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

Chapter Five: Alisander's Story (part one)

I don’t want to see Sir Daddy’s blood, but Mummy makes me look. She forces my head in the direction of the mess that was the man who held my hand when I had nightmares. I squeeze my eyes tight shut, shaking my head, but feel Mummy’s long fingers on my face, pulling my eyelids open. Her long fingernails scratch the skin.

‘Look, Alisander,’ Mummy hisses in my ear. ‘Look at what the evil Sessites have done to us. Look at how King Mark has abandoned us to our pain and suffering, after all our loyalty.’

I see glimpses of him through my eyelashes. I wrench myself from Mummy’s clutches and run away, past the Sessite who did this. The clean-shaven man is laughing at me.

This is a bad dream. I will not remember this. My Sir Daddy will be there when I wake up, holding my hand.

I will not remember this. I won’t.

* * *

When Mother first made me put on Daddy’s doublet and shirt they were still wet with his blood. But now they are dry. I do not like the way the crust of blood rubs against my skin, but since we came to Magouns to live with Uncle Sir Guy, Mother insists I wear Daddy’s shirt all the time.

‘Revenge is yours, boy,’ she says all the time. ‘Your father’s bloodied shirt will ever be your reminder of that. When you are of age you will reap vengeance on the Sessites.’

‘Anglides!’ shouts Uncle Sir Guy. I hear my new sister crying inside the castle. My mother leaves me alone in the courtyard. I take out my wooden sword, and begin practising against the post of the stables. I do not enjoy my practice, but that is not my new sister’s fault.

I wish we were still in Cornwall, but Mother says that no one is safe under King Mark. Uncle Guy trusts in the boy-king. Mother says I should follow King Arthur’s example – he defeated eleven kings in a great war, and I only need to revenge myself against one nation, the barbarian Sessites from across the sea.

I don’t know if Mother loves me anymore. She spends all her time with Sir Guy and her new baby.

‘Does my Mother still love me?’ I ask Sir Bagdamegus, my sword-master. ‘She told me not to call her Mummy anymore; she said it made me sound like a baby.’

‘She has high hopes for you, lad,’ says Sir Bagdamegus. He is the kindest man I know. ‘But she’s trying to make you hard and fierce, so you can kill the Sessites who slaughtered your father. She fears that showing you too much affection will keep you soft.’

‘I don’t think Uncle Sir Guy loves me.’

Sir Bagdamegus puts his hand on my shoulder and smiles. ‘Sir Guy is a new father, lad. He is distracted by his baby. And in all the years I’ve known him he has never given kind words easily. But I’m sure he cares for your mother; and for you, in his own way.

‘Listen, Ali my boy. I am shortly going to visit my friend Sir Pellam – King Pellam, I suppose I should call him now. What if I ask your mother if you can come with me to see his new castle on the red rock? Pellam’s throwing a big tournament, and it would be a good thing for a boy your age to see.’

‘I would like that very much,’ I say.

But Mother does not let me go. She says it wouldn’t be safe. Uncle Sir Guy gets angry when Sir Bagdamegus goes to see King Pellam and doesn’t return to Magouns. He says that Bagdamegus has betrayed him, and that he will revenge himself on the old man.