Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (16 page)

“
Did I say that? I didn’t
mean it. With communications down, neither MI-5 nor we can risk
it,” Callum said, “though they don’t know why I agreed so readily
since they don’t know about you two.” He smirked.

“
Callum waves that badge
around, and everybody obeys,” Cassie said. “It isn’t far off from
being the Earl of Shrewsbury, come to think about it.”

Meg gazed out the store window at the
parking lot, lit up with a million fluorescent lights. They were
there to make the parking lot safer, but the harsh bright white was
anything but comforting.

Anna reached out and took her hand. “I feel
like this ought to be different, somehow. Like I ought to be
feeling something more momentous, or doing something more
momentous, than shopping at a Wal-Mart.”

Meg squeezed Anna’s hand. “I don’t know
about that. Shopping is the worst and the best of American living.
Twenty-four kinds of toothbrushes and a pair of glasses that lets
me see your face clearly from across the room for the first time in
two years. I’ll take it.”

Chapter Nine

November 1291

David

��M
y
lord … may I ask you something?” William de Bohun said.

At sixteen years old, William had become a
full-fledged member of the Order of the Pendragon. Although no
longer a child, he still looked at David through the same calm
brown eyes he’d shown in the church outside Llangollen. David had
taken him on as his squire not merely as a way to control his
father, which was a good reason in and of itself, but because he
was a member of the up-and-coming generation of Anglo-Normans. If
David was to rule England, he needed to win the hearts and minds of
William and his peers.

Besides, David liked him.

“
Of course,” David
said.

“
About what happened this
evening …” William paused again, and David could practically see
the gears turning in that blonde head as he tried to think of the
best way to phrase what he wanted to ask.

David waited while William stalled by
tightening down the buckle on David’s left bracer a little too
tightly. David put his free hand on William’s arm and looked at
him. “Just ask.”

“
I was standing on the
battlement with a sentry when your sister and mother arrived at the
top of the southwest tower. I had no other duties at the time.” He
hastened to add these last words with a worried glance at his
lord’s face.

“
It is fine, William,”
David said. “I was with my family and had given you leave to go.
There was no reason for you not to be on the
battlement.”

From David’s perspective, it was better for
William to be there than in the storage closet with the latest girl
he’d taken a fancy to. David needed to have a conversation with
William about his responsibilities in that regard. If the girl
became pregnant, William’s father would never in a million years
allow him to marry her, and it would open the whole can of worms
about what it meant to be illegitimate. It was okay in Wales as
long as the father acknowledged the child. Not so okay in England.
And the Church wouldn’t like it, of course.

William swallowed. “Yes, my lord.”

“
So you saw them fall.”
David wasn’t asking a question.

“
And disappear,” William
said. “I don’t understand how such a thing could
happen.”

David laughed under his breath. “Neither do
I, William. I only know that it did, and we must continue to act as
if such a thing was meant to happen.”

“
Oh, I know that.” William
gazed at David intently. “Such was not my concern.”

David narrowed his eyes at his squire. “Then
what?”

“
It’s about the man who
fell with them and died,” William said. “Who was he?”

“
A mistake, clearly,” David
said.

William’s lower lip jutted out a bit because
he thought David was either dismissing him or not being
truthful.

So David added, “Martin knew my mother from
years ago. I was raised in Avalon. You know that, right?”

William nodded. “Your father sent your
mother there before she gave birth to protect you.”

“
Right.” David didn’t even
grind his teeth at the lie he was telling. Though he’d fought it
that very afternoon, he had to admit its necessity now more than
ever. “When Anna and I returned here to save my father’s life, my
mother was left behind. A few months before I turned sixteen, she
too returned, inadvertently bringing Martin with her. He had to
leave Avalon because of her.”

“
Is that why you invited
him to Rhuddlan? Because she felt guilty?”

It was both insightful and brave of him to
ask that, and David decided not to slap him down for his impudence.
The boy’s intensity was making David cautious, and he chose his
words carefully. “Not guilt so much as an apology. I sought to mend
the rift that event caused in our lives and in his. I had hoped
Martin would visit me in London two years ago, after he aided Lord
Callum in his moment of need. I wanted to thank him. As King of
England, I could have granted him whatever he wished.”

“
Except to return to
Avalon,” William said.

Again, William’s response was more
perceptive than David might have liked. He lifted one shoulder,
wishing the conversation would end. But William had asked
permission to speak, and David had agreed to answer his questions.
He could hardly complain if they were more to the point than he
expected.

“
You’re right. I wasn’t
going to offer him the chance to return to Avalon. Not because I
didn’t think he had earned it or because I didn’t wish to, but
because it isn’t in my power to grant or deny. Two years have
passed since I myself left Lord Callum there, against my will and
his. I would have returned if I could have, but even I do not
choose the moment when I am allowed entry.”

“
Only those of pure heart
can enter Avalon,” William said knowingly. “That’s why Martin died.
When your mother left Avalon with him, it was because she was
needed here, but it seems to me that he must have been cast out at
the same time.”

David gave William a sharp look, which his
squire didn’t see since he had moved on to buckling David’s right
bracer. “Who told you that?”

William looked up. “No one. But it seems
obvious, doesn’t it?”

William had surprised David again. His
thinking was clear, even if he was wrong. And it was a wrongness
that David would be a fool not to exploit. “Perhaps it is I who
have been cast out. That is why I have not been able to retrieve
Lord Callum.”

“
Oh no!” William’s face
held an eager look. “It is not yet your time. Your sister and
mother went to Avalon to save their lives. Isn’t that what happened
to you two years ago with the storm in the Irish Sea? You would
have drowned if God hadn’t held you in the palm of his
hand.”

At some point, William was going to realize
that David was as human as he. But the boy had been a witness to
much of what had happened to David and what he’d done over the past
three years, ever since William’s father had surprised David by
putting William in his care to protect him. William still thought
David infallible. “Thank you, William, for your faith in me. I pray
I will continue to deserve it.”

“
Do you think I might be
worthy to travel with you to Avalon one day?”

Ieuan had asked David that once,
approximately five minutes before the English had shot him and
David had taken him to the modern world. David sincerely hoped
William’s asking wasn’t an omen of things to come.

Before David decided how to answer him, Lili
stepped through the open doorway. “Only God knows the answer to
that question, William. Every day you should bring yourself to
account, to ensure that if the opportunity arrives, you won’t be
found wanting.”

“
I will do that, my queen.”
William bowed. “Thank you.”

Lili made a dismissive motion with her
hand.

“
I will meet you in the
outer ward, William,” David said.

William shot David a bright-eyed look and
bowed. “My lord.” He departed.

David shook his head at his wife. “You are
incorrigible.”

“
It’s a good thing I am,”
she said. “Otherwise, you would have tried to rid yourself of this
story a long time ago.”

“
You are right. I would
have.” David stepped past her to look down the corridor. Men
guarded both ends, but they were too far away to
overhear.

His men were wary now, and more on their
guard. They—like David—had thought everyone safe at Rhuddlan. It
was a bit like closing the barn door after the horse had escaped,
but security had been beefed up at all the entrances and exits, and
nobody came or left without being searched. That said, even the
lowliest villager carried a knife at his waist and wouldn’t be
asked to give it up. Marty had been where he was supposed to be,
with a weapon he was supposed to have. David’s men couldn’t have
been expected to read his mind.

Lili tugged David’s cloak straight around
his neck and smoothed the fabric across his shoulders. “I’ve become
spoiled.”

“
In what way?” David was
beginning to lose feeling in the fingers of his left hand because
of William’s over-enthusiastic tightening of his bracer. He began
to work at the buckles to loosen them.

Lili saw David trying to deal with the armor
one-handed and brushed away his hand in order to do it herself. “I
have grown used to you not going to war.” She tapped his chest,
which was hard due to the steel-reinforced layer of Kevlar that lay
underneath his armor.

“
I hate to repeat what men
have told their wives for thousands of years, but I will be fine,”
David said.

“
You don’t know
that.”

David stopped her fussing by taking both her
hands in his and bringing them to his chest. “If I know anything, I
know that. I have increasingly come to understand that I am here
for a reason. I don’t believe that reason has yet been
accomplished.”

“
As long as it doesn’t make
you reckless,” she said.

“
When have I ever been
reckless?” Though perhaps David should have crossed his fingers
behind his back as he said this.

She dropped his hands and gave him a
quelling look. “Shall I list the times?”

David held up a hand. “Scout’s honor. I will
behave. It would be stupid to die in such a little war.”

“
You’d better not.” Lili
went up on her toes and put her arms around his neck.

Since she was there, David kissed her. And
then again. He didn’t want to leave. By rights, it was bedtime, not
the moment to be riding away from Rhuddlan in pursuit of a traitor
and his army.

It was Lili who pulled away. “You’d better
go. Arthur is not yet ready to be king, and you don’t want me to
change my mind about not coming with you to protect you.”

“
You’re staying here to
protect Arthur, Rhuddlan, and all the rest,” David said. “I have
already promised to celebrate Christmas at Westminster Palace and I
intend to keep that promise.”

Arthur had been put to bed, but David looked
in on him and kissed him too. He didn’t wake, even when David
stroked a lock of his blonde hair out of his face. He’d already
asked—in his little Arthurian sign language—to cut his hair so he
could look like Cadell. David was resisting the loss of his
babyhood, but it was a battle he was going to lose, if only because
time was against him.

Ieuan met David as he descended the stairs
into the inner ward. “Lili is well?”

“
I didn’t even have to ask
her to stay behind. She won’t leave Arthur, and she will help
Goronwy defend Rhuddlan if need be.”

Ieuan shot David a wry look. “Let’s hope it
doesn’t come to that. Bronwen is the same, not that she has the
training for war.”

They reached the outer gatehouse where the
men were gathering. It wasn’t quite midnight. Math had already
left, riding east by torchlight. Even now, scouts were scouring the
countryside on all sides, calling to service men in outlying areas
and making sure Madog was as far away as they thought he was. Those
few common folk who owned horses would join the cavalry, and those
who didn’t would walk through the night and day tomorrow to arrive
at Maentwrog when they could. Welsh armies, like all armies in this
time, were composed primarily of citizen soldiery.

“
You didn’t send to Chester
for reinforcements,” Ieuan said.

“
You noticed that?” David
said.

“
We have good men there,”
Ieuan said.

“
Do you know why I
didn’t?”

“
Oh, I know why, I just
wanted to make sure you did.”

David raised his eyebrows. “I am Welsh
first, Ieuan, and I know my history. I know the poor precedent it
would set if my father welcomed English troops, even his son’s,
into Wales. I ride today not as the King of England, but as a
prince of Wales only.”

Ieuan nodded, and his expression told David
he was not only satisfied with the answer, but he agreed with
it.

“
If Madog and Rhys want to
start a war with everyone, then England will come to the aid of
Wales as an ally,” David said. “But I’m hoping it won’t come to
that.”

It was odd to see Dad mount
his horse without Mom at his stirrup to bid him goodbye. David took
his place beside him. They would lead a contingent of one hundred
cavalry out of Rhuddlan, a combined force of David’s mostly
English
teulu
(the
word meant ‘family’ in Welsh, a word heavy with meaning), which the
English referred to merely as the king’s guard, and Dad’s entirely
Welsh one.