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‘What is it?’ I asked. I confess I was more tempted by the smell of roasting pork that came from Uther’s hall than by whatever momentary trance had so exhausted Nimue.
Kingdoms need kings, and without them they are nothing but empty land inviting a conqueror’s spears.
May God and His angels forgive me, but that day I discovered the joy that lies in battle and for a long time afterwards I craved it like a thirsty man seeking water.
Taxes, as I was to learn, were the best source of wealth for men who did not want to work,
and though my good fortune was holding the curse at bay, I could feel its malevolence circling me like a hidden dark enemy.
fat and suspicious man with the foulest breath of anyone I ever met.
The young will often rush in where the wise go steadily.
but then I was young enough to enjoy war.
God give the truth victory,’
She spoke with the terrible simplicity of truth and I thought how ferocity gave her a beauty that nature had denied her.
The bards sing of love and men and women yearn for it, but none knows what love is until, like a spear thrown from the dark, it strikes.
don’t know, Lord,’ I said. I only knew that my Lord was rehearsing arguments in his head, repeating them over and over until he believed them.
Guinevere dulled the sun with her presence.
‘Dafydd ap Gruffud will translate the tale any way I want him to, and I like the idea of a sword in the stone.
The truth is always astonishing.
times when we understood each other without speaking and others when words tumbled out for hours.
I do not enjoy writing about Lancelot for the memory of him lies like a stain on my life.
‘I was born weak, Derfel,’ she said, ‘and life is spent pretending otherwise.’
‘Merlin would reckon I can look after myself,’ she said, then smiled. ‘And he knows I have you.’
‘There was a time,’ she said bitterly, ‘when his gifts came from love, not guilt.’
but as a man can love a fine wild creature, an eagle or a wildcat,