She went back to her place beside Arthur. Lancelet and the King were drawing with the tips of their daggers on the wooden boards before them, while they ate absentmindedly out of the same dish. Biting her lip-indeed she might as well have stayed in Tintagel for all the difference it made to Arthur that she was there or not-she would have withdrawn to a bench with her ladies, but Arthur looked up at her and smiled, holding out his arm to her.

"Nay, my dear one, I meant not to drive you away-I must indeed talk with my captain of horse, but there is room for you here, too." He beckoned to one of the servers. "Bring another plate of meat for my lady. Lancelet and I have made a wreck of this dish-there is fresh-baked bread too, somewhere, if any of it is left, though with Cai not here the kitchens are in chaos."

"I think I have eaten enough," Gwenhwyfar said, leaning a little against his shoulder, and he patted her absently. She could feel Lancelet, warm and solid, on the other side, and she felt secure and safe between them. Arthur leaned forward, one hand still stroking her hair, the other holding the dagger where he was sketching.

"Look, can we bring the horses up this way? We can travel fast, and leave the wagons with provisions and baggage to come around on the flat country, but men with horses can cut across country and march light and fast-Cai has had men baking hard journey-bread for the armies and stockpiling it these three years since Celidon Wood. It is likely they will land here-" He pointed to a spot on the rough map he had made. "Leodegranz, Uriens, come here and look at this-"

Her father came, and with him another man, slight and dark and dapper, though his hair was greying and his face lined.

"King Uriens," Arthur said, "I greet you as my father's friend and mine. Have you met my lady Gwenhwyfar?"

Uriens bowed. His voice was pleasant and melodious. "My pleasure to speak with you, madam. When the country is more settled, I will bring my wife, if I may, to present to you at Camelot."

"I shall be pleased," Gwenhwyfar said, feeling that her voice was insincere-never had she learned how to speak these polite platitudes so that they carried any conviction.

"It will not be this summer, we have other work to do," said Uriens. He bent over Arthur's rough map. "In Ambrosius' time we led an army up country this way-we had not so many horses, save with the baggage wagons, but one could bring them up and cut across ground here. You must keep out of swamps as you go to the south of the Summer Country-"

"I had hoped not to climb the fells," said Lancelet.

Uriens shook his head. "With that great body of horse, it is better."

"On those hills, horses slip on stone and break their legs," Lancelet argued.

"Better even that, sir Lancelet, than have men and horses and wagons all bemired-better fells than swamps," said Uriens. "Look, here lies the old Roman wall ... "

"I cannot see where so many have scribbled," said Lancelet impatiently. He went to the fireplace and plucked out a long stick, shook out the fire on the end, and began drawing on the floor with the charcoaled stick. "Look, here lies the Summer Country and here the Lakes and the Roman wall ... . We have, say, three hundred horse, and here two hundred-"

"So many indeed?" Uriens demanded incredulously. "The legions of Caesar had no more!"

"Seven years we have been training them, and training mounted soldiers in their use," said Lancelet.

"Thanks to you, dear cousin," Arthur said.

Lancelet turned and smiled. "Thanks to you, my king, who had vision to see what we could do with them."

"Some soldiers still know not how to fight on horseback," said Uriens. "As for me, I fought well enough leading men on foot-"

"And that is as well," said Arthur good-naturedly, "for we have not horses for every man who wishes to fight mounted, nor saddles and stirrups and harness for all, though I have had every harnessmaker in my kingdom working as fast as he might, and hard enough work I've had to levy enough money to pay for all this, and men thinking me a greedy tyrant." He chuckled, patting Gwenhwyfar on the back and saying, "All this time I have had hardly enough gold of my own to buy my queen silks for her embroidery! It has all gone to horseflesh and smiths and saddlers!" Suddenly the gaiety was gone and he was serious, almost frowning. "And now is the great test of all that we have done and all that we can do-the Saxons this time are a flood, my friends. If we cannot stop them, with less than half their numbers, there will be none fed in this country but ravens and wolves!"

"That is the advantage of horse troops," said Lancelet gravely. "Armed and mounted men can fight five, ten-it may be twenty times their number. We shall see, and if we have guessed right, we shall stop the Saxons once and for all time. If we have not-well, we shall die defending our own homes and the lands we love, and our women and little children."

"Aye," said Arthur softly, "that we would. For what else have we worked since we were tall enough to hold a sword, Galahad?"

He smiled, his rare, sweet smile, and Gwenhwyfar thought, with a stab of pain, Never does he smile at me like that. Yet, when he hears what news I bear him, why then ...

For a moment Lancelet answered the smile, then he sighed. "I had a dispatch from my half-brother Lionel-Ban's eldest son. He said he would set sail in three days-no"-he stopped, counting on his fingers-"he is already at sea-the messenger was delayed. He has forty ships and he hopes to drive the Saxon ships, or as many as he may, onto the rocks, or south to the Cornish coast, where they cannot land their troops aright. Then when he lands he will march his men to where we are gathering. I should send a messenger with a place for rendezvous." He pointed to the improvised map on the stones.

Then there was a little stirring of voices at the door of the room, and a tall, thin, greying man strode in through the scattered benches and trestle tables. Gwenhwyfar had not seen Lot of Lothian since before the battle of Celidon Wood.

"Why, I see Arthur's hall as I never thought to see it, bare without his Round Table-what, Arthur, cousin, playing at knucklebones on the floor with all your schoolfellows?"

"The Round Table is already gone to Camelot, kinsman," said Arthur, rising, "with all my other furniture and women's gear-you see here an armed camp, waiting only for daybreak to send the last of the women to Camelot. Most of the women and all of the children are already gone." Lot bowed to Gwenhwyfar and said, in his smooth voice, "Why, then, Arthur's hall will be barren indeed. But is it safe for women and children to travel with the land rising for war?"

"The Saxons have not yet come so far inland," said Arthur, "and there is no danger if they go at once. I must tell fifty of my men-and a thankless job it is-to stay out of the field, and guard Camelot. Queen Morgause is well where she is, in Lothian-I am glad my sister is with her!"

"Morgaine?" Lot shook his head. "She has not been in Lothian these many years! Well, well, well. I wonder where she may have gone? And with whom? I thought always there was more to that young woman than I ever could see! But why to Camelot, my lord Arthur?"

"It is easily defended," said Arthur. "Fifty men can hold it till Christ should come again. If I left the women at Caerleon here, I would need to hold back two hundred men or more from the battle. I know not why my father made Caerleon his stronghold-I had hoped before the Saxons came again we would be gone with all our court to Camelot, and then they would have to march across Britain's width to come at us, and we could give them battle on a field of our own choosing. If we led them into the swamps and lakes of the Summer Country, where the land is never the same two years in a row, why then mud and swamps could do some of the work of bow and arrow and axe for us, and the little folk of Avalon finish them off with their elf-arrows."