“Uncle Gwydion?”
“Hmm?”
“Where are we going?”
It was the first time that the boy had asked. “We’re going to a little village called Dinas Emrys. The road we’re on, Sarn Gwyddelin runs right through it. It’s in the great mountain range of Eryi. We’ll be there by tomorrow.”
“What’s it like?”
“Well, it’s very small. Mostly the people who live there raise sheep.”
“What will I do there?”
“You and your great-uncle Myrrdin will raise sheep, like everyone else. Now go to sleep, it’s late.”
“Uncle Gwydion?” Arthur asked, after a brief silence.
Gwydion began to look on Arthur’s previous silence with nostalgia. “Yes?”
“When will I see Da again?”
Gwydion turned from the fire to look down at the small boy. Arthur’s eyes were wide in an effort to keep the tears from falling. Gwydion reached over and picked Arthur up, settling him into his lap. “Your Da will come to see you as soon as I think it’s safe, Arthur. It may be a while. But I will bring him. You remember that where you are is to be a secret, don’t you?”
“Yes, Da told me. He said that I was a very important and special boy. He said I was so special that they had to send me to a place that would be very, very safe. He said Great-uncle Myrrdin would take good care of me. He said that he and Mam would miss me very much but that the most important thing in the world was that I be safe.”
That was the longest speech Gwydion had ever heard Arthur make. The child was obviously too wound up to sleep. “Would you like to hear a story?” he asked.
“About what?”
“About Idris, the first High King of Kymru.”
Arthur considered the question. “All right.”
“Thank you,” Gwydion said dryly. “The story begins four hundred years ago, when Lyonesse sank into the sea.”
“Why?”
“That’s another story for another time. May I go on?”
“Yes,” Arthur said graciously.
“I appreciate that. As I was saying, Lyonesse sank into the sea. But some people escaped. About one thousand folk, all told, survived and landed on the shores of Kymru.”
The moon was full, bathing the tiny clearing in a silvery glow. Far off, a wolf howled. Elise shifted restlessly, then was still. The fire popped and crackled as Gwydion resumed reciting in a soft, singsong voice. “And these are the names of our greatest ancestors who survived the destruction. Llyr the Great, the first Dreamer. Penduran, the first Ardewin, the daughter of the Lady Don. Math, the brother of Don, the first Master Bard. Govannon the Smith, the son of Math, the first Archdruid. Elen of the Roads, the first High Queen. And, finally, Idris, the first High King.
“The people who survived the destruction banded together and began to build their lives again and survived that first, terrible winter. But their tiny settlement was attacked and destroyed in the spring. For the Coranians had come from across the sea and they wanted Kymru for their own. The Coranians plundered and burned and killed. And the survivors cried out for someone to lead them and save them from their enemies.”
Gwydion glanced down at Arthur, but the boy was still wide awake. So he continued. “I have told you that one of the people who survived was a young man named Idris. Idris was a descendant of Amergin, the last High King of Lyonesse. One hundred years before Lyonesse sank, Amergin had been killed, and the Druid theocracy had ruled in his place. But Amergin’s wife had escaped to the Danans with her infant son. The Danans were the magic people who lived high in the mountains. For five generations the Danans kept the descendants of Amergin in secrecy. And Idris was the last of that line.
“Now, the Four Treasures of the Lady Don—the Cauldron, the Sword, the Spear, and the Stone—were saved from the destruction of Lyonesse, although the Lady Don herself was killed. Llyr, the first Dreamer, gathered these Treasures and brought them to Idris. And Idris was tested. The Sword turned, the Cauldron spun, the Spear glowed, and the Stone cried out that Idris was High King.
“Then Idris, Llyr, Penduran, Math, and Govannon took counsel together, and they decided that they would fight the Coranians and push them from our land. And so began many years of struggle.
“Llyr made the testing devices, and they began to seek out others that had special gifts. Penduran taught and trained people with clairvoyance. Math did the same for the telepaths, and Govannon trained the psychokinetics. The clairvoyants were called Dewin, and they became our physicians. The telepaths were called Bards, and became our poets and our lawgivers. The psychokinetics were named Druids, and they became our scientists and philosophers. But Llyr was the only Dreamer, the Walker-between-the-Worlds, and one who could walk through the walls of time.