World Without End Page 0,13

a lot of sins to repent. As soon as I went missing, the people who gave me the letter started to search for me - and I was unlucky. I was spotted in a tavern in Bristol."

"Why did the queen's men come after you?"

"She, too, would like to prevent the spread of this secret."

When Merthin's hole was eighteen inches deep, Thomas said: "That will do." He dropped the wallet inside.

Merthin shovelled the earth back into the hole on top of the wallet, and Thomas covered the freshly turned earth with leaves and twigs until it was indistinguishable from the ground around it.

"If you hear that I've died," said Thomas, "I'd like you to dig up this letter and give it to a priest. Would you do that for me?"

"All right."

"Until that happens, you must tell no one. While they know I've got the letter, but they don't know where it is, they'll be afraid to do anything. But if you tell the secret, two things will happen. First, they will kill me. Then they will kill you."

Merthin was aghast. It seemed unfair that he should be in so much danger just because he helped a man by digging a hole.

"I'm sorry to scare you," said Thomas. "But, then, it's not entirely my fault. After all, I didn't ask you to come here."

"No." Merthin wished with all his heart that he had obeyed his mother's orders and stayed out of the forest.

"I'm going to return to the road. Why don't you go back the way you came? I bet you'll find your friends waiting somewhere not far from here."

Merthin turned to go.

"What's your name?" the knight called after him.

"Merthin, son of Sir Gerald."

"Really?" Thomas said, as if he knew Father. "Well, not a word, even to him."

Merthin nodded and left.

When he had gone fifty yards he vomited. After that he felt slightly better.

As Thomas had predicted, the others were waiting for him, right at the edge of the wood, near the timber yard. They crowded around him, touching him as if to make sure he was all right, looking relieved yet ashamed, as if they were guilty about having left him. They were all shaken, even Ralph. "That man," he said. "The one I shot. Was he badly hurt?"

"He's dead," Merthin said. He showed Ralph the arrow, still stained with blood.

"Did you pull it out of his eye?"

Merthin would have liked to say he had, but he decided to tell the truth. "The knight pulled it out."

"What happened to the other man-at-arms?"

"The knight cut his throat. Then we hid the bodies in the bush."

"And he just let you go?"

"Yes." Merthin said nothing about the buried letter.

"We have to keep this secret," Caris urged. "There will be terrible trouble if anyone finds out."

Ralph said: "I'll never tell."

"We should swear an oath," Caris said.

They stood in a little ring. Caris stuck out her arm so that her hand was in the centre of the circle. Merthin placed his hand over hers. Her skin was soft and warm. Ralph added his hand, then Gwenda did the same, and they swore by the blood of Jesus.

Then they walked back into the town.

Archery practice was over, and it was time for the midday meal. As they crossed the bridge, Merthin said to Ralph: "When I grow up, I want to be like that knight - always courteous, never frightened, deadly in a fight."

"Me, too," said Ralph. "Deadly."

In the old city, Merthin felt an irrational sense of surprise that normal life was going on all around: the sound of babies crying, the smell of roasting meat, the sight of men drinking ale outside taverns.

Caris stopped outside a big house on the main street, just opposite the entrance to the priory precincts. She put an arm around Gwenda's shoulders and said: "My dog at home has had puppies. Do you want to see them?"

Gwenda still looked frightened and close to tears, but she nodded emphatically. "Yes, please."

That was clever as well as kind, Merthin thought. The puppies would be a comfort to the little girl - and a distraction, too. When she returned to her family, she would talk about the puppies and be less likely to speak of going into the forest.

They said goodbye, and the girls went into the house. Merthin found himself wondering when he would see Caris again.

Then his other troubles came back to him. What was his father going to do about his debts? Merthin and Ralph