The crystal cave - Mary Stewart [178]
"Prince Merlin." She bent her knees to me, eyeing me with awe, and led me towards the bed.
The room was warm and scented. The lamps burned sweet oil, and the fire was of applewood. The bed stood at the center of the wall opposite the fire. The pillows were of grey silk with gilt tassels, and the coverlet richly worked with flowers and strange beasts and winged creatures. The only other woman's room that I had seen was my mother's, with the plain wooden bed and the carved oak chest and the loom, and the cracked mosaics of the floor.
I walked forward and stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at Gorlois' wife.
If I had been asked then what she looked like I could not have said. Cadal had told me she was fair, and I had seen the hunger in the King's face, so I knew she was desirable; but as I stood in the airy scented room looking at the woman who lay with closed eyes against the grey silk pillows, it was no woman that I saw. Nor did I see the room or the people in it. I saw only the flashing and beating of the light as in a globed crystal.
I spoke without taking my eyes from the woman in the bed. "One of her women stay here. The rest go. You too, please, my lord." He went without demur, herding the women in front of him like a flock of sheep. The woman who had greeted me remained by her mistress's bed. As the door shut behind the last of them, the woman in the bed opened her eyes. For a few moments of silence we met each other eye to eye. Then I said: "What do you want of me, Ygraine?"
She answered crisply, with no pretense: "I have sent for you, Prince, because I want your help."
I nodded. "In the matter of the King."
She said straightly: "So you know already? When my husband brought you here, did you guess I was not ill?"
"I guessed."
"Then you can also guess what I want from you?"
"Not quite. Tell me, could you not somehow have spoken with the King himself before now? It might have saved him something. And your husband as well."
Her eyes widened. "How could I talk to the King? You came through the courtyard?"
"Yes."
"Then you saw my husband's troops and men at arms. What do you suppose would have happened had I talked to Uther? I could not answer him openly, and if I had met him in secret -- even if I could -- half London would have known it within the hour. Of course I could not speak to him or send him a message. The only protection was silence."
I said slowly: "If the message was simply that you were a true and faithful wife and that he must turn his eyes elsewhere, then the message could have been given to him at any time and by any messenger."
She smiled. Then she bent her head.
I took in my breath. "Ah. That's what I wished to know. You are honest, Ygraine."
"What use to lie to you? I have heard about you. Oh, I know better than to believe all they say in the songs and stories, but you are clever and cold and wise, and they say you love no woman and are committed to no man. So you can listen, and judge." She looked down at her hands, where they lay on the coverlet, then up at me again. "But I do believe that you can see the future. I want you to tell me what the future is."
"I don't tell fortunes like an old woman. Is this why you sent for me?"
"You know why I sent for you. You are the one man with whom I can seek private speech without arousing my husband's anger and suspicion -- and you have the King's ear." Though she was but a woman, and young, lying in her bed with me standing over her, it was as if she were a queen giving audience. She looked at me very straight. "Has the King spoken to you yet?"
"He has no need to speak to me. Everyone knows what ails him."
"And will you tell him what you have just learned from me?"
"That will depend."
"On what?" she demanded.
I said slowly: "On you yourself. So far you have been wise. Had you been less guarded in your ways and your speech there would have been trouble,