Gwenhwyfar_ The White Spirit - Mercedes Lackey [119]
“Wait, wait,” she said, as they clustered around her. “I will answer any question I can, but I must be able to hear them!” She got them to stop talking all at once, finally, and sat down on a stone bench in the abbey herb garden where they had gathered around her. “I’ll tell you everything I know about the Folk of Annwn and Gwyn in particular,” she said, calmly, reassuringly. “But first of all, Gwyn ap Nudd is a friend to the High King, and, so I was told this morning, counted among the King’s Companions of the Round Table even if he seldom comes to court.” She waited for them to take that in. “If he comes to the Round Table, he has already passed the many tests that the High King sets his men. Yes?”
They looked at each other, then nodded.
“Now, among the Folk of Annwn, vows are taken as seriously as—” she looked about her, and although she did see a few faces showing suspicion or fear, she didn’t see any she would have thought dishonest “—as seriously as among you. Vows are sacred. Gwyn will have taken the same vows to the High King that all the Companions have, and one of those is to protect those who do not bear arms.”
“That is true,” murmured the fellow who had insisted she have some of his beer. “Women, children, and men of the cloth . . .”
“Furthermore, among the Folk of Annwn, the person of an envoy is held in the highest esteem. Their lives are sacred. Their words are to be listened to with courtesy, and they are not to be threatened nor harmed just because one side does not like what they have to say. Abbot Gildas is an envoy. Gwyn will defend him to the death and would not allow harm to come to him even at the hand of his own lady or son. I would lay my own life on that or that of my father, whom I hold dearer than myself.”
There was a collective sigh of relief at that, and a little of the tension eased. “Now, as to the Folk of Annwn . . . no, they are not mortal as we are. But they are not demons, either. They are just . . . other.” She shook her head. “It is hard to explain, but I think I can pledge to you that Gwyn of the Annwn would have no more difficulty in being within the walls of your church, there, than I did.”
“A demon cannot abide within church walls,” said someone else. “Nor stand on consecrated ground.”
She had to smile a little. “I daresay that if you looked closely at some of those who have come once or twice to your rites, you would find that more than one of them are of the Folk, for they are a curious set of peoples, and you are their near neighbors. They dwell in the Other World, not here on the middle earth, nor heaven, nor hell, but as if it were sideways to the lands we know. The doors to their lands are few; two are here, which is why Gwyn’s stronghold is here.”
“I heard a tale once,” one of the fellows faltered. When the others made encouraging murmurs, he got up courage and went on. “It was said that when Lucifer revolted and made war in heaven, there were some spirits that would take neither God’s side nor the Devil’s. And so, when the battle was over, and Lucifer and his minions cast into Hell, these other spirits were also driven from Heaven. Because they had not taken God’s side, they could not remain. But because they had not taken Lucifer’s either, they were not sent to Hell. And so they came to live beside, but not among, mortals, in a state that was half of spirit and half of the world . . .” His voice trailed off, uncertainly.
She shrugged. “I had not heard that tale before, but it is as likely as any other explanation. They are as many and varied as mortals and all the mortal creatures. There are good, bad, and middling ones. Many are tricksters. Some are evil, but Gwyn will keep those firmly under control here. They are quick to anger, slow to forget. A gift places a debt of obligation on them, and the freer and more genuine the gift, the greater the obligation. They will always hold by the letter of a bargain, but you must be careful,