"You must!" Flidais moans, his hands twisting together in desperate, frantic pleading. "You must! The Weaver and all the gods know I will never tell, but I must know! It is the last thing, Seer, the very last, the wish of my heart!"
Kim looks up at the sky, into the storm, away from the helpless yearning in his face. There are no stars now, not here, but she can almost see them as they had been over Glastonbury Tor the night Arthur had answered her call. So many stars, falling through the sky and through his eyes as well, falling and falling as he himself was brought once more to earth by the weight of her summons and his curse, of so many long weary years of war. She looks back toward earth again herself now, here, and catches Jennifer's gaze.
Jennifer, who is Guinevere.
And who says, softly but clear enough to be heard, "Give it to him. Even so is the name handed down; it is part of the long doom. Broken oaths and grief lie at the heart of it, Kim. I'm sorry."
I'm sorry, too.
And so Kim nods, and after taking Flidais aside and charging him to guard both the name and the secret of Darien's existence and their presence at the Anor, does yet another thing she had once thought she would never do. When it is over, with her promise now forsworn, she walks back to rejoin the others as Flidais departs with all speed.
She doesn't want to speak to any of them about it, not even Jen, and so Kim looks out to sea-- and it's there that she sees the ship being driven helplessly before the storm, into the bay.
Kim looks up at the sky, into the storm, away from the helpless yearning in his face. There are no stars now, not here, but she can almost see them as they had been over Glastonbury Tor the night Arthur had answered her call. So many stars, falling through the sky and through his eyes as well, falling and falling as he himself was brought once more to earth by the weight of her summons and his curse, of so many long weary years of war. She looks back toward earth again herself now, here, and catches Jennifer's gaze.
Jennifer, who is Guinevere.
And who says, softly but clear enough to be heard, "Give it to him. Even so is the name handed down; it is part of the long doom. Broken oaths and grief lie at the heart of it, Kim. I'm sorry."
I'm sorry, too.
And so Kim nods, and after taking Flidais aside and charging him to guard both the name and the secret of Darien's existence and their presence at the Anor, does yet another thing she had once thought she would never do. When it is over, with her promise now forsworn, she walks back to rejoin the others as Flidais departs with all speed.
She doesn't want to speak to any of them about it, not even Jen, and so Kim looks out to sea-- and it's there that she sees the ship being driven helplessly before the storm, into the bay.
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