Warriors of Ethandun Read Free Page B

her face in the mirror, she barely recognised her own reflection. Her face was a completely different shape, sculpted where it had been chubby. Her eyes looked enormous in this new thinner face and there was a hardness, a toughness in them that hadn’t been there before. She didn’t look like a young girl any more. She had killed, had seen sights no one else alive but Dan could even imagine. How could her mother not see all that she had lived through etched on her face, in the new muscularity of her body and in the darkness in her eyes? Perhaps people did not see what they did not expect to see.
    She was unimpressed by the two policemen who arrived to question her. She would not have had the younger of the two in any troop of hers, nor would she have fought willingly at his side. The older man was all right, but he didn’t really look at her. He treated her like a little girl.
    â€˜Dan did not hurt me,’ she said without preamble. ‘He saved me. Why have you got him in custody?’
    â€˜There are a number of very confusing aspects to this case, Miss Dorrington. No explanation has been given for the curious costumes that both you and Mr Jones were wearing. Your injuries were very severe, consistent with being violently hacked by a sharp implement – a long-bladed knife or some such. Whoever did it to you would have been covered in blood. The only other personpresent at the scene was Mr Dan Jones and both he and his costume were drenched in it. I believe that you are lucky to be alive, Miss Dorrington, and our only plausible suspect is Mr Jones.’
    Ursula controlled her temper with difficulty. ‘I was there, remember, and I’m telling you Dan was covered in blood because he rescued me. My attacker was gone by then and I didn’t know him.’ That was true enough. In all the confusion of battle she could not be absolutely certain who had hurt her where, and many of the enemy had worn helmets … Was that near-fatal blow from the hand of Medraut, Count of the Saxon Shore in sixth-century Britain? She could not remember.
    The policeman did not appear to believe her. ‘And what did he look like, this stranger who attacked you?’
    â€˜He was older – middle-aged. I couldn’t see his face. He was wearing a helmet.’
    â€˜A motorcycle helmet?’
    â€˜I don’t know what to call it.’ That was true – she only knew its Celtic or Roman name; she did not know what the word was in English.
    â€˜Dan wasn’t there when he attacked me. He ran to get me when he realised what was going on.’
    â€˜And what happened to this middle-aged men with a helmet?’
    Ursula thought she might have killed him, but she couldn’t be sure. It was hard to keep track of events when in a battle and she had been struggling to stay conscious at the time. She’d killed Medraut, but she was not certain that it was Medraut who had nearly killed her. She clearedher throat. ‘I don’t know. I think I passed out. Dan will tell you.’
    The two policemen exchanged a look and Ursula found herself wondering what exactly Dan had told them. She had to trust that it wasn’t the truth.

Chapter Four
    Dan looked at Taliesin in horror – he could not say that kind of thing in a police station. Dan glanced at his father, still jiggling his crossed leg, and the officer – his name was Inspector Frith – still staring at him with a look of bored indifference. They didn’t appear to have heard.
    â€˜It’s OK, Dan – they can’t hear us. I’ve worked a simple charm.’ Taliesin grinned, showing newly even white teeth. ‘I thought I’d rescue you. This is no place for a hero.’ Taliesin – bard, wizard and former adviser to kings – waved a bony arm and Dan and he were suddenly elsewhere. It took a moment for Dan to recognise that they were standing back in the field near Hastings from where they’d