Parke godwin firelord.., p.45
Parke Godwin - [Firelord 01], page 45
![Parke Godwin - [Firelord 01]](https://picture.bookfrom.net/img/firelord-pdf/parke_godwin_-_firelord_01.jpg "Parke Godwin - [Firelord 01]")
A light, rapid tap at the open door. "May I come in?"
Guenevere in her state robes, a new gold crown set firmly over the plaited auburn hair.
"Come in, Gwen! ! don't know what they put in that last medicine, but this is the most delicious dream. You look ravishing."
She came to fuss at my pillows, leaning over, teasing my mouth with hers. "You were always the most illegally handsome king, Arthur."
"And very relieved. Thought I was gone for a minute there, riding off with all those memories and futures."
"You'll never die, Arthur, you're not the sort." Guenevere sprang up, not a moment to waste, deftly smoothing her hair under the crown. "I only have a moment. The Council's waiting."
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"Don't try to do it all alone, Gwen. Listen to Bedivere and Gareth and don't scold them too much when they tell you off. The people can deify you all they want, but start to believe it and you're in trouble."
"Don't tell me how to rule, Arthur Pendragon. My blood was crowned when—" Her dagger-look of impatience broke suddenly in a smile. "Oh, you're right. Oh, Arthur, I could have been such a wonderful little tyrant but for you. Now I don't have the ego for it; just the job and the habit."
"Keep at it, love. And mind out for Trystan. He's stuffed the lot of us into some overdressed legend."
"A legend?" She has the most beautiful laugher in the world, my Gwen. "That's so like him. He can't resist an audience. There, I'm late, but I do love you, sweet."
She came to kiss me again in her cool, lingering way.
"Most of the time, Gwen?"
In a queen's hurry, she paused one last time at the door, vital and full of destinies. "A grand time, Arthur. We didn't win it all, but we gave it a fine
try. The two of us in a legend: I've always fancied it, but won't we shock them?" She blew me a final kiss. "Rest you gentle."
Sleep you sound, Gwen.
Well now, I do feel a bit subtracted with ail those selves flying off and no telling where they'll light.
But I'm still here and feeling marvelous, feeling twenty like Tryst. Alive? I yearn toward the open hills beyond the sunny casement, want to fill my lungs with air and run for the pure joy of being. And by God, I will—
But there's a movement in the corner of my eye, and a smothered giggle. The dark little head rises up from the foot of the bed where she's been hiding all along, and—
"Yah!" cries Morgana as she springs up, arms shooting high in her eager child-greeting, and then she ducks down again quick as a thought to hide from me.
Sly, mouse-quiet, I slip from the bed and down on my knees, and—
"Yah!"
—grab her, laughing, as she leaps up into my arms, kissing and nipping at my mouth and ears and chin.
"Belrix, Belrix, did wait for thee."
And holding Morgana, I look back at the empty shell in the Rest You Gentle. Steep You Sound
359 bed and know it's time to go. This is
the last and best of me Morgana s mouth is next my ear as she kneads my shoulders with brown fingers that slip down over my back and thighs She pulls her sheepskin vest aside to push her small breasts against me, rousing me like new Bel-tern flame rekindled from old "Do thee come home now," she whispers.
She kisses my mouth, a long kiss sweet with the magic that passes from her to me. The old hollow place in me is filled with Morgana, and I
. feel
myself
waking,
growing
to my true self joined with hers as we spring light as deer over the casement sill and out into Lugh's sunlight, and Morgana takes my hand to pull me after her.
"Summer king, summer king, come with me! Will dance on the hill of the fires."
And in the dream we run like the wind, run home forever under the hill.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PARK GODWIN is coauthor of The Masters of Solitude and the forthcoming sequel, Winter-mind. He has been a radio operator, research technician, professional actor, advertising layout man, dishwasher and maitre d'hdtel. Recently he traveled to Scotland to participate in an archaeological dig.
Firelord (pdf), Parke Godwin - [Firelord 01]
