Pendragon

Paulinus inclined his head uncertainly. 'And I you,' he responded, but, oblivious to the honour paid him, made no further salutation.

'Paulinus!' I said sharply. 'Shake off your lethargy, man. Should the High King of Britain not command your attention?'

Paulinus' eyes grew wide as he snapped himself erect. 'Lord Arthur! Forgive me, my king; I did not know it was you. I thought – ' He gestured vaguely towards the tent as if expecting a different king to appear still. 'I thought that you would be a much older man.'

Arthur enjoyed this. 'Who then did you think me?'

'I took you for a steward,' Paulinus blurted, much chagrined. 'The Pendragon of Britain,' he began. 'Forgive me, lord. Jesu have mercy, I meant no disrespect.'

'I forgive you readily,' Arthur said. 'I see you stand in need of sleep. I will not keep you from it. Come to me when you are better rested and we will talk.' To Rhys he said, 'Find this monk some place to lay his head where he will not be wakened by everyone who passes. And give him something to eat if he is hungry.'

'Thank you, lord,' said Paulinus. Then, grateful to be relieved of further embarrassment, he gave an awkward bow and scurried after Rhys.

The High King watched him go, shaking his head slightly. 'I trust you know what you are doing.'

'He will serve,' I assured him. 'He lacks experience of kings: he has spent more time in the company of plants and healing herbs than that of noblemen and princes.'

'Then he is what we need now,' Arthur said, and added in a sour tone, 'not another grasping lord who thinks he knows better than his king how to wage war on the invader.'

'It is going badly, then?'

Arthur picked up a stick, snapped it, and threw the pieces into the fire, deliberately, one after the other. 'Some would say so.'

'How does the matter stand?'

He frowned into the fire. Behind him the sky lightened to a clear dawn. 'The Black Boar and his piglets have fled into the hills,' he said, and I heard frustration in his tone, 'and it is the devil's own work to get at them. With every raid we merely push them deeper into the glens.' He threw another stick at the flames. 'I tell you the truth, Myrddin, they are more stubborn than badgers to root out.'

He paused and brightened somewhat. 'Now that Lot, Idris, and the others have come we may begin to make better account of ourselves. Jesu knows we are doing all we can.'

Gwenhwyvar, wakened by our talk, emerged quietly from the tent. She was dressed in a thin white mantle, her hair wound in a strip of soft white cloth. She settled easily beside Arthur, who put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to him. 'Greetings, Myrddin,' she said. 'Have you a good word for us?'

'No, the word is not good. Plague is indeed upon us, and there is no remedy.'

'Then we must prepare as best we can.'

'Yet my journey was not without some small consolation,' I added quickly. 'For I have brought a monk who understands much about the disease; he is going to help us. I also learned this: the pestilence likely issues from Londinium – the harbours there serve many foreign vessels. Paulinus tells me that plague often follows the trading fleet.'

Gwenhwyvar caught the full implication of my words at once. 'Londinium,' she gasped. 'But Cador is on his way there now.'

'He will be stopped,' Arthur said. 'It may be that he has not reached the city yet.'

'Londinium must be sealed off,' I said. 'All roads must be guarded, and the rivers. No one must enter or leave until the disease has run its course.'

'That means we cannot count on fresh supplies from Londinium's markets,' Gwenhwyvar said. 'Blessed Jesu…' She leaned instinctively against her husband for comfort. 'What are we to do, Artos?'

'We will fight this enemy like any other.'

'But it is not like any other enemy,' she snapped. 'It spreads on the wind. It slays all without regard, and neither sword nor shield is proof against it.'

'All that can be done, we will do.'

'I must go to my father,' she said, already thinking ahead. 'They must be told.'

'No,' he told her bluntly. 'You will not go.'

'But I must warn my people. It may be that -'

'They will be warned,' he replied firmly. 'But I need you here.' His tone removed all dissent.

'First, we must tell the noblemen,' I suggested. 'They will want to send word to their people. The disease cannot have spread far yet.'

Arthur stood. 'Rhys!' A heartbeat later, the High King's steward stood beside him. 'Summon the lords to attend me at once.' As Rhys dashed away, the king said, 'What will come of this, God alone knows.'

The lords answered Rhys' call and assembled around Arthur's fire, a ring of faces – some concerned, others merely curious. Arthur did not bid them sit down, but stood before them grave and solemn; he wasted no words. 'Plague has come to Britain,' he said simply. 'You must send riders to warn your people.'

The noblemen gazed at Arthur in astonishment, and looked to one another for explanation. 'Is this so?' they wondered in shocked voices. 'How can it be?'

'Trust that it is so,' the king told them. 'The plague follows the trading fleet; foreign merchants have brought this pestilence to our land.'

'Tell us,' called one of the kings, 'what is the nature of this pestilence? How is it to be fought?'

Arthur indicated that I should tell them what I knew of it. 'This plague is known from elder times as the Scourge of the East,' I began. 'It is the Yellow Death, a sickness which spreads with the swiftness and voracity of fire. By these signs it may be known: the flesh fluctuates between intense fever and numbing chill; the limbs tremble and shake; noxious fluids bloat the body, but there is no purging of the bladder. In the final extremity, the skin turns yellow and the victim vomits blood. Death brings release in the space of two days – three at most.'

'Yet, we are not without some hope,' Arthur continued. 'We have with us a monk who knows how best to battle this Yellow Ravager. Now you will all summon such messengers as you deem best to ride to your clans and tribes and warn them of the danger.'

'Messengers!' cried Ogryvan. 'I will go myself. My people will hear of this plague from no mere messenger. I will not abandon my realm in its crisis.'

Others made similar objection, but Arthur stood firm. 'I need you here,' he replied. 'The battle is joined. You cannot leave.'

'Cannot leave!' roared Brastias. 'Cannot! I give my aid freely, or not at all. I alone determine when I shall come and go.'

'I am your king,' Arthur reminded him, his voice hard-edged as Caledvwlch. 'As you have pledged me fealty, I hold authority over you. It is my right to command, and I order you to stay."

'I, too, am a king,' Brastias replied loftily. 'The fealty I pledged is but token of the kingship I hold. If I may not rule even so much as my own movements, whether I stay or go, then I hold no more authority than the lowest servant in my house.'

Arthur fixed him with a look of withering disdain. He checked his anger before answering. 'You know best what manner of king you are," he replied, his voice low. 'And I will not make bold to dispute your claim. But you do those you deem beneath you an injustice when you compare their rank to yours.'

Brastias swelled with rage. Arthur allowed him no time to reply. 'Time is precious to those we must warn, and we waste it chattering about rights and rule. Summon your riders and send them to Myrddin. He will instruct them.'

Turmoil erupted at this command. The night's lingering calm was shattered by shouts of alarm as the fearful tidings spread from camp to camp. Arthur gathered the Dragon Flight and chose three from among the volunteers to ride north, bearing the warning to the lords who were on the way to join us – Ector especially – and any other settlements they passed. He also selected a force – two hundred men, who would be sorely missed from the ranks – to lay siege to Londinium. These he dispatched with all haste in the hope that they might stop Cador on his way to the markets.

As this guardian force departed, those closest to Arthur sat in council with him: Gwenhwyvar, Bedwyr, Cai, Llenlleawg, and myself. 'Can anything be done?' asked Cai, speaking aloud the question foremost in everyone's mind.