‘Ma!’ screamed Agravaine. He leapt over the side of the gallery, dropped to the floor, and rushed to Queen Morgawse.

A moment later King Lot appeared at the rail of the gallery, his eyes wide. He said nothing.

I stood on my good leg. My hands went to my head. I tried to take in the whole scene.

Norma – Neave – turned from me. She raised her hand and tendrils of water snaked towards the wound in the queen’s chest. Apart from the sons of Orkney, the rest of us stood in shocked silence. Gaheris ran towards his mother. Epicene was trapped beneath the queen. The fire-sorcerer’s body was still jerking from the after-effects of the Spear of Longius.

‘What you doing?’ said Agravaine, shocked at the watersnakes coming from Norma’s fingers. ‘Drift?’ he said, turning to me.

‘It’s alright,’ I reassured him. ‘She’s my sister.’

‘Is he dead?’ said Agravaine to Neave. ‘Did you kill Lamorak?’ He screamed in frustration as Neave concentrated on his mother.

The snakes probed at the edges of Queen Morgawse’s wound, but did not find their ways into the bloody hole in her chest.

Epicene struggled from beneath the queen, and started walking towards the door. This wasn’t her usual graceful walk, her glide that hardly looked like walking at all, but the shambling gait of Garnish and my mother after they had been pierced by the spear.

‘Stop her!’ I shouted, but no one moved. All eyes were on the queen and my sister.

A wave of nausea swept through me as pain throbbed through my knee. The world was woozy and slow. I threw up in the puddle of water that had been Sir Lamorak. My body was shaking. My own watersnakes crept towards my shattered leg.

Gaheris sobbed by his mother’s side, grasping her hand, stroking her skin with his hook. Neave shook her head and her watersnakes broke.

‘What are you doing?’ Agravaine said angrily. ‘Save her! Save my ma!’

Neave frowned. ‘My magic can do nothing for this wound, Prince Agravaine,’ she said with a shake of her head.

He pushed the woman – who still appeared as the ancient nursemaid – two-handed. She took a step backwards but did not fall. Agravaine crumpled to the floor by his dying mother’s side, sobbing.

‘Stop her,’ I said again. I left the Spear of Longius where it was and chased after Epicene, who was almost at the door. A line of guards were standing at the threshold, watching their princes around their dying queen, paying no attention to the husk of the fire-magician. They were disturbed from behind, and Mordred appeared through the crowd. He threw his arms around Epicene, and although she still tried to walk, she was too weak to break free of his grasp.

‘I came as quickly as I could,’ said Mordred.

‘Well you’re too late!’ screamed Agravaine. ‘Too late!’

The guards wore solemn faces, maidservants wailed in corners. And the Queen of Orkney died on the floor of King Lot’s hall. Her husband and three of her sons were there to see her passing. Gaheris released his mother’s hand and threw his arms around Agravaine, to stop his much bigger brother attacking everyone in the room.

* * *

An hour or so later, when I was called to King Lot’s chambers, Agravaine was sitting white-faced by his father’s side, his fists still clenched. The king himself was impassive. The Spear of Longius, the weapon that had killed his wife, was propped against the wall behind him. The room was crowded with all sorts of attendants and advisors. Mordred, Piers, Elia and Bellina were there, but for the moment the king’s attention was focused on Neave, who had removed the glamour of Norma, and replaced it with that which was familiar to me: she now appeared as the beautiful young woman in a simple white dress, her raven hair falling straight down to her waist.

‘You entered my house under a disguise of magic, Lady Neave,’ the king was saying, ‘which is forbidden under Orcadian law. Explain yourself or face the full punishment I can offer you.’

 Neave curtsied to him. ‘I admit the crime, my king, and will accept whatever punishment you bestow upon me. I came in disguise to protect my son, who is here with me, and who I believed to be in danger from King Arthur. Like your own son Prince Agravaine, my Galahad was among the May-children sent to his death by the usurper. My son was rescued only by the ingenuity, bravery and care of Prince Agravaine and these others. When my child returned to me I reasoned that he would need no other protector than myself, if I kept myself hidden.’

‘You did wrong not to reveal this deception to me, woman,’ said the king.

Mordred stepped forward. ‘Your majesty, if I may? We believed that the fewer people who knew about the Lady Neave’s presence here, the safer we would all be.’

Agravaine leapt to his feet. ‘And yet my ma is dead! You brought Lamorak here and he killed her.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Mordred. ‘When I first saw him this afternoon lamorak was already on his way to Orkney, following his spear.’

‘And you said it yourself –’ said Piers, before realising that he had spoken without permission in the presence of a king. ‘That is, er, if I may, your most highness... majesty?’

king lot nodded. ‘Speak, farmer.’

‘Your, er, most exalted, er – Lord Jesus, crumbs – er, Aggers – that is Prince Agravaine said himself that Sir Lamorak would come to Orkney again. That it was inevitable, like. He said it in my presence more than once.’

‘Shut up, rustic,’ snapped Agravaine.

‘Boy,’ King Lot said sternly to his son, ‘you do badly to disrespect your friend this way. You forget that we men of Orkney do not look down upon those who feed and fight for us.’

Agravaine sat back down, shamed, and the king stood.

‘Men of Orkney,’ he said in full voice to those around the room. ‘We have lost our most beloved queen, but now is not the time for long mourning. She was murdered by the foulest of King Arthur’s most foul knights. We will mourn Morgawse in blood. We will take our revenge as we defend our realm and the realms of our brother kings from the usurper.’

The men of Orkney in the room nodded. A few of them gave a small cheer at the king’s words.

‘Go now,’ said King Lot, his voice rising to an authoritative declamation. ‘Complete your preparations. We perform your queen’s funeral rites this night, and we sail in the morning for Cornwall. We will fight in the name of Morgawse.’

‘Morgawse!’ shouted the king’s subjects.

‘Mordred, Lady Neave and the watery brother remain with me; the rest of you go and complete your preparations for war.’

The gathering broke up, and with a few more shouts of ‘Morgawse!’ and ‘Revenge, revenge!’ the excited and determined men removed themselves from the room. Agravaine tried to stay by his father’s side, but King Lot sent him away. He went unwillingly.

When they were all gone but us, the king came down from his throne. Now that the court had left his presence he looked immensely sad, and that sadness made him seem old. Attendants brought us chairs, and the king told us to sit down. Then he ordered the servants out of the room.

He turned first to my sister. ‘My sons and I desire our revenge, Lady Neave. Have you already taken it on our behalf?’

Neave crossed her legs at the knees. ‘I cannot be sure that Sir Lamorak is dead, your majesty. When I touched the knight in your hall I did not turn him to water; that is beyond our family’s powers. I moved an amount of water equal to Sir Lamorak from the sea, and put the knight in the water’s place. But the spell was summoned so quickly that I cannot be sure how deep within the sea I put him, or how far from land.’

The king nodded. ‘I caution you to keep this information from my sons for the time being. Agravaine will be a general in my army against Arthur, and I will leave Gaheris here to maintain my lands; I would not have either of them distracted.’

‘As you please,’ said Neave.

‘Now, the two of you,’ he indicated me and my sister. ‘I have never allowed magicians on these islands, though I became fond of the strange fire-creature over time. But as you are here, I will take your advice.’ He turned in his chair. ‘This spear that killed my wife –’ his voice broke a little – ‘I understand that it is the same weapon that once sat at the heart of King Pellam’s castle, and that it is filled with great magic, perhaps as powerful as that your mother put into Excalibur itself.’ His eyes were angry. ‘How may I turn its power to my own advantage?’

Neave stood and took the spear from where it rested. As she touched it I felt an angry red buzz of magic, though neither Mordred nor the king were aware of the change in the atmosphere. Neave returned to her chair and sat with the spear across her lap.

‘Myself and the fire-creature had planned for this, my king, though it is no simple business.’ She stroked the plain black wood of the weapon, and balanced the spear on her hand. Slowly, the point turned towards me, attracted to my magic. ‘Merlin has made the spear his slave; he has altered its magical fabric for his benefit. In its current state it is unsafe for human hands to wield. But it can be restored, and when that is done it will provide much the same power as Excalibur. Whosoever holds the spear will never be harmed in battle.’

‘Then restore it,’ said the king. ‘Take it out of Merlin’s hands and put it in mine.’

I stared at the red point of the spear, which bobbed around in Neave’s hand. It would have taken so little for Neave to pierce my skin with it, to turn me into a powerless husk like Epicene. But she did not. She inverted the thing and rested it by her side.

‘I cannot,’ she said, ‘not here. I must journey to the Cave of the Dragon. The weapon must be cleansed in dragon’s breath.’

The king nodded. ‘The same place from which Princess Epicene was to request the aid of her father King Hermaunce in the coming battle.’

‘The same,’ nodded Neave. ‘Once there I will contact her father, relay the fate that has befallen his child, and beg his assistance. Then I can work on cleansing the spear for your use.’

‘Very well,’ said Lot. ‘Let it be so. I will send you on a ship to the Cave of the Dragon.’

She shook her head. ‘I will ride. That will be the easiest way for me to avoid prying eyes now that Princess Epicene has been reduced to less than nothing. The magic spilling from the cave should hide me from Merlin.’

King Lot’s eyes narrowed. He would not have trusted my mother, and did not wholly trust my sister. Neave saw that.

‘With this spear Merlin seeks to acquire all the magic in the world, King lot,’ she said. ‘If I do not carry out this task, then neither I, nor my son, nor you and your sons, nor any father or mother, son or daughter in Britain will ever be safe. You have my word as a mother who loves her son that I will do this thing for you.’

This satisfied the king. ‘Well spoken, my lady.’ He took a deep breath, and rearranged his robe around himself. ‘Now, Mordred,’ he said. ‘There was once great affection between myself and your father king Marhault, and I lament all that has befallen that poor man these last years.’

Mordred nodded.

‘I have also listened to the advice of my boy Agravaine, who holds you in great esteem.’

‘I return that esteem for Prince Agravaine with great love and respect, my king,’ said Mordred.

‘However –’ the king drew in a great shuddering breath, moved by the loss of his beloved wife. ‘My Morgawse was wise, lad, and although I did not fully understand her reasons for disliking you, I presume they were sound. I take the timing of your arrival on Orkney as an exceedingly bad omen.’

There was no change in Mordred’s face. He listened to lot’s words quite unmoved.

‘Therefore I order you to do as my Morgawse wished: take yourself far away from Britain immediately, and never return. I regret it, lad, for I know the part you played in returning Agravaine to me, but –’

‘My king –’ Mordred leapt to his feet.

king lot’s face purpled in fury at the interruption.

‘My sister Iseult is at Tintagel,’ Mordred went on. ‘I cannot, I will not allow king Arthur to assault that place in my absence. I beg you, allow –’

‘I have spoken, boy,’ growled the king. ‘I thank you for your services to my family heretofore, but I warn you: if I find you within a hundred leagues of Tintagel in disobedience of my orders, I will personally take your head. This I swear.’ The king approached Mordred, his anger subsiding. He placed a heavy hand on Mordred’s shoulder, and looked him straight in the eye. ‘I promise you this, lad: once we have fought off Arthur’s forces, my first and only request from king Mark will be the return of your sister to her poor father and mother in Erin. The king of Cornwall is a most honourable man, and will grant me that boon.’

Mordred trembled with anger under the king’s gaze, but said nothing. He turned on his heels and left the room. lot eyed Neave and me decisively. ‘Ensure he does as I command, children of the lake.’