Legacy: Arthurian Saga (116 page)

"He did not know he was sinning, and
you did. No, don't waste your breath on me. Why pretend? Even
without your magic, you must know that half the court has whispered
it since he and I rode in together yesterday. You knew he was
Uther's son."

For the first time there was a shade
of fear in her face. She said obstinately: "I did not know. You
cannot prove I knew. Why should I do such a thing?"

I folded my arms and leaned a shoulder
back against the wall. "I will tell you why. First, because you are
Uther's daughter, and like him a seeker after casual lusts. Because
you have the Pendragon blood in you that makes you desire power, so
you take it as it mostly offers itself to women, in a man's bed.
You knew your father the King was dying, and feared that there
would be no place of power for you as half-sister of the young King
whose Queen would later dispossess you. I think you would not have
hesitated to kill Arthur, but that you would have less standing,
even, at Lot's court, with your own sister as Queen. Whoever became
High King would have no need of you, as Uther has. You would be
married to some small king and taken to some corner of the land
where you would pass your time bearing his children and weaving his
war cloaks, with nothing in your hands but the petty power of a
family, and what women's magic you have learned and can practice in
your little kingdom. That is why you did what you did, Morgause.
Because, no matter what it was, you wanted a claim on the young
King, even if it was to be a claim of horror and of hatred. What
you did last night you did coldly, in a bid for power."

"Who are you to talk to me so? You
took power where you could find it."

"Not where I could find it; where it
was given. What you have got you took, against all laws of God and
men. If you had acted unknowingly, in simple lust, there would be
no more to say. I told you, so far he thinks you have no blame.
This morning, when he knew what he had done, his first thought was
for your distress." I saw the flash of triumph in her eyes, and
finished, gently: "But you are not dealing with him, you are
dealing with me. And I say that you shall go."

She got swiftly to her feet. "Why did
you not tell him then, and let him kill me? Would you not have
wanted that?"

"To add another and worse sin? You
talk like a fool."

"I shall go to the King!"

"To what purpose? He will spare no
thought for you today."

"I am always by him. He will need his
drugs."

"I am here now, and Gandar. He will
not need you."

"He'll see me if I say I've come to
say farewell! I tell you, I will go to him!"

"Then go," I said. "I'll not stop you.
If you were thinking of telling him the truth, think again. If the
shock kills him, Arthur will be High King all the
sooner."

"He would not be accepted! They
wouldn't accept him! Do you think Lot will stand by and listen to
you? What if I tell them what Arthur did last night?"

"Then Lot would become High King," I
said equably. "And how long would he let you live, bearing Arthur's
child? Yes, you'd better think about it, hadn't you? Either way,
there is nothing you can do, except go while you can. Once your
sister is married at Christmas, get Lot to find you a husband. That
way, you may be safe."

Suddenly, at this, she was angry, the
anger of a spitting cat in a corner. "You condemn me, you! You were
a bastard, too...All my life I have watched Morgian get everything.
Morgian! That child to be a Queen, while I...Why, she even learns
magic, but she has no more idea how to use it for her own ends than
a kitten has! She'd do better in a nunnery than on a Queen's
throne, and I -- I..." She stopped on a little gasp, and caught her
underlip in her teeth. I thought she changed what she had been
about to say. "...I, who have something of the power which has made
you great, Merlin my cousin, do you think I will be content to be
nothing?" Her voice went flat, the voice of a wise-woman speaking a
curse which will stick. "And that is what you will be, who are no
man's friend, and no woman's lover. You are nothing, Merlin, you
are nothing, and in the end you will only be a shadow and a
name."

I smiled at her. "Do you think you can
frighten me? I see further than you, I believe. I am nothing, yes;
I am air and darkness, a word, a promise. I watch in the crystal
and I wait in the hollow hills. But out there in the light I have a
young king and a bright sword to do my work for me, and build what
will stand when my name is only a word for forgotten songs and
outworn wisdom, and when your name, Morgause, is only a hissing in
the dark." I turned my head then, and called the servant. "Now
enough of this, there is no more to say between us. Go and make
yourself ready, and get you from court."

The man had come in, and was waiting
inside the door glancing, I thought apprehensively, from one to the
other of us. From his look, he was a black Celt from the mountains
of the west; it is a race that still worships the old gods, so it
is possible he could feel, if only partly, some of the stinging
presences still haunting the room. But for me, now, the girl was
only a girl, tilting a pretty, troubled face to mine, so that the
rosegold hair streamed from her pale forehead down the cherry gown.
To the servant waiting beside the door, it should have seemed an
ordinary leavetaking, but for those stinging shadows. She never
glanced his way, or guessed what he might see.

When she spoke her voice was composed,
calm and low. "I shall go to my sister. She lies at York till the
wedding."

"I shall see to it that an escort is
ready. No doubt the wedding will still be at Christmas, according
to plan. King Lot should join you soon, and give you a place at
your sister's court."

There was a brief flash at that,
discreetly veiled. I might have tried a guess at what she planned
there -- that she hoped, even at this late date, to take her
sister's place at Lot's side -- but I was weary of her. I said:
"I'll bid you farewell, then, and a safe journey."

She made a reverence, saying, very
low: "We shall meet again, cousin."

I said formally, "I shall look forward
to it." She went then, slight, erect, hands folded close again, and
the servant shut the door behind her.

I stood by the window, collecting my
thoughts. I felt weary, and my eyes were gritty from lack of sleep,
but my mind was clear and light, already free of the girl's
presence. The fresh air of morning blew in to disperse the evil
lingering in the room, till, with the last fading scent of
honeysuckle, it was gone. When the servant came back I rinsed face
and hands in cold water, then, bidding him follow me, went back to
the hospital dormitory. The air was cleaner there, and the eyes of
dying men easier to bear than the presence of the woman who was
with child of Mordred, Arthur's nephew and bastard son.

7

King Lot, brooding on the edge of
affairs, had not been idle. Certain busy gentlemen, friends of his,
were seen to be hurrying here and there, protesting to anyone who
would listen that it would be more appropriate for Uther to declare
his heir from one of his great palaces in London or Winchester.
This haste, they said, was unseemly: the thing should be done by
custom, with due notice and ceremony, and backed by the blessing of
the Church. But they whispered in vain. The ordinary people of
Luguvallium, and the soldiers who at present outnumbered them,
thought otherwise. It was obvious now that Uther was near his end,
and it seemed not only necessary, but right, that he should declare
his successor straight away, near the field where Arthur had in a
fashion declared himself. And if there was no bishop present, what
of it? This was a victory feast and was held, so to speak, still in
the field.

The house where the King held court in
Luguvallium was packed to the doors, and well beyond them. Outside,
in the town and around it, where the troops held their own
celebration, the air was blue with the smoke of fires, and thick
with the smell of roasting meat. Officers on their way to the
King's feast had to work quite hard to turn a blind eye to the
drunkenness in camp and street, and a deaf ear to the squeals and
giggles coming from quarters where women were not commonly allowed
to be.

I hardly saw Arthur all day. He was
closeted with the King until afternoon, and in the end only left to
allow his father to rest before the feast. I spent most of the day
in the hospital. It was peaceful there, compared with the crush
near the royal apartments. All day, it seemed, the corridors
outside my rooms and Arthur's were besieged; by men who wanted
favors from the new prince, or just his notice; by men who wanted
to talk with me, or to court my favor by gifts; or simply by the
curious. I let it be known that Arthur was with the King, and would
speak with no one before the time of the feast. To the guards I
gave private orders that if Lot should seek me out, I was to be
called. But he made no approach. Nor, according to the servants I
questioned, was he to be seen in the town.

But I took no chances, and early that
morning sent to Caius Valerius, a King's officer and an old
acquaintance of mine, for extra guards for my rooms and Arthur's,
to reinforce the duty sentries outside the main door, in the
antechamber, and even at the windows. And before I went to the
hospital I made my way to the King's rooms, to have a word with
Ulfin. It may perhaps seem strange that a prophet who had seen
Arthur's crowning so plain and clear and ringed with light should
take such pains to guard him from his enemies. But those who have
had to do with the gods know that when those gods make promises
they hide them in light, and a smile on a god's lips is not always
a sign that you may take his favor for granted. Men have a duty to
make sure. The gods like the taste of salt; the sweat of human
effort is the savor of their sacrifices.

The guards on duty at the King's door
lifted their spears without a challenge and let me straight through
into the outer chamber. Here pages and servants waited, while in
the second chamber sat the women who helped to nurse the King.
Ulfin was, as ever, beside the door of the King's room. He rose
when he saw me, and we talked for a little while, of the King's
health, of Arthur, of the events of yesterday and the prospects for
tonight; then -- we were talking softly, apart from the women -- I
asked him: "You knew Morgause had left the court?"

"I heard so, yes. Nobody knows
why."

"Her sister Morgian is waiting in York
for the wedding," I said, "and anxious for her company."

"Oh, yes, we heard that." It was to be
inferred from the woodenness of his expression that nobody had
believed it.

"Did she come to see the King?" I
asked.

"Three times." Ulfin smiled. It was
apparent that Morgause was no favorite of his. "And each time she
was turned away because the prince was still with him."

A favored daughter for twenty years,
and forgotten in as many hours for a true-born son. "You were a
bastard, too" she had reminded me. Years ago, I remembered, I had
wondered what would become of her. She had had position and
authority of a sort here with Uther, and might well have been fond
of him. She had (the King had hinted yesterday) refused marriage to
stay near him. Perhaps I had been too harsh with her, driven by the
horror of foreknowledge and my own single-minded love for the boy.
I hesitated, then asked him: "Did she seem much
distressed?"

"Distressed?" said Ulfin crisply. "No,
she looked angry. She's bad to cross, is that lady. Always been so,
from a child. One of her maids was crying, too; I think she'd been
whipped." He nodded towards one of the pages, a fair boy, very
young, kicking his heels at a window. "He was the one sent to turn
her away the last time, and she laid his cheek open with her
nails."

"Then tell him to take care it does
not fester," I said, and such was my tone that Ulfin looked sharply
at me, cocking a brow. I nodded. "Yes, it was I who sent her away.
Nor did she go willingly. You'll know why, one day. Meanwhile, I
take it that you look in now and again upon the King? The interview
isn't tiring him overmuch?"

"On the contrary, he's better than
I've seen him for some time. You'd think the boy was a well to
drink at; the King never takes his eyes from him, and gains
strength by the hour. They'll take their midday meal
together."

"Ah. Then it will be tasted? That's
what I came to ask."

"Of course. You can be easy, my lord.
The prince will be safe."

"The King must take some rest before
the feast."

He nodded. "I've persuaded him to
sleep this afternoon after he has eaten."

"Then will you also -- which will be
more difficult -- persuade the prince that he should do the same?
Or, if not rest, then at least go straight to his rooms, and stay
in them till the hour of feasting?"

Ulfin looked dubious. "Will he consent
to that?"

"If you tell him that the order -- but
you'd better call it a request -- came from me."

"I'll do that, my lord."

"I shall be in the hospital. You'll
send for me, of course, if the King needs me. But in any case you
must send to tell me the moment the prince leaves him."