"Partially. " He was still far from convinced. "I'm an infantry commander, Cay, not a cavalryman. "
"Horse turds. The Scouts are yours. You created diem. They'd follow you into Hades. " I stopped, then spoke more quietly. "Look, Ambrose, it's too important to decide right now, tonight, in haste. Why don't you think about it overnight. Then, in the morning, if you're still reluctant, we'll proceed as planned. Either one of us can go to either place. It simply seems more sensible to me that we should make the most of what we have, and that means using your skills in the northeast and mine in the west, where we are both familiar with the surroundings. Will you think about it?'
He smiled. "No need to think On it. You are obviously right, and what you have said makes sense in every detail. We'll do as you suggest. But there's a price to pay, for convincing me so easily to accept your plan over my own. "
"And what is that?"
"I want to take young Arthur with me, make the next stage of his training my responsibility. You've had the shaping of him exclusively for six years and more. I think it might be good for him to have a change of teacher, at this stage, and it might be safer for him, too. You will be riding into certain war in Cambria, with all its risks. I might encounter no hostility at all in the northeast. What say you?"
I did not even have to hesitate. "I think young Arthur will be delighted, and you're right about the risk. Good. I'll pay your price, and I'll take on young Bedwyr. But you've reminded me of another thing I wanted to ask you about. I saw a school on the plain, today, did I not? Is it a school?'
"Yes, it is. One of Ludmilla's female Councillors suggested it, about four years ago, and it started the year before last, in the late summer. What about it?"
'Tell me about the priests I saw there. "
He looked surprised. "What do you want to know?"
"Who are they and where did they come from? Were they invited here, and if so, why? They looked to me to be monastics. "
The corner of my brother's mouth flickered upwards, but he did not quite smile. "Monastics? There are few monastics in Britain, Cay, to the best of my knowledge. " He paused. "That is a fashion of worship and a way of life that has not yet come to our shores. The men you ask about live in seclusion, communally, cut off from the world... but they are not monastics in the sense I believe you mean, the monastics from beyond the seas. "
"Brother, you are making no sense at all. "
He sipped at his mead and swilled it around in his mouth before swallowing. "I am making perfect sense, Cay, and you'll agree, once you understand what I'm talking about. The men you saw today, although they are not priests, are from the ancient Christian community at Glastonbury, not twenty miles from here. They are followers of your good friend Germanus, who, as you may recall, decreed at Verulamium that schools should be set up to teach the ways and the word of God to the youth of this country. "
That gave me pause. Glastonbury was the oldest seat of Christianity in Britain, and there had been a community of anchorites in residence there almost since the days of the Christ himself. Some said, indeed, that the Christ himself had visited the place. I had heard the tale told several times, but I gave it no credence. The thought of the carpenter of Galilee travelling to the wilds of western Britain had always struck me, as it had most people, as being ludicrous. Nevertheless, there had always been a religious community in residence there, living in a collection of stone walled hovels high on the shelving beach above the surrounding marshes, huddled at the base of the high tor that gave the place its name, and barely subsisting on the charity of local residents. I saw immediately what Ambrose had meant by calling diem monastics. The new fashion among the religious overseas was to gather in closed communities, living in filth and poverty and in contemplation of God's works, eschewing the temptations of Devil, World and Flesh. The anchorites of Glastonbury had been living that way for hundreds of years, quietly and without notice.
"I've never been there," I said. "I've heard tell of it, but never in any way that might have attracted me. How did the priests come here?"
Ambrose smiled. "I invited them. I have been there, you see."
I looked at him in amazement. "You have? Why would you go there? There's nothing there but the tor."
"And the community. We had a visitor, in the summer, four years ago, a churchman named Ludovic who had come from Gaul, from Germanus, and was on his way to Glastonbury. His ship had been blown off course and wrecked on the north Cornish coast, and he had been washed ashore, clinging to a piece of wreckage. From there he'd made his way towards us on foot. Our guards found him on our perimeter and brought him here to me. He spent a week with us, and then I escorted him to Glastonbury. That's where I met my namesake, Ambrose, who is the leader of the congregation there. Ludovic had brought Ambrose word from Germanus, bidding him send his people out to set up schools. That was coincidence, because we had just heard from our Women's Council that they wished us to establish a school of some description here in Camulod. There was a fatefulness to it that I could not ignore, and so Ambrose's people came down here the following year, once we had built our school, and began teaching. "
"Teaching what?"
"Christianity, mainly, its principles and tenets. Not all of them are literate themselves—very few are, in fact. Ambrose teaches writing and reading, and so does Thomas. Baloric, the eldest of them, knows computation and Euclid's geometry, so he teaches those subjects to a small number of our brightest. These men refer to themselves as the Fraternity of Joseph, and their lives consist of work and prayer. They spend the autumn and winter months with us, once the harvest is gathered in, but they return to their community in spring and remain there through the summer, while our children are working with their parents in the fields. "
"Hmm. And you are satisfied their presence here is a benefit to the Colony?"
"Completely satisfied. "
"Good, then I'll say no more about them. Just don't expect me to ride to Glastonbury with them, though. My Christianity does not extend that far. "
"We demonstrate our own beliefs in our own ways. " He smiled again.
"What does that mean?"
"Whatever you wish it to mean. Some of us live our beliefs in our hearts, others show them more openly. That's all. "
"Aye, well... " I looked at the fire, and it had burned low again, mere embers glowing in the bottom of the iron basket. "It's late, but we still have to talk about young Arthur. "
"Arthur's grown tall. No doubting he is one of us. And he's filling out hugely. "
"Aye, and he's fallen in love, too."
I told him briefly about Arthur's thunderboltng, and we laughed gently together before Ambrose asked, "You think it's time he learned to go to war?"
"I do, and I've promised him he can ride out with us, he and his friends, Bedwyr, Gwin and Ghilly. They're of the age for it. But we'll have to separate them. They'll learn best in isolation from each other. You will take Arthur with you into the northeast, on this first foray. When you return, we two will be his teachers. He knows he must start out as a mere slave, a servant and a messenger. He'll tend our weapons, polish our armour, bed down our animals, run errands for us and learn to stand on his own feet and trust his own judgment. Meanwhile, I'll take young Bedwyr with me into Cambria, and perhaps Ghilly, too, though he's a year younger. He might serve well with Philip, on campaign, for I know he was impressed with Philip when he commanded our garrison."