Страница 73 из 76
"No!" she cried. "Depart the circle! Hurry! I am holding him heret His power wanes! In moments, this place will be no more. Go!"
Launceiot hesitated but a moment, then turned and walked as rapidly as he was able toward the circle's perimeter. The sky seemed to boil as he passed among the monoliths, He advanced another dozen paces, then had to pause to rest. He looked back to the place of battle, to the place where the two figures still stood locked in sorcerous embrace. Then the scene was imprinted upon his brain as the skies opened and a sheet of fire fell upon the far end of the circle.
Dazzled, he raised his hand to shield his eyes. When he "lowered it, he saw the stones falling, soundless, many of them fading from sight. The rain began to slow immediately. Sorceror and sorceress had vanished along with much of the structure of the still-fading place. The horses were nowhere to be seen. He looked about him and saw a good-sized stone. He headed for it and seated himself. He unfastened his breastplate and removed it, dropping it to the ground. His side throbbed and he held it tightly. He doubled forward and rested his face on his left hand.
The rains continued to slow and finally ceased. The wind died. The mists returned.
He breathed deeply and thought back upon the conflict. This,-this was the thing for which he had remained after all the others, the thing for which he had waited, for so long. It was over now, and he could rest.
There was a gap in his consciousness. He was brought to awareness again by a light. A steady glow passed between his fingers, pierced his eyelids. He dropped his hand and raised his head, opening his eyes.
It passed slowly before him in a halo of white light. He removed his sticky fingers from his side and rose to hisfeet to follow it. Solid, glowing, glorious and pure, not at all like the image in the chamber, it led him on out across the moonlit plain, from dimness to brightness to dimness, until the mists enfolded him as he reached at last to embrace it.
HERE ENDETH THE BOOK OF LAUNCELOT, LAST OF THE NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, AND HIS ADVENTURES WITH RAXAS, THE HOLLOW KNIGHT, AND MERLIN AND MORGAN LE FAY, LAST OF THE WISE FOLK OF CAMELOT, IN HIS QUEST FOR THE SANGREAL.
QUO FAS ET GLORIA DVCUNT.
STAND PAT, RUBY STONE
I wrote this in a hurry for complicated reasons involving The llliisiraled Roger Zeiazny, and then the reasons evaporated and it got published in a different place than was originally intended, but everything worked out okay.
When it was agreed that we would marry, the three of us went to Old Voyet of the Long Legs to select a stone signifying the betrothal. This was to be our choice alone, as was the custom.
Kwib favored one the color of passion itself, bright blue, looking as if it were a solid drop of the great ocean. I preferred a jewel the color of fire, representing peace and stability in the home. Since our beloved agreed with me, the ruby stone, a more expensive gem, was selected and Old Voyet of the Long Legs made the incision in our beloved's brow, set the stone there and bandaged it in place. Our beloved, thenceforth to be known as Ruby Stone, was very brave. He held us and stared at the ground, unmoving, throughout that terrible little ritual.
"Never hurts me a bit," Old Voyet of the Long Legs remarked, "and I've done the Woods know how many over the returnings."We did not reply to the crude humor, but made arrangements to see her paid before the ceremony.
"Will there be a Bottom-Top settlement for all to see?" she asked.
"No, we believe in privacy in these matters," I answered, perhaps too quickly, for the look I received in reply showed that it had been taken as a sign of weakness. No matter. The walker with the mitteltoth knows its wilpering best.
We bade one another farewell and departed in the three directions, to remain at station houses until Ruby Stone should heal sufficiently to be fit for the ceremony.
I rested and practiced thorn-throwing while I waited for the joggler. On the tenth day it came napping to my door. Before I slew it, I took its message and learned that we would be wed two days hence. The joggler's i
Alone at the station house, I bathed and flagellated myself in preparation for the rites. I slept beneath a sacred tree. I watched the stars through its branches. I made offering of the joggler's bones at its mossy base. I listened to the singers who flew through the Wood— moist, coarse tongues hanging vinelike—collecting relatives, the little singers, to serve the belly-fillmg role in the great song-show of life.
One singer shrieked horribly in mid-swoop and was dragged downward by the tongue to disappear within the pot of a korkanus—a noisy piece of blackness torn from the night.
Before morning, I was at the plant's side, waiting for it to evert its stomach. It made a gurgling, slopping noise just as light was begi
They were present, two sets of talons—six, altogether —amid the pulpy remains. I fished them out with my stick and bore them off to the river on a mat of leaves, where I would clean and polish them. I took this as a good omen.
That day I also sharpened the talons and mounted them along the lengths of two sticks I could hold, asthey were far better equipment than any I possessed. I wore them as part of a belt I then wove, looking much like hardroot rings to a wooden clasp.
The rest of the day I purified myself and thought often of my mates to be, and of our wedding. I ate the prescribed meal that evening and repaired early to the sacred tree, where I bad some difficulty in turning to sleep.
The following morning, I made my way back along the route I had taken to the station house. I met with Kv ib and Ruby Stone at the plac' where we had parted. We did not touch one another, but exchanged formal greetings:
"Root of life."
"Guardian of the egg."
"Bringer of sustenance,"
"Reaper of the Wood."
"Walkers in the preiire."
"Haii."
"Hail."
"Hail."'
"Are you ready to take your way to the Tree of Life?"
"I am ready to take my way to the Tree of Life."
"Are you ready to hang the emblem of your troth upon it?"
"I am ready to hang the emblem of my troth upon it"
"I am ready to accept you both as mate."
"I am ready to accept you both as mate."
"I am ready to accept you both as mate."
"Then let us go to the Tree of Life."
We leaped into the air and danced and spun and darted, soaring high above the Wood in the sparkling light of day. We turned and curved and circled about one another until we could barely stay aloft. Then we made our way to the great Tree, hung with its countless emblems, there to add our own with the appropriate words and acts. When we touched the ground at its base, Kwib and I each seized one of Ruby Stone's wings and tore it away.
Old Voyet of the Long Legs, Yglin the Purple-Streaked and Young Dendlit Lopleg were present, among others, to observe, congratulate and offer advice. We listened with some impatience, for we were anxious to be on our way. Observers take great delight in delaying newlyweds who wish to be about their business.
The three of us embraced in various ways and badethe others farewell. There was a murmur of disappointment that things would go no further at that point. But we raised Ruby Stone and together bore him back to the dwelling we had selected, bright nuptial stone glistening in his proud and polished brow. All of us made a fine appearance as we proceeded through the Wood to the Home. The others followed slowly behind us, humming.