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both of you,’ said the Wessex veneficus, ‘is that it’s more than one.’
    ‘Twins!’ exploded Desmond. ‘Nation is going to have twins?’
    ‘Nation and Combi—let’s not forget the part he played in all this—are going to have twins.’
    ‘Four bears. I’ll have four bears to look after.’ Desmond seemed slightly stunned.
    ‘I think it’s the other way around.’ Rawnie smiled. ‘You’ll have four bears to look after you. ’
    After a short period of silence as they watched the bears and the children, Twilight began gazing into space, muttering to himself. ‘Strike the stars, the gemini have turned up again. I had not realized. That’s twice now, once with the mad witch and now Nation’s baby bears. What do the fates have in store? Will there be a third set?’
    ‘What is gemini ?’ asked Desmond.
    ‘ Gemini is Latin for twins,’ replied Twilight. ‘Merlin had a theory about them coming in threes. His ‘three sets of two’ theory he called it. The last of three sets of twins in a short period of time means trouble . . . big trouble.’
    ‘But we have only encountered two sets,’ said Rawnie.
    ‘So far,’ he said reflectively. ‘So far.’
Chapter 2
    ‘Behold the king! Behold the king!’
    The soft thud of fifty horses’ hooves came to a halt outside Twilight’s compound as the leading horseman announced their arrival in stentorian tones with his hand held high.
    Twilight rose from the fallen tree he’d been sitting on with Rawnie, awaiting their arrival. Desmond was inside the compound with the children and animals. The pica had warned him of their coming some time ago and also included the fact that they all had emblazoned on the front and back of their tabards a gold cross on a red background. There was also a standard bearer at the front of the group with a pennant of the same design held high above his head.
    The pennant of King Alfred.
    A tall, bare-headed young man, with light brown hair to his shoulders and a wispy beard, dismounted and walked purposefully toward the veneficus and his wife. An arms bearer immediately dismounted and followed him, carrying a lance in his right hand, a short sword in his left, and a bow and arrow quiver over his shoulder. The men on horseback tensed and placed their hands on their weapons. Aged in his early twenties, the first man stopped and observed them both with clear, gray-green eyes.
    ‘You are Twilight, the Wessex veneficus?’ he enquired softly.
    ‘I am,’ acknowledged the astounder, inclining his head. ‘And this is my wife, Rawnie.’
    The stranger turned his clear-eyed gaze to Rawnie.
    ‘Of course, Princess Rawnie, the royal daughter of Penda of Northumbria.’ He dropped his chin to his chest in a gesture somewhere between a nod and a bow.
    ‘King Alfred at your service.’
    ‘You are most welcome, my lord,’ said Rawnie.
    ‘You knew of our coming?’
    Twilight pointed to the surrounding trees where a number of pica flapped and watched.
    ‘My birds act as an early warning system. I have known you were heading in this direction since daybreak.’
    ‘Remarkable,’ said the king, glancing up at the trees. ‘Is there somewhere private we can talk?’
    Twilight and Rawnie led him to a shady corner inside the compound where there was a sturdy oaken table and benches. The weapons carrier was waved away and the men told to rest. Rawnie left to get the king some refreshment.
    ‘I heard of your heroic efforts at Lyme Regis and how you dispatched two hundred raiders with their own oars,’ Alfred said quietly.
    There was directness about him coupled with a complete lack of royal formality. He obviously preferred to engage with people himself rather than work through those who attended him.
    ‘If only I could have gotten there sooner I could have perhaps saved some of the villagers’ lives. By the time my birds got the message of the attack to me here, the settlement had been burned to the ground and all lives savagely