Percival's Angel by Anne Eliot Crompton Page A

Hounds roamed the floor searching out crumbs and bones.
    Percival had never heard Gahart speak softly till now.
    â€œDrink, friend. Drink.”
    Nothing loath, Percival drank.
    â€œI was right to bet on you from the start. You will be a fine Knight.”
    â€œI am a fine Knight now, Lord.” Put that straight.
    â€œNay, Percival. You are not yet knighted. But that day will come.”
    Percival wiped his lips on his embroidered sleeve. “A mage at Arthur’s Dun prophesied that Arthur would have no finer knight than me.”
    â€œA mage?” Gahart took the flagon, drank, and handed it back. “Maybe he laughed when he said it?”
    â€œShe…long, dark hair…aye, she laughed. You think she joked?”
    â€œNo such thing. That which a laughing mage prophesies comes true.”
    â€œAh.” True! Goddamn!
    â€œShe must have been Merlin’s assistant…Niviene.”
    Percival drank, and thought. Niviene. Niviene! Of Lady Villa! Who is always away with Merlin. I was too stirred up to know her!
    A vision of Apple Island rose up out of Percival’s ale-fog as if out of the misty Fey lake. He saw again the low, stony shore, ancient apple trees in bloom, a crumbling white wall of Lady Villa, groaning under vines. Behind that wall the Lady, Ivie, and Alanna sat spinning. And soon Alanna would come to the door and call his child-name. “Percy? Percy! Time to go home.”
    He shuddered, and thrust the whole scene away, down and out of his mind. Deeply, he drank.
    Niviene! Now, why didn’t Lili tell me that? She’s had days to tell me that!
    A soft touch on his knee. Startled, he glanced down. Lili herself had come to his side and curled down like a faithful hound, cross-legged on the floor. She must have heard his thought.
    Even more softly, Gahart said, “Time I learn more about you, Percival. I might maybe make plans for you.”
    Plans?
    â€œYou come to me from nowhere, leading that great red charger. You carry one fine red-hilted sword, one costly red shield. You wear the rags of a fool. And know no more of the world than a milk-fed brat! Do I recite the truth?”
    â€œAye, Lord.” Though Percival winced at the description. Still, it’s true.
    â€œOne does not ask a guest everything at once. I have waited a while to ask, but now I must know. From where did you come here, Friend Percival?”
    Readily. “From Arthur’s Dun. There I killed the Red Knight, Arthur’s enemy. I took his horse and arms. But for some reason his enemies, Arthur’s men, were angry—”
    â€œBefore that. From where did you come to Arthur’s Dun?”
    Another soft Lili-touch out of growing darkness.
    â€œI came from a forest, Lord.”
    â€œA forest?”
    â€œAye, a forest.” No need to say what kind. “My mother raised me there so that I would not grow up to be a Knight.”
    â€œHah! You had no father?”
    â€œDead. So were my brothers dead.”
    â€œAha. And your mother wished for you to live. But to retreat into a forest…she must be a bold one!”
    Percival had never considered this aspect of the story. He refused to consider it now. He continued. “When she saw I would go, she told me about the world, and how to be a Knight.”
    Gahart spat to the side. “What could a fool woman know about that?”
    Percival shrugged. “What she knew, she told me.” And he began to recite. “ Should you meet a maiden fair, kiss her well and leave her there. ”
    Gahart grinned.
    â€œ Should God’s church stand by your way, enter there and gravely pray. ”
    Gahart laughed.
    â€œ Upon your way you hear a cry? Answer it! Help, save, or die! ”
    Lili thumped a little fist on his knee. Enough!
    Gahart drained the flagon and set it down on the floor. “Listen, Percival. Men do not learn from women. Women know nothing. They’re just useful animals. Your red