She said, without impatience: “No. I believe this encounter was an accident. But these were March’s men, and if by chance they recognised you – you who are the living spit of your father – they will go back to Cornwall and tell the Fox that Baudouin’s son is still alive, and well found here at Craig Arian. And by killing his man – no, my dear, I know that you had to, wait – you have given him the excuse to send now to seek you out and finish the work that Sadok was supposed to do all those years ago.”

“So,” said Alexander with triumph, “I will go first! If I set out straight away, and ride hard, I can be in Cornwall before they get there!”

“No. What chance would you have? This must be done differently. Times have changed, Alexander. This morning you killed because you were attacked, and you cannot be impugned for that –”

“But you said that it had given March the excuse to seek me out for it and kill me!”

“March does not work by rule of law. I am talking about law. For the killing today you have a right. But a killing purely for revenge, and the killing of a king, at that – times have changed. It must be done by process of law. You will go to the High King and take your case, and its proof there, with you. You will go to the Round Hall and tell my story, show them the bloody shirt, and ask for the High King’s judgment. From all accounts, Arthur and March are not friendly, and Arthur is very likely to let you challenge March and fight him in the course of law. You are young yet, Alexander, and this will give you time and experience to make yourself a match for such as March. You are not that yet, my son, and this is an arrow that must not miss. Do you not see? There was a time – those first years – when I would have given the world for March’s death, come how it might, but we grow wiser with the years. If you went now to Cornwall and managed, though God knows how, to kill him and escape the swords of his guard, you yourself would be arraigned by Arthur’s law-keepers, and we would gain nothing. Go to Arthur first, and then we have right and law on our side.”

“Will the High King believe me?”

“I think so. He knows March. And there must be men still at March’s court who remember that night. Drustan is not in Cornwall now; he is at his castle in the north, but he will stand by us if need be, and of course there is Sadok, and he –”

She stopped on a gasp, and a hand went to her throat. “Sadok! And Erbin, too! Ah, God, I should have thought it straight away! Once those men get home to March with their report, we can guess what will happen to Sadok and his brother!”