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

Chapter Fourteen: The Well (part two)

‘And you,’ said my mother, coming towards me, ‘was I such a cruel mother that you hate me so?’

‘Y-Y-Y-Y-Yes, M-M-M-M-Mother,’ I said, my heart pounding. ‘Y-Y-Y-Y-You were.’ In all honesty my feelings were more complex than simple hatred – part of me, even at that moment, longed more than anything for the tiniest hint of my mother’s love – but I had no intention of showing more weakness than she could already see before her.

She stopped in her tracks, and looked between Nerina and me: once, twice, three times. I noted to my surprise that even in my natural form I was now taller than the woman who had always seemed so huge to me.

‘And Neave?’ she asked Nerina. ‘Was I so cruel to Neave that I gave her reason to betray me? That she loved that pretty knight and hid her child from me? Her son?’ She spat the word ‘son’ like it was a dirty word. ‘The son she hides from me even now?’

‘Neave’s gone, Mother,’ said Nerina. ‘The boy-child disappeared, if he ever existed.’

‘Has he now? Has she? Nemone... Nemone is gone. I felt her go. But Neave? The lying, ungrateful, disrespectful, dishonest, spiteful girl.’

‘Merlin told us she was lost at Spar-Longius, Mother,’ said Nerina.

‘That trickster!’ said my mother. She took my chin in her hand and examined my face. I wanted to break and run from her, but knew that would be futile.

‘W-W-W-Where are my friends, M-Mother?’

She laughed cruelly, and didn’t answer. ‘Let us see what you have seen.’

My face become wet as water rushed from her hand.

And she was in my mind.

The Lady Nemue was a more accomplished reader of memories than me. I felt her expertly diving this way and that through the flooded tunnels of my mind. Although I tried to force everything down, to keep my memories away from her gaze, my effort was futile; her water dislodged my thoughts from where they were anchored, floating them hard and fast to the surface. Everything that had happened to me since Dinadan took me away from the Lands of the Lake – everything I’d seen, said and felt – quickly became as much a part of my mother’s memories as they were of mine.

She released me when it was done, and now I staggered to the floor.

‘You little fool,’ she said, wiping her hands as if they were dirty. ‘You spent all that time with the child Galahad and you did not see him. The old druid told you he was our family’s other disappointment, and still you failed to see. Nerina, put him with the other three.’

‘Where are you going, Mother?’ said Nerina. Lady Nemue was at the door.

‘North, to pay King Lot a visit,’ she said. ‘I am going to bring your sister and my grandson home.’

* * *

‘She’s m-m-m-mad,’ I said as Nerina dragged me through the corridors of the castle. ‘L-L-L-Let me g-go, please, N-N-N-Nerina. I-I-I-I’ve n-not seen N-N-Neave, or her s-s-s-s-son. L-Let m-me and m-my friends go. M-M-Merlin is at the g-gates; he’s c-c-c-coming for the L-Lands of the L-Lake.’

‘I’m sure he is,’ said Nerina. Though I was struggling with her, she held me with very little effort. ‘But the only way to ensure Natalie’s safety from Merlin is to bring Neave here, and keep you too. If Mother believes Neave is with King Lot then I bow to that belief. As I said: she is no fool. I will not have my daughter harmed, brother. I would gladly kill you to make her safe if I could, but if we learned one thing from your infancy, it is that our magic cannot end your miserable life. So here you and your portion of our powers stay.’