by Steve McHugh
Alan nodded, but continued to smile. “You’re not much fun, are you?”
“Alan, I know a great many ways to enjoy myself. On the other hand, if you piss me off again, you will almost certainly not share my enthusiasm for the fun methods I choose to employ on you.”
“So, what’s the plan, boss?” Alan asked as he climbed onto his horse and the three of us set off.
“We’re going to Eastbourne. When we arrive, I want you to find out where their ship is. Thomas and I will look around the village for signs of the princes. It’s not a large place, probably a bit bigger than Brighton, so it shouldn’t take long.”
“And if the princes are on the ship?”
“We retrieve them,” I said. “Without damage.”
“And once they’re safe?” Alan asked with a gleam of mischief in his eye.
“Then the ship and its contents are yours. No survivors.”
Alan’s grin grew wide. It was not pleasant, nor did it give me hope that he would behave professionally once the violence started.
Chapter 10
It wasn’t a very long journey, which was fortunate, as the English weather had turned increasingly unpleasant the closer we got to the village of Eastbourne.
By the time we reached the outskirts of our destination the cold wind was whipping into us with ferocity, and the rain was falling as if we were standing under a waterfall. I thought about using my magic to shield myself from the worst of it, but that was a frivolous use of magic, and one I didn’t need. Better to just get on with it. We climbed a sizeable nearby hill, using the elevated position to look down on the fishing village a few hundred meters away, as we remained hidden by dense forest.
“There are a lot of soldiers down there,” Thomas said. “They’re wearing civilian clothes, but they’re definitely soldiers.”
“Weapons?” Alan asked.
“Swords, halberds, and bows. No horses and nothing we should be too concerned about. I count twenty men.” A werewolf’s vision was substantially better than either Alan’s or my own.
“What about the ship?” I asked.
“There are several boats docked, most look like fishing boats. There are three small rowing boats sitting on the beach. I can’t see very far out to sea, though, the rain obscures my vision too much.”
“How close to the sea do you need to be to work?” I asked Alan.
“The closer the better. Too far away and I won’t have much control. And trust me when I tell you that you want me to be able to control it.”
“Thomas, go with Alan. The second those soldiers see either of you, they’re going to come running. I want as many of them away from the village as possible when I get there, just in case one of them tries to use the princes as a bargaining tool.”
“No problem,” Thomas said. “How badly can I hurt them?”
“Whatever you need to do. By the time you’re finished any soldiers will be dead, so won’t be around to tell any stories about what they saw.”
“What about the villagers?” Thomas asked. “I don’t see anyone out and about, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
“They’re probably inside several of the houses, out of the way. Buckingham wouldn’t want anyone to get away and inform the King’s men. Either that or they’ve all been killed. But then wiping out several hundred people is going to draw attention at some point, and they’re waiting for the crowns.”
“So, what you’re saying is, you don’t know if the villagers are dead or alive,” Thomas said.
“It doesn’t matter. If they’re alive then maybe a few of them can be saved once the soldiers are dealt with, and if they’re dead it won’t matter what happens,” Alan said. “Either way the plan is the same.”
He had a good point. “We’ll deal with the villagers when we need to. Both of you get to work. You won’t have long before those soldiers decide you don’t belong there.”
Thomas shook my hand and walked off. Alan got down from his horse and allowed it to wander into the woods.
I pointed to one of the row boats beside a small pier that stretched out a few dozen feet into the sea. “I’ll clear out any remaining guards from the village and wait on the end of the pier. If those boys are on that ship, I want them delivered to me as soon as possible.”
Alan nodded in agreement. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
I watched as Thomas and Alan made their way down the hill toward the sea. It didn’t take long for the soldiers to notice them. Someone shouted and soon after, a dozen or so raced to intercept them, just as Alan walked a few feet into the water and knelt down.
Thomas changed into his werewolf beast form and began killing the soldiers with impunity. Several more soon ran out of the village to join the fight, but no one got any closer to Alan while the mass of werewolf muscle and razor sharp claws and teeth stood in their way.
I allowed my own horse to wander freely into the woods, before running toward the village, making sure to keep out of the line of sight of any of the soldiers currently fighting for their lives. And losing.
As I entered the village, a lone soldier saw me, but never had time to draw his sword as a flick of my wrist sent a blade of fire into his throat. By the time I reached him, he was already dead, but I caught him from falling to the ground and making more noise, and then hid his body behind two huge, sealed barrels.
Two more guards stood around the side of a modest-sized house, their backs facing me. Both died before they had time to realize they were in any danger, and another died when he had the misfortune to open the door to the house opposite at the very moment I stepped away from the two bodies.
I wrapped air magic around all three bodies and dragged them into the two-room house, which already held a dead man and woman. Apparently, the slaughter of the village’s inhabitants had already begun.
I watched through the window of the house as several more guards left buildings and started off in the direction of Alan and Thomas. For a moment I wondered how Alan was doing, and then I heard a roar from the direction of the ocean. It was deafening and, even without seeing it, I was certain belonged to a predator the likes of which no one in the village would have ever seen before.
A summoner’s talent lies in using his element to control monsters. Where those monsters come from is a mystery summoners are not forthcoming about, but once they have merged with the element itself, they gain control over the summoned monster. How much control and how powerful the beast they can summon depends on their own limits of power, but even the lowliest summoner can control creatures that cause utter destruction. And Alan was more powerful than most.
In the distance, I saw something rise out of the ocean and crash back down, causing a massive wave. Another roar sounded and I knew Alan was trying to control the beast he’d summoned forth.
I opened the door slightly and peered out, trying to catch a glimpse of the monster, when I saw a figure step out of a nearby building, his back toward me, as he began shouting at several soldiers who joined him.
“Kill the wolf,” he said and pointed off toward where I knew Thomas and Alan would be. “Use those silver blades I gave you.”
The half dozen soldiers nodded and ran off to follow orders, as the man turned, giving me a view of his face. Mordred looked directly at the house I was hiding in. A flood of memories crashed into my mind. Memories of Mordred attacking my friend and king, Arthur. The memory of us fighting in France and me forced to choose between ending his life or saving Ivy’s. Of me being unable to do either. It was at that point that I lost my temper.
Chapter 11
The front of the house exploded outward shooting brick and wood everywhere. Nearby properties were instantly demolished by the force.
“Mordred!” I roared as I darted toward him through the plume of smoke and dust I’d created.
I sent a ram of hardened air smashing into him, but he’d hastily created a shield of his own, pushing my magic aside and sending it crashing into a near
by building.
The move protected him from my magic, but it left him wide open to a physical attack. I ran at him, picking him up off his feet and dumping him head-first on the stone-littered ground.
I kicked him in the face as he tried to roll away, but he grabbed my leg and dragged me over him, pulling me off balance and using his own air magic to blast me in the chest, sending me flying back against a stone wall. For a moment, I lost the ability to take a breathe and watched in horror as Mordred used the time to gather his senses and run toward the boats I’d seen docked nearby.
I was about to give chase when a soldier emerged from a nearby house and raised his bow, aiming toward Thomas. I ignored Mordred, he would wait, he always did, and ran toward the archer. He saw me coming at the last minute and swung the bow toward me instead, letting me see the arrow clearly for the first time. Silver.
With the distance between us closed, I used a blade of fire to cleave through the wooden bow and string, before burying it in the archer’s throat. I caught the arrow as it fell from his lifeless fingers and, after placing it in my belt, glanced over at Thomas, who was fending off the last of the soldiers with ease. I left my friend to his task and ran after Mordred who stood at the very end of a small wooden pier, looking out to the ocean beyond.
“No more running, Mordred,” I said, and he turned to face me.
“You’ll notice I wasn’t running. I was waiting for you. I wanted you to know that those boys are already on that ship. They’re going to die before they reach France. As will anyone else unfortunate enough to be aboard with them.”
“Why? What do you want from all this? The boys aren’t in line to the throne anymore.”
“I promised Merlin that there would never be another of Arthur’s blood to sit on the throne of England. I keep my promises.”
“They were renounced,” I told him again. “They will never sit on the throne.”
“Merlin takes my threats seriously, I see.”
I shook my head. “All of Arthur’s descendants are removed from any kind of life in royalty.”
“Yet, their mother was allowed to marry a king and create them. I plan on ending them. Arthur’s line will never see power.”
“That’s why Richard is king, that’s why they were renounced as soon as possible.”
“Not quickly enough to stop one of them being made king!” Mordred screamed.
There clearly was no use arguing with Mordred about the princes. He’d sworn that none of Arthur’s kin would rule after he’d attacked Arthur centuries earlier. Merlin had always been careful to keep Arthur’s bloodline safe, but Mordred’s threat had given him extra incentive. For some reason Merlin had neglected to hide the boys when they were born, maybe feeling that enough time had passed, or waiting to see what happened. Either way, Avalon was too slow and one of them had been crowned.
“I’m going to take them away from here,” I told Mordred. “I’d prefer to go through you to get to them.”
Mordred smiled. “A re-match already.”
“Where’s Ivy?” I demanded.
“The psychic girl?” He placed a finger to his temple. “You know, I often forget where I put her. She’s quite easy to misplace.”
“You will tell me everything I need to know,” I promised.
“We’ll see, ‘old friend’.”
I threw a plume of fire at Mordred, who responded by creating another shield of air and diverting the flame into the sea beneath us.
“Do you really think that magic is going to beat me?”
“Your choice,” I said and sprinted forward.
He launched a kick where he thought my head would be, but I’d already stepped aside, grabbing his trousers with one hand and dragging him off balance, punching him in the jaw as he fell.
Mordred’s head snapped aside, but he regained his balance more quickly than I’d expected and caught me in the knee with his foot. All my weight crashed down on a no longer usable limb, and I dropped to the wooden pier, landing on my knees with a crack. Mordred continued the attack, slamming his foot into the side of my head, knocking me down and then stamping on my ribs.
I rolled aside, catching a stinging blow to my elbow and kicked out at Mordred’s knee, but he stepped back, putting distance between us.
I got back to my feet, blood dripping slowly from my nose. “You need to try harder,” I said.
“You’re the one bleeding,” Mordred pointed out. He quickly stepped forward and feinted with a kick, before trying to catch me in the head with a vicious elbow. Fortunately I saw it coming and blocked it, slamming my own elbow into his nose, which crunched from the force of the blow.
Mordred staggered back slightly, before snapping forward, his hand covered in dark glyphs as his blood magic activated. He tried to touch me, but I stepped back and drove the arrow I’d been holding into his forearm, causing his concentration to vanish, along with the blood magic he was wielding.
I kicked Mordred in the chest as hard as I could, sending him flailing back across the pier. He tried to scramble away, but I wrapped tendrils of air around his legs and pulled back with everything I had. Mordred flew across the pier, colliding with one of the docked boats, where I held him in place, hardening the air wrapped around him, as I stalked closer.
“That silver is making it difficult to use your magic,” I said. “You should practice more with normal magic and less with your blood magic.”
He reached over to the arrow and wrapped his fingers around it as I reached him. “Are you going to pull it out?” I asked. “Here let me help.”
I tore the arrow from his forearm and then plunged it into the side of his knee, making him scream.
“Where’s Ivy?” I asked. “You escaped with her in France, it won’t happen again.”
“Fuck you, Nathaniel. Fuck you and Avalon and Merlin and anyone else who thinks they can tell me what to do.”
I was about to say something when a huge crash came from the ocean, and I turned to see a massive creature emerge from the depths near the now visible ship. Its appearance was close to that of a giant reptile. It was sixty or seventy feet long with a massive head and a mouth that could easily swallow a man whole. Its roar reverberated as if I were standing next to it, which, I was certain, would have been the worst place on earth to be. A massive tail whipped across the ocean causing huge waves and it swiped the air with its long arms, each one tipped with a massive claw half as tall as a man. It roared once again and smashed its arm down on the bow of the ship.
“Leviathan,” I whispered and heard the shock in my voice. I knew Alan was powerful, and touched in the head, but I hadn’t thought he was powerful or crazy enough to summon one of the true giants of the ocean.
My attention had turned away for just over a second, maybe two, but it was enough. I turned back to Mordred as he sprung to his feet and plunged a dagger of blood magic just under my ribs. I forgot how to breathe, stumbling back as pain exploded all over my body. It forced me away from Mordred and I crashed onto the pier. He smiled and showed me the blade of blood magic that he’d created in his hand. A second later the expression changed to one of shock as he coughed up blood and immediately slumped to his knees. I raised my hand to show Mordred the blade of air, covered in his blood, which stretched out from the back of my hand.
I removed the blade and placed a hand to my ribs, igniting my fire magic, searing the flesh to stop the bleeding. I screamed out in pain.
Mordred laughed and coughed up more blood. “You know I’ll live though, yes?”
“Yes, but I also know it hurts like hell. I’ll take the little moments of happiness when I can get them.”
“I really do fucking hate you, you know that.”
“It’s come up before,” I pointed out.
“Your summoner friend is insane for bringing a leviathan here. There aren’t many of them left. They’re as rare as dragons.”
I couldn’t disagree with him.
“It’s tearing that French ship ap
art. There are blood magic curse marks on the timber, I can feel them being torn apart.”
“The marks or the people?”
Mordred was silent for a second. “Both. Their blood washes over my marks.”
I glanced over at the monster which was tearing into the ship as if it were made of nothing more than straw. It grabbed something in its massive hand, raised it to its maw and dropped it in. “Soldiers,” I said. “They shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“Ah, no sympathy for the enemy, is that how it is, Nathaniel?”
“If Alan hadn’t summoned a leviathan, they would have died at your hands anyway. I assume your way would have been much less pleasant.”
“Than being eaten alive?” Mordred looked thoughtful for a second. “Yes, my way would have hurt much more.”
We sat in silence for a short time. Neither of us able to do anything but bleed and hurt. It was probably the first time in eight hundred years we weren’t trying to kill each other for being in such close proximity. If you didn’t count the fact that we had been at each others throats a few minutes earlier, anyway.
“What are you going to do, Mordred?” I asked. “When those princes are safe, are you still going to try to kill them, or are you going to run away?”
Mordred continued to watch the leviathan destroy the French ship and crew and didn’t answer. But a short time later the monster vanished back under the waves with a colossal wave that magically dissipated. A substantially smaller wave rushed over the end of the pier. When it was gone, two young boys stood, wet and scared. A smaller version of the leviathan stood behind them. It nodded to me and then dove back into the ocean. The two princes had been delivered to the pier by a young leviathan. Alan’s power astonished me, but my thoughts quickly turned to Mordred, who was watching the two princes like a wolf watches a farmer’s sheep.
“You know what you asked me earlier?” Mordred said. “I can do both.”