by Lori Bond
The flying fortress was much lower than it had been when we’d begun our attack. Pendragon or the Defender or some of the knights must have gotten to the engines, and the fortress headed for a watery grave.
I didn’t pay attention to the fortress for long. Above us, Vortigern and Pendragon circled one another. Apparently, Vortigern’s suit had flight capabilities in the form of two dragon styled wings that had extended from his back. He swooped and dodged as Pendragon shot various lasers and ammunition at him.
“Percy, I need in my armor,” I said. “Will needs Galahad. Where is he?”
“I apologize, my lady,” Percival answered instead, “but Galahad is indisposed at the moment, and there are no knights to spare. If Lord Arthur is to continue his private quarrel with Vortigern, the Defender and all the knights must continue distracting the remaining Dreki forces.”
Vortigern spit flames out of his dragon mouth. Pendragon’s cape caught fire, but to my disappointment it didn’t burn away. Pendragon ripped the burning area off, leaving a singed strip behind.
“He needs help,” I started to say, but Arthur cut me off.
“No, Elaine, this is my battle. It always has been.”
I tried to argue, but Arthur interrupted me again. “Princess, it would be good if you didn’t distract me. Percival, get her to safety. Now.”
Morgause started to fly away, but I yelled at Percy to go back.
Percy stopped my knight and turned around, but even he wouldn’t fly me back no matter how much I begged and pleaded.
“Elaine,” Will said. He reached across Morgause chest and grabbed my hand. “Arthur’s right. This is his battle, not ours.”
I stopped struggling against the armored arm that held me and instead watched.
“Vortigern, this ends today,” Arthur shouted over Pendragon’s external speakers.
“Yes,” Vortigern shouted back between bursts of dragon fire. “I should have finished you that day in the tunnel twelve years ago when you first interfered with the Dreki’s divine purpose.”
“You aren’t finishing me today, either,” Arthur said back, this time in a conversational tone, like he was discussing sports or the weather. “I swear, Vortigern, for all that knowledge you’re supposed to have, it’s like you’ve never read a fairy tale.”
“What?” Vortigern shot a rocket at Pendragon, but Pendragon dodged and the rocket exploded many yards behind him. Debris rained down on the ocean.
“Fairy tales. You’ve got a daughter. If you’d spent time reading to her instead of smuggling her into LANCE’s school, you’d know how this battle will end.”
Vortigern’s response was a barrage of bullets that pinged harmlessly off Pendragon’s breastplate.
Pendragon’s face didn’t change, but I could hear Arthur’s smile in his voice. “The knight always slays the dragon.” He reached over his shoulder and unsheathed Excalibur.
The sword glowed from the lasers lining its edge. Pendragon sliced at Vortigern, shearing part of his left wing. The bit hung down destabilizing Vortigern’s flight for a moment before he ripped it off and tossed it away. Pendragon had flown in, Excalibur aiming for the kill, when a pair of swords shot out of the arms of Vortigern’s suit into his hands. He blocked Pendragon’s attack and parried with his own.
The two flew at each other, swords clanging off one another in deafening blows. My unprotected ears ached, and I dropped Will’s hand to cover them. I tried shutting my eyes, but I couldn’t look away for more than a moment at a time. I also realized that although I was being held around the waist by a robot, I was still that scared girl cowering with her eyes shut and her ears covered.
No. I tried to straighten up, but since I was dangling from a robot, I just sort of straightened my spine. No. This wasn’t Arthur’s battle, at least not his alone. It was all the Keeps—Arthur and Ginny and me and Will, even if Will didn’t share the last name—against this monster, this man who had mechanically turned himself into one of the greedy, scrabbling dragons of European myths. And he would not win because Arthur wanted to keep the rest of us safe.
And he was winning. Arthur was holding his own, but he wasn’t managing any offensive strikes. He was on the defensive and losing ground. Vortigern had pushed him lower and closer to the dropping flying fortress. The closer they got, the less maneuverability Pendragon had, giving the bigger dragon the advantage.
However, as much as I wanted to help, there was a limit to what I could do from under a robot’s arm. Percy wouldn’t fly over there with Morgause carrying us like sacks of potatoes, and I couldn’t get into my armor without dropping Will. Since we were still at least several hundred feet above the Atlantic, dropping Will wasn’t an option. My only option was to get a vision that might help.
I grabbed Will’s hand again, but still nothing happened. We hovered beside the battle, the combatants almost level with us now. Soot from the flames Vortigern’s dragon head kept spouting covered Pendragon. Vortigern’s armor had nicks and slices where Pendragon had got past Vortigern’s blocks and parries, but none of the blows had done much damage. They were both too well-armored.
I tried to block the battle and pull up a vision, but still there was nothing. I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything Cassie had ever taught me. Touch triggered my visions. Check, but holding Will’s hand wasn’t enough. Pendragon and Vortigern wouldn’t let me slap a hand on them, so that was out. Proximity aided my visions. I could see Arthur, but Percy wouldn’t fly Morgause any closer. Emotions powered my visions. The more stirred up I got, the easier the visions came.
I turned to Will. Like me his legs hung down, and his free hand gripped the arm Morgause had around his waist like he didn’t trust the armor not to toss him into the water below. Cassie said nothing stirred me up like Will. Cassie said Will would always bring on visions faster and easier than anyone else. Time to put that theory to the test.
I dropped Will’s hand and reached across my armor’s chest for the front of his shirt. “Will, I need to borrow your lips.”
Will turned, his raised eyebrows lifting even higher in shock when he realized what I was doing. I reached with my other hand for the back of Will’s head, and I pulled him into a kiss.
At first nothing happened. We sort of stared at each other with our lips smushed together in the world’s most awkward embrace. Then Will shrugged, closed his eyes, and kissed me.
The result was immediate. My Sight came roaring back with a vengeance. It was like nothing I had ever Seen before. I might have closed my eyes too, but it didn’t matter. Will and the ocean and Pendragon and the battle disappeared. Instead, the future stretched out before me like a fanned-out deck of cards. I Saw the different branches where a single decision could push the future to change. The brightest paths were probably the most likely futures, yet even those seemed improbable. Was that Will with a little girl with clouded-over-eyes in that particular distant future?
I turned away since I didn’t have time to explore the infinite possibilities before me. Focusing as hard as I could, the distant futures faded away until Arthur’s immediate future snapped into focus. The battle still raged, but now Pendragon had a new slice down the front of his armor, bisecting the coat of arms on his chest at a diagonal. He had been pressing an attack, but all of a sudden he froze and then screamed, “No!” He turned away, but Vortigern caught him with a kick to the chest. Pendragon flew back and slammed against the side of the flying fortress in a weird parody of all the times the knights had thrown me against the Rook’s walls during practice. Vortigern swooped back, his long dragon wings beating the air, gaining distance. Then, he dove at Pendragon, slamming both of his swords into my father, impaling him like a bug on a board.
In the vision, both Will and I screamed, but the real me didn’t panic like I had when I watched Vortigern kill Will that time.
“No,” I said instead in a soft voice just like Arthur used when he was beyond screaming his anger. “Over my freaking dead body.”
/> I rewound the vision, something I hadn’t even realized was possible, and I watched it again. There was a moment before Vortigern struck when I had a chance, but I would need to have perfect timing.
I yanked myself out of the future. At some point, probably when I had zoned out of my body, Will had stopped kissing me, but his forehead still leaned against mine.
I pulled back, and Will opened his eyes, giving me a wry look. “Got what you needed?” he asked.
I nodded and turned back to the battle gauging where it was at. Pendragon didn’t have the cut on his breastplate yet.
“Not that I’m not happy to help,” Will said, “but is there a reason we needed to kiss?”
“Stronger visions.”
“Huh.” Will didn’t sound real thrilled. Maybe when all this was over, I’d think about how rude it was to check-out of a kiss to go watch the future, but for now I watched the battle through narrowed eyes. Vortigern struck and got past Pendragon’s guard. The resulting long slash across the coat of arms on Pendragon’s breastplate was what I’d been waiting for.
“Percy, on my mark I need you to throw me thirty degrees to the right.”
“What?” Percy and Will both said at the same time.
Pendragon feinted and then pressed his attack.
“Trust me on this one, boys,” I said. “Percy?”
“As my lady wishes,” said my AI.
“No!” yelled Will.
In the battle, Pendragon froze for a moment, then turned for me. Arthur yelled, “No!” just like in the vision.
“Three,” I said.
Pendragon moved in my direction.
“Two.”
Vortigern kicked.
“One.”
Pendragon slammed into the flying fortress.
“Mark.”
Percy had Morgause throw me in the direction I wanted. Even though she held me like a football, I got lobbed like a softball, high but fast. It didn’t matter, Vortigern backed up, just like I had Seen, and I slammed into his side just like I had planned.
I wasn’t wearing armor, so it felt like every bone in my body tried to shatter. Morgause had quite an arm on her. The pain was a shock, but I managed to scrabble at Vortigern’s wing and climb the trussing there onto Vortigern’s back.
Vortigern hadn’t been expecting an attack from the side, certainly not one from me. He froze for a moment, trying to figure out what had happened. I used that minute to scramble up to his neck and latch on.
I didn’t have a whole lot of offensive fighting options without armor. I was unprotected and couldn’t do much more than hang on. It wasn’t like I was going to damage Vortigern’s body armor with my fingernails.
I was an amazing distraction though. Back at the Rook I had discovered how annoying it was when someone hangs onto your back, and I put that lesson to use. I kicked with my legs, making it hard for Vortigern’s dragon wings to flap. I lunged and pushed my right arm across the Dragon’s right eye in case it affected Vortigern’s vision. Vortigern tried to swat at me with one of his swords, but he only damaged one of his own wings. I hung on for dear life as he attempted to shake me off, but nothing dislodged me. I was more tenacious than a hungry tick.
My distraction served its purpose. Arthur got the moment he needed to recover. He did more than recover. With a feral scream, Pendragon launched off the fortress wall, headed for us. I realized where Excalibur was aiming and lunged for Vortigern’s right wing. Grabbing for one of the struts, I managed to catch it like a kid jumping for the monkey bars on the playground. I swung from Vortigern’s wing out of the way as Arthur plunged his sword all the way through Vortigern’s heart.
27
WHERE ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE, WAR, AND DEEP OCEAN RESCUES
VORTIGERN LURCHED TO THE LEFT WITH ASCREAM, AND MY BODY swung with him, coming dangerously close to the exposed edge of Excalibur where it stuck out the dragon’s back.
“How?” Vortigern whispered. His horrible dragon mouth still moved when he spoke, but the rest seemed to be shutting down. Dragon wings no longer flapped. The only thing keeping him in the air was Pendragon’s grip on Excalibur.
“It seems I never had the right incentive before,” Arthur said. “Princess, don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again.”
I didn’t answer, not sure what to do next. Morgause was coming for me, a cheering Will still dangling from her other arm, but Arthur didn’t wait.
“Get ready to jump,” he said. With a grunt, Pendragon lifted a leg and kicked Vortigern’s lifeless body off his sword, dropping it into the ocean hundreds of feet below.
I swung myself away and jumped free of the lifeless debris, but I was still plummeting toward the ocean. Will and Evie probably learned how to skydive at the Conservatory, but I flailed about like fighting the air would keep myself up.
Something grabbed my shirt, jerking me to a halt, and then I was being crushed to a slashed up metal chest.
“I’ve got you, baby. You’re safe, little girl. I didn’t lose you,” Dad kept murmuring over and over, long after I had stopped struggling, almost as if he was comforting himself. His voice was sort of choked up like he might even be crying.
I was glad Arthur had me, but he was wearing enhanced armor. “Can’t breathe,” I muttered. “Hug too tight. Cracking ribs.”
Arthur shifted until he was carrying me on one hip with one arm like a little kid. I was more than a decade too old to be carried that way, but I didn’t care. I grabbed around his neck and hung on, waiting for Morgause to reach us.
“You lot are in for a serious lecture when we get home,” Arthur said, his voice back to normal. “I don’t think there’s an iota of common sense between the two of you.” Pendragon looked down at me. “You launch yourself into the middle of a battle with no armor?” He turned to Will. “And you use your mysterious powers not to stay out of trouble but to get in it?” Pendragon’s head shook. “At this rate, I’ll go full on gray hair before I’m fifty. How is that going to look in the tabloids?”
Will’s mouth dropped open, and he looked at me as if I should know what to say. I didn’t bother answering. I laughed instead. If hysteria tinged my laughter, I’d earned it. My dad wasn’t dead, pinned to the side of Vortigern’s fortress. That was all that mattered. He could try to distract us by whining about trivial things all he wanted.
I hugged Pendragon’s armor one more time before I let him pass me back to Morgause. “Take them straight home,” Arthur told my armor. “No stopping, and Elaine?” Pendragon turned back to me. “What exactly is this Percy thing running your armor?”
“Oh, that.” I looked away.
“Percival’s opinion is low.”
“Percival isn’t alone,” I admitted, “but Percy grows on you.”
“I resemble that,” Percy muttered.
“You do,” I told him.
“Ginny will be running a full diagnostic before he gets to run your armor again.” Pendragon glared at us even though the helm’s expression hadn’t changed. “I trust his judgment even less than yours. ‘Throw my unarmored body into the center of a mid-air battle,’” Arthur said in a high-pitched voice I assumed was meant to be me. “‘Sure, my lady, why not?’” Arthur now imitated Percy. “‘Seems fine to me. What could go wrong?’” Arthur’s voice then went back to normal. “I swear. And Ginny thinks I’m the risk-taker.”
My armor started to fly away, back toward what I assumed was Manhattan. Arthur turned for the fortress. “I’ll be right behind you, but Patrick is pinned down and needs help. As soon as the LANCE troops get here, I’ll join you at home. Apparently Stormfield has deigned to join us now that we’ve done all the work.” Pendragon turned and flew up, but we got to listen to Arthur grumble about LANCE the entire time we were still in range.
I closed my eyes and leaned against Morgause’s body while the wind from flying pulled my hair from my face. I could not believe this was over. That we had won. That Vortigern was gone for good.
My eyes popped op
en when something wet drenched my feet. Instead of being several hundred feet above the ocean, we were now low enough to brush the tops of the bigger waves.
“Percy?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but we managed to climb a few dozen feet. Will and I both still got soaked from the waist down when a giant wave passed underneath.
“I think the fortress just hit the ocean,” Will said, but I didn’t answer. We’d dropped again.
“Percy,” I said, “what’s wrong?”
“Low,” Percy said as if even that word was difficult for him to get out over the comms. “Battery must be damaged. Should have told Arthur.”
“You think?” I scanned the horizon, but we were miles from anything. Once again, we were flying so low that the waves were lapping our feet with little brushes of mind-numbing cold.
“Deep breath,” Percy said, and then Morgause dropped us.
We were only about four feet high, but it still hurt when I hit. I kicked myself to the surface, gasping. The Atlantic Ocean was cold. My family never spent much time at the beach when I was a kid, but we’d gone twice to a place on the Gulf of Mexico. I was used to refreshing dips in mild waves after roasting in the sun building sandcastles.
The temperature in the Atlantic was the bone crushing chill that had me wondering how soon we would succumb to hypothermia. After all, I’d learned all about the Titanic and how lots of people survived the ship’s sinking only to freeze to death in the water.
Will was swimming over to me and reaching for me when my armor fell out of the sky. One moment it was hovering a little to our left, and the next it had plunked into the ocean next to us.
“Thank you, Percy,” I said to the vanished armor. “You got us out safe.” I had a copy of his program stored on my tablet back home, but I would miss this copy of my outrageous AI.
“So much for a comfortable ride home,” I tried to say, turning to Will, but my teeth were chattering too hard to speak. I had no idea how Will seemed unaffected by the cold. He patiently treaded water next to me as if we were hanging out at a year-end pool party. I was trying to float, but I kept getting slapped in the face with waves and accidentally swallowing salt water. I would probably pickle from the inside out.
