Grail Prince by Nancy McKenzie

Author:Nancy McKenzie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307415356
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

He had never understood how a man as strong and disciplined as Lancelot could succumb to weakness for a woman. He had imagined that women must possess devilish powers and enchantments to so enslave a man. But since that night in the chapel of Camelot on the eve of war, he had known that he, too, suffered from Lancelot’s curse. It was a weakness in the fiber of his being, in his body and in his thought, a thinning of the blood, perhaps, a taint of spirit. Were his dreams not proof of that?

It was not an inheritance he wanted, but what could he do to fight against it? He had already vowed, before Bishop Landrum and before God, that he would never marry, would never lie with a woman. Yet the oath had not banished this shrinking fear that melted his innards and dissolved his powers of speech. If anything, it had grown with passing time. He had been powerless before Queen Guinevere. He did not want to be powerless before any woman ever again.

Suddenly he remembered a courier who had arrived in the middle of King Hoel’s feast, and the dire news he had brought. Perhaps this was his chance. If he could do something courageous, if he could put a woman in his debt, make her bow, make her scrape, make her recognize him and acknowledge his superiority, then perhaps he could break Lancelot’s curse and be free of this fear forever.

With controlled deliberation he pulled on his boots, rose, and belted on his sword. By the dim light of dying torches he found the tent he sought. He poked his head inside the skins.

“Ssssst! Percival!” Fifteen boys lay sleeping, bedrolls crowded together, indistinguishable in the darkness. “Percival!”

Nearby a sleeper moved, waked. Percival sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Galahad?”

“Come with me. Can you?”

“Of course, cousin,” Percival replied in alarm, coming fully awake and pulling on his boots.

Galahad drew back into the shadows as Percival crawled from the tent.

“I’ve news, cousin. I need your help.”

“What’s going on? Did something happen at the feast last night? Did Gawaine challenge Lancelot? Did—”

“No, no. This has nothing to do with Lancelot and Gawaine. They were civil enough, at opposite ends of the table.” Galahad led Percival into an open field where they could not be overheard. “While we were at dinner, a courier arrived for King Hoel and gave him a message that put him in a fury—”

“What’s happened?”

“Hoel’s niece has been kidnapped. She was on her way home to her father on the far side of the Perilous Forest after a long visit in Kerrec. Hoel sent her and her nurse with gifts and cattle, and a company of soldiers for protection. The courier was from her father—she never arrived.”

“How long ago did she leave?”

“A week. It’s but a two-day journey.”

“Then she is dead. Else someone would have heard from her by now.”

“So he fears. He was in a terrible rage. But he cannot ignore the chance she may yet live.

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