“Why not? Because I’m a whore?” he asked.
I looked at him sharply. “No, Severus, because this is my responsibility and you used to be a whore, you aren’t any longer.”
“Thanks to you, so I may not be a knight but I am someone you can rely on, let me do something I am good at – stealing things.” He kissed me briefly and vanished into the dust cloud.
I couldn’t do anything other than wait. I slumped against the boulder and tried to relax. Time drifted and I realised the bugleweed was wearing off. If Severus didn’t return soon I’d be a wreck. I closed my eyes and huddled into my cloak.
“Surprise,” called a soft voice and something bumped into me.
My eyes snapped open and I realised I’d been asleep.
“Severus,” I said in relief.
“The one and only,” he said, grinning madly. “And I have food, water, wine and you are going to tell me you love me because I have figured out how to get us to Galahad.”
My mouth dropped open and instantly filled with wind and sand. I coughed repeatedly and Severus handed me a flask. Water, crystal clear and cool, water. I drank heavily. When I finished, I washed my mouth out, cleaned my beard and reached for Severus.
“You are perfect, my beautiful fey lover,” I said.
“Glad you think so, my golden warrior,” he said.
I kissed him tenderly and he murmured, “I do love the beard.”
Before he allowed me to become completely carried away he pulled back and began unpacking a large bag he’d swiped from somewhere. Ham, soft goat’s cheese, soft bread and even a tart. My appetite might be suffering from the drug but nothing could stop me wanting to feast on his bounty. We sat in the sandstorm and gorged on more food than we’d seen in at least two weeks.
“Tell me about your plan,” I managed to say eventually.
Around a large piece of bread Severus began to explain, “Just outside the wall the wind stops completely. The weather is totally different. The village, well, it’s almost a town, is perfect. Clean, organised, and everyone is really nice.”
I frowned, instantly paranoid. “They saw you?”
“No,” he said, looking at me as if I’d said he was ugly. “To each other they were nice and everyone knows everyone else.”
“Sounds like Camelot,” I said.
“It’s not as grim as Camelot.”
“Camelot’s only grim because my father died and I’m no substitute,” I said.
Severus didn’t seem to know what to say to my declaration so he changed the subject. I let him; thinking about Camelot just depressed me.
“In the centre of the village there’s a stone circle, a small one. It’ll take a cart and I saw it was active. I think it might be active nearly all the time, it kind of shimmered. That’ll be the way we get in. We either smuggle ourselves in a cart or we just drop through while no one is looking.”
“What about guards?” I asked.
“I didn’t see any. Maybe they are all dead,” he said.
“Maybe they are all in the citadel under the fucking water.” I shuddered, too many memories bouncing to the surface like corks. I’d told Severus one night about the rape when I’d found him huddled over his knees weeping because of his own memories. He’d told me of his miserable upbringing and the life he had trying to protect his sister Lil, and I finally began to gain some perspective on my own suffering. My rape paled in comparison to Severus’ life.
His hand slipped into mine and we just sat eating quietly. I loved Severus’ gentleness and his kindness. Torvec had been kind to me, far kinder than Galahad most of the time but I’d learned the hard way not to trust him. Severus simply loved me – there was no agenda.
“I guess we just go to the citadel and try to find him,” I said.
“It’s why there is just the two of us,” Severus said. “We should be able to slip in unnoticed.”
“If we don’t, we’ll die,” I said grimly.
“Then we’ll die together,” Severus said and he nestled beside me.
“You don’t have to sound so happy about it,” I said.
We both ate our filled of the pilfered goods and dozed in each other’s arms until my desire to reach Galahad took over and I stirred us to action.
CHAPTER THREE
After a short and bitter conversation I managed to force Severus to hand over another leaf of bugleweed and the moment the tingle started under my tongue I felt renewed.
“Right,” I said, feeling more decisive than I’d done in weeks. “We break into the village, we find a way into the portal and we smuggle ourselves into the citadel.”
Severus looked at me with hurt in his eyes from my outburst over the narcotic and nodded, struck dumb with unhappiness.
My shoulders slumped and I placed an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, and I promise I will stop once we have Galahad. But I’m hardly at my best right now and I need the help.” I was perfectly reasonable in my victory.
He allowed the subject to drop and picked up our few belongings. We moved off and Severus began to guide me around the village’s walls. We walked with steady purpose inside the wind and night fell at last. This far north the nights were very short, twilight lasting forever being both a benefit and a curse.
“I found a culvert,” Severus said. “It’s not big but you should be able to squeeze through.”
I grunted. The thought of struggling through some sewer was hardly appealing. We found the small hollow that would take the village’s waste water from under the huge walls and Severus was right, I did fit but only just. We didn’t bother speaking, too used to working together to worry about having to explain everything. My shoulders scraped the slimy sides and the smell made my nose run. I had to walk with a back breaking shuffle but it wasn’t far. Severus reached the faint glow of torchlight and placed his finger to his lips for silence before pointing upward. I joined him on a small ledge and realised we were down a well. The culvert wasn’t for waste water but for runoff when the well rose too high because of the lake.
He pointed to the thick chain hanging down in the centre of the well. I heard voices talking gently above our heads and we waited in the darkness for the people to move off. It sounded like a young couple in love meeting for an illicit fondle under the cover of night.
I began to grow impatient until Severus placed a hand over mine and forced me to stillness. I’d been shifting from one foot to the other constantly, my hand flexing on my sword’s hilt. The downside of this damned leaf. Action I could handle, inaction drove me insane.
The voices finally moved off and I breathed in relief. Severus reached out and caught the chain.
“I’ll go first, make sure it’s safe for you,” he said.
“This feels so wrong,” I muttered.
“I’ll be able to blend far more easily than you. When I need a strong sword arm to kill someone for me, I’ll rely on you not myself,” he said. Which is exactly what had happened when his pimp tried to take him away from me.
He rose almost effortlessly, hand over hand up the chain, the weeks on the road making him stronger. I marvelled at how some quality food, rest, and hard work filled him out. I just wished I had the time to enjoy more of him.
Severus reached the top of the chain and vanished over the side, completely blocking out the small amount of light for a moment. His head appeared and he waved his arm. I reached for the chain and began climbing myself, using the wall of the well to help. Being taller I reached the smooth stonework easily and the hand over hand walking became easier. I made it to the top and swung over the edge.
“Show off,” Severus muttered.
I grinned and beat my chest. “Manly knight,” I said.
Severus chuckled and shook his head at my antics. I looked around and saw the most organised village in the whole of Albion. The weather really didn’t touch this haven and neither did the dust. The Lady must make the wind continuous to discourage visitors. I could see how it would work.
> The village was made up of small pale stone cottages, with tidy tiles of dark slate and flowers in small front yards, bordered by low fences. All the streets off the small square in which we stood were the same size and perfectly paved with fine stonework. Not a weed, blade of grass or pile of horse shit littered the ground. Despite its perfection the place gave me the creeps, nothing wholesome was this perfect. Things should be untidy and slightly chaotic, from chaos comes true innovation or so my Uncle Geraint used to say.
We left the well behind and walked through quiet streets keeping close to the walls in the darkest shadows. The houses inside the streets had doors, all perfectly painted in blues and greens, which opened out directly onto paved areas. The streets were wide enough to allow light to hit both sides at different times of day, meaning no one lived in the shade all the time. The streets were straight and there were no rats, stray dogs or slinking cats. There were no homeless or feral children. I saw no evidence of beasts of burden either. Severus led me through the warren easily, ticking off lefts and rights.
When we reached his destination my breath hissed through my teeth. “Gods,” I whispered.
“It’s perfect isn’t it,” he said.
It certainly was, ten stones stood at about my height in a small circle. They were placed so two men could walk through shoulder to shoulder between each one and on the surface of each stone there were carvings of animals and trees. Even in the dark and at a distance I could appreciate the workmanship. A grey haze filled the space in the centre and I knew from previous trips through with my fey family, this was a portal.
“Severus, you are a miracle,” I said.
“And no guards,” he said.
“I guess she thinks this place is safe from marauding armies.”
“I certainly wouldn’t want to try to bring an army through that dust storm,” Severus said.
I frowned. “I don’t understand why my father and Lancelot never tried this.”
“Perhaps they did, or perhaps something stopped them. The important thing is we are here,” Severus said.
“Do you think we should go through now or wait until we have cover of some kind?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. We have no idea what’s on the other side,” he said.
I suddenly wished for Torvec, a bit of supernatural advice might not go amiss right now, but I knew how exhausting Severus found his sojourns with the dragon so kept my mouth shut.
“We go through now,” I said. “This is too good an opportunity to waste. It’s night, we haven’t been seen and I think for once the gods are on our side.”
“I agree.”
“Ever used one of these?” I asked him.
“Never.”
“It feels like you are being torn into a thousand pieces if you aren’t a strong fey,” I said.
“Must be fun for you.”
“I usually black out.”
He looked at me in horror. “You mention this now? How am I supposed to keep us alive if there are guards on the other side?”
“Run,” was my helpful suggestion. I grabbed his arm and before he could argue I dragged him into the circle.
***
“Holt, Holt, wake up, please wake up.” Hands smacked my face.
“Alright,” I said, pushing the hands away from me.
“Shh,” hissed Severus. “We are in the citadel.”
I sat up and shook my head. “I’m guessing you didn’t pass out,” I muttered.
“No, it was unpleasant and prickly but that’s it,” he said.
“We really have to find out what kind of fey you are,” I said, as he helped me off the ground.
“After we rescue Galahad,” he said.
“Our endless mantra,” I muttered taking in my surroundings. We were alone, surprisingly, and the portal had spat us out in a stone room full of more beautiful but austere carvings. When we were children we’d dare each other to go to The Lady’s suite of rooms in the Palace and break in through Lancelot’s barricades. The lack of colour in the dimness and the stark decoration used to give us chills enough to satisfy our childish need for thrills and terrors. The Lady was the ghoul in our lives. The carvings here matched the ones in the palace at home.
We walked on silent feet, Severus quiet because of his natural desire not to be noticed and me because of my training as a hunter and tracker, out of the small room and into The Lady’s lair.
“Can you find Galahad?” I asked him. The quiet around us made even my gentle whisper sound loud and intrusive.
He nodded. “I can feel him more strongly than ever. Just watch my back because I can hardly see he is calling out to me so strongly.” Severus’ voice wobbled in weakness.
I drew my sword and knife; I wore light leather armour which was good for travelling but not adequate for real fights against skilled men, and carried no shield. Severus wore similar armour and held a knife but he clearly wasn’t focused on defence. He moved off fast and sure, twisting and turning us through a warren of tunnels. They became less grand the further into the silent citadel we travelled.
“Where is everyone?” I muttered. My skin was beginning to crawl with paranoia. What had happened to cause this silence? Where were the people who manned this strange fortress and where was The Lady?
Severus tripped badly and went down on one knee. “He’s so strong,” Severus breathed the words. “He’s so... Perfect.”
“You haven’t met him yet,” I said, lifting my lover off the ground and continuing to move forward. I now held the knife and sword in one hand, Severus in the other. Not helpful if we did meet anyone. We did more twisting and turning through corridors that were full of a horrible dim blue-green light, until they darkened further and we stopped before a plain wooden door.
Severus pointed. “There,” he said, sliding down my suddenly nerveless body.
“Galahad,” I whispered.
I felt him, a hard core in the centre of my being growing larger with each breath. We’d been separated for many painful months and with the bonding growing in strength through Torvec’s interference it grew harder and harder for me to be away from him.
Severus tugged on my sleeve and nodded toward the door, urging me onward. I stepped to the door and placed my hand on the bolt. There was no lock, none needed if the bolt was the only thing keeping him inside the room and everyone on the outside worked for The Lady.
I slid the bolt back and lifted the latch. I pulled the door toward me and saw Galahad for the first time in the flesh.
CHAPTER FOUR
He stood with his back to the door, staring out of a small window. The pale blue-green light threw heavy shadows over his back and stooped shoulders. The ragged shirt hung off his body, hunger a familiar burden for him now. The golden torc around his neck looked heavy. His hair remained brutally short, four months not long enough for much regrowth.
“Galahad,” I whispered. The ache in my guts grew tighter and harder, making breathing difficult.
He turned slowly. The scars on his jaw were vivid because of the hunger. He stood still, those dark eyes black in this strange light. “Holt?” his voice sounded rough, as if he’d screamed too much for too long.
“I told you I was coming,” I said, suddenly uncertain of my reception.
“Holt,” he said again. He stepped forward quickly and covered the distance between us, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me into his body.
Galahad’s arms encircled me and he tucked his head against my neck. “Holt,” he repeated and his entire body shuddered.
“Galahad,” I too repeated. I cradled his head, kept his body close to mine and we stood together for a long time, the ache inside me gradually loosening.
He shifted slightly and I felt his breath hot on my cheek. One of his hands, rough from training, cupped my prickly jaw. His lips met mine and he kissed me, shocking me so badly I responded without considering Severus. It wasn’t an invasive kiss, but it was passionate, his small groan desperate.
I
moved back very slightly, putting a small distance between us. I looked into those dark eyes and saw a well of hurt that gave me access to the misery lacing a man’s soul. “Oh, Galahad,” I whispered and Severus vanished from my mind once more as I held him tight.
“Hello, Galahad,” came a slightly amused voice from behind me.
I became rigid in Galahad’s arms, instantly regretting my transgression.
“Severus,” he said in the same broken voice. He moved from my arms and dragged Severus into the same embrace he’d used on me. I watched him kiss my young lover. Severus practically melted on the spot.
“Erm, Galahad?” I stepped toward the men.
He turned back to me and tears stood proud in his dark eyes. “I didn’t think you would come. I owe Severus so much, he kept you safe.”
“Are you alright?” I asked him, suddenly worried about his sanity.
“I didn’t think you would come,” he repeated.
I glanced at Severus, his eyes were slightly glazed from the kiss and of finally meeting Galahad in the flesh.
“I promised I would come,” I said.
“I didn’t think you would come.” He began to pace the small cell. “I didn’t think you would come.” He started to pull at his hair. “I didn’t think... You see I can’t leave... I just didn’t think you would come.” He turned back to look at me. His eyes tragic dark wells. “I can’t leave.” He tugged at the collar around his throat. “I tried. I ran. I escaped. Now I can’t leave.” He tugged again. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said very quietly.
For the first time I noticed the wounds under the torc, the skin roughened and lacerations deep from the endless pulling. “Galahad, I think you need to sit down and talk to me, clearly.”
“I wanted to tell you but I’ve been so scared, so alone... I just... I just... I can’t think. It’s the noise. The endless noise.” He began to bash his head with his palm. “Stupid boy, I’m a stupid boy. Stupid and selfish and horrible. Sick. Pervert.” His voice wobbled and the hand turned into a fist, pounding on his head making a terrible sound.
Albion's Legacy (Sons Of Camelot Book 3) Page 2
