Part 13 (1/2)

Against the long wall of the room stood a heavy table and bench of carved and polished wood. At one end of the table was the room's single chair, high-backed and ornately carved, but without cus.h.i.+ons. A couple of wooden stools flanked it. The table was set as if for the evening meal, with platters and cups of pewter and red clay and even wood. One part of Mordred's brain - the part that stayed coolly observant in spite of moist skin and rus.h.i.+ng heart - noted with a twist of amus.e.m.e.nt that his half-brothers looked to be in for a meal frugal even by monkish standards. Then the far door opened, and Morgause came into the room.

Once before, when for the first time the ragged fisher-boy had been brought, among the lights and colours of the palace, face to face with the queen, he had had eyes for nothing else; now in this bare and chilly room he forgot it all, and stared at her.

She was still dressed in her chapel-going black, without colour or ornament except a silver cross (a (a cross?) cross?) which hung on her breast. Her hair was plainly braided in two long plaits. She was no longer veiled. She moved forward to stand beside the chair, one hand on its tall back, the other holding a fold of her gown. She waited there in unmoving silence while the waiting-woman latched the door and went with her heavy, deliberate tread across the room to leave by the inner door. As it opened and shut behind her, Mordred caught a glimpse of stacked chairs and the gleam of silver hidden by a pile of coloured stuffs. which hung on her breast. Her hair was plainly braided in two long plaits. She was no longer veiled. She moved forward to stand beside the chair, one hand on its tall back, the other holding a fold of her gown. She waited there in unmoving silence while the waiting-woman latched the door and went with her heavy, deliberate tread across the room to leave by the inner door. As it opened and shut behind her, Mordred caught a glimpse of stacked chairs and the gleam of silver hidden by a pile of coloured stuffs.

Someone spoke quickly and was hushed. Then the door shut quietly and he was alone with the queen.

He stood still, waiting. She turned her head on its poised neck and let the silence hang longer. Light from the window moved in the heavy folds of her skirt, and the silver cross on her breast quivered. Suddenly, like a diver coming up into air, he saw two things clearly: the whitened knuckles of the fist that gripped the black cloth at her side, and the movement of her breast with her quickened breathing. She, too, faced this interview with something less than equanimity. She was as tense as he.

He saw more. The marks against the plaster where hangings had been hastily removed; the lighter patches on the floor where rugs had lain; scratches where chairs and lamps and tables - all the furnis.h.i.+ngs light enough for the women to handle - had been dragged out and stacked in the inner room, along with the cus.h.i.+ons and silver and all the luxuries without which Morgause would have felt herself sadly ill-used. And this was the point. Once more, as had been her habit, Morgause had set the scene.

The plain black clothes, the bare chilly chamber, the lack of attendants - the Queen of Orkney was concerned still with the report that would go back to Arthur, and with what her sons would find. They were to see her as a lonely and oppressed prisoner, kept in sad confinement.

It was enough. Mordred's fear faded. He gave a courtly bow and thereafter stood easily, waiting, apparently quite unperturbed by the silence and the scrutiny of the queen.

She let her hand fall from the chair-back, and taking up a fold of the heavy skirt on the other side, swept to the front of the chair, and sat. She smoothed the black cloth over her knees, folded her hands, white against black, lifted her head, and looked him slowly up and down from head to foot. He saw then that she was wearing the royal circlet of Lothian and Orkney. Its pearls and citrines, set in white gold, glimmered in the red gold of her hair.

When it was apparent that he was neither awed nor disconcerted, she spoke.

”Come nearer. Here, where I can see you. Hm. Yes, very fine. 'Prince Mordred,' it is now, they tell me.

One of the ornaments of Camelot, and a hopeful sword at Arthur's service.”

He bowed again, and said nothing. Her lips thinned.

”So he told you, did he?”

”Yes, madam.”

”The truth? Did he dare?” Her voice was sharp with scorn.

”It seems like the truth. No one would invent such a tale to boast of it.”

”Ah, so the young serpent can hiss. I thought you were my devoted servant, Mordred the fisher-boy?”

”I was, madam. What I owe you, I owe you. But what I owe him, I owe likewise.”

”A moment's l.u.s.t.” She spoke contemptuously. ”A boy after his first battle. An untried young pup that came running to the first woman that whistled him.”

Silence. Her voice rose a fraction. ”Did he tell you that?”

Mordred spoke steadily, in a voice almost devoid of expression. ”He told me that I am his son, begotten by him in ignorance on his half-sister, after the battle at Luguvallium. That immediately afterwards you contrived to marry King Lot, who should have been your sister's lord, and with him went as his queen to Dunpeldyr, where I was born. That King Lot, hearing of the birth too soon after the marriage, and fearful of nurturing what he suspected to be a b.a.s.t.a.r.d of the High King's, tried to have me killed, and to that end drowned all the young children in Dunpeldyr, putting the blame for this upon the King. That you, madam, helped him in this, knowing that you had already sent me to safety in the islands, where Brude and Sula had been paid to care for me.”

She leaned forward. Her hands moved to the chair-arms, gripping. ”And did Arthur tell you that he, too, wanted you dead? Did he tell you that, Mordred?”

”He did not need to. I would have known it, anyway.”

”What do you mean?” she asked sharply.

Mordred shrugged. ”It would have been reasonable. The High King looked then to have other sons, by his queen. Why should he wish to keep me, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d out of his enemy?” His look challenged her. ”You cannot deny that you are his enemy, nor that Lot was. And that is why you kept me, isn't it? I used to wonder why you paid Brude to keep me, Lot's son. And I was right to wonder. You would never have kept Lot's son by another woman. There was one called Macha, was there not? A woman whose baby son was put in my cradle, to draw Lot's sword and let your son escape?”

For a moment she made no answer. She had lost colour. Then she said, ignoring his last statement: ”So, I kept you from Lot's vengeance. You know that. You admit it. What did you say a moment ago? That what you owe me, you owe me. Your life, then. Twice, Mordred, twice.” She leaned forward. Her voice throbbed. ”Mordred, I am your mother. Don't forget that. I bore you. For you I suffered-”

His look stopped her. She had a moment to consider that any of her four sons by Lot would have already been at her knees. But not this one. Not Arthur's son.

He was speaking, coldly. ”You gave me life, yes, for a moment's l.u.s.t. You said that, not I. But it was true, was it not, madam? A woman whistling up a boy to her bed. A boy she knew to be her half-brother, but who she also knew would one day be a great king. I owe you nothing for that.”

She flared suddenly, shrilly, into anger. ”How dare you? You, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d sp.a.w.n, hatched in a hovel by a pair of filthy peasants, to speak to me-”

He moved. Suddenly he was as angry as she. His eyes blazed. ”They say, don't they, that the sun begets sp.a.w.n on the reptiles as they lie in the mud?”

Silence. Then she drew in a hissing breath. She sat back in her chair, and her hands clasped again in her lap. With his momentary loss of control, she had regained hers. She said, softly: ”Do you remember going with me once into a cave?”

Again silence. He moistened his lips, but said nothing.

She nodded. ”I thought you had forgotten. Then let me remind you. Let me remind you to fear me, my son Mordred. I am a witch. I shall remind you of that, and of a curse I once laid on Merlin, who also took it upon himself to berate me for that unguarded night of love. He, like you, forgot that it takes two to make a child.”

He stirred. ”A night of love and a birthing does not make a mother, madam. I owed Sula more, and Brude. I said I owed you nothing. It's not true. I owe you their deaths. Their hideous deaths. You killed them.”

”I? What folly is this?”

”Would you deny it? I should have suspected it long ago. But now I know. Gabran confessed before he died.”

That shook her. To his surprise, he realized that she had not known. The colour came to her cheeks and faded again. She was very pale. ”Gabran dead?”

”Yes.”

”How?”

Mordred said, with satisfaction: ”I killed him.”

”You? For that?”

”Why else? If it grieves you - but I see that it does not. If you had even asked for him, or looked for him, someone would have told you, you would have known. Do you not even care about his death?”

”You talk like a green fool. What use was Gabran to me here? Oh, he was a good lover, but Arthur would never have let him come to me here. Is that all he told you?”

”That is all he was asked. Why, did he do other murders for you? Was it he who served Merlin the poison?”

”That was years ago. Tell me, has the old wizard been talking to you? Is it he who has put you under his spell as Arthur's man?”

”I have not spoken with him,” said Mordred. ”I've barely seen him. He has gone back into Wales.”

”Then did your father the High King” - the words spat - ”who has been so open with you, did he tell you what Merlin promised? For you?”

He answered, dry-mouthed: ”You told me. I remember it. But all that you told me then was lies. You said he was my enemy. That was a lie. All of it, lies! Neither is Merlin my enemy! All this talk of a promise-”