II

Mallory laid his spear aside, strode across the room, and raised the

girl to her feet. "The Sangraal," he said, forgetting in his agitation

the few odds and ends of Old English he had memorized. "Where is it!"

She raised startled eyes that were as round, and almost as large, as

plums. Her face was round, too, and faintly childlike. Her hair was

dark-brown, and done up in a strange and indeterminate coiffeur that

was as charming as it was disconcerting. Her ankle-length dress was

white, and there was a bow on the bodice that matched the

plum-blueness of her eyes. A few cosmetics, properly applied, would

have turned her into an attractive woman, and even without them, she

rated a second look.

She stared at him for some time, then, "Surely ye be an advision,

sir," she said. "I ... I know ye not."

Mallory swung his shield around so that she could see the red cross.

"Now do you know me?"

She gasped, and her eyes grew even rounder. "Sir ... Sir Galahad! Oh,

fair knight, wherefore did ye not say?"

Mallory ignored the question. "The Sangraal," he repeated. "Where is

it?"

Her tears had ceased temporarily; now they began again. "Oh, fair

sir!" she cried, "ye see tofore you, a damosel at mischief, the which

was given guardianship of the Holy Vessel at her own request, and

bewrayed her trust, a damosel--"

"Never mind all that," Mallory said. "Where's the Sangraal?"

"I wot not, fair sir."

"But you must know if you were guarding it!"

"I wot not whither it was taken."

"But you must wot who took it."

"Wot I well, fair knight. Sir Launcelot, the which is thy father, bare

it from the chamber."

Mallory was stunned. "But that's impossible! My fa--Sir Launcelot

wouldn't steal the Sangraal!"

"Well I wot, fair sir; yet steal it he did. Came he unto the chamber

and saith, I hight Sir Launcelot du Lake of the Table Round, whereat I

did see his armor to be none other; so then took he the Vessel

covered with the red samite and bare it with him from the chamber,

whereat I--"

"How long ago?"

"But a little while afore eight of the clock. Sithen I have wept. I

know now no good knight, nor no good man. And I know from thy holy

shield and from they good name that thou art a good knight, and I

beseech ye therefore to help me, for ye be a shining knight indeed,

wherefore ye ought not to fail no damosel which is in distress, and

she besought you of help."

Mallory only half heard her. Sir Launcelot was too much with him. It

was inconceivable that a knight of such noble principles would even

consider touching the Sangraal, to say nothing of making off with it.

Maybe, though, his principles hadn't been quite as noble as they had

been made out to be. He had been Queen Guinevere's paramour, hadn't

he? He had lain with the fair Elaine, hadn't he? When you came right

down to it, he could very well have been a scoundrel at heart all

along--a scoundrel whose true nature had been toned down by writers

like Malory and poets like Tennyson. All of which, while it strongly

suggested that he was capable of stealing the Sangraal, threw not the

slightest light on his reason for having done so. Mallory was right

back where he had started from.

He turned to the girl. "You said something about needing my help. What

do you want me to do?"

Instantly, her tears stopped and she clasped her hands together and

looked at him with worshipful eyes. "Oh, fair sir, ye be most kind

indeed! Well I wot from thy shining armor that ye--"

"Knock it off," Mallory said.

"Knock it off? I wot not what--"

"Never mind. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Ye must bear me from the castle, fair sir, or the king learns I have

bewrayed my trust and wreaks his wrath upon me. And then ye must help

me regain the Holy Cup and return it to this chamber."

"We'll worry about getting the Cup back after we're beyond the walls,"

Mallory said, starting for the door. "Come on--they're all in the

banquet hall and as drunk as lords--they won't even see us go by."

She hung back. "But the warders, fair sir--they be not enchafed. And

King Pelles, by my own wish, did forbid them to pass me."

Mallory stared at her. "By your own wish! Well of all the crazy--"

Abruptly he dropped the subject. "All right then--how _do_ we get out

of here?"

"There lieth beneath the fortress and the forest a parlous passage

wherein dwells the fiend, the which I have much discomfit of. But with

ye aside me, fair knight, there is naught to fear."

Mallory had read enough Malory to be able to take sixth-century fiends

in his stride. "I'll have to take my horse along," he said. "Is there

room for it to pass?"

"Yea, fair sir. The tale saith that aforetime many knights did ride

out beneath the fortress and the forest and did smite the Saxons,

Saracens, and Pagans, the which did compass the castle about, from

behind, whereupon the battle was won."

Mallory stepped outside the chamber, the girl just behind him, and

encephalopathed the necessary directions. After a moment, Easy Money

came trotting down the corridor to his side. The girl gasped, and, to

his astonishment, threw her arms around the rohorse's neck. "He is a

noble steed indeed, fair sir," she said; "and worthy of a knight

fitting to sit in the Siege Perilous." Presently she stepped back,

frowning. "He ... he is most cold, fair sir."

"All horses of that breed are," Mallory explained. "Incidentally, his

name is 'Easy Money'."

"La! such a strange name."

"Not so strange." Mallory raised his visor, making a mental note to

see to it that any and all suits of armor he might buy in the future

were air-conditioned. He got his spear. "Let's be on our way, shall

we?"

"Ye ... ye have blue eyes, fair sir."

"Never mind the color of my eyes--let's get out of here."

She seemed to make up her mind about something. "An ye will follow me,

sir knight," she said, and started down the corridor.

* * * * *

A ramp, the entrance of which was camouflaged by a rotating section of

the inner castle wall, gave access to the subterranean passage. The

passage itself, in the flickering light of the torch that the girl had

brought along, appeared at first to be nothing more than a natural

cave enlarged through the centuries by the stream that still flowed

down its center. Presently, however, Mallory saw that in certain

places the stone walls had been cut back in such a way that the space

on either side of the stream never narrowed to a width of less than

four feet. He saw other evidence of human handiwork too--dungeons.

They were little more than shallow caves now, though, their iron

gratings having rusted and fallen away.

After proceeding half a hundred yards, he paused. "I don't know what

we're walking for when we've got a perfectly good horse at our

disposal," he told the girl. "Come on, I'll help you into the saddle

and I'll jump on behind."

She shook her head. "No, fair knight, it is not fitting for a

gentlewoman to ride tofore her champion. Ye will mount, and I will

ride behind."

"Suit yourself," Mallory said. He climbed into the saddle with a clank

and a clatter, and helped her up on Easy Money's croup. "By the way,

you never did tell me your name."

"I hight the damosel Rowena."

"Pleased to meet you," Mallory said. _Giddy-ap, Easy Money_, he

encephalopathed.

They rode in silence for a little while, the light from Rowena's torch

dancing acappella rigadoons on bare walls and dripping ceilings, Easy

Money's hoofbeats hardly audible above the purling of the stream.

Presently Rowena said, "It were best that ye drew out thy sword, fair

sir, for anon the fiend will beset us."

"He hasn't beset us yet," Mallory pointed out.

"La! fair sir, he will."

He saw no harm in humoring her, and did as she had suggested. "You

mentioned something a while back about having been given guardianship

of the Sangraal at your own request," he said. "How did that come

about?"

"List, fair sir, and I will tell ye. But first I must tell ye of Sir

Bors de Ganis, of which Sir Lionel is brother. It happed one day that

Sir Bors did ride into a forest in the Kingdom of Mennes unto the hour

of midday, and there befell him a marvelous adventure. So he met at

the departing of the two ways two knights that led Lionel, his

brother, all naked, bounden upon a strong hackney, and his hands

bounden tofore his breast. And every each of them held in his hands

thorns wherewith they went beating him so sore that the blood trailed

down more than in an hundred places of his body, so that he was all

blood tofore and behind, but he said never a word; as he which was

great of heart he suffered all that ever they did to him as though he

had felt none anguish.

"Anon Sir Bors dressed him to rescue him that was his brother; and so

he looked upon the other side of him, and saw a knight which brought a

fair gentlewoman, and would have set her in the thickest place of the

forest for to have been the more surer out of the way from them that

sought him. And she which was nothing assured cried with a high voice:

'Saint Mary succor your maid.' And anon she espied where Sir Bors came

riding. And when she came nigh him she deemed him a knight of the

Round Table, whereof she hoped to have some comfort; and then she

conjured him: By the faith that he ought unto him in whose service

thou art entered in, and for the faith ye owe unto the high order of

knighthood, and for the noble King Arthur's sake, that I suppose that

made thee knight, that thou help me, and suffer me not to be shamed of

this knight. When--"

"Just a minute," Mallory interrupted, thoroughly bewildered and

simultaneously afflicted with an irrational sense of _deja vu_. "This

gentlewoman you speak of--would she by any chance be you?"

"Wit ye well, fair sir. When--"

"But if she's you, why don't you use the first person singular instead

of the third?"

"I wot not what--"

"Why don't you use 'I' instead of 'she' when you refer to yourself

directly?"

"It would not be fitting, fair knight. When Bors heard her say thus he

had so much sorrow there he nyst not what to do. For if I let my

brother be in adventure he must be slain, and that would I not for all

the earth. And if I help not the maid she is shamed for ever, and

also she shall lose her virginity the which she shall never get again.

Then lift he up his eyes and said weeping: Fair sweet Lord, whose

liege man I am, keep Lionel, my brother, that these knights slay him

not, and for pity of you, and for Mary's sake, I shall succor this

maid. Then dressed he him unto the knight the which had the

gentlewoman, and then--"

* * * * *

"Hist!" Mallory whispered. "I heard something."

For a moment the light flared wildly as though she had nearly dropped

the torch. "Wh ... whence came the sound, fair knight?"

"From the other side of the stream." He peered into the vacillating

shadows, but saw nothing but the darker shadows of one of the

innumerable man-made caves. The sound he had heard had brought to mind

the dull clang that metal makes when it collides with stone, and it

had been so faint as to have been barely audible above the purling of

the stream. Thinking back, he was not altogether certain that he had

heard it at all. "My imagination's getting the best of me, I guess,"

he said presently. "There's no one there."

Her warm breath penetrated the crevices of his gorget and fanned the

back of his neck. "Ye ... ye ween not that it could have been the

fiend prowling?"

"Of course I ween not! Relax, and finish your story. But get to the

point, will you?"

"An ... an it so please.... And then Sir Bors cried: Sir knight, let

your hand off that maiden, or ye be but dead. And then he set down the

maiden, and was armed at all pieces save he lacked his spear. Then he

dressed his shield, and drew out his sword, and Bors smote him so hard

that it went through his shield and habergeon on the left shoulder.

And through great strength he beat him down to the earth, and at the

pulling out of Bors' spear there he swooned. Then came Bors to the

maid and said: How seemeth it to you of this knight ye be delivered at

this time? Now sir, said she, I pray you lead me there as this knight

had me. So shall I do gladly: and took the horse of the wounded

knight, and set the gentlewoman upon him, and so brought her as she

desired. Sir knight, said she, ye have better sped than ye weened, for

an I had lost my maidenhead, five hundred men should have died for it.

What knight was he that had you in the forest? By my faith, said she,

he is my cousin. So wot I never with what engyn the fiend enchafed

him, for yesterday he took me from my father privily; for I nor none

of my father's men mistrusted him not, and if he had had my maidenhead

he should have died for the sin, and his body shamed and dishonored

for ever. Thus as--"

"_Shhh!_"

This time, Mallory was certain that he had heard something. The sound

had had much in common with the previous sound, except that it had

suggested metal scraping against, rather than colliding with, stone.

Directly across the stream was another cave, this one shallow enough

to permit the torchlight to penetrate its deeper shadows, and looking

into those shadows, he caught a faint gleam of reflected light.

Rowena must have caught it, too, for he heard her gasp behind him. "It

were best that I thanked ye now for thy great kindness, fair knight,"

she said, "for anon we be no longer on live."

"Nonsense!" Mallory said. "If this fiend of yours is anywhere in the

vicinity, he's probably more afraid of us than we are of him."

The cave was behind them now. "Per ... peradventure he hath already

had meat," Rowena said hopefully. "The tale saith that and the fiend

be filled, he becomes aweary and besets not them the which do pass him

by in peace."

"I'll keep my sword handy, just in case he changes his mind," Mallory

said. "Meanwhile, get on with your autobiography--only for Pete's

sake, cut it short, will you?"

"An it please, fair sir. Thus as the fair gentlewoman stood talking

with Sir Bors there came twelve knights seeking after her, and anon

she told them all how Bors had delivered her; then they made great

joy, and besought him to come to her father, a great lord, and he

should be right welcome. Truly, said Bors, that may not be at this

time, for I have a great adventure to do in this country. So he

commended them unto God and departed. The fair gentlewoman did grieve

mickle to see him leave, and she saith, sir knights, noble was the

service that brave knight did render unto thy liege's daughter in the

saving of her maidenhead the which she could never get again, for that

be none other than his own brother the which he fauted. Therefore,

noble must be both his king and his cause, wherefore it be befitting

that a gentlewoman of thy liege's daughter's nature leave the castle

of her father betimes that she may render fitting service to her

succor's cause and be worthy of his deed. Thus spake this fair

gentlewoman, whereat she did mount upon her palfrey and so departed

her from thence and did ride as fast as her palfrey might bear her,

whereupon after many days she came to the castle of Carbonek and did

seek out King Pelles and did beseech him that she might be made

guardian of the Sangraal, whereat he did graciously consent to her

request and did consent also that she be made prisoner in the fortress

by her own wish. And now she was bewrayed her trust, fair sir, and the

table of silver whereon the Sangraal stood stands empty."

* * * * *

For some time after she finished talking, Mallory was silent. Was she

trying to pull his leg? he wondered. Or were the gentlewomen of her

day and age really as high-minded and as feathered-brained as she

would have him believe? He decided not to go into the matter for the

moment. "Tell me, Rowena," he said, "if the Sangraal is visible only

to those who are worthy of it, as I have been led to believe, how are

any of those wassailers whooping it up back there in that banquet

hall going to know whether it's gone or not?"

"It be ofttimes averred that all cannot see the Holy Cup, as ye say,

fair knight. Natheless, all that have come unto the chamber sithen my

trust began, they did see it, and Sir Launcelot, the which is much

with sin, he did see it--and did take it."

"He's not going to get very far with it, though," Mallory said. And

then, "How long is the tunnel anyway?"

"Anon we shall see the stars, fair sir."

She was right, and a few minutes later, after rounding a turn in the

passage, they emerged upon the bank of a small river. The subterranean

stream that had kept them company emerged, too, and joined its larger

sister on the way to the sea. On either hand, cliffs rose up, and the

susurrus of waves breaking on sand could be heard in the distance.

Mallory guided Easy Money upstream to where the cliffs dwindled down

to thickly forested slopes. It took him but a moment to orientate

himself, and presently rohorse and riders were headed in the direction

of the highway. "Now," said he, "if you'll tell me where you want to

be dropped off, I'll see what I can do about getting the Grail back."

There was a brief silence. Then, "An ... an ye wish, ye may leave me

here."

He halted Easy Money, dismounted, and lifted her down to the ground.

He looked around, expecting to see a habitation of some sort. He saw

nothing but trees. He faced the girl again. "Don't you have any

friends or relatives you can stay with?"

An argent shaft of moonlight slanting down through the foliage

illumined her face. "There be none nigh, fair sir, nor none nearer

than an hundred miles. I shall abide your again coming here in the

forest."

Mallory stared at her. She didn't look--or act either, for that

matter--as though she knew enough to get in out of the rain. "Abide

here in the forest! Why, you wouldn't last a week!"

"But ye will return hither with the Sangraal long afore that,

whereupon we two together shall return the Holy Vessel to the chamber

and I shall not be made to suffer the severing of my two hands."