Enchanted Forests by Katharine Kerr Read Free Book Online Page B

"After three
    days of feasting. Merlin seemed to have filled up. To my childish
    eye, he looked strong and restless. He didn't even wait for the
    question when my father led me forth with some story on his lips
    of my being his niece from farther norm."

    " 'You are quite a trickster. Lot,' he declared, 'but you don't
    fool me. This boy who is trying to act like a girl to make you
    happy will die by drowning!'

    " 'Ah haw! I may not be a great trickster, but you are not so
    clever yourself, magician! This young maid is in reality my son
    Gawaine, and indeed it has been him each night when I asked
    the question, but you predicted three different deaths for him.
    You are a fraud. Merlin, and a charlatan who cannot remember
    his own predictions from one night to the next!'

    "Merlin rose to confront my father, and the two men now
    stood chin to chin and eye to eye like two dogs about to attack
    each other. 'You set a fine table. Lot, and I thank you for the
    meat and drink, but your hospitality leaves much to be desired by
    way of courtesy. Indeed, I knew it was young Gawaine each time
    you asked your question, but I spoke the truth—he shall indeed
    die by falling and by hanging and by drowning!'

    " 'Never!' howled my father. 'My son Gawaine shall grow to
    be a great warrior like his father—'

    " 'Greater,' Merlin said in a voice so low that only I heard
    him.

    " '—the greatest in the land—'

    " 'Perhaps," whispered the wizard. He took my hand and
    gazed deeply into my eyes- 'Fear nothing and you shall be a
    hero, Gawaine.' His words seemed to be aimed for my ears
    alone, and no one else took any heed of them. '—and when he
    dies, it shall be a sword that brings him down!'

    " "That, too,' muttered the wizard.

    THE TRIPLE DEATH            43

    " 'Fake! Fraud! Your prophecies are all lies and trickery. To-
    morrow you must leave my dun and never return on penalty of
    death!' declared my father sternly.

    " 'Why wait?' Merlin said. 'I will take my leave now, but you
    Gawaine shall see me again when you least expect it!' He then
    cried a word of power, and the hearthfires began to smoke so
    much that the whole hall soon rilled with mists and vapors. We
    all ran out into the snow to escape choking to death, but Merlin
    never came out. Nor was he inside when the hall cleared. He
    vanished, simply disappeared, which really puzzled my royal
    sire. He felt that somehow he had been made to look like a fool,
    and he always hated the wizard for showing him up.

    "In fact, Sire," Gawaine addressed King Arthur directly at this
    point, "my father took the field against you when you were
    newly crowned more because that you were Merlin's protege,
    than from any desire to be High King himself." Arthur, who had
    been smiling and laughing as heartily as anyone, grew sad.
    "Would that Merlin still graced this company!" he exclaimed. "I
    could use his wise council in these troubled times."

    "Nay, my heart," answered the Queen, "you are better off
    without the old devilspawn. Surely the priests of Holy Church
    would not support you so staunchly if you trafficked with a black

    magician like Merlin."

    "Truly, Nephew, that was a strange feasting that you de-
    scribed, yet I think it does not yet justify our meal this evening,"
    said Arthur.

    "Wait, Sire, it gets better," Gawaine assured him. "The true
    adventure and marvel is yet to be told. I need but a moment to
    slake my thirst with another flagon of mead before I move on to
    part two of this tale." A serving knave quickly refilled Gawaine's
    cup and he downed it in one long gurgle. Setting down the
    empty vessel, and speaking with a bit of a slur, Gawaine picked
    up the thread of his story.

    "In the years that followed, I forgot about Merlin's strange
    prophecy. I grew from a gangly youth to a young warrior nearly
    as large and strong as I am now.

    "On Midsummer Day of my seventeenth year, I rode out hunt-
    ing with only a pair of dogs and a single servant to