Grail of Stars (11 page)

“Get off me!” he yelled, kicking them. “If your fish-queen hurts Damsel Rhianna, I'll come back and kill you all, I swear it on my knightly oath!”

The cavern spun around Rhianna. The pool glittered with stars. Her sword grew heavier. Her arms lowered, and the blade clanged against the rock at her feet.

A guardian gently took Excalibur from her numb fingers, and two more ran to catch her as her legs gave way. The Fisher King bent over her and removed her crown.

“It's nearly daylight,” he said with a sigh. “This castle sleeps by day. Sweet dreams, Princess. It's no shame to fail the test. At least you get to sail home with your life.”

Rhianna fought to stay awake. “Please, sire, you've got to let me take the Grail of Stars to Avalon!” she begged. “You've got to, or my father will never return to Camelot. I'll bring it straight back here afterwards, I promise… or throw it into Queen Nimue's lake when I've finished with it, whatever you like.”

“Even if you'd passed the test, I'm afraid we can't let you take the Grail from this place, Rhianna Pendragon,” Lady Nimue called from the pool. “I hate to disappoint such a brave damsel, but it seems Merlin has not told you the whole truth. I think he sent you here to try for the Grail because he knew he would not
survive such a quest himself. Druids play the long game. He tried to get hold of it before by sending Arthur's knights after it, and failed. He's betrayed us. The Crown does not lie. You saw the visions too. He might even have been working with Morgan Le Fay all along to put Prince Mordred on the throne.”

“That's a lie!” Rhianna said.

Her heart pounded and she felt so dizzy she could barely focus on the fish-lady, let alone think straight. Most of the lights in the cavern had flickered out when Arianrhod threw the goblet, and everyone else – humans, ghosts and fish-people – seemed to have gone. Darkness arched over her, reminding her of the shadrake's lair, where Mordred had left her to die during her quest for the Crown of Dreams.

I failed
, she thought.

“Merlin hates Mordred,” she said. “He'd never help him or his witch-mother… why should he?”

Lady Nimue's tinkling laugh reached her. “Because, Rhianna Pendragon, Merlin taught Morgan Le Fay magic when she was a girl. She used to be very beautiful. It appears none can resist Lady Morgan's charms, not even a great druid like Merlin. I wasn't sure before, but the four Lights together can reveal even those truths hidden from the world by the darkest magic. It seems your cousin Mordred has druid blood as well as Pendragon blood. Prince Mordred is Merlin's son.”

D
ARK
F
AMILY

M
ordred bent over the Avalonian prince, whose limp body his men had finally fished out of the water. Seaweed was tangled in his dark curls. The violet eyes stared up at the Tor, blank and unseeing. Silver gleamed through a rip in the boy’s tunic. Mordred closed his gauntlet about the druid spiral the prince wore on a cord around his neck and jerked it free. He’d been slightly disappointed to find the rider of the fairy horse wasn’t his cousin, but at least he now had the means to get to Avalon.

He turned to his captain, who held his
other captive flapping upside down by its jesses. “Bring that stubborn merlin over here.”

He thrust the spiral towards the bird. “Recognise this, druid?” he said. “This is the pathfinder from the end of your old staff. I know you can use it to open the mists between worlds. If you help me and my men get to Avalon, I’ll let Gareth’s snivelling mother try to revive the fairy lad. I’m sure I can think of a use for him when my cousin arrives.”

The merlin screeched at him and tried to peck his hand.

“Very well, then,” Mordred said in frustration. “We’ll see how long it takes a fairy to drown.”

“Oh, don’t be so mean, Merlin!” called a sweet voice from behind them. “You could give Mordred a little help, for once.”

Mordred, who had been about to kick the Avalonian’s body back into the water, whirled round. Morgan Le Fay’s ghost sat on the end of the jetty. She was weaving a net in her lap from lengths of glowing green rope.

He scowled at her. “How long have you been sitting there?” One drawback of his shadow-eyes was that he no longer needed the dark mirror to see his dead mother. And she had a habit of turning up at the most inconvenient moments.

“Long enough,” the witch said. “Avalonians don’t die as easily as men, foolish boy! If you return that body to the water, the prince might find a way to warn your cousin you’re waiting for her. Here, bind him with this. It’ll keep him quiet until you decide what to do with him.”

She tossed him a length of the green rope.

While his bloodbeards bound the slender wrists, Morgan Le Fay joined them and ran a ghostly finger down the merlin’s breast.

“Ah, my dear Merlin,” the witch said. “Such a fragile little body you’ve ended up in, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Arthur’s hot-headed daughter has already proved she cares nothing for the Lights themselves – only for her friends, her love-struck mother and her dear departed father. That’s girls for you. She’s reached the Grail Castle, you know. She’ll be dead by morning. Whereas Prince Mordred here is no longer trapped in the body Arthur crippled for him at Camlann. You could work with him as you once worked with Arthur. Then if the king’s daughter somehow survives her quest, we could marry
them and breed a child with both druid and Pendragon blood, raised by us to rule over the kingdoms of men, Avalon and Annwn. Just think… you and me, with all four Lights at our command! You could take any body you liked, then. Get rid of old Avallach and live in his crystal palace, if you wish. What a team we’d make!”

Her eyes gleamed. The merlin went still.

Mordred stared at her.

“Enough, Mother!” he said, his stomach fluttering in alarm.
“I’m
going to be the one who controls the four Lights and sits on Arthur’s throne. Men will follow
me!
You promised. Besides, I don’t want to marry my cousin, and she hasn’t got any druid blood… has she?”

If his cousin could work magic like
Merlin, he’d be in trouble if she actually did manage to get hold of the Grail of Stars.

His bloodbeards coughed and shuffled their feet. Gareth’s mother picked seaweed out of the Avalonian boy’s curls, shuddering as the enchanted ropes worked their magic and all colour drained from the captive’s face.

Morgan le Fay laughed. “See what a monster we’ve bred, Merlin? Druid blood doesn’t run in
Rhianna’s
veins, silly boy – how could it, a daughter of Arthur and Guinevere? You’re the one with the magic, my son. Why do you think you’re standing here, strong and whole, with only a rotten fist to keep your spirit tethered to the world of men? You’d have been in Annwn long ago, otherwise. The truth is Merlin’s your father, however much he might regret it now. He found me
very attractive once – didn’t you, my dear?”

Mordred’s head spun, and he tightened his gauntlet about the pathfinder. All this time he’d thought he was the son of a dark lord summoned by his mother from Annwn – his only consolation when the other boys at Camelot had called him a ‘fatherless brat’. Who’d have thought it? The son of Merlin, greatest of the druids!

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded, eyeing the little hawk. It looked as uncomfortable as he felt. “You let me grow up fatherless!”

The witch regarded him in amusement. “And have the truth reach Arthur’s ears? Exactly how long do you think my dear brother would have let us stay at Camelot? Even Merlin never guessed for sure.”

Mordred slowly unclenched his fist, seeing the possibilities. “Druid blood… you mean I can use magic to protect myself?”

“You already have,” his mother said, with another of her silvery laughs. “Unless someone burns your mortal fist, of course. Fire will finish even those who can work the strongest enchantments.”

Mordred looked at his gauntlet and felt sick all over again.

“And the spirit transfer,” he said. “Like the druids do when their old body dies. Can I do that?”

“If you wish,” said his mother. “Though I wouldn’t advise it unless you really have no choice… Not so easy, is it, Merlin? The stronger the body the harder it fights, as Merlin here found out with my shadrake.”

The merlin launched itself at the witch, claws outstretched. But the leash attached to his jesses tugged him back.

Morgan Le Fay laughed. “Temper, temper,” she said. “Merlin thinks I tricked him, which maybe I did. But it’s time to put our differences aside for the common good, and get rid of Arthur’s daughter before she takes the Grail to Avalon and wakes the king from his enchanted sleep so he can take his revenge upon us all.”

The merlin glared at her, and Morgan Le Fay sighed.

“Admit it, my dear, you’re just as scared as we are. If she survives the test of the Grail, Arthur’s daughter will soon be on her way to Avalon, bringing at least three of the Lights with her. When the Lights come together,
you know as well as I do that the old ways will change, and our time will be over. If by some miracle the girl brings the Grail of Stars as well, that’ll put all four Lights in Lord Avallach’s hands, and who knows what the fairy lord plans to do with that kind of power, once Arthur is awake?”

She stroked her green net thoughtfully. “Rhianna trusts the Avalonian lord. That’s your fault, Merlin, but now’s your chance to make up for it. We can’t let the world be swallowed up by the enchanted mists while the Wild Hunt rides at will, snatching men’s souls and turning us all into Avallach’s slaves. These ropes will hold the girl as tightly as they hold her fairy prince. All we need is someone she trusts to lead her into our trap.”

She smiled at the merlin in a way that
reminded Mordred of how she used to smile at him when he’d been small. “Tell your captain to let the bird go,” she said.

Reluctantly, Mordred passed on the instruction. He scowled as the little falcon darted off into the mist with a final screech.

“But what if the druid betrays us…?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Morgan Le Fay knelt to close the Avalonian boy’s violet eyes. “Merlin will be back for his pathfinder, and the girl’s not going to stay away for much longer once she hears we’ve got her Avalonian prince.”

R
hianna ran along dripping tunnels searching for the Grail of Stars. Whatever she had drunk from Lady Nimue’s cup had made her dizzy, and her legs were joining together into a fish’s tail. She had to find the fourth Light before they finished
transforming, but she did not know where to look.

She came to a winding stair and began to climb, her half-changed legs trembling at every step. King Arthur’s ghost stood at the top, holding a cup filled with dazzling light. When he saw her coming, he smiled and lifted the cup to his lips.

“No, Father!” she screamed. “Don’t drink – it’s poison!”

She tried to knock the cup from his hands. But her new tail flopped uselessly on the steps, and she slipped back down. Her father swallowed, and the cup fell from his grasp. Its contents spilled down the stairs in a foaming wave, swept Rhianna up and washed her back down the tower. She thrashed her tail, desperately trying to keep her head above the
shining liquid. It would kill her, so she mustn’t swallow… mustn’t swallow…

“My lady? Rhia, wake up! It’s only a dream.”

Rhianna’s hand knocked against something metallic, and cold liquid splashed her skin. She jerked awake to see Arianrhod’s anxious face peering down at her. Her heart steadied. She took deep breaths.

She lay on a bed in a chamber hung with tapestries that reminded her of the Damsel Tower at Camelot. Mist swirled at the windows, filling the room with grey light. Her friend held a battered silver cup, which Rhianna must have spilled as she woke. A wet stain was spreading over the bedcover, which had tangled around her legs. She kicked free of the clinging material with a shudder.

Only a dream. She stared at the cup in
Arianrhod’s hand, a shiver of memory going down her spine. It looked like the one Nimue had offered her at the feast, except it had a new dent in one side.

“Is that what I think it is?” she said, hoping her friend had understood what she’d asked her to do.

The maid blushed. “You did tell me to put it in your pack, Rhia. When Sir Galahad showed me where to put it after the feast, there were hundreds of other goblets, a whole cavern of them glittering in the dark. He wouldn’t go inside, so it was easy to switch them. I hid this one under my skirt and moved one of the others to the shelf where it belongs – I made sure I dropped the other one first to give it a new dent, which was a lot easier than making that look-alike Excalibur when we played our
trick on Mordred at the North Wall! But it’s just some old cup without Lady Nimue’s magic drink inside… are you sure you want it? We’ve got plenty of prettier ones back at Camelot.”

It’s the Grail of Stars, silly!
Rhianna wanted to say. But she frowned. In the daylight, it did indeed look like a very ordinary cup. No white light, as she’d seen at the feast last night. No foaming poison, as there had been in her dream. She wasn’t even sure any more that it was real silver.

She swung her legs to the floor and checked them, relieved to see no sign of scales. With another wave of relief, she saw her Avalonian armour neatly folded at the end of the bed, next to Excalibur in its red scabbard. The Crown of Dreams lay on top, but her father’s ghost had gone.

“Only a dream,” she whispered.

“My lady?” Arianrhod set down the empty cup, which wobbled on its dented base.

Rhianna laughed. This cup was the Grail of Stars, the fourth Light with the power to bring someone back from the dead? No wonder her father’s knights had failed to find it.

She drew Excalibur from its scabbard to check the blade. Satisfied the sword hadn’t been harmed, she dressed quickly and sprang to the door. But it refused to open.

“I’m afraid it’s locked, my lady,” Arianrhod said in an apologetic tone. “But at least they let me stay with you. I was so scared. You kept thrashing about and screaming in your sleep… I thought you were going to die like Sir Galahad and the others.”

“Don’t be silly.” Rhianna scowled at the door.
“Lady Nimue just wanted to see the secrets in the Crown of Dreams. She didn’t want to kill me.”

It must have been a strong potion to bring on such visions, though. She frowned, trying to remember how much had been real, which had been memories from the Crown, and what had been part of her dream. She remembered Nimue saying something about Merlin being Mordred’s father. She shook her head. The fish-lady must have made a mistake – Merlin was on their side, even if he hadn’t been of much use lately.

“What happened to Cai and Sir Bors?” she asked. “Did you see where the guardians took them?”

“No, my lady. I’m sorry.”

Rhianna sighed. “We have to get out of
here and find them. How far up are we?” She leaned out of the window and peered down into a silver mist.

“I don’t know,” Arianrhod said. “This castle’s very confusing, but we went up a lot of steps so I don’t think we’re near the fish-people any more.”

“Good.” Rhianna looked for something to throw out of the window. Her gaze settled on the dented Grail. She shook her head and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl instead. She dropped the apple into the mist and held her breath, listening.

Arianrhod pressed against her shoulder, listening too.

Just when Rhianna wondered if the apple had landed on something too soft to make a noise, they heard a faint splash below followed by an eager whinny.

This is a very sweet apple!
came her mist horse’s faint voice.
Can we go home now?

“Alba!” Rhianna put a leg over the sill.

“No, my lady!” Arianrhod grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside. “What if you land on a rock and break your neck?”

Rhianna frowned.

“Are there any rocks down there, beautiful one?” she called down to the mare.

There are many sharp stones,
Alba reported.
Evenstar does not like it here. He misses his rider. But we hide like you say. We go home now?
The mare sounded hopeful.

With a sigh, Rhianna drew her leg back inside. Even if she missed the rocks and did not break any bones when she landed, Arianrhod would never jump after her. She could try to get back inside and let her maid
out of the door. But this castle was meant to be enchanted. Sir Lancelot hadn’t been able to get back in to see Lady Elaine and his baby son. Even if she had the Grail now, she couldn’t abandon her friends.

“Wait a bit longer, my beautiful one!” she called down. “We’ll come as soon as we can.”

Arianrhod looked relieved. “How about we summon someone?” she said. Before Rhianna could stop her, the maid had picked up the dented Grail and was banging it against the door, shouting for the guards.

“No!” Rhianna grabbed the cup. “Don’t bash that about. You might destroy the magic. Put it in your pack. They won’t hear unless they’re waiting outside, anyway. I’ve got a better idea.”

She straightened her shoulders, rested her hand on Excalibur’s hilt and closed her eyes.
Finding the right knightly spirit was easy this time – the sword’s magic was strong in this place.

“Open this door at once, Sir Galahad!” she yelled with battle-trained lungs. “I know you can hear me. By the power of the Sword of Light that was forged in Avalon and your knightly oath made to my father King Arthur, I command you to let us out!”

There was a pause long enough to make her wonder what she’d do if the knight did not come. Then Sir Galahad’s ghost rippled through the solid door. He smiled to see Rhianna awake and dressed.

“No need to shout, Princess. The dead are not deaf, you know.” He gave the Crown a curious look. “Did you have any more visions?”

Rhianna scowled at him. “That’s Pendragon
business. Unlock this door and let us out, will you?”

“Sorry, Princess. I can’t do that,” Galahad said.

She tightened her grip on Excalibur and scowled again. “My father knighted you with this sword, so you must obey the Pendragon who holds it, unless I unknight you like I unknighted Mordred. I can do that, you know.”

“I know you can, Princess. But a ghost cannot unlock a door, however much I’d like to help you.” Sir Galahad plunged his arm through the wood to demonstrate.

Rhianna frowned. “You steered the ship that brought us here,” she pointed out.

“That’s different. The Grail ship is enchanted and will only respond to the hands
of the dead. The Fisher King made it that way to stop power-hungry living people, like your Prince Mordred, from using it to find this castle and the Light the maidens guard here.”

She sighed. “Then go and find someone living to unlock it for us,” she said.

“In this castle, the living sleep by day,” Sir Galahad explained. “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until evening.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Rhianna clenched her fists. “What sort of a ghost are you? Can’t you wake someone
up
?”

“The living do not normally see ghosts, unless they are in the presence of one of the Lights.” Sir Galahad reminded her.

His gaze rested on Arianrhod, clutching her bulging pack, and Rhianna’s heart thumped. Did he guess what was inside?

“That’s no problem,” she said quickly. “My champion Cai still has the Lance of Truth.” She hoped so, anyway. “He’ll hear you. Send him up here – I bet he knows a way to open a locked door. Then go and get the ship ready to sail. We might need to leave in a hurry.”

“As you wish, Princess.” Sir Galahad gave her another strange look before rippling back through the door.

Rhianna lifted her hand from Excalibur and sighed. Controlling the ghost had taken what was left of her energy. The bed with its damp covers suddenly seemed very inviting. She sat on the edge of it with the sword resting across her knees.

While they waited, she began to polish the blade. Maybe she should have used the sword’s magic to summon Sir Bors’ spirit instead?
Would that have woken the big knight from his enchanted sleep, or just brought his dreaming spirit out of his body? She could not think straight. Excalibur’s white jewel, shining with the magic of the castle, made her dizzy. She might try calling Sir Bors when she felt a bit stronger.

“What if Cai and Sir Bors are locked in too, my lady?” Arianrhod asked, rousing Rhianna from her thoughts.

She shook herself and laid the sword aside. “Then we’ll use the window,” she decided. “We’re not staying in this castle another night. We’ve got to rescue Elphin and take the four Lights to Avalon before Mordred gets hold of them! We can escape while everyone’s asleep. Help me get the sheets off the bed and those tapestries off the wall. Then if Cai doesn’t come,
we can knot them together and climb down.”

Arianrhod looked doubtful, but did what she was told. Rhianna used Excalibur to cut the material into strips, while Arianrhod knotted the strips together to make a long, knobbly rope. The maid seemed reluctant to destroy the beautiful tapestries with their pictures of fish-people and sea horses. But when Rhianna pointed out that there would be further to fall if she didn’t, she kept working.

When they’d used all the tapestries and there was still no sign of Cai, Rhianna tied one end of their makeshift rope to the bed. She threw the other end out of the window, where it disappeared into the mist.

Arianrhod looked out and paled. “I don’t think I can climb all the way down there, my lady,” she whispered.

“Nonsense!” Rhianna picked up their packs. “It’s easy if you can’t see the drop. I’ll help you.”

Arianrhod shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. “No, Rhia, please. You go! Take the packs with you. I’ll stay here and untie the rope, say you made me help you escape. You can get away on Alba. The Fisher King won’t hurt me if I’m the daughter of a Grail maiden. I’ll stay here and find my mother. She’ll look after me.” She gave Rhianna a brave smile.

Rhianna looked at the pack with the Grail inside. It was tempting. But she’d already left Arianrhod behind once, when the maid had been locked in a cell at Camelot. That time, her friend had bravely hidden her father’s Crown jewel from Mordred by swallowing it.