He’d only had a flying look, but the image remained sharp within him; he knew her voice would be low and her manner haughty, capricious, sometimes kind and sometimes cruel, but all her moods no more than an iridescence on the surface of an intransigent will. Meriven seemed rather pallid compared to… to… what was her name?
“You’re sad, my lord.” The Pharisee girl laid a hand on his.
“Oh, no. No. I was only thinking.”
“Fie on you! Come, let me make a charm to drive thought away, ’tis the child of care and the father of sorrow.” Meriven pulled a green twig off a tree, bent it, and gestured with some words. It became an Irish harp, which she played while singing him love songs. They did lull him most pleasantly, but—
As they neared the castle again, she caught his arm and pointed. “Nay, see!” she hissed. “A unicorn! They’ve become rare hereabouts.”
He glimpsed the beautiful white beast flitting between the trees. A stray wisp of ivy had caught on its horn. Wait. He peered through the half-light. Didn’t someone walk beside it?
Meriven tensed pantherishly. “If we steal close—” she whispered. Her horse moved forward, hoofs noiseless on the turf.
The unicorn stopped, looked back at them, and was away, a shining shadow rapidly lost to sight. Meriven swore with unladylike imaginativeness. Holger said nothing, because he had seen what accompanied the animal. For one moment he had locked eyes with Alianora. Now she was also gone.
“Well, lackaday, such is life.” Meriven came back to him and they rode on together. “Be not so downcast, my lord. Mayhap we can make a party later and run the brute down.”
Holger wished he were more of an actor. He mustn’t let her guess his own suddenly mounting suspicions. At the same time, he had to think them through. It wasn’t that he had any new reason to think badly of Faerie: just that the sight of Alianora had triggered something in him. He needed Hugi’s counsel.
“If you will forgive me, my lady,” he said, “I’ll go bathe before dinner.”
“Oh, my bath is large enough for us both, and for some fine sports I can teach you,” she offered.
Holger wished he had a helmet to cover his ears. They felt incandescent. “I’d like a short nap, too,” he said clumsily. Inspiration: “I must be at my best for you later on. There’s so much competition.”
He beat a retreat before she could insist, and almost ran to his apartments. Hugi looked up from the bed, on which he had curled himself. Holger bent over the dwarf.
“I saw a woman this morning,” he said, fast and softly; and he described her, not from the bare glance he had had but from a memory which seemed to stretch over many years. “Who is she?”
“Why—” Hugi rubbed his eyes. “That sounds like ye’ve spied Queen Morgan le Fay. Could it ha’ been hersel’ whom Alfric summoned last nicht from Avalon? Then there’s deviltry abroad for fair.”
Morgan le Fay! That was it. Holger knew so with a certainty beyond knowledge. And Avalon, yes, he had seen an island of birds and roses, rainbows and enchantment, but where and when and how? “Tell me about her,” he urged. “Everything you know.”
“Ho, is ’t yon doxy ye noo hanker for? She’s na for the likes o’ ye, lad, nor e’en for Duke Alfric. Cast no yer eyes too high up, lest the sun blind ’em. Or better, lest the moon strike ye mindless.”
“No, no, no! I have to know, that’s all. Maybe I can figure out why she’s here.”
“Well, noo… I dinna ken mickle. Avalon lies far, far in the western ocean, a part o’ the world wha’ we’ve nobbut auld wives’ tales aboot here. Hooever, folk know Morgan le Fay is sister to Arthur, the last great king o’ the Britons, though in her the Faerie strain in yon family runs strong and wild. She’s the michtiest witch in Christendie or heathendom, and could belike match hersel’ wi’ aught in the Middle World. Immortal, she is, and a kittle un; none know if she stands wi’ Law or Chaos or only her ain self. ’Tis said she bore off Arthur when he lay grievous wounded, to heal him and keep him against his time to return. Yet could be that were but a sly excuse to hold him from just such a coming back. Och, I’m no gleeful to be under ane roof wi’ her.”