Pendragon (The Chronicles of Arthur) by Peter Gibbons

Author:Peter Gibbons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

15

Arthur and his fifty warriors followed Nimue as she splashed through the river’s shallows. Her five boys trailed after her heels, carrying hemp sacks which clanked as she ushered them on with joyful songs, capering in the water as though she were going to a springtime feast. Arthur and his men kept low, each travelling on foot. Arthur, Balin and Lancelot reassured them, telling the war band that they were the bravest of the army, hand-picked to retake Loidis. But they ran with pale faces and dry lips, exchanging glances and all the time gaping at Nimue and her out-of-place hopefulness.

Arthur’s boots crunched on the riverbed, and the chill water lapped around his feet and calves. He carried Excalibur and the sceptre at his belt and his seax in a sheath at the small of his back. He went without a shield at Nimue’s command, as did each man of the fifty. The walls of Loidis appeared as grey and gloomy as the shifting clouds above, as a brisk wind shook trees and bushes and whipped men’s hair away from their faces. A handful of Saxons patrolled the battlements facing towards the eastern forest and southern river, but Arthur believed that more walked the west- and north-facing walls, for that would be where Octha would expect any attack to come. To the east lay Saxon-ruled territories, and south lay only the hills and forests of Elmet, but to north and west was Rheged, Gwynedd and Powys. Mighty British kingdoms, and the only powers who could oppose Octha now that Loidis had fallen. Riverside reeds and high, grassy banks kept Arthur’s warriors hidden from the city walls, and the black cloaks carried their spears low, so that the points wouldn’t reach above the foliage and attract attention.

They had left the forest at daybreak, whilst most men lay snoring beneath cloaks and awnings. Arthur had marched at the front of the column, whilst Balin and Lancelot took up the rear. The men had talked in hushed voices, speculating about what Nimue had planned. Nimue’s constant preaching of the old gods’ power, and Merlin’s mysterious work in the woods which nobody understood, had the men gossiping like washerwomen by a river. The warriors convinced themselves that she and Merlin would cast a great spell and magic the war band inside the walls to open the gates for Gwallog, Idnerth, Bors, Kai, Owain and the army lurking in the deep forest beyond Loidis’ eastern wall.

‘If Merlin can magic us inside the city walls,’ Balin snapped when he heard the warriors discussing their theories on how Merlin and Nimue planned to assault Loidis, ‘why doesn’t he just magic the gate open, or make our army appear in the city square? For that matter, why doesn’t he magic Octha and his entire army back across the sea?’ The men had frowned at Balin as though he talked nonsense, such was their belief in the druid’s power.

Merlin kept the main force deep in the sprawling, dark forest,

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