The Knight Read Online Free

at the mention of this, Rhys?” she asked, concerned about the change of mood. “I am one hundred and fifty years old. My mother has lost interest in my future and my father has turned his ambitions to my married siblings, thinking me a wild and unwilling child.”
    “A child? At one hundred and fifty? You look to be no older than fifteen years old. What are you, Naida?” he asked again.
    “I cannot answer that, but you said you live at court with Morgana le Fae. Why is that so?”
    “More questions for questions?” He paused, then answered, “She is my father’s cousin; he sent me there to be sophisticated by court life, but I know that he secretly hopes I will be married in a great match made by Morgana.”
    “I see,” she replied. “But what do you want?”
    “I want to see the world,” Rhys said, “learn everything there is, become a knight and maybe sit at the Round Table. To be quite honest, I’d be happy to serve dinner at the Round Table but for my family’s sake, I try to keep my ambitions high.”
    Rhys flashed his widest smile at her. Naida smiled back at him and started to make her way around the pond balancing precariously at the water’s edge.
    “Be careful not to fall, milady,” Rhys called out to her but she ignored him completely. Soon she was on his side of the pond and she took a seat in the lush grass.
    “You are the court jester, eh?” Naida quipped. “Have you ever met King Arthur?”
    “No, but I hope to soon, we are related after all. Quite distantly, but related none the less. My uncle Caradoc is a Knight of the Round Table. His son will soon follow in his footsteps, I’d think.”
    He sighed.
    “I have to return home now, Rhys,” Naida suddenly said, breaking the pause in conversation. “If you wish for the answers to the questions you asked me, seek out Murcanthia, Morgana’s librarian. She will tell you where to find the answers.”
    With that, she disappeared. Rhys looked around again to see if she was elsewhere in the glen, but she was gone.
    “Not even a polite goodbye?” he shouted, feeling dejected.
    “Goodbye,” a voice called from across the water. Rhys whirled around looking at the waterfall. He just caught sight of the hem of her dress disappearing from sight.
    Then he heard her last words clearly as she added, “And no matter what happens, do not speak of any of this to anyone at Avalon.”
    The leaves overhead rustled violently in the wind, then silence. She was gone. Rhys fell back against the grass once more. His mind raced, his heart pounded, his head was giddy. Who was she, this Naida? And most importantly WHAT was she? She was a beautiful nymph of a girl, an enchantress from the water.
     
    Avalon
     
    Rhys heard the distant sounding of a gong and paused to look up at the windows of the huge library.
    “Oh dear God!” he cried as he saw the sun was well on its way home. “It’s the supper gong.”
    He jumped up and raced over to the west wing door and down the corridor to his rooms. His valet was waiting impatiently for him.
    “Where have you been, Master Rhys? You are late!” Erasmus admonished.
    “I was in the library reading, Erasmus. Time must have gotten away from me.”
    He threw off his jerkin and shirt and faced Erasmus so he could push his arms into the clean shirt the valet held up for him. He donned a new jerkin as well. Erasmus tightened his belt and put on the scabbard at his waist while Rhys brushed his hair quickly. He ran from the room and out to the entry hall of the banquet room and pushed through the crowd to take his place beside one of his aunt’s ladies, Enid, whom he escorted in to supper on the nights when he did not serve at Morgana’s table.
    “Where have you been?” Enid hissed. “You are late!”
    “I have heard that several times already. Be still, Lady Enid. I have made my way here before you entered for supper, have I not? You are yet escorted to dine like a true and proper young woman. No scandal shall