Pendragon

As we climbed down from our horses, Tewdrig's men came running to welcome us. Caer Myrddin – Maridunum in an elder time-seemed bursting with wealth, and I was pleased to see my old settlement so prosperous. Above the noise of our greeting, the clang of an iron hammer reached my ears and I remarked on it.

'Lord Tewdrig has found a smith,' explained one of the men taking the reins from my hand. 'And all day long we are kept running for him."

'Better that than running from the Sea Wolves!' declared another.

With their words in my ears, I stared at the child Arthur and listened to the ring of new-made steel in the air. I peered with my golden eyes beyond the thin veil of this worlds-realm into the Otherworld and I saw the shape of a man there, straight and tall, a big man, born to walk the earth as a king. Truly, this was my first premonition of Arthur's future. Believe it!

Presently, I came back to myself, and turned to greet Llawr Eilerw, battlechief and adviser to Lord Tewdrig, who held the caer in his lord's absence.

'Welcome, Myrddin Emrys! Welcome, Pelleas!' Llawr gripped us by the arms in greeting. 'Ah, and good it is to see you both.'

Just then we heard a shriek and turned. A young woman had appeared and was standing over Arthur, scolding him. She slapped his hands to make him release the cats, and the child cried out-in anger, not in pain-and reluctantly let them go. The woman stooped and gathered up the child, saw us watching, blushed, and turned hurriedly away.

'She has the care of the child?' I inquired.

' She has, Lord Emrys.'

'What happened to Enid – the woman I brought?'

Llawr regarded me with a frankly puzzled look. 'That is Enid-the very same you brought here. There has been no one else.'

'Remarkable,' I confessed, much surprised. 'I would not have known her. She has changed, and much for the better.'

'I will summon her, if you wish.'

'Later, perhaps,' I replied. 'It is not necessary now.'

'Of course,' said Llawr, 'forgive me. You have ridden far today and you are thirsty. We will raise the welcome bowl between us.'

The beer was dark and frothy good. Tewdrig's hall was warm. The jar went around several times and we talked idly with Llawr and some of the men who had met us. Typically, no one would ask us outright why we had come; that was unthinkable. Although they knew we had attended the council, and must have been near to bursting with curiosity - Who is the new High King? Who has been chosen? What has happened?… Nevertheless, they respectfully allowed us to come to it in our own time.

'It has been quiet all year,' Llawr said. 'And now that winter is here, we need not worry. The snow will keep the Sea Wolves home.'

'Indeed!' replied the man sitting next to him. 'We have had more snow than last year. The cattle do not like it, though. It is not easy for them.'

'But favourable for the crops,' put in another.

'If this year's harvest is as plentiful as the last,' observed Llawr, 'we will have surplus grain to trade – even with our new storehouses.'

'I noticed those,' I remarked. 'Four new granaries. Why? Is the caer growing so big?'

'We are growing, it is true,' said one of the men, Ruel by name. 'But Lord Tewdrig wants to begin storing more grain. 'The more we save now,' says he, 'the less we will want later.' So he tells us.'

'And I agree with him," said Llawr sharply. 'Times are uncertain enough. We can no longer live from one harvest to the next and be content. We must have a care for the future.'

'There is wisdom in it,' I told them. 'In these evil days only a fool would trust past benefits to continue.'

The men regarded me warily. Llawr forced a smile and attempted to lighten the mood. 'Evil days? Surely, Emrys, things are not so bad as that. The Saecsens are gone, and the Irish have not raided all year. We have peace and plenty enough – any more and we will become soft and lazy.' The others nodded agreement with their chief.

'Enjoy your peace and plenty, my friends. It is the last you will know in this life.'

The smile faded from Llawr's face. The others looked on aghast. I was to have this effect on men more and more as the years went by.

But it is not possible for the Cymry to remain downcast any great length of time. The mood quickly lightened once more, and I, too, brightened as the talk turned to other matters. When the beer was gone, the others took their leave and we were alone with Llawr.

'Were Lord Tewdrig here,' he said, 'no doubt he would command a feast for you. But'-he spread his hands helplessly – 'I do not know when he will return.'

This was Llawr Eilerw's attempt at guiding the conversation towards the reason for our visit. Now that we were alone, I was happy to oblige. 'I think your lord will not be far behind us,' I told him. 'As you have no doubt guessed, we left the council before the others.'

Llawr only nodded sympathetically – as if he knew all about the contrariness of kings, which no doubt he did.

'I might as well tell you,' I continued, 'since you will learn of it soon enough, and it is no secret in any event: there will be no new High King. The council was deadlocked. Agreement was impossible; no one was chosen."

'I feared such,' sighed Llawr. 'Evil days, you said. Aye! You were right.' He considered this for a moment, and then asked, 'What will happen now?"

'That remains to be seen,' I replied.

Llawr might have asked, And have you seen it? But if the question was in his mind, he refrained. 'Well,' he said stolidly, 'we have lived this long and longer without a High King, we will go back to the way we were before.'

To this, I shook my head gently. 'Nothing,' I whispered, looking past Llawr and out through the doorway – as if into the very heart of the future itself- 'nothing will be as it was before.'

That night we ate simply and went early to our beds. After breaking fast the next morning, I summoned Enid to me. We waited for her in Tewdrig's chamber, talking softly. 'It is good that we have come here,' I told Pelleas. 'This morning I am content, as I have not been for a long time.'

'I am glad to hear it,' Pelleas replied.

In a moment the young woman Enid appeared. She had brought Arthur with her and stood shyly on the threshold. She held the child close, as if afraid we would steal the infant away from her.

'Closer, Enid,' I coaxed her gently. 'Let me look at the two of you.'

Deer-like, she moved cautiously forward, but only a step or two. I smiled and beckoned her. I can be persuasive when I choose to be: am I not of the Fair Folk, after all? Enid returned my smile and I saw the line of her shoulders relax slightly.

'When I saw you yesterday, I did not recognize you. You are grown a very pretty young woman, Enid,' I told her. She inclined her head shyly. 'And I am pleased to see that you have cared well for the child.'

She nodded, but did not raise her eyes. 'What would you say if I told you he must go away?'

Enid's head snapped up and her eyes sparked fierce fire. 'No! You must not! He belongs here.' She held the child more tightly. Arthur struggled in her embrace. 'I am… this is his home. He would not be happy somewhere else.’

‘You love the child so much then?’

‘This is his home,' Enid pleaded – as if this were the thing closest to her heart. 'You must not take him away.'

'He has enemies, Enid,' I explained softly. 'Or he soon will have – when they remember him. And they will not now be. slow in remembering. He will not be safe here any longer. The more cunning among them will look for me and hope to find him.'

Enid bent her head and said nothing. She held Arthur's cheek against her own. The child tangled a small hand in her soft brown hair.