(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.
VIII. The Silver Lady’s Lover
THEN MERLYN LED THEM into a deep wood and bade them take off the bridles of their horses and put them to grass for the day. And he had the two knights lie down among the leaves to rest.
At midnight Merlyn woke them. ‘Now rise and behold a rare sight,’ he said.
Balyn and his brother looked through the leaves. They beheld a silver castle that shone in the starlight. Atop its highest battlement stood a lady all in silver, and her dress let the light shine through it so that it seemed woven of starlight and moonbeams.
‘This lady, who is she?’ asked Balyn.
‘This is the Lady de Vance,’ answered Merlyn, ‘and King Ryons’ paramour.’
Upon the battlement the weird lady let her wrappings shudder in the wind. And there came down from there the deep rich scent of her, that was such a lure that Balyn started to go to her. But Merlyn gripped his shoulder and held him back.
‘Hold still,’ he said, ‘she does not spread that scent for you.’
The Lady de Vance lifted her arms, and from her long pale throat and lips she made sweet moan. Then they were aware of many men riding toward them.
‘Make ready now,’ said Merlyn. ‘For King Ryons is near to hand. He has stolen away from his host with three score horses of his best knights, and one score of them ride ahead to say to the Lady de Vance that the king comes at her calling. For tonight he would lie with her.’
‘Which is the king?’ asked Balyn.
‘Abide here where the road is narrow, and you shall meet him soon enough,’ said Merlyn. And he pointed out to them the king where he rode.
Balyn and Balan rode into the king’s way and before he was aware of them, they struck him down fiercely and wounded him, and laid him on the ground. But at that all the king’s knights rode at them, and Balyn and his brother killed on the right hand and the left. The wood rang with their strokes, and upon her battlement Lady de Vance cried out in despair.
In the shadow of the trees Balyn fought the king’s knights. He turned his horse back and made them chase him among the trees where only one or two might meet him at a time. And he lashed out at them with the Sword of the Naked Damsel.
At the end the two brothers slew more than forty rebel knights, and the remnant fled. Then in his wrath Balyn leapt down off his horse by the king and would have slain him.
‘Nay, harm me no more,’ said King Ryons, ‘I yield me unto your grace. Kill me not, you knights of great prowess, for by my life you may win more, but by my death you shall win nothing but a corpse.’
Balan turned back his brother and said, ‘Brother, he speaks the truth.’ And Balyn’s anger rose up out of him and left him with the smoke that rose from his armor, and he put back the sword.
So they laid the king on a horse litter and bound up his wounds. But in the meantime, eastward of that wood, Merlyn came to King Arthur. The king rested that night in his camp not far away on the road to Castle Terrabil.
‘I bear you happy tidings, lord Arthur,’ said Merlyn, ‘your greatest enemy is now taken and a prisoner.’
‘By whom?’ asked the king.
‘By two knights,’ answered Merlyn, ‘that would please your lordship. And tomorrow you shall know what knights they are.’
Upon the dawn came the Knight of Two Swords and Balan his brother, and they delivered King Ryons of North Wales to the porters at the entrance to the camp. Then they rode on west and chased the night. All that day they rode apace on the highway to Castle Terrabil.
Meantime King Arthur bade the porters treat King Ryons with courtesy and told him, ‘Sir King you are welcome to my camp. But by what adventure have you come?’
‘Sir,’ answered King Ryons, ‘It was a hard adventure that brought me here, and the death of all my hopes.’
‘Who won you?’ asked King Arthur.
‘The Knight of Two Swords and his brother fought against my best knights, and all alone they won me. They are two marvelous knights of strength of arms.’
‘I know them not,’ said King Arthur, ‘but I am much beholden to them.’
‘Ah,’ said Merlyn, ‘I shall tell you now that it is Balyn the Wild who won the Sword of the Naked Damsel, and his brother Balan, a good knight. There is not a better knight of prowess and worthiness alive than Balyn, and it shall be the greatest dole of his doom that ever I knew, for he shall not long endure.’
‘Alas,’ said King Arthur. ‘That is a great pity, for I am now much beholden to him. And yet I have ill deserved this kindness he has shown me.’
‘Nay,’ said Merlyn, ‘he shall do much more for you, and you will know that very soon.’
So they treated of King Ryons and saw to his wounds, and guarded him under courtesy.
But Merlyn said, ‘Now sire are you ready? For in two morrows King Nero, that is brother to king Ryons, will set on you ere noon with a great host. Therefore make ready for I must now depart from you.’
And before the king might answer him, Merlyn was gone away to meet King Lot.
