The Tower and the Emerald

by Moyra Caldecott

  Who protected her?

  Who fought her battles?

  He forced himself to look in the mirror again, bracing himself for the light. But it was gone. Instead he saw a green hillside with a fringe of trees, two young women talking quietly, and two horses cropping peacefully. He spied a movement among the trees and leaned closer. Was he mistaken or did he see a translucent figure – as elusive a glimpse as the flash of crystal in clear water?

  * * * *

  Elined woke cheerfully, ready for any adventure, and Viviane chose not to tell her that she had already been through one. She chose also, much to Elined’s joy, to keep her with her on the journey to the sanctuary.

  * * * *

  Cai came upon them in his wanderings in search of the black knight, and he was delighted to find Viviane still alive.

  Viviane told him part of the truth. She had been captured, she said, by Neol for use as hostage against Caradawc. She had escaped with the help of Elined, who was fleeing from a hateful arranged marriage, and they were now trying to reach the Community of the Fish, where they hoped to be given sanctuary.

  ‘Women should not ride about the countryside alone,’ Cai warned. ‘There are all kinds of dangers. May I offer you ladies my protection on your journey?’

  Viviane smiled wryly, thinking that he did not know what he was offering to protect them against, but Elined instantly accepted. Cai, with his long blond hair and light blue eyes, was for her the answer to a prayer. She was already preparing romantic snares for him. And he was by no means sorry to put off an uncomfortable confrontation with the black knight for the chance of riding through the sunlight with two beautiful women.

  They set off at once, Cai having a better idea of where they were than they did. He and Elined rode ahead through green lanes and beside fields of barley and rye, startling plover and pheasants, and little, trilling larks . . . chatting together as though this was nothing but a summer pleasure ride.

  Viviane followed behind, still shaken by the experiences she had been through and apprehensive as to what would happen next.

  * * * *

  When Rheged at last found Caradawc and Gerin, he reported to them that he had seen Viviane being taken as prisoner into the stronghold of Huandaw. Caradawc insisted on going at once to negotiate for her release, in spite of Rheged’s dire warnings. He assured them that he would give up all the lands his father had taken from Huandaw, if need be. Never having been in love himself, though he had lain with many women, Rheged could not understand a man prepared to sacrifice so much.

  ‘I’d give my life for her,’ vowed Caradawc passionately.

  ‘You may have to!’ said Rheged.

  ‘Well, so be it,’ replied Caradawc stubbornly, and nothing would turn him away from his purpose.

  They were challenged by four armed men on their approach to the great house and escorted in to see Huandaw himself. They had expected their arrival would rouse some curiosity, but were startled by the ferocity with which Huandaw’s people came running towards them, shouting abuse. They were relieved when the door of the great hall slammed shut behind them, leaving them alone with their taciturn guards.

  Huandaw at last strode in with Kicva at his side. The old man’s face was grey and drawn with worry, Kicva’s filled with self-importance.

  ‘What have you done with my daughter?’ Huandaw snapped as soon as he saw Caradawc.

  ‘Your daughter, sir?’ he said, surprised.

  ‘Play no games with me, sir!’ Huandaw growled. ‘Where have you taken her?’

  ‘I know nothing of your daughter,’ Caradawc replied. ‘I have come for my future wife, Viviane daughter of Garwys, to take her home.’

  ‘You dare to talk to me of that witch!’ Huandaw raged.

  Bewildered, and suddenly afraid, Caradawc looked at Gerin.

  ‘Sir,’ Gerin said, stepping forward. ‘It’s clear there is some mistake here. We know nothing of your daughter – only that you hold the princess Viviane here.’

  ‘Held. Held her here,’ Huandaw muttered bitterly.

  Caradawc cleared his throat. ‘Held, sir? Is she gone then?’

  ‘Yes, she’s gone!’ Kicva suddenly interrupted. ‘She and her vile demons have spirited away my lord Huandaw’s daughter. I warned them – but they wouldn’t listen!’ she screeched.

  Caradawc looked at her in astonishment as though registering her presence for the first time.

  Huandaw was now wandering distractedly about the room, muttering to himself about his daughter.

  ‘Why do you seek her?’ Kicva challenged Caradawc. ‘She who murdered your father, and would have murdered you if I had not been so skilled in healing . . .’

  Caradawc stared at her blankly. What she said made a kind of sense to his mind – but not to his heart.

  Gerin put his hand on Caradawc’s arm, understanding the turmoil in his friend’s heart because he shared it. But he kept better control of himself than Caradawc and demanded boldly and sternly to be told exactly what had happened.

  ‘They brought her here as hostage, and I warned them that the only way to stop her wickedness was to use the power of spells. But they wouldn’t listen. Her demons released her in the night, and out of spite she took the lady Elined with her.’

  ‘No one knows where she is?’

  ‘Only the dark ones whom she serves.’

  ‘My son Neol has taken men and gone after them,’ Huandaw broke in suddenly, returning to them. ‘But if they are fiend-protected, I doubt they’ll ever be found.’

  ‘We’ll find them,’ Gerin said confidently, frowning, his eyes dark with anxiety. ‘Our forces and yours, my lord, working together instead of against each other. What say you?’

  Kicva laughed. ‘No force of ordinary men in the world can outwit fiends.’

  ‘We shall see . . .’ Caradawc said, suddenly decisive. ‘What say you, sir?’

  ‘Together – or alone,’ Gerin urged, seeing that Huandaw was hesitating. ‘Nothing will be achieved if we don’t go to it soon.’

  Huandaw frowned. His son insisted that these men were his enemies, but he was not so sure.

  ‘If you go,’ Kicva insisted, ‘I must ride with you. Your arms will be useless against her demons. We’ll see what an old woman, Druid-trained, can do!’

  ‘Sir?’ Gerin ignored her and addressed himself still to the distraught Huandaw.

  At last the old man nodded.

  ‘We both have an interest in this. So be it,’ he said.

  * * * *

  Over the hills and forests a cold rain was driven before a gusty grey wind. The search party, pulling their cloaks tightly around themselves, set off. Trees loomed and disappeared again into obscurity. Nothing was clear-cut, nothing definite.

  Chapter 6

  Abduction

  Cai, escorting the two young women, was the first to encounter the black knight for the second time.

  They were resting beside a pool in a deep ravine. A waterfall dropped like a white thread from the lip of a cliff somewhere high above them, beyond even the tops of the tallest trees. Light and shade dappled the huge moss-covered boulders around them, and ferns grew out like feathers from every surface of branch and trunk. Bird-notes pierced the shimmering green light with little stabs of sound so beautiful that they were almost painful to hear.

  At noon Viviane and Elined decided that they must bathe. Cai was sent off to climb the cliff and see if he could work out the best route for them to follow, while they took off their clothes and slipped into the cool water. Like slender otters they slid through the water, turning and twisting and playing. Viviane’s dark memories of the last time she was in water were dispelled by the cheerful innocence of her companion. There were no clinging weeds in this pool, only silver and crystal bubbles flowing around them, touching and teasing them.

  In such a place, the trees could never be considered as wood to chop for fire or roof beam. Their slow and intricate growth, rooted in earth and reaching to Heaven, had made them
the home of peaceful spirits, and as Viviane came up for air she fancied she saw the forest flowing with transparent forms, and felt their love surrounding her. She dived beneath the surface again, truly happy for the first time since she had released Idoc from the ancient spell. This was a special place. Hate could not flourish here.

  Elined called her over to the waterfall, and behind it they found a fern-covered ledge where they could sit and watch the sunlight sparking off the spray.

  ‘We can hide here from Cai,’ Elined laughed. ‘He’ll never be able to find us.’

  ‘He’ll be worried. I don’t think . . .’

  ‘Oh, we’ll not keep him guessing long, but it will be fun to see his face when he comes back to find us gone.’

  ‘You can hide if you like,’ Viviane said, ‘but I’m going back.’

  ‘Pretend you’ve lost me then. See what he says.’

  ‘You know what he’ll say.’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ Elined said petulantly. ‘Sometimes I think he is more concerned about you than me.’

  ‘You know that’s not true.’ Elined had been flirting shamelessly with Cai, and it was clear that he was now her slave.

  Viviane slid down from the ledge and passed through the fine edge of the waterfall, the spray making her skin tingle. She intended to swim back to their clothes and dress before Cai returned. But it seemed she was too late – there was someone already there. Viviane turned at once and swam to the other side of the pool where she had noticed the trunk of a fallen tree, half in the water and half arched above it. The arch made a kind of cave where she could hide in shadow, only her head and shoulders out of the water. Reflected on the dark wood above her was a net of shimmering lights as the sun shone directly into the rippling water. She intended to call out to Cai from her shelter. But looking back across the pool, she saw that the figure was not Cai’s. On the bank stood a tall warrior in black armour, his visor raised – and the eyes of Idoc piercingly directed into hers.

  ‘Oh Lord,’ she murmured, ‘is there nowhere on this earth that is safe for me?’

  ‘Safety is how you handle danger,’ a soundless voice whispered. ‘Not how you avoid it.’

  If she could not run from Idoc, what would happen if she faced him?

  The forest had gone deathly silent. There was no birdsong, no sigh of breeze on leaf; even the waterfall was now falling noiselessly. The shadow of Idoc had drawn the light from every living thing. Nothing sparkled. Nothing shone. Except . . . except the reflection of the ripples on the arch of tree trunk above her. Puzzled, she touched one, wondering how it had escaped – hoping this was a sign that his baleful influence could not reach her here, although he was well aware of where she was.

  To her astonishment the small flicker of light seemed to come away from the bark on to her fingers. She moved her hand expecting it to be gone but it stayed with her and then she found that the whole shimmering veil of light had become separate from the arch of wood, and, almost like a filmy shawl, could be drawn about her shoulders. She glanced back at Idoc, but he had not moved. And there was no sign of Elined or Cai.

  Taking a deep breath she moved out from under the fallen tree and, clothed in the shawl of rippling light, she swam back to the far bank. She was now no more than a few feet from him, and her heart was pounding so hard with fear that she did not believe she could hold her ground. His face was not Caradawc’s face this time, but his own: the straight nose, the dark brow, the mouth she had kissed a hundred times . . . And she to him was Fiann in her falling robe of light, her face as it used to be when he had loved her, when she had begun to fear him . . . But no spirit-lady . . . flesh and blood, breast rising and falling with earth-breath, limbs smooth and supple as only a young woman’s can be . . . He ached to touch her – ached to forgive – but something in him stubbornly clung to hate . . . the one thing he knew well . . . the one thing of which he was sure . . .

  She took a step forward. She lifted her arms towards him.

  ‘Idoc,’ she said softly. ‘Release me from your hate. Life is not given to be wasted thus.’

  He too moved forward, and for a moment his eyes seemed less hard, less cruel. But before he could speak . . . before they could touch, Cai’s shout rang out and startled the forest into noisy life again. They heard him crashing through the undergrowth as he leapt and slid and slithered down the steep hillside, bursting at last on to the bank beside them, out of breath, red in the face, struggling to get his sword out of a scabbard that had become entangled in creepers during his precipitous descent.

  Viviane drew back, suddenly realizing that she was naked. She picked up the bundle of clothes and ran as hard as she could for the shelter of some rocks.

  Idoc stood his ground, his visor now down: the black knight Cai had been seeking.

  By the time Cai managed to extricate his sword, the knight had drawn his own and was waiting for him, feet planted firmly, eyes wary behind the slits of the visor. Cai flung himself forward without thinking, and was easily knocked down by a blow from the knight’s metalled fist. Cai flushed with shame. The man had swept him aside like a boy too young to be a serious opponent. He raised himself quickly, resentfully struggling to gain mastery of himself.

  The dark knight had moved. Somehow he was on the top of a huge boulder, overlooking the scene below: Cai clutching his sword; Viviane now in her dress but still barefoot, her hair in long, fiery strands around her.

  The knight raised his sword to his forehead, then held it above his head. In the gesture there was valediction as well as a mocking promise to return.

  ‘Stand and fight!’ yelled Cai. ‘You bastard! Stand and fight!’ He brandished his weapon and started towards where the man had stood – but already the place was empty. Frantically Cai looked around, but there was no sign of the huge figure.

  ‘He has gone,’ Viviane said quietly.

  ‘Why wouldn’t he fight?’ Cai fumed. ‘I would have taught him a lesson!’

  ‘What lesson, Cai?’ Viviane asked, amused. She felt extraordinarily calm, as though for the first time she realized that what was between Idoc and herself need not necessarily be destructive.

  Cai flushed again. ‘I lost my footing. I would have given him something to think about!’ Then he noticed that Elined was missing. ‘Where is she?’ he cried, gripping his sword again, though his hand was sweating so much with fear that he could scarcely hold it. Twice had the black knight refused to kill him; twice had he been humiliated by him!

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Viviane said. ‘We found a hiding place behind the waterfall.

  Before she could stop him, Cai rushed towards the place she indicated. Viviane picked up Elined’s clothes and followed – calling out a warning – but the noise of the falling water drowned out her voice. She stubbed her bare toe on a rock and while she attended to the pain, Cai reached the waterfall and disappeared behind it.

  Viviane didn’t know what to do. She knew the two young people believed they were in love. Perhaps she would not be welcome if she intruded. As she hesitated – Cai found Elined. The naked girl, smiling, enticed him with her eyes.

  Cai, humiliated by the Black Knight, but given confidence by the smile of the beautiful girl, stepped forward and attempted clumsily to take her in his arms. The ledge they went on was uneven and he fell against her with a greater force than he intended. Suddenly she screamed and pushed him away. This was not how she had imagined her first romantic encounter.

  At this moment, Neol’s warriors, accompanied by Caradawc, appeared. They heard Elined’s scream and found her, naked, scrambling away from Cai.

  The girl rushed straight to her brother, sobbing that Cai had raped her.

  ‘No!’ shouted Viviane; but too late. Cai was already being beaten by the very men who had seemed about to rape Viviane herself such a short time before.

  ‘Caradawc!’ shouted Viviane. ‘Stop them! It is not true!’ And then: ‘Gerin . . . surely you . . .’

  Caradawc moved forward, and with him Gerin
and Rheged. At swordpoint they forced the men around Cai to stop their work.

  ‘This is not the way,’ Caradawc said coldly to Neol. ‘If what your sister says is true . . .’

  ‘If?’ snapped Neol. ‘You insult her, sir.’

  ‘I do not mean to, sir – but I have known this man well for many years, and I would want to know more before I punish him.’

  ‘And I have known my sister, sir!’

  ‘Elined,’ Viviane appealed to the girl. ‘Think what you are doing. Tell the truth, now, before it is too late – before you have our blood on your hands.’

  Elined merely turned away.

  ‘Take me home, Neol,’ she whispered. ‘I want to go home.’

  ‘I appeal to God Almighty and all the angels of Heaven!’ cried Viviane in desperation.

  ‘Her god will not help her,’ screamed Kicva. ‘She is in league with His enemies!’

  As though in confirmation of her words, a sudden wind arose and swirled about their heads, roaring in the treetops, howling through the ravine – and with it came a gigantic shadow.

  Horrified, everyone turned to see what caused it, and found it was cast by a huge man clad in black armour, astride a fearsome black stallion. Rider and horse stood above them on a platform of rock, almost blotting out the sun behind them.

  Even Kicva shrank back.

  Suddenly the black knight pressed forward, his steed leaping from the rock and thundering through them. As he passed he stooped and picked up Viviane with his left arm. Holding her in front of him, he wheeled and galloped off northwards, the whole forest shaking with the powerful thud of his horse’s hooves.

  Caradawc and Gerin were the first to recover their wits. Almost without thinking, they set off after him. Rheged quickly gave Cai his arm and helped him on to his horse; then they too set off in pursuit, Cai scarcely able to stay in the saddle, so bruised and battered was he.

  Neol, however, held his own men back.