Orion and King Arthur by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online

them on horseback,we could do them great hurt.”
    “We could get ourselves killed and save the Saxons the trouble of scaling the walls,” Bors snapped.
    “Not if we surprised them,” Arthur insisted. “Not if we attacked them tonight, after the moon sets, while most of them are sleeping.”
    “At night?” Bors frowned at the idea.
    “Yes! Why not?” Eagerly, Arthur turned to Merlin. “What do you think, Merlin? What do youforesee?”
    Merlin closed his eyes for several long moments, then wheezed, “Blood and carnage. The barbarians will fly before your sword, Arthur.”
    “You see?” Arthur said to Bors.
    Bors glowered at the mystic. “Do you see the Saxons running away and heading back to their ships?”
    Merlin shook his head slowly. “No … the mists of the future cloud my vision.”
    Bors grumbled with disdain.
    But Arthurwould not be denied. Bors had more battle experience, but Arthur had the fire of youthful vigor in him.
    “Orion,” he commanded, “get the horses saddled and fit. And ask all the knights which of them will honor me by joining in this sally against the enemy.”
    As a squire, of course, I went where my master went. Knights could offer excuses to remain safely inside the fort. There were no excusesallowed for squires.
    2
    It was well past midnight by the time we were armed and mounted, thirty-two knights and squires on snorting, snuffling horses that pawed impatiently on the packed earth of the courtyard. Arthur and the other knights were helmeted and wore chain mail and carried spears as well as their swords. The moon was down. Firelight glinted off the emblems painted on their shields:Arthur’s red dragon, Bors’ black hawk, the green serpent of Gawain, lions and bears and other totem symbols.
    I was the only squire who wore a chain mail shirt. The others, mostly beardless youths, went into battle in their tunics, protected only by their helmets and shields. I carried neither helmet nor shield nor spear, only the sword strapped to my back, as I sat on my mount at Arthur’s side.
    Sir Bors, still grousing, nosed his horse up to Arthur’s other side. “This is madness,” he muttered. “They outnumber us a hundred to one.”
    Arthur smiled grimly in the starlight. “Their numbers will be smaller before the sun rises again.”
    “As will ours,” Bors mumbled.
    Arthur pointed with his spear and a pair of churls lifted the heavy timber bar from the palisade gates, then slowly swung thegates open. They creaked horribly in the stillness of the night. I thought that any chance of surprise was mostly lost already.
    But Arthur bellowed, “Follow me!” and we charged out into the night, each man screaming his own battle cry.
    The barbarians were truly surprised. We thundered down into their camp at the base of the hill, trampling the embers of their campfires and scattering the startledmen like dry leaves before the wind. I stayed close behind Arthur, saw him transfix a running Saxon with his spear and lift the shrieking barbarian off his feet. Arthur was nearly knocked off his horse by the shock of the impact, and he had to let go of the spear. The barbarian warrior, clutching the shaft where it penetrated his chest, fell over backward, already dead.
    I rode close behind Arthur,my sword in hand, ready to protect him against anything. Once more my senses went into overdrive and everything about me seemed to slow down into a sleepy, sluggish torpor. I saw a naked barbarian run in dreamlike slow motion at Arthur’s left side, his long blond braids flying behind him. Arthur took his sword stroke on his shield and, while drawing Excalibur from its jeweled scabbard with hisright hand, bashed the warrior’s head with the edge of the shield. The man staggered back and Bors pinned him to the ground with his spear.
    Another warrior hurled his axe at Arthur’s unprotected right side. I saw it turning lazily through the flame-lit air and reached out with my sword to flick it harmlessly away.