“Greeting, Holger. How long it has been!”
He fought for calmness, and lost. Morgan took his hands. She was tall, her smile didn’t have far to go before it rocked him. “And how lonely I have been for you,” she murmured.
“For me?” His voice broke in an idiotic squeak.
“Aye, who else? Have you forgotten that too?” She called him “thou,” making the word a caress. “Indeed a night was laid on you. You have been long away, Holger.”
“Bu-bu-bu-but—”
She laughed, not as ordinary humans do but as if laughter itself laughed most softly. “Ah, your poor face! Few men could have stood up to the firedrake as you did. Let me heal those burns.” Her fingers touched them. He felt pain and blisters vanish. “There, now, are you more comfortable?”
As a matter of fact, he wasn’t. He was perspiring, and the cloak seemed too tight around his neck. Enough wit had returned for him to notice details, but they weren’t the sort to calm a man: pale perfect features, feline grace of movement, a body with more curves than a scenic highway.
“You’ve gotten some uncouth habits in the other world. “She took the pipe from his slack mouth, shook it out, and stuck it into the pouch at his belt. On the way back her hand slipped along his side and came to rest on his upper arm. “Naughty boy!”
That gave him back a measure of self-possession. Big women had no business acting kittenish. Nor was that any way to treat a pipe. “Look here,” he croaked. “You were with Alfric, and he’s been doing his best to kill me. What do you want with me?”
“What does any woman want, who longs for a man?” She sidled closer. Holger backed up till a tree stopped him.
“In truth,” said Morgan, “I knew not who you were, and aided Alfric unwittingly. The instant I learned of his deception, I hastened to find you.”
He wiped the sweat off his brow. “That’s a lie,” he said harshly.
“Well, we of the gentler sex must be permitted a little fancifulness, must we not, my sweet?” She patted his cheek. “It’s God’s truth that I have come to win you back.”
“Win me back to Chaos!” he blustered.
“And why not? What is there about dull Law that drives you to defend it? See, I am honest with you; now do you be honest with yourself. Why, Holger, my darling bear, you’re but bulwarking loutish peasants and fat-gutted burghers, when the mirth and thunder and blazing stars of Chaos could be yours. When were you ever one for a safe and narrow life, locked in its own smugness, roofed with a sour gray sky, stinking of smoke and dung—you who drove armies from the field? You could hurl suns and shape worlds if you chose!”
Her head lay on his breast and her arms about his waist. “N-n-no!” he stuttered. “I don’t trust—”
“Ah, lackaday! Is this the man who dwelt so long with me in Avalon? Have you forgotten what centuries I gave you of youth, and lordship, and love?” She looked up at him again with huge dark eyes. He told himself how corny her act was, but didn’t believe his own claim. “If you will not join with us, then at least do not fight against us. Return to Avalon, Holger. Come back with me to Avalon the fair.”
Somewhere in his buckling mind he knew that for a change she was sincere. She wanted him out from underfoot in the coming battle, but she also wanted him, period. And why not? his thought lurched. What did he owe to either side, in this universe that was not his? When Morgan le Fay embraced him—
“Such long years,” she whispered, “and when we meet you have not even kissed me.”
“That,” he choked, “c-c-could be remedied.”
It was rather like being in a soft cyclone. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else. Not that he wanted to.
“Ah-h-h,” she breathed at last, her eyes still closed, “my lord, my lord, kiss me again. Kiss me forever.”
He collected her. A flicker of white caught the corner of his eye. He raised his head and saw Alianora on the unicorn. She was just rounding the nearby thicket. “Holger,” she called, “Holger; dear, where be ye—oh!”