Knight Life by Peter David

Author:Peter David [Peter David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2016-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

THEY SAT OPPOSITE each other at the dinner table, with the easy comfort in each other’s presence that it takes most couples years to achieve, if they ever do.

“I don’t know,” Gwen said, picking delicately at the drumstick she was holding in her small hands. “It’s like, my whole life, I’ve felt that ... that I don’t deserve happiness.”

“Guilt from another lifetime, perhaps?”

She moaned. “Oh, great. Other people, they get to blame it on their parents. My parents weren’t wonderful. I just figured I could pin it on them, which is sort of a grand tradition of modern man. But no, no, not me. I have to carry mistakes from a couple of centuries ago.”

“Mistake or not,” Arthur said calmly, with the air of a man who had long since resigned himself to things that once had pierced his heart, “my queen, Gwynyfar, and my best friend, Lancelot, did the only thing they could. Love is something so powerful that not even Excalibur could cleave it. My kingdom rose and fell on emotion. It could have been no other way.” In an offhand way he added, “And it was ten centuries, by the way. Not a couple.”

“And where have you been ... all that time? You and Merlin?”

“Merlin had been imprisoned in a cave by a temptress, Ninivae. And I ...” He paused. “Are you sure you want to hear this on a full stomach?”

She lay down the drumstick and interlaced her fingers. “I can take it if you can.”

“Very well. I ... after my final battle with my bastard son, Modred, left me with my skull split like an overripe melon ... I was brought to an island called Avalon. It was a place of healing. And when they had done all they could do for me in Avalon, my semiconscious body was also placed in a cave, a different cave from Merlin’s. It was one I think he prepared far in advance, as if knowing I would need it some time. That wouldn’t surprise me in the least; there’s very little that Merlin doesn’t anticipate, I think. It was ensorcelled, temporally sealed so that I would not age while I resided within. Once I recovered, I stayed there, waiting ... until such time that I was needed.”

“I need you,” Gwen said, and then quickly corrected herself, “I mean ... we all do.”

“Of course,” he said. Then he stared at her for a long moment and said, “Gwen ... Jenny ... that’s what I used to call you at ... certain times ... Jenny ... I know this is a good deal for you to comprehend. You’ve borne up extremely well under it, considering the—well, the oddity of the circumstances. Yes, I was your husband ... but I recognize that it was many lifetimes ago, and the lifetime of another woman. Her spirit may live on within you, but you are your own woman with your own concerns and desires. I will not do anything to make you uncomfortable.

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