The Lioness and Her Knight Read Online Free PDF Page B

isn't any good," he was saying. "I'm beginning to feel that I've come all this way for nothing. There are no tournaments, no dragons, no giants, no wild beasts, no recreant knights holding ladies prisoner in their castles. How's a fellow supposed to make a name for himself in such a tame country?"
    "The same way the rest of us do," growled Agrivain. "Sit on your backside and wait until a chance comes."
    Ywain laughed. "I can't do that! I need adventure! Hasn't anyone here heard of a magical beast or rogue knight to overcome? Is there no more magic in England?"
    "Is that what you want, Ywain?" a voice asked pleasantly. It was Rhience. "Are you sure?"
    "Of course I'm sure! I need a quest. It doesn't have to be magical, I suppose—just something with a bit of fighting."
    "Oh, I can give you magic, too, if you really want it," Rhience said.
    Everyone turned to look at the fool. "Is this a joke, Rhience?" Ywain asked.
    "Nay, Ywain. I'll put aside my cap and bells for a bit. I can tell you about an adventure, if you like."
    Agrivain snorted into his wineglass. "He's having you on, Ywain, and you're believing him. What would a fool know about knightly adventures?"
    "I could ask you the same thing," Rhience said casually, "but that would hardly be helpful, would it? And of course you're right that my current profession has little to do with adventures. As it happens, though, I met this adventure before I became a fool."
    "What were you then?" asked Sir Kai suddenly.
    "I was a knight," Rhience said.
    Sir Kai broke the startled silence with a chuckle. "I thought I'd seen you before, at your father's place in Sussex. Sir Calogrenant, aren't you?"
    Rhience nodded. "Yes, but that wasn't my real name. I took it when my father knighted me because I thought it sounded more knightly. I'm just Rhience."
    "But I thought that you had been studying for the church," Luneta said, staring at her companion confusedly.
    Rhience grinned. "That was even earlier. I gave it up. I wasn't much good at religion, you see. I kept laughing at the wrong times. So I thought I'd try knighthood, and my father—Sir Navan of Sussex—obliged me with a title. And in time I set off, dreaming of tournaments and of winning glory and the hand of a fair princess."
    "Exactly!" Ywain said.
    "And as I dreamed, I rode through Salisbury on a fine spring day—it was the first of April, the Fool's New Year, you know—and came to a little shepherd boy. Or perhaps not a boy. He was a boy's size, but he had a little beard."
    Terence sat up suddenly. "Go on, Rhience. You've begun to interest me very much."
    "Well, this shepherd asked me if I was looking for adventure, and when I said I was, he told me about a great magic to be found in the little copse of trees to my south. At the center of that copse, he said, was a small spring beside a stone basin, and if I took some water from the spring and poured it into the basin, I would soon have all the adventure I wanted."
    "He was having you on," Agrivain said. His words were slow, as if he were taking care not to slur them.
    "What did you do?" Ywain demanded.
    "Just what I can see you would do," Rhience replied. "I went to give it a try."
    "What happened?" Ywain asked.
    "Let our friend tell his story, Ywain," Gawain said. "You only slow him down with questions."
    Rhience nodded to Gawain, then continued. "It took me no time to find it. Not many stands of trees in those plains. There it was, a little spring and an ancient-looking stone basin right beside it. I rode right up to it and dipped water into the basin." Here Rhience paused for a moment. "I don't know if you'll believe this or not, and I'm not sure that I'd believe it myself if I were told, but as soon as the water touched the basin the sky grew dark with thunderclouds. A moment before, it was as pleasant and clear a day as you could ask for, and the next moment it was as black as night and beginning to thunder.
    "For the next ten minutes I truly feared for my