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Guns Of Avalon

A long while must have passed, though, before she stamped her heel and threw up her blade in a final salute. She tore off her mask then and gave me another smile.

«Thank you!» she said, breathing heavily.

I returned the salute and drew off the bird cage. I tamed and fumbled with the jacket buckles, and before I realized it she had approached and kissed me on the cheek. She had not had to stand tiptoe to do it either. I felt momentarily confused, but I smiled. Before I could say anything, she had taken my arm and turned me back in the direction from which we had come.

«I've brought us a picnic basket,» she said.

«Very good. I am hungry. I am also curious…»

«I will tell you anything that you want to hear,» she said merrily.

«How about telling me your name?» I said.

«Dara,» she replied. «My name is Dara, after my grandmother.»

She glanced at me as she said it, as though hoping for a reaction. I almost hated to disappoint her, but I nodded and repeated it, then, «Why did you call me Corwin?» I asked.

«Because that is your name,» she said. «I recognized you.»

«From where?» She released my arm.

«Here it is,» she said, reaching behind a tree and raising a basket that had been resting upon the ridges of exposed roots.

«I hope the ants didn't get to it,» she said, moving to a shaded area beside the stream and spreading a cloth upon the ground.

I hung the fencing gear on a nearby shrub.

«You seem to carry quite a few things around with you,» I observed.

«My horse is back that way,» she said, gesturing downstream with her head.

She returned her attention to weighing down the cloth and unpacking the basket.

«Why way back there?» I asked.

«So that I could sneak up on you, of course. If you'd heard a horse clomping around you'd have been awake sure as hell.»

«You're probably right,» I said.

She paused as though pondering deeply, then spoiled it with a giggle. «But you didn't the first time, though. Still…»

«The first time?» I said, seeing she wanted me to ask it.

«Yes, I almost rode over you awhile back,» she said. «You were sound asleep. When I saw who it was, I went back for a picnic basket and the fencing gear.»

«Oh. I see.»

«Come and sit down now,» she said. «And open the bottle, will you?»

She put a bottle beside my place and carefully unwrapped two crystal goblets, which she then set in the center of the cloth. I moved to my place and sat down.

«That is Benedict's best crystal,» I noted, as I opened the bottle.

«Yes,» she said. «Do be careful not to upset them when you pour - and I don't think we should clink them together.»

«No, I don't think we should,» I said, and I poured. She raised her glass.

«To the reunion,» she said.

«What reunion?»

«Ours.» «I have never met you before.»

«Don't be so prosaic,» she said, and took a drink.

I shrugged. «To the reunion.»

She began to eat then, so I did too. She was so enjoying the air of mystery she had created that I wanted to cooperate, just to keep her happy.

«Now where could I have met you?» I ventured. «Was it some great court? A harem, perhaps…?»

«Perhaps it was in Amber,» she said. «There you were…»,

«Amber?» I said, remembering that I was holding Benedict's crystal and confining my emotions to my voice. «Just who are you, anyway?»

«…There you were - handsome, conceited, admired by all the ladies,» she continued, «and there I was - a mousy little thing, admiring you from afar. Gray, or pastel - not vivid - little Dara - a late bloomer, I hasten to add - eating her heart out for you» - I muttered a mild obscenity and she laughed again. «That wasn't it?» she asked.

«No,» I said, taking another bite of beef and bread. «More likely it was that brothel where I sprained my back. I was drunk that night-»

«You remember!» she cried. «It was a part-time job. I used to break horses during the day.»

«I give up,» I said, and I poured more wine.

The really irritating thing was that there was something damnably familiar about her. But from her appearance and her behavior, I guessed her age at about seventeen. This pretty much precluded our paths ever having crossed.

«Did Benedict teach you your fencing?» I asked.

«Yes.»

«What is he to you?»

«My lover, of course,» she replied. «He keeps me in jewels and furs - and he fences with me.» She laughed again.

I continued to study her face. Yes, it was possible… «I am hurt,» I said, finally.

«Why?» she asked.

«Benedict didn't give me a cigar.»

«Cigar?»

«You are his daughter, aren't you?»

She reddened, but she shook her head. «No,» she said. «But you are getting close.»

«Granddaughter?» I said.

«Well… sort of.»