The Forever Queen (Pendragon Book 2)

by Nicola S. Dorrington

  Though I had seen those moments when he wasn’t grim, when he had allowed himself to laugh and love and live. When duty hadn’t been all that mattered. But they had been few and far between in the life he’d had. That made me sad.

  “Why did he call it Joyous Gard?” I asked Wyn finally, glancing away from the ruined walls. “It doesn’t seem particularly joyous to me.”

  Wyn shrugged. “It was joyous for the villagers when the curse was broken.”

  “And?” I knew he was holding something back.

  “He tried to make it joyous. He built a new hall, expanded the living areas. He tried to make it a home.”

  “Why?” I said in a small voice, though I thought I knew the answer.

  “For you.”

  I knew Wyn was right. Lance had renamed it Joyous Gard because even years after I’d left him he’d still believed that one day this would be our home. He had never given up hope that I would one day return to him. Even after the years had passed, and Camelot had fallen, he had never stopped hoping.

  My stomach twisted into a knot, the uncomfortable guilt I’d carried with me for the past month or more making itself known.

  “Don’t do that.” Wyn gave my shoulder a shake. “You didn’t force Lancelot to fall in love with you. Even Merlin saw it coming and couldn’t change it.”

  I nodded but I still felt guilty. I wasn’t sure that feeling would ever change. I would always wonder if Lancelot had never fallen in love with me, would Camelot have survived.

  As we’d been stood there the shadows around the gate deepened and a wraith stepped out to meet us.

  “Ten more await you, Caronwyn Pendragon.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “Press your advantage,” Wyn murmured in my ear. “Focus.” He pushed me gently forward and I stumbled to meet the oncoming wraiths.

  The second fight was no easier than the first. I was better prepared but my body was at its limit. I slashed and parried, blocking as many blows as I could with Wyn’s dented shield, but some of the wraiths strikes made it through; once across my shoulder blade, and another across the back of my thigh. Any deeper and it would have hamstrung me.

  Even Excalibur was starting to feel heavy in my hands. My arms were burning and each swing of the sword was an effort.

  Somehow I managed to take six wraiths down before my muscles felt like they were about to give out.

  Don’t think. Let your body do the work.

  Arthur’s voice was faint, little more than a breath, but I tried to listen to him. I tried to draw strength from the connection between us.

  I couldn’t do it though. I was too weak. I wasn’t Lancelot.

  You don’t need to be me. His voice was suddenly there, where Arthur’s had been. You are just as strong. You need to dig deep.

  “There’s nothing left,” I whispered back, even as a blow from a wraith against my shield drove me to my knees yet again.

  I don’t believe you.

  I wanted to hit him, but he wasn’t there to hit, so instead I lashed out at the wraith above me. Lance was right; I did have some strength left.

  Somehow I dug up enough to drive the wraiths back, just one cut from Excalibur was enough and in the shadow of the second gate I killed them.

  Wyn rushed forwards as I dropped back to my knees, tugging off the shield and taking Excalibur.

  “You are – incredible.”

  I smiled up at him weakly. “I try.”

  “You should be dead. You do realise that don’t you?”

  “Probably.” I pushed myself up, wobbling so badly Wyn had to catch me. My legs felt like jelly.

  He held me long enough for me to catch my breath and then I forced myself to stand on my own.

  Sam was finally looking at me the way I’d expected her to all along. Like I was completely out of my mind.

  “Shit, Cara. That was – “ She didn’t seem to have the words.

  I forced a weak smile on my face. “Not bad for the girl who was always failing P.E, huh?”

  An involuntary laugh bubbled up and soon the pair of us doubled up with hysterics. It wasn’t that funny, but it released the pent up tension in my body. Now it was Wyn and Percy’s turn to look at us like we were crazy.

  “I hate to burst this happy bubble,” Percy said finally. “But you do still have to face the Copper Knight – before sunset.”

  We all glanced skyward. The sun was well down on the horizon, though it was hidden behind clouds and the sky was blood red.

  Now I’d stopped moving I realised the temperature had been dropping with the sun. By nightfall it was going to be only just above freezing, and it was very likely we were going to have to spend the night in the ruins.

  I glanced towards the gate, which now hung open.

  Fear sat like an icy rock in the pit of my stomach, but I forced myself to walk forward.

  The gate itself was unguarded and I stepped through, but as Wyn, Percy and Sam went to follow me the portcullis fell with a crash, the echoes going on for ever, kicking up a cloud of dust.

  I spun round and rushed back.

  Wyn and Percy grasped the bottom of the portcullis and heaved, muscles straining. Flakes of rust drifted down, but otherwise it didn’t move an inch. The mortar should have long since crumbled away, but magic was stronger than the ravages of time.

  “They may not enter.”

  The voice from behind me made my skin crawl. Grating and hoarse, it was the voice of a man whose vocal cords had long since turned to dust.

  I forced myself to move my feet, to turn and face it.

  Unlike the wraiths I had met so far, whose armour had been matt black and pitted with rust, the Copper Knight lived up to his name.

  His armour was burnished to a sheen so bright I could see my own reflection, almost blinding as it caught the dying rays of the sun. Unlike the silver-grey steel of the armour I had seen so far, the Copper Knight’s looked as though it had been dipped in blood.

  “Who dares challenge me?”

  At first nothing but a squeak came out, but then I cleared my throat and started again. “I am Caronwyn, of the blood of Arthur Pendragon.”

  “Pendragon?” The Copper Knight turned his visor towards me. He had no eyes, only deep pits burning like black fire. “No Pendragon has ruled these lands for over a thousand years.”

  “And one doesn’t rule now. I don’t even want this castle. I just want one thing that lies beneath it.”

  There was no expression on the visor, but somehow I had the feeling the Knight was regretful.

  “Alas, I cannot just allow you to pass – you know this?”

  “I know.” I sighed. I had known but it hadn’t stopped me hoping. “So I have to kill you?”

  The Knight bowed. “Nay, My Lady, you need to defeat me.”

  I think the Copper Knight meant to give me hope, but it didn’t really help. With every muscle aching I didn’t see how I had any chance of even holding my own against him, let alone defeating him.

  “You wear no armour, My Lady?” The Copper Knight seemed to be watching me closely, though it was hard to tell with his sightless eyes.

  “Only these,” I replied as calmly as I could, holding up Wyn’s shield and Excalibur.

  The Knight took a step back at the sight of the sword in my hand.

  “You wield Excalibur?” Something was strange about his voice. There was fear there, but something else too. It sounded almost like hope.

  “The sword is my birth right.”

  “As is right. You are the daughter of kings, and your weapon is a kingly one. Let us see if you fight like a Pendragon.”

  The Copper Knight drew his sword up in a salute and leapt at me with speed that was inhuman.

  I caught the blow on the edge of the shield and stumbled backwards.

  Behind me Wyn and Percy hammered on the portcullis. They knew they couldn’t help me, but it wasn’t going to stop them trying.

  I fought the Copper Knight for what seemed like ho
urs; a battle that ranged back and forth across the courtyard as I sought to escape the onslaught. But he was fast, and stronger than I was by far, and never tired, no matter how long we fought.

  In the back of my mind a voice was speaking, but it was weak and I couldn’t focus on it. I didn’t even know if it was Arthur or Lancelot. Then it came through, soft as the faintest whisper. Look closer.

  Moments later I realised the Copper Knight was doing something strange. His blows were hard and strong, but none of them fell anywhere but my shield. And I knew I wasn’t that good.

  In a seconds pause my eyes met his fiery gaze and he gave a tiny nod. His voice was barely more than a breath of air, but I heard it clear as if he had shouted.

  “End it. End it, Caronwyn Pendragon. End this eternal torment.”

  Suddenly I understood. His soul had been trapped for well over a thousand years. Trapped in a body that had long since turned to dust, in a world that had changed beyond his comprehension. And there was only one thing that could end it. Only a blade like Excalibur, forged with ancient magic, forged by a dragon’s breath, could free him.

  When he lunged at me again I saw the opening he purposefully left for me.

  His honour and his curse would not let him just allow me to kill him, but he could give me that chance.

  Excalibur bit into the side of his armour and even as he crumbled his voice lingered in the air.

  “Thank you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I turned back to the portcullis with Excalibur and the shield hung loosely at my side. My whole body felt numb, pushed well beyond the point of pain. My fingers had already seized up around the hilt of Excalibur. I wasn’t sure I could drop it even if I wanted to.

  Whatever magic holding the gate closed vanished and Wyn and Percy thrust it easily upwards, the metal screeching against the stone and showering rust.

  “You were amazing,” Sam burst out the second she reached me.

  “He wanted to die,” I whispered. “He wanted me to kill him.”

  Wyn sighed. “I don’t blame him. He was under a terrible curse.”

  “Worse than death?”

  Wyn squeezed my shoulder. “Cara, there are a lot of things worse than death. Particularly when it comes to the old magic.”

  I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I had a feeling he was talking about himself in a way. Instead I turned to look at Dolorous Gard. It was still a ruin. A jumble of stones and half ruined walls were all that remained of a once impenetrable fortress.

  Yet the darkness had gone. The feeling of dread that had surrounded the place was gone. It was just another ruin, like so many that dotted the countryside, old and impressive but no longer haunted.

  I shivered in the now bitingly cold air. “So how do we find the vault?”

  “We don’t,” Wyn replied with a shrug. “Not tonight anyway. It’s getting too dark, and we’ll just as likely break our necks trying to clamber through the ruins.”

  “So we go back to the city and come back in the morning?” Sam asked hopefully.

  I shook my head. For some reason I didn’t like that idea. I didn’t want to leave this place until we’d found what we came for. There was another, one that I would barely admit to myself, let alone the others. I felt close to Lance there, closer than I’d felt to him since that last morning at the lake, when I’d spoken to his reflection in the water, and I couldn’t bear to lose it. He’d been in my head along with Arthur, and I couldn’t help but feel it had something to do with being in that place. The last place he had lived.

  Wyn stood watching me closely, and I got the feeling he knew at least some of what was going through my mind.

  “We can camp out here tonight.”

  “But it’s freezing,” Sam protested.

  “I’ll keep you warm,” Wyn replied with a wink that turned Sam’s face scarlet.

  I elbowed him in the ribs but he just laughed.

  “Percy and I packed some sleeping bags and food in the car. We thought we might need them.”

  “And where did you get them?” Since Merlin had gone they had lost their source of modern money, but knights or not they’d already proven they weren’t above stealing if they thought it was necessary.

  “We bought them. With money,” Wyn said innocently.

  “What money?” I still wasn’t convinced.

  Wyn looked guilty then. “Well, you know that little box you keep in your bottom drawer…”

  “You took my birthday money?”

  Every year since Mum had been in hospital Dad gave me a big lump sum for my birthday – as though money could make up for her not being around.

  The first few years I hadn’t spent it as a form of protest, that and it felt like the money was tainted somehow, then when I was a little older I’d realised just how much money I’d saved and I’d not spent it on purpose. Somewhere in the back of my mind I’d always envisioned spending it on a car or something when I went to university. I wasn’t sure though if I was more horrified that they’d stolen the money or that it meant Wyn had been rifling through my drawers.

  “Seriously? You took the money I’ve been saving up for five years?”

  Wyn winced. “Not all of it. And anyway, you’ll get it back once we open the gateways and get Merlin back.”

  I growled at him. “That is completely not the point.” For a long moment I stood there, hands on hips, glowering at him. He gazed back at me with such a complete lack of remorse that eventually I gave in.

  “Does one of you want to go get it all then?”

  Wyn laughed and bowed low. “You speak and I obey, my lady.” He headed back through the portcullis, pulling Percy with him as he went.

  “They’re both going?” Sam’s voice trembled with a tiny note of uncertainty.

  I smiled at her. “The worst that was out here is already gone,” I said, pointing at the crumpled pile of copper armour. I grinned. “Besides, you have me to protect you.”

  Despite everything she’d seen me do she didn’t look completely convinced by that.

  Once I was bundled in a sleeping bag beside a fire I was surprisingly comfortable. It wasn’t the first time I’d slept on the ground, and I was fairly sure it wouldn’t be the last. Sam, on the other hand, grumbled from across the fire about the cold and the hard ground, until Wyn gave up his own sleeping bag so that she could double up.

  I caught his eye as he settled himself on the ground, pillowing his head on one of the backpacks.

  He shrugged as though to say, I’ve had worse, and closed his eyes, a smile still playing across his lips.

  I sighed and rolled away, staring out into the darkness of the forest. With the memories of the wraiths playing over in my head I didn’t think sleep would be easy to come by, but I hadn’t counted on just how exhausted I was.

  At first my dreams were strange and disjointed, half memories, half wishes, but always there was a shadowy, faceless presence watching me. I could never quite see it, but it was there all the while.

  Then the dream changed and I stood at a window in a high tower, looking down into a valley. A town sat nestled between the hills and the trees, bustling and busy. The houses were simple, basic, but smoke curled from the chimneys giving them a homey feel. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before.

  “I showed it to you once.” Warm arms snaked around my waist and I leant back into a solid, broad chest. Warm breath tickled my ear as Lance brought his lips close. “Don’t you remember? In the Tower of London?”

  I did remember. It was hard to forget being stuck in that tiny closet with him; back when his presence had set my skin on fire, but I hadn’t known he felt the same way. I’d been desperately fighting my growing feelings for him, completely unaware that he was already in love with me.

  “Is this real or a dream?”

  His chuckle reverberated against my back. “You should know better than most that those two things are not mutually exclusive.”

  I turned in his arms so that I
could press my palms against his chest. I looked up into his impossibly blue eyes.

  “All right. Am I making this up in my head, or are you really here?”

  He smiled and brought his fingers to my chin, tipping my face up so he could kiss me.

  I melted into the kiss, sliding my hands up his chest and into his unruly, dark curls.

  His fingers dropped down to my thighs and he lifted me up, sitting me on the window ledge. I wrapped my legs around his hips and drew him in closer, letting the warmth of his body envelop me.

  At last he broke the kiss, but he didn’t move away. Pressing his forehead against mine he kept us entwined.

  “Does that answer your question?”

  I laughed. “Not really. You don’t think I dream about this all the time anyway?”

  His eyes lit up. “Oh really?” He shook himself quickly and stepped back. “Stop it,” he said, more to himself than to me. “Merlin isn’t doing some pretty exhausting magic so that you and I can – well-“

  “Snog each other senseless?”

  He winced. “Is there not a more elegant way of saying that?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “Well, anyway.” He smiled gently. “You were incredible today.”

  I couldn’t help it, I beamed. After all, Lance had taught me everything I knew.

  “How did you do it? The first time you didn’t have Excalibur-“

  He chuckled. “No I didn’t. But they weren’t wraiths back then, just human men under a curse. Apart from the Copper Knight of course.” His face grew sombre. “Let us hope that this time the curse stays broken.”

  I didn’t want to talk about curses or wraiths, or anything really; I just wanted to be near him.

  I reached for him again, but he caught my hands.

  “Focus, Cariad. In the morning you must find my ring.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Behind what was the Great Hall you should find a set of stairs leading down to the dungeons. But be careful. This castle is old, and some of the tunnels may have caved in.”

  “All right. Then we’ll search the dungeons. If there wasn’t anything else you wanted to discuss-“ I drew him back towards me.