IV

Rowena nearly threw a fit when Mallory rode into the rec-hall. "Oh,

fair knight, ye be sorely wounded indeed!" she cried, helping him down

from his rohorse. "Certes, an ye bleed so much ye may die!"

Mallory's head was throbbing, and he saw two damosels that hight

Rowena instead of only one. "I'll be all right after I lie down for a

while," he said. "And don't worry about the bleeding--it's almost

stopped."

He took a step in the direction of his bedroom office, staggered and

would have fallen if she hadn't caught his arm. Her strength

astonished him: for all the lightness of his armor, it still lent him

an over-all weight of some two hundred and ten pounds; and yet the

shoulder which she provided for him to lean on did not give once all

the way to his bedside. She had his pauldrons, breastplate, and

arm-coverings off in no time flat. His cuisses, greaves, and sollerets

followed. The last he remembered was lying there in his under garments

and his chain-mail vest with three faces swimming in the misted sea of

his vision, each of them invested with the peculiar beauty that

concern, and concern alone, can grant.

"How is mammakin's little man now?" the rent-a-mammakin asked,

applying soothing sedasalve to the boy Mallory's swollen ear.

"He hit me, mammakin," the boy Mallory sobbed. "Just because I

wouldn't tell him that 'G' stands for 'Geography'. I hate geography! I

hate it, hate it, hate it!"

"Nasty old rent-a-robogogue! Mammakin sent him away. He was an old

model that got rented out by mistake. Is mammakin's little man's ear

all right now?"

The boy Mallory sat up. "I want my real--" he began.

The man Mallory sat up. "I want my real--" he began.

"I have great joy of thy swift recovery, fair sir," Rowena said.

She was perched on the edge of his bed, applying a cool and soothing

ointment to his ear. On the table by the bed lay a basin of water, and

on her lap lay a pink tube. He grabbed the tube, looked at the label.

_Sedasalve_. He sighed with relief. "Where did you find it?" he

asked.

"La! fair sir, when ye did seem no longer on live I did run both

toward and forward in the castle seeking a magical salve whereby I

might succor ye, whereupon I did come to a white box in the chapel

wherein lay many magical tubes of diverse colors and natures whereof I

did choose one and--"

Mallory was incredulous. "You chose a tube at random?" he demanded.

"Good Lord, it might have contained a counteragent that could have

killed me!"

"The ... the letters thereon seemed of a magical nature, fair knight.

And ... and the color was seemly."

"Well anyway it was the right one." He looked at her. Could she read?

he wondered. He was tempted to ask her, but refrained for fear of

embarrassing her. "In that same white box," he said, "you will find a

big bottle filled with round red pellets. Would you get it for me?"

When she returned with it, he took two of the pills, then he laid his

head back on the pillow. "They'll restore the blood I lost," he

explained, "but in order for them to do the job properly I've got to

lie perfectly still for at least one hour."

She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Marry! the magic of Merlin is

marvelous, albeit not as marvelous as the magic of Joseph of

Arimathea."

"What did he do that was so marvelous?"

The plum-blue eyes were fixed full upon his face. "Ye wit naught of

the tale of the white shield ye bear, fair sir? List, and I will tell

ye:

"It befell after the passion of our Lord thirty-two year, that Joseph

of Arimathea, the gentle knight, the which took down our Lord off the

holy Cross, at that time departed from Jerusalem with a great party of

his kindred with him. And so he labored till that they came to a city

that hight Sarras. And at that same hour that Joseph came to Sarras

there was a king that hight Evelake, that had great war against the

Saracens, and in especially against one Saracen, the which was King

Evelake's cousin, a rich king and a mighty, which marched nigh this

land, and his name was called Tolleme la Feintes. So on a day these

two met to do battle. Then Joseph, the son of Joseph of Arimathea,

went to King Evelake and told him he should be discomfit and slain,

but if he left his belief of the old law and believed upon the new

law. And then there he showed him the right belief of the Holy

Trinity, to the which he agreed unto with all his heart; and there

this shield was made for King Evelake, in the name of Him that died

upon the Cross. And then--"

"Hold it a minute," Mallory said. "This shield you've finally got

around to mentioning--is it the same one you set out to tell me

about?"

"Wit ye well, fair sir. And then through King Evelake's good belief he

had the better of King Tolleme. For when Evelake was in the battle

there was a cloth set afore the shield, and when he was in the

greatest peril he left put away the cloth, and then his enemies saw a

figure of a man on the Cross, wherethrough they all were discomfit.

And so it befell that a man of King Evelake's was smitten his hand

off, and bare that hand in his other hand; and Joseph called that man

unto him and bade him go with good devotion touch the Cross. And as

soon as that man had touched the Cross with his hand it was as whole

as ever it was tofore. Then soon after there fell a great marvel, that

the cross of the shield at one time vanished away that no man wist

where it became. And then King Evelake was baptized, and for the most

part all the people of that city. So, soon after Joseph would depart,

and King Evelake would go with him whether he would or nold. And so by

fortune they came into this land, that at that time was called Great

Britain: and there they found a great felon paynim, that put Joseph

into prison. And so--"

"A great _what_?" Mallory asked. In one sense the story was familiar

to him, but what bothered him was the fact that it was familiar in

another sense too--a sense he couldn't put his finger on.

"A wicked unbeliever in our Lord. And so by fortune tidings came unto

a worthy man that hight Mondrames, and he assembled all his people for

the great renown he had heard of Joseph; and so he came into the land

of Great Britain and disinherited this felon paynim and consumed him;

and therewith delivered Joseph out of prison. And after that all the

people were turned to the Christian faith.

"Not long after that Joseph was laid in his deadly bed. And when King

Evelake say that he made much sorrow, and said: For thy love I have

left my country, and sith ye shall depart out of this world, leave me

some token of yours that I may think on you. Joseph said: That will I

do full gladly; now bring me your shield that I took you when ye went

into battle against King Tolleme. Then Joseph bled at the nose, so

that he might not by no means be staunched. And there upon that shield

he made a cross of his own blood. Now may ye see a remembrance that I

love you, for ye shall never see this shield but ye shall think on me,

and it shall be always as fresh as it is now. And never shall man bear

this shield about his neck but he shall repent it, unto the time that

Galahad, the good knight, bare it; and the last of my lineage shall

have it about his neck, that shall do many marvelous deeds. Now, said

King Evelake, where shall I put this shield, that this worthy knight

may have it? Ye shall leave it there as Nacien, the hermit, shall be

put after his death; for thither shall that good knight come the

fifteenth day after that he shall receive the order of knighthood: and

so...."

* * * * *

When Mallory awoke, Rowena's head was resting on his chest, and she

was breathing the soft and even breaths of untroubled sleep. Her hair,

viewed thus closely, was not as dark as he had at first believed it to

be. It was brown, really, rather than dark-brown. And astonishingly

lustrous. Without thinking, he rested his hand lightly upon her head.

She stirred then, and sat up, rubbing her plum-blue eyes. For a

moment she stared at him uncomprehendingly, then, "Prithee forgive me,

fair sir," she said.

Mallory sat up, too. "Forgive you for what? Go open a couple of vacuum

tins while I get into my armor--I'm going to bring this caper to a

close."

"Thy ... thy strength has returned?"

"I never felt better in my life."

In the rec-hall he said, sitting down at the table before one of the

two vacuum tins she had opened, "You never did ask me what happened."

"Ye will tell me of thy own will an ye wish me to know."

Mallory took a mouthful of simulsteak, chewed and swallowed. "Your Sir

Launcelot turned out to be a phony, and pulled a rabbit out of his

helmet the nature of which I'd better not try to describe to you."

Eyes round as plums, she regarded him across the table. "A ... a

phony, fair sir?"