Maerlin said. “You did as you promised.” “This wasn’t exactly how you were expecting it to go, though, was it?” I slipped my hand into the crook of his arm. We’d re-formed our friendship over the past months of hardship and pain; there had been too much to worry about and work toward as Corinium sought new balance, for us to dwell on past grievances. We stood on the shore of the small lake where I had, a little over a year ago, played the Lady of the Lake and drawn Skalibur from its recalcitrant depths. Pale spring sunlight warmed our winter-chilled flesh and brought small flowers blossoming among the grasses. A duck and her ducklings paddled along near the water’s shore, the downy chicks making soft, peeping whistles as they struggled to keep up with their mother. “They’re a good family; they’ll take good care of him. He’ll be safer with them, and have a better childhood, than here amid this chaos.”
