“I’d just got back to the nunnery gate when they came for your mother. I heard them asking for her, and saying they’d got you, and were taking the pair of you off to Vortigern at cocklight next day. I spent half the night finding Marric, and the other half trying to get a decent horse—and I might as well have saved myself the pains, I had to settle for that screw you bought. Even the pace you went, I was near a day behind you by the time you’d got to Pennal. Not that I wanted to catch up till I saw which way the land lay . . .

Well, never mind, I got here in the end—at dusk yesterday—and found the place buzzing like a hive that’s been trodden on.” He gave a short bark of a laugh. “It was ‘Merlin this’, and ‘Merlin that’ . . . they call you ‘the King’s prophet’ already! When I said I was your servant, they couldn’t shove me in here fast enough. Seems there isn’t exactly a rush to look after sorcerers of your class. Can you eat something?”

“No—yes. Yes, I can. I’m hungry.” I pushed myself up against the pillows. “Wait a minute, you say you got here yesterday? How long have I slept?”

“The night and the day. It’s wearing on for sunset.”

“The night and the day? Then it’s—Cadal, what’s happened to my mother? Do you know?”

“She’s gone, safe away home. Don’t fret yourself about her. Get your food now, while I tell you. Here.”

He brought a tray on which was a bowl of steaming broth, and a dish of meat with bread and cheese and dried apricots. I could not touch the meat, but ate the rest while he talked.

“She doesn’t know a thing about what they tried to do, or what happened. When she asked about you last night they told her you were here, ‘royally housed, and high in the King’s favour’. They told her you’d spat in the priests’ eyes, in a manner of speaking, and prophesied fit to beat Solomon, and were sleeping it off, comfortable. She came to take a look at you this morning to make sure, and saw you sleeping like a baby, then she went off. I didn’t get a chance to speak to her, but I saw her go. She was royally escorted, I can tell you; she’d half a troop of horse with her, and her women had litters nearly as grand as herself.”

“You say I ‘prophesied? Spat in the priests’ eyes’?” I put a hand to my head. “I wish I could remember . . . We were in the cave under King’s Fort—they’ve told you about that, I suppose?” I stared at him. “What happened, Cadal?”

“You mean to tell me you don’t remember?”