Whitemantle. Robert Goldthwaite Carter
now-relaxing grip. ‘You have your errands and I have mine. Were you watching when we fell? Did you see what happened to Chlu?’
‘I saw the pair of you lighting up the entire City with your rude magic.’
‘I didn’t do it on purpose. I was falling to my death.’
‘And every Fellow within a dozen leagues must have turned his head upward when you leapt off that vane.’
‘I didn’t leap, I fell.’
‘You should not have been up there in the first place.’
Will felt anger churning inside and stabbed a finger at the wizard. ‘Don’t you tell me what I should and should not be doing! I was following my feelings.’
‘Oh, dangerous man! It would be better for you if you got far away from the City now. The Fellows are very greatly roused up and most unhappy with you!’
‘I don’t care about them. And I’m not running away.’ He reached out and prevented Gwydion from turning aside. ‘I asked you if you saw Chlu fall. Did you?’
Gwydion’s face was granite as he looked down at the presumptuous hand on his sleeve. ‘Chlu came down on the far side of the Spire. I cannot say what happened to him.’
Despite his anger, Will wanted to tell the wizard all that had passed, but he could see Gwydion was in no mood to receive complicated news. Instead he demanded, ‘Where are Willow and Bethe?’
‘Safe.’
‘I said “where?” Answer me fully now, Master Gwydion, or I swear—’
‘At the palace. Do you remember Jackhald, who helped us raise the Blood Stone from the well at Ludford? He’s been made captain of the guard here. He’s agreed to find you lodging.’
‘Well, that’s something at least.’
‘But no thanks to you. Follow me, for we have work to do.’
Will pulled up short again, his hotness cooling. ‘Master Gwydion, that’s not the way to the White Hall.’
‘Indeed it is not.’
‘Then I’m not going that way. I know the importance of your work as well as anyone, but it’s as I’ve told you, I have one or two errands of my own, and the first of them is to see my wife and child!’
Three days later, on the day of Duke Richard’s arrival, Will announced his intention to go down to Luddsgate to see the duke’s army make its triumphal entry into Trinovant. Willow said she wanted to come and insisted that she would bring Bethe too.
Will agreed only reluctantly. He was worried that another attack might be mounted. In the time since their encounter on the Spire nothing more had been seen or heard of Chlu, but in quiet moments when Will turned his mind towards the City he could feel an ache in his bones. It told him that his twin was alive and nursing malice somewhere within the walls.
Willow had already told Gwydion of Will’s plan to go down to see the arrival. Now she went further, suggesting that the wizard should break off his single-minded search for Maskull’s magic tower and come along also. ‘Surely,’ she said, ‘it’ll be helpful to take note of which nobles are riding alongside Duke Richard in the parade. Shouldn’t you see what order of precedence they come in?’
The wizard was about to say something in reply, but then he stared at her hard, as if reading another intent in her request.
‘Willand’s drawn,’ Gwydion said. ‘And you feel that in him, don’t you?’
‘Drawn? What on earth do you mean, Master Gwydion?’
‘Drawn towards the City, or more precisely someone at present biding his time out there. Does it not worry you, the prospect of another quarrel? Another bolt from the blue? I think it should. Though it will be something else next time.’
‘Will’s already thought about that,’ she said, shutting the idea out and replacing it with another notion – that perhaps not all of the harm that had flowed from the magic bracelets and into the wizard’s wrists had been emptied from him, for he seemed darker and wearier than ever before. ‘Now, are you staying or coming?’
Now that the last moment had come, Gwydion decided he would indeed accompany them into the City. They took a small river boat which rowed them to the Saltwharf Steps. After landing, they went up the slope towards Luddsgate, just managing to avoid the Spire precincts, and pressed in with everyone else who had lined the route.
Thousands of people had come from all parts of the City. They filled the streets, crowding upon balconies and even climbing up to roof-ridges and chimney stacks to see the great Duke of Ebor admitted through the Luddsgate.
The gate itself, Will saw, was a broad tower of limestone banded with Slaver brick and carved with the achievements of the kings of old, just as the Eldersgate was carved with northern dragons. Gwydion explained, ‘The duke has chosen to enter Trinovant by its grandest gate as a reminder to all the inhabitants where their loyalties ought to lie. It was upon the timbers of this great portal that the burgesses of the City, bare months ago, nailed a daring proclamation.’
‘What did it proclaim?’ Will asked.
‘They bravely declared all the gates of Trinovant barred against the return of their own king – until “redress and remedy” might be found for the duke concerning the king’s actions in besieging him at Ludford Castle.’
‘Good for them,’ Will said.
But Willow was not so sure. ‘It doesn’t seem all that brave of the townsfolk in hindsight. They must have been thinking about their own skins, and what Lord Sarum and Lord Warrewyk would do to the City if its people sided with the queen.’
Gwydion examined the gate expectantly. ‘It looks like the City’s gamble has been good. Queen Mag and her friends were up to their necks in debt with every merchant in Trinovant. That is a matter that would take some settling before she could be welcomed back.’
Willow’s head craned forward with the rest of the crowd as the first beating of drums and blowing of shawms was heard on the west wind.
Will lifted Bethe and sat her astride his neck, and she rode there agog at everything she saw.
‘Why doesn’t the duke go straight to the White Hall?’ Will asked. ‘That’s the place where all royal business is done, isn’t it?’
The wizard waved a dismissive hand. ‘First, Friend Richard must be at pains to show how much the people love him. The governance of Trinovant depends on shows of respect as much as it does on force.’
‘Then he’s going to the Guild Hall?’
‘To be received by the City’s notables – the Lord Mayor, his Bailiff, the Sheriff, and the Aldermen of the twenty-six wards. All of these tom-fools he will shower with promises and praise, and they will do him a show of honour in return before he sets himself to the real work of the day.’
‘Do you think he’s testing the water?’ Willow asked.
‘Certainly he will be watching how the people regard him. And showing them what force he has at his command, in case there’s a riot in the offing.’
‘A riot?’ Willow asked in alarm. ‘Is that likely?’
‘He has already made the king call a Great Council.’
Will snapped round. ‘Well, thank you for telling me! When?’
‘Every lord in the land is ordered to present himself in three days’ time.’
‘To bend the knee before King Hal?’ Will asked.