The Quest of the Fair Unknown (20 page)

"No!" Beaufils shouted, scrambling to his own feet. "Come back!" He raced after Galahad, but the knight had too great a lead, and Beaufils didn't catch up to him until he was already on the boat. Beaufils threw himself aboard and grabbed hold of Galahad, but a sudden jerk made him lose his grip. The boat was moving. Beaufils ran to the rail, but by the time he got there, the boat had left the shore and plunged into a dense fog. He couldn't even see the water, let alone the riverbank and the place where the palace had stood. There was nothing to do but let the boat take them where it would. Galahad moved to the front, his eyes bright with anticipation, while Beaufils sank to the wooden floor and wept.

Beaufils could not have told how long he and Galahad rode through the cloud, with no sound but the lapping of water along the sides of the boat. It could have been hours or days or just minutes, but eventually they came out of the mist to a bright sea before a towering island fortress. Beaufils felt his heaviness lift slightly as they emerged from the fog, as if he were either waking from a dream or just beginning one, and then the boat crunched up onto the gravel beach of the island.

"Come, Beaufils," commanded Galahad. He leaped lightly from the boat, and, having nowhere else to go, Beaufils followed him. A path led up a long rocky crag to the fortress door, and they climbed the path together, neither speaking until they came to the castle itself. "This must be it, the home of the Holy Grail," Galahad said breathlessly.

The door swung outward noiselessly, revealing a long line of old men standing just inside the castle, in a neat row, as if they had been waiting. "Yes, Sir Galahad," said the oldest of the men, who stood at the center of the line. "This is the Castle Carbonek, where resides the Holy Grail. You are welcome."

Galahad sank to his knees, uttering a prayer of gratitude, but Beaufils remained standing, staring at the row of men. There were ten of them, their faces all very old but their bodies and their posture as straight and strong as those of young men. Several of the men were dressed in armor of different types and held swords. Others wore long dark robes like Clerk Geoffrey and the Necromancer, and still others wore outfits like Bishop Baldwin's garments. The man who had spoken wore a long cape of some lush purple material trimmed with fur, and on his head was a golden crown.

"Rise, Sir Galahad," said the crowned man. "You and your squire have been deemed worthy to join us at Carbonek. You and you alone have achieved the Quest of the Holy Grail. I am King Josephus, the son of Joseph of Arimathea, and I have been waiting hundreds upon hundreds of years for this moment, the moment when our number shall at last be complete. It was for this moment that we sent the chair and the sword to Camelot on the day before you arrived: to call you to this place."

"You've been here hundreds of years?" Beaufils repeated, raising one eyebrow.

"We are kept alive by the Grail," King Josephus said. "But you will see. Come join our feast."

As one, the ten elders turned and walked in two lines, keeping in strict order, down a great hall. Galahad fell into place at the end of one line, so Beaufils went to the other. The procession made its stately way down the hall and into a vast banquet room, where the ten elders took seats on either side of a long table, still in order. Thus Beaufils ended up at the last chair on the left side of the table and Galahad at the very end, looking all the way up the long board to the other side, where King Josephus sat on a throne that looked even more uncomfortable than King Arthur's jeweled seat. Beaufils wondered that, in all those hundreds of years, it had never occurred to King Josephus that another chair might be more pleasant to sit in, but he said nothing.

The long banquet table was empty, but as soon as all were seated, King Josephus clapped his hands, and a door opened at the end of the hall. Through the opening, floating like goose down on the breeze, came the Grail itself. It was the same large golden platter that had appeared at King Arthur's court, and just as had happened then, a plate of food appeared before each of the elders and Galahad and Beaufils. The Grail went to the center of the table, then stopped, and floated there, immobile.

Wordlessly, the elders turned to their plates and began to eat, so Beaufils followed their example, politely eating from the plate of fresh fruit and vegetables and brown bread that had appeared before him. It tasted very good.

When the silent meal was done, the plates disappeared and were replaced with twelve small goblets. The Grail began to move again, floating above until it was directly before King Josephus. The king rose to his feet and, taking his goblet, dipped a swallow of some liquid from the lip of the Grail and drank it. At once he seemed to grow stronger and more youthful. Then the Grail moved to the next man at King Josephus's right, who followed the king's example, then across the table to the man at the king's left. One by one, in this zigzag pattern, the Grail went to each of the elders, who each drank a swallow from the clear liquid in the Grail. At about the seventh elder, Beaufils decided not to wait any longer. "Excuse me, King Josephus, but what exactly is this Grail?"

The Grail stopped, and all the elders turned their ancient eyes toward Beaufils. King Josephus held up his hand, as if to calm them, and said, "Peace, friends. Galahad's squire is young and innocent—indeed, we know that he is innocent, or he could not have come here. He does not understand." Then he looked at Beaufils. "You do not know it yet, in your youth, but you will learn it. Here at the Castle Carbonek, all that need be known is known already. There is no need to ask questions."

"But what if you want to learn something?"

At this second question, the king's brows drew together, but only for a moment. At last he said, "You disturb our order, child. All you need to know will be made known."

The Grail resumed its procession back and forth across the table until all ten elders had been served. Then it came to a place directly between Galahad and Beaufils and stopped.

King Josephus said, "Take and drink, my children, for you are the last two men to be deemed pure enough to join us. For these many years we have been waiting until the day that we would become the Twelve Guardians of the Grail. The Grail gives us food and restores our life. In this place we have lives without end, without distress, without toil. You may join us."

Galahad seemed too overwhelmed to speak, but Beaufils had to ask one more question. "Sir," he said, "why are there no women in this place?"

"Drink," King Josephus said, his voice stronger but still calm. "Drink, and all your questions will cease."

Beaufils frowned. "Yes, but will that be because I'll know the answers or because I won't have any more questions? I mean, there's a difference."

King Josephus sighed heavily. "As you say," he replied. "I will answer this question alone. The drink that is in the Grail is from the miraculous spring that the ancient pagans called Lethe. Anyone who drinks from those waters will be swallowed forever in the peace of forgetfulness. You will be protected from every temptation, from now unto eternity. You will recall no grief, no pain, no sin. You will feel no lust or covetousness or pride. All the trials, the passions, and the toils of that distant world called the World of Men will fade away forever. You will remember no person or object that could distract your thoughts from the peaceful contemplation of eternity."

"I have dreamed of this day," Galahad said suddenly. "I have dreamed of such peaceful waters."

Beaufils looked into his friend's face and then, in a moment of insight, at last understood. Behind Galahad's eyes he saw clouds of fear and realized that it had always been fear that had driven his friend. Galahad was brave in battle but terrified of the world, which to him would always be an evil force trying to destroy him. In his fear, Galahad could never rest, never relax, and never trust. To Galahad, the waters of Lethe represented release from fear.

"Drink, my son," said King Josephus.

"Yes," Beaufils said. "Have a drink, my friend."

Galahad took up the goblet from his place and scraped it across the bottom of the Grail, scooping up a few drops of the liquid. He raised the cup feverishly to his lips and drained it. Then, as Beaufils watched, Galahad's expression changed. The suspicion that had always lurked behind his eyes faded and was replaced by pure bliss. His face no longer showed any doubt, fear, or even recognition—only an overwhelming contentment. Galahad let out a long sigh and relaxed into his chair.

"And now, my child," King Josephus said to Beaufils. "It is your turn."

Beaufils shook his head slowly and said, "No."

Beaufils stumbled across the barren wasteland, his mouth parched and his whole body crying out for water. He wasn't sure if this was part of his punishment, but he had a feeling that King Josephus would approve of it anyway: dying of thirst would be an appropriate penalty for refusing to drink from the Grail.

The king's stern words upon Beaufils's refusal of the Grail still reverberated in his mind. King Josephus had spoken in a calm voice—evidently he'd been telling the truth when he said that the waters of Lethe took away all passions—but there had been no kindness in his speech either. "Then begone from this island, and from this place of peace forever, you child of wickedness. Few are offered this grace, and none have ever refused it. No one who has beheld so great a salvation and then turned away can be restored. Child of wickedness I called you, and so you are. You are no longer fit to remain on these shores."

Beaufils had barely had time to look at Galahad and note the mild and disinterested expression on his friend's face before the banquet hall began to fill with clouds before his eyes. In a blink he found himself back on the pilotless ship, rushing away through the fog, and seconds later the boat had emptied him onto a bleak shore.

That had been early morning, judging from the sun. It was now nearly sundown, and Beaufils had been walking all day. He had had nothing to drink and, but for a crust of bread that he'd found in his pocket, nothing to eat. He had set off to find the place where Lady Synadona's castle had disappeared, where he hoped to find Ellyn, but the boat from Carbonek had left him at a different place on the shore, far from any river, and now Beaufils was hopelessly lost.

He sank into the long shadow of a craggy boulder, to rest for just a moment from the heat. He knew he would die soon without water. A faint skittering sound at his feet made him open his eyes, and he saw a long-legged mouse standing by his leg, examining him with interest. "Hello, dear," Beaufils said. His voice was harsh and raspy. Leaning to one side, Beaufils dug in the pocket where he had found the crust of bread and managed to produce a few crumbs. "Here you go," he whispered, holding them out to the mouse.

"Isn't that all you have?" said a low voice from beside him—a woman's voice.

Beaufils turned and looked into the eyes of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. It wasn't that she was beautiful in appearance—he still didn't understand that idea exactly—but she was beautiful in goodness and humor and love. "It will do me no good," he explained through his cracked lips. "But it will be a whole meal for the little one."

"Yes," the woman said, smiling. "Just like the pool of water behind that hill. I don't especially need a drink, but you look as if you could use one."

Beaufils could only stare, and so the woman took his arm, raised him to his feet, and led him to a blissfully cool pool of water, from which a stream ran gently through the parched earth. "Who are you?" he gasped to the woman when he had had his fill.

"My name is Lorie," the woman replied. "I am the daughter of an old friend of yours, Ganscotter the Enchanter."

"Scotus?" Beaufils asked.

"The same. He sent me to help you."

"That was nice of him," Beaufils murmured. Then a memory stirred him to say, "But he isn't always nice, is he?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he cast that spell over Ellyn's father—the Carl of Carlisle, and also over the Lady Petunia. He changed them into horrible creatures."

"My father can do things that no human or faerie has ever dreamed of doing," Lorie said. "But even he cannot change someone into something they don't want to be."

The idea was familiar. "That's what Lady Synadona said too, about when she became a dragon." He looked up suddenly. "Please, Lorie, can you tell me if she is all right? And my friend Ellyn?"

"I cannot say," Lorie replied. "All I can tell you is where to seek them yourself. Follow this stream. In a few miles it will bring you to a field, and beyond that a forest. In the forest you will find helpers to take you the rest of the way."

"Helpers?"

"My brother and a friend," Lorie said. "I know you are tired, but you should leave now, before it grows dark."

An hour later, having followed the stream to the forest, Beaufils staggered into a small clearing, where he had seen the flickering of a fire, and collapsed. He heard an exclamation of surprise, a sword being drawn, then a voice saying, "Wait!"

Summoning his last strength, Beaufils rolled over and looked up into the old-young eyes of the squire Terence. Beside him was Beaufils's old friend Gawain.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity, as Terence and Gawain gave Beaufils food and water and checked him for injuries. At last, after Beaufils had assured them for the twentieth time that he would be all right soon, Gawain asked earnestly, "Where's Ellyn?"

"I'm looking for her now," Beaufils said.

Gawain's face grew tight. "You've lost her? But that hermit, Basil, promised me that she would be all right in your—"

"Why don't you tell us what happened, Beaufils?" Terence interrupted.

So Beaufils told about the past days, from their crossing into the World of Faeries and meeting Galahad to Ellyn's decision at Lady Petunia's castle, up to when they found Lady Synadona, then lost her again, along with Ellyn. "Now I'm trying to get back to the meadow where the castle disappeared, to find them," he concluded.