'Rhys! Cai!' cried the Pendragon upon reaching the throng at the bottom of the hill. 'Find someone who saw what happened!'

The two were already moving to his command as Arthur, having mastered his shock, swiftly turned to the waiting Cymbrogi. 'The Grail is gone, and Caledvwlch with it. The guards are dead. Get more torches. Search the hill. I want to know how many were here, and which way they went.' In the moment of stunned hesitation that followed, he roared, 'Now!' and men scattered in twenty directions.

Seizing a torch from one of the sconces at the entrance to the shrine, I began searching the outside of the building and was quickly joined by Cador bearing another torch. We walked slowly, crouching low, examining the soft, dusty earth for fresh footprints, or for any other sign that the attackers might have crept up from behind the shrine to take the watchmen unawares.

There were all sorts of marks in the dust – the tracks of masons and the imprints where stone and tools had lain – but all these were old and scuffed about. 'Nothing fresh here,' Cador concluded.

Still, just to make certain we had not missed anything or overlooked any possible trace, however small, we made a second circuit of the shrine. This time, the only new tracks we saw were those Cador and I had made during the first circuit; I could identify them readily enough on the dry, dusty ground -which gave me to know that had there been any new tracks the first time, we would have recognized them. There were none.

'Go tell Arthur,' Cador said. 'I will look over there.' He pointed to the broad slope of the hill's rearward side.

Hurrying to the front of the shrine, I found the hillside ablaze with the light of torches as the Cymbrogi scoured the path and surrounding area. Arthur and Bedwyr were standing halfway down the hill talking to Myrddin, who was still on horseback. After a few brief words, the Emrys turned his mount and raced away again. Hearing my footsteps behind him, the king whirled on me. 'Well?' he demanded.

'We found nothing, Pendragon,' I told him.

'Look again,' he commanded.

'We have already searched twice, and -'

'Again!' The order was curt, and brooked no reply.

Bedwyr, grim in the softly fluttering light, nodded. 'We must be certain,' he said.

As it was easier to comply than to argue, I walked the shrine perimeter for the third time, more slowly and painstakingly, to be sure. Again I saw nothing I had not seen before. Nor did Cador's scrutiny turn up any traces that the shrine had been approached from the rear. Cador met me at the hilltop, shaking his head. 'Nothing,' he said. 'Whoever did this did not strike from behind.'

We hurried back, reaching the king just as Rhys and Cai came hastening up the pathway, dragging two others between them.

'There are at least three more dead down there,' Rhys informed us bleakly. 'Skulls split ear to ear. Another four wounded.'

'These two saw what happened,' Cai added. 'They are father and son – arrived after nightfall from east of- '

Arthur raised a hand and cut him off. Addressing the two men, he said, 'What did you see?'

The older of the two swallowed, then glanced sideways at Cai, who urged him on with a sharp nod. The man licked his lips and said, 'It was dark, Lord Pendragon. I fear my eyes is not what they was – 'specially in the dead of night.'

'Just say what you saw,' urged Arthur impatiently.

The man blinked, his face squirming in the torchlight; he licked his lips again, and worked his jaw. The second man, a youth with a club foot, blurted, 'It were terrible, Lord Pendragon. Terrible. The first thing I knowed something's amiss was when up there comes a shout – like a death cry, it were. We had just got ourselves a piece of the ground and rolled up in our cloaks to sleep, and this brought us up again something quick, I can tell you,'

The elder man nodded his agreement at this. 'Aye, the very truth.'

'Yes, yes,' growled Bedwyr testily. 'But what did you see!'

'Tell them and be quick about it,' coaxed Cai in a low tone, with another nod of encouragement.

'Up there,' the youth said, pointing to the shrine, 'men was all asudden fighting for their very lives. All of them at it, eh, Da?'

The man nodded. 'Every last one,' he murmured.

'They was fighting something fierce,' the youth continued, 'and must have been six or more against one – but the one, he were a fighter. He flew this way and that, slashing and slashing. And what with the shouting and slashing, I never seen such a sight. He killed them all, he did.'

'Every last one,' repeated the father.

'Who?' demanded Bedwyr.

The young man looked at Cai for help.

'His name!' said Arthur tersely, holding him to the task.

'I never heard his name,' the youth replied. 'But he were tall – taller than the rest, at least.' He hesitated, glancing around quickly, then added, 'And the queen were with him.'

The words hit me like a spear in the gut. Llenlleawg and Gwenhwyvar? Can it be true? I looked to Arthur to judge his reaction, but, save for a tightening of his jaw, saw no appreciable change.

Bedwyr, however, had gone red in the face, and was almost shaking with frustrated rage. 'How could you see all this from down there?' he shouted, pointing angrily down the hill at the place where they had stood.

'For the torches on the side of the shrine,' the young man explained. 'We saw it all. He killed them, and then he comes running down here, running like his legs is afire. We see him waving that great sword in one hand, and carrying something under his other arm.'

'What was he carrying?' demanded Bedwyr roughly.

The youth shrugged. 'A wooden box.'

'Is that what you saw, too?' Bedwyr turned his withering gaze on the elder of the two.

'Tell the truth, man,' Arthur cautioned, his voice tight.

The man licked his lips and said, 'Some of the people down here, they started shouting: 'The Grail! The Grail! He has got the Grail!' I do not know about that – all I saw was the box, and him running away with it.'

'You said you saw the queen – where was she?' Cai asked.

'Well, now, the tall one runs to where the horses is picketed over there.' He pointed to where the guards had tethered the animals. 'The queen was waiting there -1 never seen her at first for all the battle going on up the shrine. But I reckon she was waiting there all along.'

'What happened then?' said Arthur softly, almost trembling with rage.

'Well, they go to ride away. Some of those nearest by make bold to lay hold of the killer. Everyone is shouting, 'He stole the Grail! He stole the Grail!' and they try to stop him.'

'And it is dead they are for their troubles,' asserted the older man.

'That sword is up and he strikes them all down who lays hand to him. And then they both ride off that way.' The youth pointed to the east.

'Is that all?' said Arthur.

'That is the last I seen,' the youth answered. 'We never seen anything after that until you all came.'

The older man nodded and spat, adding, 'We feared you was coming to kill us, too.'

'There is nothing else – you are certain of that?' Bedwyr glared hard at both of them, daring them to add to or take away anything from what we had already heard.

The two shook their heads and remained silent, whereupon Arthur dismissed them, charging them to say nothing of this to anyone else until more could be learned. As soon as they had gone, we all turned to one another. 'It cannot be Llenlleawg has done this!' Cai insisted vehemently. 'It was never Llenlleawg and Gwenhwyvar.'

'Who, then?' snarled Bedwyr. 'Llenlleawg is the only one of us missing now – why is that, do you think?'

'It was someone else!' Cai maintained. 'Someone who looked like him.'