The Quest of the Fair Unknown (16 page)

"No. What bothers you?"

"Lady Orgille."

"Oh, her," Beaufils said. "I didn't like her much myself."

"I just can't believe a woman would do that!"

"Do what?"

"Use people like that." Ellyn glanced at Beaufils's puzzled expression, then laughed shortly. "I know you don't know what I mean. As I said before, you're different from most men, probably because you didn't know any others when you were growing up. The thing is, normally when you find someone using other people as tools to get what they want, it'll be a man."

Beaufils thought about this for a moment. It seemed strange to him. "And women don't use other people?"

Ellyn hesitated at that. "Not like men do, anyway. That's why Lady Orgille bothers me. She acts like a
man.
"

This still sounded odd to Beaufils, but he decided to let it go. Ellyn sounded very intense, especially the way she said
man,
and he had learned from his time with Galahad that it was just when people were most intense that you could get the least sense from them.

Ellyn muttered, half to herself, "I wish sometimes I could go to a land where there were only women."

Beaufils glanced around them at the brown grass and stunted trees through which they were riding. "Well," he commented, "maybe we'll find such a place. I doubt it's around here, though. Not much life at all in these parts."

It did seem that the farther they rode, the more barren the landscape became. They had left behind all that was green and fresh. As far as they could see, fields of wispy brown grass were interrupted only by small, jagged, unhealthy trees with only a few brown and yellow leaves clinging in forlorn bunches to the limbs. Before long, the grass itself began to thin, leaving dusty, bare patches. Within an hour they were trotting through sand and rock and hard, cracked dirt.

"This can't be right," Ellyn said at last.

Beaufils examined the barren waste. The land seemed dead, but it was somehow beautiful too. Without any vegetation around to distract the eye, the rocks and dirt seemed to stand out more proudly, revealing their true selves. "Let's keep going, though. I've never been in a place like this."

"Neither has anyone else," muttered Ellyn. "At least let's rest the animals and walk a bit."

So they dismounted and began plodding through the arid land. There was no sign of life, but the air tasted somehow cleaner and purer here, like spring water. Beaufils found himself taking it in with deep breaths. He was measuring his breathing with his paces—about four steps for each breath in and five for each breath out—when he became suddenly aware that they were not alone. Ellyn was still walking quietly at his left, but at his right, as if he had materialized from nowhere, strode a young man. So sudden was his appearance and so silent his movement that Beaufils thought at first he was imagining him. Then the stranger turned his head and smiled.

"Ellyn?" Beaufils said, slowing his pace.

"Yes?" Ellyn said, glancing his way. Then she gave a startled yelp.

"Oh, good," Beaufils said. "You see him, too." He stopped. "Good morning, man."

"Good morning, Beaufils. Good morning, Lady Ellyn," the man replied. Now that Beaufils was looking more closely at their sudden companion, he was no longer sure that he was young. His face was smooth and unlined, and his easy smile had a youthful feel to it, but his eyes seemed far older than his face. "Sorry if I gave you a start," he said. "You seemed to be enjoying the walk, and I didn't want to disturb you."

"How do you know our names?" Beaufils asked.

"I've come especially to find you," the stranger said. "My name's Terence."

The name was familiar, and Beaufils searched his memory. "Aren't you ... Gawain's ... something?"

"Yes, I'm Gawain's squire," Terence said.

"You're a squire?" Ellyn said, incredulously, staring at Terence's curiously ancient eyes. "You don't
look
like a servant. More like a prince."

"Can't a fellow be more than one thing?" Terence asked mildly. Then he looked at Beaufils. "Tell me, Beaufils. How's your quest going?"

"We haven't seen the Grail, if that's what you mean."

"It wasn't, but that's all right. Now that I get a good look at you, I can see you're doing well." He looked across at Ellyn. "And you? Have you found what you're looking for, Lady Ellyn?"

"I don't know that I'm looking for anything at all," she said. "I didn't really come on this quest to find that Grail thing. I just wanted to see the world."

"Especially the parts where there are no men," Beaufils commented.

Ellyn blushed and cast a reproachful look at Beaufils, but Terence only nodded and said, "Like the Castles of Women?"

"Castles of Women? Places where there are no men?" Ellyn asked

"Yes. Castles and islands where no man is allowed. But I ought to tell you that ladies who go there just to get away from men don't usually stay."

"Where are these castles?"

"Most of them are in the Other World," Terence said.

"What do you mean, 'Other World'?" asked Beaufils curiously.

Terence indicated with a nod that that they should start walking again, and once they were moving he said, "There is another world beyond the one we can see."

Ellyn frowned skeptically, but Beaufils asked, "Only one?"

Terence smiled suddenly, with clear pleasure. "Do you know, Beaufils, you are the first person who has ever asked me that question. Usually people have trouble believing in
any
world other than their own, let alone many. But you're right. There are a great many worlds, more than any of us know."

"I've often wondered," Beaufils said. "Tell me about this other one."

"The one I mean is the World of Faeries," Terence said.

"Do you mean the World of Faeries or Faery Tale World?" Ellyn asked scornfully.

"I'm not sure it makes any difference," Terence replied. "But if you're suggesting that this world exists
only
in the imagination of storytellers, you're wrong. It does exist in stories, but that makes it no less real. Anyway, that's why I'm here. You're about to enter that world, and I've been sent to show you to the crossing."

Beaufils was delighted, as if he'd been longing all his life to go to this world but hadn't known it until this moment. "When do we go?" he asked.

"The crossing is just past those sandhills," Terence replied. "If Lady Ellyn is willing."

Ellyn still looked dubious. "Forgive me, Squire Terence, but can you give me any reason to trust you?"

"There's never a reason to trust someone," Terence said. "If there's a reason, then it's not trust."

"I trust him," Beaufils said.

Ellyn hesitated again, and for several moments her doubts played across her face. Then she sighed and said, "I don't know that I do trust you, Squire Terence, but I trust Beaufils."

"That should be enough," Terence replied with a smile. "This way." He led them on a faint trail between high mounds of loose sand. "When you've made the crossing, you'll be in the World of Faeries. Don't worry. It isn't that different from here, barring the occasional ogre. Once there, you must go wherever Lady Ellyn says."

"Me?" Ellyn demanded.

"Yes. For now, at least, you'll be following Lady Ellyn's quest." Terence led them past the last dune, and they found themselves in a warm, brackish stream, no deeper than the tops of their feet.

"
My
quest?" Ellyn said. "But what
is
my quest?"

Terence, who had remained behind them on the bank, only said, "It would be helpful to figure that out, Lady Ellyn," and then the ground sank beneath them, and the water rose up their bodies and covered their heads. Beaufils sensed Ellyn thrashing about in fear beside him, and reaching over, he took her arm. Then they and their horses were climbing out of a clear blue pool in a forest glade, with snow-capped mountains standing behind them. The wasteland and Terence were gone.

Ellyn sputtered and coughed, then said vehemently, "I
hate
getting water up my nose!"

***

Terence had been right. Except for being in a lush green forest instead of a barren waste, there didn't seem to be much difference between the two worlds. The plants and insects that surrounded them were the same ones they would have seen in a forest in their own world, and as Beaufils pointed out, there wasn't even one ogre.

"Well, don't sound so disappointed," Ellyn said.

"But I've never seen one," Beaufils said wistfully.

"A body doesn't have to see everything," Ellyn muttered. She put her hands on her hips and looked around them in all directions, then said, "If we've all had enough to drink, let's go that way."

"Fine with me. You're the leader," Beaufils said.

This made Ellyn smile, and she mounted her horse and set off at a good clip, so that Clover had to trot to catch up. They rode through a perfumed evergreen forest, across a mountain meadow filled with flowers, then down a long slope of springy bracken. Through all this they saw no sign of other people, but then they came upon a knight in a field.

They saw the knight before he saw them. He was on a white horse on a small knoll, looking down a long slope into a valley. He wore full armor, of flashing silver. His visor hid his face, but Beaufils had no trouble identifying him. "Galahad!" he exclaimed with mild pleasure.

Galahad turned his horse, drawing his sword very swiftly indeed and facing them in grim silence as they approached. "Do we have to?" muttered Ellyn.

"I know you don't care for him," Beaufils said, "but he's an old friend. We don't have to ride with him, but I can't just ignore him. He's not a bad fellow, after all."

As they drew near, Galahad's tense figure relaxed slightly, but when they were only ten yards or so away, he called out, "Halt!"

Beaufils and Ellyn stopped. "Hello, Galahad," said Beaufils, "What brings you here?"

"What is your name?" Galahad demanded.

"Have you forgotten?" Beaufils asked. "It's Beaufils."

"And who is that woman at your side?"

"You haven't had a knock on the head, have you?" Beaufils asked. "Once that happened to me when I was young. Fell out of a tree on my head, and Mother told me that for several hours I couldn't remember anything. I got better, though," he added encouragingly.

"I'm Lady Ellyn of Carlisle," Ellyn said. "You stayed at my father's castle."

"I remember your faces and names," Galahad said grimly. "But I still do not know you. How do I know you are not fiends who have taken human shape to tempt me?"

"Trust me," Ellyn said. "There's nothing I want to do less than tempt you."

"That's just what a fiend would say," Galahad replied.

Ellyn glanced at Beaufils. "You're right. He's had a knock on the head."

"Tell me how I came to know you, Beaufils—if that's
really
your name," Galahad demanded.

"Well, that's sort of the problem, isn't it? I don't know if it
is
really my name. That's why I went with you to Camelot: I wanted to find my father and ask. That was when we met in the forest. You were with that nasty fellow Mordred, who tried to kill—"

"A fiend would still know all this!"

Ellyn tugged on Beaufils's sleeve. "Come on, Beau. Your friend Galahad wants to be alone."

"I do
not
want to be alone," Galahad replied belligerently.

"Well, then, I want you to be alone," Ellyn snapped back. "Come
on,
Beau."

"Wait!" Galahad said. "What if you aren't fiends but angels sent to guide me? Then I would be making a grave error in not receiving you."

Ellyn rolled her eyes. "Lord, help us," she muttered.

At Ellyn's words Galahad relaxed. "Beaufils! It
is
you! How wonderful to see you again." Beaufils and Ellyn glanced at each other in confusion, but Galahad explained, "No fiend could say, 'Lord, help us.' Now I know you are who you say and have come to aid my quest."

"Blast," Ellyn said under her breath.

"I'd be happy to help if I can," Beaufils said, "but actually Ellyn and I are on a different quest this time—Ellyn's quest."

"What quest is that?"

"We don't know yet," Beaufils replied with a smile. "I'm hoping we'll recognize it when we find it."

"Do you know where to look?" Galahad asked.

"No."

"Then we can ride together," Galahad said. "After all, I don't know where I'm going, either. Why shouldn't we go in the same direction? Say, do you know where we are?"

Beaufils hesitated. He was remembering that with Galahad you had to be careful how much to say, because he didn't like to hear things that didn't go along with what he already thought. "Sort of," he said. "How did you get here?"

"I came upon a strange boat in a great river. It had no pilot or crew, but on its deck there was a bed with carved pillars and damask curtains and this ancient sword sheath." He showed them a sheath of black leather that hung at his side. "I rode on board to see this wonder, and the boat left the shore. It crossed a great sea and brought me to this place. Are we in France?"

"I don't think so," Beaufils said carefully.

"Where, then?"

There was nothing else for it. "Well, we were told that this is the World of Faeries."

"Faeries!" Galahad exclaimed. Beaufils nodded, and Galahad gripped his sword more tightly. "I
knew
this was a devilish place. Let us ride on and meet the adventure that comes."

He started down the slope, but Beaufils stopped him. "Er, Galahad, there's one thing. On Ellyn's quest, we are to go only where Ellyn leads. You don't mind letting her pick our way, do you?"

"Let a woman lead?"

"Let Ellyn lead, yes."

"What sort of quest can be led by a woman?"

Ellyn, who had sat in brooding silence during this whole exchange, spoke suddenly. "
My
quest. That's what sort."

Galahad threw back his shoulders. "I am on a man's quest," he said. "I cannot follow a female."

Ellyn straightened her own back. "Well, I'm on a
woman's
quest, and I'd just as soon that you didn't—"