1-мәтін

The Hollow Hills

The place was small but the crowd of men was great: kings and nobles, kings’ guard and me [Merlin] who had been used by the God and brought at last to this place.

At length all were assembled, according to order and precedence. It was as if they had divided by arrangement, or more likely by instinct.

Outside, crowding the steps, waited the little men from the hills; they did not willingly come under a roof. Inside the chapel, to my right, stood Lot, King of Lothian, with his group of friends and followers; to the left Cador, and those who went with him. There were a hundred others, crowded into that small and echoing space, but these two seemed to face one another balefully from either sides.

Then Ector and Сei behind him, brought Arthur forward, and after that I saw no one but the boy.    

The chapel swam with colour and the glint of jewels and gold. The air smelled cold and fragrant, of pines and water.

Flames from the nine lamps, flaring and then dying; flames licking up the stone of the altar; flames running along the blade of the sword until it glowed white hot. It was the ice-cold fire and the sword lay in its flames as a jewel lies embedded in white wool.

The runes danced along the metal: «Whoso taketh this sword…»* The chapel was a dark globe with a centre of fire. I heard my own voice like a voice of dream:

«Take up the sword, he who dares.»

Movement, and men’s voices, full of fear.

Then Cador said: «That is the sword. I saw it in Arthur’s hand, full of light, it is his, I would not touch it even if Merlin himself suggested me.»

There were cries of, «Nor I, nor I,» and then, «Let the King take it up, let the High King show us the sword of Maximus.»*

Then finally, alone, Lot’s voice, gruffly: «Yes. Let him take it. If it is his indeed, then God is with him, and it is not for me.»

Arthur came slowly forward. Behind him the place was dim, the crowd stepped back into darkness. The darkness flashed and sparkled with bright images: a red star, a king with a red golden dragon on the wall, a woman in white, a circle of huge stones on a windy plain with a king’s grave, a child, handed into my arms on a winter night. And a grail hidden somewhere. And a young king crowned.

Arthur looked at me through the flash of vision.

«Come,» I said gently. «It is yours.»

He put his hand through the white blaze of fire and the hilt slid into the hand for which it had been made.

*“ Whoso taketh this sword…”- Who takes this sword from under this stone is the King of Britain”

*Maximus – Roman ruler who lived in the fourth century in Britain (The Hollow Hills, By Mary Stewart, extract)