Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle by Rosalind Miles Page A

but you are welcome to me!" He held Tristan at arm's length and looked him up and down. "Oh, poor Elizabeth, how you remind me of her!" His lips trembled, and his eyes filled again with tears. "Did you know she was my twin? The best part of me died with her. Now God has sent her back to me in you!"
    Awkwardly Tristan drew back. He could see the dark-haired knight beside the throne eyeing him with an impenetrable stare. He had hoped for a warmer welcome from his cousin than this.
    "My lord—" he began.
    "And I thought I'd lost you," Mark rushed on, "after that terrible business in Lyonesse. God Almighty," he burst out in sudden rage, "when your father married again, why did he make such a dreadful choice?"
    Tristan looked away. "My stepmother was a princess of the blood."
    "From Little Britain, wasn't she? Well, they're all false, the French!" cried Mark. "He should have married one of our own. No woman of Lyonesse would have tried to poison you so her own son could be king." He gave an angry laugh. "But you were the one who had to go away."
    "I could not stay at court when they were reconciled," Tristan said with an unmistakable note of reserve and pain. "I was too much of a reminder of all they had to forget."
    "But you saved her life!" Mark swung a clumsy punch at Tristan's arm. "Quite a hero—after what she did to you."
    Tristan's head went back in unconscious dignity. "Any man would have done the same."
    Mark bared his teeth in an unpleasant grin. "Not I."
    Tristan stared. "But surely, sire, a woman—a queen—should never be killed?"
    Mark returned his stare. "Even when she tried to kill her husband's son?"
    Tristan shook his head. "Woman is life and the source of life," he said decisively. "And under the Great One, every woman is a Goddess and a queen."
    Oh, you young fool! Fastidiously adjusting his gown, Dominian observed Tristan with pitiless contempt. Every woman is a witch, my son, as you will find out.
    Mark slapped Tristan's shoulder approvingly. "You have a good heart, nephew, I'll say that." His slack face hardened. "But if I'd been your father, I'd never have pardoned her." Something dark and cruel played at the back of his eyes. "Death by fire would have been a merciful end. A queen of mine who betrayed me would fare far worse."
    Tristan stood still. For a long moment he felt the earth falter in its course and a shadow of the future darkened his path. What is this? he chided himself. Mark had no queen. And any queen of Mark's could be nothing to him.
    "My Lord—" he began.
    But Mark had launched onto another tack. "Your mother loved you," he said mournfully, clutching at Tristan again, "and God knows how your father loved her!"
    Tristan felt an ancient pain tighten round his heart. "My nurse told me that when she died he laid her to rest in her wedding gown."
    "With a garland of May blossom round her head." Mark nodded owlishly, like a great boy. "She looked…" His mouth twisted and the words tailed away, before a fresh idea set him off again. "You should have been called after me, did you know that?"
    Tristan started. "No, sire."
    Mark puffed out his hollow chest. "But Elizabeth called you Tristan before she died. And your father was true to that last wish of hers."
    Dominian gave young Simeon an almost imperceptible nudge. "Mark will favor Tristan over Andred now," he murmured without moving his lips. "To those of the Old Faith, a sister's son is a man's closest kin, since in the old world, women always took precedence over men." A thin smile curved the edges of his mouth. "God has corrected that gross error now, of course."
    "Nephew!" Mark took a step back and seized Tristan by the shoulders. "You are here in our hour of need. The Queen of the Western Isle has challenged us for the throne."
    Tristan threw back his head. "I will take the challenge on."
    A pang of conscience plucked at Mark's heart. God forgive him, was even his kingdom worth his nephew's life? "He is a fearsome fighter," he said in