Read Online Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger - Free Book Online

split from top to bottom and fell away in parts and the two lances broke in twain as well. But King Ryons was so distracted by his fury that he turned and charged again, though armed with but the stump of lance.
    Now King Arthur drew Excalibur and when Ryons reached him, he leaned from his saddle and inserting the point of his sword between the greave on Ryons’ leg and the horse’s belly he did cut apart the leather that supported the stirrup, and Ireland’s foot in the heavy steel boot thereupon dropped free. And so was his center of balance altered drastically, and he fell out of the saddle and onto the ground.
    Then King Arthur dismounted and raising his visor spake to the Irish king as follows. “You have done what valor would demand. Now leave our country with impunity.” And he offered his hand in aid of Ryons’ effort to rise from the earth, no easy achievement when suited in hinged steel.
    But Ryons struck the hand away and, with much heaving and squeaking, he climbed onto his two feet and drew his sword. Then he spake to Arthur, at first incomprehensibly within the visor, but then lifting it he said, “By accident I have been unhorsed, but ’tis no inconvenience, for I should have had to be anyway afoot when I cut off thy head. Thou hast a final opportunity to submit to me as vassal. Therefore kneel now, and live hereafter.”
    “My lord Ireland,” said Arthur, “in justice we must warn you that with our sword Excalibur we are invincible. ’Tis a magical weapon, given us by the Lady of the Lake, and it can cut lace or iron with equal ease. To use it against a mortal man armed with a conventional weapon would defy the principles of chivalry—unless he were warned against it, as you are now.”
    “Chivalry, boy? What shitful rubbish is that?” asked Ryons, weighing the flat of his own great blade in his huge hands.
    “A code for, a mode of, knightly behavior, in which justice is conditioned by generosity, valor shaped by courtesy,” said King Arthur. “The vulgar advantage is declined. Dignity is preserved, even in a foe.”
    “And is that all?” asked Ryons mockingly.
    And Arthur saw fit to add, “Graciousness is sought.”
    But King Ryons did guffaw in derision. “Thou art not only a boy, thou art a pompous ass of a boy! Hadst thou taken orders, thou shouldst already have been made bishop.” He raised his sword. “Now, boy, were I ‘chivalrous,’ I should not take advantage of a beardless varlet, I who have vanquished many powerful monarchs, giants, and fearsome beasts, I who by force of arms won my crown amongst the ferocious Irish, the most awesome warriors on the face of the earth, each worth ten Britons and twenty Saxons. But as it is, I am a king and not a bloody prating little preacher. Thy Lady of the Lake is a whore, and her sword will soon make my toothpick. Defend thyself!”
    And King Ryons thereupon lifted overhead his sword, which was five feet long as he himself was seven feet tall, and then he brought it down in a two-handed cleaving of the air and with sufficient force to split an anvil.
    But before the blade could reach him, Arthur stepped aside, making as he did so a horizontal stroke with Excalibur, so quick and deft that it was scarcely visible to the front ranks of the Hibernian host, and from the battlements of Caerleon, where his own forces were watching, it could not be seen at all.
    Now Ryons’ blade penetrated the earth, at a slant, for half its length, and as Ireland braced himself to pull it forth, King Arthur returned Excalibur to its scabbard and did mount Aubagu.
    At this Ryons opened his helm and called out, “Poltroon! Dost flee?”
    Looking down upon him, but not so far, owing to the great height of the Irish king, Arthur said, “Shake your head, my lord.”
    And Ryons did so, though more in puzzlement than to comply with the request, and his helmeted head did tumble off his neck and over his shoulder and plunge to the ground, where it rolled almost to