Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley [261]
Elaine colored and cast down her eyes. Arthur said, “I bade Pellinore to join us, but he would stay in the field with his men, seeing to the order of march. Some of the wagons are moving out already. Look—” He pointed to the window. “The northern spears blaze over us again!”
Lancelet asked, “Is Kevin the Harper not to be with us?”
“I bade him come if he would,” said Taliesin, “but he said he would rather not offend the Queen with his presence. Have you quarrelled, Gwenhwyfar?”
She cast down her eyes and said, “I spoke harshly to him while I was ill and in great pain. If you see him, Lord Druid, will you say I would gladly beg his pardon?” With Arthur at her side and her banner flying above Arthur’s camp, she felt love and charity for everyone, even for the bard.
“I think he knows you spoke in the bitterness of your own ordeal,” said Taliesin gently, and Gwenhwyfar wondered what the younger Druid had told him.
Abruptly the door was thrust open and Lot and Gawaine strode into the room.
“Why, what’s this, my lord Arthur?” demanded Lot. “The Pendragon banner we pledged ourselves to follow, it flies no more over the camp, and there is great unrest among the Tribes—tell me, what have you done?”
Arthur looked pale in the torchlight. “No more than this, cousin—we are a Christian folk, and we fight under the banner of Christ and the Virgin.”
Lot scowled at him. “The archers of Avalon are talking of leaving you, Arthur. Fly your banner of Christ, if your conscience so bids you, but raise the Pendragon banner at its side with the serpents of wisdom, or you will see your men scattered and not all of one heart as they have been through all this dreary waiting! Would you toss all that goodwill away? And the Pict folk with their elf-bolts have killed many a Saxon before this, and will again. I beg you, don’t take away their banner and their allegiance like this!”
Arthur smiled uneasily. “Even as that emperor who saw the sign in the sky and said, ‘In this sign shall we conquer,’ so shall we. You, Uriens, who raise the eagles of Rome, you know that tale.”
“I do, my king,” said Uriens, “but is it wise to deny the folk of Avalon? Even as I, my lord Arthur, you wear the serpents at your wrists, in token of a land older than the cross.”
“But it will be a new land if we win the victory,” said Gwenhwyfar, “and if we do not, it will not matter.”
Lot turned as she spoke and looked on her with loathing. “I might have known this was your doing, my queen.”
Gawaine strode restlessly to the window and looked down at the camp. “I see them moving about their fires, the little folk—from Avalon, and from your country, King Uriens. Arthur, cousin"—and he went to the King—"I beg of you, as the oldest of your Companions, put the Pendragon banner into the field for those who wish to follow it.”
Arthur hesitated, but a glance at Gwenhwyfar’s shining eyes and he smiled at her and said, “I have sworn it. If we survive the battle, our son shall reign over a land united under the cross. I shall compel no man’s conscience, but as it is written in Holy Writ—’as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ “
Lancelet drew a deep breath. He stepped away from Gwenhwyfar. “My lord and king, I remind you, I am Lancelet of the Lake, and I honor the Lady of Avalon. In her name, my king, who was your friend and benefactor, I beg this favor of you—let me carry the Pendragon banner into battle myself. Then your vow will be kept, and yet you will not be forsworn to Avalon.”
Arthur hesitated. Gwenhwyfar shook her head imperceptibly, and Lancelet glanced at Taliesin. Taking the silence for consent, Lancelet was about to stride out of the room when Lot said, “Arthur, no! There is enough talk now about Lancelet being your heir and favorite! If he bears the Pendragon into battle, then will they think you have appointed him to bear your banner and there will be division in the kingdom, your party under the cross and Lancelet’s under the Pendragon.”
Lancelet turned on Lot violently. “You carry your own banner—so does Leodegranz, so does Uriens, so does