Legacy: Arthurian Saga (57 page)

"Oh, yes, he will move." I lifted a
hand. "But listen to me. I will talk to the King before the
crowning. He will know that the story you told Gorlois was a lie.
He will know that I have told you to go to Cornwall. He will feign
rage, and he will swear in public to be revenged for the insult put
on him by Gorlois at the crowning...And he will make ready to
follow you to Cornwall as soon as the feast is over --"

"But meanwhile our troops will be
safely out of London without trouble. Yes, I see. I did not
understand you. Go on." She drove her hands inside the sleeves of
the blue robe, and clasped her elbows, cradling her breasts. She
was not so ice-calm as she looked, the Lady Ygraine. "And
then?"

"And you will be safely at home," I
said, "with your honor and Cornwall 's unbroken."

"Safely, yes. I shall be in Tintagel,
and even Uther cannot come at me there. Have you seen the
stronghold, Merlin? The cliffs of that coast are high and cruel,
and from them runs a thin bridge of rock, the only way to the
island where the castle stands. This bridge is so narrow that men
can only go one at a time, not even a horse. Even the landward end
of the bridge is guarded by a fortress on the main cliff, and
within the castle there is water, and food for a year. It is the
strongest place in Cornwall. It cannot be taken from the land, and
it cannot be approached by sea. If you wish to shut me away forever
from Uther, this is the place to send me."

"So I have heard. This will be, then,
where Gorlois will send you. If Uther follows, lady, would Gorlois
be content to wait inside the stronghold with you for a year like a
beast in a trap? And could his troops be taken in with
him?"

She shook her head. "If it cannot be
taken, neither can it be used as a base. All one can do is sit out
the siege."

"Then you must persuade him that
unless he is content to wait inside while the King's troops ravage
Cornwall, he himself must be outside, where he can
fight."

She struck her hands together. "He
will do that. He could not wait and hide and let Cornwall suffer.
Nor can I understand your plan, Merlin. If you are trying to save
your King and your kingdom from me, then say so. I can feign
sickness here, until Uther finds he has to let me go home. We could
go home without insult, and without bloodshed."

I said sharply: "You said you would
listen. Time runs short." She was still again. "I am
listening."

"Gorlois will lock you in Tintagel.
Where will he go himself to face Uther?"

"To Dimilioc. It is a few miles from
Tintagel, up the coast. It is a good fortress, and good country to
fight from. But then what? Do you think Gorlois will not fight?"
She moved across to the fireside and sat down, and I saw her steady
her hands deliberately, spreading the fingers on her knee. "And do
you think the King can come to me in Tintagel, whether Gorlois is
there or no?"

"If you do as I have bid you, you and
the King may have speech and comfort one of the other. And you will
do this in peace. No" -- as her head came up sharply -- "this part
of it you leave with me. This is where we come to magic. Trust me
for the rest. Get yourself only to Tintagel, and wait. I shall
bring Uther to you there. And I promise you now, for the King, that
he shall not give battle to Gorlois, and that after he and you have
met in love, Cornwall shall have peace. As to how this will be, it
is with God. I can only tell you what I know. What power is in me
now, is from him, and we are in his hands to make or to destroy.
But I can tell you this also, Ygraine, that I have seen a bright
fire burning, and in it a crown, and a sword standing in an altar
like a cross."

She got to her feet quickly, and for
the first time there was a kind of fear in her eyes. She opened her
mouth as if to speak, then closed her lips again and turned back
towards the window. Again she stopped short of it, but I saw her
lift her head as if longing for the air. She should have been
winged. If she had spent her youth walled in Tintagel it was no
wonder she wanted to fly.

She raised her hands and pushed back
the hair from her brows. She spoke to the window, not looking at
me. "I will do this. If I tell him I am with child, he will take me
to Tintagel. It is the place where all the dukes of Cornwall are
born. And after that I have to trust you." She turned then and
looked at me, dropping her hands. "If once I can have speech with
him...even just that...But if you have brought bloodshed to
Cornwall through me, or death to my husband, then I shall spend the
rest of my life praying to any gods there are that you, too,
Merlin, shall die betrayed by a woman."

"I am content to face your prayers.
And now I must go. Is there someone you can send with me? I'll make
a draught for you and send it back. It will only be poppy; you can
take it and not fear."

"Ralf can go, my page. You'll find him
outside the door. He is Marcia's grandson, and can be trusted as I
trust her." She nodded to the old woman, who moved to open the door
for me.

"Then any message I may have to send
you," I said, "I shall send through him by my man Cadal. And now
good night."

When I left her she was standing quite
still in the center of the room, with the firelight leaping round
her.

6

We had a wild ride to
Cornwall.

Easter that year had fallen as early
as it ever falls, so we were barely out of winter and into spring
when, on a black wild night, we halted our horses on the clifftop
near Tintagel, and peered down into the teeth of the wind. There
were only the four of us, Uther, myself, Ulfin, and Cadal.
Everything, so far, had gone smoothly and according to plan. It was
getting on towards midnight on the twenty-fourth of
March.

Ygraine had obeyed me to the letter. I
had not dared, that night in London, to go straight from her
quarters to Uther's chamber, in case this should be reported to
Gorlois; but in any case Uther would be asleep. I had visited him
early next morning, while he was being bathed and made ready for
the crowning. He sent the servants away, except for Ulfin, and I
was able to tell him exactly what he must do. He looked the better
for his drugged sleep, greeted me briskly enough, and listened with
eagerness in the bright, hollow eyes.

"And she will do as you
say?"

"Yes. I have her word. Will
you?"

"You know that I will." He regarded me
straightly. "And now will you not tell me about the
outcome?"

"I told you. A child."

"Oh, that." He hunched an impatient
shoulder. "You are like my brother; he thought of nothing
else...Still working for him, are you?"

"You might say so."

"Well, I must get one sooner or later,
I suppose. No, I meant Gorlois. What will come to him? There's a
risk, surely?"

"Nothing is done without risk. You
must do the same as I, you must take the time on trust. But I can
tell you that your name, and your kingdom, will survive the night's
work."

A short silence. He measured me with
his eyes. "From you, I suppose that is enough. I am
content."

"You do well to be. You will outlive
him, Uther."

He laughed suddenly. "God's grief,
man, I could have prophesied that myself! I can give him thirty
years, and he's no stay-at-home when it comes to war. Which is one
good reason why I refuse to have his blood on my hands. So, on that
same account..."

He turned then to Ulfin and began to
give his orders. It was the old Uther back again, brisk, concise,
clear. A messenger was to go immediately to Caerleon, and troops to
be dispatched from there to North Cornwall. Uther himself would
travel there straight from London as soon as he was able, riding
fast with a small bodyguard to where his troops would be encamped.
In this way the King could be hard on Gorlois' heels, even though
Gorlois would leave today, and the King must stay feasting his
peers for four more long days. Another man was to ride out
immediately along our proposed route to Cornwall, and see that good
horses were ready at short stages all the way.

So it came about as I had planned. I
saw Ygraine at the crowning, still, composed, erect, and with
downcast eyes, and so pale that if I had not seen her the night
before, I myself would have believed her story true. I shall never
cease to wonder at women. Even with power, it is not possible to
read their minds. Duchess and slut alike, they need not even study
to deceive. I suppose it is the same with slaves, who live with
fear, and with those animals who disguise themselves by instinct to
save their lives. She sat through the long, brilliant ceremony,
like wax which at any moment may melt to collapse; then afterwards
I caught a glimpse of her, supported by her women, leaving the
throng as the bright pomp moved slowly to the hall of feasting.
About halfway through the feast, when the wine had gone round well,
I saw Gorlois, unremarked, leave the hall with one or two other men
who were answering the call of nature. He did not come
back.

Uther, to one who knew the truth, may
not have been quite so convincing as Ygraine, but between
exhaustion and wine and his ferocious exultation at what was to
come, he was convincing enough. Men talked among themselves in
hushed voices about his rage when he discovered Gorlois' absence,
and his angry vows to take vengeance as soon as his royal guests
had gone. If that anger were a little over-loud and his threats too
fierce against a Duke whose only fault was the protection of his
own wife, the King had been intemperate enough before for men to
see this as part of the same picture. And so bright now was Uther's
star, so dazzling the luster of the crowned Pendragon, that London
would have forgiven him a public rape. They could less easily
forgive Ygraine for having refused him.

So we came to Cornwall. The messenger
had done his work well, and our ride, in hard short stages of no
more than twenty miles apiece, took us two days and a night. We
found our troops waiting encamped at the place selected -- a few
miles in from Hercules Point and just outside the Cornish border --
with the news that, however she had managed it, Ygraine was fast in
Tintagel with a small body of picked men, while her husband with
the rest of his force had descended on Dimilioc, and sent a call
round for the men of Cornwall to gather to defend their Duke. He
must know of the presence of the King's troops so near his border,
but no doubt he would expect them to wait for the King's coming,
and could have as yet no idea that the King was already
there.

We rode secretly into our camp at
dusk, and went, not to the King's quarters, but to those of a
captain he could trust. Cadal was there already, having gone ahead
to prepare the disguises which I meant us to wear, and to await
Ralf's message from Tintagel when the time was ripe.

My plan was simple enough, with the
kind of simplicity that often succeeds, and it was helped by
Gorlois' habit, since his marriage, of riding back nightly where he
could -- from Dimilioc or his other fortresses -- to visit his
wife. I suppose there had been too many jests about the old man's
fondness, and he had formed the habit (Ralf had told me) of riding
back secretly, using the private gate, a hidden postern to which
access was difficult unless one knew the way. My plan was simply to
disguise Uther, Ulfin, and myself to pass, if we were seen, as
Gorlois and his companion and servant, and ride to Tintagel by
night. Ralf would arrange to be on duty himself at the postern, and
would meet us and lead us up the secret path. Ygraine had by some
means persuaded Gorlois -- this had been the greatest danger -- not
to visit her himself that night, and would dismiss all her women
but Marcia. Ralf and Cadal had arranged between them what clothes
we should wear: the Cornwall party had ridden from London in such a
hurry on the night of the coronation feast that some of their
baggage had been left behind, and it had been simple to find
saddle-cloths with the blazon of Cornwall, and even one of Gorlois'
familiar war cloaks with the double border of silver. Ralf's latest
message had been reassuring; the time was ripe, the night black
enough to hide us and wild enough to keep most men within doors. We
set off after it was full dark, and the four of us slipped out of
camp unobserved. Once clear of our own lines we went at a gallop
for Tintagel, and it would have been only the keen eye of suspicion
which could have told that this was not the Duke of Cornwall with
three companions, riding quickly home to his wife. Uther's beard
had been greyed, and a bandage came down one side of his face to
cover the corner of his mouth, and give some reason -- should he be
forced to talk -- for any strangeness in his speech. The hood of
his cloak, pulled down low as was natural on such a fierce night,
shadowed his features. He was straighter and more powerful than
Gorlois, but this was easy enough to disguise, and he wore
gauntlets to hide his hands, which were not those of an old man.
Ulfin passed well enough as one Jordan, a servant of Gorlois whom
we had chosen as being the nearest to Ulfin's build and coloring. I
myself wore the clothes of Brithael, Gorlois' friend and captain:
he was an older man than I, but his voice was not unlike mine, and
I could speak good Cornish. I have always been good at voices. I
was to do what talking proved necessary. Cadal came with us
undisguised; he was to wait with the horses outside and be our
messenger if we should need one.