The Prize in the Game | Page 7

the rest of them for following him.
King Conary was sitting in one of the end alcoves playing fidchell with Amagien the Poet. There was a place above where the roof could be lifted off to give light on warm clear days, so they and the board were clearly illuminated. Both men sighed when they saw ap Fathag and his pupils approaching. King Conary didn't look as handsome as usual when his face had such an irritated expression. Elenn found herself remembering stories about his terrible rages. It was said he'd killed his sister Dechtir in a fit of temper.
"I can guess what you want," he said, crossly. Elenn kept her face still, the way her mother had taught her.
Ap Fathag laughed, loudly, the way he did sometimes. It sounded more like a raven than a man, there was no mirth in that sound. Elenn saw Nid shiver, and she would have shivered herself if she were younger.
"What did Darag tell you?" Inis asked.
"He told me you told him it was the day fated for him and Ferdia and Laig to take up arms." Conary said.
"I told you your foolish nephew was lying," Amagien put in. Conary glared at him.
"I told all my pupils that it would be a good day for a mighty warrior to take up arms," ap Fathag said. "I did not tell Darag to come to you."
"Not lying," snapped Conary at Amagien. "Enterprising lad."
Conal hissed air between his teeth, but ap Fathag clapped him hard on the shoulder and he said nothing. They all just stood there. Conary stared at ap Fathag, as if daring him to speak. "Have you given Darag and Laig and Ferdia arms?" ap Fathag asked after a long pause.
"Surely nobody would doubt the right of the king to arm his nephew and fosterlings in his own hall," Amagien said.
"Quite right too, I have every right to do it if I want to," Conary blustered.
"You have every right," ap Fathag said, very mildly. "But you must arm also these other nephews and fosterlings who stand beside me now."
"Sir, I am three months older than Darag," Conal put in.
"Do you think we could have forgotten your age?" Amagien asked. Elenn had never seen him snapping like this before.
"Of course I know his age," Conary said. "It is well past noon, Inis. It is too late to arm them today, they will never find a beast to kill before sundown."
"We will take that risk, sir," Conal said.
"Very willingly," Leary agreed.
Conary looked at them all as if they were something that had fallen from the thatch into his stew. "All of you?" he asked.
"I will," Nid said.
It was only then that Elenn realised exactly what was likely to happen. She wanted to be armed, yes, but not like this, not in a scramble and with no time to hunt properly. She wanted it to be an occasion and the whole court there out on a hunt and leaving the kill to her. She had heard all the stories of how her brother had taken up arms two years before. She didn't want it to happen this way. "Not us," she said, thinking quickly. "Sir, my mother would not like it if we were armed in Oriel." That was nothing but the truth; Maga definitely wanted to arm all her children herself, as she had done with Mingor. "Besides, I am not ready."
"But I would be armed," Emer said. Elenn couldn't stop herself from gasping. It was as if her left arm had suddenly developed a will of its own and started reaching for things she had no desire to grasp.
"Nonsense, girl," Amagien said. "Your pretty sister is right, it would cause trouble with Connat. Besides, how can the younger girl be armed and the elder not?"
"If Elenn feels unready for arms, that is her choice," Emer said. "She has no wish to be a great warrior." Elenn winced, for all that it was true.
"Stout heart," ap Fathag said, in something that sounded horrifyingly like an approving tone.
"My mother would wish to arm us herself, Elenn is right. But she would yield before the news of a fortunate day." Emer said, boldly.
Elenn leaned forward. "Emer, think, you can't," she whispered.
"Oh yes I can," Emer said, keeping her eyes straight forward.
"Maga will not like it, but will she go to war for it?" Amagien asked.
"She will go to war with us for one cause or another within three years," ap Fathag said, rocking to and fro slightly in the stupid way he did when someone asked him a question. It was so unfair, as his main means of talking was by asking other people questions, but if you asked him one back his response was to say something often unintelligible and always uncheckable and then go off into