The strange 'pop' coming from behind her back did not scare her; Ealasaid was well used to it.
"Myrddin," she said, acknowledging his presence without turning around, her eyes glued to Garreth and Ginny in the courtyard. "I've been expecting you. I knew that my decision would be... noticed."
"My wise Ealasaid," the old man chuckled. "Their seers had a sleepless night, and so did I, popping between the two kings."
Ealasaid smiled at the wizard's reflection in the glass, then turned towards him as he finally approached her, the moment the young people were on the other side of the draw bridge and could not see them.
She pulled at his silvery-white, floor-length beard playfully.
"I'm sorry, I keep forgetting. It's been a long night." Myrddin sighed, pushing a pair of tiny, round spectacles up the bridge of his crooked nose.
A shimmering mist enveloped his body the instant he took a few steps back from Ealasaid, and when it dispersed, the ancient-looking, grey robes-clad wizard was gone. In his place stood an attractive, middle-aged man whose reddish-brown curls and warm brown eyes resembled Garreth's a great deal.
"You old charmer!" Ealasaid called, laughing, running into his arms. "When I was seventeen, you made yourself look my age, and you keep changing as I grow older..."
"What a man won't do for love," Myrddin teased, kissing her.
"I wish you would let me tell our son who his real father is..." Ealasaid whispered when they pulled away.
"Not just yet," he said, caressing her long, loose hair streaked with the first few strands of silver soothingly. "We've already talked about this Ealasaid. Let Garreth discover and accept his powers first, it will be easier for him to believe us that way."
She nodded, revelling in his presence, her head buried in his chest. They never had enough time to stay together; the kings were lost without their wizard, and he spent his days going back and forth between them.
"What did Uther and Leodegrance say?" Ealasaid asked, walking back to her bed. It was too early to get up yet. The sun had only just risen, and her maids were still asleep.
"They agreed. After all, it is better for the two to meet before the wedding, having in mind Guinevere's stubbornness and unpredictability. And the sooner Arthur will get that sword, the better. The two kingdoms must unite and stand up against Gwynedd and the rebels. That's the only way to fulfil the prophecy," Myrddin said, taking his jacket off and joining Ealasaid in her bed when she made room for him.
"Oh good, I've been thinking about it the whole night. I was afraid that Leodegrance would be furious with me for letting his daughter dress up as..." Ealasaid said, voice faltering as Myrdinn pulled her closer, his fingers tagging at the laces of her night dress, his lips trailing kisses down her collar bone.
"He didn't mind, really, and Uther liked the idea too..." the wizard muttered, his hands finally finding their way under the thin linen, "... on one condition."
"What... condition?" she breathed, his closeness making it difficult to focus on anything else.
"That I'll keep an eye on their progeny. I must follow them," he said, his lips meeting hers.
"So you are not staying?" Ealasaid moaned, trying to look at him reproachfully, failing.
"'Not for too long..." he whispered back.
Later, when the sun was high and Ealasaid's maids had knocked on her door, and had been sent away several times, a blue-grey peregrine falcon could be seen flying out her window, in the direction of Dudley Castle.
The cousins were half way through their journey to Lord John's, according to Garreth, when Ginny, struggling to fight the sleepiness caused by the monotonous movement of her horse, accompanied by the soft rustle of the fallen leaves crushed under his hooves, noticed the rare, blue-grey falcon. Her face revolved towards the sky, filling fast with menacing, water-infused clouds, she observed the bird as well as she could through the branches of trees growing along the forest path that Garreth had chosen.
"Tell me something about Lord John," she prompted, yawning, looking at the strangely behaving bird who not only seemed to be following them, but dived suddenly too, as if it wanted to listen to their conversation.
You're going mad, she scolded herself, even as Garreth chuckled. "He's great. He's been asking Mother to marry him for years, but she keeps refusing. Lord John is... like a father to me."
Ginny nodded. She had never met the man personally, but she had heard this from her father. Lord John was a close friend of Garreth's family-- well, as close as Aunt Ealasaid let him...
The falcon, barely avoiding hitting a particularly tall tree, flew higher. Is the bird ill? Ginny wondered, listening to Garreth's words.
"He's been around ever since I remember... And yet Mother prefers to live alone. Women..." he added, grinning at Ginny teasingly.
"Oh yes. Women. Those awful, cruel creatures who make us, the perfect, courtly knights, crawl in the dust at their feet and risk our lives in impossible quests, only to win their hearts..." Ginny agreed seriously in her best 'male voice', pressing her heels to the horse's sides and preceding Garreth down the path at a canter.
It was nearly lunchtime when they finally exited the forest and reached Dudley Castle-- a small fortress standing on top of a treeless hill. Lord John in person came to welcome them in the courtyard the moment they dismounted their horses.
The man's fondness of Garreth was obvious, Ginny thought, stretching her aching muscles. She wasn't used to long rides, but she would never admit how sore and tired she felt to Garreth, who shot an all-knowing, raised-eyebrow look accompanied with a cheeky smirk her way.
She only rolled her eyes at her cousin while Lord John pulled him in a fatherly embrace before he turned to her, and Garreth introduced them, "This is my friend, Sir Geoffrey. He wished to accompany me."
"That works quite well. The prince has a companion, too," Lord John replied.
A prince? Ginny thought, frowning, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be the prince she thought it was... But who else? Gwynedd of Combrogia had never spoken to her father since she refused to marry him, preferring Prince Arthur...
"Sir Geoffrey of...?" Lord John, his eyebrows creased in puzzlement at the unusual behaviour of his Garreth's friend, stared at Ginny, waiting for her reply.
Still half lost in her reverie, the girl, who had not thought of it before, said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Sir Geoffrey of Avalon, in your service, my lord." She bowed, struggling not to laugh when she noticed Garreth's expression.
Avalon was a place only existing in old Myrdinn's tales. Shaking his head, Garreth put his arm over Lord John's shoulders, leading him inside the castle and changing the subject before the man would recall where he had heard that name. Everybody had heard the old bard's tales at some point.
"Tell us something more about your guest, please, what can we do for him?"
Ginny walked behind them, her eyes following the strangely behaving peregrine falcon again. It had circled the courtyard a few times while they talked, but now it flew back towards the forest, emitting a soft, chuckling sound.
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