by LH Nicole
“Someone very powerful is out there,” Dagg answered, hovering above Aliana. “And I don’t believe it’s a force that’s here to help us.”
“Come out, mortal king,” a biting, thunderous voice ordered. Aliana shrank back. Someone with that kind of confidence had to have crazy strong powers.
Aliana saw Arthur stand a little taller, and a calm, indifferent look settled on his face. She knew that expression. It was his “I’m the king; don’t mess with me” look. Gripping the handle of his jeweled elven sword, he stepped out of the cave. Galahad and Percy stepped to either side of him. The king’s honor guard.
Aliana and Lacy moved to stand directly behind Leo and Owen, who wouldn’t let the girls pass. Frustrated, Aliana lifted onto her tiptoes and peered over Owen’s shoulder. A half circle of a dozen lethal-looking Elves stood guard around a towering man in the center of their formation. The regal Elf had long hair of such a cold blue color it looked like the deepest depths of the ocean. His skin was an unnatural, marbled white. It provided a shocking contrast against his black and white pupils ringed with amber. He was taller than all the knights, and though he wasn’t as muscular, there was a horrifying air of strength about him. Danger and absolute power radiated from him. The decadent black and gold chest armor he wore added to his fierceness. Aliana felt his magic clotting the air around them.
Arthur inclined his head to the Elf. “Your Majesty,” he said with calm indifference. “We did not expect your presence in this realm.”
That’s Oberon! Aliana thought with a shudder. This was the king of Avalon, husband to the Fae queen.
“Indeed,” the Elf king answered. “I didn’t expect to ever see you walking in the world again.”
Aliana saw Galahad’s and Percy’s hands tighten on their swords, but they didn’t draw them. Arthur didn’t answer the king’s mocking statement. “We won’t detain you any longer. I’m sure you were on your way to see your queen, yes?”
The Elf king grinned evilly. “Perhaps. But I find myself very interested in the girl whom your knights are trying so hard to hide from sight.”
The guys stiffened, and Galahad started to draw his sword, letting out a barely audible growl. Arthur halted his action by holding out a hand. Camelot’s king never took his golden gaze from Oberon. “She would be of very little interest to you, King Oberon.”
Oberon flicked his powerful hand at the ground, shaking the earth beneath their feet. The guys stumbled and drew their weapons.
“Get back inside!” Galahad barked.
But the Elf warriors moved too fast over the trembling ground. They came at the knights with a calm but unyielding force of blades and arrows. The five warriors of the Round Table fought the Elves back, but several arrows slipped into the cave, nearly hitting Aliana and Lacy as they ducked out of the way. Dagg roared Dragon fire down on the Elves, but the flames seemed harmless to the vicious attackers. Aliana wanted to be out there helping the guys, but their line was so solid she’d only hinder them if she and Lacy tried to push past them.
“I grow weary of this fray,” Oberon groaned.
Aliana and Lacy pitched forward as the ground behind them rose like a wave. The girls and the knights were thrown out of the cave. The Elvish warriors scattered and were on the knights before any of them could get back to their feet. Dagg was dragged down by another force and pinned to the ground next to them.
Rough hands grabbed Aliana’s arms, forcing her bow and arrows from her struggling hands. Another Elf grabbed Lacy while the remaining ten paired up to pull the knights and King Arthur to their knees.
“Let them go!” Galahad and Percy roared.
“Stop fighting and I might let them live,” the king countered mercilessly.
Icy terror rolled through Aliana’s blood. How could this have happened? Didn’t Oberon know that they were trying to save all the realms from Mordrid?
The Elf holding Lacy forced her to her knees next to the guys, who continued to struggle against their captors. Long vines shot out of the bluish-green earth, wrapping like snakes around Aliana’s hands and waist. The Elf holding her released her to be drawn into the air toward the king of Avalon. The guys roared in fury, and Aliana struggled in a panic-fueled effort to free herself from the vines. She tried to draw on her magic, on any of the magic that swirled around them, but her insides burned with the effort. She was too scared and out of control to focus.
“Stop your useless struggling,” Oberon commanded. “I’m only interested in seeing this precious treasure that seems to be on everyone’s minds.”
Aliana wanted to call out to Galahad and Arthur to help her. She didn’t want to be within spitting distance of this tyrant, but she didn’t dare open her mouth. She had a feeling a wrong move could turn deadly for her knights, and she wouldn’t allow that!
The vines stopped as she came within arm’s reach of Oberon. He was so tall that Aliana had to tilt her head back to look up into this marble-carved face and mysterious, black-gold eyes. His power covered her, wrapping her tightly, pushing and poking at her carefully constructed citadel of shields that protected her mind. She tried to rein in her erratic breathing and beating heart to push back against the invasion, but she couldn’t.
A cunning smile broke across the king’s face. “Interesting,” he murmured. “I can see why the fascination with you is so great.”
“What do you want with me?” Aliana gasped, pulling carefully at the vines that held her wrists. They were unmovable, but strangely, didn’t bite into her skin. In fact, the vines wrapped around her waist and legs didn’t hurt either. They simply held her in place before this cunning king.
“I desire nothing, for now,” he murmured, drawing her gaze to his with a single finger under her chin.
Aliana couldn’t look away from his hypnotic, alien eyes. She could practically see the calculating and dangerous thoughts of her captor. It was similar to the scheming she remembered sensing in the Fae queen.
The king grinned, looking utterly pleased. What he saw, she couldn’t begin to guess, but his eyes broke from hers and rested on Arthur. Oberon’s head tilted a fraction before he glanced back at Aliana then again at Arthur.
Arthur’s face betrayed nothing. His emotions were hidden behind his mask of distant aloofness. Oberon’s eyes then moved to Galahad and pinched, as if he was trying to be sure of what he was seeing. His heavy gaze came back to Aliana, and what he did next shocked everyone.
The king of Avalon roared in laughter. The thundering sound was chilling to hear. This wasn’t joyful laughter. It was a laugh like he’d just learned some big secret that would shake the foundation of the world. “Oh, my queen is so clever.” He sounded way too satisfied for Aliana’s liking. “But…” His hand suddenly curled around Aliana’s thin neck.
“Aliana!” Galahad roared furiously.
Oberon’s power punched into her, clouding her vision. The sensation was gone a second later, but the sound of furious cries, harsh orders, and slashing swords echoed in Aliana’s ears as her vision returned and Oberon released her throat.
“Let her go,” Galahad ordered. His cold, quiet voice sent icy spikes of terror rushing through Aliana’s veins. She looked to see his blade pressed tightly to the neck of Avalon’s king. The Elves that had captured Galahad lay on the ground in bloody heaps. She looked at her knight and saw the same deadly swirling in his eyes that he she’d seen the day before.
As the Elf king studied Galahad, his lip pulled up in a laughing sneer. “You would dare to challenge me, mortal?”
Suddenly, Galahad’s sword was ripped from his hands. A gravity-like power slammed his body to the ground.
“Galahad!” Aliana cried out, her panic burning away, leaving behind a numb kind of terror in her veins. Her knight cried out, clutching his chest. Her magic snapped to life. Sensing all the different kinds of magic surrounding the small valley, she mercilessly grabbed it all and sent it rushing out in a deadly blast against Oberon. The air crackled like splintered glass, a
nd Oberon’s Elves were thrown back, away from her friends. Even Oberon was forced back several paces. The power crushing Galahad and the vines holding her prisoner dissolved.
Galahad’s arms were immediately around Aliana. With a burst of his super speed, the two of them were by their friends, who closed in around the pair, weapons drawn, completely unaffected by Aliana’s staggering magic.
The disbelief in Oberon’s unnatural eyes was almost satisfying—until he advanced on them again. His assassin Elves formed a loose circle around the battle-ready knights and terrified girls.
With both sides ready to do battle again, Oberon suddenly held up his hand and commanded his men to stop. “I’ve killed people for less than what you two just did,” he said calmly to Aliana and Galahad. “But there have been very few who’ve ever used such powerful magic against me. Out of respect for such great power, I’ll let you all live.”
The Elves backed away and disappeared into the surrounding white and jewel-colored forest. Oberon remained. His calculating gaze carefully studied all seven members of the Round Table before drilling into Aliana’s green eyes. His secretive, sneering smirk returned. “You’ll want to make your way to Notien.” He inclined his head to Aliana and disappeared in a white-gold shock of smoke.
Feeling her body sag, Aliana turned into Galahad as he wrapped her in his arms. With one shaking hand clutching his shirt in a tight fist, she looked up at him. That dangerous swirling was still in his eyes. She cupped his cheek and willed their bond to calm him. His grip loosened slightly, and he buried his face in her neck, breathing heavily. After a few moments, the couple drew back from each other. Aliana hugged Dagg as he landed in her arms.
“What did you think you were doing, Galahad?” Arthur demanded as soon as her white knight had stepped back. “You were reckless and out of control. You could’ve gotten us killed!”
“Arthur,” Aliana said, trying to stave off her Golden King’s rarely seen temper.
Galahad stared at Arthur, and Aliana was grateful that he was now his calmer self. “I was protecting Aliana from a power hungry king,” he growled through tight lips.
“Galahad, I don’t—” Aliana said.
Arthur spoke over her. “You more than anyone should know the importance of control and planning in that kind of situation. Uncontrolled rage makes things worse.”
Galahad’s hands balled into tight fists.
“Enough, both of you!” Aliana said, pushing between them. She looked between them, then to the other guys and Lacy, who all watched the exchange with wariness.
After another tense moment, the two men stepped back, and Galahad bowed his head to Arthur. “I apologize for acting out of turn, sire. But you should understand why I couldn’t let that Elf touch Aliana.”
Leo stepped next to Arthur. “We should get back inside the cave, sire. We’re all tired and need to eat if we’re going to make any kind of progress tomorrow.”
“And,” Owen added, clapping Galahad on his shoulder. “We need to find where this Notien is on our maps.”
Lacy’s face scrunched. She stayed plastered to Percy’s chest. “You trust that lunatic king’s words? He’s probably trying to lead us into another trap!”
Dagg shook his head. “No. Notien is the summer kingdom of the Fae queen.”
Aliana shivered and went back into Galahad’s arms. “Can we discuss all this back in the warm cave, please?”
When they reentered the stone cavern, it was like nothing had happened. All their belongings were where they had been. The animals that Percy had prepared lay just at the entrance, ready to be put on spits and cooked. It was unusually quiet as everyone settled in, built the fire, and made dinner. As uncomfortable as the silence was, Aliana preferred it to Galahad and Arthur taking their anger and worry out on each other. It had been terrifying to watch the two brothers go at each other because of her. She couldn’t be the reason for anger or suffering between people she cared for.
“Can I see the maps?” Aliana finally asked as the meat roasted over the fire.
Arthur made space on a relatively flat boulder and spread out their main map. It was old and discolored with rough edges, but the markings were clear. The only problem was that it was written in a language Aliana didn’t recognize. “What language is that?” she asked.
“It’s Faetine. The language of the Fae,” the king answered her.
Aliana looked back at the map, her eyes growing wide. “Can you read it?”
“Yes, and so can I.” Galahad kneeled next to her, placing Aliana between Arthur and himself. The two men shared a silent look Aliana couldn’t interpret, then nodded in some sort of agreement.
Raising a brow, Aliana asked, “Do we know where the Summer Kingdom is on here?”
Galahad pointed to a small symbol that looked like a sun woven of hard lines with boxy scrolled writing beneath it.
“How far is that from us?” Lacy asked, standing over Aliana.
“We should be there by midday tomorrow if we leave just after sunrise,” Arthur answered.
“Dinner’s ready,” Owen called as Leo and Percy placed food on plates and poured goblets of the Pixie wine.
Lacy and Aliana sat together off to the side while the guys planned their next move. “You can’t just brush off his behavior again, Lia!” Lacy protested in a hushed voice as she picked up a strange-looking carrot type of thing. “That’s twice in two days he’s gone freakazoid.”
Aliana sighed and glanced at her handsome knight. “I know, but he said it was nothing to do with magic. He just can’t stand to be helpless when people he cares for are in trouble.”
“I get that, we all do, but you don’t see any of the rest of us losing it like that. What he did was brave and so very swoon worthy, but it could’ve just as easily gotten you and all of us killed. Clearly the psycho-alien-eye king has unbelievable powers. What would’ve happened if he’d used that power on more than just Galahad? What if he’d used it on me?”
Aliana stifled a terrified gasp. She hadn’t thought about that possibility. “I don’t know. I’ll talk to Dagg about it. Maybe he’ll have some insight into whether or not Galahad’s extreme reactions are normal.”
12
Oh, my queen, you think you’re so cunning, but I know your plan. I know what all this scheming has been about and what end you seek. Too bad other powers seem to have different ideas. Oh, it must annoy you how those powers conspire against your destiny for that girl and the two men bound to her. Ah, but I see how I can turn this to my advantage.
~King Oberon
THE GUYS ESTABLISHED A GUARD ROTATION throughout the night. Aliana and Lacy had both wanted to take turns, but the knights refused, pointing out that the girls wouldn’t know what to look out for. Aliana felt weird lying down to sleep in her clothes. Even when she’d been on her photo adventures or with her papa on one of his digs, she’d never had to do that. But like the guys had explained, they needed to be prepared to be on the move at all hours, just in case.
With Owen on first watch, Aliana lay down facing Galahad. Dagg curled up by the couple’s heads. She took Galahad’s hand in hers and let their spark-laced bond help her drift into sleep. Hours later, she shot awake. Her terrified scream was trapped in her throat, like it always was when she awoke from one of her nightmares. Taking big breaths, she looked at Galahad and Dagg. They both still slept, thank goodness. She sat up and scanned the area. Percy spooned Lacy, his arm wrapped over her waist. Owen was curled on his mat, and Leo lay sprawled on his back. Arthur’s bed was empty.
Turning toward the entrance, she saw the king sitting on the large rock they’d rolled to the front of the cave for guard duty. He looked isolated and completely lost in deep thoughts that had him frowning and staring at the night sky. Aliana got up as quietly as she could. She froze when Galahad shifted restlessly, but he didn’t wake. It was a warm night, so Aliana didn’t feel the need to wrap herself in her blanket.
“Why are you awake, Aliana?” Arthur asked as
she approached.
“I don’t normally sleep much longer than a few hours at a time.”
Arthur studied her. After a few moments, he opened his mouth to say something but closed it.
Aliana narrowed her eyes. “Out with it, Arthur. What do you want to ask?”
The king shook his head. “I don’t want to upset you again.”
Aliana sat down next to him on the rock. It was just large enough for two people if they sat close together. “You won’t, I promise.”
Arthur hesitated, and Aliana bumped his shoulder with hers, nudging him on.
“I wanted to ask if you couldn’t sleep because of your nightmares.”
Aliana’s eyes shot wide open. How did he know?
“It wasn’t difficult to figure out. You’re always up before the rest of us, and every time I see you sleeping, you’re restless. You were also moaning just minutes ago.”
Aliana regained her composure and looked toward the forest. It seemed to nearly glow under the starlight with its white tree trunks and brightly colored leaves. “I’ve had them off and on my whole life,” she whispered. “But they’ve gotten worse since…”
“Since your parents.”
She nodded. Okay, so he’d figured out her nightmares, but there was no way he could know what her night terrors were about. She’d never told anyone about them in detail. Heck, Arthur was the first person she’d even admitted them to. “I’d rather not talk about them,” she said quickly, and then changed the topic. “Do you think Galahad’s all right?”
Arthur heaved a sigh and shook his head. “I’ve never seen him act like that. He was always the one I could count on to keep a level head in a fight.”
“Morgana said something yesterday when she attacked us that worries me.”
Arthur looked at her sharply. “What?”
Aliana turned her head to peer at Galahad, who still slept peacefully. “Morgana asked if he was ‘having problems containing himself.’”
“Why would she ask that?” Arthur wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, but I’m worried.” She returned her focus to Arthur, meeting his concerned golden stare. “I asked him about it last night, but he said it was nothing to do with her. It’s just that he gets crazy when I’m in trouble because he lost his family without being able to save them.”