Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley [274]
Morgaine stared in horror, remembering Arthur’s kingmaking. Even Uther had not so pledged himself to the folk of Avalon! And he had betrayed that pledge? She whispered, “And the Tribes did not desert him?”
Kevin said in great anger, “Some of them came near to it; some of the Old People from the Welsh hills did indeed go home when the cross was raised—King Uriens could not stop them. As for the rest—well, we knew that day that the Saxons had us between the hammer and the anvil. We might follow Arthur and his knights into battle, or live thereafter under Saxon rule, for this was the great battle that had been prophesied. And he bore the sacred sword Excalibur from the Holy Regalia. Like enough the Goddess herself knew that she would be the worse if the land was ruled by the Saxons. So he fought, and the Goddess gave him victory.” Kevin offered the wine flask to Morgaine, and when she shook her head, he drained it.
“Viviane would have come from Avalon to charge him with oath-breaking,” he said, “but she is reluctant to do so before all his people. And so I am for Camelot, to remind him of his vow. If he heeds not that, then Viviane has sworn she will come to Camelot herself, on the day when all people present their petitions, and Arthur has sworn he himself will hear and judge them, at Pentecost. And then, she said, she would stand before him as a common petitioner, and claim his oath, and remind him of what must befall him who forswears his word.”
Morgaine said, “The Goddess grant that the Lady of the Lake need never humble herself so far.”
“I too would speak to him with wrath, not soft words, but it is not mine to choose,” said Kevin. He held out his hand. “Will you help me to rise? I think my horse will bear two, and if not, when we come to a town we must get you a horse. I should be gallant even as the great Lancelet, and let you ride mine, but"—he pointed to his crippled body.
Morgaine pulled him to his feet. “I am strong, I can walk. If we must barter anything in the town, we should find shoes for me and a knife. I have not a single coin with me, but I will repay you when I can.”
Kevin shrugged. “You are my vowed sister in Avalon—what I have is yours, so runs the law. There is no talk of payment between us.”
Morgaine felt herself coloring in shame, that Kevin should so remind her of what she had sworn. I have been out of the world, in truth. “Let me help you to mount your horse. Will she stand, so?”
He smiled. “If she would not, she would be little use to me in travelling such roads as I go alone! Let us go—I would like to reach Camelot tomorrow.”
In a town nestled in the hills, they found a cobbler to mend Morgaine’s broken shoes, and an old bronze dagger; the man who had these things for sale said there was no dearth of them in this country since the great battle. Kevin bought her a decent cloak too, saying the ragged one she had found in the farmhouse would scarce make a saddle blanket. But the stop had delayed them, and once on the road again, it began to snow heavily, and the dark closed in early.
“We should have stayed in that town,” said Kevin. “I could have bartered harp music for supper and bed for us both. Alone, I could sleep under a hedge or in the shelter of a wall, wrapped in my cloak. But not a lady of Avalon.”
“What makes you think I have never slept so?” Morgaine asked.
He laughed. “You look to me, Morgaine, as if you had slept so all too often of late! But no