Children of the May (Children of the May Book 1)

Chapter Seventeen: The First Council of War

Elia insisted that I leave my boots behind – it seemed that not everyone was invited to this meeting, and she didn’t want to alert the others to the fact that something was going on by clumping past their chamber doors. She told me to leave the baby in his cot as well, but I insisted he came along. If I left him alone there would be no one to prevent Lady Bertilak sneaking in and stealing him away.

Lady Bertilak had given Mordred the chamber nearest the bottom of the tower. It was a little bigger than mine, and a little darker. The drapes around his bed were deep purple. There were stuffed animal heads on his wall – a boar, a stag, and a huge wolf. Ornamental weapons, swords and axes, filled the gaps between them.

Melwas was sitting in the alcove by the thin window, one long leg trailing towards the floor. Mordred sat on a trunk, his back to the wall, his legs crossed at the ankles. Epicene was cross-legged on the floor, her back a little too close to the fire. That was it: the three of them and the four of us: half of the fourteen child survivors of the ship that sailed from Caerleon.

‘Good, you’re here,’ said Mordred. ‘Please, friends, find yourself places.’

I went to the bed and laid Christian down on the pillows, pulling the sheets over him to keep him warm. I sat on the edge of the bed, leaning against the bedpost so that I could see to the baby if he woke. Elia climbed up to the alcove with Melwas. Melwas put her arms around her, and the musician laid her head on the Gaulish girl’s chest. Unlike mine, Mordred’s door had a bolt. Agravaine drew it closed and went to sit against the far wall, near Melwas’ trailing leg.

Mordred looked at each of us in turn. He ran his hands through his hair, composing his thoughts. He nodded to himself.

‘Thank you for coming,’ he said. ‘Each one of you. Back on the ship I said that what we have been in our lives to this point doesn’t matter any more. What matters will be what we say and do from that point on. In the short time I’ve known you, it’s the five of you who have shown me that you’re truly worthy of my trust.’

‘What about Piers?’ said Elia sleepily. ‘There’s no edge on him.’

‘I would have asked him to join us, but he sided with Accolon on the cliffs.’

‘And that’s the criterion?’ said the musician. ‘Anyone who disagrees with you isn’t worthy of your trust?’

Already this was not going as Mordred had planned.

‘I’m just saying,’ said Elia. ‘If you’re going to insist on total obedience I might as well leave now.’

‘Or Palomina,’ said Epicene. ‘We can all see that she disagrees with her brother about Accolon. Why was she not invited?’

Mordred lowered his head and shook out his hair. He knew he needed to calm himself in order to set his thoughts in the right order.

‘M-M-M-M-M-Mordred’s right not to bring Palomina here,’ I said. ‘I-I-I-I-I-I mean, I do t-t-trust her. But she and her b-brother share everything in p-p-p-private. She t-told me that.’

Mordred nodded, glad of my help. ‘Their first loyalty is to each other, not to us.’ He sat back again, crossed his arms, and turned his head towards the alcove.

‘I’m sorry, Elia,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry to all of you. I didn’t mean to suggest that this is all about me. It’s not. Of course it’s not. There were one hundred and forty of us on that ship, and we have all been wronged: most especially those who drowned.’

I saw Margaret’s face as I had seen it through Aglinda’s eyes; drifting down, down, down – full of fear and cold and calling on me to save her.