"You have honored me, sir," said the boy, his fresh face coloring, "and indeed it did me good to feel your strength."

Lancelet clapped him on the shoulder. "May we always fight side by side and not as foemen, Handsome," he said, and returned to the King. The youngster picked up his sword and went back to his playmates, while they clustered around and teased him. "So, Handsome, you came close to knocking down the King's captain of horse in a fight-"

Arthur smiled as Lancelet climbed back over the fence. "That was courteously done, Lance. He will make a bonny knight-like to his brother," he added, nodding at Gawaine. "Kinsman, do not tell him that I know who he is-his reasons for concealing his name were honorable. But tell him I have seen him, and I will make him a knight at Pentecost, when any petitioner may come before me, if he will come before me and ask me for a sword befitting his station."

Gawaine's face lighted. Now, Gwenhwyfar thought, anyone who had seen them both should have known the relationship, for their smiles were the same. "I thank you, my lord and king. May he serve you as well as have I."

"He could hardly do that," Arthur said affectionately. "I am fortunate in my friends and Companions."

Gwenhwyfar thought that, indeed, Arthur inspired love and devotion in everyone-it was the secret of his kingship, for though he was skilled enough in battle, he was no great fighter himself; more than once, in the mock battles with which they amused themselves and kept themselves fit for fighting, she had seen Lancelet, and even old Pellinore, unseat him or knock him from his feet. Arthur was never angry or wounded by pride, but always said good-naturedly that he was glad he had such fine fighters to guard him, and better friends than foemen.

Soon after, the boys picked up their practice weapons and departed. Gawaine went off to have a word with his brother, but Arthur drew Gwenhwyfar out toward the fortified wall. Camelot sat on a broad, high hill, flat at the top as a large town, and all over the hill, inside the wall, they had built their castle and city. Now Arthur led Gwenhwyfar up to his favorite vantage point, where he could stand atop the wall and look out over all the broad valley. She felt dizzy, and clung to the wall. From where they stood she could see the island home of her childhood, the country of King Leodegranz, and a little to the north of it, the island that coiled, from where they stood, like a sleeping dragon.

"Your father grows old, and he has no son," said Arthur. "Who will rule after him?"

"I know not-like enough he will have it that you should appoint someone to reign as regent for me," Gwenhwyfar said; one of her sisters had died in childbirth, far away in Wales, and another had died in a siege of their castle. And her father's second wife had borne him no living son, either, so that Gwenhwyfar was heir to that kingdom. But how could she, a woman, keep it from those who were greedy for land? She looked beyond her father's lands and asked, "Your father-the Pendragon-was he too made king on Dragon Island, I wonder?"

"So the Lady of the Lake told me, and so he pledged his faith always to shelter the old religion, and Avalon-as did I," said Arthur moodily, and stood staring at Dragon Island. She wondered what pagan nonsense was filling his head.

"But when you turned to the one true God, then did he give you that greatest of victories, so that you drove the Saxons forth from this island for all of time."

"It is foolish to say so," said Arthur. "Never, I think, can any land be secure for all time, but only as God wills-"

"And God has given you all this land, Arthur, so that you may rule as a Christian king. It is like to the prophet Elijah-the bishop told me the tale-when he went out with the priests of God, and met the priests of Baal, so that they each called on their God, and the One God was the greatest and Baal but an idol, so that he answered them not. If there was anything of power in the ways of Avalon, would God and the Virgin have given you such a victory?"

"My armies drove off the Saxons, but I may be punished hereafter for oathbreaking," Arthur said. She hated it when the lines of sorrow and dread came into his face.

She went a little toward the south, straining her eyes-from here, if you looked hard, you could see the very tip of the church of Saint Michael which rose on the Tor-the church which had been built because Michael was lord of the underworld, fighting to keep down the gods of the heathen in Hell. Only there were times when it blurred before her eyes, so that she saw the Tor crowned with ring stones. The nuns on Glastonbury had told her that it had been so, in the bad old heathen days, and the priests had labored to take down the ring stones and haul them away. She supposed it was because she was a sinful woman that she had this glance into heathendom. Once she had dreamed that she and Lancelet were lying together beneath the ring stones, and he had had of her what she had never given him ... .

Lancelet. He was so good, never did he press her for more than a Christian woman and a wedded wife could give him without dishonor ... yet it was written that the Christ had said himself, whoever looks upon a woman with lust has committed adultery already with her in his heart... so she had sinned with Lancelet, and there was no mitigation, they were both damned. She shivered and turned her eyes away from the Tor, for it seemed that Arthur could read her thoughts. He had spoken Lancelet's name-

"Don't you think so, Gwen? It's more than time Lancelet should marry."

She forced her voice to stay calm. "On the day when he asks you for a wife, my lord and my king, you should give him one."

"But he will not ask," Arthur said. "He has no will to leave me. Pellinore's daughter would make him a good wife, and she is your own cousin-don't you think it would suit? Lancelet is not rich, Ban had too many bastards to give much to any one of them. It would be a good match for both."

"Aye, no doubt you are right," Gwenhwyfar said. "Elaine follows him about with her eyes as the lads in the play yard do, eager for a kind word or even a look." Though it hurt her heart, perhaps it would be best if Lancelet should marry, he was too good to be tied to a woman who could give him so little; and then she could amend her sin with a firm promise to sin no more, as she could not do when Lancelet was near.

"Well, I will speak of it again with Lancelet. He says he has no mind to marry, but I will make him understand it means not exile from my court. Would it not be good for me and mine, if our children, some day, might have Lancelet's sons to follow them?"

"God grant that day may come," said Gwenhwyfar, and crossed herself. They stood together at the height, looking out over the Summer Country, which lay spread before them.

"There is a rider on the road," said Arthur, looking down the road which led toward the castle; then, as the rider drew nearer, "It is Kevin the Harper, come here from Avalon. And at least this time he has had sense enough to travel with a serving-man."

"That is no serving-man," said Gwenhwyfar, her sharp eyes resting on the slender form riding behind Kevin on his horse. "That is a woman. I am shocked-I had thought the Druids were like to priests, and stayed far from women."

"Why, some of them do, sweetheart, but I have heard from Taliesin that all those who are not in the highest rank may marry, and frequently they do," he said. "Perhaps Kevin has taken him a wife, or perhaps he has only travelled with someone coming this way. Send one of your women to tell Taliesin that he is here, and another to the kitchens-if we shall have music this night, it is only fitting we have something like a feast to celebrate it! Let us walk this way and welcome him-a harper of Kevin's skill is worthy of welcome from the King himself."