Amr dosed his brother with a combination of soporifics, bitterness disguised in one of the restorative draughts the physicians were continuously pouring down the young prince’s throat. He waited until Loholt drifted off, until his brother could not cry out or charm him out of his intentions or fight him with that great strength that was had always characterized him. He smothered him with one of the pillows from his sickbed and Loholt did not thrash. Amr tried to tell himself that it was painless, though it was not a knight’s death, it was a good death, quiet and without fear. He told himself Loholt had not suffered but he barely managed to replace his brother’s pillow and leave his bedchamber before retching and collapsing.

Loholt’s death was not considered suspicious. The physicians attributed it to a mixture of siege sickness, general debility and some fast moving ailment that his body was too weak to withstand. After all, Amr had fallen ill around the same time and he had been slow to recover. Arthur had seen how frail his eldest son was when Lancelot lead him through Camelot’s gates, tied to his horse because he was too weak to ride. Unlike Gwendolyn’s death, Arthur was quick to believe the physician’s verdict, preoccupied with Amr’s convalescence and the plans for Loholt’s funeral and tomb.