Ides of the May (Children of the May 2 - updates weekly)

Chapter Nine: A Second Council of War

We climbed back down the hill.

‘I have some very bad news for you, I’m afraid,’ he said, as we squelched across the easier parts of the hill.

‘Yes?’ I wanted him to tell me quickly.

‘I’m afraid that one of your sisters is dead, and another of them missing.’

‘Oh.’ I didn’t quite know how I felt about that. My sisters and my mother had never shown me anything but disdain, but they were still my family. There was a little stream of irrational familial affection still in me.

‘Bellina witnessed the death of your youngest sister. The boy I mentioned, the one Elia met, he killed her, revenging a girl of Vellion she murdered. He did it with the Spear of Longius. His name was Balin, and he died too, so there’s no revenge for you.’

‘And which of them is missing?’

‘The Lady Neave.’ He stopped talking as he jumped over a small stream. ‘When the spear was removed from its place at Castle Spar-Longius, the place collapsed. The rumour is that Neave was lost in the rubble.’ He walked on. ‘You never talked about your family on Avalon, but Elia thinks you weren’t close to them. I know that doesn’t stop it being a blow to you. Your mother has been very badly affected. They say it hasn’t stopped raining in the Lands of the Lake the whole year.’

We reached the top of the rocky rise that would take us back down to Mordred’s dark chamber. He stopped and leant against the wall. His face was very serious.

‘I don’t know if Dinadan’s capture will change things,’ he said. ‘He may tell us something of Arthur’s plans that will send us in a different direction, but...’ he trailed off, rethinking what he wanted to say. ‘You haven’t asked why we brought you back now.’ He held out his hand to stop me interrupting. ‘We all wanted you back sooner, as I said, Palomina especially. But the truth is that we need you back too. We need to get Excalibur away from Arthur, or neutralise its power somehow. We have to show the people that he can be defeated, even if only in a small way, especially now Camelot has the spear too. It’s the only way we can conquer the people’s fear, and gather them to us.’

I didn’t like where this was going. ‘I don’t know anything special about Excalibur. My mother made it with her blacksmith, but I don’t know how to unwind its magic.’

He lowered his head and shook droplets of water out of his hair, arranging his words. ‘You see, Drift? We didn’t even know your mother’s blacksmith had his hand in making the damned thing.’

‘Her hand,’ I corrected him. ‘Martha is the name of my mother’s smith; the Lady Nemue doesn’t allow men to hold positions of power in her lands.’

‘And there’s my point exactly, you know more about it than any of us.’

I felt sick. My head began to shake. I could see what road he was leading me down. ‘Don’t make me do this –’

‘I would like you to go home, Drift.’

‘I won’t,’ I said instantly.

Do greet your mother on my behalf, Lady Bertilak had said. She had known somehow. Palomina must have known too.

‘Not this.’ My hands were dripping water. ‘Please, Mordred. Anything but this.’

‘You won’t be on your own. Bellina will go with you.’

‘Bellina? Why her?’

‘Because she can make it look like a visit from someone related to power. I hope that if she tells Lady Nemue the story of what she saw at Spar-Longius, and how deeply Merlin was involved in the catastrophe there, your mother will ally herself with us. There are so few people of power free in Britain now. Your mother, Bellina’s father, King Lot and King Mark of Cornwall are our best chances of gaining strong allies.’ He ruffled his hair, and I knew he was thinking of his foster-father. ‘There’s no help likely to come from Erin, nor from Elia’s people in the west. We’ll make the argument to your mother that Merlin, and by extension Arthur, were responsible for the deaths of your sisters. And if we send you, her son, back to her, after she’s lost two children – she must be pleased with us. Grief alters people.’