Free Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle by Rosalind Miles Page B

Soon you must learn what it is to be a woman, too."
    Feverishly she turned her father's ring on her hand. "When I find love, you mean?"
    There were tears in his eyes, and his face glistened with pain. "True lovers may never know what love means. A man may love a woman out of his reach. She does not know he loves her, and he will never speak of it."
    A woman out of his reach?
    A dull shock exploded in Isolde's brain.
He loves my mother!
- came to her with the force of a sudden blow.
And she does not know!
    But surely, if he told her
— She laughed aloud.
Gods above, my mother and Cormac
—
how wonderful that would be
!
    A wild hope invaded her heart. "Lord Cormac, it lies in your power to save us!" she cried out. "If you love the Queen, you must marry her. You could stop Sir Marhaus from attacking Cornwall, and keep our country from making war—"
    "Lady, lady—" Cormac shook his head and turned away. "I beg you— no more—"
    He was weeping, she saw with a sudden shock. What had she said? A random breeze chilled the summer air and understanding came to her in a great wave.
He does not love my mother. He loves me
—
and I do not love him
…
    She could hardly speak. "Cormac, I—"
    "No words."
    He held up his hands, palms outward, in a gesture of defeat. The Druid mark was pulsing between his brows. "Some men are fated to dwell forever outside love's house, and never know the enchanted place within. My love is always broken torchlight, shining where it is not felt. Farewell, Princess. Think of me in your prayers."
    Step by step he withdrew under the trees. His parting words reached her from far away.
    "Have faith, lady. Trust to your knight."
    A strange agony seized her and she shuddered from head to foot. "I have no knight!" she cried.
    There was no reply. The evening birds were calling through the trees, and the earth was softly breathing out the dews of night. Cormac was lost to sight, part of the woodland again, no more than a deeper shadow in the forest shades. She turned away.
    A last farewell whispered through the trees.
Trust to your knight. He will come to you
.

Chapter 11

    In the King's private chamber, the air was dank with fear. The side tables were loaded with food, but no one could touch it, though noon had come and gone. Shuffling on his throne, throwing glances of desperation around, King Mark eyed his advisers resentfully.
    "In the name of God," he moaned, "Merlin promised us a champion! Why doesn't he come?"
    Father Dominian hunched his black shape forward, like a spider preparing to strike. "Druids are dream weavers, sire. Merlin must have lied."
    "Or the knight he promised us may be dead," Andred put in, furrowing his brows with concern.
    "Where's Merlin himself, then?" lamented Mark, nervously shifting his ungainly legs around. "There's Marhaus at our gates, Merlin nowhere to be found, and no hope of a knight to take Marhaus on!"
    There was a silence as all three men relived the horror of recent days. First the dark sail in the channel, then the great ship looming larger as it neared Castle Dore. Next a grim war band of Irish knights marching up from the quay, and at last the appearance of the Queen's champion himself.
    Mark's gut twisted with shame. Why was it that the very sight of the knight from the Western Isle had robbed him of what little courage he had? Was it the champion's powerful, threatening frame, his dead eyes, his hideous array of weapons or his slow, predatory stride? None of these, Mark decided in the misery of fear, but his white, wolfish smile. Here was a man who would kill because that was his nature, and his pleasure, too.
    The champion came to a halt at the foot of the throne. He threw Mark a glance of pure contempt, then his scornful cry went ringing around the court.
    "Vassals, today a new ruler claims you for her own. The Queen of the Western Isle offers Cornwall her full protection and a mother's love. You will pay tribute to her from now on, and take her as your new