The Killing Sword

by Asotir

upon her brother’s goods.

  King Arthur set the tomb of King Lot by its own with great richness. And he let make twelve images of lead and copper and gilded them with the sign of the twelve kings. Each of them held a taper of wax that burnt day and night, and King Arthur was made in a figure standing above them with a sword drawn in his hand, and all the twelve figures had the look of men that were overcome.

  All this Merlyn made by his subtle craft so that all men had marvel of it.

  ‘When I am dead,’ Merlyn told the king, ‘these tapers shall burn no longer. And soon after that, the adventures of the Saint Grail shall come among you and be achieved. For Balyn shall give the Dolorous Stroke, whereof shall fall great vengeance.’

  ‘O where is Balyn and Balan and Pellinore?’ asked King Arthur.

  ‘As for Pellinore,’ said Merlyn, ‘he will meet with you soon. And Balyn will not be long from you either, but the other brother you shall see no more. Already he journeys to a castle where his doom abides.’

  ‘By my faith,’ said Arthur, ‘they are two marvelous knights, and Balyn surpasses in prowess any knight that ever I found. I am much beholden unto him, would God he would abide with me. Too many goodly knights and kings have now fallen. And most of all I mourn the loss of King Lot. Alas he might not endure, which was a great pity that so worthy a knight as he was should be overmatched!’

  But Merlyn saw how Morgan le Fay’s eyes glittered as she stared at the king’s sword. ‘Sire,’ said he, ‘look you keep well the scabbard of Excalibur, for you shall lose no blood while you wear the scabbard, though you have as many wounds upon you as may be.’

  ‘You say well,’ answered the king, ‘for I got thirteen grievous wounds in the Battles of Terrabil, and each one was enough to have bled a man to his death. But I lost no more blood than if some briers scratched my arms.’

  ‘But now,’ said Merlyn, ‘my lord, must I tell you of the darkest prophecy that ever I may tell, and the darkest sight I have foreseen.’

  ‘You make me wish to turn and stop my ears,’ said the king. ‘But I will hear even the worst that you might tell.’

  ‘It well befits your worship that you should say so. I will say then, that there shall fall great battle beside Salisbury plain, and Modred, your own son, shall lead the armies against you.’

  ‘Ah Merlyn, your words strike even where my deepest wound lies, and I am sore and sick from it. Tell me no more lest you bring down night upon this fairest day. Excalibur and its scabbard have spared my body. And yet what can it matter to a man to keep his body and his life whole, when he has lost his honor?’

  And he turned away from the rejoicing, and took no further part in it.

  This was the onset of the sadness that would come at times over Arthur, a thing that stole from him his courage and resolve. And the day would come, after Merlyn had been betrayed himself for love and lust, and the king his wisdom lost, when Morgan le Fay would catch the king in such a humor, and she would trick him into granting her to hold Excalibur and its wondrous scabbard in trust. And she with her glittering eyes made a false semblance of the sword and its scabbard for to give back to the King, but the true Excalibur and scabbard she gave into the hands of Sir Accolon her lover, which she loved better than her husband King Uriens or King Arthur her own brother. And Sir Accolon in combat after that would almost slay King Arthur while Morgan le Fay sat by and watched.

  XI. The Unseen Knight

  ALL THIS TIME BALYN lay in his tent beside the battlefield, sorely wounded from his deeds.

  And it seemed to him the greatest and most worshipful knights in the land came before him. One by one they kneeled and said that never had they known of so great deeds as his on that day when twelve kings fell by his hand. And his good lord Arthur came to Balyn’s bedside and said, ‘Knight of Two Swords, you have saved my realm and brought peace to these lands. Therefore get well again and I will honor you before all my knights and barons.’

  But all these faces appeared to Balyn like dreams, and he knew not if what he saw were true or false. Last of all he saw his brother’s face. Balan his brother shook his head, sadly, and turned away.

  At last Balyn woke and stood in the opening to his tent. The cool night breathed upon his limbs. Far off he saw the half moon sink into the Earth as though it drew with her his heart and soul and gladness. Then the stars for secret shame hid themselves behind the clouds and the night grew darksome as the pit. Balyn bent on one knee and took the long beard of the Earth in his two fists.

  Now I have done a great thing. Your debt to me is paid but my debt to you now comes due. Therefore O you Devils of the deep dank Earth, call where you will and I will follow. Set me what task you please and I will see it done. Torment and murder me at your pleasure. And so we shall be quits.

  And he made his heart ready for what was to come. For so great a deed he knew the Devils would tote up a cost that went beyond what any mortal man had paid.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I will shed no tears over my pain. And yet I am sorry for this, that I might not find the Naked Damsel and avenge her wrong upon the false knight who killed her love. For I will work now only to advance true love.’

  Even then a blue knight rode by the camp in the dark, moaning and weeping. Balyn got his gear and rode after that knight.

  Meanwhile Arthur also held aloof from feasts and cheer. He took his pavilions deep into the forest and saw few men. For Merlyn’s foretelling minded Arthur of his sin, and it weighed upon him. And he grieved over the death of King Lot, and felt sick for it.

  Once King Lot had been fast friends with Arthur and took his part in the war. But then Arthur lay with Lot’s wife, the Queen Morgause, and got her with the child Modred. When King Lot learned of this, then he turned against Arthur and became bitter foe to him, and there lay the beginning of enmity between them. Arthur had not known at that time that Queen Morgause was his own half-sister, but he had known right well she was King Lot’s wife.

  And about the child of that incestuous bed, Merlyn had foretold that he should be a great causer of ill, and the end of Arthur’s kingdom. And he should be born on that next May-Day. Therefore when that May was ending, Arthur had ordained that all the babes born about May-Day should be taken in a ship to sea, and he gave the captain of the ship command to drive her upon rocks in the sea and sink her and let those children die. And the outcry against this commandment had fed the rebellion against Arthur, for all these matters work together, and there is no man, not though he be a king, who can put aside his doom and leave his sins unpunished.

  So it came about that a storm drove back the prison-ship onto land after the captain and his crew had left it in the boats, and there upon rocks the ship foundered and sank, and all the children died -- all but one. For by the will of doom, Modred clung to a timber and floated onto land, and he was taken in by a man there, and he lived whom Arthur meant to kill, and all the other innocents that Arthur would have spared, had he been able to choose out only his son among them all, they died, and this crime lay heavy upon Arthur’s heart.

  So heavy did he feel now, for Merlyn had again foretold to him how Modred would yet wreak all the harm he was meant to. And the murder of the children was for nought.

  Therefore Arthur was sick at heart even at the hour of his victory. And now that the heaviness of war was lifted from him, he recalled his sin and sought inside his heart for grace. From these nights Arthur would come forth changed, and mercy and compassion would grow in his heart. After the Battles of Terrabil he would never rule harshly again, nor judge rashly, and he learned forgiveness. This was the beginning of that Arthur that we know now and honor in the remembering and love.

  But those nights were heavy upon him, and he might not rest.

  And he went walking alone in darkness in the wood, when he heard great noise of a horse, and saw a knight come by him making great dole, and that knight went all in blue.

  ‘Abide fair sir,’ said Arthur, ‘and tell me wherefore you make this sorrow. I wo
uld lessen your burden if I might. I would lessen any man’s burden if but to take me away from my own.’

  ‘You can do nothing to help me,’ said the blue knight. And so he rode on toward the castle of Melyot.

  The king stood in wonder looking after him. And soon after there came Balyn.

  ‘My lord Arthur, saw you a knight go by?’

  ‘I saw one that made as though great pain was on him, but he would not speak to me or tell me why. Therefore Balyn as you are a true knight, I wish that you would bring that knight to me whether he will or will not, to tell me his story and give my heart somewhere to turn beyond my own dreams.’

  ‘I will do more for your lordship than that,’ said Balyn. And he rode swiftly away through the darkness. At length in a glade in the deep forest he found the blue knight with a damsel and they two lay alongside each other in starlight and halsed each other close.

  ‘Sir knight,’ said Balyn, ‘now you must come with me to King Arthur to tell him of your sorrow.’

  ‘That will I not,’ said the blue knight. ‘For if I do, it will put me in great peril, and may cost me my life. What you ask cannot be.’

  ‘Sir,’ answered Balyn, ‘I pray you make you ready, for you must go with me, or else I must fight with you and bring you by force even though that is not what I would wish.’

  ‘Will you ensure my