The crystal cave - Mary Stewart [38]
While they had been talking, there had been a commotion in the colonnade, as the rest of Camlach's party arrived and came hurrying along to the King's room after him. They had pressed into the room while Mabon was speaking, and now Alun, approaching the prince quietly, touched his arm.
"The news is all round the town, Camlach. There's a crowd gathering outside. A million stories going round -- there'll be trouble soon. You'll have to show yourself and talk to them."
Camlach flicked him a glance, and nodded. "Go and see to it, will you? Bran, go with him, and Ruan. Shut the gates. Tell the people I'm coming out soon. And now, the rest of you, out."
The room emptied. Dinias lingered in the doorway, got not even a glance, and followed the rest. The door shut.
"Well, Niniane?"
In all this time she had never looked at him. Now she raised her eyes. "What do you want of me? It's true as Mabon tells you. What he didn't say was that the King had been fooling with a servant-girl and was drunk. But it was an accident, and he's dead...and you with all your friends were a good twelve miles away. So you're King now, Camlach, and there is no man can point a finger at you and say: 'He wanted his father dead.' "
"No woman can say that to me either, Niniane."
"I have not said it. I'm just telling you that the quarrels here are over. The kingdom's yours -- and now it's as Alun says, you had better go and speak to the people."
"To you first. Why do you stand like that, as if you didn't care either way? As if you were scarcely with us here?"
"Perhaps because it's true. What you are, brother, and what you want, does not concern me, except to ask you one thing."
"And that is?"
"That you let me go now. He never would, but I think you will."
"To St. Peter's?"
She bent her head. "I told you nothing here concerned me any more. It has not concerned me for some time, and less than ever now, with all this talk about invasion, and war in the spring, and the rumours about shifts of power and the death of kings...Oh, don't look at me like that; I'm not a fool, and my father talked to me. But you need not be afraid of me; nothing I know or can do can ever harm your plans for yourself, brother. I tell you, there is nothing I want out of life now except to be allowed to go in peace, and live in peace, and my son too."
"You said 'one thing.' That makes two."
For the first time something came to life in her eyes; it might have been fear. She said swiftly: "It was always the plan for him, your plan, even before it was my father's. Surely, after the day Gorlan went, you knew that even if Merlin's father could come riding in, sword in hand and with three thousand men at his back, I would not go to him? Merlin can do you no harm, Camlach. He will never be anything but a nameless bastard, and you know he is no warrior. The gods know he can do you no harm at all."
"And even less shut up as a clerk?" Camlach's voice was silky.
"Even less, shut up as a clerk. Camlach, are you playing with me? What's in your mind?"
"This slave who spilled the oil," he said. "Who was he?"
That flicker in her eyes again. Then the lids dropped. "The Saxon. Cerdic."
He didn't move, but the emerald on his breast glittered suddenly against the black as if his heart had jumped.
She said fiercely: "Don't pretend you guessed this! How could you guess it?"
"Not a guess, no. When I rode in the place was humming with whispers like a smashed harp." He added, in sudden irritation: "You stand there like a ghost with your hands on your belly as if you still had a bastard there to protect."
Surprisingly, she smiled. "But I have." Then as the emerald leapt again: "No, don't be a fool. Where would I get another bastard now? I meant that I cannot go until I know he is safe from you. And that we are both safe from what you propose to do."
"From what I propose to do to you? I swear to you there is nothing -- "
"I am talking about my father's kingdom. But let it go now. I told you, my only concern is that St. Peter's should be left in peace...And it will be."
"You