Read Online King of the Scepter'd Isle (Song of Earth) by Michael G. Coney - Free Book Online

mean?”
    “I think so,” said Torre doubtfully. “But where
are
these happentracks?”
    She waved a hand uncertainly, encompassing the men, the forest, the sky. “Everywhere. Right here. Avalona found Arthur and his people on a happentrack quite close to ours. She felt it might be useful to some mysterious purpose of hers—you know what she’s like.”
    They nodded. They knew what Avalona was like: a black-clad figure, pale-faced with eyes hard as stones, stalking silently around the forest on missions known only to herself. What they didn’t know was how the young and vivacious Nyneve could bearto live with Avalona and her senile companion, Merlin.
    “She thinks Arthur’s happentrack branched off only a few centuries ago. So a lot of the people on that happentrack are the same as on this.”
    “You’re trying to tell me there’s a Palomides in Arthur’s world?” asked Ned. “There’s another me?”
    “There was, I expect.”
    “
Was?
” Mara Zion people were nothing if not superstitious, and Nyneve’s emphasis brought an expression of alarm to Ned’s face.
    “Well, Arthur’s happentrack has rejoined ours. That kind of thing happens occasionally. So the other Ned and you are both the same person now.”
    “If that’s the case,” said Ned shrewdly, “I’d have a whole lot of new memories. But I don’t. So you’re talking nonsense.”
    “You wouldn’t
know
you have new memories. They’d seem like old memories.”
    “Makes sense,” said Governayle, coming to Nyneve’s rescue. “But it doesn’t explain why this fellow you call Arthur is so young. The Arthur in your stories must have been forty years old by the time he died.”
    “Avalona explained that. She said happentracks don’t have to be simultaneous. Arthur’s joined us in an earlier time in his life, that’s all.”
    “But …” This was too much even for Torre. “If that was true, we’d know exactly what was going to happen to him, because you’ve told us in your stories. He’s going to be the king of all England, and he’s going to marry Guinevere, and all that stuff. But we could change all that right now, simply by killing him. So I’m with Ned for once, Nyneve. You’re talking nonsense.”
    “But you won’t kill him, Torre,” said the girl quietly.
    “But I could.”
    “But you won’t.”
    They stared at each other. “By God, I will!” shouted Torre, drawing his sword. Then he remembered and sheathed it. “He has Excalibur,” he said heavily.
    “Exactly.”
    “But if he didn’t … ?”
    “But he does. Don’t worry about it, Torre. The time will come when you won’t even dream of killing Arthur. And remember, the stories I told you all happened on a different happentrack. There’s no reason why they should happen exactly the same on
this
happentrack.”
    And if they’d been astute enough, they’d have noticed her flush slightly. On
this
happentrack, she was determined, there would be no marriage to Guinevere. … “And then there are the gnomes,” she said hastily. “At least I can prove
them. “
    “The gnomes? What have they got to do with anything?”
    “They were on a different happentrack too. Now they’ve joined us, just like Arthur. …”
    “She shouldn’t have said that,” observed the Miggot of One.
    “Why not?” asked Fang, whispering too. “We can hardly hide from the giants forever.”
    The two gnomes watched the humans from under a rhododendron. In recognition of their precarious situation they had left their scarlet caps at home and wore gray flat hats, brown jackets, and pants. This effectively blended with their surroundings but left them depressed. They stared miserably from the giants to each other, deposited by fate in a strange and violent happentrack. Their only friend among the giantish humans was Nyneve.
    “Anyway,” said the Miggot, “it’s time we got back to the Sharan. She will shortly give birth.”
    The thought of attending the unicorn’s labor did not