Merlin nodded gravely. “It is for certain. Now, let us return to camp and tell the great news to our comrades in arms!”
Sir Bedivere nodded and dismounted his horse so he could walk next to Ywain. “Welcome, Ywain,” he said.
“Thank you,” Ywain beamed before the smile fell off his face and he started talking. “I don’t know many of my father’s plans, but I do know their rough numbers. They intend to push Arthur’s army all the way back to Camelot where they will lay siege on the castle as they think Merlin will hide our King during the fighting,” he said as a rush of words fell from his mouth in a mad waterfall, spilling every secret of King Lot’s army that he knew.
Britt, still mounted on Roen, narrowed her eyes as she watched her knight and newest addition to her company walk back to the camp, exchanging intelligence. “You didn’t foresee anything about him at all, did you?”
“Of course not. I’m a wizard, not a prophet. Hold your blasted beast still, I don’t fancy walking through all those bushes again,” Merlin said, trying to mount up behind Britt as Roen kept swiveling to avoid him.
Britt halted and allowed Merlin to climb up behind her. “If you can’t see the future why say those kinds of things?”
“Ah-ah, but I can see the future. Pieces of it anyway. But I see grand pictures, the fates of nations and such. I honestly have no idea what the future is like for individuals, but one does not need to be a prophet to make an educated guess. Besides, words have power. Young Ywain will be your knight until his dying breath now, and he will go out and accomplish great deeds, merely because he has been told that he can.”
“Is that why he chose to follow me? Because of mere words?” Britt asked.
“Don’t underestimate your powers of persuasion, lass,” Merlin warned. “You have several attacks in your trade that no other man in this age has. You are educated and smart, and you are a female. Which, oddly enough, works to your advantage.”
“You are surprised?”
“I am. I thought your gender would be a great disadvantage. Instead it seems to be one of the things that draws your knights to you. I don’t know any grown man that would be able to ask another man to fight for him without blushing. It’s just as well you didn’t smile at him. He might have gone straight to the heavens first.”
“You lost me there.”
“The point is your words have great impact on your fellow men. You treat them with respect and expect them to be chivalrous and honorable. You expect more of them, and they want to be better men because of it. Mark my words, more men will fall to your cause as they meet you and speak to you.”
“Is there any hope Lot would give up to me if I talked to him?”
“Not a chance.”
Chapter 7
To War
Britt frowned as she looked out at her army. 20,000 mounted men pooled in front of, behind, and around her in a mass of glinting armor and tense warhorses. She raised her eyes and looked across the plains where the 60,000 troops of Lot and his allies stood. Hopefully they were cheering and growing careless as they took survey of Britt’s army—which is what Merlin wanted them to do. Merlin had ordered King Ban and King Bors and their 10,000 mounted soldiers to remain hidden in the forest due north of the battlefield. They would ride out and surprise the rebel kings when signaled.
Britt shifted in her saddle, making the leather creak, and returned to watching her army.
“Are you fearful?” Merlin asked, popping up next to Britt on a horse that was misleadingly gangly and skinny. (Knowing Merlin, Britt suspected it could probably outrun most horses on the battlefield.) “Worried for your life?”
“No, not at all,” Britt said. “I know Arthur doesn’t die here, so I won’t either.”
Merlin shook his head. “I sometimes wonder if your vague understanding of what you claim to be lore of King Arthur will one day ruin you.”
“Maybe, but for now I’ll trust what little I know,” Britt shrugged.
“If you are not being overcome by fear, what is it that is placing that grave expression on your face?”
“I know that I won’t die here, but I know that some of my men will,” Britt said, gesturing to her army.
“And that frightens you?”
“It makes me regretful and sad. I don’t like people dying for me.”
“Then you will have to make sure that every drop of bloodshed is worth it, that every knight who goes to receive his heavenly reward today goes with satisfaction, boasting that he helped put the great King Arthur on the throne,” Merlin said.