“I’ll give you the game.” I pushed the coins over to him, and made to stand up. As I looked round for the pot-boy to order the promised flask, Dinias slammed his hand down on the table with a crash. The dice jumped and rattled, and cup went over, rolled, and smashed on the floor. Men stopped talking, staring.

“Oh, no, you don’t! We’ll play it out! Walk out just as the luck’s turning again, would you? I’ll not take that from you, or anyone else! Sit down and play, my bastard cousin—”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Dinias—”

“All right, so I’m a bastard, too! All I can say is, better be the bastard of a king than a no-man’s-child who never had a father at all!”

He finished with a hiccup, and someone laughed. I laughed too, and reached for the dice. “All right, we’ll take them with us. I told you, win or lose, we’d take a flask home. We can finish the game there. It’s time we drank one another into bed.”

A hand fell on my shoulder, heavily. As I twisted to see who it was, someone came on my other side and gripped my arm. I saw Dinias stare upwards, gaping. Around us the drinkers were suddenly silent.

Blackbeard tightened his grip. “Quietly, young sir. We don’t want a brawl, do we? Could we have a word with you outside?”

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

I GOT to my feet. There was no clue in the staring faces round me. Nobody spoke.

“What’s all this about?”

“Outside, if you please,” repeated Blackbeard. “We don’t want a—”

“I don’t in the least mind having a brawl,” I said crisply. “You’ll tell me who you are before I’ll go a step with you. And to start with, take your hands off me. Landlord, who are these men?”

“King’s men, sir. You’d best do as they say. If you’ve got nothing to hide—”

“‘You’ve got nothing to fear?’” I said. “I know that one, and it’s never true.” I shoved Blackbeard’s hand off my shoulder and turned to face him. I saw Dinias staring with his mouth slack. This, I supposed, was not the meek-voiced cousin he knew. Well, the time for that was past. “I don’t mind these men hearing what you have to say. Tell me here. Why do you want to talk to me?”

“We were interested in what your friend here was saying.”

“Then why not talk to him?”

Blackbeard said stolidly: “All in good time. If you’d tell me who you are, and where you come from—?”

“My name is Emrys, and I was born here in Maridunum. I went to Cornwall some years ago, when I was a child, and now had a fancy to come home and hear the news. That’s all.”