Guns Of Avalon

After a time they did, and a few moments later he took a step forward.

At first, I could not tell whether it was just a play of light and shadow… But no! He moved again and I had a clear view for a moment. He was missing his right arm, from a point just below the elbow. It was so heavily bandaged that I guessed the loss to have been quite recent.

Then his large left hand made a downward, sweeping gesture and hovered a good distance out from his body. The stump twitched at the same moment, and so did something at the back of my mind. His hair was long and straight and brown, and I saw the way that his jaw jutted…

He stepped outside then, and a breeze caught the cloak he wore and caused it to flare to his right. I saw that his shirt was yellow, his trousers brown. The cloak itself was a flame-like orange, and he caught its edge with an unnaturally rapid movement of his left hand and drew it back to cover his stump.

I stood quickly, and his head snapped in my direction.

Our gazes met, and neither of us moved for several heartbeats after that.

The two officers turned and stared, and then he pushed them aside and was striding toward me. I heard Ganelon grunt and climb quickly to his feet. Our guards were taken by surprise, also.

He halted several paces before me and his hazel eyes swept over me. He seldom smiled, but he managed a faint one this time.

«Come with me,» he said, and he turned back toward his tent.

We followed him, leaving our gear where it lay.

He dismissed the two officers with a glance, halted beside the tent's entrance and motioned us in. He followed and let the flap fall behind him. My eyes took in his bedroll, a small table, benches, weapons, a campaign chest. There was an oil lamp on the table, as well as books, maps, a bottle, and some cups. Another lamp flickered atop the chest.

He clasped my hand and smiled again. «Corwin,» he said, «and still alive.»

«Benedict,» I said, smiling myself, «and breathing yet. It has been devilish long.»

«Indeed. Who is your friend?» «His name is Ganelon.»

«Ganelon,» he said, nodding toward him but not offering to clasp hands.

He moved to the table then and poured three cups of wine. He passed one to me, another to Ganelon, raised the third himself.

«To your health, brother,» he said.

«To yours.» We drank.

Then, «Be seated,» he said, gesturing toward the nearest bench and seating himself at the table, «and welcome to Avalon.»

«Thank you - Protector.» He grimaced.

«The sobriquet is not unearned,» he said flatly, continuing to study my face. «I wonder whether their earlier protector could say the same?»

«It was not really this place,» I said, «and I believe that he could.» He shrugged.

«Of course,» he said. «Enough of that! Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why have you come here? Tell me of yourself. It has been too long.»

I nodded. It was unfortunate, but family etiquette as well as the balance of power required that I answer his questions before asking any of my own. He was my elder, and I had - albeit unknowing - intruded in his sphere of influence. It was not that I begrudged him the courtesy. He was one of the few among my many relatives whom I respected and even liked. It was that I was itching to question him. It had been, as he had said, too long.

And how much should I tell him now? I had no notion where his sympathies might lie. I did not desire to discover the reasons for his self-imposed exile from Amber by mentioning the wrong things. I would have to begin with something fairly neutral and sound him out as I went along.

«There must be a beginning,» he said then. «I care not what face you put upon it.»

«There are many beginnings,» I said. «It is difficult… I suppose I should go all the way back and take it from there.» I took another sip of the wine.

«Yes,» l decided. «That seems simplest - though it was only comparatively recently that I recalled much of what had occurred.

«It was several years after the defeat of the Moonriders out of Ghenesh and your departure that Eric and I had a major falling out,» I began. «Yes, it was a quarrel over the succession. Dad had been making abdication noises again, and he still refused to name a successor. Naturally, the old arguments were resumed as to who was more legitimate. Of course, you and Eric are both my elders, but while Faiella, mother to Eric and myself, was his wife after the death of Clymnea, they-»

«Enough!» cried Benedict, slapping the table so hard that it cracked.

The lamp danced and sputtered, but by some small miracle was not upset. The tent's entrance flap was immediately pushed aside and a concerned guard peered in. Benedict glanced at him and he withdrew.

«I do not wish to sit in on our respective bastardy proceeding,» Benedict said softly. «That obscene pasttime was one of the reasons I initially absented myself from felicity. Please continue your story without the benefit of footnotes.»