The Poison Rose: A King Arthur Tale

by Matthew Argyle

  The chariot moved through the grassy landscape until, when within a few feet of the gate, Mordred ordered the men inside to open the gate. The men all saw Mordred and knew who he was and thus did so without hesitation. However, they were all no doubt suspicious of this magnificent chariot, for they had yet to get a good view of the witch from the wall.

  Once the gate was open the chariot rode gallantly through the city streets up towards the courtyard. As the chariot entered the city the witch stood up and waved for all to see. The people who saw her all seemed to somehow immediately recognize her as the beautiful woman who lived in the highest mountain of Arthur’s kingdom. She appeared as a Marie de’ Medici, so beautiful, noble, and strong.

  Many simply stared at her as if under a spell by her mere appearance. Others couldn’t bear to look at her for fear to fall under her spell. The women of the kingdom seemed to look on her with distain.

  However, no matter how people perceived her, she made herself appear as the light of the world come to save it from the terrifying grief that, ironically, her own magic had caused. But most people did not know this, or suppose it. Some were fooled by the entrance of this witch and waved their hands up and down in the streets as she rode in, or put plants or flowers at the feet of her chariot as it passed. However, some were not fooled, but lingered away from the streets in the darkness. These were those who understood that this woman was not to be trusted. They understood that she was, in fact, the cause of the poisonous filth that was infiltrating her kingdom.

  As the chariot rode through the streets of Camelot Mordred yelled for all the people to hear, “Coming is the rightful Queen of this Kingdom—the Poison Rose! The woman from the mountains has come. Come one and all to the courtyard where this kingdom will be born again anew and where all your problems and destitutions will cease. Come now and follow the Poison Rose!” And so Mordred stood loudly and declared for all to hear that the Poison Rose had come to rule and bring peace to the kingdom.

  Once the chariot arrived in the center of the courtyard many people began gathering there, as rumor ran quickly around the city of this mystical and beautiful new visitor. It was thus only a matter of minutes when nearly everyone from the kingdom had gathered around the witch and her chariot.

  Word of this woman’s entrance even reached the knights in Arthur’s castle. In the great hall Gawain and Lancelot stood talking when Galahad yelled, “Lancelot, Gawain, the witch comes to Camelot!”

  “The witch is here?” asked Gawain, slightly confused.

  “And Mordred is with her,” said Galahad. “They are now in the courtyard gathering a large crowd of people.”

  “It cannot be,” replied Gawain. “Mordred would not side with the witch.”

  “Well apparently he has,” said Lancelot. “Come Galahad, we must go to that courtyard if any good is to be done here.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Galahad.

  Lancelot then turned to Gawain. “Gawain, inform the rest of the knights that the witch has come. You may descend if you wish.”

  Gawain nodded, but Lancelot could tell he was greatly disturbed in spirit. Indeed, he had right to be. For such a long period of time, since infancy, Mordred and Gawain had been the closest of brothers that there could ever be. Mordred informed him that he would be leaving and he didn’t tell him where, but he trusted him that it was something urgent and for Arthur’s own benefit. But now, after hearing Galahad’s words, Gawain was beginning to doubt the virtue of his brother.

  So Lancelot, Galahad, and the other knights there descended from Arthur’s castle towards the courtyard to watch what the witch and Mordred would do next. Lancelot and Galahad knew very little about the witch herself, but they knew Mordred to be clever, and a very eloquent speaker. They feared what Mordred could do with his words more than anything else.

  Immediately after the knights were within eyesight of the witch and Mordred, they heard Mordred’s loud and authoritative words to all the people there in attendance. “People, hear me. Most of you have probably noticed that, for the last three days, you have not seen Arthur. There is a reason for this. Your king and ruler, Arthur, has abandoned you. Your king has failed, failed to bring the peace, prosperity, and longevity that he promised! Instead, he has only brought fear to this kingdom. I know that you all fear the witch. You all fear what you are going eat tomorrow. You fear what will happen to your children. It has been three days, the time in which Arthur promised to return from his journey. But he has not returned! No! He has gone after the witch and, like all other men in the kingdom, has suffered the fate of death, never to return. But you know me, your loyal knight. Before Arthur left this city he appointed me to rule should he not return. And rule I shall, but you will not suffer needlessly out of shame or distress because I have brought here the woman you have all come to fear, the witch known as the Poison Rose!”

  The white angel then ascended up to the platform from her seat in the chariot and waved her hands gracefully, her long hair flinging up in the wind. “I have chosen to be united with this woman,” exclaimed Mordred. “Why you might ask? So our kingdom will be able to, once again, be peaceful and prosperous with, not Arthur, but Mordred and the Poison Rose as your rulers. Tomorrow we will be married and crowned as King and Queen over this land, to watch over it and protect it in a way Arthur never could.”

  The reaction of the various spectators in the audience was, at first, one of relative silence, shock, and confusion. But Mordred and the witch were both patient and waited for the people to speak. Then suddenly, one man, beholding the woman’s great beauty, declared loudly and for everyone to hear, “Cheers for the Poison Rose, come to bring peace to this wretched land!” This seemed to incite many people, not oddly enough mostly men, to cheer. Their eyes seemed glued to this amazing figure, and sadly, to Lancelot and the rest of the knight’s dismay, there was little they could do about it.

  Even Lancelot himself had to admit that he had, upon first seeing this woman in all actuality, been stunned by her beauty and grace. All the rumors about the beauty of this woman, he determined, were quite true. However, he knew of her deception, and even though she did not now speak, but let Mordred speak on her behalf before the people, he knew her words to be the words of a snake. In his mind he still felt the resonating power of the words he heard on that fateful day when he found the wall around the Poison Rose palace.

  Debate arose among the crowd. Some were opposed to the presence of this witch, while others cheered. Lancelot noticed there was even some debate among the knights. Percival and others he could tell were astounded by the beauty of the witch and, although they did not cheer, they did not seem opposed to the witch’s rule.

  Lancelot looked over at Galahad and Percival in dismay. “Mordred is gaining the confidence of the people,” whispered Lancelot. “Our only hope is to find Arthur. He is the beacon the people trust. We must leave the city. Gawain is still here and must remain here while we depart in search for Arthur.” The other knights nodded in agreement. And so Lancelot and the other knights began moving away from the crowds, but Mordred noticed.

  “And as for Arthur’s other valiant knights,” yelled Mordred. “They shall all accept this new leadership or they will be put into the dungeon for treason—treason against the new King and Queen of this kingdom. Tell me Lancelot, what do you say? Shall you unite with the fairest and most powerful lady in the land or will you resist and go against us?”

  Lancelot and the other knights suddenly felt themselves being pushed forward in front of the crowds. Lancelot looked back, only to see many black, hooded figures whose face was hidden from him. These hooded figures seemed to be pushing Lancelot and the knights towards Mordred and the witch.

  “Great knights and my fellow kinsman, meet the witch’s other servants—servants, like me, who have chosen wisely,” said Mordred. “You see knights, we have chosen to give our hearts to the witch and, because of this, we live as long as witches do which, of course, is an eternity. So come up knights
! Come up, abandon Arthur, and embrace the Poison Rose!”

  Lancelot drew a knife and stabbed one of the hooded men holding onto his arm. The man seemed surprised and reached down and pulled the knife out of his leg. He then retreated several feet away to place his hand over the wound in his leg to stop the bleeding. “You fool!” shouted Mordred. “I just told you that you cannot kill these men.”

  “Who says I was trying to kill them?” replied Lancelot. “That was my response to your offer.”

  “Our response,” exclaimed Galahad in affirmation, placing his hand on Lancelot’s shoulder. “We will never surrender Arthur’s land to the hands of a witch!”

  “Yes, never!” exclaimed Percival.

  “Very well,” replied Mordred. “Then if your answer is no you will all suffer terribly. Guards, take these men to the dungeon!”

  To the knight’s dismay all the hooded guards prepared to drag them away to the dungeon. The knights, of course, did not go down easily. They drew whatever weapons they possessed and fought back. But it was to no avail. The guards were simply too many and no sword could do any major damage to them. After much resisting the witch’s servants eventually clasped hard onto them, making many of the crowd now cheer even more.

  “People you are making a terrible mistake,” yelled Lancelot. “This kingdom is Arthur’s not the witch’s!”

  Mordred laughed. “If any of you are still in doubt as to whether the witch is the true, rightful ruler of this kingdom, I present to you Arthur’s own daughter Alice, who will be the princess of this kingdom. She has agreed to stand beside the witch.” Mordred motioned for Alice to step forward, which she did. As she did she was immediately embraced by both Mordred and the witch.

  Alice, of course, had not really chosen to side with the witch. She didn’t even know her very well. But she did think it smart to wait and at least pretend to be an ally, if only to understand more about Mordred and the witch. Alice put on a fake smile.

  “Now you behold Arthur’s beautiful daughter, who understood the fact that her father’s evil was corrupting this kingdom, not the beauty of the Poison Rose!”

  Many of the crowd cheered. “The Poison Rose! Come to set all people at liberty!”

  The witch smiled. “I accept your invitation,” she exclaimed. She then moved down to her chariot, picked up her white staff, and lifted it up boldly before the people. “So by your wishes I shall rule the city of Camelot and all the lands around it, establishing peace and prosperity to all those who inhabit this land.”

  After the people actually heard the words of the witch many of them cheered louder than they had ever before. This filled the entire courtyard with vibrations of joy and excitement enough to reach the heavens. “We will do our duty to the Poison Rose! May the times of sorrow be over!”

  The witch beguiled and tricked the men, and even some of the women, into believing that she would actually bring peace to the kingdom even though this was, of course, not true. After these few moments of excitement the witch went to Arthur’s castle where she quickly established it as her home. She removed the banners Arthur had in his castle and then had a new banner waved throughout Arthur’s castle and the streets of Camelot. The banner was a bright white with a picture of a red rose in the center. “Long Live the Poison Rose!” her servants cheered as her banners were raised throughout the city.

  Most of the city spent that night in joyous celebration. However, not everyone in the city was pleased with the rule of the Poison Rose, and thus secret meetings gathered that night to discuss what should be done. Arthur had gone, but hope was not all lost. However, for now the city of Camelot was no longer in the hands of Arthur, but the hands of a witch.

  Chapter 14: Arthur Escapes the Pit

  The entire land that used to be in Arthur’s possession now sat in solemn darkness. Dark clouds brewed over the entire land, filling it with a sense of abandonment and destruction. Somehow the land seemed much harder. The once soft and fertile soil of all of Arthur’s land now seethed within itself, as if to hide itself from the hard heart of the witch. Trees throughout all of Arthur’s land stopped growing and began withering away. Their bark began to peel off as it shed itself to rot on the cold, hard earth. The once green grass of the fields in Arthur’s kingdom became tinted a terrible orange. The weather was much cooler now, for although snow had yet to descend every once in a while people could see frost on the ground.

  Even Arthur’s people too, felt different. Their hearts felt colder. They began to lose the desire to care for each other. This was what a kingdom was like without true love. Merlin’s wise words were true. Life was founded on love, and when true love began to die so too did the life of his kingdom.

  The witch was extremely smart and knew, despite all her efforts at appeasing the people, she had yet to win the loyalty of all the people of Camelot and well-intended to live in Camelot having everyone’s complete devotion to her just as she did in her old palace. So, in order to do this, and to further devastate Arthur’s land, she executed her master plan. While some of the witch’s servants still labored in her estate, to keep it beautiful and in order, she ordered others, others like Mordred who gave their hearts to her, to wander abroad throughout the land, burning and pillaging everything they could.

  There, in the privacy of the great hall of Arthur’s castle, she declared, “Find anyone and everyone in Arthur’s kingdom and let them suffer my wrath! Let only a few from every town live to experience the devastating loss. Go and do my bidding!”

  She raised her hands and the crowd around her, of nearly one hundred of her hooded servants, raised their weapons and torches and cheered for the Poison Rose. After that the doors of the palace were hurled open and the witch’s servants mounted their horses (although these were technically not “their” horses, but horses robbed from civilians in Camelot).

  The witch’s evil servants then departed the castle and in the darkness rode out of Camelot to the various provinces to work their devilish deed. Of course, people from many of the surrounding provinces later returned to Camelot claiming that some hideous armored men had killed their friends and burned their village. This was all part of the witch’s plan, for she would then present them before the people of the city declaring, “Look at what Arthur has done. Remnants of rebels, evil men devoted to King Arthur, have remained and are going against the rightful crown of the Poison Rose!” Many of the people in Camelot were then convinced that the witch was the rightful ruler now. Great disputations arose throughout the city. But as awful as the state and condition of Camelot was at this time, far worse was the state and condition of Arthur, who still lay in the dark pits of the devil’s wasteland.

  The fall must have entirely knocked him out, for Arthur woke up looking up through the pit opening into the thick fog above him, his body weakly strung out on the cold, wet dirt floor. Arthur didn’t know how long he was unconscious. For all he knew it could have been anywhere from a matter of minutes to several days. But, considering the fact that he was still alive, he figured he was only out a few hours. He then remembered everything with a poignant clarity. He remembered the witch, his conversations with Merlin, his falling for the witch, and the knife blade that pierced his side. Arthur began to feel a terrifying pain come from his side again. He placed his hand along his side and the dagger-wound began bleeding intensely. Whatever magic the witch had used on it to stop the bleeding was now all but spent. In order to somewhat stop the bleeding Arthur ripped off some of his shirt and wrapped it around his waist. This helped to slow the bleeding, but did not ease the pain.

  The pit he found himself in was very deep, at least forty feet, and very wide, at least twenty feet in circumference. The pit smelled of death, a place of more terrifying gloom than he had ever before imagined. The ground was wet and moldy and felt terribly old; looking up through the pit he found that there was little light visible through the thick fog.

  He looked around and right next to him he saw a human skeleton—no doubt the skel
eton of some other poor traveler who fell into the pit a long time ago. There was no sign of any way out, and certainly no food or water to drink, except the moisture that had gathered from the previous morning. In addition, Arthur could also see snakes, worms, and many other reptilian animals that most likely had gotten stuck in the pit. They crawled around insidiously, but for the most part seemed to leave Arthur alone, for which he was very grateful.

  He was weak and found it difficult to move at all, but noticed that his feet were slightly wet. In his pit there was a small pool of water. He moved towards it, limping like a crippled animal, and dipped his entire head into the water. He was relieved as he felt the refreshing liquid flow down his throat. He didn’t care how dirty it was, only that it was water and his body needed it. Once he finished drinking he moved himself back towards the edge of the pit. He leaned up against it and stared up towards the surface.

  While in the pit Arthur thought about many things, but all revolving around love. What is love? Why does it exist? Sex, although seemingly simple and attached to love, could nowhere compare to love in its power, complexity, and meaning. This was evident throughout history. Men and women were so quick to reproduce and hence understood sexual intercourse to its finest without much sophistication. However, to truly understand love required much sophistication, learning, and experience. This, of course, meant not only experiencing love, for all experience love, but being able to understand it.

  Arthur thought that it was so easy for men and women to fall in love just as it was easy for him to fall into this pit. However, he knew that it was so difficult for anyone to understand love just as it was so difficult to get out of the pit. Arthur realized love was the most important thing for any man or woman to truly understand, however he figured, in the end, it would be the last thing they would understand. Why? Because understanding love is not a primary need, and in Arthur’s time, nobody but a king would have enough time or resources to even attempt to fulfill it. But Arthur knew that understanding love was an elevated need, a need all great men and women have. Indeed it is a deep need, a need that nonetheless fills the hearts of men and women joy to understand it.