The Spirit of Nimue (The Return to Camelot #3)

by Donna Hosie

  “I do,” I sobbed. “But you’ll die if you stay here.”

  “I am surrounded by the greatest knights in Logres, my beloved. I will not be taken down by a witless band of heathens.”

  And then he did something I never thought he would do.

  Bedivere pushed me away.

  The world went black for a split second. Then came a burst of light that made me feel sick with its intensity. I was back behind the rock, hiding with Amy and Robert. I was the one who was laughing. Arthur wasn’t there, but Bedivere was. He was wearing baggy tan cargo pants and a red t-shirt. It looked so weird. Those weren’t his clothes. And where was Patrick?

  I looked down. I was wearing tiny denim Daisy Dukes and a blue t-shirt with a white cross on it.

  These weren’t my clothes, either. I looked funny; I started laughing.

  Amy and Robert started shouting at me to be quiet. I was going to give the hiding place away. Bedivere started pushing me. I was falling back.

  I was near water: a fast-flowing river of the deepest blue. Bedivere pushed me again; but he wasn’t angry, he was crying.

  And then I heard the wind chimes.

  I gasped and clutched at my stomach. The blue t-shirt was gone. I was back in my knight’s clothes.

  She will kill you all if you do not remove her from this world, said Gwenddydd. You needed a reminder.

  Gwenddydd had brought on the vision, but Bedivere pushing me away had been real.

  “I will love you until the end of time,” he cried. “Now take Lady Guinevere and fulfil your destiny, Natasha.”

  Eight became three.

  I stumbled up the steep gravel path, following Talan and Guinevere through my tears. What had been my final words to Bedivere? I couldn’t remember. I had opened my mouth and thrown up. Talan had grabbed my hand and pulled me away. Higher and higher the three of us ran, slipping over loose pockets of stones. There were a million noises in my head, and not one of them made sense.

  I had left him.

  “Lady Natasha,” puffed Talan. “You must gather your wits. I know that your heart grieves now, but you and Sir Bedivere will be reunited at the end.”

  “He’s going to die, Talan.” I wanted to scream it. Bedivere was going to die, and I had brought him to his death.

  “You should have more faith,” replied Talan, taking a sharp left turn.

  As the three of us took the corner, a fine mist of spray hit my face. It was so cold it took my breath away. The grunting cries of the Saxons were immediately muffled by the sound of water. Rushing water.

  Guinevere slipped and splayed out across the damp stone. Excalibur went spinning across some wet grass, close to the edge. I threw myself forward and grabbed the blade before it disappeared from sight. A sharp pain shot through my hand, but continued to travel up through my arm to the point where Mordred’s cut ran deep into my skin. It no longer itched, it burned.

  “How much further, Talan?” I yelled. “I don’t think we have much time.”

  “Can you both run faster?”

  “YES!” we shouted together, as I helped Guinevere to her feet.

  “Then let us run as if the hounds of hell are snapping at our feet,” shouted Talan.

  On we ran, our swords moving back and forth like pistons. My thighs were on fire, as underused muscles ached as we sprinted higher up the twisting cliff path. We were all wet through, as droplets clung to every inch of hair, skin and cloth.

  Then a roar, louder than a jet plane taking off, blasted through my eardrums, and Arthur’s Ddraig, just metres above our heads, swept over us with a sonic beat that sent all three of us sprawling into the wet grass.

  “TITCH!”

  It was Arthur. He had beaten us here. Beaten me in a race.

  “ARTHUR!”

  “Where are the others, Titch?” cried Arthur, grabbing hold of me and crushing me into one of his big brother bear hugs. “The castle has been in an uproar. Some messenger came running into my bedroom in the middle of the night and said giants had been seen, and that they had attacked some knights. So we left Camelot early, got to the falls, and then got word from outposts that an army had crossed the channel and was coming this way.”

  “I messed up, Arthur – big time. Bedivere isn’t a knight, and so he can’t come up here to the top of the falls. He’s down at the bottom of the cliff with Taliesin and the others. The Saxons are coming, Arthur. We could see and hear them in the distance.”

  “Revenge for Balvidore, sire,” said Talan. His face was bright red, but the pupils of his eyes had contracted so much there was just a pinprick of black visible in the grey. Talan wasn’t scared at all. He was totally pumped for the fight.

  “Are you here alone, sire?” asked Guinevere.

  “Gawain is coming with Sammy and Mila,” replied my brother. “Once I knew an army was on its way, I told Merlin to stay and coordinate things on the ground. I raced up here to see if you were already waiting.”

  “We’re going to have to abandon the plan, Arthur.”

  You will not.

  “We can’t, Titch. It’s Sammy. She’s not right. Something’s happening to her.”

  “Like what?” Not that I cared.

  “She’s started having seizures, not like the ones you have when you see visions, these are more violent. Her eyes roll in her head and she starts screaming all these words, and then all this weird shit happens. It’s like she’s possessed by something.”

  “I’m possessed by something, Arthur, and I don’t like it for a second, but I’ve learnt to live with it. We have to postpone our plans, because I won’t let Bedivere and the others die down there.”

  “But you’re stronger than she is, Titch,” argued Arthur. “She’s falling apart. I have to get her and Mila away from here.”

  I swear I was going to slap him. Slap him hard. Of all the girls to fall in love with, he had picked the worst one in the history of the world. Arthur shook his head and sprayed me with even more droplets of water.

  “I’m taking them back through the tunnel, Titch. I don’t know when we’ll get another chance to do this. I have to look after my family.”

  I looked out across the Falls of Merlin. I had never heard anything so noisy, and yet it seemed so serene. The last time we had been here the darkness had started to creep over Logres, but today the sky was the deepest cornflower blue. Rainbows arced over every fall. They changed colour as the white frothy spray bubbled away in each separate pool.

  “Why does nothing like this exist in our time, Arthur?”

  “I don’t know, Titch. Perhaps it does and people just can’t see it?”

  Then a greeting was hollered out. Gawain had appeared with a bundle of yellow blankets in his arms.

  “Sir Talan, Lady Natasha, it is good to be reunited so quickly,” he called.

  “Titch, where’s Gwen?” said Arthur suddenly.

  I snapped my head around. Guinevere was gone. As was Excalibur.

  “Perchance Lady Guinevere went to help Lady Samantha?” suggested Talan.

  But then I saw the dark hair of Slurpy appear around a thick bush with bright pink flowers. Guinevere wasn’t with her.

  Slurpy saw me and glared. It was amazing that after all this time, just the sight of Slurpy was enough to make my mouth run dry and my stomach heave.

  “What is she doing here?”

  “My sister is here to help you, Sam,” replied Arthur. His voice was cold, completely devoid of emotion. I realised that even though he loved her, he was making her suffer for what she had done.

  “I don’t need her help.”

  “Well, I do.”

  Arthur lowered his head and placed his forehead on my shoulder.

  “Tell me I’m not a loser dad, Titch.”

  “You’re going to be the best dad in the world, Arthur. And Mila is the luckiest kid in the world,” I whispered into his ear.

  The words were easy to say, but would be harder to live with. For the first time since Patrick’s deat
h, I had told a deliberate lie. Because regardless of what now happened, Mila wasn’t going to be the luckiest kid in the world. My brother was the kindest, most honourable, decent person I had ever known, but he wasn’t going to be the kind of dad that kids need.

  Arthur was a king, and for months at a time he wouldn’t even be there for her.

  What had we done? History wasn’t something that could be changed this easily.

  I took Arthur’s face in my hands. He looked so tired. The whites of his eyes had more broken blood vessels than was normal for an old person.

  “Lady Natasha,” called a female voice. It was Guinevere, but where was she? Arthur and I parted. He went to Gawain and took baby Mila into his arms. Slurpy was still glaring at me through her dark fringe, but her fingers were twitching, like she was typing on invisible keyboards strapped to her legs. She had a huge diamond ring on her middle finger.

  Morgana of old is fighting to be unleashed. She knows what is to come. Lady Samantha is struggling and is scared. The transition of rebirthing was not completed properly. You do not have much time.

  She didn’t look scared to me. Slurpy looked as if she wanted nothing more than to throw me off the top of the flat cliff we were all standing on.

  “Gwen, where are you?” called Arthur. Mila jerked in his arms, but she didn’t cry out.

  “I am here, sire.”

  “Where’s here?” I cried out. “We can’t see you, Guinevere.”

  “Look below you.”

  “Oh my God, she’s gone over the bloody cliff,” yelled Arthur. He handed Mila to Gawain, and for the first time I wondered why no one was giving the baby to Slurpy. What had she done? Then Gawain held out his arms and went to offer Mila to Slurpy. She shook her head. It was her choice not to hold her baby. She knew she was a danger to her own daughter.

  I shouldn’t have been impressed, but I was. Sammy was fighting back, only it wasn’t against me, or even Arthur, it was against herself. Her history from a thousand years ago.

  Arthur and Talan raced to the edge of the cliff. I quickly followed, but was hit by a wave of nausea as I looked down. I didn’t usually get vertigo, but we were seriously high up, and the cliff face below us was a vertical drop of several hundred metres.

  Standing on a little ledge below us, clearly completely unaffected by a fear of heights, was Guinevere. The glinting Excalibur looked like a length of moving silver water in her hand.

  “I’ve found the Heart of the Falls, Lady Natasha,” she called. “And what a heart it has.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The Heart of the Falls

  “How did Lady Guinevere get down there?” asked Talan.

  “She climbed down that,” I answered, pointing to a golden rope, close to the edge. It was growing out of the ground like a tree root. It looked like hair, finely twisted into a long ponytail, shimmering in the wet. Talan walked over and gave it a swift tug.

  “It holds fast,” he said, gripping it in both hands. He leant back, as if to climb down.

  “No, I’ll go first, Talan,” I said. “We don’t know what this end is connected to. If it gives way, then you’ll be able to pull me and Guinevere back up because we’re lighter.”

  “Lighter?” muttered Arthur. “You reckon?”

  I thumped him. Hard.

  “It was a joke.”

  Talan handed me the rope. It felt sticky.

  Is this it? I thought to Gwenddydd. Is this how we get Merlin and Nimue to the falls?

  It is time.

  I looked at my brother, who was peering over the edge, grinning away at Guinevere. Gawain was standing behind him, contorting his face into shapes, trying to make Mila laugh. Then I jumped as a gentle Welsh voice breathed down my neck. It took me by surprise because it certainly wasn’t the nails-down-a-blackboard screech I was used to.

  “I need to see the Heart of the Falls,” whispered Slurpy. Her arched eyebrows were close together. A strong smell of mint hung around her. She was inches from me. I tightened my grip on the rope, in case she decided to push.

  “You don’t have time,” I replied through gritted teeth. “This is something Guinevere and I have to do.”

  “But I have to see it. I think I can help. I need to help.”

  Who was this person standing next to me and what had she done with the real Slurpy? There was no way in a thousand years she would offer to help me in normal circumstances – and she didn’t even know what we were planning to do anyway because Arthur wouldn’t have told her.

  So what was she playing at?

  “Arthur,” I called, not removing my eyes from his girlfriend. “If you’re going to do this, you need to do it now.”

  “I will show you the way, sire,” said Talan. “I will cross the vine bridge and lead you back through the tunnel.”

  “Sammy,” yelled Arthur. “Get back from the edge. We need to go now, before Merlin realises what we’re doing.”

  “We can’t just leave, Arthur,” replied Slurpy. I expected her voice to be snappy or whiny or just plain pissed, but it was still really soft.

  “Why the hell not?” My brother was the one getting pissy now.

  “Because Merlin will always be able to bring me back here like he did before. I need to go into the Heart of the Falls first.”

  Slurpy opened her hand. Lying in her palm, as green as the day I had picked it up, was the acorn that Merlin the squirrel had dropped. I had taken it through the Vale of Avalon. It was just an acorn. A stupid little seed that had been the only reminder I had that this fantastical world was real. Then it had started burning in my pocket, and we had left it on the carpet of Arthur’s bedroom. Slurpy had picked it up, and it had transported her through time to Merlin’s lair. He had manipulated time and caused her pregnancy to quicken.

  And she had kept it all this time.

  Arthur walked over to us. He went to take the acorn from Slurpy’s outstretched hand, but something made him pull his fingers back sharply. I heard him swear. The acorn had burnt his skin.

  “Is that right, Titch? Will Merlin still be able to get to Sammy and Mila if I take them back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then ask Gwenddydd.”

  Mila was starting to get as cranky as her dad. Bored of Gawain’s funny faces, she was starting to squirm and squeal in the blankets. Then Gawain cried out.

  “Sire, the princess’s eyes...sire, the child, she is...”

  Arthur snatched up Mila, but she was blowing bubbles and her eyes were normal: deep blue and framed by long lashes.

  Gawain was shaking his head and scratching at the brown stubble on his chin, but I would have bet everything I owned – which admittedly wasn’t much – that Gawain had just seen Mila’s eyes roll in her head.

  But there was something else about Mila that I was pretty sure no one, other than me, had noticed. While Arthur, Talan, Gawain, Guinevere and I were soaking wet from the never-ending spray that hung in the air around the falls, Mila was completely dry. As was Slurpy.

  We needed to get them away from this place. This wasn’t right. They were both changing.

  “Titch,” said Arthur urgently. “What does Gwenddydd say? Will Merlin be able to find Sammy and Mila back in our time?”

  Morgana knows what she must do. She has already decided.

  “Gwenddydd isn’t making any sense,” I shouted back. It was getting even more difficult to hear over the noise of the water.

  “I do not wish to cause unnecessary concern,” called Guinevere, “but the Heart of the Falls is starting to shake.”

  “I thought I wanted it,” said Slurpy quietly. She was staring out over the stunning landscape. “When Mordred showed me, it felt right. It was mine and I remembered everything. But now my head hurts all the time, and it’s starting to take over me. Things happen that I can’t remember. I’m not a freak. I don’t want it anymore. I don’t want to remember. I want to be normal.”

  “Lady Natasha,” cried Guinevere. “The heart is s
till moving.”

  “We need to get Gwen up from there,” said Arthur urgently.

  Slurpy wouldn’t look me in the eyes. I knew it was because she could see Gwenddydd.

  “Arthur, stay here with Talan and Gawain until we get back,” I said. “If you hear wind chimes, or see fire, then the three of you need to start running for the bridge.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I ran at Arthur and hugged him. Final words, final words, said a cackling echo in my head.

  “Buying Mr. Rochester was the best thing you ever did for me. Tell mum and dad...tell them I’ll see them again soon and I...I...you’re the best brother in the world, Arthur.”

  “TITCH!” shouted Arthur, as I started to follow Slurpy down the golden rope. “What are you two going to do?”

  “We’ll be back in a minute, Arthur,” I shouted back. “Stay up there. The rope isn’t strong enough for you as well.”

  I kept my eyes on my older brother as I lowered myself towards Guinevere, but he was quickly hidden behind the sheer face of the cliff.

  The rope was sticky, but it left no residue on my hands. If anything, it made them feel smoother. It was like moisturiser, without the cream. I landed on the ledge next to Slurpy, but I kept hold of the rope. I wanted to know what she was up to, but it didn’t mean I suddenly trusted her intentions.

  A small entrance, slightly bigger than a front door, had been cleaved out of the cliff face. Guinevere was standing under its frame with Excalibur in both of her hands. The sword was vibrating, and it had a misty aura surrounding it.

  “Why is the sword doing that?”

  “It knows what it’s about to do,” replied Guinevere. She stared at Slurpy, who was already starting to walk to the entrance.

  “Is Lady Samantha armed?” I knew Guinevere was asking for reasons of self-preservation, not Slurpy’s protection.

  I nodded and waggled my fingers. Thankfully Guinevere understood exactly what I meant. Slurpy had fire at her fingertips.