THE CURSE OF EXCALIBUR: a gripping Arthurian fantasy (THE MORGAN TRILOGY Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

me. He left, and I hid Excalibur, not beneath my bed where I had left it in Avalon, but at the back of my cupboard under my dresses. That had been safe enough before, with the book. Now all I had to do with the time I had was figure out a way to keep it for myself when he came to claim it back.
     
    I lay in bed, my eyes closed, to listen to the crowd in the courtyard baying for blood as they executed the Breton Queen. I heard them roar with delight when they cut off her head, for I knew that was what they would have done. She was an enemy captured in battle. At least it was a warrior’s honourable death for her. I thought of her daughter, far away, who did not know she had lost her protector. That girl would be sold now, to whoever was the highest bidder.
    When the noises of the crowd had died down I listened to the horses’ hooves as Arthur and Uriens and Merlin rode away again. I was glad that they were gone, and more glad than I could say that Arthur had left Excalibur behind with me. I know I can trust you with it. How little Arthur truly knew.
     
    It was high summer when the child came. Uriens’ sister arrived to attend the birth, and only just in time. She was a squat, ugly woman, with the same craggy ill-tempered face as her brother, almost the very image of him, only shorter and fatter. Elaine stood hovering around the room, worrying out loud about anything and everything. I had drunk deeply of the potion for pain I had given Morgawse, and I lay back in its haze, letting them fuss over my body as I moved away from it.
    Though I had prayed and prayed the child would be Kay’s, the boy came out sandy-haired and dull-eyed like his father. Unmistakable. I didn’t want to hold him. I remembered Morgawse’s rapturous joy at the sight of her son, and I looked at mine and felt nothing. I didn’t want to hold him and feel my own hollowness. I told myself it was the drink for the pain, but Morgawse had smiled still, and held her baby to her breast. I waved mine away, and groggily ordered them to send for a nurse for him, before I sank into a heavy sleep.
     
    I didn’t leave my bed for a long time. I did not feel like getting up, and I did not want to see my son. Uriens, when the news reached him, came back from the battlefield. They must have been winning easily, then. He was obviously happy for the boy to be nursed by someone else, for no one brought him to me, and I was glad of it. It felt like a betrayal by my own body, that it had chosen Uriens over Kay. My breasts grew heavy with milk, and sore, but it quickly passed as my body realised that I was not going to nurse my child. When a week or so had passed, and I felt like getting out of my bed, I made a drink from my book of medicines to make sure the milk stopped. I was sick of being sore, sick of being bored and powerless.
    I sat at my desk and wrote to my sister, and Nimue. I asked Nimue to come as soon as possible with more of Merlin’s Black Arts knowledge. I called for a bath, and washed, and dressed in my black dress of gems. I plaited my hair carefully. Elaine fluttered around me, constantly trying to help, but I didn’t like being fussed. I wanted to just take care of myself.
    When I was properly dressed, I went to find Uriens. I did not really want to speak to him, but I did want news of Arthur’s war. I wanted to know how long I had to work out how I could keep Excalibur for myself.
    When I found him, he was in his bedroom, holding his son. Our son. No, when I looked at the boy, I could not picture him as my child. Though he had lived in my body, in his father’s arms he seemed unbearably distant. How had I been denied the comfort that Morgawse had found from her child? I supposed that Morgawse had wanted Arthur, before she knew he was her brother. But she loved her sons by Lot as well. Why was everything that was effortless for Morgawse denied to me?
    Uriens looked up at me as I came in. He was dressed in his shirt and breeches, his arms around the