"Mary Stewart - The Arthurian Saga 03 - The Last Enchantment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

He looked up quickly. "Yes. I was thinking of that. You'll be there to do it?" Then, with sudden urgency:
"Merlin, you swear you will always be there?"

"As long as I am needed. Though it seems to me," I added lightly, "that the eaglet is fledging fast enough
already." Then, because I knew what lay behind the sudden uncertainty: "I shall wait for you at
Amesbury, and I shall be there to present you to your mother."

2



Amesbury is little more than a village, but since Ambrosius' day it has taken some kind of grandeur to
itself, as befits his birthplace, and its nearness to the great monument of the Hanging Stones that stand on
the windy Sarum plain. This is a linked circle of vast stone, a gigantic Dance, which was raised first in
times beyond men's memory. I had (by what folk persisted in seeing as "magic art") rebuilt the Dance to
beBritain 's monument of glory, and the burial-place of her kings. Here Uther was to lie beside his
brother Ambrosius.

We brought his body without incident to Amesbury and left it in the monastery there, wrapped in spices
and coffined in hollowed oak, under its purple pall before the chapel altar. The King's guard (who had
ridden south with his body) stood vigil, and the monks and nuns of Amesbury prayed beside the bier.
Queen Ygraine being a Christian, the dead king was to be buried with all the rites and ceremonies of the
Christian church, though in life he had barely troubled even to pay lip-service to the Christians' God.
Even now he lay with gold coins glinting on his eyelids, to pay the fee of a ferryman who had exacted
such toll for centuries longer than Saint Peter of the Gate. The chapel itself had apparently been erected
on the site of a Roman shrine; it was little more than an oblong erection of daub and wattle, with wooden
shafts holding up a roof of thatch, but it had a floor of fine mosaic work, scrubbed clean and hardly
damaged. This, showing scrolls of vine and acanthus, could offend no Christian souls, and a woven rug
lay centrally, probably to cover whatever pagan god or goddess floated naked among the grapes.

The monastery reflected something of Amesbury's new prosperity. It was a miscellaneous collection of
buildings huddled anyhow around a cobbled yard, but these were in good repair and the Abbot's house,
which had been vacated for the Queen and her train, was well built of stone, with wooden flooring, and a
big fireplace at one end with a chimney.

The headman of the village, too, had a good house, which he made haste to offer me for lodging, but
explaining that the King would follow me soon, I left him in an uproar of extra preparation, and betook
myself with my servants to the tavern. This was small, with little pretension to comfort, but it was clean,
and fires were kept burning high against the autumn chills. The innkeeper remembered me from the time I
had lodged there during the rebuilding of the Dance; he still showed the awe that the exploit had raised in
him, and made haste to give me the best room, and to promise me fresh poultry and a mutton pie for
supper. He showed relief when I told him that I had brought two servants with me, who would serve me
in my own chamber, and banished his own staring pot-boys to their posts at the kitchen burners.

The servants I had brought were two of Arthur's. In recent years, living alone in theWildForest , I had
cared for myself, and now had none of my own. One was a small, lively man from the hills of Gwynedd;
the other was Ulfin, who had been Uther's own servant. The late King had taken him from a rough
servitude, and had shown him kindness, which Ulfin repaid with devotion. This would now belong to
Arthur, but it would have been cruel to deny Ulfin the chance of following his master's body on its last