Legacy: Arthurian Saga (179 page)

I drew back. The movement must have
caught her attention, for she glanced up, and for the merest
fraction of a moment her eyes met mine. There was no recognition in
them. But as she turned to hurry for the ship I saw her shiver, and
draw the furred cloak about her as if she felt the wind suddenly
cold.

The train of servants followed and
Lot's children: Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth. They trod over
the gangplank of the waiting ship.

They were going south, all of them.
What Morgause purposed there I could not guess at, but it could be
nothing but evil. And I was powerless to stop them, or even to send
a message ahead of them, for who would believe a message from the
dead?

Then the innkeeper and his wife were
beside me, wanting to know my pleasure.

I did not, after all, ask to sleep in
the rooms that the Queen of Orkney and her train had just
vacated.

The wind still blew from the north
next day, cold, strong, and steady. There was no question of my own
ship's continuing north. I thought again of sending some message of
warning to Camelot, but Morgause's ship would easily outpace a
horseman, and to whom, in any case, could I send? To Nimue? To
Bedwyr or the Queen? I could do nothing until the High King was
back in Britain. And by the same token, while Arthur was still
abroad, Morgause could do him no evil. I thought about it as I made
my way out of the town, and set off along the track that led below
the fortress walls toward Macsen's Tower. It would be an ill wind
indeed if I could get no good of it at all. Yesterday's rest had
refreshed me, and I had the day in hand. So I would use
it.

When I had last been in Segontium,
that great military city built and fortified by Maximus whom the
Welsh call Macsen, it had been all but a ruin. Since then, Cador of
Cornwall had repaired and re-fortified it against attackers from
Ireland. That had been many years ago, but more recently Arthur had
seen to it that Maelgon, his commander in the west, kept it in
repair. I was interested to see what had been done, and how; and
this, as much as anything else, took me along the valley track.
Soon I was well above the town. It was a day of sunshine and chilly
wind, and the city lay bright and washed with color below me in the
arm of the dark-blue sea. Beside the track the fortress walls rose
stout and well kept, and within them I could hear the clash and
bustle of an alert and well-maintained garrison. As if I had still
been Arthur's engineer, proposing to report to him, I marked all
that I saw. Then I came to the south side of the fortress, where
ruin and the four winds had been allowed their way, and paused to
look up the valley slope toward Macsen's Tower.

There was the track, once trodden by
the faithful legionnaires, but probably now used only by sheep or
goats and their herds. It led up the steep hillside to the swell of
stony turf that hid the ancient, underground shrine of Mithras. For
more than a hundred years the place had been ruinous, but when I
had been there before, the steps that led down to the entrance had
still been passable, and the temple itself, though patently unsafe,
still recognizable. I started slowly up the track, wondering why,
after all, I had come to see it again.

I need not have wondered. It was not
there. There was no sign either of the mound that had hidden the
roof or of the steps that had led downward. I did not need to look
far to find the cause. At the head of the slope where the temple
had laid, the restorers of Segontium, levering away the great
stones of the fortress wall for their rebuilding, and quarrying
here and there for smaller metal, had set half the hillside rolling
in a long slope of scree. In this had seeded and grown half a
hundred small trees -- thorn and ash and blackberry -- so that even
the track of the fallen scree was hard to trace. And everywhere,
like the weft of a loom, the narrow sheep-trods, white with summer
dust, criss-crossed the hillside.

I seemed to hear again, faintly, the
receding voice of the god.

"Throw down my altar. It is time to
throw it down."

Altar, shrine and all, had vanished
into the locked depths of the hill.

There is something not quite
believable about any change of this kind. I stood there for some
time, casting about for the bearings I knew. There was no question
of the accuracy of my memory; a line straight from Macsen's Tower
on the hill above to the southwest corner of the old fortress, and
another, from the Commandant's house to the distant peak of Wyddfa,
would intersect one another right over the site of the shrine. Now,
they intersected one another right in the middle of the scree. I
could see where, almost at that very point, the bushes were sparse,
and the boulders showed gaps between, as of a space
below.

"Lost something?" asked a
voice.

I looked round. A boy was sitting
perched above me, on a fallen block of stone. He was very young,
perhaps ten years old, and very dirty. He was tousled and
half-naked, and was chewing a hunk of barley bread. A hazel stick
lay near him, and his sheep grazed placidly a little way up the
hill.

"A treasure, it seems," I
said.

"What kind of treasure?
Gold?"

"It might be. Why?"

He swallowed the last bit of bread.
"What's it worth to you?"

"Oh, half my kingdom. Were you going
to help me find it?"

"I've found gold here
before."

"You have?"

"Aye. And once a silver penny. And
once a belt buckle. Bronze, that was."

"It seems your pasture is richer than
it looks," I said, smiling. This had once been a busy road between
fortress and temple. The place must be full of such trove. I looked
at the boy. His eyes were clear and lively in the dirty face.
"Well," I added, "I don't actually want to dig for gold, but if you
can help me with some information, there's a copper penny in this
for you. Tell me, have you lived here all your life?"

"Aye."

"Kept sheep in this
valley?"

"Aye. Used to come with my brother.
Then he got sold to a trader and went on a ship. I keep the sheep
now. They're not mine. Master's a big man over to the
hill."

"Do you remember -- " I asked it
without hope; some of the saplings were surely ten years grown. "Do
you remember when this landslide came? When they were rebuilding
the fort, perhaps?" A shake of the tousled head. "It's always been
like this."

"No. It wasn't always like this. When
I was here before, many years ago, there was a good track along the
hillside here, and deep in the side of the hill, just over yonder,
was an underground building. It had once been a temple. In old
times the soldiers used to worship Mithras there. Have you never
heard tell of it?"

Another shake. "From your father,
perhaps?" He grinned. "Tell me who that is, I'll tell you what he
said."

"Your master, then?"

"No. But if it's under there" -- a
jerk of the head toward the scree -- "I know where. There's water
under. Where the water is, that'll be the place,
surely?"

"There was no water when I -- " I
stopped. A prickling ran over my flesh, like a cold
draught.

"Water under where?"

"Under the stones. There. Way under.
Twice a man's height, by the feel of it." I took in the small dirty
figure, the bright grey eyes, the hazel stick at his feet. "You can
find water under the ground? With the hazel?"

"It's easiest wi' that. But I get the
feeling sometimes, just the same, on my own."

"And metal? Is that the way you found
gold here before?"

"Once. It was a nice bit of a statue
or something. A dog, sort of. The master took it off me. If I found
some more now I wouldn't tell him. But mostly it's copper, copper
coins. Up there in the old buildings."

"I see." I was thinking that when I
found the shrine it had already been a deserted ruin for a century
or more. But when it was built, no doubt it would have been beside
a spring. "If you will show me where the water lies below the
stones, there will be silver in it for you."

He did not move. I thought he looked
wary. "That's where it is, this treasure you're looking
for?"

"I hope so." I smiled at him. "But
it's nothing that you could find for yourself, child. It would take
men with crowbars to shift those stones, and even if you led them
to the place, you would get nothing of what they found. If you show
me now, I promise that you will be paid."

He sat still for a moment or two,
scuffling his bare feet in the dirt. Then, groping inside the skin
kilt that was his only garment, he produced, flat on a dirty palm,
a silver coin. "I was paid, master. There's others knew about the
treasure. How was I to know it was yours? I showed them where to
dig, and they lifted the stones and took the box away."

Silence. Here in the lee of the hill
the wind had no way. The bright world seemed to spin far away, then
steady, and come back. I sat down on a boulder.

"Master?" The boy slipped from his
perch and padded downhill. He stopped near me, peering, but still
poised warily, as if for flight. "Master? If I did wrong
--"

"You did no wrong. How could you know?
No, stay, please, and tell me about it. I shan't hurt you. How
could I? Who were they, and how long ago did they take the box
away?"

He gave me another doubtful look, then
appeared to take me at my word. He spoke eagerly. "Only two days
since. It was two men, I don't know them, slaves they were, and
they came with the lady."

"The lady?"

At something in my face he stepped
back half a pace, then stood his ground. "Aye. Came two days ago,
she did. She must have had magic, I think. Went straight to it,
like a bitch to the porridge-pot. Pointed almost to the very place,
and said, 'Try there.' The two fellows started shifting the rocks.
I was sitting up there. When they'd been at it for a bit, they were
moving the wrong way, so I went down. Told her what I told you,
that I could find things. 'Well,' she says, 'there's metal hid
somewhere hereabout. I've lost the map,' she says, 'but I know it's
here. The owner sent me. If you can show us where to dig, there's a
silver coin in it for you.' So I found it. Metal! It took the hazel
clean from my hand, like a big dog snatching a bone. A powerful
kind of gold there must have been there?"

"Indeed," I said. "You saw them find
it?"

"Aye. I waited for my pay,
see?"

"Of course. What was it
like?"

"A box, so by so." Gestures sketched
the size. "It looked heavy. They never opened it. She made them lay
it down, then she laid her hands right across it, like this. I told
you she had magic. She looked right up there, right into Wyddfa, as
if she was talking to the spirit. You know, the one that lives
there. It made a sword once, they say. The King has it now. Merlin
got it for him from the King of the hills."

"Yes," I said. "Then?"

"They took it away."

"Did you see where they
went?"

"Well, yes. Down toward the town." He
shuffled his toes in the dirt, regarding me with clouded eyes. "She
did say the owner sent her. Was that a lie? She was very
sweet-spoken, and the slaves had badges with a crown on. I thought
she was a queen."

"So she was," I said. I straightened
my back. "Don't look like that, child, you have done nothing wrong.
In fact, you have done more than most men would have done in your
place: you told me the truth. You could have earned another silver
coin if you had kept your mouth shut, showed me the place, and gone
on your way. So I shall pay you, as I promised. Here."

"But this is silver, master. And for
nothing."

"Not for nothing. You gave me news
that must be worth half the kingdom, or even more. A king's ransom,
don't they call it?" I got to my feet. "Don't try to understand me.
Stay here in peace, and watch your sheep and find your fortune, and
the gods be with you."

"And with you too, master," said he,
staring.

"It may be," I said, "that they still
are. All they have to do now is to send another ship in the wake of
the first one, and take me south."

I left him looking wonderingly after
me, with the silver coin clutched tightly in the dirty
hand.

A south-bound ship docked next day at
noon, and sailed again with the evening tide. I was on board, and
stayed prostrate and suffering until she came, five days later,
safely into the Severn Channel.

5

The winds stayed strong, but variable.
By the time we reached the Channel, the weather had settled to
fair, so we did not put in at Maridunum, but held straight on up
the estuary.

Enquiries had told me that the Orc,
Morgause's ship, had been bound for Ynys Witrin, putting in at
least twice on the way. It was possible, since by good luck mine
was a fast ship, that Morgause and her party might not be too far
ahead of me. I suppose I might have bribed the master of my ship to
put in at the Island also, but nothing could have saved me there
from recognition, with the consequent uproar that I had striven to
avoid. Had I known when I saw Morgause that she had the things of
power with her from the Mithraeum, and had still (since the boy's
judgment seemed good) some magic in her hands, I would have felt
bound, whatever the risks, to sail with her in the Orc, though I
might never have survived the voyage.