Legacy: Arthurian Saga Read Online Free PDF Page B

you, and
where you'd be safe?"
    "I don't need to be a warrior to want
to stay free! To be shut up in a place like St. Peter's -- that's
not the way -- " I broke off. I had spoken hotly, but found the
words failing me. I could not explain something I did not know
myself. I looked up eagerly: "I'll stay with you. If you cannot use
me I -- I'll run away to serve some other prince. But I would
rather stay with you."
    "Well, it's early yet to speak of
things like that. You're very young." He got to his feet. "Does
your face hurt you?"
    "No."
    "You should have it seen to. Come with
me now."
    He put out a hand, and I went with
him. He led me up through the orchard, then in through the arch
that led to my grandfather's private garden. I hung back against
his hand. "I'm not allowed in there."
    "Surely, with me? Your grandfather's
with his guests, he'll not see you. Come along. I've got something
better for you than your windfall apples. They've been gathering
the apricots, and I saved the best aside out of the baskets as I
came down."
    He trod forward, with that graceful
cat's stride of his, through the bergamot and lavender, to where
the apricot and peach trees stood crucified against the high wall
in the sun. The place smelled drowsy with herbs and fruit, and the
doves were crooning from the dove-house. At my feet a ripe apricot
lay, velvet in the sun. I pushed it with my toe until it rolled
over, and there in the back of it was the great rotten hole, with
wasps crawling. A shadow fell over it. My uncle stood above me,
with an apricot in each hand.
    "I told you I'd got something better
than windfalls. Here." He handed me one. "And if they beat you for
stealing, they'll have to beat me as well." He grinned, and bit
into the fruit he held.
    I stood still, with the big bright
apricot cupped in the palm of my hand. The garden was very hot, and
very still, and quiet except for the humming of insects. The fruit
glowed like gold, and smelled of sunshine and sweet juice. Its skin
felt like the fur of a golden bee. I could feel my mouth
watering.
    "What is it?" asked my uncle. He
sounded edgy and impatient. The juice of his apricot was running
down his chin. "Don't stand there staring at it, boy! Eat it!
There's nothing wrong with it, is there?"
    I looked up. The blue eyes, fierce as
a fox, stared down into mine. I held it out to him. "I don't want
it. It's black inside. Look, you can see right through."
    He took his breath in sharply, as if
to speak. Then voices came from the other side of the wall; the
gardeners, probably, bringing the empty fruit-baskets down ready
for morning. My uncle, stooping, snatched the fruit from my hand
and threw it from him, hard against the wall. It burst in a golden
splash of flesh against the brick, and the juice ran down. A wasp,
disturbed from the tree, droned past between us. Camlach flapped at
it with a queer, abrupt gesture, and said to me in a voice that was
suddenly all venom: "Keep away from me after this, you devil's
brat. Do you hear me? Just keep away."
    He dashed the back of his hand across
his mouth, and went from me in long strides towards the
house.
    I stood where I was, watching the
juice of the apricot trickle down the hot wall. A wasp alighted on
it, crawled stickily, then suddenly fell, buzzing on its back to
the ground. Its body jack-knifed, the buzz rose to a whine as it
struggled, then it lay still.
    I hardly saw it, because something had
swelled in my throat till I thought I would choke, and the golden
evening swam, brilliant, into tears. This was the first time in my
life that I remember weeping.
    The gardeners were coming down past
the roses, with baskets on their heads. I turned and ran out of the
garden.
     
    3
     
    My room was empty even of the
wolfhound. I climbed on my bed and leaned my elbows on the
windowsill, and stayed there a long while alone, while outside in
the pear tree's boughs the thrush sang, and from the courtyard
beyond the shut door came the monotonous clink of the