Ides of the May (Children of the May 2 - updates weekly)

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Mines (part two)

‘I cannea believe you lied to my da!’ said Agravaine later that afternoon, once we were aboard the fast ship that was to take us along the coast. ‘Why would you do that, Drift?’

‘I-I-I-I don’t know,’ I said, and I really wasn’t sure. My instinct had been that it was important Lot didn’t send Mordred away. If our friend was ever to come to terms with what Neave had told him about his birth parents, then I thought he should at least have a chance to have his sister by his side.

‘Gods, Drift,’ said Agravaine, in quiet, cutting fury. ‘I should put you in the brig for treason.’

I shrugged ‘H-H-He’s not m-m-my king. C-C-C-Can you be a t-t-t-traitor against a k-k-kingdom to which you d-d-don’t belong?’

‘’Course not,’ said Elia, who had, of course, been listening to our conversation from across the deck. ‘Drift’s more in the manner of an ambassador from the Lake, and you don’t expect ambassadors to tell you the truth all the time. Or... actually Drift, are you the Lord of the Lake now? Is it yours?’

‘N-N-No,’ I said flatly. ‘My M-M-M-Mother’s still alive. I-I-I wouldn’t w-want it anyway. It’s m-m-my sister Nerina’s if it’s anyone’s.’

‘Still,’ said Agravaine. ‘Dinnea ever lie to me, alright?’ And with that he strode across the deck to where the others were disembarking into a rowboat. 

We were a few miles around the headland west of Tintagel. All of the May-children were with us, apart from Palomina, who King Lot had deemed too important to the fleet to come with us. Alisander had wanted to stay with Sir Bagdamegus, but Aglinda had insisted the lad came along, taunting him as a scaredy-cat until he agreed. Martha was still too weak to join us, and Petal thought John of the Marsh too large to crawl through the small spaces she knew. So in our boat were Mordred, who had sneaked out of the hold of Sagwarides’ ship, Melwas, Agravaine, Alisander, Aglinda, Piers, Palomides, Elia, Bellina and myself, plus Petal, who was to guide us along her secret route into Tintagel. Each of us was lightly dressed, and carrying a small package of food to take into the King of Cornwall’s castle.

I had been surprised when Bellina had agreed to come, but King Lot had been very keen on the idea, hoping that the sight of his daughter on the walls of Tintagel might cause Sir Breuse to reveal his true intentions. I think that she also wanted to see her father for herself, but.... well, despite my absorption of the whole of Bellina’s memories in the waters of my mother’s well and afterwards, I found myself once more largely unable to understand the way she was thinking at any given moment. What had seemed very clear when seen through her eyes was obscure through my own.

We bobbed about on the lively sea until darkness came, all in silence apart from Elia, who occasionally sang snatches of the song Sir Dinadan had taught her: With an M and an A and a R and a K-o, that’s good King Mark of Tintagel-o. When it was full night Mordred and Melwas took the oars and rowed us around the headland. As soon as we edged past the rocks we saw the lights of the ships in the blockade, only a mile from where we were.

‘Take us in as quick as you can,’ Petal told the rowers. ‘It’s just here.’

Mordred stopped rowing, the boat rotated, and he and Melwas quickly stroked us into a bay of high grey cliffs, not unlike the one that provided Tintagel’s natural defence against the plain.

‘The whole of this part of Cornwall is riddled with tin mines,’ Petal explained as we clambered out of the boat. ‘There’s an old miners’ story they tell about this way in. There was this boss who fancied his chief engineer’s wife. The engineer was called Brad, I don’t know what the boss was called. One day the boss ordered Brad to survey a deep cave for seams of ore, but almost as soon as he’d gone through the entrance, the cave collapsed behind him. So Brad sits in the dust and the darkness and he thinks: the boss has brought this cave down on me on purpose. He means to have my wife. I can’t expect rescue from outside, so I shall have to escape myself.’