Merlin

'Are you indeed?' I asked scornfully. 'When was the last time you stood with a naked blade in your hand under the blast of Saecsen battlehorns, while a host of Saecsen Berserkers flew towards you over the battleground?' The man made no reply. 'I tell you that Hengist has assembled the greatest war host yet seen in the Island of the Mighty. And, before the summer is through, he means to have the throne – he will have it, too, for we are too busy squabbling among ourselves to take arms against him.'

There is something in what you say,' allowed Tewdrig.

'There is truth in what I say.'

'What would you have us do?' the king asked.

Two things,' I said. 'First, put aside any notions you might have that you will become High King – that cannot happen. Then, gather the warbands of the Demetae and Silures and ride with me to pledge them to Aurelius.'

'For how long?' asked one of the men.

'For as long as he needs them. For ever."

Tewdrig pulled on his chin and looked from one to the other of his counsellors. This is something that cannot be decided tonight,' he said at length. 'It is late. I will sleep on the matter and give you my decision in the morning.'

'It will wait until morning,' I agreed, rising, then added a warning, 'but no longer. Rest well, Tewdrig.'

THREE

I arose early the next morning for Tewdrig's decision. But the king could not be found. His chamber was empty and no one would say where he went, nor when. I could but wait for him to return – and think the worst while I waited.

Midmorning, at Pelleas' insistence, I broke fast on a few little barley cakes and some watered wine. Then I went outside and walked around the caer, trying to see the old place beneath the new one. It was what I imagined grandfather Elphin's Caer Dyvi in Gwynedd must have been like: all industry and bustle clustered behind a stout earthen rampart topped by a timber wall.

And the people! Were these the same folk I had led in my brief time as king? They dressed not as the Britons I remember, but as the Celts of an older time: the women in long, colourful mantles; the men in bright-checked breeches and tunics; and all with the distinctive plaid cloaks of the Cymry. Their hair was worn long and bound back to hang in tight braids or loose ponytails. Wherever I looked, gold, silver, bronze or copper glinted from every throat and wrist and arm and shoulder – all worked in the cunning designs of the Celtic artisan.

Low-built houses, most of notched logs topped with a neat reed-thatched roof, sheltered one another with but narrow lanes between them, filling what had been the square courtyard of the villa. Tewdrig had a smith whose forge and hut occupied the mound where the old pagan temple had been. The forge was of stone, no doubt the selfsame stone of the temple.

Very well, in the day of strife when men worship steel for their salvation, let the temples become ironworks!

But this morning, so bright with summer's rich promise, the storm clouds seemed far away. Very far, indeed, from this realm of peace. On such a day I feared that Tewdrig's decision would go against me.

Surely, his advisers would say, there is no need to further the claims of an upstart king. What is it to us if he boasts Imperial blood? If Aurelius would be High King, let him win the throne by the might of his sword. Whatever happens it is his business and none of ours; we have our own affairs to worry about.

I could hear them coaxing Tewdrig to do what he was already inclined to do anyway, and I feared my efforts had been wasted. More, if I had misjudged the temper of the Demetae and Silures I had once ruled, how could I expect to fare any better with the kings of the north? Perhaps if I had pressed my claim to the kingship… perhaps, then… but no; the seed was sown. I would have to wait for the harvest.

And wait I did – like a hound waiting before the badger's hole. When would Tewdrig return?

At last – anxious, exasperated, tired of waiting – I dozed off for a light sleep before supper and was roused a short time later by Pelleas' nudge on my shoulder. 'Wake up, master. Lord Tewdrig has returned.'

I sat up instantly alert. 'When?'

'Just now. I heard the shout when the horses entered the yard.'

I stood and splashed water on my face from the laving bowl on the table, dried myself on the linen provided and then, straightening the folds of my cloak over my shoulder, went out to meet the king.

If I was taxed by my ordeal of waiting, Tewdrig appeared exhausted by his. Eyes red-rimmed, face grey with dust and fatigue, he obviously had not slept and had ridden very much further than planned. But a thin smile pulled at the corners of his mouth and, seeing that, I took hope.

'Bring me my cup!' he shouted as he strode into the hall. 'Bring cups for us all!'

I waited for him to come to me, and to speak the first word.

He in turn waited for the cups to be brought and his road-thirst slaked before he would speak. He drank deep and long, drawing out the moment full length. 'Well, Myrddin Emrys,' he said at last, lowering the cup and wiping his moustache with the back of his hand, 'you are looking at King Aurelius' most formidable ally.'

I wanted to let out a wild whoop of joy, but contained myself and simply replied, 'Indeed, I am glad to hear it. But why formidable?'

Tewdng shook his head wearily, 'That I must be to have won against my lords and chieftains – all of whom put up a great resistance to your scheme, using iron-cast arguments which I was hard-pressed to beat down.'

'But you did beat them down.'

'Aye, that I did.' He eyed his counsellors while they stood grimly, their mouths pressed into firm scowls. 'And with no help from anyone here!' He looked at me once more and raised a hand to knead the back of his neck. 'Bless me, Jesu, I wheedled and bargained as if my life depended on it -'

'As well it might!' I told him.

'Be that as it may,' Tewdrig continued, 'I have done well by you this day, Myrddin Emrys. I have bent my honour no little way for you, and do not mind bending it further to tell you that I consider you as deep in my debt as ever any man was.'

'So be it. It is a debt I will repay gladly; for I count it gain to be indebted to so worthy a lord.'

'You should have seen me, Myrddin. Lleu's own tongue flapped in my head this day, and Lleu's logic was on me. Why, Lieu himself could not have argued better!'

Flushed anew with his victory, he bolted down some more beer and continued recklessly, 'When I left here I thought only to give my chieftains a chance to confirm my own thoughts in the matter. Yes, it's true: I was against it. But the more they talked, the more they argued – the more I hardened my heart to their cries.

'Make no mistake, I meant to find reason to refuse you, Myrddin. But I heard in their counsel the sounds of self-satisfied, small-minded men and I did not like that noise. In truth, it frightened me. Have we become so safe, our realm so secure that we no longer need the help of our brother kings? Are we now invincible? Or, have the Saecsens taken wings and fled home over the sea?

‘That,' Tewdrig growled triumphantly, 'is what I asked them, and they had no answer. There it is, Myrddin: I strove against my own chieftains, and I prevailed.' He lifted his cup and I took one up and lifted it to his. 'I drink to the new High King, may his spear fly true!'

We drank and, giving my cup to Pelleas, I raised my hands in the bardic declamation, saying, 'Your loyalty will be rewarded, Tewdrig. And because of the faith you have shown this day, you will win a name that will endure for ever in the land.'

This pleased him enormously, for he broke into a wide-toothed grin. 'My warriors will uphold that loyalty a hundredfold! Let no one ever say that Dyfed did not back its king.'