(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.
XI. The Unseen Knight
ALL THIS TIME BALYN lay in his tent beside the battlefield, sorely wounded from his deeds.
And it seemed to him the greatest and most worshipful knights in the land came before him. One by one they kneeled and said that never had they known of so great deeds as his on that day when twelve kings fell by his hand. And his good lord Arthur came to Balyn’s bedside and said, ‘Knight of Two Swords, you have saved my realm and brought peace to these lands. Therefore get well again and I will honor you before all my knights and barons.’
But all these faces appeared to Balyn like dreams, and he knew not if what he saw were true or false. Last of all he saw his brother’s face. Balan his brother shook his head, sadly, and turned away.
At last Balyn woke and stood in the opening to his tent. The cool night breathed upon his limbs. Far off he saw the half moon sink into the Earth as though it drew with her his heart and soul and gladness. Then the stars for secret shame hid themselves behind the clouds and the night grew darksome as the pit. Balyn bent on one knee and took the long beard of the Earth in his two fists.
Now I have done a great thing. Your debt to me is paid but my debt to you now comes due. Therefore O you Devils of the deep dank Earth, call where you will and I will follow. Set me what task you please and I will see it done. Torment and murder me at your pleasure. And so we shall be quits.
And he made his heart ready for what was to come. For so great a deed he knew the Devils would tote up a cost that went beyond what any mortal man had paid.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I will shed no tears over my pain. And yet I am sorry for this, that I might not find the Naked Damsel and avenge her wrong upon the false knight who killed her love. For I will work now only to advance true love.’
Even then a blue knight rode by the camp in the dark, moaning and weeping. Balyn got his gear and rode after that knight.
Meanwhile Arthur also held aloof from feasts and cheer. He took his pavilions deep into the forest and saw few men. For Merlyn’s foretelling minded Arthur of his sin, and it weighed upon him. And he grieved over the death of King Lot, and felt sick for it.
Once King Lot had been fast friends with Arthur and took his part in the war. But then Arthur lay with Lot’s wife, the Queen Morgause, and got her with the child Modred. When King Lot learned of this, then he turned against Arthur and became bitter foe to him, and there lay the beginning of enmity between them. Arthur had not known at that time that Queen Morgause was his own half-sister, but he had known right well she was King Lot’s wife.
And about the child of that incestuous bed, Merlyn had foretold that he should be a great causer of ill, and the end of Arthur’s kingdom. And he should be born on that next May-Day. Therefore when that May was ending, Arthur had ordained that all the babes born about May-Day should be taken in a ship to sea, and he gave the captain of the ship command to drive her upon rocks in the sea and sink her and let those children die. And the outcry against this commandment had fed the rebellion against Arthur, for all these matters work together, and there is no man, not though he be a king, who can put aside his doom and leave his sins unpunished.
So it came about that a storm drove back the prison-ship onto land after the captain and his crew had left it in the boats, and there upon rocks the ship foundered and sank, and all the children died -- all but one. For by the will of doom, Modred clung to a timber and floated onto land, and he was taken in by a man there, and he lived whom Arthur meant to kill, and all the other innocents that Arthur would have spared, had he been able to choose out only his son among them all, they died, and this crime lay heavy upon Arthur’s heart.
So heavy did he feel now, for Merlyn had again foretold to him how Modred would yet wreak all the harm he was meant to. And the murder of the children was for nought.
Therefore Arthur was sick at heart even at the hour of his victory. And now that the heaviness of war was lifted from him, he recalled his sin and sought inside his heart for grace. From these nights Arthur would come forth changed, and mercy and compassion would grow in his heart. After the Battles of Terrabil he would never rule harshly again, nor judge rashly, and he learned forgiveness. This was the beginning of that Arthur that we know now and honor in the remembering and love.
But those nights were heavy upon him, and he might not rest.
And he went walking alone in darkness in the wood, when he heard great noise of a horse, and saw a knight come by him making great dole, and that knight went all in blue.
‘Abide fair sir,’ said Arthur, ‘and tell me wherefore you make this sorrow. I would lessen your burden if I might. I would lessen any man’s burden if but to take me away from my own.’
‘You can do nothing to help me,’ said the blue knight. And so he rode on toward the castle of Melyot.
The king stood in wonder looking after him. And soon after there came Balyn.
‘My lord Arthur, saw you a knight go by?’
‘I saw one that made as though great pain was on him, but he would not speak to me or tell me why. Therefore Balyn as you are a true knight, I wish that you would bring that knight to me whether he will or will not, to tell me his story and give my heart somewhere to turn beyond my own dreams.’
‘I will do more for your lordship than that,’ said Balyn. And he rode swiftly away through the darkness. At length in a glade in the deep forest he found the blue knight with a damsel and they two lay alongside each other in starlight and halsed each other close.
‘Sir knight,’ said Balyn, ‘now you must come with me to King Arthur to tell him of your sorrow.’
‘That will I not,’ said the blue knight. ‘For if I do, it will put me in great peril, and may cost me my life. What you ask cannot be.’
‘Sir,’ answered Balyn, ‘I pray you make you ready, for you must go with me, or else I must fight with you and bring you by force even though that is not what I would wish.’
‘Will you ensure my safety,’ said the knight, ‘if I go with you?’
‘Aye,’ said Balyn, ‘or else I will die in your defense.’
And so the blue knight dressed and made ready to go with Balyn and left his damsel’s side. And Balyn thought this damsel was passing fair. She had a look in her eyes of love and sorrow for her knight, and she reminded Balyn of the lady Colombe that had died for love of Sir Lanceour.
‘I will bring your paramour back to you, lady,’ said Balyn, ‘or he that touches him I will slay though it cost my head.’
Balyn rode with the blue knight through the forest. And as they came before King Arthur’s pavilion, there came one unseen by either the knight or Balyn or the bodyguards of the king, and smote the blue knight through the body with a spear.
‘Alas,’ said the blue knight, ‘I am murdered under your safe-conduct. The knight that murdered me is called Garlon. Therefore take my horse that is better than yours and ride to the damsel. Follow as she will lead you, and revenge my death if you may.’
‘That shall I do,’ said Balyn. ‘And that I make as a vow unto knighthood.’ And so he departed from this knight with great sorrow.
And King Arthur let bury this knight richly and let write upon his tomb how
HERE WAS SLAIN
HERLEWS
LE BERBEUS
SLAIN IN TREACHERY
BY THE KNIGHT
GARLON.
