Divine Sacrifice, The Read Free Page B

would do you good and Ygerne would, I think, welcome it.”
    A heat rose up in my neck. “Do not worry about what Ygerne would welcome! She is my brother’s widow, and he is but a few months in the grave! Besides, as part of Arthur’s
household, she will want for nothing.”
    Merlin cocked his head at me. “I meant that Ygerne would welcome that you spend more time with Mariam.”
    I grunted and prepared to stomp out of the house as I could think of nothing clever to say. But then the door burst open and a man, wearing a rough brown robe, his face red from exertion, half
tumbled and half ran into the house.
    “Malgwyn!”
    “Ider?” He was one of the brothers at Ynys-witrin, younger than most others.
    He was panting heavily, and even the shaved strip from ear to ear, his tonsure, was red. He paused long enough to catch his breath, but when the words came out, they chilled me. “You must
come quickly! Brother Elafius is dead, and the abbot wants you immediately!”

C HAPTER T WO

     
     
     
    D id he die by violence, Ider?”
    The young brother was sitting on one of our stools and gulping water from a jug that Owain had hurried to him. He shook his head. “It did not appear so to me, Malgwyn. But the abbot sees
something strange in it.”
    “Elafius was an old man, Ider. His death was bound to come soon.” I still did not understand why Coroticus had sent Ider to speed our journey. I remembered Elafius well. He was a
kindly old fellow, skilled in the healing arts, but an irritating and argumentative
monachus
. He was truly ancient, and I would not have been surprised to have heard of his death anytime
in the six years past.
    Arthur stomped in before I could respond, and Ider rose to bow to him, but the Rigotamos waved him back to his seat. “We are preparing to leave now. Coroticus knows we are coming today.
Why this haste?”
    “My lord, I know only that the abbot did not expect you until the evening meal. He sent me to hasten your departure, or at least that of Malgwyn. Please, Rigotamos, the abbot is in a
terrible state! Give Malgwyn his leave to depart now.”
    This morning, before Ider burst in upon us, as Merlin and Owain abused me for a lazy sluggard, I was intended to ride with Arthur to Ynys-witrin. My old friend Coroticus, the abbot, was still
battling with Arthur about his cruciform church in the castle. Arthur called it worshipful, reminding the abbot that the cross was a recognized symbol; Coroticus called it blasphemous, but offered
no real rationale for his opposition. We all knew his motive; he wanted Arthur to reduce the abbey’s taxes. Arthur would not. Without the abbot’s blessing, Arthur had called a halt to
the church’s construction. And now it was but a muddy foundation in the middle of the castle, caught between two stubborn men.
    Our meeting would be the third and the only one held at Ynys-witrin. Indeed it was Arthur’s right to demand that all such parleys be held at Castellum Arturius, but this trip was
special.
    The Tor, a tall, steep hill among the small chain which made up Ynys-witrin, was a critical point in our alert system. So important did the
consilium
deem it that they insisted an armed
presence was necessary, claiming there was too much of a gap between Castellum Arturius and the channel. So, Lauhiir had the charge of building permanent defenses there.
    A watch fire was also kept at the Mount of Frogs, to the northwest, and it was much more defensible than the Tor, but the place itself was said to be enchanted, the home of three giants.
Establishing a stockade there had become a problem. Though I believed not in such things, many of our soldiers did believe in giants and enchantresses and magic. Old superstitions die hard.
Finally, Arthur ordered a minor lord, Teilo, to dispatch troops there. I believe some extra lands changed hands in the process. This despite the fact that David and another minor lord, Dochu, had
troops closer.
    The trip to Ynys-witrin