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

Chapter Thirty-Five: Cries from the Plain

I crossed the room to the window, ignoring the questions from the others. It was as I feared. In the middle of the army, somewhere near Sir Breuse’s tent, was the warped disturbance of Merlin’s presence. From that distance it didn’t have the world-shattering effect I had witnessed through the boundary of my mother’s lands, when Lamorak attacked Garnish; rather I saw the warping pull of the wizard’s magical weight at the edges of my vision, and in the centre of the camp a crystal sphere, through which the world appeared stretched and squeezed in weird ways.

‘What is it, chum?’ said Elia, who had appeared by my side.

‘M-M-M-Merlin.’

‘M-M-M-Marvelous,’ she said. I gave her a playful clip around the ear for mocking my stutter.

‘Depressing this, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘How did you find the king?’

‘M-M-M-Mad.’

‘With an M and an A –‘

‘Don’t, Elia.’

I heard Mordred and Agravaine explaining the state of mind in which we had found King Mark, but kept my eyes on the camp in case Merlin moved.

‘Getting a slight feeling we might be done for,’ the bard said to me.

‘K-K-K-K-King Lot’s still out there. And P-P-P-P-Palomina.’

‘Aye,’ she said. ‘But they don’t know there’s so little in the way of provisions in Tintagel. They’ll assume there’s a summer’s worth of food here. Makes you miss Garnish, doesn’t it? That wasn’t a bad siege, the one on the loch; in retrospect.’ She sighed. ‘On the bright side, there are plenty of songs with escapes from scrapes worse than this.’

‘We should surrender,’ Bellina said, when Mordred and Agravaine finished talking. ‘If we throw ourselves on my father’s mercy...’

‘Throw ourselves on the mercy of the knight without pity, lass?’ said Piers incredulously. ‘I’m sure you’ll be just fine, but the rest of us...’

‘He would not harm you if I asked him to let you go.’

‘Like you asked him to join us and not lead Arthur’s army against Tintagel?’ Piers was furious.

‘I did not ask him to support you people,’ she said. Her blue eyes flashed cold as ice.

‘Ha!’ laughed Piers bitterly. ‘You really do take the biscuit, Damosel. The flour, the water and the weevils. The lot. You people. As if you weren’t on Avalon with the rest of us.’

‘You’re not safe anyway now, Bellina,’ said Elia, sitting back down. ‘Don’t think your dad’s in charge down there anymore. Drift says Merlin’s turned up.’

Bellina let out a small squeak of fear, and then looked embarrassed she’d done so.

‘Where’s Petal gone?’ asked Agravaine. ‘She might know another way out.’

‘She d-doesn’t.’ I craned my neck out of the window. There was something coming over the hills. Horsemen. My heart pounded – perhaps King Lot had changed his plans and decided to make a surprise attack on the rear of the army after all.

‘How do you know, lad?’ said Piers.

‘I-I-I-I just know.’

‘Why can’t we go back the way we came in?’ said Aglinda. ‘I could jump the other way.’ I glanced into the room. The young girl’s face expressed absolute confidence that she could make the impossible jump from the tiny ledge to the tunnel. Alisander, on the other hand, trembled at the thought.