“Because they didn’t want him in Durnovaria. Does he really come here to play games with Morgan?”
Gudovan nodded. “He says he needs intelligent company and that she has the cleverest mind in Ynys Wydryn, and I dare say he’s right. He preaches to her, of course, endless nonsense about a virgin whelping a God who gets nailed to a cross, but Morgan just lets it roll past her mask. At least I hope she does.” He paused and sipped from a horn of mead in which a wasp was struggling as it drowned. When he put the horn down I fished the wasp out and squashed it on his desk. “Christianity gains converts, Derfel,” Gudovan went on. “Even Gwlyddyn’s wife, that nice woman Ralla, has converted, which probably means that Gwlyddyn and the two children will follow her. I don’t mind, but why do they have to sing so much?”
“You don’t like singing?” I teased him.
“No one loves a good song better than I!” he said stoutly. “The Battle Song of Uther or the Slaughter Chant of Taranis, that’s what I call a song, not this whining and moaning about being sinners in need of grace.” He sighed and shook his head. “I hear you were in Ynys Trebes?” he asked.
I told him the tale of the city’s fall. It seemed an appropriate story as we sat there with the rain falling on the fields outside and a gloom lowering over all Dumnonia. When the tale was told Gu-do van stared sightlessly through the door, saying nothing. I thought he might have fallen asleep, but when I rose from the stool, he waved me down. “Are things as bad as Bishop Sansum claims?” he asked.
“They’re bad, my friend,” I admitted.
“Tell me.”
I told him how the Irish and the Cornish were raiding in the west where Cadwy still pretended to rule an independent kingdom. Tristan did his best to restrain his father’s soldiers, but King Mark could not resist enriching his poor kingdom by stealing from a weakened Dumnonia. I told him how Aelle’s Saxons had broken the truce, but added that Gorfyddyd’s army still posed the greatest threat. “He’s assembled the men of Elmet, Powys and Siluria,” I told Gudovan, ‘and once the harvest is gathered he’ll lead them all south.”
“And Aelle doesn’t fight against Gorfyddyd?” the old scribe asked.
“Gorfyddyd has purchased peace from Aelle.”
“And will Gorfyddyd win?” Gudovan asked.
I paused a long time. “No,” I finally said, not because it was the truth, but because I did not want this old friend to worry that his last glimpse of this life would be a flash of light as a warrior’s sword swung towards his blinded eyes. “Arthur will fight them,” I said, ‘and Arthur has yet to be beaten.”
“You’ll fight them too?”
“It’s my job now, Gudovan.”
“You would have made a good clerk,” he said sadly, ‘and it is an honourable and useful profession, even though no one makes us lords because of it.” I thought he had not known of my honour and I suddenly felt ashamed of being so proud of it. Gudovan groped for his mead and took another sip. “If you see Merlin,” he said, ‘tell him to come back. The Tor is dead without him.”
“I’ll tell him.”
“Goodbye, Lord Derfel,” Gudovan said, and I sensed he knew we would never meet again in this world. I tried to embrace the old man, but he waved me away for fear of betraying his emotions.
Arthur was waiting at the sea gate where he stared westward across the marshes that were being storm-swept by great pale waves of rain. “This will be bad for the harvest,” he said bleakly. Lightning flickered above the Severn Sea.
“There was a storm like this after Uther died,” I said.
Arthur pulled his cloak tight around his body. “If Uther’s son had lived…” he said, then fell silent rather than finish the thought. His mood was as dark and bleak as the weather.
“Uther’s son could not have fought Gorfyddyd, Lord,” I said, ‘nor Aelle.”
“Nor Cadwy,” he added bitterly, ‘nor Cerdic. So many enemies, Derfel.”
“Then be glad you have friends, Lord.”