Lancelot and the Wolf (21 page)

Else stirred against me and said, “Just being here helps, Arthur. He will need you when I move from his arms. The first hour afterward can be hard, we haven’t been together for long enough over many days.”

Arthur glanced at Geraint. He glanced at me. I didn’t know what to say. Nothing had been said which made life difficult. We just needed to know if Geraint could deal with us being more obvious. He shrugged, “Well, it’d be a nice change if the two of you are able to be honest with each other.”

Else rose in one smooth movement and vanished from my hands and body. I felt her imprint on me and her heat. The spell back lashed and I groaned. Arthur moved around the fire quickly. I curled into a ball. He took hold of my shoulders and pulled me close to his chest. His strong arms coaxed my head down onto his lap. He stroked my head and held my hands as I shook.

“
You dealt with this alone?” Geraint asked shocked at the effects.

“
Sometimes,” I said through the shaking, “this is worse than others. I’ve not been hit this badly in a while.”

“
They want me to join with you and Arthur,” Else said coldly. She stood staring into the fire, the flames coloured her hair red on the tips. Wild and curling around her face. “I am to plant the spell in Arthur, they can use what happened yesterday between you to finalise it.”

All eyes focused on Else. I said calmly, “What will happen if you don’t?”

She turned to look at me, where I lay, “You will suffer, you will be used to punish me.”

“
How do you know?” Arthur said.

She poked the fire with her foot, “I can hear my sisters and cousins through that.”

“
Then we do it,” Arthur said. “You do whatever you need to take the pain from Lancelot.”

“
No,” I said. “Arthur, I cannot allow you to be enslaved by this. You need to think clearly, not be trapped by the damned fey and their desires. Your priority is to your people not them. We don’t know their agenda, not completely.”

“
You are no use to me if you are broken like this,” he said kindly, hooking hair out of my face.

“
Lancelot is right, Arthur,” Geraint said. “I like you, girl,” he said to Else, “but I don’t trust this magic of yours.”

“
Neither do I,” said Else.

“
All we need to do is control the desire the same way you do with Lancelot. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing.” Arthur said.

Else turned to him, “It might just be that now, but it could be so much more if they choose it to be. Lancelot can bear the pain and I will do all I can to help. I don’t want to do this.”

“
You mean you don’t want me?” Arthur said. I heard a bitterness I didn’t understand in his words.

“
I don’t want to hurt you the way I am hurting him,” Else said.

“
I’m going on first watch,” Geraint said, rising and walking into the woods toward the road. Magic confused and upset him. Although not as practical as Kay, Geraint did not live a life where fey should be so real.

Else moved off toward the horses, “Just hold him, Arthur, you should be able to ease his pain if you remain close.”

Arthur moved his bedroll, we didn’t talk. I don’t think either of us knew what to say. To ease this he’d have to make love to Else and become as entangled with her as I had, not a helpful thought. He lay his kit down, took off my thick cloak and placed it over my blankets. Then he forced me down, wriggled his hand under my clothes and placed his hand on my belly. He stroked me until my breathing started to ease. We were tightly spooned under a thick layer of blankets and I began to calm. He kissed my cheek. I turned my head and kissed his mouth. The kiss grew deep and long.

He pulled back, “Sleep, Lancelot and I’ll hold you safe.”

Surprisingly, I did.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

I woke with bone aching weariness, as though I’d been forced to fight a horde of barbarian’s all night without rest. Else tried to take the pain but I found her touch just made matters worse. Arthur rose with me and while Geraint tactfully went to play with the horses, he tried to numb the ache with contact. Nothing worked. I knew we were being manipulated into a situation I didn’t want. If Arthur became enslaved to Else, he would do anything for her, or rather those that controlled her. They would have Camelot and Camelot belonged to us, not the fey. The whole situation just made me angry, so the day started badly and simply grew worse.

In order to cross the river Severn we travelled north for some distance. Although this land belonged to Arthur, his hold on it remained tenuous. There were bandits in this place by the score and warmongers who did not like paying tithes to Arthur. We rode in silence and on full alert. Geraint took the lead, Arthur rode beside Else and I had our back. We were all fully armoured and carried our shields. Even Else managed the small one we’d packed for her in Camelot. Her bow remained strung and her knives close to hand. One place in particular lent itself to ambush.

We were riding through a gorge without a river. Large cliffs towered either side covered in short scrubby trees, vines and moss. The light hardly penetrated the canopy, the trees leaning toward each other on either side like desperate lovers. One particular area widened suddenly, and although I’d led a force there myself and cleared the area of undergrowth, it still contained large boulders, small caves and trees for hiding. My tension levels hit critical. I sweated inside the hauberk and the breastplate I wore. My shoulders ached and I felt sick. I had refused to wear a helmet. Breathing came hard enough without smothering me in steel. Geraint held up his armoured hand, we all stopped. Ash snorted and pawed the ground, aware of the tension and hating it. I forced him round so his hindquarters faced our companions and we formed a circle. I heard a rustling, from the trees over our heads. Else knocked an arrow and waited for orders. Her eyes focused on a point almost fifty yards from our position. I left her to watch the trees while my eyes sought bodies among the rocks. We knew they were there, we didn’t know if they would attack. Would they risk fighting three heavily armed knights and one archer just for the packhorses?

I wanted to issue a challenge, force them into the open and get it over with quickly. This level of concentration made me giddy. Then, a scream tore apart the air from over our heads. Else yelped. A body encased in flame crashed to the floor of the gorge in front of her horse. Yells erupted and men rushed toward us. We prepared to fight, without breaking form, when fire lashed from the ground as though marsh gas escaped from solid rock. We froze. Bodies burned. The screaming and stink of flesh made the horses frantic. The pack animals barged into the warhorses. Mercury’s usually passive nature broke. He threw his front legs in the air, almost unseating Else.

“
What the hell is going on?” Geraint yelled over the noise. He had his sword in hand and no enemy to face.

“
Oh, bloody hell,” Else moaned. She tried to calm Mercury. I turned Ash toward her, Arthur on her other side ready to defend her, instead we watched. The first man, who still smoked, rose from the ground a blackened husk.

In his black and shrivelled mouth, a stump for a tongue, thrashed back and forth, miming a scream. The eyes were gone, replaced by pits into hell. Claws reached for Mercury’s bridle.

“
Run,” Arthur yelled. I crashed Ash into the body. He rode it down hard. Mercury leapt forward, with Else close over his neck.

“
Arthur, get after her. We’ll deal with this,” I shouted. Without a word, he turned Willow and charged after Else. The packhorses followed the stallion as a herd.

Geraint and I pulled our horses close together and rode for the end of the gorge. Before we reached it, we wheeled the horses and assessed the enemy. All the bodies had risen and were changing before our eyes. The one Ash ran down stayed down, its head a pulp.

“
At least we know they can die,” Geraint whispered.

The figures stood, the wind stirred around each burnt corpse, growing stronger with every fast breath I took. Detritus from the floor of the gorge gathered about their bodies. The wind grew, the gorge darkened, each body vanished inside their individual maelstroms. The wind sucked the stink from the air.

“
This is not going to end well,” Geraint said. “We should leave.”

“
Wait, we need to see what’s going on,” I said.

The wind whipped at our cloaks. Ash and Pepper shifted, trying to turn. We held our position. The whirlwinds, eight of them, started to disperse. In their place, stood eight black emaciated horses, with eight black emaciated men. The horses moved, the men all opened their mouths and a silent scream made my skin grow cold.

“
Now, we ride,” I said. Ash span so fast I almost slipped off the side. We ran. Arthur had caught up with Else within a quarter of a mile. They were waiting with all three packhorses. One look at our faces and they turned back to the road.

“
No, we won’t manage it,” I yelled while pulling Ash to a skidding halt. “We have to think of something else.”

“
Is it that serious?” Arthur asked.

“
They are no longer human and they have horses,” I said, “it is that serious.”

“
They are golems,” Else said. She expanded as she realised we didn’t understand, “Basically, they are creations of our enemies and they will be after Arthur, we have to stop them. They will never give up and never leave his scent. They will hunt us, growing stronger the longer they are in this world.”

“
So, what do we do?” Geraint asked.

“
We split up,” Arthur said. “If they are after me, I can lead them away from the rest of you.”

“
Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I said. “Leaving you on your own against eight monsters.” The scorn was not lost on him, “I’ll go with Arthur, Geraint make certain Else is safe. Don’t stop until you reach the edge of this damned wood.” I realised I would never, ever, be able to go into a wood again without being reduced to a quivering wreck of paranoia.

“
I don’t think,” Else began looking at me with large frightened eyes.

“
No, you don’t, you follow orders,” I snapped at her. “Arthur, with me.”

Arthur glanced at Else and said, “It’s what he does, protect and fight, forgive him.”

Then we raced back toward the gorge to force these monsters to zero in on us. We galloped, shoulder to shoulder, Willow and Ash perfectly matched. Finding a fork in the road, we stopped, waiting until our enemy came into sight. When they saw us, we vanished onto the new track.

“
How well do you know these woods?” Arthur asked.

“
Not well enough,” I said.

He nodded and we just worked on staying ahead. The path inclined with a long gradual slope. The light started to fade. I glanced behind us, the black, skeletal horses were relentless and they were gaining.

“
We can’t maintain this pace,” I told Arthur. The adrenaline keeping me upright and thinking would run out eventually, replaced by the agony of the spell all too soon. With Arthur to protect, I needed to think of something fast. I couldn’t afford to be weak.

“
We don’t have to,” Arthur, reins in one hand, pointed. A collapsed bridge covered a huge gulf between us and the rest of the road.

“
Are you mad?” I asked.

“
Let them get closer,” his eyes shone with the fight. “They can’t see past us, we slow the horses, allow them to catch their wind and then ride like the clappers for the bridge. Ash and Willow will cover that, no problem. They won’t have time to prepare their horses or stop. And if they do they will have to ride around.”

“
You are insane,” I told him as I ducked under a branch.

“
I’m alive,” Arthur yelled at the sky, bringing Willow back to a canter. Ash and I followed suit. We were the perfect team, the four of us. I laughed, I couldn’t help it. We were about to die, throwing ourselves over a ridge to run from dead men made real. I rode with my King and I was glad to be alive.

The smell of burnt meat from the bodies behind us, laced the air, as if by scent alone they might stop us. Without a word, Arthur and I released the horses and forced them to lengthen their strides. I flattened over Ash’s neck and whispered to him to tell him what we were doing. His ears pricked forward and he stretched his neck. He and Willow were in perfect unison. We crested the rise, rode the short flat distance to the old bridge and I felt him gather himself for the leap. He had complete faith in my ability to gauge his capabilities. He hesitated for half a breath when he saw the gap, as did I, but he didn’t miss a step. We leapt into thin air. Both horses reached for the other side, Arthur and I leaning back as they approached the ground. I did not look down. The horse’s front hooves touched the soft earth and they picked up their stride. Willow stumbled slightly, but Arthur gathered him together and we slowed the beasts down. They quivered and sweated.

Turning in the saddle, Arthur and I watched the pack of riders cresting the rise. They were tight together and the riders at the rear didn’t see the gaping hole at the front. They all tried to stop, but the ones in the lead didn’t manage quickly enough. Two dived over the edge, forced by those at the rear. They fell silently, a long way down.

“
That was too bloody close,” I said.

“
That was fucking great,” Arthur whooped. “Come and find me now, you stinky bastards.”