Lyonesse

To give their son his breath.

Aillas: choose from many roads; Each veers through toil and blood. But still this night you must be wed To seal your fatherhood.

Long have I served King Casmir; He asked me questions three. Yet never will he speak the rote to break me full and free.

Aillas, you must take me now, and hide me all alone; By Suldrun's tree, there shall I dwell Beneath the sitting-stone.

Aillas, as if moving in a dream, reached his hands to Persilian's frame. He pulled it free of the metal peg which held it to the wall. Aillas held up the mirror and asked in puzzlement: "How, this very night, can we be wed?"

Persilian's voice, richly full, issued from the mirror: "You have stolen me from Casmir; I am yours. This is your first question. You may ask two more. If you ask a fourth, I am free." "Very well; as you wish it. So how will we be wed?" "Return to the garden; the way is safe. There your marriage bonds shall be forged; see to it that they are strong and true. Quick, go now; time presses! You must be gone before Haidion is bolted tight for the night!"

With no more ado Suldrun and Aillas departed the secret room, closing tight the door on the seep of green-purple light. Suldrun looked through the crack in the hangings; the Hall of Honors was empty save for the fifty-four chairs whose personalities had loomed so massively over her childhood. They seemed now shrunken and old and some of their magnificence had gone; still Suldrun felt their brooding contemplation as she and Aillas ran down the hall.

The Long Gallery was empty; the two ran to the Octagon and out into the night. They started up the arcade, then made a hurried detour into the orangery while a quartet of palace guards came stamping, clanking and cursing down from the Urquial. The steps faded into quiet. Moonlight through the arched intervals cast a succession of pale shapes, alternately silver-gray and darkest black, into the arcade. Across Lyonesse Town lamps yet flickered, but no sound reached the palace. Suldrun and Aillas slipped from the orangery, ran up under the arcade and so through the postern into the old garden. Aillas brought Persilian from under his tunic. "Mirror, I have put a question and I will be sure to put no more until need arises. Now I will not ask how I must hide you, as you directed; still, if you wished to enlarge upon your previous instructions, I will listen."

Persilian spoke: "Hide me now, Aillas, hide me now, down by the old lime tree. Under the sitting-stone is a crevice. Hide as well the gold you carry, quick as quick can be."

The two descended to the chapel. Aillas went on down the path to the old lime tree; he lifted the sitting-stone and found a crevice into which he placed Persilian and the bag of gold and gems.

Suldrun went to the door of the chapel, where she paused to wonder at the candleglow from within.

She pushed open the door. Across the room sat Brother Umphred, dozing at the table. His eyes opened; he looked at Suldrun.

"Suldrun! You have returned at last! Ah, Suldrun, sweet and wanton! You have been up to mischief! What do you do away from your little domain?"

Suldrun stood silent in dismay. Brother Umphred lifted his portly torso and came forward, smiling a winsome smile, eyelids half-closed, so that his eyes seemed a trifle askew. He took Suldrun's limp hands. "Dearest child! Tell me, where have you been?"

Suldrun tried to draw back, but Brother Umphred tightened his grip. "I went to the palace for a cloak and a gown... Let go my hands."

But Brother Umphred only pulled her closer. His breathing came faster and his face showed a rosy-pink flush. "Suldrun, prettiest of all the earth's creatures! Do you know that I saw you dancing along the corridors with one of the palace lads? I asked myself, can this be the pure Suldrun, the chaste Suldrun, so pensive and demure? I told myself: impossible! But perhaps she is ardent after all!"

"No, no," breathed Suldrun. She jerked to pull away. "Please let me go."

Brother Umphred would not release her. "Be kind, Suldrun! I am a man of noble spirit, still I am not indifferent to beauty! Long, dearest Suldrun, have I yearned to taste your sweet nectar, and remember, my passion is invested in the sanctity of the church! So now, my dearest child, whatever tonight's mischief, ‘ it will only have warmed your blood. Embrace me, my golden delight, my sweet mischief, my sly mock-purity!" Brother Umphred bore her down to the couch.

Aillas appeared in the doorway. Suldrun saw him and motioned him to stand back, out of sight. She drew up her knees, and squirmed away from Brother Umphred. "Priest, my father shall hear of your acts!"

"He cares nothing what happens to you," said Brother I Umphred thickly. "Now be easy! Or else I must enforce our congress by means of pain."

Aillas could constrain himself no longer. He stepped forward and dealt Brother Umphred a blow to the side of his head, to send him tumbling to the floor. Suldrun said in distress: "Better, Aillas, had you remained away."

"And allowed his beastly lust? First I would kill him! In fact, I will kill him now, for his audacity."

Brother Umphred dragged himself back against the wall, eyes glistening in the candlelight.

Suldrun said hesitantly, "No, Aillas, I don't want his death."

"He will report us to the king."

Brother Umphred cried out: "No, never! I hear a thousand secrets; all are sacred to me!"

Suldrun said thoughtfully. "He will witness our wedlock, he will marry us by the Christian ceremony which is as lawful as any other."

Brother Umphred struggled to his feet, blurting incoherent phrases.

Aillas told him, "Marry us, then, since you are a priest, and do it properly."

Brother Umphred took time to settle his cassock and compose himself. "Marry you? That is not possible."

"Certainly it is possible," said Suldrun. "You have made marriages among the servants."

"In the chape at Haidion."

"This is a chapel. You sanctified it yourself."

"It has now been profaned. In any case, I can bring the sacraments only to baptized Christians."

"Then baptize us and quickly!"

Brother Umphred smilingly shook his head. "First you must believe truly and become catechumens. And further, King Casmir would be rageful; he would take vengeance on us all!"

Aillas picked up a stout length of driftwood. "Priest, this cudgel supersedes King Casmir. Marry us now, or I will break your head."

Suldrun took his arm. "No, Aillas! We will marry in the manner of the folk, and he shall witness; then there shall be no talk of who is a Christian and who is not."

Brother Umphred again demurred. "I cannot be a party to your pagan rite."

"You must," said Aillas.

The two stood by the table and chanted the peasant litany of wedlock:

"Witness, all, how we two take the vows of marriage! By this morsel, which together we eat."

The two divided a crust of bread and ate together.

"By this water, which together we drink."

The two drank water from the same cup.

"By this fire, which warms us both."

The two passed their hands through the flame of the candle.

"By the blood which we mingle."

With a thin bodkin Aillas pricked Suldrun's finger, then his own, and joined the droplets of blood.

"By the love which binds our hearts together."

The two kissed, smiled.

"So we engage in solemn wedlock, and now declare ourselves man and wife, in accordance with the laws of man and the benevolent grace of Nature."

Aillas took up pen, ink and a sheet of parchment. "Write, priest! Tonight on this date I have witnessed the marriage of Suldrun and Aillas,' and sign your name."

With shaking hands Brother Umphred pushed away the pen. "I fear the wrath of King Casmir!"

"Priest, fear me more!"

In anguish Brother Umphred wrote as he was instructed. "Now let me go my way!"