Grail of Stars (17 page)

On the ship a pale-faced Arianrhod ducked, hugging her pack containing the Grail. “Don’t let him have it, Lady Rhia!” she called.

“You can’t win while
I
still hold one of the Lights,” Rhianna said. Drawing on the strength of a hundred men from Excalibur’s magical jewel, she gritted her teeth against
the pain and wrenched her arm free.

She spun round to face her cousin. The arm he had twisted felt numb. She saw Mordred’s lip curl as her sword hand shook. She waited until he tried to grab her again, then tossed the sword into her other hand and brought its blade down with all her strength across his right arm, just above the gauntlet. Excalibur must have remembered when King Arthur cut off the dark knight’s hand in the battle of Camlann, because the sword sang in triumph as the mortal fist parted from its shadow-arm with a flash of green light, sending Mordred’s homeless spirit howling up into the sky.

Rhianna’s ears popped and she stumbled onto her knees, rubbing her sore arm. Her father’s ghost reappeared and stared after the dark knight’s spirit as it screamed away across
the sea in a cloud of green stars. “
Oh well done, daughter!
” he said with pride. “
Your cousin won’t recover from that in a hurry
.”

Rhianna knelt on the beach, exhausted but grinning with pride. She’d beaten Mordred, despite his magic. Then black wings flapped overhead, reminding her she still didn’t know how far they could trust Merlin.

She snatched up Mordred’s dark fist before the shadrake could steal it away again. The gauntlet had clenched tightly about the pathfinder when the dark knight’s body disintegrated. She used Excalibur to prise open the fingers, cringing as more pus oozed out. She clenched her teeth and picked the spiral out of the mess.

Cai was first to reach her, panting from his run down the hill. He swung the Lance of Truth in a wild circle. “Where did Mordred go?” he asked, scowling up and down the beach. “Let me kill him for you, Damsel Rhia!”

She ducked his lance with another grin. “Too late. He’s gone.”

Sir Bors puffed up behind the boy with Sir Bedivere and the squires, followed by the monks from the chapel, still looking for a fight. The villagers crowded round in relief and told them what had happened. When they realised Mordred had gone, the monks turned their attention to the ship. They pointed excitedly at the deck where Arianrhod’s pack spilled white light across the water, showing up Gareth’s ghosts. The maid lowered the ladder so the squires could scramble aboard.
They crowded around their dead friend all talking at once, full of their part in the battle.

Satisfied Rhianna was safe, Sir Bors sheathed his sword. “See what I mean?” he muttered to the monks. “That’s the sort of crazy thing she does all time. I’m just glad she’s nearly completed her quest, because it’s enough to make an old knight’s heart fail! C’mere…” He checked Rhianna up and down for damage, then opened his arms and swung her clean off her feet with his most enthusiastic hug yet.

Sir Bedivere smiled.

Rhianna looked anxiously over Sir Bors’ shoulder to see what the monks were doing. Some of them had climbed aboard the ship after the squires. But they did not try to take the Grail as she’d feared. Instead, they lifted the broken mast and used the axes they had taken
from the bloodbeards to begin fashioning a new, shorter one under Sir Galahad’s ghostly instruction.

Finally Alba and Evenstar trotted up, whinnying anxiously.

We lose you in green light!
said her mare.
We were frightened. Evenstar think dark dragon eat his rider! Is that an apple?

The mare curled her lip in disgust at the sticky pathfinder. Rhianna laughed.

“No, my darling,” she said, closing her fingers over the little spiral. “It’s not an apple. But it’ll take you to the best apples in Avalon! And that shadrake won’t dare eat Elphin, or it’ll have me to answer to.”

She strode along the beach and glared up at the circling dragon. “Bring Elphin down to the beach, Merlin! We’ll take him on the ship now.
I’ve got your pathfinder back, so you can open the way through the mists to Avalon for us.”

Arianrhod blinked up at the shadrake as it descended. “I thought it was trying to steal Lady Nimue’s cup for Mordred,” she whispered. “I was so scared when he appeared like that right beside the ship! But I’m a Grail maiden now… and that means I must guard this cup with my life.”

Rhianna smiled at her. “I know you will, Arianrhod. But there’ll be no need for anyone to die protecting it. Mordred’s finally gone, and the shadrake’s helping us now…” She quickly explained to Sir Bedivere and the others how Merlin had helped fly the unconscious Elphin out of the chapel to safety.

The monks looked doubtful, but Cai grinned. “I
knew
Merlin wouldn’t betray us!”
he said. “Is that really Elphin in the shadrake’s pouch? It looks pregnant!”

“DRAGONS LAY EGGS, SILLY BOY,” grumbled the shadrake, diving at Cai’s head. The mist horses cantered off to a safe distance and watched with pricked ears as the boy ducked and swung the Lance of Truth to shoo the creature away.

The shadrake easily evaded the Lance and landed on the beach, spraying Cai with sand. It folded its wings with an exhausted grunt. “YOU MAY TAKE THE AVALONIAN BOY. HE IS GETTING HEAVY.” It reached a claw into its pouch and hooked out Elphin’s limp body.

Rhianna sheathed Excalibur and hurried to help her friend. Her heart pounded as she ducked beneath the shadrake’s huge body, but
it did not attack. Cai rushed up to help her pull Elphin clear, and together they carried their friend to the safety of the ship.

While the knights lifted the unconscious prince aboard, Rhianna gladly slipped the sticky pathfinder into the shadrake’s pouch. She glimpsed the Crown of Dreams that Merlin had taken to bargain with Mordred glittering inside, and reached for that too.

“DO NOT BE GREEDY, RHIANNA PENDRAGON,” the shadrake said, taking off again in another spray of sand. “YOU HAVE THE LIGHTS YOU NEED TO FINISH YOUR QUEST. I WILL KEEP ARTHUR’S CROWN SAFE UNTIL HE RETURNS TO CAMELOT.”

“That won’t be long now!” Rhianna called, pulling a face at the dragon.

She packed her cousin’s rotting fist carefully into her saddlebag and vaulted on to Alba. She wished they had time to burn the horrid thing before they left the Tor, but that would hold them up. Meanwhile, Cai climbed aboard the ship with the Lance of Truth and helped the other squires up the rope ladder. Evenstar put his nose over the rail, trying to reach his enchanted rider.

“Tell him Elphin’s going to be all right now,” Rhianna told her mare. “We’re taking him to the crystal caverns so his father can heal him.” She hated to think what Lord Avallach would say when he saw what Mordred had done to his son. But Alba must have passed the message on, because Evenstar pricked his ears and whinnied.

She checked everyone was safely on board,
and patted Alba. “We’re ready to go, Merlin!” she called. “Don’t fly too fast.”

The shadrake flapped away over the water, and the mist began to sparkle. The ship drew away from the beach to follow. The monks muttered uneasily when they saw the magical spiral path open beneath the dragon. But Gareth’s mother stumbled up to Rhianna, her eyes shining. “Thank you for bringing my boy back, Princess,” she said. “I know he’s no longer part of this world, but he’s promised to stay with me until my time comes to leave it so we can go to the next one together.”

She hugged her son’s ghost. Gareth rippled through his mother’s arms to escape the embrace and winked at Rhianna.

Rhianna bit her lip. “Thank you for helping Elphin,” she mumbled in return, thinking
guiltily of how she’d tried to stop the knights riding to the Lonely Tor’s aid.

“I hope the fairy lad gets better soon,” Gareth’s mother said.

“So do I,” Rhianna whispered, and galloped Alba after the ship to catch up with her friends.

She found Evenstar trotting next to the rail so he could keep an anxious eye on his rider. Elphin lay on the deck, wrapped in Sir Bors’ cloak. Arianrhod knelt beside the prince, strumming the broken harp and singing softly to him.

Rhianna experienced a pang of jealousy. She should be the one watching over Elphin. What if he woke, and the first face he saw was Arianrhod’s? But she couldn’t guard the ship
and nurse her friend at the same time.

The maid glanced up at her and smiled. “He’s looking much better already, my lady! It’s like he knows he’s going home. Is King Arthur’s ghost still here?”

Rhianna frowned. In all the excitement, she’d forgotten they needed to take King Arthur’s soul back to Avalon so it could return to its body, as well as the Grail to work the magic that would restore it. When was the last time she’d seen her father’s ghost? He’d been with her when she and Mordred fought on the beach. He’d helped her draw her sword, and he’d praised her when she had cut off Mordred’s dark fist and sent her cousin’s shadow-body spinning after the other souls to Annwn.

“Father?” she whispered. “Are you there?”

She peered uneasily into the sparkling mist
behind them. Did she have time to gallop back around the spiral and look for him before the path closed?

I am very fast
, Alba reminded her.
I will go back if you want
.

“I know you are, my darling, but he might already be in Avalon waiting for us, and Uther’s ghosts might still be out there—”

As she spoke, a boat appeared out of the mist. A figure wearing a hooded cloak clutched the sides, while a knight in salt-stained armour crouched in the bows peering at the water.

Wearily, she drew her sword. “We’re being followed!” she warned.

The figure in the boat looked up. Eyes gleamed in the shadow of its hood as a pale finger pointed at Rhianna.

Oars rose and fell, splashing crazily as the
boat lurched towards them. Its crew were clumsy rowers, but the Grail ship with its ragged sails and shortened mast could not outrun them. Though she barely had the energy to raise her blade, Rhianna trotted Alba between the two vessels. She wasn’t going to let anyone take the fourth Light from her, not now.

Then the knight opened his helm, and his silver hair blew free in the spray.

“Put your sword away, Princess!” he called. “I’m not letting you sail off into the mists on that ship of ghosts a second time, no matter how much magic you use on me. I swore an oath to protect whoever holds Excalibur, which means you, Princess, even if you saw fit to give my lance to young Cai last year.” He squinted at the deck, where Cai stood in the stern beside Sir Bors, gripping the Lance of Truth. “Is the
lad still alive? Miracles will never cease.”

“Sir Lancelot!” Rhianna said, lowering her sword in relief. She gave the hooded figure a closer look and her heart missed a beat. “Mother…?” she whispered.

“About bloody time you turned up, Lancelot!” Sir Bors called, not recognising the queen in her disguise. “What were you doing, while we were seeing off Mordred and his bloodbeards with nothin’ but a bunch of monks armed with sticks? Enjoying a picnic with the damsels back at Camelot?”

“Looking for Rhianna, of course,” Sir Lancelot grumbled. “It’s not my fault if she vanished off the face of the earth. Your mother was frantic with worry when you sailed away into the mist on the Grail ship, Princess. She thought you’d die like Galahad and the rest. She
insisted on coming with us, but by the time we rode out again we couldn’t find a trace of any of you. It wasn’t until I had a dream of Rhianna fighting Mordred in the church on the Lonely Tor we had an idea where to look. Agravaine’s here, too. We came as fast as we could. Throw us a rope, Bors! We’re not rowing all the way across to Avalon.”

The knights on the ship gaped at Queen Guinevere as she pushed back her hood and raised her chin to meet their stares.

Cai grinned and lowered the ladder. “That dream was Damsel Rhia calling us all with Excalibur’s magic! But then she went and killed the dark knight all on her own, so it’s safe enough, Your Majesty. All we got to do now is wake King Arthur. Mordred’s finished.”

But as Sir Lancelot’s men climbed aboard,
a twist of darkness rushed past the ship, making Excalibur’s jewel blaze brightly and sending a shiver down Rhianna’s spine. She thought of the dark fist in her saddlebag and the task still ahead of her, and looked uneasily at the queen.