Children of Avalon

by Meredith Bond

  “There also has to be a wagon nearby in which they were planning on taking Jonathan and Madeline to Saerdbury,” Scai continued.

  “By God, you’re right,” Sir Dagonet said, turning to look around as if it would just magically appear.

  Jonathan and Madeline looked at each other, clearly trying to figure out where this wagon would be. “It might be at the inn,” Jonathan offered.

  “I can’t think of any place else where they would be able to leave it,” Madeline added.

  “I’m sure that you’re right. And that’s where we’ll find the other knight,” Dylan agreed.

  “Off to the inn, then,” Aron said, clapping his hands and then rubbing them together as if this was going to be great fun.

  The men moved the two knights and their horses into the stables behind Jonathan’s shop, being sure that they were all bound as tightly as they could be.

  “Bridget, would you and Scai stay here?” Sir Dagonet began, as we watched Jonathan lock the stable doors.

  “No.”

  “Absolutely not!” we said in unison.

  The old man gave a laugh. “Very well. Off we all go.”

  There were two more knights enjoying their dinner at the inn. They were easy enough to take care of. While the men handled that, Scai and I went searching for the wagon. It was hidden behind the inn’s stables—and filled with people who seemed resigned to their fate.

  “It’s all right, now,” Scai said, approaching the wagon. “We’re here to free you.”

  The people in the wagon all looked up. Some of the women began crying with relief. While one of the men called out, “The knights?”

  “They’re being taken away,” I answered.

  “And what if we don’t want to be freed?” one man with intense blue eyes asked.

  I stopped. “Don’t want to be free?” I repeated.

  “Speak for yourself,” a woman said in a sharp tone.

  “What are you about?” another man asked.

  “Don’t listen to him. But you need the keys. They’ve shackled us in here,” the woman said.

  “I don’t…” the first man started to say, but a swift kick from another man shut him up.

  “Shackled you?” Scai asked, horrified.

  The woman rattled the manacles around her wrists to prove her point.

  “I’ll run back and get the key,” I offered, after a glance at my sister. She looked ready to drop and in no condition to run off anywhere.

  <><><>

  I ran as fast as I could after the men who were escorting the knights at sword-point down the street toward Jonathan and Madeline’s shop.

  “Wait!” I called out as I got closer.

  Luckily, they heard me and stopped.

  “What is it? Was the wagon not there?” Dylan asked.

  “No, it’s there. But the people are shackled in. I need a key to unlock them.”

  We turned toward the knights. One of them shrugged. The other clearly couldn’t care either way. “I don’t have the key,” he said.

  “Then how were you going to get them out when you got to Saerdbury?” I asked.

  “Somebody there must have it,” the first one offered.

  I stopped for a minute. How would we get those poor people out?

  “I’ve got some of my smithing tools with me. If we can somehow heat the metal without hurting the person in it, I could open it,” Aron offered.

  I spun toward him. “I can heat it. How stupid of me not to think of that! I can meld metal.”

  Aron shrugged and gave me a smile that sparked a nice little fire in the pit of my stomach. “Then I’ll get my tools.”

  He turned and ran back to Jonathan’s where our horses were still tied up.

  If only he weren’t so handsome, sweet, and clever, I thought with a true sadness flickering through me. It’s no wonder Scai wants to be with him. I shook off my melancholy and returned to the inn where my sister was waiting for me. There was no point in pining for something I couldn’t have—or letting it come between me and my sister.

  I stopped on my way for a thick cloth from the innkeeper to protect the wrists of the person in the shackles.

  Scai climbed up into the wagon and approached the first man shackled there while we waited for Aron.

  The man backed away from her as much as he could, given that his hands were shackled to the wagon. “No! I told you I don’t want to be set free.”

  She stopped. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you?”

  “This isn’t a play, Michael. These shackles are not props,” the man next to him said, giving the fellow a sharp kick.

  “I am well aware. I still maintain that I don’t want to be free.”

  “He’s a bloody idiot. Don’t listen to him,” the second man said.

  “I’m not! I don’t deserve to be free,” the first man said again. His eyes were wild when he glanced over at me, but he quickly lowered them.

  “Well, I do. The rest of us do,” a woman across from him said.

  “Yes! We all deserve to be free.”

  “Why have they taken us in the first place? We’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “Get us out of here!”

  “Leave him if he doesn’t want to free.”

  The voices of the people got louder and angrier.

  One fellow started kicking at the man who’d said that he didn’t want to be set free. A woman joined him, shouting at the fellow.

  “No, stop!” Scai said. But her voice was too quiet. She was looking exhausted and overwhelmed.

  My anger at the way the people were behaving spiked. “Stop! Now!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, putting all my energy into it to be sure they heard me above the shouting.

  And they all did. They stopped. Completely. They stopped moving. They stopped shouting. They stopped everything.

  I looked around. What had I done? I turned toward Scai; she was frozen too!

  “Oh, my God,” I breathed.

  “Bridget, I…” Aron came into the shed and then paused.

  I spun around and just looked at him, my heart pounding into my mouth.

  “I don’t know what happened. They were all shouting and kicking at one man. I shouted for them to stop and, and…”

  Aron’s wide eyes took in the scene in front us. His face paled. “Are they dead? Frozen? What?”

  “I don’t know!” I’d never heard of anyone doing anything like this before. I had no idea what I’d done.

  “Can you undo it?” he asked, coming forward.

  That was indeed the question. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, try!” Now he was becoming upset.

  I turned back to the people and Scai. Move, I thought.

  Nothing.

  Un-freeze.

  I turned back to Aron. “I don’t know how,” I whispered.

  “Well, figure it out!” He was shouting now. He took a step closer, but seemed afraid to get too near. I didn’t know if he was afraid of me or afraid of touching one of the people, but I didn’t like that he wouldn’t come any closer.

  I had to do something. My heart pounded in my chest. Somehow I had to unfreeze them.

  I took a deep, calming breath. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if I panicked. I turned back to the people, closed my eyes and concentrated. I needed them to move. To unfreeze. Maybe warm thoughts?

  I tried it. I thought of heat, of fire. I opened my eyes and raised my hand palm outward toward the people and Scai. As if I were projecting a fire ball, I projected the thought of warmth and heat toward them.

  A man’s leg dropped from where it had been frozen mid-kick.

  They started moving again, looking around curiously. Not one shouted or complained; they were all completely confused.

  “What happened?” Scai asked, turning to me as I threw my arms around her in relief.

  “I’m sorry. Oh, God, I’m so sorry!” Tears of relief started to fill my eyes. I quickly blinked them back.

  “What did y
ou do?” the man who hadn’t wanted to be free asked.

  “I don’t know. I froze you. I didn’t mean to,” I answered. “But you’ve all got to stop fighting. We’re going to free you. All of you,” I said. I ended looking directly at the man who’d caused all the trouble.

  He just looked away, refusing to meet my eyes. I didn’t know if he was afraid I’d freeze him again or what. Honestly, I didn’t want to know.

  We set to work wrapping the cloth around the wrists of the woman across from the man who didn’t want to be free. I placed my hands on the metal shackle, closed my eyes and began to concentrate, pulling on my magic and focusing it into the metal.

  “Can you really do this?” the woman asked, breaking my concentration. “Can you make the metal hot enough?”

  I sighed at the interruption, but brought up a reassuring smile. “I can, but I need to focus.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” The woman sat there silently, but watching me intently.

  It was a little unnerving, but I forced my mind to center on the task at hand. Again, pulling my magic to my hands I began to send heat into the metal. This sort of heat was similar, but different from the heat I used to heal. For healing, I reminded myself, I needed soothing, calming thoughts as well as my fire. For melding, if I projected calming thoughts, the metal wouldn’t get hot enough to become pliable. So instead I focused on the anger I felt whenever I thought of Scai and Aron kissing.

  Immediately the metal began to glow red hot.

  “Wow!” Aron exclaimed, clearly impressed. He inserted the thin end of a metal bar into the hinge of the shackle and popped it open like it was nothing.

  “Oh!” the woman squeaked with happiness and then jumped out of the wagon.

  I turned to the man and then waited while Scai wrapped his wrists with the cloth to protect him. He didn’t move. Didn’t complain. Again, once I focused on my anger. The metal heated quickly.

  “That is so amazing, Bridget,” Aron said as he popped open the shackles.

  I looked into his eyes and found only honesty and admiration there. There was no condemnation for what I had done earlier, thank goodness. He smiled back sending the heat of good feelings through me. For a minute, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think. I almost couldn’t move, I was so caught up in his smile and his eyes. A movement in the corner of my eye reminded me of where we were and who was watching.

  I turned toward Scai. Oddly enough, my sister also gave me a warm smile. Well, I certainly hadn’t expected that. A frown of jealousy, yes. A smile of friendship, no.

  I didn’t know what to think of this, it was too confusing. I went back to my work. After two more Vallen were released, I was beginning to feel the effects of using so much magic.

  “Are you all right?” Aron asked, squatting down next to me when I dropped to sit on the floor of the wagon.

  “You must be exhausted,” Scai said, caressing my back.

  I nodded. “This takes a lot of energy.” And even more so when I didn’t have my anger to pull on. Aron’s smile had really thrown me.

  One of the remaining men in the wagon nodded. “I can feel the pull when you heat the metal.”

  “I’ve had to start pulling on the energy around me,” I agreed. I could barely move I felt so tired. But I had to. I had to release the rest of them. I looked around and then nearly groaned. Three more. How was I going to get the strength to do this?

  One of the men put his hand on my shoulder. “Can you pull from my energy? From my magic?”

  I gave him my best attempt at a smile. “Thank you. I wish I could, but I don’t know how to take someone else’s magic.”

  “There is a way to do that, though, isn’t there? I’ve heard stories of Vallen giving others their magic,” another man said.

  I looked at Scai. That was exactly what Nimuë had tried to do to Scai the very first time she’d captured us.

  “There is a way to do that,” Scai answered. “But we don’t know how.” The sadness in her eyes was touched by the fear she had felt when Nimuë had tried to steal her powers. I could see the emotions warring in my sister’s face.

  “Since we don’t know how to share magic, I’ll just do my best,” I sighed.

  “I wonder if it would help if I got you the…” Scai stopped, her eyes shifting to the men, and then she mouthed the word “chalice”.

  I couldn’t believe my sister had even thought of such a thing, but then again, Scai was a lot more intelligent than I was. But still, it wouldn’t be right. “I’m sure we shouldn’t use it that way,” I said with true regret.

  Scai sighed. “No, I suppose we shouldn’t.”

  I almost felt like suggesting that Scai and Aron kiss just to make my anger burn inside of me again, but then I’d burn myself out too quickly and be even unhappier in the end. Not to mention, that I hadn’t told anyone that I’d seen them the first time.

  Just thinking about it again, though, and seeing the warm and encouraging smile Aron was giving her now, gave me a boost of fire, and I managed to move through the remaining three men more quickly than I had thought I could.

  As soon as they were all free, all but the first man with the blue eyes began down the road back toward Gloucester.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at me. He looked truly upset. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more expressive face than his.

  “I don’t understand why you didn’t want to be set free,” I said.

  He just shook his head. And then took a deep breath as if he’d decided something. He looked directly at me. “I don’t deserve to be free, really. I did something… something very bad.” He gave a little smile and a laugh. “If you want to chain me up again I’ll completely understand, honestly.”

  What could this man have done that was so awful that he would prefer to be captured by these knights? God only knew what was being done with these people in Saerdbury.

  “What did you do?” Scai asked, coming up and voicing my very thoughts.

  He looked at her for a moment and then at Aron who was also standing nearby. The man squared his shoulders and said, “I told a priest where to find the Vallen. In Gloucester. I told him and he went and captured all these people.”

  A pain pricked at my heart. “Why would you do that?”

  “He threatened me. But it’s worse.”

  “What do you mean?” Scai asked.

  “How could it be worse?” Aron asked.

  He didn’t look at either of them. In fact, he didn’t take his eyes from me. “He was looking for you.”

  Lady Nimuë. He’d spoken to Lady Nimuë.

  The man continued. “He asked about your brothers, they’re carpenters, right?”

  I acknowledged that they were, not able to speak for the lump that was now clogging my throat.

  “He asked me where they were, but he seemed more interested when I mentioned you. I mean, I don’t even know your name, but I told him that the carpenters had a red-haired sister and he got very excited and asked where he could find you.”

  I swallowed down the lump.

  “My name is Bridget. He’s been looking for me, well, for us,” I said, nodding my head toward Scai.

  The man looked confused. “Do you know him, this priest?”

  “Yes.”

  “He isn’t really a priest,” Scai said.

  “He’s the Lady Nimuë,” Aron explained. “He… or I suppose, she, is looking to capture and kill Bridget and Scai.”

  The man’s eyes grew large, his face even more upset. “Why?”

  “It’s too long and complicated to explain now. You should go and catch up to the others. It’s good to know where she is though. You say she’s in Gloucester?”

  “She was as of yesterday,” the man answered.

  “Thank you,” I nodded.

  “You should probably keep off the main roads,” Scai told him. “Lady Nimuë may be headed this way.”

  I turned to her. “We should probably go quickly. We need to get to Saerdbury
before she does.” He may have told Nimuë where to find the Vallen, but at least he had the nerve to own up to what he’d done. A flash of worry for my brothers shot through. They were strong, I reminded myself. They were strong.

  She nodded, then turned back to the man. “Thank you for telling us.”

  The man gave us a worried smile, then took off after the rest of the group.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Aron came running into Jonathan and Madeline’s house the following morning. “They’re gone!”

  Scai and Dylan immediate stood up from the rough kitchen table where the three of us had been sitting.

  A quick discussion the previous night after we’d returned from freeing the Vallen determined that traveling without rest and trying to negotiate unfamiliar roads in the dark wouldn’t do us any good. If we got to Saerdbury before Nimuë it would be a good thing, but if we didn’t it wouldn’t be the end of everything either.

  Sir Dagonet limped in behind Aron. “They escaped,” he sighed.

  “How?” Scai asked.

  “Overpowered us. Shoved me down, landed a facer on Aron and took off on their horses,” the old man explained.

  “Oh, no!” Madeline said, turning to clutch at her husband’s arm. “What are we going to do? Surely they’ll be back and probably with even more knights.”

  “Calm down,” her husband said, patting her hand. He followed his own advice and took a deep breath. “Sir Dagonet?”

  “I think now would be a very good time for you to visit some friends or family elsewhere,” the knight suggested gently.

  Jonathan nodded his head. “Excellent suggestion.” He turned to Madeline who just nodded, fear still filling her eyes.

  “We can go to my mother,” she offered.

  “Yes. Let’s do that. We are overdue for a visit to her anyway.” Jonathan stood, but then turned back to Sir Dagonet. “What about you? They’ll be back to find you as well.”

  The knight just laughed gently. “Don’t worry about us. We can take care of ourselves, don’t you know?”

  Jonathan looked from one to the other of them, as if to make sure we were all aligned with Sir Dagonet’s confidence.

  “Absolutely,” I said, standing up. “We’ve faced greater dangers than a couple of knights.” I didn’t mean to sound so full of bravado, but really, a couple of knights were nothing compared to facing Lady Nimuë.