The sword in place, she returned to her seat on the tree. She gestured at the food. ‘Come. Eat your fill,’ she said. ‘I was expecting eight of you. Where are the others?’
The boys exchanged glances.
‘They are dead,’ said Gaelen.
‘Dead?’ asked the Queen, rising to her feet gracefully. ‘How so?’
Gaelen told of the beast and their flight from the mountains.
‘Damn!’ she said. Taliesen came to me in a dream yester-eve. He told me you were lost upon the mountain and that I should seek you here. He said nothing of a beast.’
‘He came to me also,’ said Gaelen. ‘And he said nothing of a queen.’
She smiled without humour. ‘So be it, then. The ways of wizards are a mystery to me and I pray they’ll stay that way. Now, describe this creature.’
All of them started to speak at once, but she waved them to silence and pointed to Agwaine. ‘You saw it closely. You speak.’
Agwaine did as he was bid, recalling vividly the power of the brute and its awesome size, its speed and its semi-human appearance.
‘You are right to consider running,’ said the woman when he had finished. ‘I have seen the like of the beast before in my own kingdom. More than once. They are terrible – and hard to slay. Although it kills to eat, once it has fixed on a prey it will pursue it damn near for ever. This beast has – in a way – been hunting me for forty years.’
“Why you?’ whispered Gaelen.
‘It was sent a long time ago by a sorcerer named Jakuta Khan. But that is a story for another day, Gaelen.’
‘What can we do?’ asked Layne.
‘You can eat breakfast and put some strength in your limbs. Then we will plan for battle.’
The companions seated themselves at her feet and dug into the loaves and meat. The bread tasted fresh-baked and the beef was tender and pink. They ate without gusto, except for Lennox who tore great chunks of bread and crammed them into his mouth.
The Queen watched him, eyebrows raised. ‘You were perhaps expecting a famine?’
‘Either that or he’s going to cause one,’ observed Gwalchmai.
Agwaine said nothing. The appearance of this strange woman had angered him, and he was loath to hand over the great sword – their only real defence against the beast – to a woman.
‘How will we fight this beast?’ asked Layne.
‘How indeed?” she replied, her pale eyes showing sorrow.
‘We could make spears,’ suggested Gaelen, ‘by fastening our daggers to poles.’
‘Come to that, I could make a bow,” said Gwal. ‘It wouldn’t be a great weapon, or very accurate. But it might serve at close range.’
‘Then do it swiftly,’ said the Queen, ‘and we will talk again.’
The boys rose and spread out nervously into the woods, searching for saplings or stout straight branches. Gaelen and Agwaine selected an infant elm and began to hack at it with their daggers.
‘What do you think of her, lowlander?’ Agwaine asked as the sapling snapped.
‘I think she is what she says she is,’ snapped Gaelen. ‘And if you call me lowlander again, you’ll answer for it.’
Agwaine grinned. ‘I don’t like you, Gaelen, but you are right. Whatever your pedigree, you are now a clansman. But I’ll never call you cousin.’
‘I don’t care about that,’ Gaelen told him. ‘You are nothing to me.’
‘So be it.’
They stripped the sapling of twigs and leaves and shortened it to a manageable five feet. Then Gaelen unwound the thongs of his right legging and bound his knife to the wood. He hefted it for balance and hurled it at a nearby tree. The spear hammered home with a dull thud. Gaelen tugged it loose and examined the binding; it remained firm.
It seemed a formidable weapon, but he summoned the image of the beast to mind and then the spear seemed puny indeed.
‘Were you surprised I found the sword?’ Agwaine asked him.
‘No, disappointed.’
That was a good trick with the pack.’
‘I’m glad you enjoyed it.’
‘I didn’t, but it was good anyway.’ Gaelen nodded. He waited while Agwaine fashioned his spear, then wandered away; he didn’t enjoy Agwaine’s company and he knew the feeling was reciprocated.