'But Medraut said Urien was his father,' I remarked. 'Why should he lie about that?'

The Emrys shook his head slowly. 'That,' he said, 'is the one truth Medraut told – the same that killed Lot hi the end.'

Slowly the grim meaning of the Emrys' strange words came to me. My stomach tightened with revulsion. 'Morgian married Urien, her own son,' I said, taking it in at last. The incest produced a child and that child was Medraut.

'My years of blindness were nothing to this,' the Emrys muttered bitterly. 'Alone among men, I should have known what we were fighting against. More than my sight was shattered, I think. But it comes to this: Morgian placed her devil spawn in Arthur's court, knowing that one way or another she would have her revenge.'

Revenge. The word stank of death. I heard in it the cry of ravens flocking to blood-spattered battlefields. Oh, the Enemy is tireless in hate and endlessly resourceful. I suddenly felt very small and ignorant. I knew nothing of the world's true nature. I knew nothing of the forces arrayed against us. I knew nothing…

'What is to be done?' I asked, hoping for some word of hope from the Ever Wise Emrys.

'That which is given to us to do we will do,' he said, and turned his face away. 'We are men and not angels after all.'

I drew neither hope nor comfort from these words, and once again was thrown back into the misery of despair as into the loathsome hostage pit. I beat my fists impotendy against my leg. If I could have killed the traitor there and then I would have done it, even at the cost of my own soul! But I could do nothing – only stand aside and look on.

Urien's ships were drawn up and arranged to form a blockade of the harbour. When Arthur entered he would not be able to land directly, but would have to fight his way ashore. Shrewd Medraut gave himself every advantage.

But here I was mistaken, for after effecting the blockade, Medraut ordered the Picti host to withdraw into the hills. Gwenhwyvar, the Emrys and the other hostages were put onto horses and led away with Keldrych's warband.

Then did Medraut turn to me. 'Your Wonderful Pendragon is coming. When he arrives, tell him this: I am waiting for him in the hills. The Emrys and Gwenhwyvar are with me. He will come to me alone and I will receive him.'

That he will never do!' I declared.

Medraut slapped me hard across the mouth. Tell him! If he brings his war host, I will kill the queen before he has set foot in the crooked glen. This is between us two alone. When we have settled the blood-debt for my mother, I will give up my hostages – not before.'

I glared at the tyrant with narrowed eyes. 'Say whatever you like, and know that I will tell him. But you are insane if you believe the Pendragon of Britain will meet you alone in a place of your choosing.'

Medraut stiffened. His hands began to shake, as if he were warring within himself to control his movements. His face twisted in a savage leer. 'Then let him bring his closest advisers. Yes, bring his best! But if I see so much as a single blade among them, the queen will die and the Emrys with her.'

My chain was then fastened to an iron ring used to tie up ships and I was left there alone on the shore. I watched and waited through the day, and endured a cold night on the strand without food or water.

As dawn faded the night to the colour of grey steel in the east, I awakened to the sight of thirty ships sailing into the harbour. The foremost ships bore the red dragon on their sails. Close behind followed fifteen sister ships, with twenty more just clearing the harbour mouth.

The Pendragon made his landing after threading his way through the blocked harbour. I stood in sea-wster up to my shins, waiting for the landing party to make its way to me. Arthur himself was among the first to come ashore, and greeted me anxiously. 'Where are they? What is happening here?' Bedwyr, Cai, Cador and Gwalcmai quickly gathered around.

'We are hostages, lord,' I replied, indicating my chain – whereupon the High King drew Cut Steel and, with one mighty chop, freed me from the iron ring in the stone. Thank you, Pendragon. I knew you would come. I knew you would not leave us to suffer Medraut's treachery.'

'Where is that rat?' demanded Cai. 'I will see him hung • upon the gates of Caer Lial.'

Bedwyr lifted my chain. 'What of the queen and the Emrys? Do they live?'

They are alive,' I answered. 'But, aside from the hostages, all the rest are murdered.'

'He will pay with his life for this!' declared Cador. He smashed his fist against his chest.

Arthur turned his eyes to his ruined city, then back to me. 'Where have they gone?' he asked softly.

'Lord, I am instructed to deliver this message,' I said. 'But please, remember these are Medraut's words, not mine.'

'For the love of Jesu,' cried Cai, 'get on with it!' I swallowed hard and began. 'I am to tell you that he is waiting for you in the hills. The Emrys and Gwenhwyvar are with him. You are to go to him alone, but for your chosen advisers, and Medraut will receive you.'

Cai snorted and Bedwyr muttered under his breath. Cador opened his mouth to speak, but Arthur held up his hand for silence and bade me continue.

'Medraut says that if you bring your war host he will kill the queen and the Emrys before ever you set foot in the crooked glen. He says that when the blood-debt has been settled, he will give up his captives – not before.'

'Blood-debt?' wondered Bedwyr. 'What blood-debt could there be between you?' he asked Arthur.

'For his mother's death,' I answered.

All looked at one another uneasily. 'Who is his mother?' asked Cai.

'Morgian,' I answered. 'So the Emrys says.' And I told them what I had learned from Myrddin regarding Medraut's unnatural parentage. Gwalcmai listened in stunned silence.

This answers much,' observed Arthur. He turned to Gwalcmai. 'You bear no fault.'

'I never did trust that schemer,' muttered Cai.

'What else can you tell us?' Bedwyr asked. _

'Only this: that you must come to him unarmed. If he sees so much as a single blade among you, the queen will die and the Emrys with her. So Medraut says.'

'How many are with him?'

Thousands – fifty thousand, at least. I cannot be certain, but there are more than I have ever seen before. All the Picti tribes are here.'

I thought for a moment that I saw defeat in the bold blue eyes. But I was mistaken. 'The crooked glen… ' he mused, searching the wave-washed pebbles at his feet. 'Camboglanna – Camlan?' He raised his head with a grim smile.

'Medraut is canny,' observed Bedwyr. 'If that is where he has taken them – a narrow valley with a fortress above. The place is a killing-ground.'

Indeed, I thought Bedwyr's appraisal only too accurate when later that day Arthur, Bedwyr and Cai surveyed the place from a nearby hilltop. I accompanied them and despaired to behold our ruinous position. For Medraut had moved his army east to a sheltered valley below the Wall. To the north rose a steep rocky ridge, and to the south an enormous hill, topped by one of the old Roman garrisons, the fortress Camboglanna, now called Camlan. The old word means crooked glen, and the place proved true to its name. Long and narrow, with a sharp-angled bend formed by the intrusion of the ridge, the desolate, rock-filled little valley appeared well suited to treachery.

The fortress, even in its ruined state, still commanded the region with its superior advantage. Medraut's forces could hold their positions with far less effort, while the Pendragon would be made to fight on two fronts from the beginning.

Cai observed the terrain and said, 'You cannot think of going down there to meet him unarmed.'

'I do not see that I have a choice,' replied Arthur.

'There is always a choice.' Bedwyr scanned the hillside and the fortress. 'They are waiting up there to ambush us – I can smell the treachery.'