by Steve McHugh
I rolled back to my feet and found Enfield already on his. His left arm hung uselessly, so he used his legs and feet to keep me at a distance while he moved around the clearing. I grabbed an errant kick, but he launched up with the other foot, twisting as he did. I released his foot, but the kick still connected with my jaw, staggering me just enough to put some distance between us. I rubbed the side of my face and prepared for another round, but Enfield had walked to a nearby tree, smashing his elbow into the trunk. He roared out in pain, but unfortunately for me, his arm was no longer dislocated.
“Everything you do, I can counter,” he said rotating his arm. “I am better than you.”
I said nothing, which only seemed to increase his anger. He ran toward me, tackling me to the ground, where he threw a punch at my head. I caught it, locking my arms around the limb and then lifted my legs so that I had him in a triangle chokehold. Enfield didn’t have a lot of options, and even as he punched me again and again in my ribs, I refused to let go. It was only when he picked me up and dumped me on my head that my hands began to loosen their grip. On the third time, he swung me at the tree and I released my grip, falling to the ground, but kicked out, catching him in the nose, which crunched from the blow.
He staggered back, and I tackled him to the ground, pummeling his chest and head. Enfield caught my wrist and punched me in the ribs, one of which I felt pop. I lost concentration for a second, and he pushed me off, catching me again in the ribs. The air in my lungs left my body, and I deliberately put some distance between us so that I could breathe through the pain.
Enfield slowly got back to his feet, his eyes never leaving mine. We were both in pain, both using trees to keep ourselves upright.
I pushed myself away from the tree and moved toward Enfield, keeping my hands up in a fighting stance. He kept his hands down until the last second and then launched at me, his fingers trying to gain purchase in my flesh, all pretense of form having vanished. I smashed my forearm into his nose, which crunched again and began streaming blood. He caught me in the groin with a knee that made my eyes water, so I head-butted him and pushed him face first into the tree beside us. A blow to his ribs made him gasp with pain; I brought my knee up into his gut and cracked his temple with my elbow, sending him sprawling on the leaf-covered ground.
He grabbed my leg, trying to unbalance me, so I drove my knee into his jaw, snapping his head aside. I grabbed his hair and dragged him upright before head-butting him again. He stumbled back, and I spun around, catching him in the chest with a kick that floored him. He scrambled away, getting back to his feet just in time to receive another kick to the chest that sent him tumbling down the steep bank behind.
I reached the edge of the bank and watched Enfield get back on his feet. He waved me to come join him. I moved down the bank carefully until I was standing in six inches of rapidly flowing, freezing cold fresh water. There’d be no more running, no more distance. There was simply nowhere to go that didn’t involve scrambling back up the bank. Large rocks littered the stream, and I had to watch where I put my feet on the riverbed.
Enfield threw the first punch, which I blocked, striking out at his injured ribs. He grabbed my arm and dragged me over him into the freezing water, which took my breath away. He forced my head under the water, pushing it down into the soil. The cold startled me and I punched out with everything I had. The blow landed right on Enfield’s temple, knocking him aside, allowing me to sit up and cough up the water that had been forced down my throat. I turned back to my foe, but he hit me in the side of my head with a rock. I fell back into the water and tried to fight back as more blows fell onto me. My vision began to go dark and I knew that he was going to kill me. The grip of his hands as it forced my head under the water seemed limitless, as if he couldn’t possibly be any stronger, while my own strength was slipping away on the current of the stream.
I began to sag as death closed in. Dying in a fucking stream at the hands of an asshole like Enfield made me angry. Very, very angry. I opened my eyes, and hadn’t realized that I’d even closed them. I felt new strength inside of me and I struggled at Enfield’s iron grip, grasping at anything around me in an attempt to fight back. I took hold of something and smashed it with everything I had against Enfield’s head. The tension stopped and I did it again, and again. He tried fighting my hand off, but I hit him in his broken rib and he fell off me into the stream. I immediately rolled to the side, my head finally leaving the water, and threw up the liquid inside me. My vision was shaky and as I coughed and spluttered, I knew that I’d been close to death.
I got back to my feet, and although I was wobbly, and my chest and throat felt as if they were on fire, I was not going to let Enfield win. I took the few steps toward him as he was getting upright and drove my fist into the side of his head. He crashed back down to his knees and I linked my fingers around the back of his head and drove my own knee into his face, again and again. Then I released him and grabbed his ears, pulling his head toward my knee with terrifying force. His face was a ruined mess after the second blow, but he threw a fist of stream soil at my face and I had to move to avoid it, giving him time to get away.
I stalked him, and threw the object I had in my hand at him, which turned out to be his ear. It made a splash as it hit his chest and flopped into the water. He punched out at me, but I grabbed the arm, wrapped my arms around his, and wrenched his elbow to one side, which snapped it like kindling. I released his arm and dragged him out of the water, pushing him up against the bank. I threw punch after punch at him, snapping ribs and causing unknown internal damage to his organs. Every time he toppled to one side, I pushed him upright once more and continued with the punishment until my hands were raw and swollen.
“You’re done here,” I told him.
He pushed me with his good arm, so I broke it for him, his ruined mouth was no longer capable of crying out, but he made a gargled noise and dropped to his knees.
“Is this enough?” I shouted to the spectators above us. It had begun to rain again and I was grateful for it as it washed Enfield’s blood from my hands. “I have no desire to murder people while others watch.”
“He wanted it to the death, Nate,” Elaine said, and it took me a moment to figure out where she was.
“Have I won?” I asked everyone, ignoring Elaine as I dragged Enfield out of the water.
“Yes,” several people, including Elaine said.
I raised my wrist. “Then get these fucking things off me.”
There was talking above me, but the guard who’d placed the sorcerer’s bands on my wrist slid down the bank and used her key to remove them. Magic flowed back into me, and it was beautiful.
“His too,” I told her, before adding, “Please.”
She did as she was asked and I thanked her, and it didn’t take long for the noises in Enfield’s chest to begin to sound normal again.
“Enfield, you wished death here,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear. “But I want you to die a sorcerer, not as someone missing his magic. I want your allies up there to know that it doesn’t matter how powerful you are, if you fuck with me and mine, I will destroy you. A friend of mine asked, as he died, if I could do him a favor. So consider this the last request of Felix Novius.” I accessed Felix’s soul, and a battle-axe, one of my two soul weapons—a physical manifestation of my power of necromancy, which destroys the soul, not the physical body—appeared in my hand. “I think he’d approve of my final words to you. Eat shit and die you fucking cockwomble.” And I drove the blade of the axe into Enfield’s skull.
Enfield twitched once and then pitched forward into the stream. I’d struck someone in the head with the axe before and they’d lived, but with Enfield, I knew he was dead. I glanced up at the crowd once more, and then crashed to my knees.
“What the hell is going on here?” a voice demanded from above me. I glanced up and saw Merlin, his expression moving from annoyed to murderous the second he laid eyes on me.
CH
APTER 37
To be fair to Merlin, he didn’t try to kill me there and then, while I was standing in a stream. I dragged myself up and onto the park, while everyone who didn’t want to be part of Merlin’s annoyance made themselves scarce. Even so, a committed group of people hung around the edges of the park, presumably to figure out if Merlin was going to kill me or not. Merlin had wandered off with Elaine, and the heat of their conversation was obvious considering their body language. I sat next to the same tree that Enfield had used to fix his arm and tried to convince myself that telling Merlin to fuck off was a good idea.
Tommy and Lucie had decided to sit beside me, and Olivia and half a dozen guards had joined them soon after Merlin’s arrival.
“So, this must be awkward for you,” Tommy said.
“Yes, that’s certainly one way of putting it,” I suggested.
“I think you might have made a few more enemies today. Your little speech before you killed Enfield will quickly spread,” Lucie told me.
“I never was very good at keeping my mouth closed.”
“Nate didn’t do anything wrong,” Tommy said. “Merlin can’t do anything.”
“Never stopped him before,” I pointed out and then got to my feet. The fight between Elaine and Merlin appeared to be over, although whether that was because they’d come to an agreement or because several paladins had arrived remained to be seen.
“Is that Gawain?” Tommy asked.
“Yep,” I said.
“His armor sure is shiny. I’m assuming he doesn’t get out much.”
“Rumor has it he’s changed a lot since you left,” Olivia said. “He’s more withdrawn, more intent on keeping Merlin and Arthur safe. Anything for Avalon and all that.”
“The paladins have always been fanatical,” Lucie said. “He’s just even more fanatical than most.”
Elaine beckoned for me to join her, so I walked across the field feeling like I was about to be scolded for misbehaving in class. It was a fairly ridiculous thought that a sixteen-hundred-year-old sorcerer could be worried he was about to be told off, but Merlin’s appearance was always akin to that of a teacher.
“He’s angry you’re here,” Elaine said. “Angry you’ve caused disruption. He wants an explanation from you.”
“Excellent,” I said and before Elaine could stop me I walked over to Merlin. He looked almost exactly the same as when I’d last seen him, although he’d decided to wear long black robes for some reason.
Gawain stepped in between us. “If you place one hand on Merlin, I will cut you down.”
I stared at the man who at one point I’d have considered a friend. “Don’t threaten me, Gawain. We both know it’s the move of someone who doesn’t actually have the ability to back up his words.”
“Have you come to apologize?” Merlin asked me, pushing an angry Gawain aside.
“For what?”
“Striking me, or stopping me from keeping Arthur alive, or maybe disrupting my realm? Pick which one you think is best.”
“No to all three. I’m about as likely to grow wings and fly as I am to say sorry.”
“Still the same Nathan. Let me guess. All of this death and destruction, it was all to help people you care about? I wish you’d felt that way about Arthur.”
“I helped protect Arthur for hundreds of years,” I said through gritted teeth. “He was my friend, and my king. These people, including Kay, had conspired to kill Elaine and remove anyone whom they deemed unworthy of their time.”
“And that’s my concern, why? If Elaine was murdered, heaven forbid by the way, but if she was, then someone else would take her role. She does not run Camelot.”
“Who does then?”
“I do,” he snapped.
“Then maybe you should actually do it. Maybe you should stop spending all of your time with a dead man and take your head out of your ass long enough to see that people here are unhappy. That all you’ve managed to do is foster a division that threatened to break apart everything you say you care about. You’ve put every single person in this realm, and countless millions outside of it, in jeopardy because you can’t bear to let someone else take away a piece of your grand plan. Avalon needs Elaine, it doesn’t need you anymore.”
The earth beneath my feet began to shake slightly, and I knew it was Merlin’s power.
“You dare?” he spat. “You dare suggest that I’m not doing the best for this realm? For these people?”
“You’re doing what you always did. What’s best for Merlin. Fuck everyone else.”
A mass of rock burst free from the ground and slammed into my chest, driving me back with immense force. Water covered my arms and turned to ice, freezing me in place.
“You think you can come back here and tell me how to run things?” he demanded. “You’re nothing, no one, a pathetic shell of someone I used to think could do some good in this world. I’m sure, if your parents were alive to see you today, they would be ashamed to know you. It’s a good thing no one knows who they are, it saves them the bother of their dishonor.”
Orange glyphs flared over my arms and the ice melted, allowing me to sit up.
“Go on, use your magic against me,” Merlin demanded. “Show the people who you are.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Elaine exploded at Merlin. “You attacked first, you came here full of anger and demanding answers. I don’t answer to you. And neither does Nate, not anymore.”
“Everyone in Avalon answers to me,” Merlin snapped.
“Not anymore they don’t,” I said when I was back to my feet. “People want someone to lead them who isn’t a self-absorbed asshole. Someone who will keep them safe from threats like the Reavers. You clearly can’t or won’t. You’re as ineffectual at governing this realm as you are at bringing Arthur back to life.”
I knew it was a mistake the second I said the words. A darkness spread over Merlin’s face and he lashed out, smashing ice into my body, and lifting me ten feet above the ground. “If anyone interferes, kill them,” he said to Gawain, who drew his sword.
“Nate?” Tommy called out.
“I’m okay,” I told him.
“I should have left you to die on that road as a child,” Merlin said as he walked toward me.
I used my fire magic to melt the ice, but the second any of it trickled away, it was replaced by even more, which got tighter and tighter across my arms and chest.
“I’m going to show you what I do to traitors,” he said and huge shards of ice formed in front of him.
I concentrated with everything I had until thunder could be heard above me. Then the ice vanished and I dropped to the ground. I was unable to stand, my entire body felt like it had been in a vice. All the same, my glyphs still shone as brightly as they ever had. I was not going to go down without a fight. Merlin would kill me, there was no other option, but he’d know he’d been in a contest.
Merlin stood only a few inches away, and glanced down at me. “Lightning, eh? You going to use that on me, boy?”
“Fuck you,” I said, although my words were a stutter. “You knew about the second realm gate, didn’t you? Did you know that Kay would betray everyone? Did you know that the Reavers were back?”
“Of course I knew about the gate. How do you think I have people come and go without Elaine and her people hearing about it? How did you think the Reavers came and went before you had them destroyed? Kay was going to do it sooner or later, I guess he got a better offer. And as for the Reavers returning, of course I’d heard. I hear everything. I just don’t bother with petty squabbles among people who are unimportant.”
“People died, you asshole. What happened to you? I don’t believe you were always this cold . . . this cruel.”
“Wasn’t I? Or did you just want a daddy figure in your life so badly that you ignored those things?”
I wanted to wipe the sneer off of his face, but I kept my peace as he continued. “I always taught you that to win you do whatever it takes. It appears
that lesson was lost on you.”
The thunder rumbled above us again.
Merlin glanced up at the sky. “You want to fight me? You’ll die, your friends soon after. You know they’ll get involved, you know I won’t let that lie.”
The clouds above dissipated and my glyphs vanished.
“Good choice. It’s a shame it ended up this way, you could have been something great, but you’ve chosen your path and will have to live with the consequences.” He walked back to Elaine. “You deal with this. But I want him punished for his attitude toward me.”
“He doesn’t work for you,” Elaine pointed out again.
“Then banish him from Avalon, I never wish to see him again. He is no longer welcome within this realm.”
Elaine kept Merlin’s gaze without blinking. “You don’t have the authority to do that. It would have to go to a vote. A vote, I will assure, you won’t win.”
For a moment I thought Merlin was going to snap. “You’re right,” Merlin said with glee. “Nathan no longer works for me. You know what, Nathan? I think that it’s about time we made that official, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Did you think when you walked out that no one wanted to come after you for your betrayal? No, I put word out that you were off limits. You were to be left alone, until I deemed otherwise. I think you’ve outstayed my patience. As of now, if any of my paladins decide to hunt you down to put you in your place, I’ll let them.” He looked at his watch. “Let’s say one week. In one week, if you ever return to Camelot my paladins have my permission to find and punish you.”