Warriors of Ethandun (27 page)

It was an extraordinary idea, but she did not think Dan was capable of handling any more magic. ‘Let me think about it. I don't know if it can be done. Maybe if Taliesin and Rhonwen helped, and Asser too?'

‘You don't trust me?'

She looked away so that he could not read her expression.

‘Of course I trust you. We'll talk about it later. We are expected at the Council of War.' She sighed. ‘I am so tired of war. I wish that I'd had the strength to resist all this. To let us stay where we belonged.'

‘Maybe we weren't ready, maybe we couldn't cope with civilisation.'

‘It couldn't cope with us, you mean. All this has changed us so much, even if we could go home, could we really go back to just being kids doing our GCSEs? I never fitted in – not before we crossed the Veil nor after …'

Dan let go of her hand abruptly as Asser turned to check that they were still following him back to the fortress. Ursula couldn't help being a little hurt that he felt the need to drop her hand so quickly, as if their closeness was somehow shameful. Dan explained. ‘He'll have us married off soon as look at us. He's so terrified of women – he thinks all you want to do is sin!'

Ursula laughed and the sound surprised even her. She didn't know that she still could.

Her laughter evaporated once inside the main hall of the fortress. Guardsmen took away their weapons. She could see Dan struggling to retain his self-control when
he was forced to hand over Bright Killer. She didn't see that it made much difference – he was a killer with or without the sword.

Their presence was announced as if they were entering some great palace rather than an oversized barn. The inside of the hall was lit only by torches and by the central fire pit, but some effort had been made to make it seem fit for a king. Wall hangings had appeared from somewhere, and Aelfred's wooden chair was richly carved. He wore a gold and jewelled crown that was slightly bent and out of place; two of the jewels were missing. He was seated while his few remaining loyal ealdormen stood around him. He had done what he could to appear regal, but to Ursula's eyes he looked thin and ill and far from confident. Ursula and Rhonwen appeared to be the only women present. She wished that she'd had the sense to appear before the King as her male alter ego, Boar Skull – his form had served her well in Macsen's land. It would have made things easier, but it was too late now.

She smiled at Aethelnoth, the only other person she recognised, and he scowled back. She had done nothing to endear herself to him on their journey from Cippenham. Her appearance caused a ripple of consternation and Aelfred was not unaware of it. Taliesin whispered something in his ear. Aelfred shook his head in disbelief.

Ursula could not help accessing enough magic to hear them.

‘I tell you, my Lord, it is Ursula who led Arturus's troops at Baddon Hill and at Camlann, and I was there.'

‘The devil alone was both there and here, Taliesin.
Rhonwen has told me the same story and I do not believe it. I do not believe that you were there, nor could a woman ever fight as you suggest.'

Ursula felt that familiar churning in her guts. She needed no magical clairvoyance to know that at some point she would be asked to prove herself. She had fought at Camlann not much more than two months before, but she was not as fit as she had been. She had barely moved in her time through the Veil and muscle tone is quickly lost. She began to heal herself surreptitiously, using only the smallest quantity of magic needed to do the job. She felt sick and fearful as she directed magic again. It was hard to control. Taliesin, Rhonwen and even Asser looked at her curiously. The magic began to burn. She could not keep it under control. Dan grabbed her shoulders and started to shake her, but her skin was too hot and burned him. Taliesin raised his hand. She knew what he wanted to do and she tried to let him, but she could not and his small magic was no match for hers. All eyes were turning from the King towards her and she raced from the hall. Dan bowed his apologies to the King and followed her. She was seven foot tall and growing. She had muscles like something from the World's Strongest Man; hair sprouted along her forearms.

‘Stop this, Ursula!'

She could not. She was nine foot tall and growing so that Dan was dwarfed. That was a mistake. She saw the bear in Dan appear in his eyes fractionally before his transformation. If Aelfred saw them like this, he would never accept them. Ursula still had her sword: she had
cast a glamour over it without thinking, so that it could not be seen. The belt was so tight it threatened to cut off her circulation. The blade was tiny in her hand. The bear moved as quickly as Dan always had and batted it out of her hand. She looked into his eyes and could not find Dan there at all. She was not in danger; she could be thirty foot high if need be and no beast could triumph over a giant. But Dan. Dan was lost? That thought got through where nothing else had. What was she doing? She let the magic go. It was difficult, but she breathed it out and let herself shrink back to near normality.

‘Dan?'

She found him with her mind and called to him as she had before. He shed the bear just as one of Aelfred's ealdormen emerged from the hall.

‘What is the meaning of this? No one leaves the hall without the King's permission. He has had men imprisoned for less.'

Ursula did not reply that prison sounded a good alternative to her current enslavement to the magic she could not escape.

‘We are sorry,' Dan said, his voice still coarsened by the growl of the bear. ‘Ursula is unwell. She feared she might disgrace herself in front of the King.'

‘She is a woman and too weak for the strong council of men. I do not understand why her presence is permitted among us.'

Ursula glanced anxiously at Dan – she knew such attitudes irritated him almost as much as they irritated her. He seemed to be keeping his temper; she was faring less
well. She sighed and was well aware that her voice was as cold as she could make it: ‘I am experienced in the arts of war and have been in combat many times. I imagine that is why my counsel is valued.'

The man actually shivered; it was possible that she had lowered the ambient temperature with her voice. He spat his disdain. ‘You think we'll fall for that?'

She was not surprised. She had known that this was going to come from the moment she had walked into the hall and sensed the antagonism of Aelfred's men.

‘You had best ask permission of the King to fight me in single combat, for I will not stand for that kind of abuse from you or anyone else. You lost your fight against Guthrum. I never lose.'

‘I don't kill women,' he said disdainfully.

‘I
have
killed men and I am prepared to do so again. Dan is my witness: I will have an apology for this,' Ursula indicated the spittle – a globule of bubbles white against the earth, ‘or I will have satisfaction.' She answered firmly enough, though with a familiar sinking feeling in her guts.

The man nodded, a small self-satisfied smile playing around his lips. He did not seem to recognise that he was in danger. Ursula didn't understand it. Even without magical augmentation she stood several inches taller and heavier than the men of Aelfred's court. The man's confidence puzzled her.

She waited until her opponent turned on his heel to speak to the King and whispered to Dan, ‘Can't they see that I'm dangerous?'

Dan looked at her thoughtfully. ‘They do not believe
women can fight and that blinds them. Besides, you are beautiful, Ursula, and I don't think anyone can see beyond that.' He blushed and then changed the subject very rapidly: ‘Do you want to use Bright Killer?'

The sword did not fit her hand well, having been moulded to fit Dan's in an earlier magical encounter, but it was a fine sword and, though ancient, she had not seen its match here. It was even better than the one given her by Gunnarr.

‘That would be good. Oh Dan, I can't face this again,' she whispered. ‘What if I let the magic get the better of me?'

‘You can't allow that to happen, Ursula. You have to let me help. Let me into your head.'

She had not thought about it but she knew she had barricaded herself from Dan as well as from Finna of the pale green eyes. She swallowed hard. ‘What if she finds me?'

‘We have to work together – it's the only way we have ever managed to cope with all this weirdness. I can't fight the bear alone and you can't resist the magic. Let me help you.' His voice was earnest, compelling. She wanted him to persuade her. She did not want to be alone in this any more.

He took her hand again. His was still a little over-large, as if his transformation back from the bear was not quite complete. He squeezed her hand gently, as a kind of encouragement. She shut her eyes and forced herself to relax. Using magic had become so much a part of her that it was like breathing. She used magic with no more awareness than she used to make her heart beat; it was outside
her conscious control. She did not know how to stop. She opened her eyes. Dan's were closed and she could sense the intensity of his concentration.

‘Open the door to me, Ursula.'

That helped a little – to think of her mind as a room to be accessed. She closed her eyes again and with an enormous effort of will she allowed Dan in. She was dripping with sweat as if she had already fought her enemy.

‘That's it!'
She could feel Dan's steady presence inside her head. He did not seem any madder than usual. He was still Dan. His presence made her feel safe for no good reason. She relaxed a little further, but perhaps not enough.

‘Ursula. Please trust me. I can help you. You have to let me.'

She opened her eyes to find that his were staring at her; he was holding on to her hand a little too tightly, as if he was trying to transfer his strength to her. As she had proved many times, she had enough strength of her own; it was his commitment to her weakness that she needed.

‘We'd better go back in and face the King,' she said aloud.

‘Don't be afraid.'
He answered without words.

She felt horribly exposed, naked and uncertain walking back into the King's hall. She had come to depend on the mental barrier she had built against Finna. She was sure that without it it was only a matter of time before Finna too would hear her thoughts and call to her.

‘I won't let her,' Dan said firmly. ‘You've got that old look back in your eye. That guy should back down now.'

She smiled and squared her shoulders. She was still the Lady Ursa, Boar Skull, her courage battle-honed, her mettle tempered in the heat of combat. If men could not see that in her, it was because they did not know how to look.

She bowed to Aelfred. ‘Your Majesty, please forgive my inopportune departure …' she began. She was about to say more but he halted her.

‘You have challenged Ealdorman Redwald to single combat?'

‘I have.'

He grinned broadly and she knew that he too had severely underestimated her. She was going to enjoy this.

The whole party left the hall en masse to find suitable ground on the levelled land outside. The ground was wet – it always seemed to be wet at Athelney – but at Aethelnoth's order someone began to lay straw over the mud. Ealdorman Redwald had no sword – he had lost it in the retreat from Cippenham. Instead he had a langseax and a shield. Ursula had never used a langseax before, but she could hardly fight a dual with a superior blade and so accepted Aethelnoth's offer of a similar blade. It was long and narrow with a broken-back shape and only a single edge. She tested it against her thumb – it was sharp enough and ended in a wicked point: a stabbing and hacking blade. That was OK. The blade itself was mottled and dull. She swung it a few times to get a feel for it: it was heavy and the long hilt suggested it was designed to be used with two hands. She tried it. Yes, it worked better that way, but if she were to use it as a two-handed blade
she would have no hand free for the shield. That might not matter. She was not particularly used to fighting defensively anyway and her opponent, though wiry, was no more than five foot eight or ten; she would have the longer reach, and as neither of them wore mail, just light unpadded tunics, whoever hit first would almost certainly draw first blood.

Her biggest problem was not the sword or the shield but the magic. She could kill her opponent with a thought, stop his heart, empty him of breath. She could turn herself into a giant, a monster with eight arms, a wolf or a bear like Dan if that was what she wanted to do. She had not yet been tempted to do any such thing, but then she had not truly been under attack. It was important to her that she win this fight fairly – only she no longer knew where her own abilities ended and the magic began.

Dan was there in her head. She spoke to him.
‘Do not let me use magic!'

‘
Trust me, Ursula. It will be all right.'

Ursula's opponent had followed her lead and rejected the shield. There was something in his stance that suggested he knew what he was doing, a confidence that was more than arrogance. She resisted the urge to enter his mind and discover his plan of attack. She wanted to do this properly. She was scared. She wasn't sure if she was up to the task. She had used magic to restore her body that had been ravaged by magic, but she could not help thinking that a good meal and several nights of restorative sleep might have been more effective; magic was unpredictable, wild like fire, rarely under complete control.

The King was talking but she barely took in the words. There wasn't time for the more elaborate rituals of single combat – this would be a simple fight, man to man. Aelfred had got a laugh from that and amended it to man to woman. Even in the King's court that remark produced some crude jeering, which Ursula ignored. Her opponent was right-handed and looked to be generally stronger on the right side. He was laughing, a little embarrassed to be taking on a woman at all. Ursula cleared her mind of everything but the need to prove herself in this arena formed by the catcalling members of Aelfred's court.