英语小说网

"I'll try and save you, friends," Father Brian said, his voice still a whisper, "but you must be quick and do as I say. There are soldiers arrived, twenty, even thirty, with a will to hunt you down. They already have the older Saxon brother trapped, but he's a lively one and keeps them occupied, giving you a chance of escape. Be still, boy, stay with me!" Edwin was moving to the window, but Father Brian had reached out and clasped his arm. "I mean to lead you to safety, but we must first leave this chamber unseen. Soldiers cross the square below, but their eyes are on the tower where the Saxon still holds out. With God's help they won't notice us go down the steps outside, and then the worst will be behind us. But cause no sound to make their gazes turn, and take care not to trip on the steps. I'll descend first, then signal your moment to follow. No, mistress, you must leave your bundle here. Let it be enough to keep your lives!"

It was still the depths of night, but voices were calling outside and surely torches had been lit in the courtyard below, for there were now illuminated patches on the wall facing the window. The monk who had awoken them was dragging the boy, still half asleep, over to their side, and Axl recognised Father Brian's limping gait before his face emerged from the dark.

A hand had been shaking him, but by the time Axl sat up the figure was already on the other side of the room, bending over Edwin and whispering, "Quickly, boy, quickly! And not a sound!" Beatrice was awake beside him, and Axl rose unsteadily to his feet, the cold air startling him, then reached down to grasp his wife's outstretched hands.

They crouched near the door and listened to Father Brian's footsteps descend with agonising slowness. Eventually, when Axl peered cautiously through the doorway, he saw torches moving at the far end of the courtyard; but before he could discern clearly what was going on, his attention was drawn by Father Brian, standing directly below and signalling frantically.

"Follow close behind me, princess," Axl said. "Don't look across the yard, but keep your eyes on where your foot may find the next step, or it'll be a hard fall and only enemies to come to our aid. Tell the boy what I've just said, and let's have this behind us."

Despite his own instructions, Axl could not help glancing across the courtyard as he went down. On the far side, soldiers had gathered around a cylindrical stone tower overlooking the building in which the monks had earlier had their meeting. Blazing torches were being waved, and there appeared to be disorder in their ranks. When Axl was halfway down the steps, two soldiers broke away and came running across the square, and he was sure they would be spotted. But the men vanished into a doorway, and before long Axl was gratefully ushering both Beatrice and Edwin into the shadows of the cloisters where Father Brian was waiting.

The staircase, running diagonally down the side of the wall, was mostly in shadow except for one patch, quite near the ground, lit up brightly by the nearly full moon.

They followed the monk along narrow corridors, some of which may have been the same as those taken earlier with the silent Father Ninian. Often they moved through complete darkness, following the rhythmic hiss of their guide's dragged foot. Then they came into a chamber whose ceiling had partly fallen away. Moonlight was pouring in, revealing piles of wooden boxes and broken furniture. Axl could smell mould and stagnant water.

"Take heart, friends," Father Brian said, no longer whispering. He had gone into a corner and was moving objects aside. "You're nearly safe."

Father Brian continued clearing the corner, and did not look up as he said: "A mystery to us, sir. They came this night without invitation, pouring through the gates and through our home as if it were their own. They demanded the two young Saxons lately arrived here, and though they made no mention of you or your wife, I wouldn't trust them to treat you gently. This boy here, they would clearly wish to murder, as they do even now his brother. You must save yourselves and there'll be time later to ponder the soldiers' ways."

"Father," Axl said, "we're grateful to you for this rescue, but please tell us what's occurred."

"Master Wistan was a stranger to us only this morning," Beatrice said, "yet we're uneasy making our escape while a terrible fate threatens him."

"The soldiers may yet come on our heels, mistress, for we left no barred doors behind us. And if that fellow bravely buys your escape, even with his own life, you must grasp it gratefully. Under this trap-door is a tunnel dug in ancient times. It will take you underground into the forest, where you'll emerge far from your pursuers. Now help me raise it, sir, for it's too heavy for my hands alone."

Even for the two of them, it took some effort to raise the door till it stood up at a steep angle before them, revealing a square of deeper blackness.

But Edwin was saying something to Beatrice, and she now said: "Master Edwin would go to Master Wistan's aid."

"Tell him, princess, we might help Wistan yet by making our escape through this tunnel. Tell the boy what you must, but persuade him to come quickly."

"Let the boy go down first," the monk said, "for it's years since any of us used this passage and who knows if the steps haven't crumbled. He's nimble-footed and could take a fall better."

"Let's go too, princess. Stay close to me."

The steps leading underground were shallow -- flat stones sunk into earth -- and felt solid enough. They could see something of the way ahead by the light from the open trap-door above them, but just as Axl turned to speak to Father Brian, the door closed with what seemed a thunderous crash.

As Beatrice spoke to him, a change seemed to come over the boy. He kept staring at the hole in the floor, and his eyes, caught in the moonlight, seemed to Axl at that moment to have something strange about them, as though he were steadily coming under a spell. Then even as Beatrice was speaking, Edwin walked towards the trap-door and without looking back at them, stepped into the blackness and vanished. As his footsteps grew fainter, Axl took Beatrice's hand and said:

They all three stopped and for a while remained quite still. The air did not feel as stale as Axl had expected; in fact he thought he could feel a faint breeze. Somewhere in front of them, Edwin started to speak, and Beatrice answered him in a whisper. Then she said softly:

"Queer right enough. But there's no doubting there's soldiers in the monastery, for didn't we see them ourselves just now? I don't see what choice we have but to go on and pray this tunnel brings us safely to the forest. Tell the boy to keep moving forward, but slowly and always a hand to this mossy wall, for I fear this passage will only grow darker."

"The boy asks why Father Brian closed the door on us as he did. I told him he was most likely anxious to hide the tunnel from the soldiers maybe even now entering the room. All the same, Axl, it struck me a little queer too. And isn't that him now, surely, moving objects over the door? If we find the way ahead obstructed by earth or water, the father himself saying it's years since anyone came this way, how will we return and open that door, the way it's so heavy and now with objects above it?"

Yet as they went forward they found there was a feeble light, so that at times they could even make out each other's outlines. There were sudden puddles that surprised their feet, and more than once during this phase of their journey, Axl thought he heard a noise up ahead, but since neither Edwin nor Beatrice reacted he put it down to his overwrought imagination. But then Edwin suddenly halted, almost causing Axl to collide into him. He felt Beatrice behind him squeeze his hand, and for a moment they stood there very still in the dark. Then Beatrice moved even closer to him, and her breath felt warm on his neck as she said in the softest of whispers: "Do you hear it, Axl?"

"Hear what, princess?"

"Perhaps a bat, princess. Or a rat."

"No, Axl. I hear it now. It's a man's breathing."

Edwin's hand touched him warningly, and they were silent again. Eventually Beatrice said in his ear: "There's something here with us, Axl."

"Fear not, friends," a voice said. "It's only Gawain, Arthur's knight. And as soon as this tinder lights we'll see each other better."

Axl listened again. Then there came a sharp noise, a striking sound repeating three times, four times, just beyond where they were standing. There were bright flashes, then a tiny flame which grew momentarily to reveal the shape of a seated man, then all was darkness again.

There were more noises of flints, then eventually a candle flamed and began to burn steadily.

Sir Gawain was sitting on a dark mound. It evidently did not make an ideal seat for he was at an odd angle, like a giant doll about to topple. The candle in his hand illuminated his face and upper torso with wobbling shadows, and he was breathing heavily. As before, he was in tunic and armour; his sword, unsheathed, had been thrust at an angle into the ground near the foot of the mound. He stared at them balefully, moving the candle from one face to the next.

"To defend you, sir! The melancholy truth is the monks have deceived you. There's a beast dwells down here and they mean you to perish by it. Happily, not every monk thinks alike. Ninian, the silent one, brought me down here unseen and I'll guide you to safety yet."

"So you're all here," he said finally. "I'm relieved."

"You hardly explain yourself, sir. Why do you walk before us?"

"You surprise us, Sir Gawain," Axl said. "What do you mean by hiding yourself here?"

"Assume it does, sir. The monks wouldn't have sent you down here if they didn't mean you to meet the beast. It's always their way. As men of Christ, it's beyond them to use a sword or even poison. So they send down here those they wish dead, and in a day or two they'll have forgotten they ever did so. Oh yes, that's their way, especially the abbot's. By Sunday he may even have convinced himself he saved you from those soldiers. And the work of whatever prowls this tunnel, should it cross his mind, he'll disown, or even call God's will. Well, let's see what God wills tonight now a knight of Arthur walks before you!"

"I've been down here a while and walking before you, friends. Yet with this sword and armour, and my great height which forces me to stumble and go with bowed head, I can't walk quickly and now you discover me."

"Your news overwhelms us, Sir Gawain," said Axl. "But first tell us of this beast you speak of. What is its nature and does it threaten us even as we stand here?"

"They certainly wish this boy dead, mistress. I tried to make them see it wasn't necessary, even made a solemn promise to take him far away from this country, but no, they don't listen to me! They won't risk this boy loose, even with Master Wistan captured or killed, for who's to say there won't come some other fellow one day to find this boy. I'll take him far away, I said, but they fear what may happen and wish him dead. You and your good husband they might have spared but that you'd inevitably be witnesses to their deeds. Had I seen all this in advance, would I have travelled here to this monastery? Who knows? It seemed my duty then, did it not? But their plans for the boy, and for an innocent Christian couple, I could not allow it! Luckily not all the monks think alike, you know, and Ninian, the silent one, led me down here unwatched. It was my intention to go before you much further, but this armour and my stumbling height -- how many times over the years have I cursed this height! What advantage does it bring a man to be so tall? For every high-dangling pear I reached there's been an arrow threatened me would have flown over a smaller man!"

"You're saying, Sir Gawain," Beatrice asked, "the monks wish us dead?"

"I never saw it, sir, only know those the monks send this way perish by it."

"What do you say, sir? I'm a mortal man, I don't deny it, but I'm a knight well trained and nurtured for long years of my youth by the great Arthur, who taught me to face all manner of challenge with gladness, even when fear seeps to the marrow, for if we're mortal let us at least shine handsomely in God's eyes while we walk this earth! Like all who stood with Arthur, sir, I've faced beelzebubs and monsters as well as the darkest intents of men, and always upheld my great king's example even in the midst of ferocious conflict. What is it you suggest, sir? How dare you? Were you there? I was there, sir, and saw all with these same eyes that fix you now! But what of it, what of it, friends, this is a discussion for some other time. Forgive me, we have other matters to attend to, of course we have. What is it you asked, sir? Ah yes, this beast, yes, I understand it's monstrous fierce but no demon or spirit and this sword is good enough to slay it."

"Is it one can be killed by an ordinary sword held by a mortal man?"

"Sir Gawain," Axl said, "what kind of beast is it, this one you say dwells down here?"

"But Sir Gawain," Beatrice said, "do you really propose we walk further down this tunnel knowing what we now do?"

"What choice have we, mistress? If I'm not mistaken, the way back to the monastery is locked to us, and yet that same door may open any time to pour forth soldiers into this tunnel. There's nothing for it but to go on, and but for this one beast in our way, we may soon find ourselves in the forest far from your pursuers, for Ninian assures me this is a true tunnel and well maintained. So let's be on our way before this candle burns down, it's the only one I have."

"Let's follow him, princess. Sir Gawain, we thank you for your trouble. Please lead us now to safety, and let's hope this beast's dozing or gone prowling the night."

"Do we trust him, Axl?" Beatrice asked, making no effort to prevent Sir Gawain hearing. "My mind's giddy now and loath to believe our kind Father Brian's betrayed us. Yet what this knight says has the ring of truth to it."

"I fear we have no such luck. But come, friends, we'll go with courage." The old knight rose slowly to his feet, then held out the candle at arm's length. "Master Axl, perhaps you'll carry for us this flame, for I'll need both my hands to keep my sword at the ready."

They went on into the tunnel, Sir Gawain leading, Axl following with the flame, Beatrice holding his arm from behind, and Edwin now at the rear. There was no option but to go in single file, the passage remaining narrow, and the ceiling of dangling moss and sinewy roots grew lower and lower until even Beatrice had to stoop. Axl did his best to hold the candle high, but the breeze in the tunnel was now stronger, and he was often obliged to lower it and cover the flame with his other hand. Sir Gawain though never complained, and his shape going before them, sword raised over his shoulder, seemed never to vary. Then Beatrice let out an exclamation and tugged Axl's arm.

"What of it, princess? We have to move on."

"What is it, princess?"

"Oh, Axl, stop! My foot touched something then, but your candle moved too quickly."

"Axl, I thought it a child! My foot touched it and I saw it before your light passed. Oh, I believe it's a small child long dead!"

"There, princess, don't distress yourself. Where was it you saw it?"

Despite his counsel, Sir Gawain had doubled back, and Edwin too was now at Beatrice's side. Axl crouched forward and moved the candle here and there, revealing damp earth, tree roots and stones. Then the flame illuminated a large bat lying on its back as though peacefully asleep, wings stretched right out. Its fur looked wet and sticky. The pig-like face was hairless, and little puddles had formed in the cavities of the outspread wings. The creature might indeed have been sleeping but for what was on the front of its torso. As Axl brought the flame even closer, they all stared at the circular hole extending from just below the bat's breast down to its belly, taking in parts of the ribcage to either side. The wound was peculiarly clean, as though someone had taken a bite from a crisp apple.

"Come, come, friends," Sir Gawain said from the dark. "Many things in this place are best left unseen."

Beatrice seemed not to hear the knight. "It was over here, Axl. Bring the flame this way. Down there, Axl, shine it down there, though I dread to see its poor face again!"

"What are you saying, princess? It's not a baby. What are you saying?"

"I'm sorry this flame's out, princess, or I'd show you again. A bat it is, nothing more, yet myself I'd look again at what it lies on. Sir Gawain, did you notice the creature's bed?"

"Don't worry, friends," Sir Gawain said. "I'll find my tinder again."

"What could have done work like this?" Axl asked.

"Didn't I tell you, Axl?" Beatrice sounded close to tears. "I knew it was a baby the moment my foot touched it."

"What could have happened to the poor child? And what of its parents?"

"What do you suggest, sir?" Sir Gawain's voice became carelessly loud. "What skulls? I saw no skulls, sir! Only a bat fallen on misfortune!"

"Oh Axl, it was a baby, I'm sure of it!"

"I don't know what you mean, sir."

He must have moved the candle too swiftly, for at that moment the flame guttered and went out.

"Princess, it's simply a bat, the like of which often haunts dark places."

"It seemed to me the creature lay on a bed of bones, for I thought I saw a skull or two that could only have belonged to men."

"Such a lonely death. Where were its parents, Axl?"

Beatrice was now sobbing quietly, and Axl straightened to embrace her.

"What could I do, sir, knowing what I did? Yes, I rode here and spoke to the abbot, yet how was I to know the darkness of that man's heart? And the better men, poor Jonus, his liver pecked and his days not long, while that abbot lives on with barely a scratch from those birds…"

"Sir Gawain, your voice booms too much and who knows where the soldiers are this moment."

"What are you suggesting, sir? Skulls? I saw no skulls! And what if there are a few old bones here? What of it, is that anything extraordinary? Aren't we underground? But I saw no bed of bones, I don't know what you suggest, Master Axl. Were you there, sir? Did you stand beside the great Arthur? I'm proud to say I did, sir, and he was a commander as merciful as he was gallant. Yes, indeed, it was I who came to the abbot to warn of Master Wistan's identity and intentions, what choice had I? Was I to guess how dark the hearts of holy men could turn? Your suggestions are unwarranted, sir! An insult to all who ever stood alongside the great Arthur! There are no beds of bones here! And am I not here now to save you?"

"It was no child, princess," he said more gently. "Don't upset yourself."

Sir Gawain broke off, interrupted by a noise from further down the tunnel. It was hard to determine how distant or near it had been, but the sound was unmistakably the cry of a beast; it had resembled the howl of a wolf, though there had also been something of the deeper roar of a bear. The cry had not been prolonged, but it made Axl clasp Beatrice to him, and Sir Gawain snatched his sword from out of the ground. Then, for several moments, they remained standing in silence, listening for the sound to return. But nothing further came, and suddenly Sir Gawain began to laugh, quietly and breathlessly. As his laughter went on, Beatrice said into Axl's ear: "Let's leave this place, husband. I wish no more reminding of this lonely grave."

Sir Gawain stopped laughing and said: "Perhaps we heard then the beast, but we have no choice but to go on. So, friends, let's finish our quarrel. We'll light the candle again before long, but let's go a little way now without it in case it hastens the beast our way. See, here's a pale light and enough to walk by. Come, friends, no more of this quarrel. My sword's ready and let's continue."

They all paused to recover their breaths and look around at their new surroundings. After the long walk with the earth brushing their heads, it was a relief to see the ceiling not only so high above them, but composed of more solid material. Once Sir Gawain had lit the candle again, Axl realised they were in some sort of mausoleum, surrounded by walls bearing traces of murals and Roman letters. Before them a pair of substantial pillars formed a gateway into a further chamber of comparable proportions, and falling across this threshold was an intense pool of moonlight. Its source was not obvious: perhaps somewhere behind the high arch crossing the two pillars there was an opening which at that moment, by sheer chance, was aligned to receive the moon. The light illuminated much of the moss and fungus on the pillars, as well as a section of the next chamber, whose floor appeared to be covered in rubble, but which Axl soon realised was comprised of a vast layer of bones. Only then did it occur to him that under his feet were more broken skeletons, and that this strange floor extended for the entirety of both chambers.

The tunnel became more tortuous, and they moved with greater caution, fearing what each turn would reveal. But they encountered nothing, nor heard the cry again. Then the tunnel descended steeply for a good distance before coming out into a large underground chamber.

"We need not quarrel, Master Axl. Here are the skulls of men, I won't deny it. There an arm, there a leg, but just bones now. An old burial ground. And so it may be. I dare say, sir, our whole country is this way. A fine green valley. A pleasant copse in the springtime. Dig its soil, and not far beneath the daisies and buttercups come the dead. And I don't talk, sir, only of those who received Christian burial. Beneath our soil lie the remains of old slaughter. Horace and I, we've grown weary of it. Weary and we no longer young."

"This must be some ancient burial place," he said aloud. "Yet there are so many buried here."

"A burial place," Sir Gawain muttered. "Yes, a burial place." He had been moving slowly around the chamber, sword in one hand, candle in the other. Now he went towards the arch, but stopped short of the second chamber, as if suddenly daunted by the brilliant moonlight. He thrust his sword into the ground, and Axl watched his silhouette leaning on his weapon, moving the candle up and down with a weary air.

"I don't forget the beast, sir. I merely consider this gateway before us. Look up there, you see it?" Sir Gawain was holding up the candle to reveal along the lower edge of the arch what appeared to be a row of spearheads pointing down to the ground.

"A portcullis," Axl said.

"Sir Gawain," Axl said, "we have but one sword between us. I ask you not to grow melancholic, nor forget the beast is near."

"Exactly, sir. This gate isn't so ancient. Younger than either of us, I'd wager. Someone has raised it for us, wishing us to pass through. See there, the ropes that hold it. And there, the pulleys. Someone comes here often to make this gate rise and fall, and perhaps feed the beast." Sir Gawain stepped towards one of the pillars, his feet crunching over bones. "If I cut this rope, the gate will surely come down, it will bar our way out. Yet if the beast's beyond, we'll be shielded from it. Is that the Saxon boy I hear or some pixie stolen in here?"

Indeed Edwin, back in the shadows, had started to sing; faintly at first so that Axl had thought the boy was simply soothing his nerves, but then his voice had become steadily more conspicuous. His song seemed to be a slow lullaby, and he was rendering it with his face to the wall, his body rocking gently.

This time there was a snapping sound, and the gate crashed down raising a cloud of dust in the moonlight. The noise felt immense -- Edwin abruptly stopped his singing -- and Axl stared through the iron grid now fallen before them to see what it would summon. But there was no sign of the beast, and after a moment they all let go their breaths.

"Wise counsel, sir. I'll do as you say."

"I say we cut the rope, sir. We can surely raise the gate again when we wish. Let's first discover what we face while the gate's down."

"The boy behaves as one bewitched," Sir Gawain said. "Never mind him, we must now decide, Master Axl. Do we walk on? Or do we cut this rope to give us at least a moment shielded from what lies beyond?"

Handing Axl the candle, Sir Gawain took a further step forward, raised his sword and swung at the pillar. There was the sound of metal striking stone, and the lower section of the gate shook, but remained suspended. Sir Gawain sighed with a hint of embarrassment. Then he repositioned himself, raised the sword again, and struck once more.

She had spoken softly, but Sir Gawain turned to them. "What do you suggest, mistress? That I committed this slaughter?" He said this tiredly, with none of the anger he had shown earlier in the tunnel, but there was a peculiar intensity in his voice. "So many skulls, you say. Yet are we not underground? What is it you suggest? Can just one knight of Arthur have killed so many?" He turned back to the gate and ran a finger along one of the bars. "Once, years ago, in a dream, I watched myself killing the enemy. It was in my sleep and long ago. The enemy, in their hundreds, perhaps as many as this. I fought and I fought. Just a foolish dream, but still I recall it." He sighed, then looked at Beatrice. "I hardly know how to answer you, mistress. I acted as I thought would please God. How was I to guess how dark had grown the hearts of these wretched monks? Horace and I came to this monastery while the sun was up, not long after you yourself arrived, for I supposed then I had need to speak urgently with the abbot. Then I discovered what he plotted against you, and I feigned complacence. I bade him farewell, and they all believed me gone, but I left Horace in the forest and returned up here on foot hidden by the night. Not all the monks think alike, thank God. I knew the good Jonus would receive me. And learning from him the abbot's schemes, I had Ninian bring me unseen down to this place to await you. Curse it, the boy starts again!"

For all that they were now effectively trapped, the lowering of the portcullis brought a sense of relief, and they all four began to wander around the mausoleum. Sir Gawain, who had sheathed his sword, went up to the bars and touched them gingerly.

"Good iron," he said. "It'll do its work."

Beatrice, who had been quiet for some time, came up to Axl and pressed her head against his chest. As he put an arm around her, he realised her cheek was wet with tears.

"Come, princess," he said, "take heart. We'll be out in the night air before long."

"All these skulls, Axl. So many! Can this beast really have killed so many?"

Sure enough, Edwin was singing once more, not as loudly as before, but now in a curious posture. He had bent forward, a fist to each temple, and was moving slowly about in the shadows like someone in a dance enacting the part of an animal.

"The recent events surely overwhelm him," Axl said. "It's a wonder he's shown the fortitude he has, and we must attend to him well once we're away from here. But Sir Gawain, tell us now, why do the monks seek to murder such an innocent lad?"

"Sir Gawain, please explain. Has this to do with his ogre's wound? Yet these are men of Christian learning."

"No matter how I argued, sir, the abbot would have the boy destroyed. So I left Horace in the forest and retraced my steps…"

"That's no ogre's bite the boy carries. It's a dragon gave him that wound. I saw it right away when yesterday that soldier raised his shirt. Who knows how he met with a dragon, but a dragon's bite it is, and now the desire will be rising in his blood to seek congress with a she-dragon. And in turn, any she-dragon near enough to scent him will come seeking him. This is why Master Wistan is so fond of his protégé, sir. He believes Master Edwin will lead him to Querig. And for this same reason, the monks and these soldiers would have him dead. Look, the boy grows ever wilder!"

"Get back, boy," Sir Gawain said, grasping his shoulders. "There's danger here, and that's enough of your songs!"

"What is it you suggest, mistress? The skulls of babes? I've fought men, beelzebubs, dragons. But a slaughterer of infants? How dare you, mistress!"

"What are all these skulls, sir?" Beatrice suddenly asked the knight. "Why so many? Can they all have belonged to babies? Some are surely small enough to fit in your palm."

"Princess, don't distress yourself. This is a burial place, nothing more."

Suddenly Edwin, still singing, pushed past them, and going up to the portcullis pressed himself against the bars.

Edwin gripped the bars with both hands, and for a moment he and the old knight tussled. Then they both broke off and stepped back from the gate. Beatrice, at Axl's breast, let out a small gasp, but at that instant Axl's view was obscured by Edwin and Sir Gawain. Then the beast came into the pool of moonlight, and he saw it more clearly.

"God protect us," Beatrice said. "Here's a creature escaped from the Great Plain itself, and the air grows colder."

"Surely bad enough, sir," Axl said. "It looks well able to devour each of us in turn."

Sir Gawain, who had immediately drawn his sword again, began to laugh quietly. "Not nearly as bad as I feared," he said, then laughed a little more.

They might have been gazing at a large skinned animal: an opaque membrane, like the lining of a sheep's stomach, was stretched tightly over the sinews and joints. Swathed as it was now in moonshadow, the beast appeared roughly the size and shape of a bull, but its head was distinctly wolf-like and of a darker hue -- though even here the impression was of blackening by flames rather than of naturally dark fur or flesh. The jaws were massive, the eyes reptilian.

"Don't worry, princess. It can't breach those bars."

Sir Gawain was still laughing to himself. "Coming down that gloomy tunnel my wild imaginings had readied me for worse. Once, sir, on the marshes at Dumum, I faced wolves with the heads of hideous hags! And at Mount Culwich, double-headed ogres that spewed blood at you even as they roared their battlecry! Here's little more than an angry dog."

"Yet it bars our way to freedom, Sir Gawain."

"I'm an old man, sir, and it's many a year since I swung this blade in anger. Yet I'm still a knight well trained, and if this be a beast of this earth, I'll get the better of it."

"I'm inclined to think it a foe darker than a fierce dog, Sir Gawain. I ask you not to grow complacent."

"It does that for sure. So we may stare at it for an hour until the soldiers come down the tunnel behind us. Or we may lift this gate and fight it."

"See, Axl," Beatrice said, "how its eyes follow Master Edwin."

"The dog hungers for the boy," Sir Gawain said thoughtfully. "It may be there's dragon spawn within this monster."

"Whatever its nature," Axl said, "it awaits our next move with strange patience."

"Then let me propose this, friends," said Sir Gawain. "I'm loath to use this Saxon boy like a young goat tied to trap a wolf. Yet he seems a brave lad, and in no less danger wandering here weaponless. Let him take the candle and go stand there at the back of the chamber. Then if you, Master Axl, can somehow raise this gate again, perhaps even with your good wife's help, the beast will be free to come through. My fancy is it will make straight for the boy. Knowing the path of its charge, I'll stand here and cut it down as it passes. Do you approve the scheme, sir?"

Edwin, now strangely calm, had been walking experimentally, first left, then to the right, always staring back at the beast whose gaze never left him.

"It's a desperate one. Yet I too fear the soldiers will soon discover this tunnel. So let's try it, sir, and even with my wife and I hanging together on the rope, we'll do our best to raise this gate. Princess, explain to Master Edwin our plan and let's see if he'll enter into it."

But Edwin seemed to have grasped Sir Gawain's strategy without a word being said to him. Taking the candle from the knight, the boy measured out ten good strides over the bones till he was back in the shadows. When he turned again, the candle below his face barely trembled, and revealed blazing eyes fixed on the creature beyond the bars.

"Quick then, princess," Axl said. "Climb on my back and try to reach the rope's end. See where it dangles there."

At first they nearly toppled over. Then they used the pillar itself to support them, and after a little more groping, he heard her say: "I hold it, Axl. Release me and it'll surely come down with me. Catch me so I don't fall all at once."

"Sir Gawain," Axl called softly. "Are you ready, sir?"

"I know it, sir. And it will not pass."

"We're ready."

"If the beast passes you, then surely it's the end of this brave boy."

"Let me down slowly, Axl. If I'm still in the air holding the rope, reach up and tug me down."

There was a pause before Sir Gawain's voice came back. "The dog stares our way and nothing now between us."

Twisting, Axl looked around the pillar in time to see the beast leap forward. The old knight's face, caught in moonlight, looked aghast as he swung his sword, but too late, and the creature was past him and moving unerringly towards Edwin.

The boy's eyes grew large, but he did not drop the candle. Instead he moved aside, almost as if out of politeness, to let the beast pass. And to Axl's surprise, the creature did just that, running on into the blackness of the tunnel out of which not long ago they had all emerged.

Axl released Beatrice and for an instant she hung suspended in the air, her body weight insufficient to raise the gate. Then Axl managed to grip another portion of the rope close to her two hands, and they tugged together. At first nothing happened, then something yielded, and the gate rose with a shudder. Axl continued tugging, and unable to see the effect, called out: "Is it high yet, sir?"

"Let the gate fall, Master Axl," Sir Gawain said without looking up. "We'll raise it again soon enough."

"I'll hold it up yet," Axl shouted. 'Cross the threshold and save yourselves!"

"Some of it did, and I heard its footsteps cease. Now, Axl, go and see the part of it lies at the knight's feet."

But neither Beatrice beside him, nor Sir Gawain, who had lowered his sword, seemed to hear. Even Edwin appeared to have lost interest in the terrible creature that had just sped past him and would surely return any moment. The boy, candle held before him, came over to where the old knight was standing, and together they stared down at the ground.

As Axl came towards them, Sir Gawain and Edwin both started as though shaken from a trance. Then they moved aside and Axl saw the beast's head in the moonlight.

The old knight and the boy, Axl realised, were regarding with fascination something moving on the ground before them. He let the gate fall, and as he did so, Beatrice said:

"A fearsome thing, Axl, and I've no need to see it. But go and look if you will and tell me what you see."

"Didn't the beast run into the tunnel, princess?"

"The jaws will not cease," Sir Gawain said in a perturbed tone. "I've a mind to take my sword to it again, yet fear that would be a desecration to bring more evil upon us. Yet I wish it would cease moving."

"We're beholden to you, Sir Gawain," Axl said.

Indeed it was hard to believe the severed head was not a living thing. It lay on its side, the one visible eye gleaming like a sea creature. The jaws moved rhythmically with a strange energy, so that the tongue, flopping amidst the teeth, appeared to stir with life.

"A mere dog, sir, and I'd happily face worse. Yet this Saxon boy shows rare courage, and I'm glad to have done him some service. But now we must hurry on, and with caution too, for who knows what occurs above us, or even if a second beast awaits beyond that chamber."

They now discovered a crank behind one of the pillars, and fastening the rope end to it, soon raised the gate without difficulty. Leaving the beast's head where it had fallen, they passed under the portcullis, Sir Gawain once more leading, sword poised, and Edwin at the rear.

Looking about him in the half-light, Axl spotted Sir Gawain's figure nearby, silhouetted against the dawn, head bowed, a hand on a tree trunk to steady him while he regained his breath. But there was no sign of the boy.

In a kind of daze, Axl came upon a cluster of roots rising between two large trees, and taking Beatrice's hand, helped her sit down on it. At first Beatrice was too short of breath to speak, but after a moment she looked up, saying:

The second chamber of the mausoleum showed clear signs of having served as the beast's lair: amidst the ancient bones were fresher carcasses of sheep and deer, as well as other dark, foul-smelling shapes they could not identify. Then they were once more walking stooped and short of breath along a winding passage. They encountered no more beasts, and eventually they heard birdsong. A patch of light appeared in the distance, and then they came out into the forest, the early dawn all around them.

"There's room here beside me, husband. If we're safe for now, let's sit together and watch the stars fade. I'm thankful we're both well and that evil tunnel's behind us." Then she said: "Where's Master Edwin, Axl? I don't see him."

"What would you have me do, sir? I did all I could. Hid myself in that airless place. Overcame the beast though it had devoured many brave men before us. Then at the end of it all, the boy runs back to the monastery! Am I to give chase with this heavy armour and sword? I'm all done in, sir. All done in. What's my duty now? I must pause and think it over. What would Arthur have me do?"

"Didn't you think to delay him, sir? Surely he hurries to grave danger, and Master Wistan by now killed or captured."

"I watched him hasten on, sir," Sir Gawain said without turning, his breath still laboured. "Not being elderly as the rest of us, he's no need to lean on oaks panting and gasping. I suppose he hurries back to the monastery to rescue Master Wistan."

"Just now he was behind us," Axl said. "I even heard him exclaim as we came into the fresh air."

"Are we to understand, Sir Gawain," Beatrice asked, "that it was you in the first place came to tell the abbot of Master Wistan's real identity as a Saxon warrior from the east?"

"Why go through it again, mistress? Did I not lead you to safety? So many skulls we trod upon before coming out to this sweet dawn! So many. No need to look down, one hears their cackle with each tread. How many dead, sir? A hundred? A thousand? Did you count, Master Axl? Or were you not there, sir?" He was still a silhouette beside a tree, his words sometimes hard to catch now the birds had begun their early chorus.

"Whatever the history of this night," Axl said, "we owe you much thanks, Sir Gawain. Clearly your courage and skill remain undiminished. Yet I too have a question to put to you."

"Spare me, sir, enough. How can I chase a nimble youth up these wooded slopes? I'm drained, sir, and perhaps not just of breath."

"Spare me, sir. I did my duty tonight. Is that not enough? Now I must go find my poor Horace, tied to a branch so he wouldn't wander, yet what if a wolf or bear comes upon him?"

"Sir Gawain, were we not comrades once long ago?"

"The mist hangs heavily across my past," Axl said. "Yet lately I find myself reminded of some task, and one of gravity, with which I was once entrusted. Was it a law, a great law to bring all men closer to God? Your presence, and your talk of Arthur, stirs long-faded thoughts, Sir Gawain."

"We didn't bid him farewell, Axl, and I feel poorly for it. Yet that was a strange leave he took of us and a sudden one."

"My poor Horace, sir, so dislikes the forest at night. The hooting owl or the screech of a fox is enough to frighten him, no matter he'll face a shower of arrows without flinching. I'll go to him now, and let me urge you good people not to rest here too late. Forget the young Saxons, the pair of them. Think now of your own cherished son waiting for you at his village. Best go on your way quickly, I say, now you're without your blankets and provisions. The river's near and a fast tide on it flowing east. A friendly word with a bargeman may secure you a ride downstream. But don't dally here, for who knows when soldiers will come this way? God protect you, friends."

With a rustle and a few thumps, Sir Gawain's form disappeared into the dark foliage. After a moment, Beatrice said:

"I thought so too, princess. But perhaps he gives us wise counsel. We should hurry on to our son and never mind our recent companions. I feel concern for poor Master Edwin, yet if he'll hasten back to the monastery, what can we do for him?"

"Let's rest just a moment longer, Axl. Soon we'll be on our way, the two of us, and we'd do well to seek a barge to speed our journey. Our son must be wondering what keeps us."