never been a hands-on parent even in the loosest terms, and sailing with him might have been the making of his son. Hopefully, parental guidance hadn’t come too late. Then I remembered it was Theodoric we were talking about, with his penchant for brothels and bawdy houses. Still, maybe any father was better than no father.
“Where did you sail to?” I asked, more than curious to hear how the two of them had got on.
He grinned, suddenly more boyish. “All over. My father took me to Hibernia, to Armorica and Belgica, and south to Aquitania and Hispania. And one time, we sailed between the Pillars of Hercules and into the Middle Sea, where we did a bit of trade and a bit of pirating.” He chuckled, most probably about the pirating. “In Mauretania I saw men as dark as this old oak table, and wonders you’d never believe. The world is a wondrous place.” His infectious enthusiasm went part way to breaking down the barricade I’d erected. Until I remembered who he was.
“What took you to the cold seas of Alt Clut then?” I asked, angry at myself for being almost taken in. “That’s a long way from the heat of Mauretania.”
“We sailed north along the west coast of Britain and stayed at Dun Breattann a while. We’d carried some slaves back from the Middle Sea and heard there was a good market forexoticsnorth of the Wall. My father sold them to Cinbelin’s father– women, mostly, of course.” His eyes glittered. “Those women have somefancytricks.”
I didn’t think I wanted to know about their tricks. Whatever they were, he was talking about North African girls enslaved for sex, and that left a nasty taste in my mouth, made worse by the knowledge that I could do nothing to help them. “I take it your father left you there. What made you decide to stay?”
His face clouded for a moment, then swiftly brightened, as changeable as a stormy day at home. “We agreed to a parting of our ways. He was all for patrolling up and down the Hibernian Sea, and I’d had my fill of that. I liked sailing with him, but part of the enjoyment was the exotic ports.” He sniggered. “Not many of them along either side of the Hibernian Sea in winter.”
