The crystal cave - Mary Stewart [171]
"My lord Merlin. I bring you greetings from the King, in London."
"I am honoured," I said formally.
"He requests your presence at the feast of his coronation. He has sent you an escort, my lord. They are in the town, resting their horses."
"Did you say 'requests'?"
"I should have said 'commands,' my lord. He told me I must bring you back immediately."
"This was all the message?"
"He told me nothing more, my lord. Only that you must attend him immediately in London."
"Then of course I shall come. Tomorrow morning, when you have rested the horses?"
"Today, my lord. Now."
It was a pity that Uther's arrogant command was delivered in a slightly apologetic way. I regarded him. "You have come straight to me?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Without resting?"
"Yes."
"How long has it taken you?"
"Four days, my lord. This is a fresh horse. I am ready to go back today." Here the animal jerked its head again, and I saw him wince.
"Are you hurt?"
"Nothing to speak of. I took a fall yesterday and hurt my wrist. It's my right wrist, not my bridle hand."
"No, only your dagger hand. Go down to the cave and tell my servant what you have told me, and say he is to give you food and drink. When I come down I shall see to your wrist."
He hesitated. "My lord, the King was urgent. This is more than an invitation to watch the crowning."
"You will have to wait while my servant packs my things and saddles our horses. Also while I myself eat and drink. I can bind up your wrist in a few minutes. And while I am doing it you can give me the news from London, and tell me why the King commands me so urgently to the feast. Go down now; I shall come in a short while."
"But, sir -- "
I said: "By the time Cadal has prepared food for the three of us I shall be with you. You cannot hurry me more than that. Now go."
He threw me a doubtful look, then went, slithering on foot down the wet hill-side and dragging the jibbing horse after him. I gathered my cloak round me against the wind, and walked past the end of the pine wood and out of sight of the cave.
I stood at the end of a rocky spur where the winds came freely down the valley and tore at my cloak. Behind me the pines roared, and under the noise the bare blackthorns by Galapas' grave rattled in the wind. An early plover screamed in the grey air. I lifted my face to the sky and thought of Uther and London, and the command that had just come. But nothing was there except the sky and the pines and the wind in the blackthorns. I looked the other way, down towards Maridunum.
From this height I could see the whole town, tiny as a toy in the distance. The valley was sullen green in the March wind. The river curled, grey under the grey sky. A wagon was crossing the bridge. There was a point of colour where a standard flew over the fortress. A boat scudded down-river, its brown sails full of the wind. The hills, still in their winter purple, held the valley cupped as one might hold in one's palms a globe of glass...
The wind whipped water to my eyes, and the scene blurred. The crystal globe was cold in my hands. I gazed down into it. Small and perfect in the heart of the crystal lay the town with its bridge and moving river and the tiny, scudding ship. Round it the fields curved up and over, distorting in the curved crystal till fields, sky, river, clouds held the town with its scurrying people as leaves and sepals hold a bud before it breaks to flower. It seemed that the whole countryside, the whole of Wales, the whole of Britain could be held small and shining and safe between my hands, like something set in amber. I stared down at the land globed in crystal, and knew that this was what I had been born for. The time was here, and I must take it on trust.
The crystal globe melted