The crystal cave - Mary Stewart [39]
"It is unlawful for a Christian to dabble in soothsaying," said Niniane, but her voice was a little over-prim, and he looked sharply at her, then, suddenly restless, took a couple of strides away into the shadows at the side of the room, then back into the light.
"Tell me," he said abruptly. "What of Vortimer?"
"He will die," she said indifferently.
"We shall all die, some day. But you know I am committed to him now. Can you not tell me what will happen this coming spring?"
"I see nothing and I can tell you nothing. But whatever your plans for the kingdom, it will serve no purpose to let even the smallest whisper of murder start, and I can tell you this, you're a fool if you think that the King's death was anything but an accident. Two of the grooms saw it happen, and the girl he'd been with."
"Did the man say anything before they killed him?"
"Cerdic? No. Only that it was an accident. He seemed concerned more for my son than for himself. It was all he said."
"So I heard," said Camlach.
The silence came back. They stared at one another. She said: "You would not."
He didn't answer. They stood there, eyes locked, while a draught crept through the room, making the torches gutter.
Then he smiled, and went. As the door slammed shut behind him a gust of air blew through the room, and tore the flames along from the torches, till shadow and light went reeling.
***
The flames were dying, and the crystals dim. As I climbed out of the cave and pulled my cloak after me, it tore. The embers in the brazier showed a sullen red. Outside, now, it was quite dark. I stumbled down from the ledge and ran towards the doorway.
"Galapas!" I shouted. "Galapas!"
He was there. His tall, stooping figure detached itself from the darkness outside, and he came forward into the cave. His feet, half-bare in his old sandals, looked blue with cold.
I came to a halt a yard from him, but it was as if I had run straight into his arms, and been folded against his cloak.
"Galapas, they've killed Cerdic."
He said nothing, but his silence was like words or hands of comfort.
I swallowed to shift the ache in my throat. "If I hadn't come up here this afternoon...I gave him the slip, along with the others. But I could have trusted him, even about you. Galapas, if I'd stayed -- if I'd been there -- perhaps I could have done something."
"No. You counted for nothing. You know that."
"I'll count for less than nothing now." I put a hand to my head: it was aching fiercely, and my eyes swam, still half-blind. He took me gently by the arm and made me sit down near the fire.
"Why do you say that? A moment, Merlin, tell me what has happened."
"Don't you know?" I said, surprised. "He was filling the lamps in the colonnade, and some oil spilled on the steps, and the King slipped in it and fell and broke his neck. It wasn't Cerdic's fault, Galapas. He spilt the oil, that's all, and he was going back, he was actually going back to clean it up when it happened. So they took him and killed him."
"And now Camlach is King."
I think I stared at him for some time, unseeing with those dream-blinded eyes, my brain for the moment incapable of holding more than the single fact.
He persisted, gently: "And your mother? What of her?"
"What? What did you say?"
The warm shape of a goblet was put into my hand. I could smell the same drink that he had given me before when I dreamed in the cave. "Drink that. You should have slept till I wakened you, then it wouldn't have come like this. Drink it all."
As I drank, the sharp ache in my temples dulled to a throb, and the swimming shapes round me drew back into focus. And with them, thought.
"I'm sorry. It's all right now, I can think again, I've come back...I'll tell you the rest. My mother's to go into St. Peter's. She tried to make Camlach promise to let me go too, but he wouldn't. I think..."
"Yes?"
I said slowly, thinking hard now: "I didn't understand it all. I was thinking about Cerdic. But I believe he's going to kill me. I believe he will use my grandfather's death for this; he'll say