Page 81 of The Road to Avalon
He set her down and disentangled himself from her clutches, his face fiery red. “I-I’m sorry.” He aimed this at me.
After so long cooped up in sanctuary, I couldn’t have cared less if he’d kissed her himself. I grinned at him. “Don’t apologize to me– give her a proper kiss. I’ve saved her for a reason, and that reason is you.” Not quite true, but he wasn’t to know that.
Archfedd blushed a similar shade of red.
I caught Reaghan’s hand. “We’ll give them a few minutes, shall we?”
Five minutes later we were all sitting on the grass under the shade of one of the larger apple trees in the orchard, well out of earshot of any of the monks and lay brothers working by the abbey. Archfedd had settled herself as close to Llawfrodedd as possible, and Reaghan and I sat opposite them.
“What are you doing here?” I asked our visitor. “And how did you even know where to find us?”
He had his arm around Archfedd’s shoulders, and she was leaning against him. “I came back from Dinas Badan with a message for the king and found him gone,” he said. “My commanding officer wanted more men for the garrison and decided I was the one who could persuade the king to allocate them.” He cast a loving glance at my daughter. “I found Medraut in charge of Din Cadan and a good half of the army absent with the king.”
News to us. “Where’s he gone?” I asked, as chill fingers walked down my spine. “We’ve had no trouble with the Saxons for years now. Is it the Irish in the west? Or has he ridden north against the Picts? They’ve been quiet for a long time.”
Llawfrodedd’s face clouded with concern. “No. He’s gone to Armorica.”
“Armorica?” My voice rose in consternation. “Why’s he gone there?”
“Where’s Armorica?” Reaghan had clearly not been listening in the lessons she’d had from Merlin.
“Across the ocean to the south,” the more conscientious Archfedd answered. “In Gaul. Hundreds of miles away. We have cousins there. Don’t you remember the maps Mami drew? Of the world.” The bit of the world they knew. I’d not wanted to shock them too much with a Mercator map.
Llawfrodedd gave a quick nod. “That’s what I was told. The King of Cornouaille in Armorica, a man called Budic, requested the High King’s help. I was told Arthur leapt at the chance. I don’t know why. It’s such a long way off.”
I could fill them in on this. “Arthur’s grandfather, Ambrosius the Elder, took his family to Armorica when the usurper Guorthegirn stole his kingdom. I think his wife, Archfedd’s great-grandmother, was a sister of the then king. Her grandfather was born there. That must make this Budic a distant cousin.”
“But why would Father go that far?” Archfedd persisted. “He’s never crossed the ocean before. Has he?”
I shook my head. “The furthest he’s been is north of the Wall, and that was years ago.” A nasty nub of worry was forcing its way inside my head. Didn’t the stories say that Arthur had gone to Gaul and left Medraut in charge while he was away? Didn’t Medraut, Mordred in the stories I remembered, decide not to wait for his uncle to die naturally but to take over the kingdom in his absence? The horrible feeling that everything required for Camlann was sliding into place rocked me to the core.
Arthur was in Armorica, which was a part of Gaul. Medraut held the reins of power just as he’d always wanted. Merlin was missing, lost somewhere with Nimuë, the woman who the legends said locked him up forever in a crystal cave. And I was impotent and isolated on Ynys Witrin with Reaghan and Archfedd. How many queens had received the mortally wounded Arthur and taken him to the mystical land of Avalon in the legends? Three. We three perhaps, waiting here for his arrival.
“Llawfrodedd,” I said, as a plan formulated in my head. “I want you to go back to Din Cadan and keep an eye on everything there. Report back to us every few days, if you can. I need to know what’s happening there. Ride to the Lake Village and send Con with a message– he can be trusted.”
“Why?” Archfedd pressed. “What’s wrong? I can tell something is. You have to tell us.”
I surveyed their anxious young faces, weighing up what I should reveal. Not the truth, that was for sure. No need to shock them with that. “I’ve had a premonition,” I said, seizing upon something they might see as possible. “Medraut is going to try to seize the throne while Arthur is away. If he does, then there’s going to be a huge battle. Not with the Saxons, but between Medraut and your father. It won’t end well. We have to do everything we can to stop him.”
I looked at Archfedd. “And to make his bid for the throne more legitimate, he needs you. We have to get you and Reaghan out of the way. Because he’ll be back here to get you now Arthur’s not there to keep him in line, and I don’t think even Gildas will be able to stop him this time.”
I pointed west. “There are other islands out there I can send you to. In disguise as servants so no one will even suspect you might be royal. We’ll go back now and ask Gildas for help. You have to go straightaway. Medraut could be on his way even now. I’ll stay here because it’s not me he’s after, and Llawfrodedd can send news as often as possible without causing suspicion.”
“Have you forgiven Father?” Archfedd asked, a hint of hope in her voice. Perhaps she already had in her own way. The young are ever resilient.
Had I? Now Camlann loomed ever closer, I had to ask myself that question. I searched my heart. Did I care what happened to Arthur? Did I want to save him?
Yes. I didn’t want him to die at Camlann, whatever he’d done. “Not quite,” I said. “A little, but not quite.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Before Llawfrodedd leftus, he saw Reaghan and Archfedd depart under escort with just two of the lay brothers, so as not to alert anyone to their importance. The lay brothers were going back to their own small village on one of the more distant and larger islands, and the two girls were to masquerade as serving girls they’d brought back with them. Needless to say, the men had been picked with care and warned, by me and Gildas in turn, and with Llawfrodedd standing by caressing his sword hilt, not to lay a finger on either girl on pain of death. And on no account to give them away should anyone come searching for them.
Archfedd had been hard to persuade to leave. “I want to stay with you, Mami,” she implored. “I don’t want to leave you wherehecould get you. It’s not safe.”
I shook my head. “I need to stay. I’m of no interest to Medraut. It’s you he wants, and you I refuse to let him have. And I need to know what’s happening, which I couldn’t if I came with you.” I hugged her tight. “You’ll have each other. And these two good lay brothers will keep you safe.”
The men tugged their forelocks in respect and nodded. Father and son, both possessed reassuringly gentle eyes and kind faces.
