The Eagles' Brood

IX

I was wrong. Uther did not come back that night, and to this day I know of only two people who might have seen him in the course of the next week. The first of these was the guard on duty in the courtyard when Uther stormed out of the games room; the other, the girl, Cassandra.

I awoke just after dawn the following morning and left my four bedmates asleep in a tangle of limbs. I had had no more than two hours of sleep, and when I finally dropped off, at least two of the girls were still pleasing each other. As I dressed, I noticed that Uther had not returned, but I thought nothing of it at the time. I went to the stables and saddled my horse and galloped down to the villa, letting the crisp, cold air of the frosty morning clear my head, and anticipating the humid, seductive warmth of the bath house, where I could steam and soak the previous night's excesses out of my body.

There was a regular Council session scheduled for noon that day, and I had nothing to do until then, so I spent an hour or so rooting around in the villa. For many years the focal point of the Britannicus family, it was an empty, echoing place nowadays, barely used since the entire family had moved up to live in the hilltop fort years before, although servants still kept it in first-class condition as guest quarters and maintained its magnificent bath house. The fort had baths of its own, of course, but they were utilitarian, makeshift and barely functional—primitive beside the luxury offered by the facilities at the Villa Britannicus.

It was mid-morning by the time I finally went back up the hill to the fort, where I changed into more formal clothes and began to make my way to the kitchens to eat before getting ready for the Council meeting. On the way there, I heard my name being called and I turned to see, Lucanus, the head of our medical staff, looking towards me and waving. I stopped to let him approach me, wondering what he could want. He was an able surgeon, our best in fact, but I chose to think he was not himself an amiable man. He asked me whether I had seen Uther.

"No, Lucanus, I haven't. Not since last night. Is there a problem? Can I help you?"

He frowned and nibbled at his lower lip. "Yes, Commander, there is a problem, but I don't know..."

"You don't know if I can help. Well, neither of us will know the answer to that until you tell me what the problem is." He still looked unsure of himself.

"Well? Come on, man, spit it out!"

He grimaced. "It's the girl, Commander."

I frowned at him, not knowing what he meant. "What girl, Lucanus? I'm not a mind reader."

"The woman, sir. The one Commander Uther brought back yesterday."

My mind clicked. "Cassandra. What about her?"

"I have her in my quarters, Commander."

"Do you, indeed?" I grinned at him. "You'll get little cooperation out of that one, Lucanus. Be careful of her teeth."

The man had no sense of humour. He frowned, heavy; browed with displeasure. "She has been badly beaten, Commander. Brutally beaten, almost to death." My breath stopped as he went on. "Some soldiers found her this morning, in the stables against the west wall. They brought her to me. I thought that since Commander Uther is her protector, he should be told immediately, but I have been unable to find him. When I saw you, I thought you might be able to tell me where he is."

I had a sick sourness in the pit of my gut, but the lie came to my lips of its own volition. "No, I can't tell you. He rode out of the fort last night on a private matter. I have no idea when he will be back. Bring me to the girl." I followed him back to his quarters, stopping only to tell one of the men heading towards the Council Hall that I might be detained and that the session should proceed without me and without Uther.

Lucanus had not exaggerated. The girl lay naked on a cot, hidden from view by folding screens. She had been beaten without mercy with a club of some kind, and the contusions on her white skin would take weeks to heal. Most of the blood had been washed away, and several of the angrier-looking cuts had been stitched together. Her eyes were puffed and bruised completely shut and her startling mouth, which I was immediately sure had been the cause of this, was a shattered, bloody mass. "I'll find her later and teach her a lesson she won't soon forget!" I could hear Uther's voice and my skin crawled in loathing. How could he have done this to a skinny little girl? My mind could not accept it, but there was the evidence, lying naked and smashed in front of me.

"Has she been violated?"

"I think you could say that."

I heard the sarcasm in his voice and rounded on him in a fury. "Sexually, I mean, you fool! Has she been raped?"

His eyes were glacial. I had made an enemy. "Yes, Commander. She has been brutalized and sodomized. Both by extreme force. Her vagina and her anus are both badly torn."

I felt the room swaying around me. "Will she live?"

"I think so, if she wants to."

"What do you mean by that?"

He shrugged his shoulders and ducked his head in a curious manner, pursing his lips as he did so. "Just what I say. If she wishes to live, she will live. People can die by simply choosing not to live. This young woman has had a terrible experience. Is it true she is mute?"

I looked down at her again. "We don't know. She hasn't spoken since we found her, but we found her beside the bodies of two people who might have been her parents.

Commander Uther thought at first that she might be in some kind of trance brought about by witnessing their deaths."

"How did they die?"

"We don't know that, either. There were no signs of violence, and we saw no indications that they had been sick. They were just dead, and the girl knelt beside them."

He made that peculiar gesture again. "I suppose that could be true. She might have been in what we call shock. The body's defensive systems are a wonder we know practically nothing of. How long has it been since she was found?"

I did a quick calculation. "Six days."

"Hmm! Well, even if she was not in shock then, she certainly is now."

I was looking down at her body as it lay there on the couch in front of me. Her skin was white and her body small, but she was not as emaciated as I had suspected. Her thighs were rounded and full, and her breasts small, but firm and plump. I felt another stirring of desire and was filled with disgust at myself.

"Are there any bones broken?"

"No. No fractures. Only contusions, as you can see, both front and rear. And perhaps internal bleeding. Whoever did this is an animal."

"Aye, there's no doubt of that. How can you tell about the internal bleeding? Do people bleed internally?" I had never really thought about that before. His raised eyebrow was an eloquent mockery.

"Aye, Commander, that is what causes bruising. At times, however, a severe blow will rupture a major blood vessel and cause heavy bleeding into the body's cavities."

"And what does that mean?"

Again the shrugged shoulders and the peculiar gesture. "It means the person will probably die."

I squeezed my temples with my left hand, feeling as though my head might burst apart. "What time did this happen, do you know?"

"Sometime in the night. We do not know when. But the blood was congealed when they found her."

"What about the guards?" I was speaking to myself, more than to him. "Didn't anyone hear anything? Surely to God she must have screamed?"

. "Not if she's truly mute, Commander."

I heaved a sigh that was part sob and jerked my eyes away from the girl's ruined body, fighting to bring my anger and revulsion under restraint and keeping my back to Lucanus until I could control the muscles of my face. Finally, I calmed down enough to hide the roiling sickness in my soul and to speak evenly.

"Thank you, Lucanus. You have done well. Where are the men who found her?"

"I sent them back to their duties."

"Hmm! So word of this will be all over the fort by now. Whoever is responsible for this will know she is still alive. I want guards posted outside every door to this place. I'll see to it myself. As soon as you know whether she will live or not, I wish to be informed. In the meantime, you will stay here with her. Don't leave her alone for a moment. That's an order." He nodded his head and I made myself go on, "If Commander Uther should return today I'll send him over. Do what you can for her, Lucanus. She did nothing to deserve this." Not if she'd bitten it off, I added to myself.

He stopped me at the door. "Commander?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"How do you know her name?"

I frowned at him and then realized what he meant. "We don't," I told him. "It's our name, not hers. She seemed tragic enough, even then, to be Cassandra of Troy. Uther named her."

"I see."

I grimaced, deciding in mid gesture that I had no smiles in me. "No, Lucanus, you don't see." Because you did not see what I saw, my mind added.

Outside again, in the bright sunlight, the image of that bruised body still tore at my eyes. I started to walk towards the Council Hall, but when I saw my fellow councillors thronging in that direction and thought of the dry, bloodless, boring trivia on that day's agenda I knew I couldn't cope with it in my present frame of mind. I turned aside and walked off, fighting to keep my face blank and my mind empty, and nodding to the people who greeted me at every step. I ended up beneath the scaffolding against the inner wall, where the masons were at work adding new quarters abutting the main defences of the fort. I sat there in the shadows undisturbed for a long time, thinking this whole mess through.

Had I been the only one who knew the circumstances of this affair, I would have sat on my knowledge until I could face Uther with it privately, but I was not the only one who knew. Our four consorts of the previous night had witnessed the whole thing and would lose no time in airing their knowledge. Struck by a sudden thought, I stood up quickly and made my way back to the games room. It was not yet noon.

As I approached the door, it opened and two of the girls came out. I stopped them with a stiff, insincere smile on my face, and open arms, and asked where they were going. To eat, they told me. They had not yet broken fast? No, they had just arisen. And where were the other girls? Still abed. In my relief, I almost betrayed myself, but managed to guard my features like a hardened liar. I turned them both around, led them back inside, told them to take their clothes off again and promised to bring food, wine, a masseur and Uther back with me shortly. They were surprised, but complacent. I fondled the one with the long tongue—I never could remember her name, but I never forgot her—and asked her if she had tasted the other two as she had the one with whom she had shared Uther. She had not, she said, but was willing to, if they were.

My two erstwhile companions looked at each other uncertainly, wondering what I was up to, but I clinched it by offering a golden aureus to the one who seemed to enjoy it most when I returned with Uther. Even in a society where money is not used, gold is a powerful persuader. I left them settling down to experiment and made my way directly to Titus's quarters.

He was working on his records and looked up at me in surprise as I entered. "Shouldn't you be in Council?"

"I should, but something came up. Is anyone else around? I need to speak with you alone."

"Right now?"

"Immediately."

"Speak then. There's nobody here. What's going on?"

"I'll tell you everything later, Titus. For the moment, I can only ask you if you trust me enough to do something for me at once, without explanation."

"That's a silly question, Cay. What's up? What do you need?"

"A squad of men you can trust completely. I want you to come with me to the games room and help me abduct four women."

"Only four?" He was smiling.

"I'm serious, Titus. I'll tell you what it's all about later. Have you seen Uther today?"

"No. Why?"

"Never mind, it's not important now. Will you do what I ask?"

He looked at me appraisingly for three long counts and then rose to his feet. "It'll take me a little while to round up some men I can rely on. I presume you want men who can keep silent?"

"Yes, I do, above all else. I've got some things to round up myself. I'll meet you in the courtyard in a few moments."

When I opened the door and stepped inside with Titus in tow, the looks on the four girls' faces ranged all the way from lively interest to disappointment.

"Where's Uther? And where's our food?" the long- tongued one asked.

"The food is coming, girls. Uther's left the fort on emergency business. Now, sit up, all of you, and listen carefully to what I have to say. This is important." They sat up and stared at me, beginning to wonder what was going on. I perched with one buttock on the edge of the table and looked at them, considering what I was going to say, how I was going to phrase it. These young women were creatures of pleasure. I reached into my tunic and brought out a leather bag, heavy and rich-looking, and dropped it onto the table top with a solid, metallic thud.

"Gold," I said. "Uther and I have a proposition for you ladies." I opened the drawstring of the bag and poured a stream of gold coins onto the table. "There are eighty gold; aurei here—twenty for each of you. That's enough money to see all of you set for life. At current value, you are looking at about forty thousand silver denarii." All four pairs of eyes were fastened on the pile of gleaming coins. I produced another bag and poured a second stream. "Twenty more for each of you. But there are conditions. You have to earn it." All four of them together could not have earned twenty aurei if they had serviced an entire legion on their backs for five years.

The Tongue licked her lips. "What.. .conditions?"

"You leave Camulod now, immediately, saying goodbye to no one. I'll provide an escort for you as far as Glevum." That was more than sixty miles. "Once in Glevum, you will buy a house, set it up for...your own purposes, shall we say?...and keep it warm and welcoming for Commander Uther and myself and the Legate Titus, here. As you know, we returned yesterday from a long patrol. We found no entertainment in Glevum. For a while there, in fact, we were beginning to look attractive to each other."

None of them smiled at my attempt at humour. One of them, one of the two who had been mine, asked in a husky voice, "When do we get the money?"

"Now. It's yours as soon as you agree to the terms."

"Why would we have to leave right now? What's going on here?" This one's voice was sullen with suspicion.

"Going on?" My mind was racing. "That's an easy question to answer. I'll tell you what's going on, if you really want to know."

"Well? We really want to know."

I cleared my throat and charged ahead with the lie that had come to me. "Uther and I decided to do this when we were in Glevum. To set up a house there, I mean. This morning, at breakfast, we decided that if we are to do it at all, we have to do it quickly, today, in fact. General Picus, my father, is due back today. He would forbid it, totally. He spends much time now with the Christian priests and talks of the pleasures of the afterlife. He disapproves of our casual ways with women, and he would have apoplexy if he thought we were dispatching soldiers on such escort duty. If you leave now, immediately, you will be gone by the time he arrives and he will never know. But you must leave now, and you must go secretly, for if anyone suspects what we are doing, and the word gets back to General Picus, he'll have us court-martialled and our lives won't be worth living. Neither will yours."

The sullen one was still not convinced.

"Of course," I went on, bluffing with all my power, "if you don't like the idea, you can all stay here and there's no harm done. I'll return the money to the treasury and we'll forget the whole thing." I picked up a handful of coins and let some of them slip through my fingers back to the table top. That did it.

"How do we get there?" one of them asked. "I can't ride."

"Don't be silly, girl. We'll send you in comfort, in a wagon with seats and an awning. You'll go in haste, but in style, too."

"What about your soldier boys," asked the Tongue. "Aren't you afraid they'll blab?"

"No," I smiled. "Not until they get back. After that, when they know they stand to lose their visiting privileges: in Glevum and be in trouble with the General, I don't think they'll say too much. And I'm sure they'll have a pleasant journey, at least one way."

It was her turn to smile.

They were aboard the wagon within half an hour, their money in their hands, with enough rations to feed an army. Titus had instructed his men on their duties as escort, and together we watched the party proceeding through the gates and down the hill road. Uther's games room was empty. Every skin and fur and cushion had gone aboard the wagon.

When they were safely out of sight, Titus turned to me with a slight smile. "Aren't you amazed at my patience? What is going on, Cay? You just gave away an emperor's ransom. What's it all about?"

"Rumours and reputations, Titus, that's what it's all about. Let's take a walk where we can't be overheard and I'll tell you the whole sorry tale."

He was gazing closely at me now, his mind working quickly. "Where's Uther, Cay? There's something here I can't grasp."

"Huh," I grunted. "There's something here that will stink in the nostrils of God, my friend."

We walked down the hill and I talked for half an hour, telling him everything I knew. He was as shocked and profoundly disturbed as I had been. When I had finished talking he stopped and caught my elbow, turning me so that he looked me in the eye.

"You don't really think it was Uther, do you?"

I turned away and started walking again, letting my words drift back over my shoulder. "What else can I think, Titus? I've told you what I saw and heard. It all adds up to Uther, and Uther is nowhere to be found. Am I wrong?"

He caught up to me. "You must be, Cay. You have to be. Uther couldn't be capable of the bestial savagery you're talking about."

"I know, Titus. That's what I would have said, until ,today. But you have to admit he is capable of savagery. You've seen him enraged; we both have. He can be a killer."

"Of course he can, in battle. We're all killers then." He shook his head. "No, I can't see it. He might have beaten her after she bit him, while he was so angry, but not like this! Not in cold blood." His face cleared suddenly, and hope gleamed in his eyes. "But you said she was raped, front and rear. He couldn't have done that, with a bitten cock."

I shook my head then, too. "I don't know, Titus. I don't know. That had occurred to me as well, but I really don't know how badly she bit him. I thought at the time he had been more shocked than hurt, but I don't know with certainty. He might still have been capable of that. And there's another thing that crossed my mind, too, although I think I'm leaping at shadows."

"What?"

"She had been beaten with a stick of some kind. No one could find it, apparently." I had to stop and think again about what I was suggesting, before I went on. "It occurred to me that he might have used whatever he beat her with to penetrate her, too, so it would appear she had been raped when we knew him to be incapable of rape because of his injury."

"Sweet Christ, Cay! You're making him into a ravening beast!"

"You haven't seen that girl, Titus. Whoever did that to her is a ravening beast!"

"But that's simply not Uther!"

I rounded on him at that. "Then who is it, Titus? Is it you? Is it me? My father? Somebody did it! Somebody right here in Camulod. I'm not making this up out of my head. It happened!" I realized that I was almost shouting and dropped my voice. "That girl is lying over in Lucanus's quarters, Titus. She is not a figment of my imagination and neither is what happened to her. Someone in this fort savaged her like a wild animal—worse than a wild animal would have—and left her there for dead. It's a marvel that she is alive at all, and she may very well be dead as we speak. I hope not. If she lives, she'll be able to identify her attacker."

"How? I thought she was deaf and dumb?"

"Come on, Titus! She can point a finger."

"Oh, of course. Stupid of me."

"She has to live, Titus, because I can't function properly with these suspicions in my mind and no proof one way or the other. She has to live to look Uther in the face, and I have to be there when it happens, so I have to make sure she stays alive if and when she starts to recover."

Titus frowned at me. "I don't understand. You're not making sense. Surely, if she starts to recover, she'll stay alive?"

I bit down on my impatience and managed not to snap at him. "Think about it, Titus. Think it through. We are not dealing with the normal here. Suppose it was you who had done this thing, and you thought the girl dead and your secret safe. And then you found out she's alive and recovering, and that she'll be able to identify you. What would you do?"

"Run." There was absolutely no hesitation in his voice.

"Right. That's a good answer, and exactly what I'd expect of you, although you'd have to run fast and far to be sure of safety from Picus's justice. But suppose that for any one of a thousand reasons, you couldn't, or didn't want to run away from Camulod? What then? What would your next move be? Remember, we're talking about a small, sick, deaf and mute girl who is the only witness who might condemn you. What might you try to do then?" I was putting words into his mouth, but I had to.

"Try to kill her. You're right, Cay. We'll have to guard her day and night."

"How, Titus?"

"What d'you mean, how?" His brow was creased in perplexity.

"Who will you set to guard her? It was someone in this fort who did it to her, don't forget."

His face clouded. "We'll set a double guard."

"To guard the guards? What if there were two or more men involved? We don't know, and we can't afford to take that risk."

He stopped walking and looked straight at me. "You frighten me, Caius. You're telling me that I can't trust my own men."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's even worse than that, Titus. We can trust no one in this. That's the crime that has really been committed here. The only person in this fort whose innocence I can be absolutely sure of is myself. I know I didn't do this thing. The medic, Lucanus, I can be sure of, too, since he is the one keeping her alive. And you, my friend, are simply yourself incapable of such bestiality. My father and his men are on patrol. When they return, they'll guard her. Until then, it's up to us." I paused. "She is the only one who can clear Uther of suspicion, or condemn him."

"Damnation! This stinks like the sewers of Rome!" His voice was choked with disgust. "So what are we to do? How do we handle this? Have you any ideas?"

I only half heard his last question, for we had just reentered the fort and in the distance, disappearing in the direction of the kitchens, I had seen the unmistakable figure of Daffyd, my best friend among the Druids. The sight of him brought an associated image wholly formed into my mind and I suddenly felt a great surge in my chest as though something heavy had been lifted from me, and all at once I felt much better. I spoke to Titus over my shoulder.

"I've just had an idea, Titus. Leave me alone now and let me chew on it for a while."

He shrugged and shook his head, then raised his hands, palms outward. "I hope it's a good one, Cay. Take care of it because God knows we need it. I'll be in my cubiculum."

I watched him walk away, then I retraced my steps to the secluded masons' scaffolding against the wall. There, secure in the knowledge that none of the masons would consider approaching or disturbing me, I made myself comfortable and began to consider the idea that had flashed into my mind, considering it and adapting it until I had transformed it into a feasible plan of action.

The safety of the girl Cassandra was paramount. Upon it depended the end to my doubts, slight as they were, concerning my cousin's guilt. The two must be confronted with each other, were I to continue living in sanity. Her initial reaction to Uther would, I was convinced, establish his innocence or his guilt immediately, and either outcome would relieve me of these agonizing suspicions. In the interim, however, until the return of my father's patrol, I had the pressing problem I had shared with Titus: Who would guard the guards?

I do not know when the idea of a mysterious disappearance had first occurred to me, but it had crystallized in my mind the moment I saw Daffyd in the distance, for my next thought had been that Mod, one of Daffyd's two apprentices, a slim, adolescent, almost androgynous boy, would have come with him. Somehow, I had known immediately, I would substitute Mod for the girl Cassandra, and arrange the exchange in such a way that no one would be aware of it.

That was the basis of my plan. The plan and its implementation, however, had remained disjointed and undefined beyond the fact that their formlessness lay heavy and solid in the pit of my gut like a mass of undigested food. Now, as I thought the matter through, plotting my course of action in my head, the whole mosaic came together and my enthusiasm grew stronger as the final pieces fell convincingly into place. I could achieve little alone, but I had staunch Mends whom I could trust to aid me, and Lucanus the physician, on whom I could rely concerning the welfare of his charge. I knew my plan would work.

Less than an hour after my arrival beneath the scaffolding, I began putting my stratagem into effect. I sought out my friends and assembled them in Lucanus's infirmary,, where I explained the situation, told them what I proposed to do and enlisted their support.

Ludo, one of my oldest friends in Camulod and head of the kitchens of the fort's Commissariat, would play a crucial part in our abduction. Uther had often warned me about Ludo, during our boyhood, citing the man's notorious fondness for youngsters of his own sex, but Ludo had never made any improper advances to me, nor had I ever given him cause to resent me. Now his commitment to this endeavour of mine was absolute and instant. He agreed to empty one of his secure storerooms close to the infirmary within the hour and put it at my disposal. Lucanus undertook to remove Cassandra from his quarters and conceal her safely in the storeroom as soon as it was empty. Mod would immediately take Cassandra's place, his identity disguised with the same kind of dressings in which Lucanus had swathed the girl. Some of the girl's original dressings, stained with her blood, would amplify the effect. When all these arrangements were completed, in a matter of an hour or so, I would mount a strong guard, night and day, over the infirmary, first making sure that every guard had verified Mod's presence and his battered condition—believing him to be Cassandra—for himself. At dusk, Ludo would load a wagon with "supplies" for the villa kitchens, and would transport the injured girl to the bottom of the hill, where Daffyd would be waiting to lead her to a sanctuary where she would be safe from all harm. Later, Mod would "disappear" in safety in the dead of night, crossing in the darkness from the rear door of Lucanus's quarters to the rear door of the kitchens. The guards would be seeking to prevent an intrusion to the physician's quarters; they would never think to look for an escape. The only criticism of my plan came from Lucanus, who demanded to know where we would take the girl. He was extremely unwilling to allow her to be moved at all, doubting her capability to survive such an ordeal, and he was incensed when I refused, claiming the need for secrecy even among ourselves, to divulge Daffyd's destination. In the absence of alternatives, however, he had no choice but to accede, grudgingly, to the urgency facing us all.

And so it was done. Cassandra was moved safely and without mishap and Lucanus installed Mod in her place, swathing him so convincingly in blood-stained bandages and sheets that the mere sight of his slight, featureless form inspired pity. I spent the afternoon spreading the word widely, first to the Council, which I interrupted in session, that the girl had survived the outrage to which she had been subjected and that she would be protected, thenceforth, under heavy guard, until she grew well enough to identify her attacker. By dusk, everyone in the fort was aware of the girl's situation, and a steady stream of curiosity-seekers passed the infirmary to view the impassive guards at their posts.

The girl was transported safely out of Camulod at nightfall, surrounded by crates and baskets in a sheepskin-piled cart, and Titus and I together provided sufficient distraction for the guards during the second watch of the night to allow Mod to make his own escape from the infirmary.

Several horn's later, during the fourth and last watch of the night when the darkness was absolute, I presented myself once more at the main entrance to the infirmary and questioned the Guard Commander on his charge. He was one of my father's ablest and most trusted veterans, our senior centurion and therefore Camulod's equivalent of the noble and ancient rank of primus pilus. I felt a strong twinge of guilt at deluding him this way, but I had determined that something more—some final touch—was necessary at this point to solidify and seal the mysterious element of what we had done and what I hoped to achieve. I asked him to inspect the guard with me and when we had done so,. I stood talking to him for a few moments.

"A bad business, this, Popilius."

"Aye, Commander," he grunted. "Bad through and through, but the lass is safe enough now. No more harm will reach her, and if she recovers, she'll point the finger at the whoreson who did this. If he's one of mine, I'll have the balls off him before he dies."

I believed him implicitly but made no response, allowing a silence to grow between us before asking my next question. "Do you believe in dreams, Popilius?"

He was an old soldier, too old to respond without thought to such a question. "Dreams, Commander?" he mused, eventually. "I believe they exist, 'cause I have them. But that's not what you're asking, is it? I don't believe they have any significance. I don't believe in that witchcraft stuff. J have dreams, sometimes, as I said, but I can't often remember what they're about. Why do you ask?"

His response surprised me, for I, too, had dreams I could seldom remember afterwards, and it was the memory of those, their incompleteness, that had prompted me to take this present step. I turned to face him in the flickering light of the wall torches by the door to the building, forcing myself to smile a rueful self-deprecating smile.

"Because that's why I'm here. I had one tonight that woke me completely, and it was vivid in my memory."

"A nightmare?" There was a rough sympathy in his voice, as though he were familiar with nightmares.

"No, no, it wasn't a nightmare. There was no fear. I dreamed of a storm, high, howling winds and harsh, red light. Through it walked a figure in a long,- black cloak with a high, pointed hood. He—it—was carrying the girl, out through the main gates. Ridiculous, of course, but this damned mess has been on my mind all day, and when I sprang awake the way I did, that dream seemed very real. So real, in fact, that I had to get up and satisfy myself all is well."

Popilius smiled and nodded. "All's well, Commander, but I know how you felt. As I said, I sometimes dream myself. Strange things, dreams. But the girl hasn't gone anywhere, and no one's entered the building. Lucanus sleeps in the room with her.",.

"Hmm. You're right, of course. I suppose I'm being over cautious. Anyway, I'm going back to try to sleep again. If anything strange or untoward occurs, send for me immediately, understand?"

"I will, Commander. Good night to you."

"Good night, Popilius."

And so was born the first tale of Merlyn's strange and magical powers, for when the empty cot was found, Popilius was there to remember our conversation, and he lost no time in letting everyone know. To this day I have no idea what prompted me to do what I did that night, for in those days I had no thought of ever being more than what I was then, a soldier. But there it is, something inside me told me what to do and I did it.

We conducted an investigation, naturally, into the girl's disappearance, but no disciplinary action was taken against the very worried guards. I had taken care to arrange matters so that there were enough men on guard at any given moment of the night to preclude any charges of negligence, collusion or subornment. The girl had disappeared from heavily guarded premises while her physician slept within reach of her. She had not left by any of the infirmary doors and no one had passed into the infirmary since the last time she had been seen by her guards during the third watch, when Titus and I inspected her ourselves.

Lucanus swore that when he had last seen her she was incapable of locomotion. Popilius swore that she had not been abducted during his watch, even though Commander Merlyn had told him personally of his dream that she had been abducted by a cloaked, storm-racked figure. He had been vigilant at his post prior to that, he declared—and none doubted him or his men—but afterward, he had been even more attentive to his charge. The disappearance of the injured girl was, and remained, a mystery. It became part of the legend of the Colony, and none of those involved ever told the truth of it until now. It was our secret.

As a Druid, Daffyd was familiar with the place I thought of as my secret valley; it was, and had always been, sacred to him and to his kind, who saw trees, tree-crowned hills, and tree-filled hollows as the natural habitat of their ancient gods. Uther, on the other hand, had no knowledge of the valley's existence, even though there had been times when I was sorely tempted to share my secret with him. That I had never done so was the result of a promise made to Uncle Varrus, who had first shown the place to me. He had taken me to the valley one day and made me a gift of it, telling me that every man had need of a secret place where he could be himself, by himself. There would be times, he assured me, when I would be glad to escape from my public life and rest in solitude, gathering my strength and my thoughts. Here alone, he told me, I would be safe from Uther. I had not understood what he meant by "safe," so he explained then that Uther would be a king one day, and that kings and emperors are cruel taskmasters, believing their own concerns give them the right to dictate the lives of others at all times.

This place, he told me, this valley, might come to be my only sanctuary in the whole world, but only if I kept its secret close. Here I might find some peace from time to time and let Uther rant and rave until I should return. It would do him good, his grandfather said, to realize that there was at least one man in his kingdom who could maintain some independence of his king. Uther was not yet king, but his grandfather had already been proven right.

I had thought my secret to be mine alone after my uncle's death, until the day I opened my eyes from sleep and found my father looking down at me. He had come there to fish as a boy, he told me. We fished together that day, and I told him what Uncle Varrus had told me. His only comment was that Varrus had been a wise man, and from that day my father had never come near the place again. He, too, had given it to me for my own. Over the years, I had built a strong stone hut at the water's edge, with a fine, weatherproof roof of red clay tiles that I had salvaged, a few at a time, from a great pile of the things that had lain for years behind one of the outhouses of the Villa Britannicus. I loved to sleep there beside the little lake, lulled by the gentle sound of the sliding waterfall. I had also, over those same years, varied my approach to the only entrance so that no tell-tale path would betray my sanctuary to the eyes of others.

Now I stood outside the door of the hut with Mod, gazing at the yellow lamp light that shone through the translucent glass of the window I had built into the wall. It had taken me a long time to make that window, ten pieces of thick glass joined by lead and carefully fastened into a wooden frame. It was a good window, letting in light mid keeping the weather out. I stood with my left hand on young Mod's shoulder, reluctant, for some reason I could not identify, to enter the hut.

He finally twisted his head and looked up at me. "Are we going in?"

"Aye, Mod, we are." I stepped forward and pushed the door open.

The room was small, and now it seemed crowded with three people in it. Tumac, the younger of Daffyd's two apprentices, was asleep on a pile of furs against the wall, and Daffyd sat by the side of the cot, feeding the girl Cassandra with a spoon. He turned when he heard us enter and smiled at us. The girl gave no sign of knowing we were there. She did not hear us enter and her eyes were covered by a strip of white cloth. I crossed the room and looked down at her. Her mouth was still a mess, but some of the swelling seemed to have abated.

"How is she?" I asked him.

"On the mend. She has a lot of pain ahead of her, but it is the pain of healing."

"How long will it take her to mend completely?"

"A week, two weeks, perhaps three."

"Why are her eyes covered?"

He reached forward and tucked an edge of the covering more securely into place before he answered me. "Protection. They are badly swollen. There is an unguent on the cloth."

"Why? Has her sight been damaged?"

"I don't think so, although I cannot be sure." He looked back at me. "But how are you, Merlyn? You look frayed."

"I'm well enough, Daffyd. I just need some sleep. I have not had much these past few nights."

"Has Uther returned?"

"No."

"And you have no idea where he might have gone?"

"None at all." Daffyd shook his head and continued spooning a broth of some kind into the girl's mouth. "What are you feeding her?" I asked him.

"Only the boiled juice of some herbs. She is too weak to take anything stronger. Perhaps tomorrow I will stew a rabbit and start her on broth." He paused in his feeding and turned to me. "You really believe Uther did this?"

I seated myself on the wooden chair beside the table. "I don't know, Daffyd. I don't know what to think. And the more I think about it the more confused I become." I looked at the girl and felt a surge of anger and resentment towards her. Her sudden intrusion into our lives had upset everything. She had appeared from nowhere, unannounced, and her mere presence had undone the pattern of my life. Because of this girl, my dearest friend had turned into a monster in my mind and the entire Colony had been thrown into upheaval. She had been aptly named Cassandra, the harbinger of doom. And then, as suddenly as it had come, the feeling passed and I was left looking at a tragic little girl who had had no control over the blows that fate had dealt her. From anger and revulsion my feelings changed directly to pity and concern. I realized that I was overtired. Suddenly the idea of lying down and closing my eyes was irresistible. "Daffyd," I said, "I have to sleep. This minute."

"I know that, my young friend. I was hoping you might realize it, too." He nodded towards an empty corner. "Lie down there."

I went to where Tumac lay and took one of the furs from his pile, but before I yielded completely to temptation, I spoke to Daffyd again. "How long can you stay with her, Daffyd?"

"As long as she needs my care. Why? Did you think I would leave her unattended?"

"No, but I thought you might be expecting me to stay with her, and I can't. I have to be back in Camulod early tomorrow. My father is expected and I don't want him to hear this from anyone's lips but my own."

"That is understandable. Sleep, and don't worry. The girl will be well cared for."

"Thank you, my friend." I spread my fur on the floor, lowered myself onto it and fell asleep before I had time to wrap it around me.