I knew I’d gone too far. I hadn’t meant to blame him, but every bit of what I’d felt over the past few years came flooding out. It was bitter and cruel and I wanted to suck the words back in straight away.
“Look, I’m s-“
I didn’t get the word finished before Anderson’s hand flashed out. My reflexes were good, but he still caught me across the cheek with the back of his hand.
My head snapped back and I saw white spots for a moment. I stumbled backwards as Sam cried out. White pain erupted in my cheekbone and I cupped my hand to it, even as my head reeled.
My vision cleared just as Percy and Wyn came charging out from under the tree. Percy was in the lead, his normally good natured face twisted with rage. I’d never seen Percy angry. All of a sudden, with his size, he looked more frightening than Wyn.
“I’m going to rip your head off, you little shit.”
To Anderson’s credit he stood his ground, but I threw myself in Percy’s path before he reached him.
“Perce, no.”
“But that little-“
The problem was that with my hands full of Percy, Wyn had a free path. Sam seemed to understand that a fight was the last thing we wanted and she tried to stop him, but Wyn brushed her aside and kept coming.
He grabbed Anderson by the front of his rugby shirt and drew him up until they were nose to nose. Wyn was that much taller than Anderson and so his feet barely touched the ground.
Anderson paled. “Get your hands off me.” He tried to keep his voice steady, but it cracked.
“If this was my world I’d cut you down for that. I’d challenge you properly and I would leave you choking in your own blood, dying as slowly and painfully as possible. And you would beg me to end it quickly.” He smiled, but there was nothing nice about it, and his next words came out as a growl. “You are so very lucky this is not my world.”
Anderson looked sick, but he was still Anderson. Still too proud and too arrogant to back down. “I could take you.”
Behind him his friends were looking uncertain, and I knew they were weighing up their odds. They might have outnumbered Wyn and Percy three to one, but there was something about them that made them hesitate. It may have had something to do with the sheer size of Percy.
I shoved Percy towards Sam and she caught his arm. She couldn’t physically restrain him, but I knew he wouldn’t shove her away for fear of hurting her.
I grabbed Wyn instead and tried to muscle my way between him and Anderson.
“Wyn put him down.”
“Why? The guy is a wanker. And he needs to learn how to treat people properly.”
I almost growled with frustration, though inside I smiled at his use of such a modern swear word. “You’re as bad as Lance. Seriously, I can fight my own battles.”
Wyn looked torn, but settled at last for giving Anderson one last shake and shoving him backwards so hard he landed on his arse in the grass.
I knew that would be worse for Anderson than any kind of beating Wyn could have given him. It was a blow to his pride. I could already see the smirks on the faces of some of his mates, watching the great James Anderson getting taken down.
He scrambled to his feet and glared at me. “This isn’t over, Psycho, you’re still a freak.”
I shot him a huge grin. “I know I am.”
I think that upset him more than anything else and he turned and stomped across the grass.
But the tension didn’t leave with Anderson. Wyn was glaring at me, his arms tight across his chest, his hands balled into fists.
“What?” I asked him finally.
“You should have let me handle him.”
“I didn’t need you to.”
“It’s my job. I’m your knight, and without Lancelot around, I’m your Champion. It’s my job to protect you.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I sighed. “I’m not some damsel in a long dress needing her knights to defend her honour, Wyn. I appreciate it, I really do, but I don’t need you defending me against people like Anderson. You want me to be a Pendragon, then let me be one. I have to stand up for myself.”
Wyn didn’t seem about to back down, and it was Percy who finally broke the tension.
“Come on, we don’t have time for this. Not if we want to find some way to get into Dolorous Gard.”
He’d said the right thing. This could wait, but Dolorous Gard couldn’t. Not when the one thing that could help me against the dragon was still buried somewhere underneath it. I knew Wyn wasn’t finished with me yet, and I had a feeling that one day soon I’d have to talk to him again about this, but for now we had more important things to focus on.
“So where exactly is it?” I asked once we were all sat on the grass beneath the willow.
“The north.”
“That’s a big place,” I said to Wyn with a smirk, trying desperately to get him to lighten up. “Care to be more specific?”
He shrugged. “I can’t really. All the places have changed since my time. Only a few names are the same. Back in our day the north of the country was a dangerous place. It was sparsely populated and mostly ruled over by small chieftains and princelings. There were no defined borders for Scotland or England or Wales, just Albion. The Scottish clans roamed south at whim, and the northern lords were more concerned with protecting their land than laws from a little Kingdom to the south. But by the end of Arthur’s reign most of the north had sworn allegiance to him in some shape or form, but a lot of those little rulers just paid lip service to Camelot. Arthur was glad to have Lancelot in Joyous Gard because he could help to keep the peace. It didn’t last beyond Arthur’s death though, and that’s when Albion began to divide itself.” He shrugged and continued.
“After that came various invaders and the country changed beyond all recognition. A few places still remain the same, but names have changed, towns have moved to follow the changing course of a river. There’s farmland where there used to be deep forest, and sprawling concrete cities where there used to be green fields.”
I felt a small sting of regret. Part of me yearned, as it often did, for the world they had once known. I would have loved to see the country as wild and untamed as they had, when you could ride through a forest for a day and not reach its end. A world of green spaces and clear skies. I’d had a glimpse of it when I’d been back in Arthur’s time, but it hadn’t been enough.
I shook it off. “All right then. A vague idea?”
“Near the border of what is now Scotland. The east coast. Not on the coast, but not far from it.”
Sam had been looking thoughtful, but now she dug in her bag and pulled out an iPad. She technically wasn’t supposed to have it at school, but I guess that was a rule she ignored.
She fiddled around for a moment and then turned the screen to face us. It showed a satellite map of the UK, zoomed in on the north-east.
“Northumberland?” She pointed to the area.
Wyn nodded. “I think so.” He touched a spot on the map that was coloured green. “Here. Somewhere here.”
I looked. It was part of Northumberland National Park. Bang in the middle of it.
“The forest must have swallowed the castle and the town back up. No one lived there after Lancelot left. The wilderness reclaimed it.”
I sighed as I looked at the wide expanse of green.
“So somewhere in that forest, where there are almost no roads, there is the ruin of a castle. This is going to be like getting to Camelot again isn’t it?”
Wyn gave me a tight smile. “Worse. We knew exactly where Camelot was.”
The first challenge was going to be getting to Northumberland. I refused point black to just leave again without a word to Dad. I couldn’t do it to him again.
Wyn tried to convince me it was the only way, but Sam came through for us yet again with an idea. It was just down to me to implement it.
Dinner with Dad was the perfect time, but it still wasn’t going to be easy. Our
relationship was still badly strained. Not that I blamed him. I couldn’t even imagine what my disappearance must have been like for him, and I knew that as hard as he was trying, he still hadn’t forgiven me.
I decided that buttering him up might be worth a shot, so I cooked for once. My cooking skills did not extend much beyond shoving fish fingers and chips in the oven, but judging by the look of pleasant surprise on his face when he got home that was good enough for him.
“That smells good,” he said as he came into the kitchen. He slipped his suit jacket onto the back of a chair and loosened his tie. Dad worked in sales, although shamefully I didn’t actually know what it was he sold. I just knew it was commission based, so some weeks he worked longer hours than others.
“Just fish fingers,” I replied, trying to dampen his hopes.
“Your favourite.”
I made a face at him. “When I was five maybe. But they’re easy to cook.” There was no point lying to him, he knew the limit of my skill in the kitchen.
“Well, I’m very grateful for it,” he said, coming over and kissing the top of my head. It was the first time he’d been affectionate since the bone-crushing hug he’d given me when he’d first seen me after that week away.
For just a moment it felt like things were back to normal between us, and then I remembered the reason I was cooking him dinner, and the lies I was about to tell him. It made my stomach churn.
I dished up, and for a moment we ate in silence. I waited until he’d finished his first few mouthfuls.
“So I was talking to Sam today – “
“I’m glad you two girls are friends again,” Dad said before I could finish my sentence. “You were always such good friends.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Anyway – “
“What about you and Anderson? Are things still – “
“Dad.” I cut him off. The funny thing was he’d hated Anderson when we’d been dating, but seeing as he thought my other option was Wyn I could see where his preference lay. “I really don’t want to talk about Anderson. I want to talk about university.”
His eyes lit up. “Oh? Well, what about it?”
“You know I always wanted to go to Newcastle, well, Sam was telling me they’re doing an Open Day thing this weekend. She’s going. I wouldn’t normally bother going this early, but as she’s going anyway and I’ll have a ride…”
“Are her parents going?”
I could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t too sure about the idea.
“Um – no. It would just be us. But her parents have booked her a hotel room and everything.”
He looked unsure, but at least he wasn’t shutting down the conversation all together. “And she would be all right with doing all that driving?”
I nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine.”
“Cara, I don’t-“
“Please, Dad. I could go and see the Art and History departments. I could talk to them about their entry requirements. It would be so good for me. You always wanted me to go to Newcastle.”
I think that was the deal maker. Dad had been to Newcastle University. It’s where he’d met Mum. She’d been studying English and Art, and he’d been doing Economics. They were total opposites, but somehow they worked.
“It would be good for you to see the city,” he said thoughtfully. “And it will definitely help with your application, nothing wrong with getting in early. But no going out, no drinking. Can you promise me that?”
I beamed at him. “Oh definitely. I promise that we won’t be going out, or doing any drinking.” We’ll be trying to get into a cursed castle, but we definitely won’t be drinking.
Chapter Eleven
That week at school felt like a lifetime. A mixture of fear and anticipation made each second drag like an hour.
I didn’t say anything to Sam again about the dangers of her coming with us, she seemed more than aware of them, but she didn’t seem about to change her mind. Plus, selfishly, I did enjoy having another girl around.
When Friday finally arrived Sam and I couldn’t get out of school quickly enough. We practically ran to Sam’s car where our bags were already waiting. If I was honest a part of me wished we were really going up to Newcastle for the Open Day. It would have been fun to go on a road trip with Sam without the life or death aspect involved. To have been normal, just for a little while.
We got caught in the usual bottleneck getting out of the car park. Only the Sixth Form had licenses, and there were only a few, like Sam, who could afford a car, but with everyone eager to leave as soon as possible there was still a bit of a queue. Apparently there was some big house party happening that night, though of course neither Sam nor I had been invited.
Once on the road Sam drove far too fast for someone who’d only passed their test a few months ago. I clung to the door handle as she flung us around a roundabout. I was starting to worry she was picking up bad habits from Wyn.
On the edge of town she pulled off onto an old farm track. The farm at the end had been unlived in for the last ten years and the old barn had been the site of various parties over the years, until a year ago when the police started cracking down on illegal underage drinking.
Wyn and Percy had taken it over. I’d only found out recently it was where they’d been staying when they’d been watching over me.
Somehow though I still couldn’t picture Lance there, but then, it was hard to picture Lance anywhere in my world really.
They were waiting for us in the yard in front of the barn. Percy lounged on the bonnet of the car, his feet on the bumper. The metal dipped worryingly under his weight.
For a moment I wondered what he was doing, until I noticed he had a pile of apples in his lap. Every few seconds he would lob one at Wyn with all his might, whilst taking bites of the apple in his free hand.
Wyn stood loosely, almost negligently throwing short bladed knives into the apples as they came at him. He held five knives in his hands, and in the time we watched he didn’t miss a single one.
“Not bad.” Sam climbed out of the car with a smile.
Wyn faked a look of modesty. “It’s not hard.”
“Liar,” Percy snorted. He dumped the rest of the apples off his lap, most of them were rotten, and clambered down. “He’s just a show off.”
Wyn had been reclaiming one of his knives and instead of dropping the apple he lobbed it at Percy’s head.
It was deflected with a quickly raised forearm and Percy chuckled. “Are you lovely ladies ready?”
We transferred the bags across into the beat up jeep, and there was a moment of debate about the seating arrangements. One of us girls had to sit up front with the iPad map to navigate for Wyn. It was Sam’s iPad, but I was – well I was me. I tried hard not to let who I was affect my relationships with the others, but it was hard when Wyn and Percy deferred to me so completely. Leadership was a hard habit to break.
In the end I submitted to Sam, but the look of quickly concealed excitement on her face made me a little nervous and, strangely, a little jealous. I’d noticed the way she looked at Wyn sometimes, when she thought no one was looking. Falling for Wyn was not a good idea. It wouldn’t end well for her, I was sure of it.
It didn’t take us long to hit the A-1 motorway that cut through the middle of the country, and we sped through fields and towns without slowing.
The countryside was a blur to me, and eventually I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against the window. The journey felt familiar to me. I’d spent so many hours in cars with Wyn and Percy, crossing the country, but this time there was something missing.
I should have been sat in the back with Lance, not Percy, our fingers linked across the seat. I should have been able to look across and see his crooked smile, his eyes watching me with that expression that was a strange mixture of love and confusion, like he couldn’t quite believe I was really there.
I wished I knew how the visions worked, so that I could close my eyes and Lance would be there waitin
g for me, but there was only darkness behind my eyes. No Lance, no Arthur, just my own fruitless thoughts. I missed them both so much it was like a painful ache in my chest.
Because we’d left so late in the afternoon we knew we would have to stop the night in Newcastle before going out in search of the castle.
It was already pitch black when we saw the steel form of the Angel of the North, the towering guardian over-looking the road into the city. Flood lights illuminated it from below, casting strange shadows across its face. Rising over sixty feet into the air, with a wing span double that, its featureless face still seemed to stare down at us.
I’d seen it in pictures of course, but there was nothing quite like seeing it for real, all lit up coppery red.
We sped by it, through Gateshead, and down across the bridge into Newcastle Upon Tyne.
It wasn’t a big city, compared to London, but it was compact and, as we found out when we drove through the Quayside in search of our hotel, busy.
It was Friday night so of course the bars were heaving, and from the age range I would guess most of those we saw were students at the university. If Sam and I had been here for a girl’s road trip I didn’t think either of us would have had trouble getting served in a bar, even though I was still a ways off from my eighteenth birthday.
Wyn and Percy both looked a little gobsmacked.
“Where are their clothes?” Percy asked me finally, though from the look on his face he clearly didn’t mind. The particular girl he was looking at, as we waited for a traffic light, was wearing a teeny black dress that barely reached her thighs and displayed an impressive amount of cleavage. It was a cold March night, but she was bare shouldered. A little different to the long, high necked gowns of his era.
I smacked his arm with a grin. “Stop drooling, Percy.”
He instinctively touched his chin and then smacked me back, I was sure I’d have a bruise in the morning, and turned back to looking at the girls.
When we reached the hotel I half expected Wyn to insist on spending the night in my room, as Lance had once done, but he seemed to have taken my words about looking after myself to heart. Plus that would have left Sam to share with Percy.
The Forever Queen (Pendragon Book 2) Page 8
