Enemy of God (novel)

Part One: The Dark Road

Arthur's unexpected victory over the combined armies of Powys and Siluria at Lugg Vale has brought peace and unity to the British kingdoms. Both Gorfyddyd, King of Powys, and Gundleus, King of Siluria, are dead. Gorfyddyd's son, Cuneglas, shares Arthur's desire for peace and also his dream of an alliance between the kingdoms that will destroy their common enemies, the Saxons. Derfel is ordered to follow Cuneglas to Caer Sws, capital of Powys, where the Edling is to be crowned king. As for the vacant Silurian throne, Arthur tells Derfel of his plan to make Lancelot the king and marry him to the Princess of Powys, Ceinwyn, thus cementing the alliance between Dumnonia, Powys and Siluria. Derfel himself is to be made the new champion of Arthur's Dumnonia, given wealthy land and a position as the new caretaker for the infant king, Mordred, as Arthur wants to remove him from the influence of a growing Christian faction within Dumnonia.

Derfel does not reveal that he is in love with Ceinwyn, and wants her for himself, and goes to Caer Sws, and witnesses Cuneglas' acclamation. Days later, Arthur arrives with his court, including his wife Guinevere and Lancelot. Derfel witnesses Ceinwyn's apparent happiness with her betrothal. Derfel speaks with Merlin, who tells him that Arthur wants him to marry Gwenhwyvach, Guinevere's plain and apathic sister. Merlin asks Derfel to meet him and Nimue late that night on a hilltop, where Merlin has Derfel drink a hallucinogenic potion. Derfel hallucinates about Ceinwyn and sees a Dark Road and a ghoul, and he describes his vision to Merlin. Merlin tells him the ghoul was Diwrnach, a vicious Irish king of Lleyn, and he also asks Derfel to accompany him on the quest (which also requires the presence of a virgin) for the Cauldron of Clydno Eiddin, one of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain, which was lost after the Romans sacked Ynys Mon four centuries prior. But Derfel is committed to taking his men to aid Arthur in his campaign to drive the Saxons out of eastern Britain. Merlin gives Derfel a bone, and tells him that all he has to do is break it and his wish will be granted, namely that Ceinwyn will choose him over Lancelot, but warns that if he breaks it, he will be bound to Merlin's quest.

Derfel summons his men and informs them that he is releasing them from their oaths if Ceinwyn choose him which allow them to refuse to come on the Dark Road. The night of Ceinwyn and Lancelot's betrothal feast, Derfel breaks the bone and Ceinwyn goes to Derfel instead of Lancelot. They swear to be together but Ceinwyn refuses to be married as she wants to belong to herself and to no man. Nevertheless, she promises to love Derfel as a wife would. That night, she also tells him that Merlin had made her swear that she would remain a virgin until the Cauldron is found, which means she will accompany them on the Dark Road. Derfel is reluctant to let her but she refuses to be swayed. Arthur arrives to congratulate Derfel and to inform him that he is meant to be angry with him. He also tells him that, once spring comes, he will call him back to help him against the Saxons.

Arthur returns to Dumnonia afterwards where he appoints his cousin, Culhwch, as Mordred's guardian. Culhwch puts down a rebellion by Prince Cadwy of Isca and, after killing the rebel, discovers letters from Christian noblemen and magistrates in Dumnonia. The Christians, who hated Arthur for having overturned the tax and loan exemption on their shrines, had offered to Cadwy that he kill Mordred and yield the kingdom to Gorfyydyd to prevent a pagan king from ruling Dumnonia. However, Arthur's victory at Lugg Vale ruined their plans and Arthur ordered that all the conspirators, including Nabur, Mordred's former guardian, be executed or removed. The only Christian to escape the purge is Bishop Sansum, who never put his name in any of the letters although it is known to everyone that he is involved. Sansum manages to remain as guardian of the Christian shrine of the Holy Thorn near Ynys Wydryn only because of this and because of his unlikely friendship with Morgan, Arthur's sister and druidess, who has great influence over Dumnonia in Merlin and Nimue's absences.

Merlin's party travel along the Dark Road into Lleyn, an Irish kingdom ruled by Diwrnach, a ruthless man who placed the skins of virgins on his shields to protect himself. Feared by all, Diwrnach had conquered the former druid forteress of Ynys Mon. Merlin believes to Cauldron to be there. The warband crosses Lleyn to Ynys Mon where Ceinwyn finds the Cauldron before being besieged by the Irish Blackshields. Diwrnach demands the cauldron and Ceinwyn in exchange for their freedom. A fog, apparently summoned by Merlin, allows the warband to escape back to Powys.

Part Two: The Broken War

Derfel and his men are celebrated upon their return as Warriors of the Cauldron but he and Ceinwyn merely retreat to a farm land in Powys to live their life until spring, when Arthur will summon his warriors for the fight against the Saxons. The two are happy during their time away from the world and Ceinwyn becomes pregnant with their first child. Arthur came to them when spring comes as he was visiting Cuneglas: the war with the Saxons had come. At the high council of the British kings gathered in Corinium to discuss the upcoming war, Arthur convenes a gathering of Mithras to induct Lancelot into the order. Lancelot has grown bored of Siluria and is angry at Ceinwyn's rejection. He has established his capital at Isca, as close to Dumnonia as possible without leaving Siluria, and has the druid grandsons of Tanaburs, Dinas and Lavaine, at his service. Derfel refuses to support his rival's election as he knows that Lancelot is no warrior. He is supported in this action by Agricola, a fellow Mithraist and a warlord of Gwent. However, Lancelot avoids the humiliation of Mithras's rejection by publicly converting to Christianity and being baptised by Bishop Sansum, who ensures his return to favour with this action.

The British successfully lure Aelle's Saxon forces into a trap and his war dogs are defeated by Merlin and Nimue, who bring bitches to the battle to distract them. Aelle is weakened but not defeated during the battle and the British kings are surprised by the arrival of Cerdic, the rival Saxon king in Britain, and Lancelot. The latter had negotiated with Cerdic for his alliance, something which infuriated Arthur as it made Cerdic into a more dangerous enemy, now that their forces had been weakened against Aelle. Arthur sends Derfel to find Aelle and bring him to Lindinis where peace is to be negotiated. Aelle is weakened as Cerdic wins Lindinis and the valley of the Thames off him but the British kings get Cerdic to renounce any claim over the river lands of the Belgae. However, Cerdic insists that Lancelot be given control of the land as a king in his full right. As such, Lancelot is granted a new kingdom much richer and more to his liking than mountainous Siluria, to be instead divided between Gwent and Powys. The peace is accepted difficulty by the British kings, with the exception of Prince Meurig of Gwent, who had proposed an alliance with Cerdic before the battle against Aelle.

As the peace negotiations are conducted, Merlin and Nimue search for the last Treasure of Britain, the Chariot of Modron. When they do find it, Cerdic arrives with Dinas and Lavaine, and claims anything they find as his since they are now in his kingdom. Dinas and Lavaine take the chariot after recognizing it and steal a thread of Merlin's beard, which could allow them to cast powerful spells against the druid. On the way back to Corinium, Arthur tells Derfel that he wants him and Ceinwyn to return to Dumnonia and become Mordred's guardian, as Culhwch had been having difficulty raising the boy. As Derfel travels to Powys to fetch Ceinwyn, tragedy strikes in Dumnonia: the Cauldron is stolen from Merlin's hall at Ynys Wydryn.

Part Three: Camelot

In the years following Aelle's defeat and the uneasy truce of Lindinis, peace nevertheless occurs for the British kingdoms as Aelle and Cerdic fight among themselves for mastery of Lloegyr. After Lancelot's gain of the new kingdom of the Belgae, establishing his capital in Venta, Guinevere leaves the Roman villa at Lindinis and has a new palace, the Sea Palace (later known as Camelot), built on the border between Dumnonia and the river lands. Derfel and Ceinwyn move to Lindinis with a six-year-old Mordred and their daughter, Morwenna, is born there. She is followed by two other daughters, Seren and Dian. Two sons are also stillborn and Ceinwyn nearly dies during her third labour. Derfel and Ceinwyn discover, to their horror, that Mordred is a wicked child whom they have difficulty controlling and who enjoys inflicting pain on others. Merlin, who had lost his hall at Ynys Wydryn the night the cauldron had been stolen and now lived at Lindinis, expressed the belief that a demon got into the boy the night of his birth, while the Christians tended to the birth. Merlin believes that this explains his crippled foot, as the spirit was attached to it when Morgan finally arrived to tend the birth. Despite their concerns, Arthur refuses to consider removing Mordred and hopes that ruling will make the boy a better person.

After many years of relative peace, Mordred is acclaimed king of Dumnonia on his fifteenth birthday. Shortly after his acclamation, Mordred sends both Arthur and Derfel on an errand into Powys to capture the traitor Ligessac, who was partly responsible for the death of Mordred's mother Norwenna at the hands of King Gundleus. Arthur and Derfel are ambushed by Christian fanatics while attempting to apprehend Ligessac, who tells them that he has known about their coming for a week. Fighting their way through the ambush, Derfel decides to travel south separately from Arthur in an attempt to find his mother for whom he has not seen since she was taken in a raid when he was a very young child.

On his journey home, Derfel finds out that Lancelot has attempted to usurp the Dumnonian throne after Mordred is believed to be murdered (and with Arthur presumed killed) by inciting religious unrest. Christians are hunting down pagans all across Dumnonia. Derfel eventually makes it home where he discovers the druids Dinas and Lavaine have attacked his hall and are attempting to kidnap Ceinwyn and Merlin and bring them to Lancelot. Derfel and his men drive off Dinas and Lavaine, however during the battle Lavaine kills Derfel's youngest daughter, Dian. Derfel accompanies Ceinwyn and his daughters north to Powys and to the protection of King Cuneglas, Ceinwyn's brother. There they are joined by Arthur and King Mordred, who was saved from assassination by Galahad. Confronted by Merlin, Mordred admits that it had been Bishop Sansum's idea to send Arthur and Derfel to apprehend Ligessac. Because of Mordred's incompetence in allowing Lancelot and his Christian followers to ravage Dumnonina, Arthur declares Mordred unfit to rule as king.

They devise a plan to rescue Guinevere and Arthur's son Gwydre who are being help captive by Lancelot's men at the Sea Palace. Once there, Derfel and Arthur discover that Guinevere has been performing rituals to the goddess Isis which have involved Guinevere sleeping with the druids Dinas, Lavaine, and Lancelot. In his rage, Arthur slaughters the worshipers of Isis and takes Guinevere and Gwydre away. At the same time, Dervel captures Dinas and Lavaine and with help from Nimue, exacts his revenge for the death of his daughter. They also discover the missing treasures of Britain, including the great cauldron, that were stolen from Merlin. Lancelot's rebellion eventually fizzles as word of Arthur's survival spreads and warriors from Dumnonia begin to rally to his banner. Lancelot retreats while Arthur asserts himself as Dumnonia's ruler with Derfel as his champion.