The Last Enchantment - Mary Stewart [44]
I told him something then about Arthur's plans for the formation of the cavalry force. He listened eagerly, his weary boredom forgotten, and the questions he put showed that he knew a great deal about affairs on the eastern seaboard. He assumed, besides, a surprisingly intimate knowledge of Saxon movements and strategy.
I left that aside for the moment, and began to put my own questions about Olicana's accommodation and supplies. After little more than a minute of it he got to his feet, and, crossing to a chest locked with another of the great padlocks, opened it, and brought out tablets and rolls on which, it transpired, were lists, fully detailed, of all I wanted to know.
I studied these for a few minutes, then became conscious that he was waiting, watching me, with other lists in his hand.
"I think," he began, then hesitated. In a moment he made up his mind to continue. "I don't think that King Uther, in the last years, ever quite appreciated what the road through the Gap might mean in the coming struggle. When I was sent here -- when I was young -- I saw it as an outpost only, a place, you might say, to practise on. It was better than Lake Fort then but only just...It took quite a time to get it into working shape...Well, you know what happened, sir. The war moved north and south; King Uther was sick, and the country divided; we seemed to be forgotten. I sent couriers from time to time, with information, but got no acknowledgement. So for my own instruction and, I admit, entertainment, I began to send out men -- not soldiers, but boys from the town mostly, with a taste for adventure -- and gathered information. I am at fault, I know, but..." He stopped.
"You kept it to yourself?" I prompted him.
"With no wrong motive," he said hastily. "I did send one courier, with some information I judged to be of value, but heard no more of him or of the papers he carried. So I no longer wanted to commit anything to messengers who might not be received by the King."
"I can assure you that anything I send to the King has only to reach him safely to get his immediate attention."
While we had been talking he had been studying me covertly, comparing, I suppose, my shabby appearance with the manner I had made no attempt, with him, to disguise. He said slowly, glancing down at the lists he held: "I have the King's pass and seal, so I am to trust you. Am I to know your name?"
"If you wish. It is for you only. I have your promise?"
"Of course," he said, a shade impatiently.
"Then I am Myrddin Emrys, commonly known as Merlin. As you will gather, I am on a private journey, so I am known as Emrys, a travelling doctor."
"Sir -- "
"No," I said quickly, "sit down again. I only told you so that you could be sure your information will reach the King's ear, and quickly. May I see it now?"
He laid the lists down in front of me. I studied them. More information: plans of fortified settlements, numbers of troops and armaments, troop movements carefully chronicled, supplies, ships...
I looked up, startled. "But these are plans of Saxon dispositions?"
He nodded. "Recent, too, sir. I had a stroke of fortune last summer. I was put in touch -- it doesn't matter how -- with a Saxon, a third-generation federate. Like a lot of the old federates, he wants to keep to the old order. These Saxons hold their pledged word sacred, and besides" -- a glimmer of a smile on the grim young mouth -- "they mistrust the incomers. Some of these new adventurers want to displace the wealthy federates just as much as they want to drive out the British."
"And this information comes from him. Can you trust it?"
"I think so. The parts I could check I have found to be true. I don't know how good or how recent the King's own information is, but I think you should draw his attention to the section -- here -- about Elesa,