Warriors of Ethandun (26 page)

‘He does not approve?'

‘What does not come from God must come from the dark one.'

‘Can it not come from God?' Ursula whispered, suddenly frightened. She had never thought that her magic was evil, not until she had come across Finna anyway.

‘Your old friend at the court of Arturus, Brother Frontalis, thought so, but he was a rare man. Asser is a great believer in miracles, but very suspicious of any that come from women. It is not entirely his fault. He has
been a monk all his life and has been taught to fear us. Still, he is a good man, though Aelfred takes too much notice of his counsel. He would do better to worry less about the state of his soul and look to the state of his kingdom.'

‘Are things very bad?' Ursula said dully. She found it hard to care about the state of Aelfred's kingdom; the state of her own soul was worrying enough.

Rhonwen looked serious. ‘If he does not rally his supporters soon, it will be too late. His nephew has been crowned in his stead and has the support of some of the ealdormen and the archbishop of course, but the real power lies with the Danes who pull the strings of a puppet King. The rest of the ealdormen will carry on as before, but their allegiance will be to the strongest leader and at the moment that is looking to be Guthrum.'

Ursula shivered at his name. ‘He is not a good leader. He is vain and cruel and only interested in his own wealth, and I do not know what Finna wants exactly, only that she has power over him. She was not blamed for my escape.'

‘I'm sure you're right. The Danes are susceptible to the influence of a good seith-wife, a powerful sorceress. Aelfred has to beat him – I have seen what happens otherwise. Order depends on Aelfred.' She looked grim-faced.

‘Rhonwen, what am I going to do? What if Finna can find a way to use my power against us? Dan will never get home if he does not fulfil his oath and if he can't overcome the beast in him. Have you not seen it?' Rhonwen nodded. ‘Somehow I have to help Dan and yet I cannot
use magic or Finna will find me and if I can't get rid of my magic I will never get home either. All I wanted was magic and now … it is destroying me. What can I do?'

There was a long pause and Ursula wondered if Rhonwen had heard her. Then at last she spoke.

‘You do not ask easy questions, but then you don't have easy problems. Let's think about Dan first. Let me ask you a question: do you love Dan?'

‘Yes,' Ursula answered without hesitation.

‘Does he love you?'

‘Yes.' She knew it was true. She could not doubt it. He had accepted pain and risked death to save her at Camlann. He had opened the Veil for her after she'd nearly killed Lucy in the library. He had come to Cippenham to save her.

‘Dan is soulsick and the magic of this place is making him worse. You may think this strange, but Asser is the expert on souls. He may be able to help Dan, and here, as everywhere, love has power that even Asser cannot think ungodly. I think we should talk to Asser.'

‘Now?'

‘We need Asser on your side and on Dan's side or he could make things difficult for you. He is already suspicious of you and he has so much influence over the King. He must not believe that you are evil. He does not have much truck with women, but he understands love.'

Ursula was confused – again. Was Asser an enemy or a friend? Could he actually help Dan or just keep the King from rejecting him? She caught the shawl that Rhonwen threw in her direction and wrapped it around herself for
warmth. Rhonwen's presence had always had an effect on her: in this world it made Ursula feel safe and almost herself again. She did not know if it was due to the rest, the tincture or some gift of Rhonwen herself but her thoughts were less disrupted by the pulse of power. She followed Rhonwen's lead and walked out into the darkness.

‘Now,' Asser said when they were almost by the water's edge, ‘there is nowhere in this area which is not watched. I am glad to say that Aelfred has started to take more of an interest in keeping Athelney as a fortress should be kept. However, I believe that we are safe enough here and if I cannot truly fend you off, I am confident that God will come to my aid. Sometimes, however, it is good to make it easier for God to respond.' His smile was tight and it took Dan a moment to realise that he was making a joke.

Dan wondered if Asser was aware of just how many people were watching them. Dan could smell at least five guards and Braveheart waiting quietly by Taliesin's side, watching his master, ready to aid him should it become necessary.

‘What do I have to do to make you turn into this bear?'

The sight of Asser in his long home-spun habit, clutching his stout stick and earnestly asking how to make Dan mad, amused Dan to the extent that he was further from madness than he had been for some time.

‘Ah. Perhaps all I need do is speak of how your friend Ursula ought to repent of her immodest ways and wear a dress more becoming to her sex. I don't know what they do where you come from, but here no Christian woman or woman of breeding would think of exposing her limbs like a harlot in plain sight of the King himself, not to mention his men.'

Dan could feel his temper begin to rise, but how was a monk of this time going to understand about Ursula and female equality? He kept control, though he had to think about it. Dan did not want to hurt Asser and could not be sure that the guards peering in their direction were close enough to keep him safe should Dan begin to turn.

‘Do not speak of her,' Dan said. ‘If you knew her better, you would know how brave she is.'

‘Is she not corrupted by the dark arts, just like Rhonwen? I have seen it in her face. I know that look. She is sick with sorcery and evil. They are all the same, the viper's brood ensnaring us with their wiles – tempting us as Eve tempted Adam.'

‘No!' Dan shouted, dimly aware that shouting was more difficult than it should have been. ‘She is a good person! She is …'

Words ceased to emerge from his constricted throat and the rest was meaningless babbling. He would crush the monk and all his lies between his paws. He would separate his head from his shoulders and shut up his filthy mouth for ever. The man smelled of pigs and milk, of incense and damp. He smelled of fear, but he did not run. There was suddenly no distance between them and the
man had raised his feeble stick and was praying loudly. Dan reared up ready to tear him apart. The man was wild-eyed but still made no attempt to run. Other men were screaming. He could not understand the words – it was merely noise – and somewhere off to his right Braveheart barked and snarled. He did not respond – the dog's fury was as nothing compared to his own. The man did not scream but kept on intoning the same words over and over.

‘Dan, stop it now!'
The voice in his head was clear and cooling, like ice poured on his burning fury, soothing his wildness, driving away his madness.

‘Back away!'
Dan's vision blurred and he could do nothing other than obey. His limbs were shaking. He felt his rage shrink, like his body, to manageable, man-size proportions. He no longer towered above Asser; they stood eye to eye. Asser's were opened very wide. He was still praying.

‘What happened?' Dan asked, dazed. Sweat glistened on Asser's bone-white face and his hands did not appear able to release the stick he still gripped.

Ursula was suddenly at Dan's side. He had not smelled her scent in the breeze. Her presence was a shock. She smelled of magic and of bitter herbs, of unwashed wool and of her own special scent. It was so familiar and so precious to him that he had to fight back tears.

‘God's will has been done here today,' Asser said, when he had finished his thanksgiving prayer.

‘And God has seen fit to bless your sister Ursula with the gifts necessary to keep the demons away. The Lord
answered your prayers with her,' Rhonwen said, emerging from behind Ursula's broad back.

‘She is a sinner, an immodest woman, a sorcerer,' Asser blustered, colouring, though whether with relief, embarrassment or anger it was hard for Dan to say.

‘She is his friend and God has blessed her. Her love for him will keep him safe,' Rhonwen asserted confidently. Dan realised with surprise that they were both speaking in the old language of the Combrogi.

‘It is my prayer that saved him,' Asser said.

‘Where is your humility, Asser? Is it not enough that your prayer was answered? Dan's love for Ursula brought him back to himself.'

Asser looked as if he were about to argue, but he must have seen something in the way Dan looked at Ursula to change his mind. He studied Dan for what seemed like a long time and then spoke carefully.

‘It grieves me, Dan, but I do not think the demon has left you. It may be a failure of mine, a faltering of my own faith, or perhaps a part of you still welcomes the demon, has made a den for him in your soul.' His tone was severe. ‘I will pray for you. God will forgive, but you must truly repent: you must want to be free of this demon with all your heart.'

Dan nodded. The beast had kept him alive: without it he was only Dan. He did not know if he could truly renounce the demon that gave him strength. He needed the beast quite as much as he loathed him. Still, he was humbled by what Asser had tried to do. He had nothing but his stout stick and his faith and he had not backed
down from the beast. As for Ursula, even in the middle of all her troubles she could still get to him, still reach him with her mind; she could still help him. He was overwhelmed with relief and with gratitude to both Ursula and the courageous, curmudgeonly, misogynistic monk who had been prepared to risk his life to rid Dan of his demon. He could not say anything – he was too full of emotion – but at least he now knew why he needed the beast: he did not have Asser's strength.

Dan looked up to see both Taliesin and Braveheart heading his way. Taliesin was grinning.

‘I rather hoped that might happen. Ursula is much stronger than I am. She can keep the bear at bay,' he said.

Rhonwen snorted and Ursula looked at him in confusion.

‘I had forgotten. You lied to me. Why did you bring me to this place?'

Ursula's eyes were cold and Dan felt suddenly afraid. ‘Don't!' He grabbed her arm. He could not tell her that any sorcery might lose them whatever acceptance they had just won from Asser. Her flesh was hot to his touch, like she was burning up with a fever.

‘Has Dan not explained? I haven't lied to you yet.' Dan saw Taliesin glance at Asser and he knew that he was reluctant to explain the anomalies of time travel in front of the monk, for which Dan could not blame him.

Asser still clutched his stout stick and Dan had no desire to see him use it. There was a mental toughness about the man that would make him a formidable enemy.

‘This is no time for an open-air council. If our work is
done here, we should get back to the King. There is much to speak of and to decide. These private matters must be disputed some other time, though I urge you to examine your own conscience before you condemn any man for faults of which we are all too often guilty. We must pray now, together, and thank our Almighty Father for Dan's deliverance, however temporary, from the dark forces which almost overwhelmed him,' Asser said fervently. Dan sank to his knees, his gratitude genuine. ‘Let us pray that his soul might be saved.'

Dan joined his voice with Asser's in a fervent ‘Amen'.

Asser led the way back to the fortress. Ursula found Dan's hand when she was sure that Asser's back was turned.

‘Thank you for following me through the Veil and for coming back for me.'

‘Did you ever think I'd do anything else?' he said. She had thought that, of course she had. He had abandoned her in the hospital, barely spoken to her once they were back in school. She changed the subject.

‘What's with the bear?'

‘I turn berserker like I did in Macsen's land and then I really want to kill someone. It's not like before. It's changed me. When I'm the bear I want to kill.' He paused to get himself back under control. ‘I hate it, Ursula. Asser's not wrong – it feels like a kind of possession, and yet I need it. Without the bear I would not have survived here. Does that make sense?'

She squeezed his hand and nodded. He was not as ignorant of his own condition as she'd feared. She could see the dark magic of the bear like a shadow over him.
Between them she and Asser had made the shadow a little less black, but the magic of this world had given his darkest self a physical form and she did not think Dan would ever be free of it while the magic endured.

‘Don't leave me, Ursula.'

Even without her power his fear and his need would be easy to see; as it was she felt it as strongly as if it had been her own fear and her own need.

‘I won't leave you. Not if I can help it, but I'm not free either.' The connection between them must have been working both ways, because he seemed to understand. He waited until the others were out of earshot before he asked, ‘Are you going to tell me about it?'

She shut her eyes and with a little tiny impulse of power showed him what it had been like. It didn't take long. When she opened her eyes he was staring at her, an expression of horror on his face.

‘And you think Finna can call you any time? Use you any time?'

Ursula was trembling at the thought. ‘I don't know. I think she knows when I use magic, and Dan, I am magic; it flows through me like blood. Not using it is like trying not to think: by the time you've thought about it it's too late.'

‘There must be something I can do?'

She shook her head.

‘You have power, yeah, so why don't you put me in charge of it. Make me your keeper so that you can only use it when I say. I can't use it – at least I don't think I can. Wouldn't that work?'