To the Great Deep (A MERLIN MYSTERY) by Jay Ruud

Author:Jay Ruud [Ruud, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: medieval, Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941508, myths & legends, Arthurian
Publisher: Encircle Publications
Published: 2020-07-16T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

FLIGHT

With the prostrate Guinevere in my arms, I flew from that hall and made straight for the queen’s chamber, with Morgan la Lay on my right and Lady Rosemounde on my left, and trailing the rest of the queen’s entourage as we went. Morgan, the experienced healer, barked out commands as we went, asking for cool water and lavender to be brought if it could be found in the castle’s infirmary. Peter dashed off immediately to try to find what he could. I couldn’t help but notice, as we sought the refuge of that place, that Mordred had assigned two of the palace guard to trail after us, and they stood outside the curtain in the outer chamber, keeping tabs on anyone and anything that went in or out. As I shoved past the curtained outer chamber of the queen’s quarters and into her inner closet, we could see there was just room enough there for me, Morgan, Rosemounde, Lady Anne and Master Holly. Rosemounde closed the heavy wooden door and while the other ladies congregated at the threshold, wringing their hands, I laid the queen’s limp body down on the bed.

The moment her body touched the sheets the queen’s eyes sprang open. “Are we alone?” she asked. I snorted. I had suspected all along her swoon was a ruse to get us out of that throne room as quickly as possible and to have an excuse to talk privately, and we needed to. And fast.

“We’re alone,” Morgan said. “But I don’t know how long it will last. We must talk quickly.”

“It is a certainty that Sir Lancelot did not kill the king,” Guinevere began. “That is the truth we must start from.”

“If anything Mordred claimed was true,” I added, “it is certain that I would have had word from Merlin. So his claims are a ruse, and the armies he is gathering about him are to shore up his power against the king’s return.”

“The Saxons worry me most,” Morgan mused. “They are stretched along the shore to prevent the king’s making landfall in his own country. We must get word to Arthur as soon as we possibly can, but our messenger can’t go through Kent or take ship at Portsmouth, where the king’s ships will be under the Saxons’ guard.”

Master Holly, Guinevere’s aged clerk and doorkeeper, pinched his wrinkled face together and shook his head. “This is a council at which you don’t want to be disturbed,” he said with the tact and composure of his profession. “I think I shall take my post at the entry to your chamber and try to make sure no one will surprise you in here.” He turned, bent over, and tottered toward the door, but before he opened it he turned and added, “Just be sure you don’t leave me out of your plans!” And with an almost invisible smile, he slipped out.

“But what is to become of the queen?” Lady Anne worried. “Mordred says he will marry her! How can that be? And why is he insisting on it?”

“Legitimacy,” Morgan answered simply.

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