The seven knights of Camelot—Bedivere, Palomides, Scipio, Dinadan, Constantine, Collum, and Dagonet—plus Nimue depart at dawn through the postern gate to begin the quest for the Holy Lance. Nimue exchanges brief, flirtatious words with Collum about the shilling she gave him. They take old paths, avoid Roman roads, and at a stone circle Nimue performs a blood ritual with a sacrificed cow to bless them.

Traveling through Sorelois, they spot a Saxon warband—remnants of Mordred's forces—but Bedivere refuses to engage, insisting their quest is for God, not Saxons. They divert several times to avoid Saxon patrols and pass ruins of Roman engineering.

They arrive at a walled estate where seven rainbow-colored knights, bearing a silver-key standard, challenge them to a tournament: joust then mêlée. Bedivere ties the Yellow Knight, Constantine unhorses Red, Palomides unhorses Blue, Scipio is dragged by the Green, and Collum ties the Violet Knight. Dagonet refuses to joust, so Palomides takes a second pass against the formidable Indigo Knight—and is knocked flat. Camelot ends the joust ahead by one point.

In the mêlée, Collum brutally defeats the Orange Knight, who bursts into a flock of doves upon defeat. Each defeated rainbow knight similarly dissolves into birds. Bedivere, however, is outclassed and felled by the Indigo Knight, whose skill is supernatural.

Collum challenges Indigo himself, briefly gaining the upper hand with a sword lock and feeling the surge of his new identity as a knight of the Table. But Indigo breaks free, overwhelms him, and forces him to yield. Palomides is also defeated. Camelot loses the tournament narrowly, and Collum resigns himself to failure.

The Indigo Knight removes his helm—revealing not an angel, but Sir Lancelot du Lac.