(A sample chapter from the Arthurian tale The Killing Sword.)
© 2011 asotir.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
XIX. What Merlyn Did After
IN THE MORNING Merlyn came, and he undid the Naked Damsel’s writing from Balyn’s tomb and over it let write with letters of gold that
HERE LYETH BALYN THE WILD
THAT WAS THE KNIGHT OF TWO SWORDS
AND HE THAT SMOTE
THE DOLOROUS STROKE
All the castle folk abided within its walls for fear of Merlyn’s wrath, that shone from his brows even across the waters. But the Naked Damsel let herself be rowed across with two of her knights. She was garbed all in the great furred mantle Balyn had borne back with him, with veils across her face as she had first come to Arthur’s court. And when she came before Merlyn she stood small and meek.
Merlyn said, ‘Lady, it is ever an ill time when I find you, and always a tomb I find you near.’
‘This is the last,’ she said, ‘but one.’
‘Why did you not put down Balyn by his name? For I think you knew it well enough, you had enough to do with him.’
‘For this,’ she said, ‘that I misgave me that ever his fate sent him up into the quarrel between my brother and me. I am content that Balan has died and King Garamor is avenged, so I have no fear lest the world learn my part in his death. But Balyn was a good knight and a true, and he deserved better.’
‘Did Balan deserve no better,’ asked Merlyn.
‘He got all that he deserved,’ she said. ‘My one end in all my doings was to be revenged upon my brother, and to that end I masked myself to him and even lay with him in the chamber in that castle, that is a deadly sin. But I was ashamed less of that than of the pain and dole I gave to Balyn that was none of my kin, and a worshipful good knight.’
‘In truth you are a lying and cruel woman, and no gentleness can I find in you.’
Then she raised her chin and her eyes flashed from beyond the veil. ‘And was King Garamor to go unavenged? Who else was there to do it? But soon enough my lord will have another tomb to make here between my brother and the lake where my paramour was King.’
‘Not so soon will you be put under the earth, lady,’ said Merlyn. ‘I think your hope there will be as barren as your love. That child you bear is Balyn’s child, and he will grow to be a strong knight, but he will bring about your end and the end of this castle by the lake.’
Then the Naked Damsel turned aside, and went back inside the castle.
And Merlyn let make on the island a bed beneath the stars and thorns, that there should never man lie therein but he went out of his wit. Yet Lancelot of the Lake endured that bed through his nobleness.
And Merlyn took the sword Malison from the tomb and took off the pommel and set on another pommel. So Merlyn bade one of the two knights handle that sword.
And he tried, and he might not handle it. Then Merlyn laughed.
‘Why laugh you?’ said the knight.
‘This is the cause,’ said Merlyn: ‘there shall never man handle this sword but the best knight of the world. And that shall be Sir Lancelot and then Galahad his son. And Lancelot with this sword shall slay the man that in the world he loves best; that shall be Sir Gawain.’
All this he let write in the pommel of the sword.
Then Merlyn let make a bridge of iron and of steel into that Island, and it was but half a foot broad.
‘And there shall never man pass this bridge nor have hardiness to go over but if he be a passing good man and a good knight without treachery or villainy.’
Also Merlyn let make by his subtlety that the sword Malison was set in a marble stone standing upright as great as a millstone, and the stone hoved always above the water for many years.
And Merlyn went to King Arthur and told him of the Dolorous Stroke that Balyn gave to king Pellam, and how Balyn and Balan fought together the most marvelous battle that ever was heard of, and how they were buried both in one tomb.
‘Alas,’ said King Arthur, ‘this is the greatest pity that ever I heard tell of two knights. For in the world I knew not such two noble knights.’
And the king wept.
XX. Envoi
NOW IN THE TIME AFTER, Arthur came to make a court as great and noble as any that ever had been on earth. By the grace of the Saint Grail while it lay yet in England, Arthur learned mercy and compassion. And when he met Modred and knew his son, Arthur took whatever doom God should ordain for him, and he raised his son and did not again seek to have him slain. So all might have achieved a lasting good, but that Balyn had struck the Dolorous Stroke.
For after that came the bitter time, when Modred sowed dissent among Arthur’s knights. Gawain took vengeance upon his father King Lot’s killer King Pellinore. Lancelot stood accused by Modred and he battled Gawain, and the Table Round broke in two. And though Arthur was King he could but look on and watch it unfold, helpless to forestall it.
And that is the reason why Merlyn named Balyn’s wounding of King Pellam the Dolorous Stroke. Dolorous indeed that took from us the noblest court on earth. But that same court was born from the peace Balyn won for his lord Arthur on that day when twelve kings died of his strokes. Through the Knight of Two Swords a great fate worked and began the flowering of knighthood.
So ends the tale of Balyn
the unknown knight.
Think well on him & on his fate.
Θ
