M. K. Hume [King Arthur Trilogy 04] The Last Dragon (2 page)

Blaise
Youngest daughter of King Bors Minor of the Dumnonii tribe and betrothed to Gilchrist (a grandson of King Gawayne), who will become a future king of the Otadini.

Bors Major
King of Cornwall. Nephew and successor to King Gorlois.

Bors Minor
King of Cornwall. The son of Bors Major and great-nephew of King Gorlois, he is a life-long ally of King Artor and, later, King Bran.

Bran
King of the Ordovice tribe. He is the son of Anna and the grandson of King Artor. He becomes Dux Bellorum of the West after the death of King Artor.

Cadwy Scarface
A notable Brigante warrior who was wounded at the battle of Moridunum. He served under Modred at the battle of Camlann and, later, fights in the battle of Calleva Atrebatum.

Caius
The foster-brother of King Artor, he is a famed warrior and also a psychotic who kills randomly. When found out, he is killed by Myrddion Merlinus with poison to avoid having to be tried by King Artor in open court.

Causus Gallio
A citizen of Deva when it was sacked by the Brigante tribe and the Pictish allies of Modred shortly before the battle of Camlann. He later becomes the Magistrate of Deva.

Cerdic
Thane and Bretwalda of the West Saxons.

Cernunes
The stag-horned god of Celtic polytheism. He is the leader of the Wild Hunt.

Cissa
Saxon king and Bretwalda of the Southern Saxons. His death was marked by a period of civil war in the south.

Crookback
Ednyfed and Cathella Crookback are peasant farmers on Bedwyr’s lands inside Arden Forest. They and their family are killed by a band of pillaging Saxons.

Cymen
Son of Aelle, he is one of the influential Saxon thanes.

Cynric
Son of Cerdic, Thane of the West Saxons. Later to become a bretwalda in his own right. He captures Portus Adurni and Venta Belgarum in his father’s name.

Deinol ap Delwyn
A Deceangli nobleman, kinsman of and successor to King Mark.

Don
The Celtic goddess representing the Mother. Out of superstition, her name was rarely spoken aloud. She develops some of the characteristics of the Roman goddess as well.

Eamonn pen Bors
Son of King Bors Minor and Queen Valda of Cornwall.

Ector
Son of King Bran, and great-grandson of King Artor.

Elayne
Wife of Bedwyr. Erstwhile confidante of King Artor. After a single liaison during a snowstorm, she becomes pregnant and bears Artor’s child, Arthur. Bedwyr and Elayne raise the bastard child.

Enid (Queen)
Wife of King Gawayne. She is Gwyllan’s mother.

Flavius Aetius
The last great general of the Roman Empire, he was murdered by the Western Emperor, Valentinian. With a coalition force of 200,000 Visigoth, Frank and Roman warriors, he fought an army of twice that size under the command of Attila the Hun at the battle of the Catalaunian Plains near Châlons. The battle took approximately one day, and he fought Attila’s forces to a standstill in one of the great battles of all time.

Frith
The slave of Livinia at the Villa Poppinidii. She is the minder of King Artor’s first wife, Gallia, and dies with her when the villa comes under attack.

Fortuna
The Roman goddess of chance or luck.

Gallia
King Artor’s first wife, a woman of Roman lineage.

Gareth Major
The bodyguard of King Artor.

Gareth Minor
Son of Gareth Major. He becomes the confidant and bodyguard of Prince Arthur.

Gawayne
Son of King Lot and Queen Morgause, brother of Agravaine and Geraint. He is the king of the Otadini tribe.

Gerallt ap Cadwy
A Deceangli nobleman.

Germanus
A Frankish mercenary who is hired as arms master by Bedwyr to train young Arthur.

Gilchrist
The eldest grandson of King Gawayne, and heir to the Otadini throne.

Glynn ap Myrddion
Son of Myrddion and Nimue, and brother of Taliesin. His skills lie in medicine.

Gorlois
The Boar of Cornwall, king of the Dumnonii tribe. He is married to Ygerne, and is the father of Morgan and Morgause.

Gwyllan
King Gawayne’s second daughter. Her name means ‘Seagull’, and she is the only one of her generation who suffers from the ‘Sight’.

Havar
Commander of the Jute forces who fight alongside those of Thane Cerdic at the battle of Celleva Atrebatum.

Hengist
A Saxon aristocrat who serves under Vortigern as a mercenary for a number of years. He eventually rejoins the Saxons and becomes the Thane of the Kentish Saxons and, later, rules the lands to the north of the Wash.

Horsa
Brother of Hengist.

Idris ap Cadwy
Born Idris ap Gerallt, he has been fostered by Cadwy Scarface. He serves as his foster-father’s equerry.

Ifor
Son of King Leodegran. He is the brother of Queen Wenhaver, the father of Tewdwr and the grandfather of Mereddyd.

Iseult
Wife of King Mark of the Deceangli tribe. The lover of Lord Trystan, she commits suicide after her capture while eloping with Trystan.

Lasair
Eldest son of Bedwyr and Elayne. Half-brother to Arthur, natural son of King Artor and Elayne.

Leodegran
Father of Queen Wenhaver and King Ifor.

Licia
Alternative name for Anna, daughter of Artor and mother of King Bran. She is Arthur’s half-sister.

Lleywd
Master of the Villa Poppinidii.

Lorcan ap Lugald
Father Lorcan. A priest recruited to christen Bedwyr’s newly born daughter. He becomes Arthur’s tutor.

Lot
King of the Otadini tribe. He is killed by Modred with his wife Queen Morgause.

Luned
A descendant of Livinia. She becomes mistress of the Villa Poppinidii. She is the daughter of Livinia Minor and the wife of Llewyd.

Maeve
Youngest child of Bedwyr. She accompanies Blaise to Onnum when Blaise travels to become Gilchrist’s bride.

Mareddyd
Great-nephew of Queen Wenhaver. Heir to the Dobunni throne, he is the sworn enemy of Prince Arthur.

Mark
King of the Deceangli tribe. He is a co-conspirator with Modred in the war against King Artor. He deserted his army after the battle where Modred lost his life.

Mark
Bishop of Glastonbury. He secretly buries King Artor at the church, and later allows Arthur to see the site of the grave.

Mary Martha
Abbess of her convent. She is Wenhaver, the widow of King Artor.

Modred
The Matricide. He is King Artor’s nephew, the son of Queen Morgause, and is killed by Artor at the battle of Camlann.

Morgan le Fey
Elder daughter of Gorlois and Ygerne, sister to Morgause and half-sister to Artor, who becomes High King of the Britons.

Morgause
Daughter of Gorlois and Ygerne, sister to Morgan and half-sister to King Artor. Wife of King Lot and mother of Agravaine, Gawayne and Geraint.

Myrddion Merlinus
Merlin. He is named after the sun, and his name means Lord of Light. He is often referred to as the Demon Seed. He is a famed healer and is the confidant of King Artor and other influential rulers of his time.

Nimue
The Lady of the Lake. She is the widow of Myrddion Merlinus and the mother of Taliesin, Rhys and Glynn.

Nuala
Third child of Bedwyr and Elayne.

Pelles Minor
Son of Pelles Major. Commander of the archers in King Artor’s army. He also serves King Bran.

Rab
Son of Crookback, a peasant farmer in Arden Forest, who is murdered by Saxons. He is Arthur’s childhood friend.

Rhys ap Myrddion
Son of Myrddion and Nimue, and brother of Taliesin. He is a famed swordsmith and ironmonger.

Scoular ap Seosamh
King of the Brigante, who replaces Modred after the latter’s death at Camlann.

Septimus
Cardinal. He took Lorcan to Rome and seduced him. The young Lorcan eventually killed him.

Stormbringer
A Danish captain who captures Arthur and his travelling party. His name is an alias.

Taliesin
Son of Myrddion and Nimue. He champions Prince Arthur.

Tewdwr
Son of Ifor and father of Mareddyd.

Trefor
A warrior from King Bors’s cavalry who accompanies Arthur on the journey from Tintagel to Onnum.

Trystan (Lord)
Spymaster for King Artor. Lover of Queen Iseult. Killed and beheaded by King Mark for seducing his queen.

Uther Pendragon
The son of Constantine III and the brother of Constans II and Ambrosius Aurelianus, all of whom were to become High Kings of the Britons. Constans II was succeeded in turn by Vortigern, Ambrosius, Uther and Artor. Uther, in company with Ambrosius, returned to Britain after many years in exile.

Valda
Wife of King Bors Minor of Cornwall. She is of the hill people.

Wenhaver (Queen)
Second wife of King Artor, High King of the Britons.

Wlencing
Son of Aelle, one of the thanes of the Southern Saxons.

Ygerne
Ygerne is the wife of Gorlois, the Boar of Cornwall. After his death, she marries Uther Pendragon. She is the natural mother of King Artor.

PROLOGUE

When passions come upon men in strength beyond measure, their gift is neither one of glory nor of greatness.

Euripides,
Medea
, c.431
BC

‘Beware, children of Don, for the storm has come upon you and caught you unawares. Hide your faces in your cloaks and rend your tunics with your breast pins, for the Great Hunt is come and Cernunes with his stag’s antlers harrows the skies and sets his hounds upon the children of Don. Blood and death ride on his storm, so your puny vaingloriousness will not save you.’

An old woman, a hermit by her long white hair and the skins that wrapped her thin, raddled body, stood upon the cracked pedestal in the marketplace of Mamucium, and her deep voice floated over the crowd of warriors, women and traders. Amid the hurly-burly of hawkers and touts, the cries of animals and the loud chatter of customers, the old woman should have been just one more oddity in the crowded marketplace, but her wild, exotic appearance struck men and women dumb with superstitious awe.

Her dirty, begrimed claws were raised upward so that her skeletal arms were exposed to the crowd before her. Her horny feet were also bared, but no man dared to laugh, for any fool could see that she belonged to the goddess in her crone form. With obvious authority she rounded on the warriors in their checked tunics and trews, and her flinty, pale eyes forced them to listen whether they chose to hear her or not.

‘Woe unto you, children of the Brigante tribe, cowardly followers of a treacherous and cursed lord. You raised your swords against your lawful king, and stained Celtic earth with Celtic blood. The goddess has sent me to give you warning, for none of you will be spared in the years to come. You will know you are accursed, and yours will be the blood guilt that must be paid.’

One man, braver than most, climbed onto the shattered remnants of a marble king or god that had once stood on the pedestal in the days when the Roman legions had forced the Celts to obey their brutal, pragmatic rule. With one foot on the statue’s breast and the other on its severed head, he stared the witch woman down and laughed derisively, making a rude, universal gesture of contempt with one hand. The sound of his voice was like the hoarse calling of crows fighting over corpses when a battle is done.

‘Be silent, woman of the darkness! None may insult the warriors of this tribe. We owe allegiance to no one and nothing except our lawful king. So be gone with you and return to your hole in the earth lest we kill you like the toothless serpent you are.’