Midnight for Morgana Read Online Free PDF

prepared to leave, despite the king’s entreaty that they stay for the evening meal.
     
    Prince Keir bowed. “I thank Your Majesty for your offer of hospitality, but as you see, we have a demanding task ahead of us, and, I fear, much distance to cover. ‘Twill take long to find my goal, I doubt not.”
     
    As they trotted down the hill from the castle, Malcolm shot Keir a look. “What now? If the shoe didn’t fit any of the king’s daughters, where will you go?”
     
    “To each of the kingdoms,” Keir replied without hesitation. “I will find my princess.”
     
    “Each of the kingdoms! That could take months!”
     
    “Weeks,” Keir said. “‘Tis a small island.” He spurred his horse down the hill, a coolness in the air, the sun arcing toward the west. He estimated that they still had time to ride into the next kingdom, about forty miles away over gently-rolling hills. If they arrived after dark, they would start out the following morning, for he knew the king of Scaith had four daughters. Surely one of them would be the lady he sought, his lovely princess.
     
    * * *
     
    Weeks later, Prince Keir, dispirited and desperate, returned to his starting point, the village of Dornach. He gave silent thanks to his friend, Malcolm, for not saying, “I told you so,” and also commended him aloud for his steadfast loyalty in accompanying him to all the kingdoms, where one disappointment after another had confronted him. He had to admit, if only to himself, that perhaps Malcolm had been right, and he recognized that sheer arrogance did not necessarily grant one what he wished.
     
    That evening, as they ate in the private dining room of the Sign of the Black Horse, Malcolm ventured a remark. “Unless there is a princess hidden somewhere in one of these kingdoms, we have exhausted that aspect of our search.”
     
    “Aye, a princess locked up in a dungeon.” Keir tried to make light of his dilemma, but he had a heavy heart. “All these weeks, and failure at every castle, in every kingdom! I don’t fancy lingering in this country. ‘Tis time I returned to my father, although I have sent him letters from time to time, apprizing him of my quest. I need to rejoin him and resume my duties.” There were many times when the king’s business took him from the capital, and in those times, Keir heard petitions and complaints in his father’s place. Oftimes, too, his father sent him to attend to business in other cities and villages.
     
    Malcolm sliced off a bite of beef and paused, his fork poised above the table. “Then what will you do now, give up and return home?”
     
    “Never! Not until I find the lady I seek. So she isn’t a princess. Aye, I’ll admit you were right. Just the same, she surely must be a high-born lady who lives in wealth and luxury. Only think on how she was dressed, not to mention the magnificent horse with the gold bridle and saddle. Surely her father has much money, and our kingdom could benefit from his gold.”
     
    The next morning, Keir left the inn, along with his servant and Malcolm, and set about going from one mansion to another. No matter where they went, it was to either find no daughters lived there, or else that the slipper didn’t fit any one of them.
     
    Toward afternoon, the three men rode up to a ramshackle house with three storeys, its stones crumbling and shingles missing from the roof. A shutter banged in the wind, the sound a sharp counterpoint to the optimism with which Keir had begun his search, and a sad reminder of how low his fortune had sunk. A small flower garden graced the front of the house, the stalks struggling against the weeds and grass that threatened to overwhelm them. The front door, its wood rotting, appeared to be hanging by its hinges. Keir scowled as he looked around him, finding nothing here to encourage him in his search.
     
    Walking his horse along the rutted path to the house, he took a deep breath and braced himself for the ordeal ahead,