Legacy: Arthurian Saga (103 page)

"I hadn't heard that. Was anyone
hurt?"

"No. There's another path; they used
that."

"I see." He was watching me curiously.
"Your gods, my lord?"

"You might call them that. I hadn't
realized I was to be so closely guarded."

"So you knew something like this might
happen?"

"Not until you told me. But I know who
did it, and why." He frowned, thinking. "But if it was done
deliberately...If I am to bring Emrys this way again --"

"Emrys will be safe. And he is your
safe conduct, too, Ralf. Don't fear them." I saw his brows twitch
at the word "fear," then he nodded. I thought he seemed anxious,
even tense. He asked me: "How long do you suppose you will be
here?"

"It's hard to judge. You must know it
depends on the High King's health. If Uther recovers fully, it may
be that the boy will stay here until he is fourteen, and ready to
go to his father. Why, Ralf? Can you not resign yourself to
obscurity for a few more years? Or do you find it too taxing riding
guard on that young gentleman?"

"No -- that is, yes. But -- it isn't
that..." He stammered, flushing. I said, amused: "Who is she?" I
did not quite understand his scowling look until, after a pause, he
asked: "How much else did you see, when you watched Arthur in the
fire?"

"My dear Ralf!" It was not just the
moment to tell him that the stars tend only to mirror the fate of
kings and the will of gods. I said mildly: "The Sight doesn't as a
rule take me beyond bedchamber doors. I guessed. Your face is about
as concealing as a gauze curtain. And you must remember to call him
Emrys even when you are angry."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean -- Not that
there was anything you couldn't have watched -- I mean, I've never
even been in her bedchamber...I mean, she's -- oh, hell and
damnation, I should have known you'd know all about it. I didn't
mean to be insolent. I'd forgotten you never take anything the way
other men do. I never know where I am with you, You've been away
too long...There are the horses now. He seems to have saddled yours
as well. I thought you said you weren't coming down today after
all?"

"I hadn't intended to. It must be
Emrys' idea." It was. As soon as he saw us in the doorway, Arthur
called out: "I brought your horse, too, sir. Will you not ride down
part of the way with us?"

"If we go at my pace, not
yours."

"We'll walk the whole way if you
like."

"Oh, I won't subject you to that. But
we'll let Ralf lead the way, shall we?"

The first part of the descent was
steep. Ralf went in front and Arthur behind him, and the black
horse must have been very sure-footed indeed, for Arthur rode with
his chin on his shoulder the whole way, talking to me. To anyone
who did not know, it might have seemed that it was the boy who had
nine years to make up; I hardly had to question him; all the
detail, small and great, of his life came tumbling out, till I knew
as much about Count Ector's household and the boy's place in it as
he knew himself -- and more besides.

We came at length down from the edge
of the pines into a wood of oak and chestnut where the going was
easier, and after half a mile or so struck into the easy track
along the lake. Caer Bannog floated, sunlit, above its secret. The
valley widened ahead of us, and presently, cloudy along its green
curve, showed the line of willows that marked the river.

Where the river left the lake I
checked my horse. As I took my leave of them the boy asked quickly:
"May I come back soon?"

"Come whenever you like -- whenever
you can. But you must promise me one thing."

He looked wary, which meant that what
he promised, he would keep. "What's that?"

"Don't come without Ralf, or whoever
escorts you. Don't break away next time. This is not called the
Wild Forest for nothing."

"Oh, I know it's supposed to be
haunted, but I'm not afraid of what lives in the hills, not now
that I've seen -- " He checked, and changed direction without a
tremor " -- not with you there. And if it's wolves, I have my
dagger, and wolves don't attack by day. Besides, there are no
wolves that could catch Star."

"I was thinking of a different kind of
wild beast."

"Bears? Boars?"

"No, men."

"Oh." The syllable was a shrug. It was
bravery, of course; there were outlaws here as well as anywhere,
and he must have heard stories, but it was innocence as well. Such
had been Count Ector's care of him. The most vulnerable and sought
for head in the kingdoms, and danger was still only a story to
him.

"All right," he said, "I promise." I
was satisfied. The guardians from the hollow hills might watch him
for me, but guarding him was another thing. That took Ector's kind
of power, and mine.

"My greetings to Count Ector," I told
Ralf, and saw that he had understood my thoughts. We parted then. I
stood watching them ride off along the turf by the river, the black
horse fighting to be away and snatching at the bit, Ralf's big
chestnut simmering alongside, while the boy talked excitedly,
gesturing. At length he must have got his way, for suddenly Ralf's
heels moved, and the chestnut leaped forward into a gallop. The
black, set alight a fraction later, tore after it. As the two
flying figures vanished round a shaw of birch trees, the smaller
turned in the saddle, and waved. It had begun.

He was back next day, trotting
decorously into the clearing with Ralf half a length in the rear.
Arthur carried a gift of eggs and honey cakes and the information
that Count Ector was still away, but the Countess seemed to think
contact with the holy man might do good where it was most needed,
and was glad to let him come meanwhile. The Count would arrange to
see me as soon as he got back.

Arthur gave me the message, not Ralf,
and obviously saw nothing in it but the strict precautions of a
guardian who he must have long ago decided was over-zealous to an
uncomfortable degree. Four of the eggs were broken. "Only Emrys,"
said Ralf, "could possibly have imagined he could carry eggs on
that wild colt of his."

"You must admit he did very well only
to break four."

"Oh, aye, only Emrys could have done
it. I've never had a quieter ride since I last escorted
you."

He went off then on some excuse.
Arthur washed the eggs out of his horse's mane and then settled
down to help me eat the honey cakes, and ply me with questions
about the world that lay outside the Wild Forest.

A few days later Ector returned to
Galava, and arranged through Ralf to meet me. Word would have gone
round by now that the boy Emrys had ridden up two or three times to
the chapel in the green, and people might well expect Count Ector
or his lady to send for the new incumbent to look him over. It was
arranged that Ector and I were to meet as if by chance at Fedor's
farm. Fedor himself and his wife could be trusted, I was told, with
anything; the other folk there would only see the hermit calling
for supplies as usual, and the Count riding by and taking the
opportunity to speak with him.

We were shown into a smallish,
smoke-filled room, and our host brought wine and then left us.
Ector had hardly altered, save to add a little grey to his hair and
beard. When, after the first greetings were over, I told him so, he
laughed. "That's hardly surprising. You tip a gilded cuckoo's egg
into my quiet nest and think to find me carefree? No, no, man, I
was only jesting. Neither Drusilla nor I would have been without
the boy. Whatever comes of it in the end, these have been good
years, and if we've done a good job, we had the finest stuff in the
world to work on."

He plunged then into an account of his
stewardship. Five years is a long time, and there was a great deal
to say. I spoke hardly at all, but listened readily. Some of what
he told me I knew already, from the fire, or from the boy's own
talk. But if I was familiar enough with the tenor of Arthur's life
here in Galava, and could judge its results for myself, what came
chiefly out of Ector's talk of him was the deep affection which he
and his wife felt for their charge. Not only these two, but the
rest of the household who had no idea who Arthur was held him,
apparently, in the same affection. My impressions of him had been
right; there was courage and quick wit and a burning desire to
excel. Not enough cool sense and caution, perhaps -- faults like
his father's -- "but who the devil wants a young boy to be
cautious? That much he'll learn the first time he's hurt, or,
worse, when he finds a man that can't be trusted," said Ector
gruffly, obviously torn between pride in the boy and in his own
successful guardianship.

When I began to talk of this, and to
thank him for what he had done, he cut me off abruptly.

"Well, now, you've got yourself
settled nicely in here, from all I hear about it. That was a fine
chance, wasn't it, that led you up to the Green Chapel in time to
take old Prosper's place?"

"Chance?" I said.

"Oh, aye, I'd forgotten who I was
talking to. It's a long time since we had an enchanter in these
parts. Well, to a jogging mortal like me it would have come as
chance. Whatever it was, it's the best thing; you couldn't have
taken a place in the castle, as it happens; we've got a man here
who knows you well; Marcellus, him that married Valerius' sister.
He's my master-at-arms. Maybe I shouldn't have taken him on,
knowing you'd be likely to come back, but he's one of the best
officers in the country, and God knows we're going to need all we
have, here in the north. He's the best swordsman in the country,
too. For the boy's sake, I couldn't miss the chance." He shot me a
sharp look from under his brows. "What are you laughing at? Wasn't
that chance, either?"

"No," I said, "it was Uther." I told
him of the talk I had had with the King on the subject of Arthur's
training. "How like Uther to send a man who knew me. But then he
never did have room for more than one thought at a time...Well,
I'll keep away. Can you find a good reason for letting the boy ride
up to see me?"

He nodded. "I've given it about that I
know of you, and you're a learned man and have traveled widely, and
there are things you can teach the boys that they'd not learn from
Abbot Martin or the fathers. I'll let it be known that they may
ride up your way whenever they wish."

"'They?' Hasn't Cei outgrown a tutor,
even an unorthodox one?"

"Oh, he wouldn't come for the
learning." His father's voice held a kind of rueful pride. "He's
like me, is Cei, not a thought in his head but what you might call
the arts of the field. Not that even so he'll be the kind of
swordsman Arthur's shaping for, but he's dogged and takes all the
pains in the world. He'll not come twice if there's book learning
to be discussed, but you know what boys are, what one has the other
wants, and I couldn't keep him away if I tried, after all Arthur's
been saying. He's talked of nothing else since I got home, even
told Drusilla it was his holy duty to ride up there every day to
see you got sufficient food. Yes, you may well laugh. Did you set a
spell on him?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I'd like to
see Cei again. He was a fine boy."

"It's not easy for him," said Ector,
"knowing the younger one is near as good as he is already, for all
the three years' difference, and is likely to surpass him when they
both come to man. And when they were younger it was always
'Remember to let Emrys have as much as you -- he's the fosterson,
and a guest.' It might have been easier if there'd been others.
Drusilla's had the hardest time of it, not liking to favor one or
the other, but having to let Cei see all the way that he was the
real son, without letting Arthur feel he was on the outside. Cei's
done well enough by the other boy, even if he does tend to
jealousy, but there'll be nothing to fear in the future, I assure
you. Show him where he can be loyal, and no one will shift him.
Like his father; a slow dog, but where he grips, he holds." He
talked on a little longer, and I listened, remembering my own very
different upbringing as the bastard and outsider at another court.
Where I had been quiet and showed no talents that could rouse
jealousy in boy or man, Arthur by his very nature must shine out
among the other boys in the castle like a young dragon hatching in
a clutch of pond newts.

At last Ector sighed, drank, and set
down his cup. "But there, those are nursery tales now, and long
past. Cei stays by me now, among the men, and there's Bedwyr to
keep Arthur company. When I said 'they' I wasn't thinking of Cei.
We've another boy with us now. I brought him back with me from
York. Bedwyr, his name is, son of Ban of Benoic. Know
him?"

"I've met him."

"He asked me to take Bedwyr for a year
or two. He'd heard Marcellus was here with me, and wantedBedwyr to
learn from him. He's about the same age as Arthur, so I wasn't
sorry when Ban made the suggestion. You'll like Bedwyr. A quiet
boy; not a great brain, so Abbot Martin tells me, but a good lad,
and seems to like Emrys. Even Cei thinks twice before he tangles
with the pair of them. Well, that's that, isn't it? It's just to be
hoped Abbot Martin doesn't try to spoke the wheel."

"Is it likely?"