Arthur pc-3

by Stephen R. Lawhead

  Fairest Bard, I can put into song what the tongue can utter.

  'Hear my bold telling:

  'At my calling the small-souled scattered

  like sparks from a firebrand flung from high Eryri.

  'I was a dragon enchanted in a hill;

  I was a viper in a lake;

  I was a star with a silver shaft;

  I was a red-scaled spear in the grasp of a Champion.

  'Four fifties of smoke will follow me;

  five fifties of bondmaids will serve me.

  'My pale yellow horse is swifter than any sea-gull;

  swifter than the hunting merlin.

  'I was a tongue of flame in fire;

  I was wood in a Beltane blaze

  that burned and was not consumed.

  'I was a candle;

  a lantern in the hand of a priest;

  a gentle light that glows in the night.

  'I was a sword and a shield to Mighty Kings;

  a blade of excellent craft

  in the hand of the Pendragon of Britain.

  'Like my father,

  I have sung since I was small.

  The harp is my true voice.

  'I wandered;

  I encircled.

  I called upon the Swift Sure Hand to deliver me.

  I attacked.

  'Righteousness was my only weapon;

  the courage of the Saviour burned in me.

  The battle frenzy of Lieu was not more glorious than my golden rage.

  'I wounded an enchanted beast:

  a hundred heads on it,

  and a fierce host at the root of its tongue -

  a black, forked tongue;

  nine hundred claws it raised against me.

  I slew a crested serpent in whose skin six fifties of souls are tortured.

  'I shall yet cause a field of blood,

  and on it seven hundreds of warriors;

  scaly and red my shield and blade,

  but bright gold my shield ring.

  'A warrior I have been; a warrior I will be.

  'I have slept in a hundred realms

  and dwelt in a hundred hill forts;

  a hundred hundred kings will yet salute me.

  'Wise Druid, prophesy to Arthur!

  Tell the Days of the Bright Champion:

  what has been,

  what is to come;

  was, and will be.

  'The Brilliant Shining One will make his people;

  they will be called by his name:

  the Sure Hand.

  Like lightning he will quicken the Host of Forever!'

  I stared at him in wonder. Myrddin, a man I knew well and seemed now not to know at all. The bard's awen was on him and his face glowed – whether with the light of the fire, or with its own mysterious light, I could not tell. He sat, nodding his bandaged head to the cadence, hearing the echo of his words in the empty reaches of the night.

  'Why do you wonder at what I tell you?' he asked abruptly. 'You must know that I speak the truth. Nevertheless, guard yourself against the wiles of the Enemy, my friends. Oh, but never fear. Never fear! Hear me, Bedwyr! Hear me Gwalcmai! Hear the Soul of Wisdom and know the power of the High King we serve.'

  So saying, he began to tell what had happened in Llyonesse. Blind, his eyes bound, he lifted his raw voice to the guttering sky, and he began to speak it out, slowly, haltingly at first, but more quickly as the words formed in a strong and steady stream. This is what he said:

  'I observed evensong in the Shrine of the Saviour God, something I have long wanted to do. I regretted passing so close to Ynys Avallach and not stopping to see Charis and Avallach, but I could not let them know what I intended.

  'Upon entering Llyonesse, I rode to Belyn's palace and found it – like the Fair Folk settlement in Broceliande – deserted. But why? That is what I could not understand.

  'What had happened to the Fair Folk? What disaster had overtaken them? How could it have been accomplished? What purpose was served in their murder? Oh, yes, that is how I came to see it: wilful and wanton murder. And so it was. But why? Great Light, why?

  'I could not rest. The more I thought about it, the more troubled I became. That some dread design of Morgian's lay behind it, I did not doubt – '

  'Morgian!' Gwalcmai gasped.

  'I am sorry, Gwalcmai,' said Myrddin softly. 'It is true. But you need feel no shame – the fault is hers alone.'

  Gwalcmai's contrition was pure. He knelt down before Myrddin, bowed his head and stretched forth his hands in supplication. 'Forgive me, Emrys. If I had known… '

  'But you are guiltless, lad. I blame you not, neither should you hold yourself to blame. You did not know.'

  'What of Morgian's design?' I asked, itching with curiosity to hear the rest.

  Myrddin shook his bandaged head. 'I could in no wise determine what that design might be. Waking or sleeping, the questions assailed me like hornets disturbed in their nest. Why? Why? Why?

  'I prayed to the Illuminating Spirit to teach me this purpose. I fasted and prayed to learn it. I fasted and prayed like a very bishop, all the time riding deeper into Llyonesse.

  'Then, upon waking one morning, it came into my mind that Morgian, Queen of Air and Darkness, was fear driven. It is so simple! Why did she act now after all these years? Because something drove her to act – and that something was fear. Morgian was afraid.

  'Now what could cause such fear? Think! What does darkness fear but the light that reveals its secret empty heart? What does evil fear but goodness?

  'I ask you, Bedwyr: who then stands between Morgian and her dread desires? Who is the Summer Lord? Whose reign signals the beginning of the Kingdom of Summer?'

  'Arthur's,' I answered; I had heard him say as much.

  'Yes… oh, yes. It is Arthur she fears. His power waxes greater in this worlds-realm and she cannot abide that. For Arthur's power to grow greater, hers must decrease. And that is the thing most hateful to her.

  'She fears Arthur, yes. But more she fears me. For I am the one who upholds Arthur in his power. This is the way of it: such power as Arthur has is my own. Without me he would fail, for he is not strong enough yet to stand alone. So, if she would conquer Arthur, she must first destroy me. And she is ravenous with hatred and fear.

  'By reason of this driving fear, I determined, she had destroyed the Fair Folk settlement. Why? Because out of the remnant of Atlantis' lost children will come her doom. It is true. This much I have seen – though in essence only; I know not its form.

  'Therefore she must destroy all the Fair Folk if she is to save herself. In the same way, I weened, she must soon move against Avallach and Charis at the Tor – as she had moved against the Fair Folk in Broceliande, and against Belyn in Llyonesse. She must destroy them all if she is to earn a measure of rest from her unrelenting fear. And again, she must also destroy me.

  'A poisoned draught and a knife – but Pelleas prevented it. That was a clumsy, childish attempt. No credit to me, it nearly succeeded – for the obvious fact that I expected more from the Supreme Bitch Goddess than infantile trickery.

  'That in itself is a riddle. But the answer is perfectly simple. Pelleas and I once stood within the very circle of her power, yet we had not been destroyed. Why? I will tell you: she had not the strength to do it. It was a lie! Everything about her is a lie! She could enchant, she could charm and beguile; but she could not destroy outright. I tell you she could not, or surely she would have done so.'

  Myrddin seemed to forget who was there with him and imagined instead that it was Pelleas. It did not matter. I was fascinated by all he said. For I heard in his words the veiled brightness of truth too dazzling for utterance.

  'How stupid I have been! Like so much else about Morgian, the depth of her vaunted power was a lie! Yet, in all events, it was sufficient to the task. And it had grown more potent of late. Broceliande was the first warning of what was to come.

  'Oh, Morgian had not been idle. Gathering the
scattered threads of her force, concentrating the far-flung strands of her energies, marshalling the vast, twisted array of her weaponry – this had been all her work since her failed attack on me. And she had grown mighty through it.

  'Make no mistake, she meant to finish what she had begun. And that soon – before Arthur grew too powerful in the Light, before the flowering of the Summer Realm rendered her weak and harmless.

  'So she must seek me out and destroy me. Once that was accomplished, there would be nothing to restrain her any more. She would grow from strength to strength as her seeds bore fruit. And her evil would be beyond imagining.

  'I despaired. I tell you the truth, I did. I knew all this; I saw it all clearly, but I was powerless to prevent it. Probably I was already too late. My spirit cried within me. I wept for my weakness.

  'Yet, by the courage of the Living Light, I gazed into the very shadow of despair, into the black ugly heart of the thing I have hated and feared all my life. And I saw… this I saw: glory to the Saving God, I saw that my solitary hope lay in taking the fight to her. I must be the one to confront her.

  'A scant hope, you may think. But it was, I considered, the only weapon I had, and all that would be given me if I did not take it. Well, I took it. I embraced it. I tell you, I gloried in it. I prayed to the All-Wise God for the wisdom to use it well.

  'Then I waited. I fasted and prayed, and when I felt the quickening of my soul I came here to this place.' By this, I think he meant the sea crag where I had found him. 'Taking no thought for myself – whether I might live or die, I tell you it did not matter any more! I would gladly give my life to banish the Darkness once for all.

  'Curiously, once my feet were on the path, comfort was granted me in the form of understanding. For at last I understood that Morgian was trapped by her fear – her fear of Arthur and of me, and of the Kingdom of Summer – and she was far more desperate than she could allow anyone to know.

  'Lord and Saviour, it is true! Do you see? It is the fear – the insatiable fear that is companion to great evil. She that must ever appear Sovereign of Fear, is herself its servant.

  'And this is her failing. Great Light! This is her weakness! The Queen of Air and Darkness can never admit her fear, her unbearable weakness, even to herself. She must appear to hold the very power she lacks. She must seem always to possess the very thing which remains for ever beyond her grasp.

  'Oh, but I have feared. Great Light, you know / have felt the terror of death and the despair of weakness. I have known failure and grief. I have borne the pitiable short-fall of frailty, yes, and the loathsome impotence of the flesh.

  'I have known and endured these things. I have drained the cup that was poured out for me, and I did not thrust it aside. I understood that this was my strength. By this I would conquer.

  'Do you see it now? It is beautiful, is it not? The designs of God are ever subtle, but beautiful in their subtlety… ever glorious. So be it!

  'I tell you I rejoiced in this knowledge. I made it my battle song; I forged sword and shield from it. I wore it like a helm and battleshirt. And I rode to meet the trial I had avoided for so long.'

  Here Myrddin paused, reached out a hand for his cup. I gave it to him and he drank. It was full dark now. The night air had turned cool. The dew would form heavy tonight, but the fire would keep us dry.

  I tugged Myrddin's cloak closer about him, took the cup from his hand when he had finished, and poured more water into it. Then I settled back, pulling my own cloak round my shoulders, and I waited for Myrddin to speak again. From the branches of a nearby tree, a nightingale began its lilting-song. The voice of melancholy; sweet sorrow in melody.

  As if this were the signal he had been waiting for, Myrddin began to speak again. But his voice had changed. There was sadness in his tone, and pain. A pain deep and wide as grief.

  'I did not know where or how I should meet her. Nevertheless, I considered that she would know of my coming and likely would meet me before I wandered very far, for she could not abide the light that was in me. In this I was not mistaken.

  'I thought it would be at night, in darkness. I trusted her to choose her element, and she did.

  'In the time between times, when the veil between this worlds-realm and the next grows thin, she came to me. I had camped for the night in the ruin of an oak grove. I had slept a little, but grew restless and awoke. The moon had slipped low in the sky, but it shone enough to see by.

  'She rode a black horse, and was dressed much as when we had met that day in Belyn's court: black cloak and mantle, tall black boots, long gloves, her face hidden beneath a hood. She had come alone, and this surprised me. For she certainly knew why I had come.

  'She knew, but her self-deception argued for boldness, and her debauched pride exulted in her superior strength. She came alone because her vanity demanded it.

  'Yet, if she was wary, she was also calm. The swarming force of her hate did not gather at once. Curiosity, I think, held it back for the moment. She could neither understand nor credit my intention. Such is her intelligence, however, that she would not attack a foe until she knew the weapons he would use.

  'Of course, my weapons were unknown to her: courage, hope, faith. I displayed them fully and without guile, but she could not discern them.

  'I spoke first. "So, Morgian," I said, rising as she approached. "I knew you would find me; I prayed it would be soon."

  'She answered me. "You are far from home, Myrddin Wylt," she said, as she swung herself down from the saddle. I could read nothing from her tone.

  '"Perhaps," I allowed. "We are both strangers here, I think."

  'She rankled at my suggestion. "You flatter yourself too highly if you think we meet as equals. I am as far above your small powers as the sun above the barren earth you toil over, as high as the hawk above the flea that troubles your wretched flesh. We are not met as equals."

  '"Once you offered me friendship," I replied. A strange thing to say; I do not know why I said it. Could it be that God's mercy is such that it could embrace even Morgian? On Jesu's behalf then, I made the offer. "It is not too late, Morgian. Turn back, I will meet you. You can be redeemed."

  'She scorned it, as I knew she would. "Do you think to bind me with that, dear Myrddin? Do you think your contemptible god interests me at all?"

  "The offer of peace has been made, Morgian. I do not withdraw it."

  'She let fall the reins from her hand and approached me slowly. "Is that why you have come?" I could feel the icy heat of her hatred begin to burn.

  '"Why do you hate me so?"

  'She made a motion with her hand and my camp fire leapt higher. Whereupon she lifted the veil from her face so that I should admire her dire beauty. Such wasted splendour, such tainted elegance. Oh, her allure is astonishing, dazzling; and as potent as her spite – and that is well nigh boundless. Yet, to see her is to know the mocking futility of the gilded tomb.

  She pouted, and even her frown was beguiling. "But I do not hate you, Myrddin. I feel nothing for you at all. You are nothing to me – less than nothing."

  'It was a lie, of course. Mistress of Lies, she owned no other language. "Then why waste the breath to tell me?" I asked. "Why bother to confront me now?"

  'Morgian's eyes flashed. "What I do, I do to please myself. If it amuses me to speak to you, that is reason enough." She sidled round me, her palms pressed together, gloved finger-tips touching her lips. "Besides, we are kin, you and I. What would people say of me if I refused hospitality to a kinsman?" She was still uncertain. She suspected treachery who could no longer apprehend the truth.

  '"You elude my question, but I will answer for you, shall I? You hate me because you fear me, Morgian. In this you are one with the rest of unenlightened humanity: fools hate what they fear."

  '"You are the fool, cousin!" she hissed. The words were knife pricks. "I do not fear you! I fear no man!" The flames jumped still higher. Then, as if the fit had never occurred, she smiled and lightly stepped closer.
"I told you, I feel nothing for you."

  '"No? Then why have you come to kill me?"

  '"Kill you?" She affected a laugh. The sound was wretched and pathetic. "Dear Myrddin, do you imagine your life means anything to me? Your existence is beneath my regard."

  '"You tried to destroy me once and failed," I reminded her. "It was a child's trick, and still you could not succeed in it. You need not bother to deny it, Nimue."

  'She laughed again; the flames crackled ominously. I sensed that she was very close to striking, but I did not know how the blow would come. "Oh, well done, Myrddin! I compliment you on your great sagacity. You guessed that it was me at last, did you? Well, Wise Myrddin, this time you will not fare so well. This time your precious Pelleas will not interfere."

  'I was expecting her to strike, and still she caught me off my guard. The force of her hatred hit me like a physical blow. My lungs were squeezed by a tremendous pressure, and I felt as if I were falling beneath the weight of the world – as if Yr Widdfa itself had been dropped upon my chest. I staggered backwards, fighting to stand upright, struggling to breathe. My vision dimmed. The crushing weight forced me to my knees.

  'Morgian was delighted with her handiwork. "You see? I could crush you without a word… But I will not."

  'Instantly, the weight left me. I pitched forward on knees and elbows, lungs aching, my breath coming in raking gasps.

  'Morgian stood over me. "Death is but the beginning, my love," she whispered. "I have often contemplated your destruction, and I mean to savour it to the full. I have waited so long."

  'She began circling round me slowly, drawing off her gloves. Then, holding her hands shoulder high, palms outward, she began to chant in the Dark Tongue- I saw eyes – scars burned into her flesh and painted in black and silver on her palms in the form of eyes. As she spoke, these seemed to glimmer and gleam as if alive.

  'And swelling up behind her I saw the form of darkness – a spreading darkness surrounding her – everywhere she moved it moved with her; it was alive, I teU you! This thing, this living shadow began to seethe and writhe. Like a mass of snakes it drew together and separated.

  'I looked, and there now stood around her six huge forms – demons they were, called from some nameless hell to witness her great victory. They stood with her, watching, the frigid vapours of their awful malevolence seeping into the air.