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his chair.
'Here!' said Peredur, jumping up. 'If you will excuse us, Lord Emrys, Tallaght and I will see to
Llenlleawg.'
The two of them raised Llenlleawg between them. Too tired to pretend otherwise any longer, the proud
Irishman allowed himself to be helped to his feet. Once steadied, however, he pushed away their offered
hands and moved from the hall with a slow, sore gait. The young warriors respectfully took their leave
and hurried off to the warriors' quarters to find a bath and change of clothes.
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When they had gone, I returned to the table. Myrddin seated himself on the bench opposite me, folded
his arms on the board, and leaned close. 'Now, then, there is no one to overhear,' he said, levelling his
keen hawklike gaze upon me. 'Your confessor waits before you. Tell me everything.'
'There is trouble,' I told him bluntly. 'I cannot say what it is, but, Myrddin, I deeply fear it.'
I then began to relate all that had happened during our sojourn in Llyonesse, and it did me good, for I
felt the burden lift from my soul as I told him about the strange trials we had endured in that godforsaken
realm - from losing my horse in the false sands to our encounter with the beast in the night. Myrddin
listened all the while, nodding to himself from time to time, as if the incidents I relayed confirmed
something he already knew or suspected. At last I concluded, saying, 'That we escaped with only the
loss of one horse is a wonder. Indeed, we were beset from the moment we entered Llyonesse. God save
me, Myrddin, it is a desolate region - with but one settlement that I could see, and that a ruin.'
'Llyonesse...' He muttered the word as if it hurt his mouth to say it. 'A wasteland by another name. The
dead rest uneasy there.'
'In truth,' I replied, and confessed to seeing the Mithrian lepers.
'I have not heard of them for a long time,' Myrddin mused.
'You know them?' I wondered.
'When I was a boy, my grandfather Elphin used to tell me stories about the Lost Legion. I never thought
to hear about them again.' He paused for a moment, reflecting unhappily. Then, glancing at me again, he
said, 'This fortress - how did you find it?'
'From the smoke,' I replied, then described coming upon the ruin and finding Llenlleawg trapped in the
ironwork house inside the caer. 'Do you know the place?' I asked.
'From what you tell me, I believe the stronghold you found was Belyn's.'
I had never heard the name before, and said so.
'Belyn was Avallach's brother,' Myrddin explained. 'When the Fair Folk came to Ynys Prydain, they
settled first in Llyonesse, but the land was not good to them, so Avallach and his people came here.
Belyn, his brother king, would not leave the southlands, so he and his people stayed, and now they are
no more.'
The place was more cairn than caer,' I pointed out. 'Could this have happened so long ago?'
'Yes,' the Emrys answered, nodding at the memory, 'long and long ago.' Turning once more to the
subject at hand, he said, 'The woman - you never saw her?'
'I never did, Emrys, and I do not know whether Llenlleawg can tell you more. He said she led him into
Llyonesse, but seems to remember little else.'
'Leave it to me,' Myrddin said, rising. 'I will speak to him when he is better rested. Now, then, I have
kept you from your bath long enough. Go; we will talk again later. I want Arthur to hear what you have
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to say, but that can wait until tomorrow. Until then, Gwalchavad, I would have you say nothing to anyone
else of these matters. I believe treachery stalks the Summer Realm, and I would not care to alert the
enemy that we are on his trail.'
'Treachery?' His use of the word brought me up short. 'Emrys, are you saying one of the Cymbrogi is a
traitor?'
'Just so,' he replied solemnly, moving away. 'He has yet to show his hand, but I sense dire purpose in
this - no doubt that was why you were allowed to find Llenlleawg.'
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