She could see that a group of the younger knights and some of the youngsters who served in the King's house were working at a mock battle in the yard: divided into two groups, they were fighting with wooden battens and big shields. "Look," said Arthur, "the big one in the ragged saffron shirt. Does he not put you in mind of someone?"

Gwenhwyfar looked at the boy, following his skillful work with sword and shield-he broke away from the others, attacked like a fury, toppling them over, caught one lad so hard a blow on his head that he left him stretched senseless, sent another reeling with a fierce blow on the shield. He was only a youngster-his rosy face was fuzzed with the first beginnings of beard, so that he still looked like a cherub-but he was near to six feet tall, and big and broad-shouldered as an ox.

"He fights like the fiend," Gwenhwyfar said, "but who is he? I seem to have seen him about the court-"

"He is that young lad who came to court and would not give his name," Lancelet said at their elbow, "so you gave him to Cai to help in the kitchens. He's the one they called 'Handsome' because his hands were so fine and white. Cai made all sorts of rude jokes about spoiling them by turning the spit and scrubbing vegetables. Our Cai has a rough tongue."

"But the boy never answered him back," said Gawaine gruffly at Arthur's other side. "He could break Cai with his two hands, but when the other lads urged him on to strike Cai-once Cai made some kind of wicked joke about his parentage, saying he must be base-born and the son of scullions, since he came so naturally to such things-Handsome only looked right over the top of his head and said it would not be well done to strike a man who had lamed himself in the service of his king."

Lancelet said wryly. "That would be worse to Cai than being beaten senseless, I think. Cai feels he is fit for nothing but to turn the spit and serve the plates. One day, Arthur, you must find a quest for Cai, even if it is no more than to go and find traces of old Pellinore's dragon."

Elaine and Meleas giggled behind their hands. Arthur said, "Well, well, I will. Cai is too good and too loyal to be soured this way. You know I would have given him Caerleon, but he would not take it. He said his father had bidden him to serve me with his own hands so long as he lived, and he would come here to Camelot to keep my house. But this boy- Handsome, you called him, Lance? Does he not put you in mind of someone, my lady?"

She studied the boy, charging now against the last of the opposing group, his long, fair hair flying in the wind. He had a high, broad forehead and a big nose, and his hands, gripped on the weapon, were smooth and white-then she looked past Arthur at just another such nose and blue eyes, though these were hidden in a shock of red hair, and said, "Why, he is like Gawaine," as if it were something shocking.

"God help us, why, so he is," said Lancelet, laughing, "and I never saw it-and I have seen much of him. I gave him that saffron shirt, he had not a whole shirt to his name-"

"And other things, too," Gawaine said. "When I asked him if he had all that was fitting to his station, he told me of your gifts. It was nobly done of you to help the boy, Lance."

Arthur turned to him and said in surprise, "Is he, then, one of your brood, Gawaine? I knew not you had a son-"

"Nay, my king. It is my-my youngest brother, Gareth. But he would not let me tell."

"And you never told me, cousin?" Arthur said reproachfully. "Would you keep secrets from your king?"

"Not that," protested Gawaine uncomfortably, and his big, slab-sided face flushed red, so that he and his hair and his brick-red cheeks seemed all one color; it seemed strange to Gwenhwyfar that so big and rough a man could blush like a child. "Never that, my king, but the boy begged me to say nothing-he said you have favored me because I was your cousin and your kinsman, but if he won favor at Arthur's court and from the great Lancelet-he said that, Lance, the great Lancelet-he wished it to be for what he had done, not for his name and his birth."

"That was foolish," said Gwenhwyfar, but Lancelet smiled. "Nay-it was honorably done. Often I have wished I had had wit and courage to do the same, rather than being tolerated because, after all, I was Ban's own bastard and needed not to win anything by merit-it was for that I strove so fiercely always to be valorous in battle, so that none might say I had not earned my favors-"

Arthur laid his hand gently on Lancelot's wrist. "You need never fear that, my friend," he said, "all men know you are the best of my knights, and closest to my throne. But, Gawaine"-he turned to the red-haired man -"I favored not you, either, because you were my kinsman and heir, but only because you were loyal and staunch, and have saved my life a dozen times over. There were those who told me my heir should never be my bodyguard, for if he did his duty too well, then would he never come to the throne, but many and many a day I have had occasion to be glad of so loyal a kinsman at my back." He put his arm across Gawaine's shoulders. "So this is your brother, and I knew it not."

"I knew it not either when he came to court," Gawaine said. "When last I had seen him, at your crowning, he was a little lad no taller than my sword hilt, and now-well, you see." He gestured. "But once I saw him in the kitchens and thought, perhaps, he was some bastard of our kin. God knows, Lot has enough of them-I recognized him, and then it was that Gareth begged me not to reveal who he was, that he might win fame on his own."

"Well, a year under Cai's harsh teachings would make a man of any mother's poppet," Lancelet said, "and he has borne himself manly enough, God knows."

"I wonder that you knew him not, Lancelet-he came near to getting you killed at Arthur's wedding," Gawaine said amiably. "Or do you not remember that you handed him over to our mother, and bade her beat him soundly to keep him from under the horses' feet-"

"And I came near to knocking out my brains soon after-aye, I remember now," Lancelet said, laughing. "So that is the same young rascal! But he has far outstripped the other boys, he should practice at arms with the men and knights. It looks now as if he would be among the best of them. Give me leave, my lord?"

"Do what you like, my friend."

Lancelet unbuckled his sword. He said, "Keep this for me, lady," and handed it to Gwenhwyfar. He leaped the fence, caught up one of the wooden battens kept for the boys to practice with, and ran toward the big, fair-haired boy.

"You are too big for those fellows, sirrah-come here now, and try conclusions with someone nearer your own size!"

Gwenhwyfar thought, in sudden dread, Nearer to your own size? But Lancelet was not so big a man, not much taller than herself, and young Handsome towered almost a full head over him! For a moment, facing the King's captain of horse, the boy hesitated, but Arthur gestured encouragement, and the boy's face lit up with a fierce joy. He charged at Lancelet, raising his mock weapon for a blow, and was startled when the blow descended and Lancelet was not under it; Lancelet had evaded him, spun round and caught him a blow on the shoulder. He had pulled back on the weapon as it came down so that it only touched the boy, but it tore his shirt. Gareth recovered himself quickly, caught Lancelet's next blow before it landed, and for a moment Lancelet's foot slipped on the wet grass and it looked as if he would go down, skidding to his knees before the boy.

Handsome stepped back. Lancelet got to his feet, yelling, "Idiot! Suppose I had been a great Saxon warrior!" and caught the boy a great blow on the back with the flat of his sword, which hurled him, his sword flailing wildly, halfway across the yeard; he went down and lay half-stunned.

Lancelet hurried to him and bent over him, smiling. "I did not want to hurt you, lad, but you must learn to guard yourself better than that." He held out his arm. "Here, lean on me."