Orion and King Arthur Read Online Free PDF Page B

death, with no revival.”
    I remembered the horror of drowning in the tentacled grip of a gigantic sea monster. I recalled being flayed alive by the fireball of an exploding starship.
    “Death is nothing new to me. If we can’tbe together, what is life except an endless wheel of pain?”
    “I’m trying, Orion. I want to be with you, too, my dearest. But there are forces beyond your ken, forces that keep us apart.”
    “Forces manipulated by Aten,” I said flatly.
    She shook her head. “Forces that not even he can control, my darling.”
    I glanced down at the sleeping young Arthur. “And that young warlord plays a role in theseforces.”
    “He might. I think there could be greatness in him. But Aten wants to remove him.”
    “Kill him, you mean.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then I want to protect him.”
    Anya said nothing. She merely regarded me with those somber gray eyes, eyes that held the depths of infinity in them.
    “Will you help me?” I asked.
    “Orion, you have no idea of the damage you do to the spacetime fabric whenever you defy Aten.”
    “Will you help me?” I repeated.
    She regarded me gravely. “I love you too much to allow Aten to destroy you.”
    “Then you must help Arthur, too.”
    She sighed. “Your young friend must help himself. Neither you nor I can put courage into his heart.”
    “It’s not courage he needs, it’s…”
    But she was gone, vanished as if she had never been there at all, leaving me standing on the shore of the lake asthe sky darkened and the moon rose, silver and cool and too far away for me to dream of touching.
    7
    Arthur awoke, sat up, and rubbed his eyes. “I had a dream,” he said, his voice soft and puzzled. “About my sword.”
    As he climbed to his feet I looked out across the lake, silvered now by the rising full moon. It was as calm and flat as a mirror of polished steel. In its middle was an island thathadn’t been there earlier. I realized that it was not an island at all, but an artifact, a structure of metal and glass still dripping because it had risen from the lake’s depths only moments earlier.
    Arthur followed my gaze. “Look!” he whispered. “A boat approaches!”
    “The Lady of the Lake,” I murmured. Anya was going to help us, after all.
    Wordlessly we stepped down to the sandy edge of theshore, Arthur’s eyes fixed on the boat that glided noiselessly across the placid waters.
    It was Anya, of course, alone in the self-propelled boat. But now she was dressed in a flowing slivery robe and garlanded with flowers. In the moonlight she seemed to glow with an inner radiance. Her hair flowed long and smooth as a river of onyx down her back. Her face was calm, serene, utterly beautiful.
    In her arms she cradled a sword in a jeweled scabbard. I recognized that scabbard.
    The boat nudged its prow onto the sand before us and stopped. Anya rose to her feet and held the sword out in her two hands.
    Arthur seemed frozen, transfixed by her appearance. His eyes were so wide I could see the white all around them, his breathing so heavy he was almost gasping.
    “Take the sword,” I coachedhim in a low whisper. “She’s offering it to you.”
    Arthur swallowed hard, then summoned up his courage and stepped into the gently lapping wavelets to the side of the boat. His boots sank into the soft sand.
    “Wield this sword for right and justice,” Anya intoned, handing it to Arthur’s trembling hands.
    “I will, my lady,” he said breathlessly. “Just as you command.”
    “Do so, and the others willfollow you.”
    “I will, my lady,” he repeated.
    Without another word Anya sat on the boat’s only bench once more and the vessel backed off the sand, made a stately, silent turn, and glided back to the “island” in the middle of the lake. We watched, Arthur dumbfounded and trembling, as the boat disappeared into an opening in the structure and then the entire mass slowly sank beneath the surfaceof the water.
    It was not until the “island” was