I must have stood staring like a sleepwalker. She tossed the gold hair back over her shoulder and laughed up at me. Like a blind man fumbling, I felt in the purse at my belt and came out with a coin. It was gold. I took a step back towards her to give it to her. She leaned forward, still laughing, her hands out, cupped like a beggar’s. The torn gown hung loose from the lovely throat. I flung the coin down and ran away from her, up through the wood.

Her laughter followed me till I was over the ridge and down in the next valley and had flung myself on my belly beside the stream and drowned the feel and the scent of her in the rush of the mountain water that smelled of snow.

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER NINE

IN June Ambrosius came to Caerleon, and sent for me. I rode up alone, arriving one evening well past supper-time, when the lamps had been lit and the camp was quiet. The King was still working; I saw the spill of light from headquarters, and the glimmer on the dragon standard outside. While I was still some way off I heard the clash of a salute, and a tall figure came out whom I recognised as Uther.

He crossed the way to a door opposite the King’s, but with his foot on the bottom step saw me, stopped, and came back. “Merlin. So you got here. You took your time, didn’t you?”

“The summons was hasty. If I am to go abroad, there are things I have to do.”

He stood still. “Who said you were to go abroad?”

“People talk of nothing else. It’s Ireland, isn’t it? They say Pascentius has made some dangerous allies over there, and that Ambrosius wants them destroyed quickly. But why me?”

“Because it’s their central stronghold he wants destroyed. Have you ever heard of Killare?”

“Who hasn’t? They say it’s a fortress that’s never been taken.”

“Then they say the truth. There’s a mountain in the centre of all Ireland, and they say that from the summit of it you can see every coast. And on top of that hill there’s a fortress, not of earth and palisades, but of strong stones. That, my dear Merlin, is why you.”

“I see. You need engines.”

“We need engines. We have to attack Killare. If we can take it, you can reckon that there’ll be no trouble there for a few years to come. So I take Tremorinus, and Tremorinus insists on taking you.”

“I gather the King isn’t going?”

“No. Now I’ll say good night; I have business to attend to, or I would ask you in to wait. He’s got the camp commandant with him, but I don’t imagine they’ll be long.”