"I have nothing to forgive you for," says Arthur.

I killed the children, Arthur thinks, and then, Never. I never did. But Kim summoned him by the name Childslayer. Arthur remembers giving the order, hearing the messengers come back from Orkney and Cornwall and Rheged to report the job done. Arthur remembers wanting to give the order, imagining what would happen if he had. He cannot evade his guilt or his responsibility, and he certainly cannot blame the woman facing him.

With one part of his memory, Arthur remembers the strictures of his curse. "Are they there yet, the two of them?"