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imagined, de-
parted. A dank coldness such as that I felt within doomed Tintagel overcame
me. Now I wished only to push Morgaine off me, but she was as entwined upon me
as if she were a strangler fig. While she worked vigorously to bring us both
to completion I could do aught but watch Elaine's face as it became paler and
paler. Just at the moment her sister cried out in ecstasy, Elaine turned her
white face away. My own rationalization came back to flail me: non-action had
proved as treacherous a course as its opposite. If this were the natural
course of events, I wanted no part of them. Then my heart leapt in my breast.
Perhaps all was not lost.
Elaine!
I called to her in my mind.It is you I love!
Ah, Myrddin, you were right to fear for me. I should have kept my spirit
sheathed.
My heart quailed when I heard her reply echo dreadfully in my mind.
/was a fool to have sent you away.
As you said, it is your nature.
Elaine, for you I would cause the sun to burn at night. I would cause water
to run uphill.
Even if you could accomplish the impossible, it is too late. It is too late
for us all. More fool me to think anything could be changed. You have betrayed
me with mine own sister. Our Fates are sealed. Now, surely, all of Ygraine's
wishes will come true.
I saw her image begin to fade, and I closed my eyes and wept.
Morgaine of course mistook my tears for those of delight. "Ah, Myrddin, now
that our desire has been brought to fruition," she whispered still atop me, "I
propose an alliance. You and I will wed. Together, we will make a stand
against Ygraine. You possess a power unknown to either of my sisters."
"Or to you, either, I take it," I said drily.
"Now you mock me."
"I do no such thing," I lied, at last carefully unwinding myself from her
embrace. "I am simply feeling my way in the dark."
"Then let me light the candle for you. I will be your guide and you will be
my strong staff. Together, we will gain more power than any of our kind has
ever before conceived of possessing."
I confess that I was sorely tempted, for I saw in her unholy alliance a way
for me to save Uther from the butcher's knife. But I knew that if I agreed I
would be bound to Morgaine as I was now bound to Ygraine. A man with an
unsupportable burden has little incentive to switch one boulder for another.
"You have given me much to ponder, Lady," I equivocated. "And you will agree
that this alliance is not one to be lightly entered into." More than anything
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else now, I needed time to extricate myself from the webs these women were
spinning, each in her own way and to her own ends.
Her eyes lit up the darkness. "While that may be true enough, when moving
against Ygraine a swift lightning strike will serve us better than walking
with cat's feet. We must work the element of surprise to our best advantage.
If she comes to suspect anything amiss before we have begun we will surely be
undone."
"How goes your labor, Myrddin?"
I had already discovered that Ygraine had her own spy in the Pendragon war
camp, but it would have been foolish to give her an inkling of my knowledge.
"I have demonstrated my powers to the brothers Pendragon, and as a consequence
they have clasped me to their mailed bosoms."
She smiled her strange reptilian smile. "That sharp tongue of yours will make
your repute, I will warrant."
Ygraine was the kind of woman who cherished repute to the detriment of her
spirit. She prided herself on being upright and righteous, and was therefore
neither.
We were in her vast chambers at the heart of Tintagel, which were
deliberately kept dark and full of burning incense. Tallow tapers ringed the
rooms, providing a multitude of small, glowing haloes that illuminated wooden
chests, animal-skin carpets and hammock-like chairs. Atop one chest floated a
miniature boat, low and sleek, with both oars and crimson canvas sail painted
with a white egret in flight. The prow of the boat arched upward in a graceful
swan's neck and ended in a female face. The whole was so intricately carved it
was nothing short of exquisite.
While I drank in these surroundings, Ygraine leaned on the stone sill of a
slitted window and peered down at the courtyard of the castle keep, where her
husband, the man she plotted against, took his exercises with his most robust
knights. "You have not yet drawn blood."
"It is true that Uther still lives, my lady."
"Then kill him swiftly," she snapped. "I do not intend to dally in being
impregnated by Aurelius or in bringing the fetus to term. I can in weeks
accomplish what it takes human women nine months to do. And with a lot less
pain, I might add."
"I do not dally, my lady," I said.
"Good. Because you know not yet the insidiousness of their notions. One need
look no further than their God, who lives only for vengeance. To say nothing
of their Devil, who was once their God's sure right hand. Cast out for his
sin, he lives only to thwart his former master. It is nasty business to be
avoided at all costs. I do not want you infected with their zealousness."
"Have no worry, my lady," I said. "I merely await your help."
She turned away from her contemplation to gaze at me with her colorless eyes.
"How, pray tell?"
"Gorlois must be seen outside the walls of Tintagel leading a raiding party,
possibly meant to probe the opposing army's current strength. That will
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certainly appeal to him. Word will filter back to the Pendragon kings and I
shall use it to full advantage when, posing as your husband, I slay Uther."
The Lady Ygraine was the only person I ever met who looked evil when she
smiled. Possibly I was the only one who saw it, for it is truth she captivated
all the human men in her life. "A lie swaddled like an innocent babe in the
cloak of truth. I like your mind, Myrddin," she said, that smile in full
flower. "Yes, I like it well, indeed."
And so she worked her magic on Gorlois, who obeyed her in all matters great
and small, so smitten with her was he. And he was doubly careful to make
certain no other human was privy to this weakness; he was as obsessed with
repute as was his wife.
The very next day he set out with a small band of knights on an expeditionary
foray. With my connivance, it did not take long for Uther's men to bring back
news of his movements. Uther ordered his scouts to shadow the band and to take
careful note of all they surveyed. Aurelius of course wished to ambush them
and murder Gorlois straight away, but Uther had other plans. He did not wish
such a sweet, swift warrior's death for the duke of Cornwall. Rather, he
wanted Gorlois alive to know that he had been cuckolded and by whom. Only
then, he told me, would he slay the duke. Of these inner plots he revealed
nothing, not even to his beloved brother. Instead, he made a clever and
logical argument for giving Gorlois what he was obviously seeking a glimpse of
the opposing army. But only a piece of it. Gorlois, thinking the army arrayed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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