Dying Fall

fascinated, as she knew he would be.
    ‘I’ve never seen a temple dedicated to a raven god but the Romans were good at this, taking a local religious cult and making it their own. It’s one of the ways they assimilated. Sometimes they even combined a Roman and a native God, Minerva and Sulis, for example, in Bath. How old is your temple?’
    ‘Dan thought mid to late fifth century.’
    ‘Interesting.’ Ruth can hear a genuine note of excitement in his voice. ‘The Romans banned ancient religions in 391 AD and Christianity became the established religion. But, of course, by 410 AD they’d left. There must have been plenty of belief in the old religions left. And, of course, the further north you go, the less Roman people were. Up there, you’re near the very outposts of the empire. They might have had Roman roads and Roman engineering but they were still natives at heart.’
    ‘What about the inscription? Could it really be King Arthur?’
    ‘Depends who King Arthur was,’ says Max, echoing Clayton Henry. ‘But certainly some historians think he was a Romano-British figure. Also the raven link could fit. There’s a tradition of Britishness about ravens; think of the legend that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, Britain will fall. Your Roman chap could be using theraven as a symbol of British unity against the Picts, the Celts and the Saxons.’
    Rex Arthurus,
thinks Ruth.
Britannorum Rex
. King Arthur. King of the Britons. Aloud, she says, ‘There’s a legend that Arthur’s spirit left his body in the form of a raven.’
    ‘There you are then. It all fits. Have you seen the bones?’
    Ruth explains about the two sets of bones. ‘My guess is that the original skeleton is missing and these other bones were put in its place.’
    Max whistles. ‘But why?’ he says. ‘Why would anyone want to do that?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ says Ruth. ‘But I do know that someone wants to stop me looking at the bones, Arthur’s bones. I don’t know why or even who’s behind it. There’s lots of weird stuff going on at the university.’
    ‘It sounds a bit serious,’ says Max. ‘Look, I can come up next week if you want. I could take a look at the bones, maybe scare off the bad guys.’
    Ruth is silent for a moment, watching two seagulls fight over the crumbs Cathbad put out in the garden that morning. Why doesn’t she want Max to come to Lytham? Is it because she still doesn’t want to surrender Dan’s discovery to his expertise? Is it because he used the words ‘bad guys’ as if the whole thing is some silly children’s game? Or is it just because she doesn’t want to see him? Not enough, anyway.
    ‘Let’s talk about it nearer the time,’ she says at last. ‘I’d better go now. I think I can hear Kate and Cathbad coming back.’

CHAPTER 15
    Caz lives in St Anne’s, the posh part of Lytham where the houses all look as if they are made out of Lego. It’s quite a long walk, but since Cathbad has taken the car to visit Pendragon Ruth has no choice but to stride out with Kate in her pushchair. When Cathbad first asked if he could have the car, Ruth had quite fancied the idea of a long, bracing walk, but when Tuesday morning dawned it was a grey blustery day with the promise of rain in the clouds.
    ‘Are you sure you don’t mind walking?’ asked Cathbad at breakfast. ‘What if it rains?’
    ‘It’ll be OK,’ said Ruth heartily. ‘Kate won’t shrink, will she?’
    She didn’t want Cathbad to change his plans. She knew he was worried about Pendragon and, besides, she didn’t want to be the sort of pathetic woman who can’t walk for half an hour in the rain. Her own mother has never learnt to drive but Ruth remembers, as a child, accompanying her all over London, on buses and trains sometimes, but usually on foot. ‘Come on, Ruth,’ she’d say.‘Best foot forward.’ Ruth used to wonder which was the favoured foot, as her mother never specified, but, it has to be said, in those days both feet worked pretty well.
    Now, she checks that the rain cover is on the pushchair and sets out, intrepid in her yellow cagoule. It’s not quite the sophisticated image that she wanted to present to Caz but you can’t have everything. Cathbad has already driven off in the Renault. ‘I’ll be back this evening,’ he said. ‘I’m sure Pendragon is OK really. It’s just that he seemed worried, all that business with the gun …’
    ‘He’s got Thing to protect him,’ Ruth pointed