The Squire's Quest Read Free Page A

friends? Lady Charis?" Terence went on. "I trust she's well? And Ariel?"
    Sarah frowned. "Charis is fine," she said. "I haven't seen Ariel in months."
    Terence allowed nothing to show, but his heart sank. Ariel was from the World of Faeries.
    "That's what brought me here," Sarah continued. "Ariel used to drop in every week or two, and then about six months ago, her visits stopped." Eileen looked up from her stitching, met Terence's eyes, then looked down again. Sarah went on, "I was concerned, but I didn't want to overreact and get all worried over nothing."
    "I know just what you mean," Terence said.
    "Then someone came to me and gave me a message for you."
    "Someone?"
    Sarah hesitated, glancing quickly at Eileen. "I was told to tell no one but you," she said.
    "Who told you that?"
    Sarah considered this. "Well, she didn't say I wasn't to identify
her.
It was Lady Morgan."
    Terence nodded. Morgan Le Fay was another of Gawain's aunts, an enchantress like her malevolent sister Morgause, but not as dependably wicked. "I see," Terence said. "Well, you can take my word for it that you may trust Eileen."
    "Still..." Sarah said.
    "If it makes any difference, let me assure you that whatever you tell me in private, I will certainly tell Eileen. So why not save time and tell us both?"
    Sarah looked between the two one more time, a faint smile on her lips, then shrugged. "All right. She said to tell you that it has started again, and that this time there would be no help from your world."
    She paused, and Terence asked, "Is that it?"
    "No, but what does that much mean?"
    "It means," Terence said, "that Morgause the Enchantress has begun yet another plot to destroy Arthur."
    "That's what I thought. She was the one behind the queen's abduction, wasn't she? And when she says there will be no help from your world, that means the faery world, doesn't it?" Terence nodded. "Why not?"
    "I haven't any idea."
    Sarah frowned. "How disappointing," she said. "I had come to think that you knew everything."
    "A lot of people think that," Eileen said. "Odd, isn't it?"
    "What else did Morgan tell you?"
    "She said that this time the threat would come through pretense and falsehood. And that's it. Oh, except that she said that you're to trust no one."
    Terence nodded. "Yes," he said. "Morgan isn't very trustworthy herself, so she has trouble understanding the concept of trust. But I don't choose to live like that." He pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "Well, that doesn't help much, but at least it confirms what I've been feeling. Thank you, Sarah."
    He fell again into a reverie, so that he was only vaguely aware of Eileen asking calmly, "Do you make a long stay at Camelot, Sarah?"
    "I should like to stay for a while, anyway," Sarah replied, "but I don't want to put you out."
    "Oh, it's no trouble. My rooms are quite large enough for two people."
    Sarah looked puzzled. "Two people? You mean you usually live here alone?"
    "Yes," Eileen replied. "Had you heard otherwise?"
    "No, but..."
    "But what?"
    Sarah took a breath. "I'm probably breaking some important rule of courtly etiquette that I never learned correctly, but I never understood why it's sometimes ill manners to say out loud what's obvious." She looked at Eileen, then at Terence, then back at Eileen. "I assumed that you two were married."
    Terence and Eileen both stared at her, but neither spoke.
    "It's as plain as day. I've never seen two people who fit together as perfectly and who were as comfortable with each other as you two are. You love each other. If you aren't married, then it's a crying shame. Are you?"
    "Yes," Terence said.
    "In a manner of speaking," added Eileen. "Mostly."
    "What does that mean?" demanded Sarah. "I didn't think you could be
mostly
married."
    Terence hesitated, not really wanting to tell Sarah what was known only to the two of them and Gawain, but he had every reason to trust Sarah. Besides, he had just declared in front of her that he refused to be as untrusting