King of the Middle March (31 page)

P
IP AND I WERE UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE CLOUDS
. Opening their fingers and closing them, stretching them again, like huge sky-women kneading dough.

There were pockets of blue. Little muzzy promises.

Around us, rabbits scurried and sprinted—they never touched the ground. Arrogant cock pheasants prinked and stalked, allowing us to come close, but never closer.

Each silly, tender leaf. Each petal of hawthorn blossom.

But as soon as we came over the ridge, we ducked right under the wind.

And there it was.

Catmole.

The manor house ensconced on its shapely mound, almost growing out of it; its walls, mossy and oaten, buttermilk in the sunlight; the little flag, scarlet and white, thrilling to the wind.

First you cross a sloping field thick with sandy, sloppy cattle. Pip splashed straight through a pool of first-day dung.

You come down to a curling river, and that's where England ends and Wales begins.

Someone was standing on the wooden bridge. He was wearing a dark hood, but as I rode up to him, he swept it back.

“Merlin!” I shouted.

At once I dismounted.

“Is it really you?” I exclaimed. “Where have you been?”

Merlin inspected me and smiled. “I am where I'm needed,” he replied.

“Here and now!” I said firmly. “I need you.”

“Young kings often do.”

“I'm no king.”

“But you've discovered the king in yourself,” Merlin said. “Haven't you? And isn't this Catmole your…Camelot?”

“I know! It is!”

Merlin smiled an inward smile. “You have grown into your name,” he said, “as each of us must. You've understood the stone's meaning.”

“Wonderful. Terrible.”

Merlin sighed. “Just like life,” he said. “Well! You know its story now.”

“But there's so much I don't know.”

Merlin looked at me with his mysterious silver-grey eyes. “There always will be,” he told me. “But it's time to give the stone back.”

“Give it back!”

My seeing stone has been my day-and-night companion for the last four years.

“The king has gone into the hill,” Merlin said gently. “The stone has nothing more to show or say to you.”

“I thought it was mine,” I said.

I delved into my saddlebag and pulled out the obsidian in its dusty saffron cloth. I cradled it between my hands and squeezed it as hard as I could. Then I handed it to Merlin.

“It is yours,” said Merlin. “Its story will never end in you, will it? But there's always someone else just ready for this stone.”

“You will stay here?”

Merlin nodded. “For a while,” he said. “Provided you treat me just as well as Sir John did! And you, Arthur, you'll keep asking? Asking the right questions?”

First you cross a sloping field.

You come down to a curling river.

You pass over the wooden bridge and step into a little watermeadow so impossibly bright green, everything seems possible.…

And there she was, my mother, as she said she would be, standing by her croft, wearing a white cloth cap, holding a hoe.

I strode, then I half-ran towards her.

I held her to me, and in a low voice I said-and-sang:

“That lark! It was singing its heart out.
And we were clinging, winging, half-wild.
Ring-giving mother unending you are.
King of the Middle March I will be.”

All around us the people of Catmole—forty-three souls, Lady Alice says—were leaving their strips and crofts and cottages, and walking towards us. They came from the stables, the sty and the sheepfold, the fishnets stretched from bank to bank; they came from the hives and the herb garden, the orchard, the headlands and open fields.

I greeted them. Each one of them.

Across a sloping field and down to a river, silver, sizzling in the sunlight…over the wooden bridge and into a water-meadow…you come to three huge oaks sinking their claws into the ground. You follow a track along the foot of the mound, and now it doubles back, rising to the courtyard and the manor house.

My mother and I led the way, and everyone fell in behind us.

The ribbed oak door was wide open.

“Welcome-wide,” my mother whispered. That ghost of a smile again.

I took a deep breath and walked in.

Around me, spacious whitewashed walls; above my head, the cruck-roof, soaring; beneath my feet, rushes strewn with cowslops, primroses, rosemary, violets.

There was a long table. Something lay on it, shining.

Obsidian and gold. Ivory…

I caught my breath.

King Arthur's own reading-pointer!

“Merlin!” I called out. “Where are you?”

Merlin appeared in the doorway. A dark icon framed in sunlight.

“Well!” he said in his deep voice. “Do you see?”

I picked up the shining pointer. The little triangle of ice and fire grew warm in my left palm.

I planted it between my thumb and king-finger, and drew a loop around my people.

I waved it like a wand. I made words out of air.

AEOLUS
in Greek mythology, the god of the winds

AKETON
a quilted garment of buckram worn under a mail-shirt and reaching to the knees

ALUM
mineral salt used as a fixative by cloth manufacturers

ARGENT
in heraldry, the color silver or white

AZURE
in heraldry, the color blue

BALLISTA
(PLURAL: BALLISTAE) a kind of huge crossbow, used for shooting missiles

BARB
breed of horse that originated in Morocco, and was the mount of the Muslim Berber horsemen

BRACER
a leather guard for the wrist, used in archery

BRAIES
baggy linen drawers

BUR
a small, round plate on a spear to protect the hand

BYZANTINE
(ADJECTIVE) of Byzantium or Constantinople

CALTROPS
iron balls with four sharp prongs (strewn on the ground to wound foot soldiers and horses)

THE CATEGORIES
The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that meaningful language consists of ten categories (
substance, quantity, quality, relationship, place, time, position, equipment,
and the active and passive tenses).
Substance
stands on its own; the other nine belong to
substance
and depend on it for their meaning.

CHAUSSES
leggings made of mail

CHIN-PIE
rubbing the chin (usually someone else's) with the hand until it feels hot

CITOLE
a stringed instrument, similar to a lyre

COLLOPS
small slices of meat

COSTREL
a large bottle with an ear so it can hang from a waist-belt

COWSLOP
Middle March name for
cowslip

CRUCK-ROOF
a roof with a framework made of pairs of curved and arched timbers

CUISSES
thigh-guards made of quilted linen, worn over the chausses

DAMSON
a small plum with a dark purple or black skin

DESTRIER
a warhorse

EXCOMMUNICATION
a sentence of exclusion from the communion of the Church, including the sacraments

FARRIER
a man who shoes horses

FARTHING
a coin valued at one quarter of a penny

FIRST NIGHT WATCH
a period of duty aboard ship lasting from 8 P.M. until midnight

FLEUR DE SOUVENANCE
(FRENCH) a flower, sometimes made of jewels, to serve as a reminder or keepsake; used here to mean a kiss

FONTANEL
a membrane-covered space between two bones, especially the spaces between the bones of the skull

FORUM
an open space on deck around a ship's mainmast where people can assemble

FUSTIAN
a coarse cloth woven from cotton and flax, first made in Fustat (a suburb of Cairo) in Egypt

GALINGALE
the aromatic root of an East Indian plant, used in medicine and cookery

GALL
a bitter excrescence on trees produced by the action of insects

GIZZEN
to grin audibly

GOGONIANT!
(WELSH) Glory be!

GOLDCREST
a golden wren

GRAIN OF PARADISE
a West African plant used as a spice

GULES
in heraldry, the color red

JOUST
a war game in which two mounted men try to unseat one another, using lances

KEEN
to wail or mourn bitterly

LANCET-WINDOW
a tall and narrow window, pointed at the top

THE LAND OVERSEA
the name for the territory, including Palestine and the Nile Delta, over which Christians and Muslims fought during the Crusades

LAST
a wooden model of the foot, used by shoemakers

LATEEN SAIL
a triangular sail suspended at 45 degrees to the mast

LEUCROTA
a fabulous beast, which combines elements of a donkey, stag, lion, and horse, and makes a noise resembling human speech

MANGONEL
an engine of war designed like a huge catapult, used for throwing stones

MARK
two-thirds of the pound sterling

MAST
nuts that have fallen to the forest floor

MOLE
a stone pier or breakwater

NAKER
a kettle-drum

NOVICE
in religious orders, a person (often a child) under probation, prior to taking monastic vows

OBSIDIAN
volcanic glass, usually black, believed by some cultures to have magical powers

PATEN
a shallow dish used for bread at the celebration of the Eucharist

PEL
a wooden post against which squires practiced swordplay

PETRARY
much the same as a mangonel

PILLARS OF HERCULES
the huge rocks standing at the entrance to the Mediterranean, one in Spain, the other in Morocco

PYX
a box or vessel in which bread consecrated at the Eucharist is kept

QUINTAIN
a post, or the object attached to it, used for practice at jousting with a lance

READING-POINTER
a little rod, like a pencil, with which to follow text word by word

REBEC
a stringed instrument played with a bow

RECKLING
the smallest or weakest animal in the litter

ROUNSEY
a strong horse without special breeding used mainly by knights and travelers

SAIS
(WELSH) Saxon, or Englishman; sometimes used as a term of abuse

SAMITE
heavy silk, sometimes threaded with gold

SHAWM
a kind of oboe, with a double reed in the mouthpiece

SHEEP-RUN
a track made by sheep

SHRITHE
to move in a supple, sinewy, threatening way

SOLAR
a withdrawing room, where one can be alone or talk to people in private

STINK-HORN
a foul-smelling fungus

STRAITS OF MOROCCO
Straits of Gibraltar

TERCE
a set of prayers said or sung at 9 A.M. In all, nuns and monks attended seven services during each twenty-four hours: Matins/Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.

TINCTURES, THE SEVEN
a term used in heraldry to describe colors, metals, and furs, each of which have their own names:
azure
(blue),
gules
(red),
purpure
(purple),
vert
(green),
argent
(silver/white),
or
(gold/yellow), and
sable
(black)

TORMENTUM
(PLURAL: TORMENTA) a stone-throwing machine, worked by making a spring out of twisted ropes

TOURNAMENT
a magnificent sporting and social occasion at which knights engaged in a series of contests

UNDERCROFT
an arched space under the ground floor of a building

VELLUM
the best kind of parchment, made from the skin of calf, lamb, or kid

VERJUICE
the acid juice of unripe grapes and other sour fruit, used in cooking

VERMILION
bright red or scarlet

WATER-MEADOW
a pasture periodically flooded with water from a stream or river