“With you, who helped teach those poor savages to eat men?”
She grimaced. “That was not I. Certain allies of mine, the demons and their prophets whom Chaos has used to bring the hillmen under our control… they have preached an uncouth religion. Not one that I would have taught. “ Her smile returned. “My belief is in joy, in the fulfillment of life, that which I taught you once and would fain teach you again, Holger.”
“That argument won’t work either,” he said. He looked past her, into night. This time, he suddenly realized, he meant it. He did not desire Morgan le Fay. When she reached out and took his hand, her fingers might have been any woman’s. An attractive woman, certainly, but no more than that.
“You are not the most constant person in the world,”, she said, still smiling. “Once you revolted against your own liege lord, Carl himself. He never had a fiercer enemy, before your own large-heartedness ended the feud.”
“But we were reconciled, I gather.” He withdrew his hand from her clasp.
She glanced at Alianora. Her sigh held an unfeigned sadness. “I perceive an older witchcraft than mine has ensorcelled you, Holger. Welladay, ’twas joyous once. Nothing can take that from me.”
“You took my past from me,” he said bitterly. “You made me into a child again and sent me out of my whole universe. It’s not your doing I’ve come back. Something else brought me, that neither of us understands.”
“So you know that much,” she said. “Would you know yet more? I can return to you those lost memories, if you wish.”
“At what price? The same you wanted last time?”
“Less. You need not even betray your friends here. I could see to it that they also prosper. Your present course will only lead them to destruction with you.”
“How can I trust your word?”
“Let me restore your memory. Come out of the circle that I may use a spell to dissolve the murk in you. Then you will recall what oaths are binding on me.”
He moved his gaze back to her. Tall and serene she stood, except for the dark hair that tossed under her coronet. Yet he sensed how she was drawn tense as a wire about to break. The full mouth had grown thin, the curved nose dilated, the fire reflections in her eyes leaped feverish. Slowly, her fists clenched.
And why should the world’s greatest witch fear him?
He pondered it, standing there in the windy night with sleep at his feet and blackness overhead. She had powers, yes, and she had used them against him; but he himself was charged with some other, opposing force, and there was that which said, “Thus far and no farther.” All the magics they had tried, in Avalon, in Faerie, in mortal lands, had failed to halt him. Now even her own beauty had been made impotent by gray eyes and brown tresses. She had no enchantments remaining that could stop him.
Of course, to something which was not hexed up by her but was supernatural in its own right—or to ordinary cold steel—he was still terribly mortal.
“In my world,” he said wonderingly, “you’re a myth. I never thought I’d fight a myth.”
“That was not your world either,” she said. “There, you too are a legend. This is your place, here with me.”
He shook his head. “Both worlds are mine, I think,” he answered stolidly. “Somehow I have a place in both.”
Nevertheless, excitement rose in him. He’d been too preoccupied to draw the obvious conclusion before this instant: that he himself belonged to the Carolingian-Arthurian cycle. Somewhere back in that other cosmos (how far from this night and this woman!) he might once have read of his own deeds.
But if so, he decided drearily, the forgetfulness had covered it. His name might be a household word at home; he might have been his own boyhood hero; but Morgan’s spell continued to work. The transition here had blanked out whatever recollections he had had of any stories about… about three hearts and three lions.
“Meseems, at least you like this world best,” said Morgan. “Beware lest you blunder back into the other.” She made a step closer to him, until they almost touched. “Aye, there is indeed a great hosting in both worlds, and you are the crux in both. I’ll confess that much. But if you go through with this crazy scheme, wielding powers you know nothing of, you’ll most likely fail and die. Or you will perchance succeed, and rue that you did. Lay down your burden now, Holger, and abide here happy forever. There is still time!”