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Putting off his tunic and sandals, and rolling up his trouser legs, he waded into the water bent-backed,
hands on knees, dark eyes searching the cool, green shallows.
In a moment, he stopped and reached into the water and brought up a plant with long green leaves,
clusters of small pale pink flowers on a fleshy stem. I knew the plant as that which the lake-dwellers
called ffar gros. 'This,' he said, pointing to the thick brown root, 'when crushed with the leaves and stalks
of the garlec and the brillan mawr in equal measure and the whole prepared as I have told you
provides such benefit as we can supply.' Then, as if proving the taste of the imagined remedy, he added,
'I think a little liquor of the rhafnwydden will make it more palatable.'
Returning to the bank, he quickly secured the other plants he had mentioned. For indeed they grow
readily in woods and along most watercourses throughout Ynys Prydein. Satisfied with his ingredients,
Paulinus led us on to the abbey, where, after obtaining the necessary utensils, he set about preparing the
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potion, showing us how to strip the stems and roots of the plants before crushing and boiling them
together with a small amount of salt water in a pot. The water turned yellow and smelled of rotten eggs.
When he judged it prepared, Paulinus dipped out some of the cloudy liquor with a ladle and blew on it
gently. 'There are several ways to determine if it is well made,' he said, 'but this is the best.' With that he
put the ladle to his lips and drank it down. 'Yes. It is ready.'
Offering the ladle to each of us in turn, he gave us to drink of the draught. 'Taste,' he urged. 'There is no
harm in it.'
'Pungent,' Charis concluded, wrinkling her nose slightly, 'and bitter though not disagreeable.' She
passed the ladle to me, and I sipped some down; the liquid tingled slightly on the tongue.
'If given when the fever first commences,' Paulinus instructed, 'the best result is secured, as I say.'
I commended the monk's sagacity, and said, 'This plague will be a match for any man's best. Your king
could use you in the fight. Will you come with me?'
Paulinus was not slow to reply. 'I will come with you, Lord Emrys.' He turned in deference to his
superior. 'If, that is, Abbot Elfodd will permit my absence.'
'Paulinus,' Elfodd said in a fatherly tone, 'you have received a summons from the High King. You must
go. And, as we somehow endured here before you came, I daresay we shall make out when you have
gone. Yes, go. I give you my blessing. Return when your service is completed.'
Paulinus inclined his head. 'I am your man, Lord Emrys.'
'Good.'
'We will prepare as much of the potion as we can before you go,' Charis offered. 'We will send you
away with a goodly supply.'
Elfodd approved her offer. 'The brothers stand ready to serve. Many hands will speed the work.'
'I thank you both. I knew it could not be wrong to come here.' To Paulinus I said, 'Hurry, now. We will
leave as soon as you are ready.'
Charis and I left Elfodd and Paulinus to their work and returned to the palace. She made no sound as
we walked along, so I asked, 'Are you frightened?'
'Of the plague?' she asked with slight surprise. 'Not in the least. In my years on the Glass Isle, I have
seen all that illness and disease can do, Hawk. Death no longer holds any terror for me. Why do you
ask?'
'You have said nothing since leaving the abbey.'
She smiled wistfully. 'It is not from fear of plague, I assure you. If I am reticent it is because you will be
leaving soon, and I do not know when I shall see you again.'
'Come with me.'
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'Oh, Merlin, I dare not. Would that I could, but '
'Why not?'
'I will be needed here.'
'Indeed, your skill will be welcomed wherever you go,' I told her. 'Arthur would find a place worthy of
your skill and renown.' I paused. 'I know he would like nothing more than to see you again
Gwenhwyvar, too.'
'And I would like nothing more, I assure you,' she replied. 'But my place is here. I have lived so long
upon my tor, I could not abandon it now especially in these troubled days.'
'I wish more had your courage.'
'Bless you, my Hawk. Perhaps when this present difficulty is over, I will come to Caer Melyn and stay a
while with you. Yes,' she said, making up her mind. 'I will do that.'
While waiting for Paulinus to join me, I rode to Shrine Hill. It was in my mind to spend a moment at the
small wattle-and-mud chapel in prayer before returning to the fray. The shrine, on its hump of a hill beside
the tor, is kept clean and in good repair by the monks from the abbey. They venerate the place, since it
was here the Good News first came toBritainwith Joseph, the wealthy tin merchant from Arimathaea.
The shrine is a simple structure, lime-washed with a reed-thatched roof over a single room containing a
small stone altar.
I dismounted outside and entered the cool, dark room to kneel on the bare earth floor before the altar.
The feeling of the Saviour God's presence in that crude sanctuary remained as potent as ever it is an
ancient and holy place. Here Arthur was given his vision and call, the night before he received the Sword
of Sovereignty from the Lady of theLake. Here, too, I saw the Grail, that most mysterious and elusive
token of God's blessing and power.
Kneeling in that humble place, I said my prayers, and when I rose once more to continue on my way, it
was with strength of heart and soul renewed.
Paulinus and I left Ynys Avallach a short while later; Arthur was waiting and I was anxious to set my
plan in motion. It was this: all travel to and from Londinium must cease every road and riverway sealed
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