Free THE WARRIOR QUEEN (The Guinevere Trilogy Book 1) by Lavinia Collins Page B

hunting,” I corrected him.
    I could hear some voices of those in the background not as pleased at the sight of their queen as Arthur, but I did not care. It was a small group riding out: Arthur, Kay, Ector, Gawain and his brothers, and a couple more I did not recognise. Just Arthur’s chief knights, and his wife. The others too, were just dressed in leathers, armoured for light hunting not for fighting. Whatever dangers Arthur sensed, they must be further off than in the forest beside Camelot.
    As we rode through the forest, the others spread off, deeper into the forest, looking for the hart. Arthur and I rode on together. I would have been happy to hunt on my own, but I think he wanted to keep me close by. Perhaps he was afraid I would try to run away, but I think it was rather that women did not seem to hunt, or even to ride out, on their own in Logrys. I did not think it could be more dangerous than Carhais, but then our men were different, too. We did not have these armoured giants raised for the battlefield. Perhaps we Bretons would not have let our women ride alone if our men were like these men of Logrys.
    “How do you know the Lady of Avalon?” I asked, notching an arrow into my bow. There was nothing to shoot, but I wanted to feel as though I was doing something. I did not see any other game about the forest. Perhaps the lady Nimue had emptied it by magic for the purpose of the enchanted hunt.
    “She gave me my sword.”
    “The one in the stone?”
    He laughed.
    “Not that old thing. It would have shattered at the first fight. My sword. I keep forgetting the damn name Merlin gave it.”
    He drew it to show me. The steel was cold and blue, perfectly smooth, so sharp it was impossible to see the edge clearly. I knew the name of the sword. Its name had come to Carhais. People did not forget a sword like that. Excalibur . Cutter of steel. I could not have missed that sword. The steel was forged in the Otherworld, the blade smooth at the side and sharp at the edge, the pommel covered in jewels of all colours that glittered in the sunlight. I felt the power coming from it as I stared at it. I was about to reach out and touch it, when Arthur sheathed it.
    “It is a good sword, but my witch is always telling me the scabbard has the greater magic.”
    “What does the scabbard do?”
    “The bearer never sheds a drop of blood. But the scabbard was stolen from me.”
    So there were enemies at home. That was why Arthur slept with Excalibur by his bed, so he would not lose that as well. And that was why he rode beside me, so that I would not be snatched in the woods. I thought a scabbard that saved the wearer from harm seemed much more valuable than any sword. I supposed that was why it was taken.
    A pheasant suddenly burst up from a bush, shrieking its harsh cries. I hit it easily with an arrow, and Arthur laughed.
    “I had no idea my new queen would be so useful with a weapon.”
    Arthur obviously had known no Breton women before he had met me.
    He jumped off his horse to pick it up, and attached it to his saddle. I thought he would leap back up, but he smiled a little mischievous smile, taking me by the foot and with a little tug I did not expect, pulling me from my horse and into his arms. My horse did not seem surprised. Perhaps it was used to it. I imagined that this was a trick he had learned playing at boys games with Kay. But he was not playing games now. He let me drop to my feet, and gently pressed me against the tree beside us with a fierce kiss.
    “You thought I would be some savage. Well, my lady, look at yourself, dressed as a man, with a bloodlust for pheasants.” He laughed, running a hand across my stomach under the jerkin. “All the ladies of Camelot were scandalised to see their queen going about dressed like that.” I supposed they did not like to see the bare skin of my arms, the flash of it at my back above the vest. I had thought that women in Logrys were covered from neck to ankle because it