We walked hand in hand as we rounded the lake heading for the orchard. And as we went we passed women, young and old, working in the fields hoeing and cultivating and doing the daily chores of farmers.
Vivian had asked me a simple question as to where I had been all this time and I babbled like a fool the whole time we walked. Trying to explain twenty years of absence in a short period of time.
She stopped me just short of the complex of buildings and put a finger to my lips. Silencing me in a gentle but efficent way.
"Father, stop talking for a minute. There is no need to explain. As you are a priest in the brotherhood, so am I with the Sisters of Avalon. I know where you have been and what you have been doing all these years and I have waited patiently for the time to come for us to again meet."
"We are of a single cause. We each hold secrets of our own faith and the faith of Christ. We have a common purpose at this time and it is for the once and future King. We will be the ones to lead him to his and our destinies. It is not our doing but the will of God."
"Now behave like the priest that you are and I will introduce you to the Sisters." She said with a laugh on her lips.
As she turned her head sideways to me I noticed how much she looked like her mother, a strong but beautiful chin. The high cheekbones and the flowing strands of blond hair. I reached out and touched her to be sure that I was not dreaming and she clasped my hand tightly as if to say, "I know."
I was treated like a King by these lovely sisters of God. And I must say that being surrounded and served hand and foot by nubile young wenches stirred with in me such unpriestly thoughts that I bathed in the lake twice that day. Letting the cold mountain waters remove the lust from my loins. Saying prayers over and over in my head to cleans it of my unpure thoughts. The Sisters knew what was going on and they found it quite amusing. Several would blush as they approached me and others barely hide their flirtatious approaches.
We sat around a fire in one of the quaint stone cottages that evening and talked. Idle talk that wandered from topic to topic never staying very long in one place.
An elderly Sister approached and knelt beside us offering up a cup of liquid.
"This is what you have come for father," Vivian said as she took the cup from her hands and offered it to me.
I took the cup from her and smelled the liquid trying to assertain what it was. It smelled very strongly of apples and seemed to have been kept in a cold place as the liquid was below room temperature.
"Your journey here was not just to visit me. It was to learn the identity of the once and future king. This is the necter of the Sacred Apples. It will make you dream. And in those dreams will be revealed the face of the king. Only you will know who this is to be. Only you can find and protect him. And teach him the ways of the old and the new. Drink now and see the future.
I raised the cup to my lips and sipped. I tasted strongly of apples and some exotic spice unknown to me. It was pleasant and intoxicating.
As I finished the cup, my head began to spin and my speech became uncontrollable. My eyes became heavy and I felt the powerful liquid drag me down into the depths of a dark abyss.
As I drifted through what seemed to be a long dark tunnel. Images began to flash before my eyes. A clearing in a forest, a stone with a sword sticking out of it. Great battles won and lost. A child, in danger. A large table with many men standing around it, each carrying a different banner. And then a black shape that seemed to cloud the whole sky. Thunder and lightening and a golden mask that frightened me. And again the child, in the arms of his mother this time and the father standing by their side. And the face of the man was Uther.
Yet the great black cloud again obscured the vision and the horror images began. Demons and goblins attacked my very body. I fought with all the strength I had. I fought till I was exhausted and came out of my stupor enough to know that I had vomited and that I lay like a child with the warm bile dripping in my beard.
I crawled out of the hut, a sister helped me to the edge of the lake and I plunged my head deep within it. I raised my head and sank it again into the waters. Thrice more I wet my head before the creatures and horrors ceased. I fell on my back looking up at the moonless night, panting for air. And I felt a soft cloth being drawn across my brow and the warmth of a body beside me. I pushed my head into that warmth and curled up like a baby and slept without dreams for the rest of the night.
I awoke the next morning. My head throbbing and my stomach unsettled. My head lay in the lap of one of the Sisters, and I turned my head to speak my thanks.
The lass was not one of the Sisters I remembered being introduced to for I would have remembered her.
She was tall, almost as tall as me. Her shoulders broad and her bosom ample. With raven dark hair that framed the lilly white skin of her face. Her dark eyes smoldered and flashed and her beauty was as none that I had ever seen.
"Who are you?" I asked with little or no sense of style in my question.
She smiled and the feeling I got from that smile was as warm as the sun in summer.
"I am Morgan Le Faye, but everyone calls me Morganna."
"Did we meet yesterday?" I asked. "My mind is not really well this morning."
She giggled slightly. "No, my Lord. I came to the valley last night in search of you."
"You were lookinig for me? Why pray tell?"
"King Uther has summoned you. He is in need of your advice. I am to lead you to him."
"How did you find me?" I asked.
"I am employed in the court of King Uther but I am also of the Sisters of Avalon. There is little that goes on within the ranks of the brothers or the Sisters that I do not know about. It is worth my while to have this knowledge. I heard of your passing from some of the brothers and from the direction you were heading there was only one place that you could have been going."
I shifted postions and raised up on one elbow, my head swimming slightly. Morganna pulled my head to her bosom and held me firmly in her grip. I could smell the essence of her womanhood and the smell filled my lungs and my loins.
"I know quite a bit about you Merlyn. Though I must say, that I never would have guessed that the Lady of the Lake was your daughter."
"The Lady of the Lake? What is this title?"
"It is the highest order of the Sisters. Only one may hold the title. Vivian has been chosen to succeed. You should be proud of her. It is a great honor."
I sensed a slight resentment in her voice but paid it no attention.
"Come," she said. "The King awaits." And pushed me gently away from her chest.
"I fear that the king must wait a while longer. This body must heal for I am not a young man any longer." I said as I struggled to my feet. Swaying from side to side, unable to place my feet where I wanted them.
"There is more to a man than a youthful body. I will take knowledge and experience over youth any day." She said smiling at me.
"And I will take water over the necter of the apples any day from now on," I said laughing.
She took my arm and helped me back inside the cottage where a warm brew of Cha awaited me.
