Pendragon's Heir (54 page)

Morgan said, “Yes. Mordred is a
simulacrum
, an unnatural man made from a strand of hair. I made him to subvert his father’s throne.”

“And he knows this?”

“Mordred? Yes. He knows.”

Blanchefleur’s stomach twisted and she clamped one hand to her middle and another to her mouth, fighting back the angry words that threatened to pour out. Make a son to destroy Logres? How could she? How
dare
she?

And then all of the anger went out of her in a rush, and she gasped a breath of hope, scented and warm like the first day of spring. But this meant that Arthur her father was innocent in the matter. And all this time, she had suspected him wrongly.

She slid to the floor and sat down beside the others, suddenly weak. It occurred to her that this was the first real good news she had tasted in months.

Morgan went on: “Later, when he was grown, Mordred drove a bargain with certain of the rulers of the air. Under their protection, he cannot be killed. He remains in his body even when the wounds he receives are enough to kill a mortal. With my power gone, I cannot unmake him and steel cannot slay him. Our only hope is the shadow knife.”

“Why,” Branwen asked, “what will that do?”

“It shore all my power away,” Morgan said. “It will do the same for Mordred: dissolve his pact with the airy ones and cut the ties that hold his unnatural body together.”

“Kill him, you mean? But Mordred has the knife.”

“Yes.”

Blanchefleur saw it standing in front of her like a stone, just as the others did, but because she was the Pendragon’s Heir and the Heir of Logres, she was the one who needed to say it.

“Someone is going to have to go and recover the knife and cut away the shadow.”

“Yes,” said Morgan.

“Have you any idea how?”

“Not just yet.”

“Why is he destroying Camelot?” Blanchefleur asked. “Why is he not occupying it?”

Morgan said: “He is going to Trinovant to have himself crowned King of Logres. He means to move fast, to gather men and the crown before the King returns. So he dare not leave Camelot standing, nor the Heir of Logres for Arthur to regain.”

“So,” Blanchefleur said, thinking out loud, “he will destroy the castle, and perhaps search the grounds and the town one more time, and then he will ride for Trinovant, and he will take the knife with him. And we cannot know when the King will hear of it. Everyone else is captured, and we have no horses, and no one but us knows that Mordred cannot be killed.”

“I have a horse, a palfrey, hidden outside,” said Morgan. “And a brother came with me on another.”

“Then we have a choice,” Blanchefleur said. “We can send one of us north to warn the King. Or the three of us can follow Mordred to Trinovant, and try to get the knife from him to kill him.”

Morgan said, “Arthur may already know. If Nerys knew of Mordred’s plans, then Nimue also knew, and may have sent word to the King.”

Blanchefleur nodded. “Then it’s decided. We follow Mordred.”

P
ERCEVAL COULD NOT REMEMBER HOW LONG
it was since he had slept. Since leaving Lancelot’s domain in Northern Wales he had pressed on with reckless speed; the horse he straddled now was the sixth he had worn out in three days. Sleep, he had told himself, was a luxury he could not afford—but at some point the night had stolen a march on him, for he remembered drifting from visions of danger and threat into waking dreams of trees and shadows.

Thus, when he rode down the last long hill early on the fourth morning, with pale dawn blushing in the sky, and passed beyond the trees and paused before the ford of Camelot, he thought for a long breathless moment that he must still be dreaming.

Camelot, the seat of the most blissful court in Christendom, decked in flags and banners, cooled and sweetened by tree and vine, was gone.

Where towers and walls had sprung toward heaven, and the high rafters of the great banqueting-hall had arched like the necks of war-horses, only a great blasted mass of rubble remained. Blackened stones littered the meadow like marbles hurled from a giant’s hand. What destructive force could have so smashed and scattered the place? Perceval could not begin to imagine.

Nor had the little town clustered by the castle’s foot escaped. Fire had raged through the whole place, consuming everything perishable to fine ash; here and there a stone wall or chimney stood above the wreck, but not even the massive oak ribs of the great merchant-houses remained.

For a few long heartbeats Perceval stared at Mordred’s handiwork. He felt nothing: neither shock, nor sorrow, nor anger. Then, like the slow cold prick of a knife, he remembered that this place had been his home. Only then did it occur to him to fear what might have become of Blanchefleur, of Branwen and the others.

He forded the river and went up to the city gate. Much of the wall still stood, though blasted and blackened, and here, just within the gate, he found what remained of Camelot.

Makeshift shelters were pitched against the walls. Grey men and women sat hunched over cooking fires. Some sifted through the dust for anything that could be salvaged. Others worked on new shelters. Many lay huddled and hopeless on the ground.

At the sight of Perceval a shout and murmur went up. One ash-grey figure rose and came toward him, holding a child on her hip, and Perceval looked into a face smeared with soot and pinched with worry, which in blither days he had seen carefree and contented among the high ladies of Logres when they sat clustered in the great hall’s gallery like the blossoms on an apple-tree.

“Lynet,” he croaked, and a wave of dizzy tiredness washed over him as the plight of Logres settled a little more heavily on his shoulders. “Lynet, is she alive?”

“Yes, and at her liberty. But she went on ahead, and left you word to follow.”

“Tell me.”

O
N THE EVENING OF THE SECOND
day since Camelot, Perceval found Blanchefleur with Branwen and Morgan on a hill overlooking Mordred’s encampment in a clearing of the trees by the River Tamesis. They had made themselves easy to track; they had ridden in the forest, not in the road, where he was able to pick their trail out of the soft ground of late winter.

Morgan saw him first, and snatched her knife from the sheath at her waist before he could lift a hand and say, “It is I. Perceval of Wales.”

She lifted the knife. “Unhelm.”

Blanchefleur turned from unbuckling a saddlebag from one of the horses, and when Perceval pulled his helm from his head she came running with a wordless welcome on her face. Perceval made three strides of it and swept her into a hug. “Dear love! All whole?”

She smiled up at him. “Whole, and something more. Mordred is no brother of mine.”

Perceval glanced up at the black-haired woman with the knife. She said, “I made him from a strand of hair,” in the blunt voice of one who speaks of detestable things.

Blanchefleur gestured to her. “Morgan of Gore, my father’s sister. She saved us from the sack of Camelot.”

“So Lynet told me.” Although the Queen of Gore’s ill name made the hair rise on the back of his neck, Perceval forced himself to bow over her hand with his best court manners. “Madam, I am in your debt.”

Her eyes and teeth glinted. “For what? For not eating your damsel alive? Sir, it was a daily struggle.”

“Blanchefleur.” It was Branwen, who lay on a cloak at the crest of the hill, watching the camp through a gorse-bush. Blanchefleur crept to her side and Perceval followed her to squint through the glare of the setting sun.

“Where is she?” Blanchefleur asked.

“Walking near the trees.”

They followed Branwen’s pointing finger and saw the Queen on the edge of the camp near the foot of their hill, walking to and fro and rubbing her arms briskly against the cold.

“She walks like this every night,” Blanchefleur whispered to Perceval.

“Is that why you came? To rescue the Queen?” He rubbed hot and sleepless eyes. All the way from Camelot, when he was not worrying about Blanchefleur wandering alone with the Witch of Gore, he had tried to imagine what could have possessed her to flee Camelot on Mordred’s heels.

Blanchefleur shook her head. “Morgan says that Mordred can only be killed by one thing. The obsidian knife Galahad gave me in Sarras.”

Perceval’s eyebrows climbed. “You mean to use the shadow knife on Mordred?”

She looked up at him with a wry and wrinkled brow. “Yes. But Mordred has the knife. We have to get it off him, first.”

“I thought we could steal up to the Queen and tell her about the shadow knife,” Branwen suggested. “She could find it for us, and maybe even use it.”

“We also thought that if you were here, Perceval, we could stage a rescue and use that as a diversion to search Mordred’s tent. But Morgan said it would never work.”

The Queen of Gore’s voice spoke so unexpectedly close to his ear that Perceval jumped. “He will keep such a weapon in his own pocket. It is too powerful, and too dangerous, to leave in his tent.”

Blanchefleur lay on the cloak beside Branwen with her knuckles pressed against her lips. Beyond the camp, the glare of the setting sun shone off the River Tamesis, forcing Perceval to squint. On this side, the Queen walked back and forth between the camp and the forest under the eye of a man-at-arms who leaned sleepily on a lance.

Blanchefleur said, “Mother isn’t speaking to that guard tonight.”

“Maybe Mordred replaced him,” said Branwen.

“No, I believe it’s the same man. That’s rather short-sighted of him. If I was keeping my mother captive, I’d change the guards.” She frowned and bit her knuckle. “I could show myself to Mordred. Ask for a meeting, alone. Think of some way to get the knife from him.”

“Meet—? Out of the question,” said Perceval.

Morgan said, “Have you taken leave of your wits?”

“You could be within a short distance, Perceval, in case anything went wrong. I can make him fear me too much to try anything. And once I convince him to give me the knife, he won’t be
able
to try anything.”

“The only way he will give you the knife of his own accord is between the ribs,” Morgan muttered. Then she caught her breath: “Unless—”

Branwen murmured, “Look!”

At the foot of their hill, Guinevere put up her hands and unhooked the silver links of her necklace. She folded the great emerald-eyed medallion into the palm of one hand and went strolling back toward the camp, toward the guard.

The medallion and its chain dropped like a silver snake into the grass within two yards of his feet. Then she turned without looking at him and came back to the trees.

This time, she did not turn again. This time, she slipped beneath their shadow and they saw the grey glint of her dress moving through the forest.

“She’s
escaping!
” Branwen went to start up, but Blanchefleur caught her shoulder and pulled her down again.

Perceval pointed in the direction the Queen was running. “Look. Smoke. A manor house. She is going that way.”

Down below, the Queen’s guard strolled over and pocketed the silver medallion. Then he gave a whistle and began to shout.

“Prisoner escaping! After her! After her!”

“Why, the two-faced—” Branwen sputtered into silence, unable to think of a name bad enough.

As the camp erupted into swarming life, Blanchefleur scrambled back on hands and knees and stood.

“Perceval, she needs help.”

“A diversion.” Perceval followed her back from the crest and, with the swift lift of her eyes to his, he knew what she wanted.

“You think there is a chance it will work?”

She was running her fingers through her hair, smoothing down her tunic. “We may never have a better chance.”

She had done it before, too. With Agravain.

If this was the wrong decision, God help him.

“We’ll do it.” He turned to Morgan and Branwen. “Take your horses and find the Queen while we show ourselves to Mordred. Buy you some time.” He pointed down the Tamesis valley. “Ride downriver toward Trinovant until you come to the wooded headland you see there, ahead. Wait three hours and then ride on to warn Sir Ector. Go!”

They climbed into their saddles and vanished among the trees. Blanchefleur smiled at Perceval. Sudden excitement whipped colour into her cheeks and a high gleam of danger into her eyes. Blinking in the unexpected radiance, Perceval caught his horse’s reins and helped her into the saddle. She kneed the animal to the crest of the hill above the camp.

Perceval drew his sword and went to join her on foot. Down below, men were already moving through the trees in the Queen’s wake. Behind, Morgan and Branwen crashed away through the trees.

Sudden doubt shook him. Was he mad to allow this?

He was about to find out.

“Mordred! Come out and speak with us, you dog of Gore!
Mordred!
”

Below in the camp, he saw the ripples his voice cut among the swarming men. He saw them turn; he saw some of them flinch and cross themselves as they recognised the lady of the Grail.

“Mordred! Come and face us, if you be not afraid!”

“I am here.”

He came out in a little knot of his men. One of them, looming on his left hand, wore the sign of the Silver Dragon. Another bore the twy-headed eagle of Orkney. On the horse beside him, Blanchefleur stiffened, head to heel, and the horse moved restlessly.

“I wish to treat,” Blanchefleur called. “Do you grant me heraldic protection?”

“You wear no heraldic colours. What authority have you to treat, Blanchefleur the Ill-Born?”

“Don’t be a fool, Mordred!” It must be difficult to wring cold scorn from a shouting voice, but Blanchefleur achieved it. “I am the Pendragon’s heir, chosen in council! And I tell you that a storm is coming from the North, you son of Hell! You have pulled the dragon’s tail, and the dragon is awake! Your mother has told the secret of your birth, Mordred! Your hostage is gone, Mordred! You’re a naked man in the storm, Mordred!”

Down below, the men around Mordred wavered like a field of wheat in the wind. Agravain stepped forward impulsively and Mordred thrust him back with a hand to his chest. There was a moment’s sharp debate among them, which Perceval did not hear, and then Mordred turned again. “You have your wish,” he called. “I’ll speak with you, and on my oath you shall go free and unharmed from me.”