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

Chapter Twenty-Three: Neave (part two)

I cannot take him back to the Lake. I cannot risk my mother punishing Galahad as she punishes my brother. Perhaps Drift deserves it, he is an ugly thing, but my sweet boy is beautiful and I will not have him harmed.

‘I will visit when I can,’ I tell the wetnurse the midwife has found for me. ‘I will bring more coin.’

‘Oh aye, it’s like that is it?’ says the wetnurse’s husband. He thinks I’m a common wench abandoning my baby.

‘I will,’ I say. And I do. And those are my happiest days.

Until the day he is suddenly gone.

It is the evening. Sir Dinadan took my brother this morning, but it is only now my mother tells us about Merlin’s prophecy of the May-children. She looks at me, and only at me as she tells the tale.

She knows. She is delighted by this punishment for my disobedience. She knows my Galahad was born on the May.

‘It were a question of trade in the end, lass,’ says the wetnurse’s husband. His barn is smouldering behind him. ‘The wife tried to hide him, but when Sir Leo de Grance threatened to kill us as well as burn down our house... Well, welcome as your coin’s been to us, it won’t buy us new lives, will it.’

I turn the air in his lungs to water and drown him where he stands. His wife screams as he falls dead to the grass.

I take his horse, not realising in my distress that the beast is lamed. It dies under me when I ride it too hard, and by the time I reach Caerleon the ship is gone, Galahad upon it.

I swat aside a fisherman and take his boat, but that evening there is a terrible storm that drives me back to the shores of Britain. I set out again the next day, and sail for five days, but find no sign of the ship.

I return to Caerleon. It is a hive of activity. They are removing the round table to a new fortress to the south. The world seems to float by me; my sense of emptiness overwhelms everything.

‘Lady Neave,’ says an unwelcome voice. It is Merlin. ‘When will you agree to marry me, Lady Neave?’ I turn in time to see the foul creature licking his lips at me. He does not look at my face when he speaks.

‘What do you want, Merlin?’

‘I heard you went looking for your brother out at sea, my dear. Alas, alas, his ship was lost in the great storm last week. All hands and cargo lost. But don’t you worry, my dear.’ He places his wizened hand on my shoulder, his long fingers splay towards my chest. ‘If you would like another male to join your family, I can help you get one.’ His mouth is open, his breath moist and foul.

I remove his hand from me. I walk away from him.

‘Playing the tease is it, Neave?’ he calls at my back. ‘I’m nothing if not persistent, daughter of the Lake. I’ll be ready when you are.’

 

* * *

 

‘Lancelot,’ I say, ‘sit down, please. Will you take wine?’

It is a year since I have seen him, a year since he promised to find Galahad. Though there has been no word of him, I know our son is alive.

The father of my child glances at the arras – a foul depiction of the Trojans pulling the wooden horse into their city.

‘I would rather not take wine, my lady,’ he says. ‘I will stand. You wished to see me?’

What does he mean by that? He sat in silence beside me throughout the feast so that we could have this discussion in private. ‘I did,’ I say, ‘and you well know why. I want to know if you have found the boy.’