by“So! Your fine champion—WHERE IS HE?” The Green Giant’s question thundered through King Arthur’s feast hall, rattling the drinking horns in their stands.
From the start, this Yuletide had been overshadowed by dread. After the last New Year’s Day, in Camelot, would Sir Mordred return to keep his word? And would the Green Knight find them again in Caerleon? How could he fail? The annual progressions of King Arthur’s Court were less than no public secret: its own members, and all the other people of England, must be able to find it at need.
Sir Mordred had not returned. At Michaelmas, Sir Gawen and the other three Orkney knights had gone in search of their youngest brother, and thus far only Sir Gareth had returned, to report that, to the best of his knowledge, all of them thus far had ha
