by Peter Harris
14
The Vow
Only one thing remains to be told: how Calibur fulfilled the rest of his destiny, and so gave a great gift to the world.
One night he dreamed a dream which filled him with wonder. He awoke to a night-time festival, with fireworks flowering over a beautiful city of carven stone, and in the centre a gold-roofed castle with banners flying high over it. As he watched the spectacle, the fireworks died down, and the sky became inky black.
Suddenly, out of the blackness there came a whirlpool of stars which grew to fill the sky with frosty fields of light, as if the whole Milky Way had been netted and pulled close. He saw five forges below, and five wavy lines of moonlit smoke were rising from them in front of the stars. He called out to Rosa and she held his right hand and looked, marvelling: the sky was filled with a ghostly blue-and-gold image of a man and woman holding hands. They were translucent, so that the brighter stars shone through them; and interwoven ribbons of light played behind them. And he saw a shooting star near the horizon, then another, high up. Their eldest daughter Zurcíra was there and saw the vision also.
Even as he was wishing that Gwynneth too could see the image in the sky, she came up behind him, and held his left hand. And they all felt perfect peace, in the love and joy of the shared vision.
‘It is a good omen,’ said Rosa when she awoke in the morning and Calibur told her of his dream. ‘It means that at last the time is at hand which you foresaw, that Gwynneth would somehow be part of your Destiny — though not as you once hoped! — and would help you create something wonderful and perfect, perhaps a book. But that is something I cannot help you with much. For remember, I am a simple gardener.’ And she smiled at him knowingly, and he blushed to remember how he had spoken to her in those days before he had left to seek Truth on the mountaintop.
The very next day, Gwynneth came to the cottage, and they were overjoyed, but not surprised. Calibur was troubled, remembering his past feelings for her and her rejection of him, but Rosa embraced Gwynneth, and said, ‘At last I have met the Lady who taught my stubborn old Calibur to honour the Goddess, and sent him back to find me and deliver me from the service of death!’ When Gwynneth saw their love and happiness, and their little daughter, she wept. Rosa comforted her saying, ‘Your time will come too. But for now, would you do us the honour of being faerie god-mother to Zurcíra?’
So Gwynneth blessed their daughter, and became her faerie godmother, and in later years Zurcíra would go and live with Gwynneth and serve her.
They showed her the garden and orchard and the ducks, and feasted with her in the cottage, and night fell, and they put Zurcíra to bed. Then they drank red wine together around the fire, and Gwynneth sang for them, and Rosa played the harp.
Then Calibur told Gwynneth about the dream, though his heart was hesitant to revisit matters to do with his former hopes.
She looked at him and said, ‘Calibur, your destiny is still not complete. Make one more sword, that one you dreamed of long ago. You must forge it together, you and Rosa, for the Goddess. Then, when the time is right, it will be a Sword of Deliverance in the hand of the Man you saw in the sky. For I have seen a vision of those two also. And I will receive the Sword and keep it safe for the task it is to perform at a later time, known only to the Goddess.’
‘But I have renounced the sword, which brings only death,’ said Calibur.
‘There will be a time when men will beat their swords into ploughshares,’ replied Gwynneth, ‘But it is not yet. Better a magical sword wielded by one who honours the Goddess, than that Britain should be over-run by the barbarians, whose god is the sword.’
‘I do not want any more blood on my hands, now that I love all things with the unconditional love of the Goddess. I have made more than enough swords in my time! Even as we speak, some of the swords I made will be slashing flesh and bone, taking life given by the Goddess.’
‘Yet as you well know, She gives life and takes it also. She allows the hunter his prey; how much more will she allow the good man to defend the innocent! This Sword will only give of its power to the good man; for its power will come from the quintessence, the male and female in balance; righteousness with mercy, power with love, taking with giving, creating with destroying.’
Calibur was trembling now; he felt the power of the Wouivre flowing up from the earth below him, and from the sky above. He felt that he knew how to make this terrible thing; yet he feared to do it. He felt a terrible tension, as if he were a lightning rod about to draw down the lightning.
‘I hold you to your vow, to serve me unto the end of the Age!’ said Gwynneth, and there was a tremor in the earth as she spoke. Suddenly the moon came out from behind the clouds, and the birds outside the window began to sing though it was the middle of the night. Rosa went to Calibur’s side, and said, ‘Do not be afraid! The Goddess and Truth are with us. Fulfil your vow, and I will stand by your side and help you!’
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