"Mary Stewart - The Arthurian Saga 03 - The Last Enchantment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

He gave a little crack of laughter. "You call it that? It felt like being eaten alive. Or perhaps like being
born...and a hard birth at that. I said 'hatching,' didn't I? Suddenly to find oneself a prince is hard enough,
but even that is as different from being a king as the egg is from the day-old chick."

"At least make it an eaglet."

"In time, perhaps. That's been the trouble, of course. Time, there's been no time. One moment to be
nobody — someone's unacknowledged bastard, and glad to be given the chance to get within shouting
distance of a battle, with maybe a glimpse of the King himself in passing; the next — having drawn a
couple of breaths as prince and royal heir — to be High King myself, and with such a flourish as no king
can ever have had before. I still feel as if I'd been kicked up the steps of the throne from a kneeling
position right down on the floor."

I smiled. "I know how you feel, more or less. I was never kicked half as high, but then I was a great deal
lower down to start with. Now, can you slow down sufficiently to get some sleep? Tomorrow will be
here soon enough. Do you want a sleeping potion?"

"No, no, when did I ever? I'll sleep as soon as you've gone. Merlin, I'm sorry to ask you to come here at
this late hour, but I had to talk to you, and there's been no chance till now. Nor will there be tomorrow."

He came away from the window as he spoke, and crossed to a table where papers and tablets were
lying. He picked up a stilus, and with the blunt end smoothed the wax. He did it absently, his head bent
so that the dark hair swung forward, and the lamplight slid over the line of his cheek and touched the
black lashes fringing the lowered lids. My eyes blurred. Time ran back. It was Ambrosius my father who
stood there, fidgeting with the stilus and saying to me: "If a king had you beside him, he could rule the
world..."

Well, his dream had come true at last, and the time was now. I blinked memory away, and waited for
the day-old King to speak.

"I've been thinking," he said abruptly. "The Saxon army was not utterly destroyed, and I have had no
firm report yet about Colgrim himself, or Badulf. I think they both got safely away. We may hear within
the next day or so that they have taken ship and gone, either home across the sea or back to the Saxon
territories in the south. Or they may simply have taken refuge in the wild lands north of the Wall, and be
hoping to regroup when they have gathered strength again." He looked up. "I have no need to pretend to
you, Merlin. I am not a seasoned warrior, and I've no means of judging how decisive that defeat was, or
what the possibilities are of a Saxon recovery. I've taken advice, of course. I called a quick council at
sunset, when the other business was concluded. I sent for — that is, I would have liked you to be there,
but you were still up at the chapel. Coel couldn't be there, either...You'd know he was wounded, of
course; you probably saw him yourself? What are his chances?"

"Slight. He's an old man, as you know, and he got a nasty slash. He bled too much before help got to
him."

"I was afraid of it. I did go to see him, but was told he was unconscious, and they were afraid of
inflammation of the lungs...Well, Prince Urbgen, his heir, came in his stead, with Cador, and Caw of
Strathclyde. Ector and Ban of Benoic were there, too. I talked it over with them, and they all say the
same thing: someone will have to follow Colgrim up. Caw has to go north again as soon as may be; he
has his own frontier to hold. Urbgen must stay here in Rheged, with his father the king at death's door. So