"I doubt not that you could, if you were challenged," said Niniane. "The question is, could Arthur? For if he cannot ... "
She left the question hanging in the air, and he said somberly, watching the enclosing mist, "I do not think it will clear. Mist hangs here always, so thickly now that some of the Saxon kings who send messengers cannot find their way ... . Niniane! Will Camelot too go into the mists?"
She began to fling him back some careless word of jest or reassurance, then stopped and said, "I know not. Dragon Island is defiled, the folk dying or dead, the sacred herd prey to the Saxon hunters. Northmen raid the coast. Will they one day sack Camelot as the Goths overthrew Rome?"
"If I had known in time," Gwydion said with smothered violence, striking one fist against the other, "if the Saxons had brought word to Arthur, he could have sent me-or some other-to protect that holy ground where he was made King Stag and made the sacred marriage with the land! Now the shrine of the Goddess has been overthrown, since he did not die to protect it, his kingship is forfeit."
Niniane heard what he did not say: And mine. She said, "You knew not that it was endangered."
"And for that too I blame Arthur," Gwydion said. "That the Saxons could think of doing this without consulting him-does it not say to you how little they think now of his High Kingship? And why do they think so little of him? I will tell you, Niniane-they think little of any king who is cuckold, who cannot rule his women-"
"You who were reared in Avalon," she said angrily, "will you judge Arthur by the Saxon's standards, which are worse than those of the Romans? Will you let a kingdom rise or fall because of some notion of how a man should keep his women in bonds? You are to be King, Gwydion, because you bear the royal blood of Avalon and because you are the child of the Goddess-"
"Pah!" Gwydion spat and followed it with an obscenity. "Did it never occur to you, Niniane-perhaps Avalon fell as later Rome fell, because there was corruption at the heart of the realm? By Avalon's laws, Gwenhwyfar has done no more than is right-the lady shall choose who she will for her consort, and Arthur should be overthrown by Lancelet! Why, Lancelet is the son of the High Priestess herself-why not set him to be King in Arthur's place? But is our king to be chosen because some woman wants him in her bed?" Again he spat. "No, Niniane, that day is done-first the Romans and now the Saxons know how the world's to be. The world is no longer a great womb bearing men-now the movement of men and armies settles things. What people now would accept my rule because I was the son of this woman or that? Now it is the king's son who takes the land, and shall we turn away a good thing because the Romans did so first? We have better ships now-we will discover lands beyond the old lands that have sunk in the sea. Will a Goddess who is tied to this one patch of earth and its crops follow us there? Look at the Northmen who are raiding our coasts-will they be stopped with the Mother's curses? The few priestesses that are left in Avalon-no Saxons or wild Northmen will ever ravish them, because Avalon is no longer a part of the world in which these wild raiders live. Those women who live in the world that is coming will need men to guard them. The world now, Niniane, is not one of Goddesses, but of Gods, perhaps of one God. I need not try to bring Arthur down. Time and change alone will do that."
Niniane's back prickled as if with the Sight. "And what of you, King Stag of Avalon? What of the Mother who sent you forth in her name?"
"Do you think I mean to go into the mists with Avalon and Camelot? I mean to be High King after Arthur-and to do that, I must keep the glory of Arthur's court at full height. So Lancelet must go, which means that Arthur must be forced to banish him, and probably Gwenhwyfar as well. Are you with me, Niniane, or not?"
Her face was deathly white. She clenched her fists at her side, wishing that she had the power of Morgaine, the power of the Goddess, to rise like a bridge from earth to sky and strike him down with the lightning force of the outraged Goddess. The crescent moon on her brow burned with rage.
"Am I to help you by betraying a woman who has taken the right the Goddess has given to all women, to choose what man she will?"
Gwydion laughed mockingly. "Gwenhwyfar gave up that right when first she knelt at the feet of the slave's God."
"Nevertheless, I'll have nothing to do with betraying her."
"Then you will not send me word when she sends her women away again for the night?"
"No," said Niniane, "by the Goddess, I will not. And Arthur's treachery to Avalon is nothing to yours!" She turned her back on him and would have moved away, but he caught and held her there.
"You'll do what I command you!"
She struggled to free herself, at last wrenching her bruised wrists from him. "Command me? Not in a thousand years!" she said, breathless with fury. "Beware, you who have laid hands on the Lady of Avalon! Arthur shall know now what sort of viper he has taken to his breast!"
In a towering rage, Gwydion grabbed her other wrist and pulled her toward him, then struck her full force across the temple, and she fell to the ground without a cry. He was so full of wrath that he let her fall without a move to catch her.
"Well did the Saxons name you," said a low, savage voice from the fog. "Evil counsel, Mordred-murderer!"
He turned with a convulsive moment of fear and looked at the crumpled body of Niniane at his feet. "Murderer? No! I was only angry with her-I would not hurt her-" He stared around him, unable to make out anything in the thickening mist, yet knowing the voice.
"Morgaine! Lady-my mother!"
He knelt, panic clutching at his throat, raising Niniane up, searching for a heartbeat but she lay there without breath, without life.
"Morgaine! Where are you? Where are you? Damn you, show yourself!" But there was only Niniane, lifeless and unmoving at his feet. He clasped her to him, imploring. "Niniane! Niniane, my love-speak to me-"
"She will not speak again," said the bodiless voice, but as Gwydion turned this way and that in the fog, a woman's solid figure materialized out of it. "Oh, what have you done, my son?"
"Was it you? Was it you?" Gwydion demanded, his voice cracking in hysteria. "Was it you called me murderer?
Morgause stepped back, half afraid. "No, no, I came but now-what have you done?"
Gwydion flung himself at her, and she held him, stroking him as she had done when he was twelve years old. "Niniane angered me-she threatened me-as the Gods witness it, Mother, I meant her no harm, but she threatened to go to Arthur and tell him I plotted against his precious Lancelet," Gwydion said, almost babbling. "I struck her, I swear I meant only to frighten her, but she fell-"
Morgause let Gwydion go and knelt beside Niniane. "You struck an unlucky blow, my son-she is dead. There's nothing you can do now. We must go and tell Arthur's marshals and stewards."
His face had gone livid. "Mother! The marshals-what will Arthur say?"
Morgause felt a great melting within her heart. He was in her hands, as when he had been a little helpless child whom Lot would have killed, his life was hers, and he knew it. She folded him to her breast.
"Never mind, my love, you mustn't suffer for it, any more than for any other you killed in battle," she said, looking down with triumph at Niniane's lifeless body. "She could have fallen in the fog-it's a long way to the bottom of the hill," she said, looking over the brow of Camelot, where it descended steeply into the mist. "So, catch hold of her feet thus. Done is done, and nothing that happens to her now can make a difference." Her old hatred of Arthur surged up; Gwydion would bring him down, and he would do it with her help-and when it was done, she would be at his side, the lady who had set him on his throne! Niniane was no longer between them; she herself alone should be his support and his help.