End Game

by Katrina Kahler

  “I’m not sure I want to,” I said bluntly.

  The sword laughed. “I actually find that wise of you to be worried. But do not fear. I would not choose you if you weren’t worthy.”

  “Did you find Morgana worthy?” I prompted.

  The sword shook and laughed again. “You’ve met her. Her thoughts are chaotic. She wants to rule all.”

  I shrugged. “So, isn’t that what you do? Help people rule the world. You did it with Arthur.”

  “Arthur knew his place. He knew he was where he was because of me. Morgana looks at me as a tool, a simple tool. I am a partner, not a tool,” the sword insisted.

  “But I would think with your power and her power you two would be made for each other.”

  “We both have egos, I guess. But our egos do not align. I called to her briefly but she did not heed my call. I concluded she was not truly worthy. Now she keeps me as hers without claiming me. It is cruel. I blame her ego.”

  “I have an ego too,” I said.

  The sword laughed. “Please Gwen, you want to help the world. You know I am your best chance for that.”

  “Gwen come back to us now,” I heard in the back of my mind.

  “The catcalls,” the sword laughed.

  I woke up to see Merlin sitting on my history book. “Was it that boring?” Merlin asked.

  “No, just been a long day,” I said.

  “You talked to the sword again,” Merlin said.

  “Yep,” I sighed. “It insists we are made for each other.”

  “Well you might be...but that still doesn’t mean that’s a good thing,” Merlin said.

  My phone beeped.

  BART>I got the plans.

  GWEN>Wow, fast.

  BART>I do good work.

  GWEN>And…

  BART>The sword arrives late tomorrow. Private plane and private van. Attaching the route.

  GWEN>Thanks. Send it to all of us.

  BART>Already done.

  GWEN>(to the group) Let's all look this over and come up with ideas tomorrow morning.

  BART>Check

  BRETT>Check

  GAIL>OK

  SEBASTIAIN>Sounds good

  MIKA>Cool

  LANCE>Thumbs up

  My notes: Okay we had a plan. Well, the word plan, was still too strong of a word, but we had the start of a possible plan. I felt worried that I could not trust Morgana. After all, she didn't get where she was today by playing nice and fair. I had to keep considering the real possibility that she would betray us and either get us arrested or claim the sword's power. Of course, that begged the question, why hasn't claimed the sword's power yet? She has the sword in her possession. The sword told me she refused its call and then the sword decided she wasn’t worthy. But truthfully, I didn’t really trust the sword either. Well now, this was going to prove interesting.

  Chapter 10: Birds and Lies

  The next morning, I woke up, stretched and walked over to the window. Merlin was asleep on the floor. I strolled over to the window and popped it open. Nothing like the smell of fresh morning air. I closed my eyes and stretched, taking in the morning dew. I heard a cawing sound. Actually, more like a buzz.

  Opening my eyes, I saw dozens of ravens circling overhead. The sounds of the birds work Merlin up.

  “Yum, that sound makes my mouth water,” Merlin said.

  “Yeah,” I said slowly backing away from the window. “I’m not sure what to make of this.”

  Merlin forced himself to stand. “Why?”

  Reaching for my staff I said, “There are at least a dozen ravens outside.”

  “Actually, we are inside now,” one of the ravens laughed, landing on my windowsill.

  My windowsill filled with large black birds.

  Merlin popped out his claws, he slowly backtracked to me. Standing between my feet. My hero.

  “Look birds, what do you want?” I asked forcefully.

  “Peace,” the lead bird balked.

  Holding my staff steady. “Okay peace is good.”

  “Actually, we mean piece with an i,” the raven said.

  “Pieces would be more accurate,” another said.

  “Yes, yes, we want to tear you to pieces!” another spat.

  The birds flew at me. I knocked the first couple down with a flick of my wrist, clobbering them with my staff. The birds burst in feathers. I let my mind control my staff without really thinking about it. Moving without thinking, I swatted down blackbird after blackbird.

  Somehow they kept coming at me.

  The swarm of birds surrounded me. All I could see in front of me were black feathers and claws. I had been keeping them at bay by sheer willpower. But while my will was strong, my arms were growing weary.

  Through the black swarm, I heard Lance cry. “I am here my queen!”

  Birds now started dropping and exploding into feathers even quicker now. I used my staff to simply defend myself while Lance cut them down with ease. In less than a minute my room was quiet, but filled with black feathers.

  Mom and Dad burst into the room they were dressed in armor and wielding brooms. “We’re here honey!”

  Looking around at the feathers dad said, “I see you have it under control.”

  “Thanks to Lance.”

  Lance bowed. “It was nothing my queen. I was doing my morning exercises when I noticed the black spew pouring into your house. I grabbed my sword and ran to help you. I hope you do not mind the intrusion…"

  “No Lance, you saved me,” I said hugging him.

  My mind drifted back to a time, long ago. Lance and I sat on a hilltop overlooking Camelot. “Arthur wants me to go back to France,” Lancelot told me. “He wants me to be his liaison between him and the King of France.”

  “Arthur is jealous of you,” I told Lance. “You are a greater warrior than he is.” It was a cold assessment but it was the truth.

  Lance shook his head. “I do not believe that is why he is jealous of me,” he smiled. “As long as he has that sword, he knows he can better any man in battle, even me. Besides Arthur is a better leader than I ever could be. I am meant to fight, not lead.”

  “Then you should be fighting by his side,” I insisted.

  Lance hesitated. "Arthur is wise to send me away. He knows my mind can drift at times. And that my heart wants what it cannot have. Therefore, I need distance." Lance took my hand and looked into my eyes. “I do so wish it could be different, but we must do what is good for our kingdoms, not ourselves.”

  That was the last I saw Lance until the present day. I had forgotten about that moment until now.

  “Lance you’ve always been there for me,” I said squeezing him harder.

  “It has been and always will be my pleasure.” Lance gave me a warm smile.

  Separating from Lance I looked at the feathers on my floor. “Morgana has some explaining to do!”

  A bright flash of light blinded my eyes and then Morgana stood in front of me. “I had nothing to do with this, Gwen.”

  “They were ravens, don’t you have a thing for ravens?” I accused her.

  “Yes, yes she does,” Merlin said. “She turns her ex-lovers into them.”

  Morgana laughed. “I do. But there had to be dozens of ravens here. How many exes do you think I have?”

  “Well you have been alive for a long time,” Lance said.

  “A really long time,” Merlin said.

  “But you’ve aged well,” Mom commented.

  Dad agreed, “Yes you look pretty hot for someone so old.”

  Mom elbowed dad. “I want to stay on her good side,” Dad insisted.

  Waving my staff at Morgana I demanded, “Talk!”

  Morgana pushed my staff away. “Get that thing out of my face before I turn you into a mouse for your cat.”

  “I wouldn’t eat you. I promise,” Merlin said though his mouth was watering.

  Lowering the staff. “I thought we were on the same side here, Morgana!”

  “Gwen,
dear, I did not send those birds. Like I said, I’ve been thinking and I’ve decided I like life the way it is. My life is great. I want you to get rid of the sword for me. You are the only one I can trust to do it.”

  “Then who sent the birds?” Lance asked.

  “My guess would be my painful mother, the fairies or pretty much anybody else who wants to make me look bad,” Morgana said. “Or it could be somebody who wants to test you, like Nimue.”

  “Or it could be a combination of both,” Merlin said.

  “Not bad for a cat,” Morgana nodded her approval. She held her hand out to me. A piece of paper appeared in it. “This is the exact schedule and route the sword will be taking tonight. I know you’ve probably hacked into my server. But that schedule there was a fake. Trust me this is the one you want.”

  I took the note. Morgana disappeared.

  “Do you trust her?” Lance asked.

  “Well, sadly, I do,” I said. “The good news is, if this information she gave us is right we’ll know we can trust her. And if it’s wrong we’ll still have enough time to correct our course of action.”

  I took the paper and took a picture of it with my phone. I forwarded the photo to all the knights.

  GWEN> Updated schedule from Morgana, we strike tonight!

  My notes: It’s so weird, I’ve spent both of my lives not trusting Morgana. Now I have to trust that I can trust her. So so strange....

  I have to say though. I felt good though knowing Lance had come to my aid. All through history we’ve had to keep our feelings for each other in check. But if we got through this. If we lived until tomorrow. Tomorrow would certainly be different for us. Different can be so good.

  Funny thing being, I didn't worry about how Arthur felt about me having feelings for Lance. I was more worried about what Sebastian would think. How would he handle it? Sebastian and I had certainly had a slight spark now and then...but Lance, Lance and I were destined to be together.

  Chapter 11: Planning

  At lunch, my knights, Arthur, and I all sat at a table in the back of the cafeteria. I actually used a little spell to make sure the other kids and teachers left us alone. We needed to plan in peace.

  Sitting at a round table I showed them the information and map Morgana had given me.

  “The plane lands at 7:07,” Lance said.

  “It’s a private plane, so it lands on a runway that’s separate from the main airport,” Art added.

  Sebastian asked, “How many people work at the private landing strip?”

  Bart pulled out his phone. “Give me a second.” He looked at his phone. “Usually no more than ten.”

  “According to the paper Morgana has private security that’s going to be there once it lands,” Gail said. “That means it’s most vulnerable when it’s on the plane.”

  They all agreed.

  “Yes, that makes total sense,” Mika said. “But how does Gwen get onto the plane?”

  “You walk in,” Gail said confidently.

  “How?” I asked. “People will notice me.”

  “Not if you are invisible.”

  “The girl with the muscles is right,” Brett nodded. “We have magic; we might as well use it.”

  Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea at all. In fact, the more I thought about it the more I liked it. I could be in and out before anybody noticed.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll sneak in, grab the sword and then have Nimue port me to the island.”

  “No, we’ll do it,” Lance said.

  Gail looked concerned. “Yeah, you're going to need back up. Not that you are not a formidable foe, but everybody can use backup especially when dealing with Morgana, Nimue, and Kristi.”

  “Gail is right. Even if Morgana and Nimue really are on our side, Kristi certainly isn’t. We’ve seen what she can do. It’s really scary,” Sebastian added.

  Lance put his hand on my shoulder and I could feel his concern.

  “Alright then, I will take you three with me,” I said. Turning to the rest of my knights, “You guys are the backup. If something happens to us, it’s up to you to pick up the torch and finish this job.” Looking Arthur in the eyes, “You guys got this right.”

  Everyone agreed. They all placed their right hands on top of each other. Their energy mingled...together they were powerful.

  “I have faith in you and Lance and Gail,” Arthur said.

  Sebastian cleared his throat. “Dude, I’m going too!”

  “I know you want to protect Gwen,” Arthur said. “But Lance and Gail are two of the greatest fighters of all time. You’re good, dude, you just aren’t them.”

  “Sebastian has much potential,” Gail protested.

  Sebastian put a hand on Gail’s shoulder. “I get it, Gail. I see where he’s coming from. Potential just means I haven’t done anything yet.”

  Gail looked into Sebastian's eyes. She put her hand on his hand. “But I know you will.”

  “Thanks,” Sebastian said.

  “Okay, we have a plan. I'll have my dad take the four of us. The rest of you can stay at my house and monitor the situation with Merlin. Since it's Friday, you can always tell your parents we're having a video game party at my house.”

  “And just so nobody has to lie, I’ll bring some video games,” Brett said. “No reason why we can’t monitor and have fun.”

  “Sure,” I said with a smile.

  My thoughts: I wasn’t thrilled about having to rely on magic to get this job done. Normally, I like to rely on my whit more than magic...but since we were going up against magic it kind of made sense to use magic. Plus, we really didn’t have a lot of options.

  And BTW was I imagining something or were Sebastian and Gail growing closer???

  Chapter 12: The Heist

  At seven o’clock Dad drove, Lance, Gail, Sebastian, and myself to the gate just outside the private jet airport. The rest of the team and Merlin huddled with my mom at our house. We would report back via our cell phones. We saw the plane coming in for landing growing closer and closer to the runway.

  The airport buildings came into view, Gail asked. “Do you have your spell ready?”

  “I do, I’m going to go simple and to the point when we get out of the car, I’ll say: Make us invisible!”

  “That is pretty simple,” Gail agreed.

  “Will it work?” Sebastian asked.

  “I hope so,” I said, “We will know soon enough.”

  “I have faith,” Lance said.

  “And my role is?” Dad asked from the driver’s seat.

  “You drop us off and then go,” I said. “If something goes wrong I will text you to come back, if possible, but I don’t want you anywhere near this place when we switch the swords,” I said firmly.

  “I did make the sword you’ll be switching.” Dad sounded very proud.

  “You did, all the more reason I don’t want you around. If Morgana is setting us up, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Yeah this could be tricky if Morgana isn't really on our side,” Sebastian said.

  “Then let’s hope she is,” Dad said pulling up near the gate of the airport’s private jet runway.

  We all got out of the car. I had the fake sword in my hands.

  “Meka ys onvosobla!” I chanted putting my arms around the other three.

  They disappeared.

  “I guess it worked,” I said.

  “I can’t see you guys,” Lance said.

  “Likewise,” Sebastian said.

  “Yep,” Gail added.

  I could feel the fake sword in my hand, but I couldn’t see it either. I raised my hand up to my face. Nope couldn’t see that.

  “At least we know the spell works,” Lance added.

  “We’ll just proceed with caution,” I whispered. “I’ll go through the gate. Count to five and then Lance you follow. Count to 10 and Gail you follow. Count to 15 and Sebastian you follow. Got it?”

  “Check,” Sebastian said.
r />   “Check,” Gail said.

  “You go, I’ll follow,” Lance said. “I mean check!”

  I moved forward. It felt kind of weird walking without being able to judge where my feet were or for that matter where my arms and head were. Somehow being invisible threw off my sense of balance. Not by a lot, but by just enough to slow me down and make me take each step very cautiously. I felt as if I needed to learn to walk again.

  The private jet taxied down the runway towards a big black limo. Sitting in the limo I saw three huge men dressed in black. I figured these guys had to be the sword’s escort to the museum.

  I heard Morgana in my head, “Sorry about the security people, Gwen dear. The museum insisted on sending them to retrieve the sword. I know it makes your job harder. But truthfully a job like this should be challenging, right? I mean you need to prove to me and the sword you are worthy. I have faith in you, honey.”

  I stopped. My knights all bumped into me.

  “Sorry.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Oops…”

  “How are we going to deal with the guards,” I whispered to my knights. “They’ve been hired by the museum to escort the sword.”

  The plane rolled to a stop maybe a hundred yards from the big limo.

  Two of the men got out of the limo.

  “Be alert, team,” one of the men in black ordered. “This sword is worth more than our limo and that plane put together. More than we all will make in a lifetime.”

  We saw three more big men dressed in black come out of the back of the plane. One of the men was rolling a covered cart. The men slowly made their way to the limo. The men moved cautiously as if they were expecting trouble.

  “Woah, they move fast,” I whispered to my knights. “We’ll have to switch the swords before they make it to the car. We need a distraction!”

  “Well, being invisible that should be easy,” Sebastian whispered.

  “The three of us can go to the side and draw them away,” Lance suggested.

  We heard a very familiar voice call out, “Hey guys!”