Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson

Author:Diana L. Paxson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.

WOODPECKER WOKE TO THE sound of water and the briny scent of the sea. What dim recollection he could muster told him that this was to be expected. But it seemed odd that he should be wrapped in something soft and warm with the rank smell of cured leather, hearing voices that he ought to know above the slap of the waves against a wooden hull. His memories of the last week were a chaotic mix of heaving seas and battling winds that had tossed the ship like a toy. There was a foul taste in his mouth, his throat was raw, and the muscles of his belly sore.

I’m in a boat, he thought, breathing carefully. The sea nearly killed me on the way to Tartessos too. And yet the surface below him was no longer moving. He seemed to be lying at an angle, and his stomach, though cramped with emptiness, was at peace. Above him a piece of tightly woven cloth stretched over hoops provided shelter. A new realization came to him. The boat has come to shore.

The last few days were a series of distorted images, including some that must have been dreams. He hoped they were dreams. He had been in a city that was being drowned by the waves, but his most vivid images were of an island greater still, crowned with temples and palaces and a great mountain that exploded in a column of ash and flame. There was someone he had lost—the grief of that parting brought tears to his eyes, but now it was all slipping away and he could not even remember her name.

He tried to sit up and found himself weak as a babe, but his grunt had been heard. Aelfrix ducked back under the shelter and knelt beside him, grinning triumphantly.

“You’re awake! Velantos said that reaching solid ground would help you. He’ll be so pleased!”

“He’s all right?”

“His ribs still pain him, but he’s getting around,” said the boy. “When we first lifted anchor, what with him raving with fever and you puking your guts out, we wondered if either one of you would survive.”

Aelfrix helped him to sit up and gave him some water, and he began to feel some strength coming back to him.

“Where are we?”

“Somewhere on your great island. Stavros says it’s a place where many ships put in to trade. If you feel up to it, come and see.”

He nodded, and managed, though his head swam and he had to sit down several times, to crawl from his bed to the ship’s side. They were beached on a muddy shore where a broad river had cut a channel toward the sea. Tall grasses waved in the sea breeze, and beyond them the land was a mixture of marsh and meadow rising to some low hills. He looked at the blue sky beyond and realized that it was beautiful. There were huts on the shore, and from one of them smoke was rising, but at present no other ships were drawn up on the sand.

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