“No. It’s all right. I’m not tired, only slow. Slow of voice, as you can hear, and even slower of thought. They tell me it will pass with time, but I am afraid that time is a luxury I do not have.”

At that Alexander began some sort of protest, but the duke, smiling, shook his head. “Thank you, but I wasn’t talking about death. I intend to do a great deal before that day! I am talking of now, today, what is needful to be done now, while I, alas, am not capable of doing it.” He drew a long breath, and then, as if it had given him strength, he nodded, with something of vigour and decision. “Yes, there is a lot I have to say to you, Prince Alexander, and a lot to ask of you. But first, will you pour some wine? It’s on that table yonder, and yes, I am allowed to have it, or I assure you that my gentle daughter would have locked it away … Thank you. Take some for yourself, won’t you? And now sit down again, if you will, and tell me the tale that you told my daughter. Perhaps you can tell me more than you would have told to her? But I must hear it, all of it. It concerns me more nearly than you think.”

So once more Alexander went through the story, this time without troubling to conceal anything. It is to be remembered that he had never known the advice or even the presence of a father, and now he found himself talking with a freedom he had not known even with Barnabas at Craig Arian. From time to time, as he talked, the duke put a question, so that when at length the prince fell silent, nothing had been held back.

The duke went straight to the same point as Alice had done. “These ‘councils’ of Queen Morgan’s. Have you remembered all the men who were with her?”

“I think so. I didn’t know all those in her party by name, but the ones who were closest, and sat with her in the east tower, yes.”

“And one of the names you heard was Madoc.”

“Yes, sir. I only heard that name once, when Count Ferlas was talking with the queen.”

“Then he was not there at the Dark Tower?”

“No, sir. But I understood that he had been. He had ridden north on some business of the queen’s. I never knew what, only what I told you Ferlas said. But it was not this – the quest for the grail. That,” Alexander finished bitterly, “was reserved for the expendable fools.”

“Well,” said Ansirus, smiling, “here is one fool who seems to have won clear of his folly – and you are many years younger than I was when that happened to me! No, boy, forget it. I think that things will change for you now. More wine, please, and then, of your goodness, listen to what I have to ask of you.”