Free The King Arthur Trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff

High King’s order I ride in quest of her, and will take her or die in the attempt.’
    Then he of the black armour turned his sword upon King Pellinore’s horse and drove it through to the heart, and laughed. ‘Fight for her then, but on foot as we do!’
    Pellinore sprang clear as his horse crashed to the ground, and ripped his own sword from its sheath, and cried out in fury, ‘That will I! And for my poor horse as well as for the lady!’ And as the black knight made at him, he swung up his sword, and brought it whistling down, through helm and mail coif and bone, splitting the man’s head to the chin, so that he fell dead upon the trampled ground.
    Then Pellinore turned to the other knight, but he looked up from staunching his own wounds, and shook his head.
    ‘What? Will you not fight for her?’ said Pellinore.
    ‘Nay, there is no need. She will come to no harm at your hands. Take her back to Arthur’s court, as your quest bids you.’
    ‘That will I do,’ Pellinore said, ‘and riding this dead knight’s charger since he has slain mine.’
    ‘Nay, come back and lodge with me this night, and I will give you a better horse in the morning.’
    So King Pellinore and the maiden Nimue returned with the knight her kinsman to his dwelling-place, supped and slept, and in the morning a tall fine warhorse was brought for him, and he mounted, the lady on her white palfrey at his side.
    ‘Tell me your name before you ride away with my kinswoman in your keeping,’ said the knight in green.
    ‘I am King Pellinore of Wales, a knight of the Round Table. Now, in fair exchange for my name, do you give me yours.’
    ‘I am Sir Meliot of Logure.’
    ‘If ever you come to Camelot, you shall find fair welcome,’ said King Pellinore.
    And he rode on his way.
    But when he came again to the well where the lady had cried out to him for help, he found the wounded knight lying dead of his hurts, and beside him the lady, lying with her head upon his still breast, and her bright hair showered all about him, and the dagger which she had taken from his belt driven deep into her own heart.
    And looking upon them, all the triumph of his accomplished quest drained out of him like wine out of a cracked cup.
    ‘She cried to me for help,’ he said, ‘and I was in too much haste to stop and aid her.’
    ‘And there is nought that you can do for her now, nor for the knight she loved, but see that they have fitting burial,’ said the Lady Nimue. ‘There is a hermitage not far from here. Take their bodies to the hermit and pray him see to all that must be done.’
    And when King Pellinore had dismounted and carried them both to the hermitage, the dead knight slung across the back of his horse and the lady in his arms, and bidden the hermit see to all things and bury them together, and take the knight’s harness for his pains, they rode on towards Camelot again. ‘She was very light to carry,’ said King Pellinore; and he rode with his chin sunk on his breast.
    And on the way, they were joined by Sir Lamorack with the dwarf and the brachet; and then by Sir Gawain riding sadly, with the headless body of the lady he had slain across his saddlebow.
    Towards evening of the day after his wedding and the coming of the white hart, Arthur and Merlin walked alone upon the ramparts of Camelot; and looked out over the roofs of the town to the water-meadows and the shining loops of the river, and the forest beyond that rolled away and away into the blue heat-haze of summer.
    ‘Soon, very soon now, I shall leave you,’ Merlin said.
    And Arthur turned from the distant forest to look at him with startled eyes. ‘Merlin, why?’
    ‘Because it is the appointed time. I have told you often enough that the time would come.’
    ‘But not yet! Oh, Merlin, what will I do without your guidance and counsel? What will I do without
you
?’
    ‘If I have taught you well, and you have learned well, you will do without me.’
    ‘But you are not old,’