Grail of Stars (16 page)

She’d forgotten the witch’s net. As she leaped, the ropes coiled up from the floor and curled around her ankles. She fell flat on her face, winded. Mordred put his foot on her blade and chuckled. She tugged desperately, but the Sword would not come free. Her arm felt weak, as if she’d banged the nerve in her elbow. The strength trickled out of her.

He looked down at her and shook his head. “Can’t fight magic, cousin. My mother made that net especially for me to catch annoying little flies like you and your fairy prince. It was spun in the dark by the creatures of Annwn, from lost souls eager for the memory of flesh and blood. It’s strong enough to hold a dragon, so there’s no point fighting. Feeling weak yet? The more you struggle, the more it will feed on your strength.” He raised his axe over
her wrist. “I’d advise letting go of your sword – unless you want to lose a hand like I did.” He chuckled.

Rhianna stopped struggling. There was only one way to fight magic… with magic.

She shut her eyes, gripped Excalibur’s hilt tighter and called on the spirits of the knights linked to the white jewel.
Come!
she commanded silently.
I need you NOW
.

Sir Bors felt near. But she also sensed Sir Bedivere not far away, and Sir Lancelot and Sir Agravaine on their way through the mist. Maybe they would arrive before Mordred killed her? She really didn’t want to lose a hand. But she wasn’t letting go of her sword so the dark knight could use Excalibur against her, as he had done last winter at Camelot.

With an effort she moved her other arm,
ready to catch the Sword in her right hand if Mordred carried out his threat to chop it free of her left. She saw his axe glint and braced herself for the pain. Then she heard a scrape at the door, and the axe swung away from her arm as Mordred turned.

Her breath whooshed out in relief as ghostly hands tore through the green curtain and the witch’s face disappeared. Sir Galahad and his friend Sir Percival climbed through, their pale blades gleaming.

“Need some help, Princess?” Sir Galahad said.

Mordred made a frustrated sound as the ghostly knights raised their swords and rushed him. As they drove his shadow-body backwards, Rhianna dragged Excalibur free and rolled sideways. Her strength returned and
she sliced the horrid net from her ankles.

She stumbled to Elphin’s side. Excalibur cut through the glowing ropes around his ankles and wrists just as easily, and she flung them away with a shudder. But her friend still lay as if dead on the altar, which gave her a problem. Could she carry him, as well as fight her way out of the chapel?

Mordred was still busy fending off the two ghosts, and she could hear the sounds of more fighting outside. As she hesitated, a body thudded against the locked door. “Hold on, Damsel Rhianna!” Sir Bors’ voice called. “We’re coming. We just got to deal with these bloodbeards first.”

She had to get Elphin somewhere safer. Her gaze fell on the stairs winding up the tower. She sheathed Excalibur and heaved
Elphin over her shoulder. Being Avalonian, he was lighter than a human boy. She ran up the winding stair, trying not to think of his icy skin and the horrible web of Annwn that had stolen his strength. How long had he been bound with it?

“You’ll be all right now, Elphin,” she puffed. “Arianrhod’s got the Grail of Stars on our ship. We’ll get you back to the crystal caverns in Avalon, and they’ll heal you in no time.”

The bell at the top of the tower gave a clang, and she paused. The shadrake had been tethered to one of the pillars by more of the enchanted green ropes. As she appeared, it flung itself weakly towards her.

Rhianna carefully laid Elphin’s limp body on the top step so that she could draw Excalibur again.

“Merlin?” she called warily. “Are you still in there?”

At first the shadrake did not reply, and her heart sank. Then it boomed, “JUST LIKE A DAMSEL! WHY DIDN’T YOU GET MY PATHFINDER OFF MORDRED WHILE YOU WERE DOWN THERE WITH HIM?”

Her heart missed a beat. She knelt by Elphin and felt around his neck, but the little spiral had gone. She thought of Mordred hiding his right hand under his cloak. She looked back down the winding stair and took a deep breath.

“I’ll go back down and get it,” she promised. “But we have to get Elphin to the ship first. He’s not very heavy. Are you strong enough to carry him down there in your pouch? I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

She sliced through the ropes with Excalibur to free the dragon, and it flapped its great wings in relief.

“THE AVALONIAN PRINCE IS NOT IMPORTANT,” it roared. “WE DO NOT NEED HIM NOW YOU HAVE FOUND THE FOUR LIGHTS. IN THIS BODY, I CAN CARRY THE PATHFINDER TO OPEN THE MISTS SO YOU MAY COMPLETE YOUR QUEST AND WAKE ARTHUR.”

“Elphin is important to
me
!” Rhianna set her jaw. “If you won’t carry him down to the ship, then I’m not going back to Avalon with you! King Arthur will just have to sleep for a thousand years, like Mordred always said he would. In the meantime, I’ll make do with his ghost. It’s almost as solid as a real person now,
and he cares for me, which is more than you seem to do. Maybe when you get fed up of flapping about in that dragon’s body, you can do another of your druid spirit transfers into my father’s body and bring King Arthur back yourself.”

“FOOLISH CHILD. THAT IS NOT HOW THE SPIRIT MAGIC WORKS.” The shadrake lashed its tail, making the bell clang again. “WE ARE WASTING TIME. YOU LURE MORDRED OUT OF THE CHAPEL, AND I WILL SOON GET THE PATHFINDER OFF HIM NOW I AM FREE OF MORGAN’S TRICKS. LEAVE THE AVALONIAN PRINCE HERE.”

“No!” Rhianna said. At least the creature seemed more awake now that she’d freed it from the witch’s ropes. “If you won’t help
me, then I’ll get Elphin down there some other way.”

She whistled for Alba, and her mare trotted around the hill followed by Evenstar. But the mist horses would not approach the tower while the shadrake was perched on it.

Bad thing eats horses,
the mare said.
We go, be safe with herd!

The two mist horses galloped back down the Tor, their tails flying.

“You’re scaring them,” Rhianna told Merlin with a frown. “Go away, if you’re not going to help us.”

“IT IS NOT ME. LOOK WHO HAS COME.”

The green mist was thinning. Rhianna looked down and saw Uther’s ghost-army fleeing across the water. She looked anxiously
for the ship, and saw it drawn up on the beach where she and Cai had met the monks. Arianrhod stood at the rail with their packs at her feet, looking very small, while Gareth’s ghost clung to the rigging and kept watch.

Smaller boats had been drawn up around the ship, and her heart lifted when she spotted Sir Bedivere and the squires who had ridden out to investigate Gareth’s death, running up the path to help Sir Bors with the bloodbeards.

Then her heart gave an extra thud. Racing along the shore was a herd of white horses that glimmered in the mist, ridden by pale warriors led by a lord wearing a crown of leaves and berries in his dark hair.

“It’s Lord Avallach!” she whispered. “With the Wild Hunt! The way between the worlds must be open again! Please, Merlin, help us just
this once, and I promise I’ll never put a hood on you or leash you to a perch, ever again.”

The shadrake beat its wings and boomed, “I AM NOT A HAWK NOW.”

Laughter came from below.

“I know you’re up there, cousin!” Mordred called up the stair. “No escape that way, except for those who have wings! Met my dear father, have you? Blood always tells in the end. I did have my doubts for a moment back there, but the druid knows who is going to make the strongest Pendragon.”

Rhianna looked uncertainly at the dragon. What if Merlin was working for the dark knight, after all? Before she could make up her mind, the shadrake’s large claw reached past her and scooped up Elphin. She froze in sudden terror for her friend. But the creature
slid the Avalonian prince gently into its pouch, as if he was a dragon-baby.

“I WILL CARRY HIM TO YOUR SHIP,” it boomed. “PUT A HOOD ON ME AND LEASH ME TO A PERCH? HA HA, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!”

The shadrake took off with a shriek of laughter. A shiver went down Rhianna’s spine. Hoping Merlin would stay in control of the dragon long enough to fly Elphin to safety, she gripped Excalibur and headed back down the tower to get the pathfinder off her cousin.

R
hianna took the stairs two at a time, Excalibur blazing in her hand. While she’d been in the belfry with the dragon, someone had beaten down the chapel door. The clash of blades echoed up the tower as men fought below. She paused on the final
step and peered out cautiously to check the witch wasn’t waiting to catch her in another enchanted net.

Sunlight, streaming through the broken door, showed men struggling between overturned benches – monks with their sticks and clubs against Mordred’s blue-painted warriors from the north. The bloodbeards had better weapons, but the monks were angrier. Their leader picked up a bench and brought it down on the nearest bloodbeard’s head, knocking the man senseless. Sir Bors leaped over the body, his sword flashing in a deadly arc as he yelled battle commands. Sir Bedivere followed with the squires, calling Rhianna’s name.

She saw Cai in the thick of the fighting, trying to clear a path through the chapel
with the Lance of Truth. He swung the weapon around wildly, scattering friends as well as enemies.

At first she couldn’t see where Mordred had gone, and wondered if someone had finally managed to kill the dark knight. She felt a pang of disappointment –
she
wanted to be the one who avenged her father. Then she spotted her cousin crouched behind the altar, fiddling with something that glinted in the shadow of his cloak… the pathfinder he’d stolen from Elphin!

Anger filled her. She raised Excalibur and rushed towards him.

“Look out, Rhia – behind you!” Cai yelled.

Fearing another trap, she whirled around in time to see Morgan Le Fay’s dark spirit rippling out of the shadows. A chill went down her back
as the witch drew her enchanted green curtain closed around the altar, cutting them off from the noise of the fighting.

“Out of my way!” Rhianna ordered.

The witch hissed and shrank back from Rhianna’s blade. “You must not take the Grail of Stars to Avalon!” she said. “You don’t understand what you’re doing.”

“Yes I do!” Rhianna said. “I’m going to use it to bring my father back to life, and you’re not going to stop me.”

Excalibur’s jewel blazed, and the spirits linked to her sword shimmered into view around her. The ghosts of Sir Galahad and Sir Percival came first, followed by the other men who had died in battle trying to save their king. The ghostly knights closed around Mordred’s mother with angry expressions.

“You do not belong here, witch!” Galahad said. “Go back to Annwn.”

Now Rhianna could see her father’s ghost too, standing on the altar watching Mordred’s hands. “
Quickly, daughter
,” he warned. “
He’s opening the spiral path. He’ll use it to escape again
.”

Morgan Le Fay was backing away from the ghosts. Seeing her chance, Rhianna gripped Excalibur and leaped over the altar to land beside the dark knight.

Her cousin looked up. The pathfinder glittered in his right hand. The magic lit up his unnaturally handsome face and reflected in his green eyes.

He smiled at her. “Merlin’s not the only one who can use this pathfinder, you know. Thanks to him, it turns out I have druid blood – at least, I have in this fist. Wish I’d known before,
then maybe I’d have been able to stop your knights burning my old body. But my new one’s so much better don’t you think? More pleasing on the eye, as well as having the advantage of being invincible.”

Rhianna shuddered. On the other side of altar, beyond the witch’s green veil, she could see men falling and dying silently, as if she were watching one of Merlin’s song-pictures back in Avalon. The surviving bloodbeards had retreated into the bell tower. Some of the monks rushed up after them, while the squires barricaded the chapel door with benches. She saw Sir Bors organising the rest of the monks – now better armed with their fallen enemies’ swords and axes – to guard the windows.

She smiled grimly. “You’re trapped, Mordred,” she said. “Give me the pathfinder,
and I’ll ask my men to spare your life.”

Her cousin glanced about the chapel and chuckled. “Men? You can’t scare me with a bunch of squires and ghosts! I see only two living knights in your brave army, unless you count a half-grown boy who thinks a magic lance makes him into a champion.”

He sneered at Cai, who was still trying to force his way towards them through Morgan Le Fay’s enchantments with the Lance of Truth.

“Those monks out there follow just one master, and it’s not your father, or any earthly king. They’re not fighting for you, cousin, believe me! They want the Grail of Stars as much as anyone else. Do you think they’re just going to let you sail off into the mists with it? The moment my bloodbeards are gone, they’ll take it from you.”

Rhianna frowned, thinking of Arianrhod waiting alone on the ship with the pack containing the fourth Light. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? They kept the Grail here once before, you know, when it first came to this land from across the sea. Before it disappeared into the mists. But we can still save it from them. Come with me along the spiral path, cousin, and let’s use the four Lights together to rule the world.” He extended his free hand.

Rhianna eyed the shadow-flesh, which blurred as she looked at it, changing from a boy’s soft hand into a warrior’s fist callused and scarred from carrying a weapon, and then into a six-fingered hand like Elphin’s.

She shuddered and blinked away the illusion. “No.”

Mordred sighed. “Very well then, I’ll go
alone. We might have made a good team, you and I. But if you want your father to sleep in Avalon forever, and the shadrake to devour your fairy friend when it finally gets rid of Merlin’s spirit, then that’s up to you. Don’t say I didn’t give you the chance.”

He closed his gauntlet around the pathfinder and muttered a spell under his breath. The air in the chapel shivered, and a deep note sounded as the bell rang above. Slowly at first, then faster and brighter, the magical path opened from the altar in a glowing green spiral through the overturned benches and groaning bodies, drawing up the witch’s veil as it went.

Rhianna stared at that glowing route, reminded of when Merlin had opened the spiral path from the hawk mews in Camelot so she could confront her wounded cousin in his
underground sanctuary. The monks guarding the windows crossed themselves as the creatures of Annwn that had been trying to snatch their souls were sucked, wailing, around the spiral and out of this world. Sir Galahad and Sir Percival were swept along on the ghostly tide, swinging their swords to continue their battle with those bloodbeards who had joined them in death.

Morgan Le Fay laughed as she followed them. “I’ll await you in Annwn, my children,” she called, blowing a kiss back to Rhianna and Mordred.

Rhianna’s blood rose. Mordred grinned at her. The dark knight had begun to fade like a ghost, too. He was going to escape again, this time taking the pathfinder with him. Whether or not her cousin managed to get the Grail
of Stars from Arianrhod, they needed the pathfinder to get Elphin through the mists and into Avalon’s healing crystal caverns as soon as possible.

She sheathed Excalibur and stepped on to the glowing green path.

Sir Bors shouted, “Get away from him, Damsel Rhianna,
now
!”

Cai saw what she was about to do and yelled, “No, Rhia—!”

She grasped Mordred’s left hand, and the chapel vanished.

Rhianna’s ears roared. This did not feel like her past journeys along the spiral path, which had been short and breathless but fairly painless. This time Mordred jerked her along in fits and
starts, pulling her arm half out of its socket. His shadow-fingers clutched hers so tightly that she couldn’t have let go of his hand, even if she’d wanted to.

Clearly her cousin could not use the pathfinder’s magic as well as Merlin, despite his claim to druid blood.

The dark knight laughed. “No need to hold so tight, cousin. I won’t let go of you.”

As the last of the recently freed souls wailed past on the ghostly wind, Rhianna groped for Excalibur with her free hand, trying to reach the hilt and its magical jewel. But she couldn’t get a grip on her sword. Panic rose. She thought her cousin had won, and they would both end up in Annwn.

Then a voice beside her ear said, “
Courage, daughter. I am with you. Use the Sword of Light
to change the path
.” Her father’s strong hand covered hers and guided it to the hilt. Warmth returned to her fingers. Her ears stopped roaring, and her stomach steadied.

She dragged Excalibur out of its scabbard. The blade shone through the mist, showing her the beach where they had landed with the villagers huddled nervously around their boats.

She took a deep breath, then another, and concentrated on the scene. Now she could smell the sea. The ship with its crooked mast loomed above her. She heard the shadrake flapping in a circle overhead, and then someone called her name.

“Rhia…? My lady…?”

“Arianrhod!” she whispered in relief. “Hold on, I’m coming.”

With a final effort she sliced Excalibur
through the mist, and the bloodbeards’ ghosts wailed onwards to Annwn without them, while Sir Galahad and Sir Percival rippled up to the deck.

Mordred hissed in anger, and his hand tightened about hers. “You’re going nowhere without me, cousin.”

With a sickening lurch, the spiral path deposited them both at the water’s edge. Still gripping hands, they fell to their knees in the shallows. Rhianna gasped and spluttered as a wave hit her in the face. She struggled to pull her hand free so that she could reach the ship and her friend. The villagers rushed to help her. But Mordred sprang to his feet and jerked her up by her sore arm, pulling her against his shadow-body. He felt frighteningly strong.

“Stop!” he ordered. “Drop your sword!”

He twisted her arm behind her and jammed his other arm across her throat, dragging her towards the boats. The gauntlet containing the remains of his mortal fist stank. Rhianna’s stomach heaved as pus oozed down her neck. The villagers looked desperately up the hill, where the monks who had gone with the knights and squires were racing out of the chapel, still too far away to help.

Awkwardly, Rhianna swung Excalibur’s blade backwards, trying to reach the dark knight who held her captive. It was like swimming against a current. But she had trained at Camelot to use Excalibur with equal skill in either hand, whereas her cousin’s other hand – the one across her throat – still gripped the pathfinder he’d used to bring them here.

“I
said
drop it!” Mordred hissed, giving her
captured arm another twist. “You can’t win, cousin, not this time. I’m not a cripple any more, and I’ve got the pathfinder. I’m going to take the Grail and one of these boats, and you’re going to tell the Wild Hunt to let me through the mists. Look, the dragon’s here now – you can’t fight us both.”

From the corner of her eye she could see the shadrake, circling overhead with its bulging pouch. She hoped that meant Elphin was still safe inside it.