Percival's Angel by Anne Eliot Crompton Read Free Book Online Page A

that Ivie danced at that same fire. I remember her hair flopping loose, red as the fire. Big she is, heavy for Fey taste; though I supposed a Human fellow might like her. So I was surprised when she wandered off into darkness with a fine Fey man lovelier than mine.
    (I doubt that Ivie dances tonight, great with child as she is.)
    I wanted Percy. I looked at my beautiful fellow, and I wanted Percy! His bright bigness! His warmth!
    That night I waited for Percy. Later nights, I still waited for Percy. But Percy never came to dances. Alanna kept him shut in with her during Flowering Moons.
    I was young. Desire was not yet hot in me. Even so, I tried to interest Percy at other times—while fishing, reed gathering, trapping together.
    Percy was never interested. Percy is never interested. My friends remark that he is made of ice. Slowly, I grow hot.
    Drifting now past firelight and music, sadness seizes me.
    Why am I leaving my folk and my forest?
    This Human Heart I want so much, is it truly the World’s Magical Power, as Merlin tells? It does Alanna little good! And Ivie…well, Ivie seems to lack it. Ivie has become almost Fey. And Percy has not yet grown his Heart; he doesn’t know he has one.
    So I have only Merlin’s tales to go by; gray-bearded half-Human Merlin told me once of this famous Human Heart and its Powers…and dangers.
    And now for this I slide downriver with Percy on a quest I know better than to dare!
    Good-bye, Flowering Moon drum!
    Good-bye —the last fading drum throbs. Good-bye .
    Ahead, the Fey river narrows. Leaning tree-shadows darken water. Percy leans on his pole, holding us still.
    Rustle. Slither. Whispering splash.
    Something leaves the dark bank and swims out into moonlight.
    Whiter than moonlight, it breaks river-sparkle.
    It turns an eye toward us, flaps an ear, and calmly swims for the far shore.
    I murmur, “Deer.”
    â€œWhite!”
    â€œOur guide.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œShush.”
    Percy poles us forward.
    Trees fall back, draw away.
    This is the border, the dangerous crossing. Child Guards may yet watch here.
    I concentrate, touch a fingertip to Victory who sings near my heart, and send deeper, denser mist around our coracle.
    Behind us the Flowering Moon drum beats like a forgotten heart.
    Before us, the Flowering Moon silvers a new, wide-opening landscape.

Oak Counsel
    A price is paid for every Quest.
    Draw heart’s blood from out bared breast.
    Spin soft silk of needly nettle,
    Boil beef broth without a kettle.
    Sort grain from grain, and pile apart.
    Be still, when silence breaks the heart.
    Raise the rock and seek the stair
    That descends from light and air
    To the dread domain of Death.
    (Eyes averted. Bated breath.)
    Open not the box you bear
    Back up that steep stony stair;
    Bring up treasure, honest measure.
    Even so, your Quest may fail.
    Who has found the Holy Grail?

2
    Never Knight
    In a ray of spring light from an arrow slit, Alanna sat nursing newborn Percy. He sucked manfully at her breast. His milky blue eyes wavered, chubby hands waved. She tucked his soft, kicking feet securely under one arm and cradled him in the other.
    Percy was the ninth son whom Alanna had nursed herself. Always, the nurse brought the child to her swaddled, tight-bound to a cradleboard. Always, she undid the bands, lifted babe from board, and cuddled him, soft skin to softer skin. Now again, as eight times before, Alanna’s heart enfolded her newborn, body and soul.
    But this time, the heart beneath the milk-rich breast was broken.
    King Arthur’s messenger had left her…judging by the slant of arrow-slit light, an hour ago.
    Sir Ogden, her lord for twenty-five years, was dead; and not in battle, and by no deadly illness. Unhorsed in a festive joust, Sir Ogden had broken his neck.
    This milk may give Percy colic!
    This brokenhearted milk. But —Alanna smiled a bit grimly at the thought— Not this babe! This one could nurse on