Read Online At the Crossing Places by Kevin Crossley-Holland - Free Book Online Page B

time. On the worst days, Rowena has to sew on her own.”
    â€œMine ache when I’ve been writing for a long time.”
    â€œLook!” said Lady Judith, and she pointed to the last stitched square. “Do you recognize this?”
    I stared at a girl on horseback, with red-gold hair, her cloak on fire, pelting downhill from a castle towards a waiting boy and his horse.
    â€œYou see?” Lady Judith said. “You are part of the story already.”

17 THREE TIMES THREE
    L AST SPRING, I WORKED OUT I HAD THREE SORROWS, three fears, and three joys.
    I still have, but they’re all different.
    My first sorrow now is that I realize my mother cannot have even wanted me to be born. I don’t belong with her or Lady Alice or Lady Helen or anyone. My second sorrow is that my father is Sir William. He’s a murderer and loathsome, and I dread having to meet him again. My third sorrow is Gatty. She and Jankin may never be able to marry, and I wish I could see her sometimes and talk to her.
    My first fear is that my mother may not even be alive. But even if she is, she may not want to see me, and that’s my second fear. My third is that Alan’s right about my Yard-skills not being good enough, and that in the end Lord Stephen will decide not to take me to Jerusalem.
    Winnie is my first joy. I like her and I think she likes me, and I’m looking forward to visiting her at Verdon. Second, I’m glad I’m Lord Stephen’s squire. He’s fair and usually friendly and even thanked me for coming to serve him. My third joy! That’s my glorious chestnut warhorse. I’m going to call him Bonamy.

18 DEATH–PIGEONS AND DELAYS
    Y ESTERDAY WAS AN UNLUCKY DAY, I’M NOT SURE WHY. Maybe because it was the feast day of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, who mistook his father and mother for two robbers and killed them both. They were certainly unlucky!
    Lord Stephen excused me Yard-practice and my lesson with Haket so I could accompany him to the muster at Verdon and meet all the other knights of the Middle March who have taken the Cross. But he had some business to attend to first, so I went up to my room and unwrapped my seeing stone.
    It was odd. What I could see and what I could hear didn’t exactly fit; or rather, they were two sides of the same story. That has never happened before.
    King Arthur is mounted and in company, and at least fifty earls, lords, and knights are riding with him, as well as several hundred men on foot. His brother and steward, Sir Kay, is riding on his left, and Sir Brastias, commander of the North, is on his right. I can see Sir Lamorak and Sir Owain. And Sir Balin of Northumberland, King Bors of Gaul, King Ban of Brittany, and with his gold shield crossed by three grass-green stripes, the Knight of the Black Anvil: They’re all with the king.
    They’re riding up a wide valley, and there’s a wood in front of them.
    Now a herald blows his trumpet, three short blasts, and King Arthur reins in.
    â€œThe dark drumroll of war,” says a voice, Merlin’s voice, but I can’t see Merlin in the stone. It’s as if the words are inside Arthur-in-the-stone’s head.
    And now I can hear voices coming from the wood.
    â€œNot until he’s down and dead.”
    â€œOur kiss-curl king!”
    â€œEasy meat!”
    â€œEngland has been lawless for too long,” Merlin says. “I’ve told you that before.”
    â€œDown and dead,” says a voice in the wood. “Destroyed.”
    â€œI can raise one hundred men.”
    â€œAnd I can raise one thousand.”
    â€œLast night,” says the voice of a young man, “I had a dream. I was right up in the air, staring down at all our castles and manors. They looked as small as chess pieces. Then the south wind spun, it rocked and toppled them. After that, there was a flood. A silver scythe. It picked up all our castles and our manors and carried them