Parsifal's Page

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Authors: Gerald Morris
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the knights drew back, leaving Parsifal
and King Glamide alone in a wide circle. The king gulped audibly, began to draw his sword, then pushed it back into its sheath and knelt. "Oh, dash it all. Very well, I yield."
    Parsifal stared. "Don't you even want to fight?"
    The king removed his helm, revealing a boyish face with a thin beard and a sallow complexion. "I've been ill, you see, or I'd fight you in a shot. I had one of my bilious attacks just last night. Ask my doctor, if you don't believe me." This last was said to his knights as much as to Parsifal. "And I think you've broken one of my ribs with your lance. It hurts right here." He pointed at his side.
    Parsifal looked at Piers. "What do you think?"
    "I suppose it counts as defeating him, since you did knock him down. Send him to do honor to someone, I guess."
    "Queen Connie?"
    Piers considered this. "If you couldn't send the other one to her, I don't suppose you can send this one."
    "I guess not. I'll send him to that lady at Arthur's court, too." For the next minute, Parsifal gave his directions to King Clamide. He made him promise to give up all pretension to Queen Conduiramour's hand, and sent him off with his army in his train.
    "Before we go back," Parsifal said, "let me get us some fresh meat."
    ***
    They came back to Belrepeire just at dusk. The gates were shut, but when Parsifal called out, the elderly knight Sir Reynold opened the gate. Sir Reynold looked carefully about him. "Welcome back, sir," he said. "We thought you had left us."
    "I did, but I'm back," Parsifal said. "May I see the queen?"
    Queen Conduiramour herself stepped out of the shadows. "Welcome home, Parsifal. I was disappointed when they said you had left during the night."
    Parsifal dismounted and walked up to the queen. "I didn't want to wait here, because I was afraid that King Clamide might kill me, and I didn't think that would be pleasant for you to watch, so I went on up the road."
    Queen Conduiramour's brow creased. "On up the road?"
    "Yes, so that when I fought them I'd be out of sight."
    "You fought them?"
    "That's right. But as it turned out, I could have fought them here just as well. I don't think that King Clamide really has much stomach for fighting after all. Of course, he wasn't feeling well, and one must take account of illness. You know how weak it can make you feel. But even that other fellow, what was his name, Pierre?"
    "Sir Kingrun."
    "Yes, even Sir Kingrun was disappointing. Anyway, I sent them off, so you can have your farmlands back. And here are three deer and a boar. If you like, we could roast them all together tonight. It would be like a celebration."
    Queen Conduiramour's face brightened and softened, and a huge smile spread across it. "Just like a celebration," she said softly. Parsifal smiled at her, and then the queen reached up and took Parsifal's face in her hands and kissed him soundly on the lips.
    Parsifal gaped at her for a second, then said hesitantly, "My mother told me that one day I would see a woman I thought more fair than any other, and that I should kiss her."
    "Your mother was very wise, Parsifal," the queen said, and they kissed again.

V. The Castle That Wasn't There
    The problem, Piers thought as he paced the floor in his room at Belrepeire, was that it had all happened too fast. It was almost three months since he and Parsifal had first come to Belrepeire, and fully two months after Parsifal and Queen Conduiramour had been married, and Piers still had the feeling that something had gone wrong.
    He pushed out his lips in what his mother used to call a
moue.
It wasn't that he disapproved of Queen Conduiramour. She was, as far as he could tell, the perfect lady. She was wise and graceful, beautiful and witty, quick with both her laughter and her sympathy, beloved by all her subjects, and very clearly in love with Parsifal. It was just that—Piers frowned and tried to put it into words—it was just that she had appeared on the scene too

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