Chapter 18: A Silver Shilling — Summary, Themes, and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens the morning after the battle, with Collum drinking hard at a victory feast held in a private chamber of the keep rather than at the Round Table. He is haunted by the fighting: shadows keep turning into swords and spearpoints in his mind, and he cannot shake the feeling of the six men he killed. His wound above his hip aches, and he drinks to try to purge the memory.
The assembled knights, lords, and churchmen—including two bishops and a papal legate—reconstruct what actually happened. The battle nearly went badly: the archers couldn't stop a cavalry charge that mauled Camelot's right flank, and a second mounted formation struck the unguarded left. Constantine and Scipio argue over why the woods were thought impassable. Only Nimue's arrival turned the tide, but she collapsed afterward and now lies in a feverish half-sleep, accepting medical attention only from Palomides.
The cost is heavy: two lords, a dozen knights, and hundreds of archers and infantry are dead. Rience escaped, but many of his noble allies were killed or captured. The Earl of Aeron was caught dressed as a woman and butchered by peasants. Dinadan's detachment captured part of the enemy baggage train, including Rience's royal wine, which the party is now enjoying.
The conversation turns to strategy and succession. Dinadan bitterly notes that the coins in the baggage train were minted in Cameliard—the queen's family—and that Mordred's Saxons still roam the east coast. Bedivere warns that the next army of any size will take Camelot. The papal legate suggests prayer; Constantine says God isn't listening. The archbishop proposes finding the Holy Lance, but Bedivere replies that there are no adventures left in Britain.
Collum, trying not to slur, reveals that he spoke with Morgan le Fay in the Otherworld and that she plans to return to Britain, claiming the throne as Igraine's daughter. Bedivere then drops a revelation: he saw Morgan on the ship that took Arthur away—she touched Arthur's head and called him brother. The possibility that Morgan is keeping Arthur alive in Avalon hangs in the air.
Bedivere lays out the options: raise a lesser royal, forcibly marry someone to Guinevere, wait for God, bend the knee to Morgan, or wait for Arthur to return. Constantine supports Lancelot. King Cador offers himself as high king. Palomides suggests considering Morgan's offer, which the bishop of Londinium rejects as pagan.
The debate is interrupted by a boy of ten or eleven, finely dressed in black velvet trimmed with silver. He announces himself as Sir Melehan, son of Mordred and grandson of Arthur, and claims the throne as Arthur's only living male descendant. He has an army of 2,500 men camped ten miles away, ready to descend on Camelot if he doesn't reappear, unharmed and newly crowned, within three days. Lord Argente spits at his feet, Scipio calls him a liar, and the boy is sent to the dungeons.
Alone in his bedchamber, Collum cannot sleep. He looks out the window and sees Nimue in the courtyard, digging holes. He goes down to help. She is strengthening the boundaries around Camelot so Morgan cannot see in. Their conversation turns to magic and killing. Nimue asks what killing feels like; Collum admits he felt like a god during the battle but now knows less about himself than before. Nimue reveals she killed 173 people, feeling each one go