The Seeing Stone
KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND
For Nicole CrossleyâHolland with love
14 JUMPERS AND MY WRITINGâROOM
16 THREE SORROWS, THREE FEARS, THREE JOYS
40 SCHOOLMEN, SCRIBES, AND ARTISTS
80 THE KNIGHT IN THE YELLOW DRESS
82 KING JOHN'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT
85 SPLATTING AND SWORDâPULLING
AUTHOR'S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AT CALDICOT
SIR JOHN DE CALDICOT
LADY HELEN DE CALDICOT
SERLE,
their eldest son, aged 16
ARTHUR,
aged 13, author of this book
SIAN
(
PRONOUNCED “SHAWN”
), their daughter, aged 8
LUKE,
their son who dies in infancy
NAIN
(
PRONOUNCED “NINE”
), Lady Helen's mother
RUTH,
the kitchen girl
SLIM,
the cook
TANWEN,
the chamberâservant
OLIVER,
the priest
MERLIN,
Sir John's friend and Arthur's guide
BRIAN,
a dayâworker
CLEG,
the miller
DUSTY,
Hum's son, aged 7
DUTTON,
the pigâman
GATTY,
Hum's daughter, aged 12
GILES,
Dutton's assistant
HOWELL,
a stableboy
HUM,
the reeve
JANKIN,
Lankin's son, a stableboy
JOAN,
a village woman
JOHANNA,
the wiseâwoman
LANKIN,
the cowherd
MACSEN,
a dayâworker
MADOG,
a village boy
MARTHA,
Cleg's daughter
WAT HARELIP,
the brewer
WILL,
the bowyer
SIR WILLIAM DE GORTANORE
LADY ALICE DE GORTANORE
TOM,
Sir William's son, aged 14
GRACE,
Sir William's daughter, aged 12
THOMAS,
a freeman and messenger
LORD STEPHEN DE HOLT
LADY JUDITH DE HOLT
MILES,
a scribe
RIDER
SIR JOSQUIN DES BOIS,
Marcher knight
SIR WALTER DE VERDON,
Marcher knight
FULK DE NEUILLY,
friar
KING JOHN'S MESSENGER
KING RICHARD, COEURâDEâLION
KING JOHN
ANGUISH,
Sir John's horse
BRICE,
a bull
GREY,
a mare
GWINAM,
Serle's horse
HAROLD,
an old bull
MATTY,
Joan's sheep
PIP,
Arthur's horse
SORRY,
Merlin's horse
SPITFIRE,
Sian's cat
STORM
and
TEMPEST,
two runningâhounds (or beagles)
KING VORTIGERN
THE HOODED MAN
KING UTHER
GORLOIS, DUKE OF CORNWALL
YGERNA,
married first to Gorlois and then to Uther
SIR JORDANS
SIR ECTOR
KAY,
Sir Ector's son and squire
SIR PELLINORE
SIR LAMORAK
SIR OWAIN
WALTER,
a Saxon leader
ANNA,
daughter of Uther and Ygerna
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE COPPERâCOLORED KNIGHT
THE SPADEâFACED KNIGHT
THE KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ANVIL
ARTHUR,
boy and king
ARTHUR AND MERLIN
T
UMBER HILL!
It's my clamber-and-tumble-and-beech-and-bramble hill! Sometimes, when I'm standing on the top, I fill my lungs with air and I shout. I shout.
In front of me, I can see half the world. Far down almost underneath my feet, I can see our manor house, the scarlet flag dancing, the row of beehives beyond the orchard, the stream shining. I can see Gatty's cottage and count how many people are working in the two fields. Then I look out beyond Caldicot. I gaze deep into thick Pike Forest, and away into the wilderness. That's where the raiders would come from, and where Wales begins. That's where the world starts to turn blue.
When I'm standing on top of Tumber Hill, I sometimes think of all the people, all the generations who grew up on this ground, and grew into this ground, their days and years.â¦My Welsh grandmother Nain says the sounds trees make are the voices of the dead, and when I listen to the beech trees, they sound like whispering spiritsâthey're my great-uncles and great-great-aunts, my great-great-great-grandparents, green again and guiding me.
When I climbed the hill this afternoon, I saw Merlin already sitting on the crown, and the hounds bounded ahead of me and mobbed him.
Merlin tried to swat them away with the backs of his spotty
hands, and scrambled to his feet. “Get away from me!” he shouted. “You creatures!”
“Merlin!” I called out, and I pointed to the sky's peak, towering above us. “Look at that cloud!”
“I was,” said Merlin.
“It's a silver sword. The sword of a giant king.”
“Once,” said Merlin, “there was a king with your name.”
“Was there?”
“And he will be.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded. “He can't live in two times.”
Merlin looked at me. “How do you know?” he asked, and his slateshine eyes were smiling and unsmiling.
I don't know exactly what happened next. Or rather, I don't know how it happened, and I'm not even quite sure it did happen. First, Tempest pranced up to me with a rock in his mouth; I grabbed the rock and pulled it, and Tempest growled, and the two of us began a tug-of-war. Tempest was so strong that he pulled me over, and I slithered across the cropped grass.
When I let go and looked round again, Merlin wasn't there. He wasn't on the crown of the hill, and he wasn't in the little stand of whispering beeches, or behind the old mound and the raspberry bushes. There was nowhere for him to go, but he wasn't anywhere.
“Merlin!” I shouted. “Merlin! Where are you?”
Merlin is strange and I sometimes wonder whether he knows some magic, but he has never done anything like this before.
High on the hill I felt quite giddy. The clouds tossed and swirled above me and the ground heaved under my feet.