A moment later, Rhys raised the signal to reform, and the pursuit broke off; riders began returning to the field. Once the wounded were under care – mercifully, there were few of them; the battle had been brief – I assembled the lords and we rode up to the caer. The gates were open and Ector was standing in the yard, talking to Arthur.

At our approach they finished and Ector hurried into the hall. The Duke turned suddenly and spoke a word to Llenlleawg, who ran to his horse, leapt into the saddle and raced away.

I dismounted and threw my reins to one of Ector's men. 'What is it?' I asked, hurrying to Arthur's side.

'There are Saecsens here.'

'Saecsens!'

'So Ector believes. He will tell us more.' He glanced towards the gate where the first of the lords was arriving. 'Bring them in. We will hold council in the hall.'

Once settled inside, we clutched our cups and listened to Ector speak the words most dreadful to our ears. 'Before the siege, word came to me that Saecsen warships had been seen on the water below Traprain Law. I took ten ships and we made for the coast there, but we found no sign of them.'

'Your report was accurate?' asked Owain.

'There was no doubt.'

'Yet we saw no Saecsens in battle today. They must have turned back. Your ships scared them away,' suggested Ceredig.

'We saw no Saecsens, because we were not meant to see them,' declared Myrddin Emrys. 'There was no battle today.'

'No battle?' demanded Maelgwn. 'It seemed a battle to me!' Everyone laughed. 'What did we fight against then?'

'You fought against a shadow,' replied Myrddin.

The Emrys' strange words worked in me and in that instant I saw the subtle shape of the trap that had been set for us. Oh, Cerdic had bethought himself well. Long had he nourished himself with cunning, and groomed himself with treachery. I saw it in an instant: the siege of Caer Edyn, like Trath Gwryd and Caer Alclyd, was meant only to distract us and wear us down while he moved us into position. The real battle he had saved to the last.

Shrewd Cerdic, deft in deceit. He who would not rule under Arthur, turned traitor against him and against his own people. Devil take him, he was always a bad seed.

'A shadow?' The lords of Britain stared in disbelief, then laughed scornfully.

'Listen to the Soul of Wisdom,' commanded Arthur. 'Has it not occurred to you that we have succeeded too easily? These first fights were but annoyances – vexations to divert us from the true battle. Had we given chase today, we would now be food for ravens and wolves.'

The lords muttered loudly at this: accusations of weakness and indecision. Some complained aloud that Arthur imagined too much. If there were Saecsens, they said, why did they not show themselves? Why did we turn aside when we had the battle won?

Let* them mutter and accuse as they might, the Bear of Britain would not be moved. He crossed his arms over his chest and faced them down, each and every one. When order was restored, he turned to me. 'Bedwyr, tell them who is Bretwalda to the barbarians. Tell them who you saw beneath the skull-and-bones today.'

'I saw Cerdic ap Morcant,' I said loudly.

Some, like Idris and Maglos who had been friend to Cerdic and had ridden with him before joining Arthur, refused to believe. 'Impossible! You are surely mistaken.'

'I know who I saw. It is a face I have seen more than once across the field of battle.'

'He would not slaughter his own people,' maintained Idris, albeit weakly.

'He fought against us in the beginning! Or have you forgotten,' I spat. Anger splashed up hot within me. 'Since he could not prevail that way, he has joined the enemy. I do not find that so difficult to believe.'

That gave them something to chew on. Mighty God, they can be a thick-headed lot! But they cavilled to nothing but their own dishonour, for it showed how little they esteemed Arthur. Still! Even after all he had done.

Bors, Gwalchavad and Cador, who had been tending to the Cymbrogi, joined us now. Custennin took advantage of the momentary interruption to move the council along. 'Whether it is Cerdic,' he proclaimed, 'or whether it is someone else, does not matter for the moment. If there are Saecsens waiting in ambush, then we must decide quickly what to do. Arthur is our War Leader, we must listen to him.' Turning to Arthur, he said, 'Tell us, Duke Arthur, what would you have us do?'

Arthur rose to stand over us. 'We will send scouts to discover where the enemy have gone. Once we know th – '

'We know where they have gone!' said Owain. 'Every moment we delay strengthens them.'

Arthur struck the board with the flat of his hand. The slap rattled the cups the length of the board. 'Silence!'

The lords fell silent at last. Arthur glared at each one and continued, 'I will not ride into battle until I know the field, how it lies, and who is arrayed against us. With your own ears you have heard that there is some deception at work here. Since we know not what it is, I mean to be wary.' He straightened and folded his arms across his chest. 'I thank you for your trust, my lords, and I will summon you when I am ready.'

This is no way to enter a battle. Bitterness and strife in command can leech the strength of an army more quickly than fear. There was little we could do about that now. It was already too late.

The scouts were sent out and returned just before nightfall with word of the enemy's position. And that word was not good to hear. Arthur assembled the lords and the scouts told what they had seen: the barbarian host had passed west along the Fiorthe to the place where Guaul met the river mouth, then they had turned away from the coast into the wooded hills to the south.

'This does not appear to be a heedless retreat,' observed Arthur, when the scouts had spoken. The lords were forced to agree that the enemy had behaved with unusual forethought. 'Did you see where they stopped?'

'They stopped,' reported the foremost scout, 'in a region of lakes. I saw two hills with ancient forts on them. It appeared that they were met by some already waiting there.'

'Did you see who was waiting?'

'They seemed to be Saecsens, Duke Arthur.'

The trap! Yes! Arthur's cool instinct had saved us from a fatal mistake. I would have ridden into it.

'How many?' asked Arthur.

The scout hesitated. 'I cannot say, lord.'

'More than ten thousand?'

'Yes, lord, more than ten thousand.'

'More than twenty?'

Again the scout paused. I could well understand his reluctance. 'Yes, Lord Arthur, more than twenty thousand. I think it was Octa and Colgrim.'

Arthur dismissed the scout, and turned to the lords. "They were met by Saecsens, twenty thousand strong, at least. Probably more.'

'I know the place,' said Ector. 'There are two hills – rather one hill with two peaks, and the ruins of an old fortress. The hill is called Baedun.'

'Twenty thousand!' scoffed Maelgwn. 'We would have heard long before now if that many barbarians were loose in the land.'

'Not if our eyes and ears were distracted elsewhere,' I reminded the council. At last, the peril became apparent to them as they grasped the gravity of our position.

'What are we to do?' asked Maglos.

'We must assemble more men,' said Owain, and several others agreed. 'Send to the south for more men.' Others had other ideas and spoke them out.

Arthur let them have their say, and then told them how it would be. 'We cannot wait for more men. The enemy must not think they have frightened us. We strike quickly, and we strike boldly. Order your men, tomorrow we carry the battle to Cerdic and his barbarians.'

Baedun Hill rises above the woodlands, a big, rough, rock-strewn, double-humped tor. It is steep and flat-crested. Its chief advantage to the foemen lay in its size and the strong walls of its two old fortresses: they were enormous, large enough to hold the thirty thousand assembled there. And the walls, though they were not high, were double banked and made of stone.