Lancelot by Giles Kristian

Author:Giles Kristian [Kristian, Giles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780593078556
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2018-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

15

Arthur

IT SEEMED TO me that every spearman in Britain was on Tintagel’s heights. Word of King Einion’s challenge carried on the sea-whipped breeze until each lord’s retinue of warriors had gathered beside the High King’s hall like crows swooping in dark clouds to the scent of blood.

King Menadoc’s Sun Shields were there. Cyngen’s men with their stag-antler-painted shields and Cynfelyn’s spearmen and the soldiers of King Meirchion Gul of Rheged stood shoulder to shoulder with Lord Constantine’s Roman-armoured troops and the warriors of several other rulers and minor kings. Arthur’s horse soldiers pushed their way to the front of the thronging, spear-armed mass to watch their lord, and opposite them, on the other side of this temporary arena made of flesh and iron, stood King Einion’s men of Ebrauc, along with Einion himself.

‘He looks confident,’ Bors said of Ebrauc’s king, for there was almost a smile on Einion’s thin lips and in his pale blue eyes as he watched his champion scything his great sword through the air to loosen shoulders that could have borne an ox’s yoke.

‘Why wouldn’t he be?’ Benesek asked. ‘He’s seen the man slaughter twelve enemies in fights such as this.’

‘You think he’ll beat Lord Arthur?’ I asked.

Benesek raised an eyebrow. ‘Didn’t say that,’ he said. ‘Lord Arthur wouldn’t have survived in Gaul if he were not a fighter. And he’s good reason to win. Better reason than just to live, for if he beats that big bastard he’s as good as won Uther’s high seat.’ He nodded at the spearmen all around us. ‘This lot will have seen a little blood fly on a summer’s day and will be content. They’ll go back to their lands knowing that Dumnonia’s new king is a warrior like his father before him.’

I watched Arthur as he walked along the line of spearmen who formed the arena’s far boundary. From end to end he stalked, gripping sword and shield and ignoring all those who growled encouragement as he passed. He had removed his cloak and given it to Gawain but he still looked magnificent in his bronze armour, its countless burnished scales reflecting the setting sun’s light so that as he moved he seemed cloaked in fire.

His helmet’s red plume swished as though in tribute to his fine war horses and the hinged, gold-chased cheekpieces were down, obscuring much of his face and making him look even more intimidating, and whatever good looks could still be glimpsed were marred now by a grimace and wild eyes; a savage mask that made him seem a different person from the man I had seen in King Uther’s hall. It was a transformation which chilled my blood.

‘Back in Gannes, when I was a child, some hunters caught a wolf,’ Bors said. ‘Not just any wolf but the pack leader, so my father said. They put it in a cage for the whole village to come and see. Bigger than me it was, snarling at us all and hungry. Pacing up and down in that cage and wanting to rip our throats out.

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