Legacy: Arthurian Saga (92 page)

The pale-faced man was straining
forward, open-mouthed, and I saw the shoulders of another shift
under his woollen cloak as if with cold. Stilicho's eyes were like
shieldbosses.

"...It is the Isle of Maidens, where
kings are carried at their endings. And there will come a day
--"

"My lord! I have seen it myself!" That
the pale man should interrupt a prophet apparently on the point of
prophecy showed a nerve scraped raw. "I have seen it myself! When I
was a boy I saw it! Clear, as clear as the Cassiterides on a fair
day after rain. But it seemed an empty land."

"It is not empty. And it is not only
there when men like you can see it. It can be found even in winter,
for those who know how to find it. But there are not many who can
travel to it and then return."

Crinas had listened without moving,
his face expressionless. "Then he's on Cornish land?"

"You know it too?"

There was no hint of mockery in my
voice, but he said with a snap: "I do not," and set down his empty
cup and made ready to rise. I saw his hand go to his swordbelt. "Is
this the message we have to take back to the King?"

At a movement of his head the others
rose with him. Stilicho set the winejug down with a clatter, but I
shook my head at him and laughed. "It would go hard with you, I
think, if that were all. And hard with me, to have fresh spies set
on me. For all our sakes, I'll set his mind at rest. Will you bear
a letter back to London for me?"

Crinas stood still a moment, his eyes
fast on mine. Then he relaxed, his thumb hooking harmlessly in his
belt. When I heard his breath of relief I knew how near he had been
to questioning me further in the only way he knew. "Willingly,
sir."

"Then wait a while longer, Sit down
again. Fill their cups, Stilicho."

The letter to Uther was brief. I began
by asking after his health, then wrote that, according to my
private sources of information, the prince was well. As soon as the
spring came, I told him, I intended to travel and see the boy
myself. Meantime I would watch him in my own way, and send the King
all the news there was.

After I had sealed the message I took
it back into the outer cave. The men had been talking quickly among
themselves in undertones, while Stilicho hovered with the winejug.
They broke off as I came in, and got to their feet. I handed the
letter to Crinas.

"Anything else I have to say is in
that letter. He will be satisfied." I added: "Even if your mission
did not work out precisely to orders, you have nothing to fear from
the King. Leave me now, and the god of going watch you on your
way."

They went at last, perhaps not so
grateful as they might have been for my parting invocation. As they
hurried out across the frost I saw the quick sidelong glances into
the shadows, and the hunching of cloaks close round their shoulders
as if the night were breathing on their backs. As they passed the
holy well every one of them made a sign, and I do not think that
the last -- Crinas' -- was the sign of the Cross.

7

The sound of their horses' hoofs
dwindled down the valley track. Stilicho came racing back from the
cliff above the grove.

"They've all gone." His eyes were
wide, dilated not only with the frosty dark. "My lord, I thought
they were going to kill you."

"It was possible. They were brave men,
and they were frightened. It's a risky combination, especially as
one of them was a Christian."

He was on to that as quickly as a
house dog on to a rat. "Meaning he didn't believe you?"

"Meaning just that. He was sure he
didn't believe me, but he wouldn't have staked anything on its
being a lie. Now find me some food, Stilicho, will you? It doesn't
matter what, but hurry, and put together what you can for a
journey. I'll see to my clothes myself. Is the mare
ready?"

"Why, yes, lord, but -- you're going
tonight?"

"As soon as I can. This is the chance
I have been waiting for. They've shown themselves, and by the time
they find that the trail I gave them is false I shall be gone --
vanished to the island beyond the west...Now, you know what to do;
we've talked of it many times."

This was true. We had planned that,
when I went, Stilicho would remain at Bryn Myrddin, fetching and
carrying supplies as usual, keeping up for as long as he could the
illusion that I was still at home. I had built up a store of
medicines, and for some time now had let him compound the simpler
ones himself and dispense them to the poor folk who came up the
valley, so they would not suffer by my absence, and it would be a
little time before anyone would raise a question. We might not gain
much time in this way, but I should gain enough. Once I was across
the nearer hills and had reached the valley tracks in the forest, I
would be hard indeed to follow.

So now Stilicho merely nodded, and ran
to do as I bade him. In a very short time food was ready, and while
I ate he packed together what I would need for the journey. I could
see he was bursting with questions, so I let him talk. I could talk
to him haltingly in his own tongue, but mainly he got along with
his fluent but heavily accented Latin. Since we had left
Constantinopolis most of his natural lively spirits had flowed in
my direction; he had to talk to someone, and it would have been
cruelty to insist on the silent respect which Gaius had tried to
instill. Besides, this is not my way. So, as he hurried about his
tasks, the questions came eagerly.

"My lord, if that man Crinas didn't
really believe in the Isle of Glass, and he had to have the
information about the prince, why did he go away?"

"To read my letter. He thinks the
truth will be in that."

His eyes widened. "But he'll never
dare open a letter to the King! Did you write the truth in
it?"

I raised my brows at him. "The truth?
Don't you believe in the Isle of Glass, either?"

"Oh, yes. Everyone knows about that."
He was solemn. "Even in Sicily we knew of the invisible island
beyond the west. But that's not where you're going now, I'd stake
anything on that!"

"Why so sure?"

He gave me a limpid look. "You, lord?
Across the Western Sea? In winter? I'll believe anything, but not
that! If you could use magic instead of a ship, we'd have journeyed
more easily in the Middle Sea. Do you remember the storm off
Pylos?"

I laughed. "With no magic but
mandragora...Too well, I remember it. No, Stilicho, I gave nothing
away in the letter. That letter will never get to the King. They
weren't King's men."

"Not King's men?" He paused,
open-mouthed, to stare, then remembered himself and stooped again
over the saddlebag he was packing. "How do you know? Did you know
them?"

"No. But Uther doesn't use troops to
spy; how could he hope to keep them secret? These are troops, sent
-- as Crinas told me -- to ask questions in the market and the
taverns in Maridunum, and then to search this place while we were
out of it, and find, if not the prince, some clue to him. They
weren't even spies. What spy would dare go back to his master and
say he had been discovered, but had been given a letter to carry
for his victim, with the information in it? I tried to make it easy
for them, and it's possible they think they deceived me, but in any
case they had to take the chance and get their hands on the letter.
I give Crinas best, he's a quick thinker. When I caught them at it,
he did well enough. It wasn't his fault that the other man gave him
away."

"What do you mean, lord?"

"The small man with the pale face. I
heard him say something in his own tongue. I doubt if Crinas heard
it. He was speaking in Cornish. So later I spoke of the Isle of
Glass, and described the bay, and he knew of that, too, and the
Cassiterides. They are islands off the Cornish coast, ones in which
even Crinas must believe."

"Cornish?" asked the boy, trying the
word.

"From Cornwall, in the
south-west."

"Queen's men, then?" Stilicho had not
spent all his time in London in the stillroom with Morgause. He
listened almost as much as he talked, and had regaled me
continually since we left Uther's court with what "they" were
saying about every subject under the sun. "They said she was still
in the south-west after the last lying in."

"That's true. And she might use
Cornishmen for secret work, but I think not. Neither the King nor
the Queen keep Cornish troops close to them these days."

"There are Cornish troops at Caerleon.
I heard it in the town."

I looked up sharply. "Are there
indeed? Under whom?"

"I didn't hear. I could find out." He
was looking at me eagerly, but I shook my head.

"No. The less you know about it, the
better. Leave it now. They'll stop watching me for the length of
time it takes to read that letter, and by the time they find
someone who can read Greek --"

"Greek?"

"The King has a Greek secretary," I
said blandly. "I didn't see why I should make it easy. And I doubt
if they know I suspect them. They'll be in no hurry. Besides, I put
something in the letter to make them think I would stay here until
spring."

"Will they come back?"

"I doubt it. What are they to do? Come
back to tell me they read the King's letter, and are not King's
men? As long as they think I'm here, they will be afraid to do
that, in case I report to the King. They dare not kill me, and they
dare not let me find out who they are. They will keep away. As it
is, the next time you go into Maridunum, see that a message is sent
to the garrison commander to watch for these Cornishmen, and tell
him to report what has happened to the King. We may as well use his
spies to guard us from the others...There, I've finished. You've
packed the food? Fill the flask now, will you?

Meanwhile, if anyone does come up
here, what is your story?"

"That you have been out daily on the
hillside, and that you went last towards Abba's valley, and that I
think you must be staying to help him with the sheep." He looked up
doubtfully. "They won't believe me."

"Why not? You're an accomplished liar.
Be careful, you're spilling that wine."

"A prince help with the sheep? It's
not very likely."

"I've done stranger things," I said.
"They'll believe you. In any case, it's true. Where do you think I
got the bloodstains on my old cloak today?"

"Killing someone, I
thought."

He was quite serious. I laughed. "That
doesn't happen often, and usually by mistake."

He shook his head in unbelief, and
stoppered the wine. "If those men had drawn swords on you, my lord,
would you have stopped them with magic?"

"I hardly needed magic, with your
dagger so ready. I haven't thanked you yet for your courage,
Stilicho. It was well done."

He looked surprised. "You're my
master."

"I bought you for money, and gave you
back the freedom you were born with. What sort of a debt is
that?"

He merely looked without
understanding, and presently said: "There, all's ready, lord. You
will want your thick boots, and the sheepskin cloak. Shall I get
Strawberry ready while you dress?"

"In a moment," I said. "Come here.
Look at me. I have promised you that you will be safe here. This is
true; I have seen no danger coming, not for you. But once I am
clear away, if you are afraid, go down to the mill and stay
there."

"Yes, lord."

"Don't you believe me?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you afraid?"

He hesitated, swallowing. Then he
said: "The music they spoke of, lord. What was it? Was it really
from the gods?"

"In a way. My harp speaks sometimes,
of itself, when the air moves. I think that's what they heard and,
because they were guilty, they were afraid."

He glanced over to the corner where
the big harp stood. I had had it sent across from Brittany, and
since I had come home had used it constantly, restoring the other
to its place. "That one? How could it, lord, muffled like that
against the air?"

"No, not that one. That harp stays
dumb until I touch it. I meant the little one I traveled with. I
made it myself, here in this cave with Galapas the magician to help
me."

He wetted his lips. You could see that
this was hardly a reassurance. "I've not seen it since we got home.
Where do you keep it?"

"I was going to show you anyway,
before I left. Come, boy, there's no need for you to fear it.
You've carried it yourself a thousand times. Now, get me a torch,
and come and see."

I led him to the back of the main
chamber. I had never shown him the crystal cave, and, because I
kept my chest of books and my table across the rough rock-slope
that led to the ledge, he had never climbed that way and found it.
Now I motioned him to help me shift the table, and holding the
torch high, mounted to the shadowy ledge where the crystal cave lay
hidden. I knelt down at the entrance and beckoned him forward
beside me.