Christmas dinner rose in my throat and I had to swallow hard not to spew it on the ground. “What are you saying?”
“Merlin has littered the world with failed experiments like the one who guards the other side of the door you came through. From what I hear, his seed is almost numberless. The only one he has ever created who perfectly meets his desires is you.”
I turned away. “We need to get out of here. It’s a trap.”
Galahad’s screech of laughter was filled with the insanity of hundreds of years alone and a human life unnaturally extended. Blood began to pulse in gouts from the wound in his thigh. “Tell them what you saw, little girl. Tell them about the Grail.”
Ignoring him, I tried to run, but Arthur caught me by the arm. “What did you see?”
“Let go! We need to leave now!”
I shook his hand off. “The Grail is a talisman of the earth magic, of life and death. The fire is a terrible power; I can barely resist it. The water is life, but it’s almost gone. There’s only a mouthful left.” I pointed at the Fisher King. “He’s made a deal! Me for the power of life restored to the Grail!”
“Very good, Rhiannon. I knew you inherited more than just my good looks.” Merlin entered the chamber, looking out of place in a finely tailored, modern suit.
“Why don’t you tell Galahad how you lied to him?” I screamed. “How you tricked him into bringing me here! You can’t restore the Grail. The earth magic will always resist you.” My father only smiled as he sauntered towards me.
“Run!” I yelled at the others, but there was no response. Everyone in the room was frozen. They’d been phased out of Time.
Merlin noticed Tynan standing beside Arthur and frowned. “That’s a surprise. I wouldn’t have thought Arthur would forgive his son’s betrayal.”
“It just goes to show that you know nothing about the love between a father and a child.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“How are you even daring to use your power? Galahad said your people are just waiting for you to be weak enough for them to tear you apart.” The spell he’d used was a complicated weave of many different colors; I could tell it was costing him a great deal of power. Merlin was like me. He could take power, but when he used it, it left him and was gone.
He smiled. “It doesn’t matter now that you’re here, my dear little sponge. I’ve grown tired of waiting for you to find Guinevere and bring the Wall down. When Galahad approached me with his supply and demand problem, I thought it would be a good opportunity to hurry things up a bit. I made a deal with him. If he would give me the Grail, I would tell him how to restore its life-giving waters. I’d even let him come and drink from it once a year for as long as he lived in exile on my borders. All he had to do was bring you here. You and Arthur.”
“What has Arthur got to do with it?”
Merlin held out his hand and a silver wand as narrow and sharp as an ice pick appeared in his hand. “Haven’t you begun to understand yet? Objects of the earth magic embody all its elements—water, fire, and air bound together by earth. Together, they contain Spirit—a human soul in your case, or the essence of magic in the world. All these elements reside in your own body, or have you forgotten how you quickened Excalibur?”
“Blood magic,” I whispered.
“Blood magic,” he agreed, “the highest and purest form through which a human can access the earth’s power.” He laid the tip of the stiletto against Arthur’s neck. “The Grail was last filled long before Bran was betrayed and murdered.” A drop of blood welled up on Arthur’s skin. “The only thing which can re-fill it is all the blood contained in the body of an Earth King. I will drain Arthur and then funnel both aspects of the Grail’s magic into you. Then you and I will uproot the Wall Between Worlds from its foundations and walk out of this prison into a land of possibility.” He paused. “Well, I’ll be walking out. I suspect your mortal brain will have been mashed into a pulp by then, but Cleo promises to put you up in a very nice room where you can desiccate away in peace. By then I will have found Guinevere and impregnated her with your successor.”
So this is the real reason he wants my mother—to turn her into his own personal battery factory.
As Merlin raised his hand for the killing blow, a spray of blood caught him full in the face.
The Questing Beast towered over us, Galahad’s brutally severed head in its mouth. Dindrane hadn’t been in the room when Merlin cast his spell and had managed to evade being caught out of Time. Surprised, he lost his grasp on the spell and it unraveled, throwing the room into chaos.
The beast tossed the head at Merlin’s feet, then with another fluid motion, grasped the Grail and threw it at me. I struggled to catch it and keep my grip, slicing my palm open on the edge when I almost dropped it.
My blood was all the invitation the Grail needed. Defenseless against it, the power of destruction swept through me. Flames erupted from my hands and arms, turning the sleeves of my jacket to ash. Even Merlin stepped back, an expression of fear on his face. The exposed scars on my bare wrists seemed to gape open again. If the Grail had been re-filled, I would have already been blasted out of existence, but I knew I’d only received a portion of its fire yet and I was barely managing to keep the rest of my clothing from going up in flames. My skin would be next. I needed to do something to release some of the power.
Raising my arms, I took aim at my target.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BURGUNDY
It wasn’t just fire that sped from my fingertips towards Merlin—it was a force of pure destruction. As he fell to the ground under its assault, a feeling of exultation filled me, only to be replaced by agony. The world went dark as the Grail slipped from my grasp.
Seconds later, I realized someone was pulling on my arm, cursing at the heat of my skin. It was Daley. Flames still flickered over me intermittently, but Daley was the god of thunder and lightning—they might hurt him, but he wasn’t burned.
Something fell inches form my head, jarring me with its impact. Chunks of stone were falling from the ceiling. Releasing the Grail had allowed me to regain a little bit of control, but my first blast was still going to bring the castle down on top of us.
“Where is he?” I tried to ask between coughing fits. I couldn’t see Merlin through the dust filling the air.
There was a sound like the baying of hounds as the Questing Beast shivered and contracted into a woman. “Get out of here!” Dindrane screamed before returning to her other form.
Daley hauled me forward and I could feel Peter close behind. I pulled away. “The Grail!”
“I’ve got it!” Arthur emerged from a cloud of debris carrying the talisman, followed Taliesin. The Questing Beast lumbered behind them. As we ran up the pathway, the castle collapsed in on itself with a deafening boom. I had no way of knowing if Merlin had escaped or if he’d been buried along with the corpse of the Fisher King.
Goodfellow was waiting for us under the pavilion, staring at the ruin in shock. Taliesin had to cough the dust out of his lungs before he could speak. “Get us home!”
“To the river,” he replied, but when we reached the banks, he hesitated.
“What is it?” Arthur asked, still cradling the Grail to his chest.
“I can feel the Door, but it’s resisting my efforts to open it.”
“Perhaps I can help, my Lord Forest.” An incredibly tiny, green-haired woman appeared out of the mist. “I have much greater familiarity with its tricks.” She held out her hand and the Questing Beast became Dindrane again. The girl stepped past us to take the woman’s hand.
“Yglais?” Goodfellow asked tentatively.
“Yes, my lord. I’m pleased you remember me. It has been a long time.”
“I thought you were surely dead.”
She smiled sadly. “The Fisher King deceived me. I’d stumbled upon this place years before and he convinced me to share my secret.” She hung her head. “I’m ashamed I never told you, my lord, but I needed
to keep Dindrane safe. I’m sorry. If I’d come to you with what my brother did to me, Galahad wouldn’t have been able to trap me here. He has kept us both captive all this time, serving his needs.” The hatred in her voice gave a clear picture of what exactly Galahad’s needs had been.
“There is nothing to apologize for.” Goodfellow’s voice was gruff with emotion. “What is the name of the man who hurt you? I’ll see justice done on him.”
Yglais looked up at her daughter, tears glittering in her eyes. Dindrane’s voice was cold. “This was always my intent whenever I escaped. I was on a quest for justice—for myself and my mother—and justice was served long ago.” Goodfellow nodded his understanding.
Through our bond, I could feel Peter’s concern. “But Galahad was supposed to be the best and purest of the Knights of the Round Table. That’s why he could see the Grail. How did he ever become that?”
Arthur sighed. “Galahad was a good man once, but we aren’t living in a fairy tale. His wound and his desire for more life have twisted him. Mortals were never meant to live forever, especially not in this twilight place. The real Galahad died long ago. What we encountered was just a phantom.”
Taliesin stepped forward. “Can you take us home, Yglais?”
“Yes, but stay close. This isn’t a true Path. It’s a place where worlds overlap and it’s very unstable.”
Yglais let go of her daughter’s hand and motioned for us to come into the water. One second I was sinking into the river, and the next I was stepping out of the pool in front of the Bellagio. None of us were wet. Some of the Protectors looked over in surprise, but they were still blocking us from the view of the dwindling crowd on the street.
Goodfellow bowed low before the tiny wood sprite. “I’m sorry I never found you and brought you back, Yglais.”
Lips trembling, she smiled in response. “We’re free now, and soon enough, what is past will fade.”
I realized her daughter was missing. “Where’s Dindrane?”
Yglais looked at me with round eyes like an owl’s. “Out here, where the nature of a Greylander is enhanced, she is always the Questing Beast. In Avalon, she can be Dindrane.” Without saying goodbye, the wood sprite stepped back into the water and disappeared.
Arthur put the Grail down on the edge of the pool with a dull clang of metal on concrete. When he looked at me, his face was full of resentment. “It doesn’t want me. I can feel it. Why?”
I had no idea. What I did know was that the pressure to use the Grail’s power was building again. I looked around desperately as the flames flickered in my hands. “I think I need help, guys!”
Daley took my hands in his. “Try to stay calm,” he murmured, but being so close to Avalon must have dampened his power before because now it was like gas on a fire, urging it to greater heights. As I pulled away, flames engulfed my body, consuming much of my clothing, nudging at the barrier of my skin. I gasped at the heat of the metal as the gun which had been in my pocket slid down the back of my leg. It warped and began to puddle on the ground. It was the last thing I saw before my mind filled with the fire streaming into me from the Grail through the cut in my hand.
“I have you, mo ghaoil.”
Thomas Redcap.
I could see him in the silhouette of his power. Acting on instinct and hoping he would understand, I leaned into him and exposed my neck. “Help me!”
There was a sharp pain, quickly gone, and then the power coursing through me was running on a loop between us, giving me a chance to regain some control. Pulling away, I touched the small wound on my neck. Redcap had ingested some of my flesh, my blood. A very small part of me was in him now, but the Grail’s power was following it. When Redcap walked away unsteadily, I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it long either.
He returned holding a coat for me to put over the remnants of my ruined clothing. I slipped my arms into it and buttoned it up to my chin. It was a woman’s coat—expensive looking, probably designer. Over his shoulder, I could see Cleo standing coatless and shivering between Bedivere and Arthur’s ginger-haired attendant.
Pushing past Redcap, I walked over and punched his ex-wife in the mouth.
Cleo cried out and stumbled, but Bedivere held her up as if waiting for me to take another shot. I might have too, if Redcap hadn’t caught my arm. “Why do you do it?” I demanded. “Why do you help that monster?”
“He’s my father,” she whispered, eyes entreating me to understand.
“Well I doubt you’ll be seeing him for a while.” But I didn’t really believe that the Fisher King’s fallen castle would hold Merlin for long.
I didn’t resist when Redcap put his hands on my shoulders, turning me to look at him. “I’ll deal with her later. I’m helping you hold this hellish power, whatever it is, but I can’t contain it forever. Not without . . .” He grimaced. “Not without taking more from you,” he said at last.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded that I understood. “The power belongs to the Grail. I need to put it back.” Wincing with every step of my bare feet on cold concrete—the Grail’s fire had even stolen my boots—I approached the earth talisman cautiously.
Despite my display of near nudity and totally inappropriate fisticuffs, Peter was grinning at me. “I never knew you had such a mean right hook! I’ll never argue with you over the remote again!”
I couldn’t help laughing. The place in my heart where joy lived belonged to my best friend. “I need your help. Both you and Redcap have to keep me grounded.”
Arthur backed away from the Grail and I lifted it up. I nodded at Redcap. Understanding, he placed his hands underneath mine and the contact intensified my sense of the power swirling back and forth between us. As I looked into his red-streaked eyes, I was tempted to destroy the earth talisman and let the fire fill us until we melted together into one being, consumed by power. I surprised him by leaning over and kissing him hard, biting into his lip until it bled. The taste of his blood was exhilarating. The Grail’s power was ours. Together, we would become a new sun and burn the world away.
Peter put his hand on my shoulder and I was flooded with bright, peridot green. His bond strengthened my tie to the earth, drawing me back from death. When I pulled away from Redcap, the man looked more shaken than when he arrived at Taliesin’s fleeing a monster.
Because he’s never seen a real monster until now.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to concentrate on the Grail. It was dangerously unbalanced. Its power of death and destruction was ascendant because its power for life had been drained by the Fisher King. If Merlin was telling the truth, the only way to refill it with life and restore the balance was with Arthur’s blood.
I knew I had to get it out of us soon, but the amount of power needed to command a talisman of the earth magic was incredible. Excalibur could have helped me, but it was miles away.
I dared a glance at Redcap. A drop of blood had welled up on his lip, calling to me with the dangerous seduction I’d almost burned the world for. Closing my eyes against the siren call of blood magic, I instead descended into the lake of color in the depths of my soul. Dancing and glittering like a captive rainbow, it held every scrap of magic I’d stolen through the years like a magpie feathering its nest. But what can come in, must surely be able to go out the same way. Gathering almost all the colors in my being and weaving them into a spell made from every kind and type of magic, I issued one undeniable command.
Go back to where you belong!
A concussive force shook me, forcing me to exhale till my lungs were dry and I thought I would never breathe again. After an eternity of seconds, I was released and could gulp in precious oxygen. There was one blinding moment of pure pain, and then all my stored power left me along with the Grail’s. The fire resisted, probing at the wound on my neck and the cut on my hand, but they were both shallow and had already stopped bleeding and were closing up. Soon I was empty of everything except my bond with Peter and my connection to the spell that kept Tynan
alive. I’d carefully shielded both.
When I opened my eyes, a ring of flame circled the inside of the Grail, gilding the tops of the pearls around the rim, guarding the last drops of silver water at the bottom.
Redcap let go of my hands and backed away as if he couldn’t bear to touch me any longer. The cold seeped between us, erasing anything else.
“Well that was quite a display, Redcap,” Tynan drawled. “But I suppose it’s in any monster’s nature to take advantage of a situation.”
Redcap lifted his chin proudly, his eyes glinting red and gold with the lights of the Las Vegas strip. “The powers of my people come in handy sometimes. The Great Ones only remember that when it suits them.” My heart broke as I realized he was taking the blame for our unseemly behavior, even though I was the one with no self-respect in the face of blood magic. But to my everlasting shame, I didn’t defend him.
“At least you didn’t have to look like you were enjoying it so much,” Daley muttered.
“Listen, boy . . .”
“Enough!”
Even the power of Taliesin’s voice couldn’t make Redcap kneel. Walking over to Bedivere, he wrenched Cleo from his grasp. “This is my ex-wife. I’ll find out what she knows, but she stays with me here, in the Bellagio.” His glare dared anyone to disagree. As he led her away, he didn’t look back. We watched them in silence until they’d almost reached the entrance to the hotel, and then Arthur nodded at Bedivere. The man turned and slipped into the shadows.
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 38
