 | Title: Under Camelot's Banner Author: Sarah Zettel Publisher: Luna Pages: 560 Synopsis: (from the publisher) When war threatens the kingdom of Camliard, sisters Lynet and Laurel find themselves in the heart of the darkening crisis, with only one way to restore peace. While her older sister remains as a hostage, Lynet must bring back the last heir of Camliard’s ancient royal house—the High Queen Guinevere.
But Lynet’s quest is not
so easily achieved. Once in Camelot, she must deal with the politics of court
as well as country. One ally is Gareth, youngest brother of the brilliant Sir
Gawain, who aches to achieve knighthood and fame by his own hand. But Gareth
soon finds this quest is no game, and that Lynet is no maid to be toyed with.
With the machinations of
the sorceress Morgain threatening their future, only Lynet and Gareth’s
strength and love together can save the queen’s hereditary kingdom from a
tangled web of magic, treachery and war. And that strength is failing…
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I seem to have
accidentally read book three of this series before book two. Oops. It doesn’t
really seem to matter except for passing references to Geraint being married.
Neither Risa nor Elen are mentioned by name.
Again, the blurb above
lies to you. Guinevere’s hereditary kingdom is called Cambryn in this book, not
Camlaird. At least the title is appropriate to the book’s content this time.
The Twist
Wow,
are there some relational twists in this one. I’ll get to that later. Suffice
it to say this is a loose retelling of Malory’s “Sir Beaumains”, which
traditionally concerns Sir Gareth’s courtship and eventual marriage. The basic
story is there, and thankfully it appears much earlier in the narrative than
the Green Knight and the Loathly Lady appeared in In Camelot’s Shadow. However, there are a ton of details changed
around and lots and lots of fleshing out of characters. The story is much more
focused on telling Lynet’s story than Gareth’s, though he gets some spotlight
time. There is also quite a bit of the Tristan and Iseult (Isolde) tragedy
here, told in past tense as the two infamous lovers have died two years prior
to the story’s beginning.
The Plot
It
gets complicated fast. Prepare yourselves.
We are first given a brief
introduction to how things stand in High Queen Guinevere’s hereditary lands.
Guinevere’s steward Lord Kenan has three children: daughters Laurel and Lynet,
and son Colan. Lynet previously served Iseult and had naively helped the queen
and Tristan meet for their trysts. When Mark found out, he murdered Tristan,
Iseult killed herself and Lynet was sent home in disgrace. The book’s conflict
begins when two lesser lords in Cambryn bring forward a dispute to solve.
Ordinarily this would be a fairly straightforward matter if the actual lord of
the land ruled there. However, in the absence of Guinevere the job should fall
to Steward Kenan—who is also away, trying to persuade Mark of Cornwall to pull
out of the depression he fell into after the deaths of Tristan and Iseult. With
Mark weak and Camelot virtually silent on the troubles of Cornwall and its
neighbor Cambryn, every lesser lord in both provinces is getting restive.
Tempers flare when Lord Kenan returns and shows he still believes in the
sovereignty of Camelot, and he is killed by his son Colan. Colan is declared an
outcast and flees to offer his services to Morgaine. Laurel and Lynet are left
alone with many angry lords ready to fight each other at the least provocation.
The sisters decide their best hope is for Lynet to go to Camelot and beg
Guinevere to return home to settle the dispute as the rightful ruler of
Cambryn.
Meanwhile, Gareth is at
Camelot having sex with every willing woman he can find. Agravain, Geraint and
Kai have all tried to warn him that this is not a good idea, because, hey, kids
and—gulp—responsibility might come
out of it, but Gareth shrugs them off, figuring if his knight-master Lancelot
doesn’t care than it shouldn’t matter. After one gibe too many from Kai, Gareth
foolishly challenges him and gets his butt royally trounced (in this version
Kai is crippled, which makes the trouncing even more epic). Lancelot, furious
that a squire of his got beaten by a crippled old guy, consigns him to the
kitchens. Thus the “Beaumains” plot is set up—a sister coming to Camelot for
help and the challenge taken up by a kitchen boy who is actually a knight (or
in this case a squire).
Guinevere and Arthur
immediately agree that Lynet’s cause is desperate. Guinevere selects Lancelot
as her main champion to accompany her back to Cambryn. On the journey, Lynet
and Gareth are attracted to each other but neither wants to act on it, Gareth
because he wants to protect Lynet and Lynet because she learned from Tristan’s
escapades that men from Camelot are untrustworthy. They rescue each other and
tentative understanding begins to build between them.
Back at Cambryn, Colan and
another lesser lord sworn to Morgaine have been causing no end of headaches for
Laurel. The sisters have been communicating via a magic mirror given to them by
their long-dead mother, a daughter of the Sea, and they learn that Morgaine
plans to seize Cambryn to deal a personal blow to Guinevere (Morgaine, Morgause
and Guinevere grew up there together). However, Guinevere judges that the
situation at Tintagel where Mark holds court is more urgent so they go there
first. She and Lynet enter Tintagel and find a guilt-crazed Mark being
tormented by spirits from the past. Turns out Tristan was his son by Morgause,
who Mark raped when he found out she was leaving to marry Lot. Yes, you read
that right. If there’s one thing we get out of this series, it’s that guilt
over bad decisions makes people go stark raving mad.
Lynet collapses from using
the mirror’s power too much. Gareth helps her regain her senses somewhat, but
is then lured away by Morgaine disguised as Guinevere. He watches Morgaine
seduce Lancelot (whose advances the real Guinevere had rejected earlier) and
realizes what’s really happening. He rushes back to find Colan trying to force
Lynet off the cliff Tintagel is built on. Lynet uses the last power of the
mirror to push Colan off the cliff but in so doing permanently separates her
spirit from her body. Gareth, in despair, makes a deal with Lynet’s
grandmother, the Sea, that if she will return Lynet he will love her as long as
they both live. The deal is struck, Lynet’s spirit is returned, and all is
finally set right. For the most part, anyway, until we find out in the next
book what the consequences of Morgaine/Guinevere sleeping with Lancelot turn
out to be. It likely won’t be pretty.
I told you it got
complicated. And that’s just the basic summary—there are details and side plots
I glossed over or didn’t mention at all.
The Characters
Lynet: The youngest child
of Steward Kenan and has no innate magic of her own from the Sea. She was sent
to Tintagel for fostering and got caught in the Tristan/Iseult tragedy because she
looked up to Iseult and had a crush on Tristan. When they both died she was
sent home with her reputation tarnished, and many people seem to assume that
because she was involved she was also sleeping with Tristan. She is still
guilt-ridden and believes all of it was her fault. On her journey to and from
Camelot she begins using her mother’s mirror to watch over and communicate with
Laurel, and slowly becomes addicted to it even though using its power is
draining her life-force. By the end when they reach Tintagel she is seeing
visions and spirits everywhere and is able to see what happened between Mark
and Morgause. She wants nothing to do with Gareth for awhile because by
reputation he is another rake like Tristan, but eventually he earns her trust.
Gareth: The youngest
Orkney brother, he is just coming of age and anticipates being made a knight
soon. Like Gawain he has trouble keeping it in his pants. He worships his
knight-master Sir Lancelot and ends up being beaten by Kai because he believes
Lancelot would be disappointed if he backed down from a challenge. Over the
course of the book he slowly becomes less enamored of Lancelot, especially when
he learns of Lancelot’s unrequited desire for Guinevere. Eventually he rejects
Lancelot outright in favor of his love and concern for Lynet. He sympathizes
with Lynet for the treachery in her family (his father murdered his sister and
Lynet’s father was murdered by her brother), and comes to like and respect her
as he has no other woman before. He catches Lynet using the mirror and agrees
to keep it a secret if she will use him as an anchor to the mortal world. This
tie to each other eventually saves both of their lives.
Laurel (Lyonesse/Laurel): The
eldest of Steward Kenan’s children, she received the most power from her
mother’s Sea heritage. She can speak to others on the wind, and force her will
on both people and animals when determined enough. Her eyes glow when she’s
angry. She stays behind as a hostage to the lesser lords while Lynet goes to
Camelot for help. She is determined that Morgaine will not take Cambryn.
Despite being the most powerful of her siblings she is also the quietest.
Zettel has changed the legend around somewhat as it is not Laurel/Lyonesse who
marries Gareth/Beaumains, but Lynet.
Guinevere: A strong and
wise queen, but she distrusts magic of any sort after growing up with Morgaine.
This translates into a distrust of Merlin and of Lynet for using her magic
mirror. However, she is generous and has a powerful sense of duty, so she
continues to support and protect Lynet despite her distrust. She is shown to be
deeply in love with Arthur and rejects the advances of Lancelot.
Lancelot: A skilled knight
with a hidden obsession with Guinevere. All he seems to care about is not being
defeated or humiliated, and has passed this attitude onto his squires. He
easily falls into Morgaine’s trap when she comes to sleep with him disguised as
Guinevere. He is disliked by the three oldest Orkney brothers.
Morgaine (Morgan): Working
more openly as the series villain. She is manipulating as many people as she
can from behind the scenes to break the lesser kingdoms away from Camelot. We
get hints that she hates Arthur because their mother Igraine betrayed her
father Gorlois with Uther. She seems to have been old enough to remember this
and hold a grudge, unlike Morgause. As previously mentioned, she lures Gareth
away from Lynet so Colan can kill her, and then proceeds to sleep with Lancelot
disguised as Guinevere.
Mark: Wow is this guy
messed up, even for a “crazy old Mark” portrayal. Not only did he rape Morgause
to try to get her to marry him instead of Lot, but he ended up killing his own
son with his bare hands after he found out about him and Iseult. For most of
the story he is shut up in Tintagel staring off into space, tormented by angry
ghosts. Guinevere and Lynet combined serve to rouse him.
Kai (Kay): I’ve decided I
really love Sir Kai in this series. Not only is he hilarious, but he is able to
thoroughly trounce Gareth in single combat despite not being able to use one
leg. At that point in the story, somebody needed to do it, and the fact that it
was crippled old Kai made it all the better.
Gawain: Eldest of the
Orkney brothers, marriage seems to have steadied him a lot. He does not appear
much, except for at the family powwow to tell Gareth that Kai wouldn’t have
accepted Gareth’s challenge if he weren’t sure he could beat Gareth.
Geraint (Gaheris): The
closest of the Orkney brothers to Gareth in age and the quietest. He rebukes
Gareth for sleeping around so much it has become a joke at Camelot.
Agravain: Law-abiding
second Orkney brother. He loses his temper and accuses Lancelot of ruining
Gareth, which was awesome because it is so out of character it knocks Gareth a
little out of his childish mantra of “Lancelot is the bestest at everything and
if he says something, it must be true!”.
Arthur: Same fair-minded
King we met in book one. He loves Guinevere but does not try to keep her in
Camelot when she is needed to sort out the problems at Cambryn and Tintagel.
Merlin: Arthur’s magician.
Neither Lynet nor Guinevere trusts him even though he seems to have no evil
motivation.
Tristan: Even though he,
Iseult and Morgause are all dead by the time the story starts, they play such
an important part in goings-on I’ve decided to include them in the character
list. They have this sick parallel with the Arthur-Morgaine-Mordred-Guinevere
thing that is simultaneously going on, except as far as I know Mordred (who is
about twelve or thirteen at this point) isn’t interested in seducing Guinevere
as some form of revenge on Arthur the way Tristan does with Mark. Tristan is
portrayed as a golden boy who wins everyone’s love just by existing. Mark
believes he seduced Iseult out of revenge for Morgause’s rape, but this may
just be Mark’s paranoid guilt talking. Lynet sees him along with Iseult
haunting Mark when Lynet and Guinevere arrive at Tintagel.
Iseult (Isolde): An Irish
princess given to Mark as part of a peace treaty between Ireland and Cornwall.
She is a skilled healer (a trait often associated with her) and Lynet learns
from her. She kills herself after Tristan is murdered by Mark.
Morgause: The mother of
Tristan, all four Orkney brothers, and their murdered sister Talia. Arthur’s
half-sister, presumably the younger daughter of Igraine and Gorlois. She grew
up with Morgaine and Guinevere, and it seems she and Guinevere were close
friends. She wanted to marry Lot, not Mark, but when she came to tell Mark this
he raped her. Morgause evaded being forced to marry Mark by telling Lot the
truth. Lot believed her and married her despite the rape, but sent Tristan to
Mark to raise as his “nephew” when the baby was born.
Overall
I enjoyed this book. It’s
better paced than In Camelot’s Shadow
and keeps the sense of urgency going throughout the book. I liked Lynet in
particular a lot, and all the characters had depth to them. The romance was
again a little shaky, as there’s no real reason given for Gareth feeling
differently about Lynet than any other woman he’s slept with. To jump right
from “they’re OK with each other” to “he’d happily die for her” was a bit of a
surprise given how slowly their liking for each other had developed up until
that point.
Four stars.
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