The dark warrior lifted an eyebrow. "We need supplies," he said, very calm and reasonable. "We need carts and horses to move the supplies, and all of ours are damaged or being used for the wounded. My lord Arthur approves. You will be paid, never fear." I continued to stare angrily, and suddenly he frowned and gave me a sharper look.
The other spokesman for the warriors, Cei, ignored the whole exchange and simply asked the farmers, "Where are your carts?"
Sion spat and crossed his arms. "First pay me." The other farmers followed his example and remained stubborn.
"Give them some token now," I suggested to the dark warrior, "or at least mark down the value of the goods, so that they can be sure of their full payment when they reach the High King."
Cei glared at me. "Who, by G.o.d, are you? You"re no farmer. What"s your business here?"
"My name is Gwalchmai, and I was going to Camlann to seek service with the Pendragon."
Cei laughed. "Arthur has no need of swineherds. You had better go back to wherever you came from and leave warriors" matters to warriors." He said it as a challenge, speaking as Agravain often had.
The dark one shifted uneasily. "Cei, stop."
"What? Bedwyr, you cannot want to defend this base-born meddler?"
Bedwyr shook his head dubiously. "Let him be. If he speaks the truth, he may be our comrade soon."
"Him? A warrior? Look at how he"s dressed! He hasn"t even a horse!"
"Nonetheless," said Bedwyr. "Let us take what we need and go, without fighting. We must reach Camlann quickly."
"Bedwyr, my brother, do not turn moralist on me again. I swear the oath of my people, you Bretons are worse than Northerners, and almost as bad as the Irish."
Bedwyr smiled. "So, it is "bad as the Irish" again? There speaks a true Dumnonian. But I seem to recall that..."
"Per omnes sanctos! There are exceptions; I admitted that I was wrong about him. G.o.d in heaven, how you revel in my mistakes. Why am I cursed with such disloyal friends?"
At this the warriors began to laugh and Bedwyr smiled again.
"Truly, Cei," he continued, "you are over-fond of fighting; and it will hurt us here."
Cei sighed. "Very well." He looked back to me. "I will overlook it, you. Now, men, where are your carts?"
"Where is your justice?" replied Sion, but uncertainly now.
"Be quiet, farmer!" snapped Cei. "Or I will teach you when to hold your tongue."
My hand dropped to Caledvwlch"s hilt. Cei saw the movement and drew his own sword with a ring of metal, his eyes lighting. The warriors fell silent.
"What do you mean to do with that, my friend?" asked Cei, soft-voiced now, and courteous.
"Cei..." Bedwyr began again, then stopped, seeing that it was useless.
"I do not mean to do anything with this," I said, my voice also soft. "But I will not have you threatening my friends as well as stealing their goods."
Cei dismounted and came closer, grinning fiercely. Abruptly I realized what I had done and wondered what could have come over me. How could I fight a professional warrior, one of Arthur"s men? The most I could hope for was not to be hurt too badly.
But I could not withdraw now, and something of the same lightness fell on me. I drew Caledvwlch. Cei grinned still more widely and took another step forward.
"Cei! Who is it now?" came a voice from the back of the group. The warriors glanced round.
Another of their number had ridden up, carrying some of the monks" supplies, and Cei"s band made room for him. He was a tall man of about twenty-one, with long gold hair and a neat beard and moustache. He wore a purple-bordered cloak fastened with gold, and radiated energy and strength. His hot blue eyes skipped lightly over me to rest on Cei. "If this man is all, he"s not worth it."
"He began it," said Cei in an injured tone.
"The day someone else begins a fight with you, rivers will run backwards," said the newcomer. "By the sun and the wind, for once let us obey Arthur and simply take the supplies and go."
Cei paused, glanced back at me. I sheathed Caledvwlch.
Cei sighed a little, then sheathed his own sword. "Well enough. It is not worth it; and it is too soon after a battle besides." He swung up on to his horse. The blond man grinned and turned his own horse. The tension was gone: the foraging party would take what it wanted and go.
"Wait!" I called. The warriors stopped, turned, looking inquisitive. I smiled, feeling a strange emotion, half joy, half an old envy and bitterness-bitterness which dissolved away, leaving only the joy.
"A thousand welcomes, Agravain," I said to the blond warrior.
Ten.
My brother sat motionless for a moment, staring at me with his old hot stare. Then he dismounted hurriedly, ran a few steps towards me; stopped; walked on slowly.
"It is impossible," he said, his face growing red. "You...you are dead."
"Truly, I am not." I replied.
"Gwalchmai?" he asked. "Gwalchmai?"
"You know him?" demanded Cei in astonishment. Agravain did not even look round.
"I had not thought to see you so soon," I said. "I am very glad."
He smiled hesitantly, then beamed, caught my shoulders, looked at me, and crushed me in a hug. "Gwalchmai! By the sun and the wind, I thought that you were dead, three years dead! Och, G.o.d, G.o.d, it is good to see you!"
I returned the embrace wholeheartedly, laughing, and it seemed that finally all the dark years of our childhood were blotted out for me. We had both endured too many things to feel anything but gladness on meeting one another again.
"What is happening?" asked Cei, in complete confusion. "Why are you jabbering in Irish?"
"Cei!" shouted Agravain, releasing me and whirling about to his comrades. "This is my brother, Gwalchmai, the one who died-the one I thought had died! I swear the oath of my people, I do not know how, but this is he."
The warriors reacted by staring in astonishment, except for Cei, who gave me a look of first embarra.s.sment, then apology. But the farmers around me drew away a little, and the monks stared with increased suspicion.
"So he is the famous Agravain ap Lot," said Sion, looking at my brother-the only one in the crowd who was.
"Is he famous?" I asked, remembering my old worries for Agravain"s case as a hostage. Clearly, they had been wasted. "Och well, it might have been expected." Agravain grinned at that.
"Where have you been when you were considered dead, that you heard nothing of your brother"s fame?" asked Bedwyr quietly. I looked up, met his eyes, and felt respect for him.
"I have been to a distant place," I said. "And through strange things, too many to tell quickly."
"Indeed," said Bedwyr, not questioning at all, and shook himself.
"These are strange matters enough," said another of the warriors. "Come, let"s finish our business here and go to Camlann. Arthur and the rest will be there soon, and there"s nothing to eat there but pork rinds and cabbage."
Most of the foraging party set about loading the monks" goods into the already loaded carts, and, at my insistence taking down the amount and kind of the farmers" goods. Agravain and I stood looking at each other and trying to decide how to begin. Then the carts rolled out into the yard, and Sion, who had been harnessing his mare, reluctantly jumped from the seat. "You will see that my horse is well treated?" he asked me.
I nodded, then, realizing that it was intended that he should continue to Camlann on foot and that I might not see him again, I caught his hand. "And I will remember you, Sion ap Rhys, if the thought of that gives you pleasure. If I do not see you at Camlann, remember that. And if ever you need any help, and I can give it, my sword is yours."
"I thank you," he replied, quietly. "And...may G.o.d grant you favor with the emperor."
"And may you walk in Light." I climbed into his cart and took the reins. "I will drive this one," I told Agravain. He nodded, and I shook the reins. The little mare started off, trotting down the hill towards the causeway. Those warriors who had taken the other carts followed, and Agravain rode his horse beside me. We left Ynys Witrin and turned east for the main road and Camlann.
"Why don"t you let the farmers drive their own carts?" I asked Agravain.
"They would go too slowly, and when they arrived in Camlann, drive the prices up by their bargaining. As it is we can have the standard price ready for them when they reach the gate, and send them off at once. You seemed friendly with that man; where did you meet him?"
"On the road, yesterday."
Agravain checked his horse. "Yesterday? What did he do for you, that you let him take liberties?"
"He gave me a ride in his cart, and paid for my night"s stay at Ynys Witrin. I had nothing to pay with."
Agravain scowled. "And for that you take his hand? You should merely have repaid him double, and not demeaned yourself. Why in G.o.d"s name had you nothing to pay with?"
"In G.o.d"s name," I said. "Have you become a Christian, Agravain?"
"G.o.d forbid!" he said, grinning, then frowned again. "You should not let commoners become so familiar. They are always wanting favors, then."
I sighed. "Sion is a good man. I was lucky to have met him."
Agravain"s frown deepened, but he shrugged. "Well, you can choose your own friends."
"I think he is capable of that," said a quiet voice on the other side. Bedwyr drew his horse in besides us. "Come. We must hurry. I do not want Arthur to have to wait for his victory feast at Camlann."
Agravain spurred his horse and I urged Sion"s mare obediently, though she did not like the brisk trot with the heavy cart. We fell silent again, and Cei came up and rode beside Bedwyr, giving me interested looks.
"You destroyed Cerdic"s raiding party, then?" I asked, finally thinking of something to say. "That is good, but surprising. I would have thought his parties move too quickly for even the Pendragon to reach them before they returned to Sorviodunum."
"It was more chance than foresight," said Bedwyr. "We were returning from fighting the East Saxons when we heard news of this raiding party from Sorviodunum, and we caught them only just in time."
"That was a thing Cerdic hadn"t planned for," said Cei with satisfaction. "They say that that sorcerer of his, Aldwulf Flamddwyn, has been telling him where Arthur is. But even Aldwulf cannot predict where Arthur will be."
"Nor can we," said Agravain. "Even when we are with him. He is a great king, Gwalchmai. It shames me that ever Father fought him. We should have made alliance with him, and not with those Northern cattle."
"Now, that is true," said Cei, "and it would have saved you time, as well."
"But your brother must believe this, too, Agravain," Bedwyr added, "Otherwise he would not be seeking to serve Arthur."
Agravain frowned again. "What were you expecting to do, Gwalchmai? Arthur takes only warriors and a few doctors with the warband. You could stay in Camlann, I suppose, if you are not planning to go home."
"I cannot go back to the islands," I said. "But you, Agravain, how is it that you are fighting alongside Arthur"s own warband? And gaining fame in it, as well? I have not heard any news of you, not since you were taken hostage."
"Och, that," said Agravain. "That came of itself. The High King was kind to me, after Father and our kinsmen had gone; and I had some admiration for him already, because of his skill at war, though I hated him for an enemy."
"But he let you fight beside his men?"
"Not at once." Agravain suddenly grinned at Cei. "This hard-handed lout of a Dumnonian decided to give me the sharp edge of his tongue, and that is a sharp edge indeed. I understood little enough of it at the time, for my British was still not good, but I understood enough. And so one day, when he and the Family, returned from a raid, were at Camlann, and he began to say, "The only worse men than the Saxons are the Irish," I up and hit him. So he hit back, and we were at it like hammer and anvil. Only, as you see, he is bigger than I, and got the better of me."
"Only you would not stop fighting for all that," Cei put in. "Gloria Deo! I was certain I was fighting with a madman."
"And when he knocked me down for the fifth time, and I tried to get up again, and had to hold on to a table to do it, he said, "You mad Irishman, don"t you know enough to stop fighting when you are beaten?" and I said, "I do not; and I wish my father had not either." And he said, "You"re a wild barbarian, but by G.o.d, you"ve heart enough. I take back my words," and helped me up. And when the High King next wanted him to lead a raid, Cei said, "Let me take Agravain, then. It is the only way to keep him out of trouble.""
"Not," added Bedwyr, "that Cei wanted to keep out of trouble. On the contrary, there is nothing he likes better, and he was the more pleased that he had a friend to make it with him."
"So I have fought for the High King," Agravain concluded. "And it is well and good. Father has sent messages, from time to time, saying that he is pleased to hear that I fight well. But what of yourself, Gwalchmai? For three years I have heard nothing of you, not from the islands, nor from Britain nor from anywhere else. Where have you been?"
I looked away, unsure. I owed it to my brother to tell him the truth, but what he would do with that truth I could not guess. Probably, refuse to believe it. Still, I would tell him. But how could I speak of Morgawse before Bedwyr and Cei? Agravain would have to believe what I said of her-he knew her just well enough for that-but it was not for the ears of others.
"Perhaps you should begin at the beginning," suggested Agravain when the silence became awkward.
"There is time enough for you to tell the tale," Bedwyr added, "It is miles yet to Camlann."
I studied Bedwyr. Here, I realized, was another man who served the Light, but one completely different from Sion. He had seen at the first that I had had dealings with the Otherworld, too, and his eyes were still doubtful. Now Cei too was giving me a peculiar look. Only Agravain noticed nothing.
"Agravain," I said, "I can tell you. But not now."
"By the sun and the wind!" exclaimed Agravain, using his old oath, which touched me hard with memories, "You have just returned from the dead, as far as I know, and you wish me to wait patiently and make light conversation?"
"That might be best," I said. "It is a family matter."
"I have another family now," replied Agravain, waving his hand towards the warriors around him. "And what concerns me concerns them."
"If you wish to join us," Bedwyr commented, "you will have to tell us as well. There is no vengeance taken for past blood feuds or such once a man has joined the Family."
"Gwalchmai join the Family?" asked Agravain. "That is as unlikely as his engaging in a blood feud. He is not a skilled warrior."
Bedwyr looked thoughtful. "Perhaps."
"I am not," I said. "I hope to serve the Pendragon in some other way."
"Arthur does not take many men with us," said Cei, "but he might make an exception, if you can ride well."