He realized Emma and Ariane were looking at him expectantly. He blinked at Ariane. “What?” he said.
“Tell us how you found the pictures of Mom,” Ariane said impatiently. “Honestly, Wally, what’s wrong with you?”
Wally felt a flash of uncharacteristic anger toward her and almost snapped something he’d almost certainly have regretted – but bit it off just in time. That, too, felt like the sword talking.
Rex Major had been able to convince him to give up the second shard of the sword, retrieved from a cave complex in southern France, because Ariane had badly hurt Flish and because Wally had been afraid Ariane wouldn’t be able to control what the sword wanted her to do – to become. Now he knew exactly how she’d felt. “A thing of war,” the Lady had called it, and there was no doubt that was exactly what it was, and how it wanted to be used.
“I’m just...tired,” he said. He’d talk to Ariane about what he was feeling in more detail sometime later, when they were alone. Emma didn’t want Aunt Phyllis to worry, but Wally didn’t want Emma to worry. The grown-ups couldn’t do anything to help. They had no part in this war – and he guessed that war was what they were waging – but to provide logistical support. If they exposed their location, they’d simply become hostages.
“Okay,” he said, gathering his thoughts. “So I used that photo you gave me and plugged it into this new image search engine I found...”
When he had finished explaining, Ariane got up. “Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s go right now. Rex Major could already be –”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Emma said. “Rex Major probably doesn’t know where she is.”
“If I can find her using the Web, he can,” Wally said.
“Maybe. But you haven’t really found her, have you? You’ve found where she was two weeks ago. You don’t know where she lives, what name she’s using, anything that will really help you find her. Ferries leave Horseshoe Bay every day, and for more places than just Nanaimo. It’s also close to Vancouver. She could be anywhere in the world by now. You need to plan what you’re going to do when you get there, how you’re going to try to find her if she’s there, or find out where she went if she isn’t.” Her voice softened. “Besides, Wally is exhausted. Look at him. You need to replenish your energy, too. And what could you possibly do to find her in Horseshoe Bay in the middle of the night?”
“But we know where she is,” Ariane cried. “How can I just sit here knowing that? How can I sleep?”
“You know where she was,” Emma said.
“I think there’s a pretty good chance she’s still there,” Wally said. “Since she was there long enough to show up in two different pictures a few days apart.”
“Then she’ll still be there tomorrow.”
“But if Rex Major does know where she is, every second may count,” Ariane protested.
“He can’t find her in the dark either,” Emma said.
“And at least we know he doesn’t have her yet,” Wally put in.
“How?” Ariane demanded.
“Because if he had her, he wouldn’t have tried to grab us both in Gravenhurst,” Wally said. “He would have just given us a message: give me the two shards you have or...” He didn’t finish the sentence.
Ariane pressed her lips into a stubborn frown. “Still...”
“Sleep,” Emma said. “Rest. Go in the morning. See what you can find.”
Wally was suddenly seized by a huge, jaw-cracking yawn. When he could talk again, he said, “Please, Ariane.”
Ariane’s expression softened. “All right,” she said, albeit still reluctantly. “Tomorrow.”
“Still nothing on the fourth-shard front?” Wally said.
Ariane shook her head. “No,” she said. “Wherever it is, I can’t sense it.”
Wally chewed on his lower lip. “I wish I could say that means Major can’t have a lead on it either, but I can’t. All it would take is someone with an Internet-connected smartphone to get too close to it, and he’ll feel the tug like a spider feels its web vibrate when an insect lands on it.”
“No way for us to know,” Ariane said. “Either I hear the shard singing to me and we go get it before Major does, or Major finds it...and then I hear it and we steal it back from him. We can’t worry about that right now. We have to worry about Mom.”
Wally nodded, but he hardly heard her. He’d suddenly had an idea. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea. In fact, he thought it might be a spectacularly bad idea. Which was why he wasn’t going to tell Ariane about it. He wasn’t even sure he was going to act on it.
That’s a lie, he told himself then. You know darn well you’re going to act on it. “I really need to get to bed,” he said out loud. He yawned again, though more for effect than because he needed to; the surge of adrenaline accompanying his idea had momentarily rejuvenated him. “What time do you want to get up?”
“We’re two hours ahead of the West Coast right now,” Emma said.
“And you’re right, there’s no point in getting there in the dark,” Ariane said reluctantly. “Let’s head out around ten.”
“I can almost sleep in, then,” Wally said. “Best news I’ve heard all day.”
“Good night, Wally,” Emma said. She looked at Ariane. “Coming?”
“In a minute.”
“All right.” Emma went out.
Ariane looked at Wally. “Thank you,” she said softly. “For tonight. When Emeka grabbed me, put that cloth over me...If you hadn’t been there...”
“Your knight in shining armour,” Wally said. He felt both warmed and strangely embarrassed by her praise.
She leaned close. He suddenly knew how a deer in the headlights felt. She kissed his cheek, her lips warm and soft against his skin. She leaned back again. “Good night.” She got up and went to the door. “See you in the morning,” she said, and went out.
Wally wanted to say good night, but his throat wouldn’t work.
Well, he thought. Well.
Well.
He shook his head violently. It was just a kiss on the cheek, he thought. It wasn’t a kiss kiss. Even Flish used to kiss me on the cheek...back when she still liked me.
But he could feel the touch of Ariane’s lips lingering against his skin.
He took a deep breath. He still thought the idea that had come to him while he was talking to Ariane and Emma might be a really, really bad one. But he was going to try it, anyway.
He went to the room phone, lifted it, and dialed nine. When he heard the dial tone, he punched in *67 – so that the hotel’s number wouldn’t show up on Caller ID on the phone on the other end, which he had good reason to think Rex Major would be monitoring – and then a number he hadn’t called in weeks.
One ring. Two. And then...
“Hello?” said a man’s voice on the other end.
Wally hesitated another moment. Then he said, “Hello, Dad.”
<•>
Ariane licked her lips as she walked to her room next door. She hadn’t even known she was going to do that until she’d done it. But it had felt right.
Actually, it had felt great.
It was just a peck on the cheek, she thought. A thank-you kiss. Nothing else.
And that was true, but it had felt like more than that to her. And she suspected it had felt like more than that to Wally, too.
She let herself into the room. Emma was in the bathroom. Ariane walked to the window and looked out into the pool area. She could feel the tug of the water, could sense everybody still swimming in it. Even from there, she could have reached out and pulled that water to her, drawn it into tentacles, used it to defend herself from any of Rex Major’s men who might make an appearance.
Not that that was likely. Major had no way of knowing they were in Medicine Hat.
Did he?
She sighed. Paranoia ran deep when your adversary was rich, powerful and a legendary sorcerer. She wouldn’t have thought he could have figured out Wally was in Gravenhurst –
but he had.
She closed the curtain and turned back to face the hotel room, but she wasn’t really seeing it. Instead, she felt the bright power of the shard of Excalibur strapped to her side, and heard the more distant song of the second shard, tucked away at Barringer Farm. She couldn’t sense the one Major had, but just the thought of it in his possession angered her. It wasn’t right, Major having one of the shards. It wasn’t what the sword wanted. It wasn’t what the Lady had wanted, the Lady who had forged the sword to begin with.
And it definitely wasn’t what Ariane wanted, now that she was the Lady.
Yet for all her power, she could not simply attack Major and take the shard from him. He had power, too, more than he had had when this all began. Simply having three of the shards of Excalibur once more at play in the world had allowed more magic to seep through the opening between Faerie and Earth. Major had healed Flish’s broken leg. His power of Command could weave complex illusions around ordinary people, like Aunt Phyllis and, presumably, Wally’s parents, or anyone else he needed to influence. And, of course, he was also one of the richest men in the world, with all the security arrangements and resources that came with that. Attacking him directly would surely be disastrous, and that was without even considering the fact he had Flish at his side, and Flish, however much she hated Ariane, however estranged she might be from Wally, was still Wally’s sister.
Not only that, Flish was, like Wally, an heir of Arthur’s. And if Wally had developed surprising fighting skills due to the power of the sword, who knew what his sister was now capable of?
No, Ariane’s and Wally’s path remained the same. They needed the fourth shard. With three in her possession, Ariane was confident nothing would keep her from finding the final piece, the hilt, and with every piece of the sword but one in her possession, she would be able to simply draw the final shard to her, no matter what effort Merlin expended to keep it from her.
But the fourth shard remained invisible to her. It could be anywhere: Antarctica, the Himalayas, Zaire, the Amazon. The world was a very big place, and the Lady, Ariane knew – for she had proven it herself – could have travelled anywhere around it.
At least we’ve got a lead on Mom, she thought fiercely. Who cares about Excalibur if I can just find her?
Wearing her long flannel nightgown, Emma came out of the washroom. Ariane started toward it to change into her pajamas, but she didn’t get far; there came a knock on the door, frantic, urgent.
She went to it, looked through the peephole, and saw Wally, wide-eyed and wild-looking, on the other side. She opened it, and he burst in.
“I think Rex Major knows where the fourth shard is!” he said. “And I do, too!”
Chapter Five
Wally Phones Home
“Wally?” Wally couldn’t see his father, but he knew him well enough to know his eyes had just jerked wide. “Wally?”
“Yeah,” Wally said.
“Thank God you’re alive! What’s going on? Where are you?”
“I’m safe,” Wally said. “I’m okay.”
“That’s not good enough,” his father said, and now Wally could imagine his eyes narrowing, his thick black brows drawing together. “Your mother and I have been worried sick. You ran away from Rex Major’s condo in Toronto. You flew to New Zealand, for God’s sake! Dozens of people searched the mountains for you. No one could find a trace of you. They told us you were probably dead –”
“I had good reason to run away from Rex Major.”
His father snorted. “Don’t you dare try to blame this on Mr. Major. He’s an amazing man. He’s been nothing but kind to this family. He’s looking after your sister right now, helping her get a start in his company.”
Voice of Command, Wally reminded himself, pushing back against swelling anger. Dad’s under Major’s thumb. He’d never be that trusting, that brainwashed, if he wasn’t...well, brainwashed. “It wasn’t his fault,” he said out loud, as evenly as he could. “I just...had a chance to do something special. I took it.”
“You’re not making sense,” Dad said.
“I’m sorry,” Wally said, and he was. He hated lying to his father. But with Dad under Command, anything he said might make it back to Major. “I really am. Is Mom okay?”
A moment’s hesitation. “As far as I know,” Dad said. “I haven’t actually spoken to her for...a couple of weeks.”
Torture couldn’t have made Wally ask Dad how Erica, the blonde his father had left Mom for, was doing, even though he supposed she was somewhere nearby. “Tell her I’m all right.”
“I will,” Dad said. “But Wally, we have to know where you are. You aren’t old enough to –”
“I can look after myself,” Wally said. “That’s all you need to know.” He paused. Here we go, he thought. The real reason I called. “How’s Flish? Is she still in Toronto?”
The idea that had come to him moments before had been simple: possibly stupid, but simple. Major would take Flish with him if he knew where the fourth shard was and wanted to retrieve it. He had to have her with him if he was going to use the power of the shard he already had, and he’d want her with him if he found the fourth shard so he could use its power, too. Without ready access to the Internet, it was much harder to keep tabs on Major’s whereabouts than it might have been otherwise. But if Major were intent on keeping his parents calm and in his corner, he just might have told them wherever he might be taking Flish.
If. Might.
“Flish is doing wonderfully,” Dad said, so enthusiastically Wally knew it was in response to the Command Merlin had placed on him. “You won’t believe where Major is taking her.”
Wally’s hand tensed on the phone. “Where?” he said, as calmly as he could, though it felt as if an alarm clock were jangling inside his head.
“The Caribbean,” Dad said. “Mr. Major called to tell me she’s been doing so wonderfully in her new job that he wants to reward her with a trip. They’re leaving Sunday morning.”
The Caribbean? That was an awfully big area. “Did she say where in the Caribbean?”
“No,” Dad said. “Why?”
“Just curious.” Wally paused. “And...you’re all right with this? Your eighteen-year-old daughter flying off with an older man to the Caribbean?” And you have no idea just how much older.
“Stop it, Wally,” Dad snapped. “Mr. Major is a perfect gentleman, as you well know. I don’t appreciate your insinuations.”
“Dad –”
“I’m glad you’re all right. But you have to tell us where you are. The police have you listed as a missing person...presumed dead. Just turn yourself in to the authorities wherever you are and –”
“Dad, I’m all right. Honestly. You can tell them you heard from me.”
“You’re underage, Wally. Turn yourself in. Or just come home.”
“There’s nobody in our home, Dad,” Wally said, the anger swelling up in him again. “You left it and Mom is who-knows-where –”
“Los Angeles,” Dad said. “New movie.”
“Los Angeles,” Wally said. “Why would I go home?”
“I mean come to where I am,” Dad said.
“And where’s that?”
“I’m in Victoria. At the Fairmont Empress.”
Victoria. Wally almost laughed. And we’re heading to Horseshoe Bay. I could hop a ferry.
“I can’t, Dad,” he said. “Not yet.”
An intake of breath. “Wally...”
“No, Dad.”
A pause. “I’ll tell the police you’re alive. They’re going to start looking again. They’ll find you eventually.”
“Maybe,” Wally said. “But you’d be surprised how much I move around.”
Another pause.
“Goodbye, Dad,” he said finally, when his Dad didn’t speak. There didn’t seem to be anything else left to say. “I’ll call again.”
“Wally –”
Wally hung up.
He took a deep breath. The ange
r boiled up inside, choking him. Some of it was aimed at his father, who had left his mother for a younger woman. Some of it was aimed at his mother, who had always put her career ahead of her family. But most of it was aimed at Major, who was meddling with his family, making what was already pretty dysfunctional even worse.
Then he remembered what he’d just learned, and he jumped to his feet.
Rex Major was taking Flish to the Caribbean, and he could think of only one possible reason: Rex Major knew where the fourth shard of Excalibur was.
He ran for the door.
<•>
Ariane and Emma listened as Wally explained, Ariane with growing excitement, dread – and frustration. “Damn his Internet magic. I still can’t sense the thing and he knows where it is!”
“Language, Ariane,” Emma said, sounding for a moment exactly like the strict schoolteacher she used to be. “So does this mean a change of plans for you two?”
Ariane looked at her. She sat there, tall and rather gaunt, her short white hair a little ruffled now since she’d pulled on her nightgown. Ariane didn’t know how old she was. She seemed unflappable.
But she was vulnerable, just like Aunt Phyllis, to Rex Major and his voice of Command. So far as they knew, Major had no idea Emma existed. Ariane vowed silently to keep it that way. The last thing we need is to hand Major another potential hostage.
“I don't know,” Ariane said miserably. “What about Mom?”
“Major doesn’t have her yet, or he’d find a way to let us know,” Wally said. “He has my email address, and he knows I’m checking in on computers regularly. There’s been nothing. Not even threats.”
“I guess...” Ariane said. Mom... She longed to chase the lead Wally had discovered, however uncertain it might be. But the best way to keep her mom, and Aunt Phyllis, and Emma from becoming hostages again was to defeat Major completely, and claim the sword for herself. If he had two shards and she had two, it would all come down to the hilt. But if she had three shards, she could surely find the hilt almost immediately, and with it in her possession, could supposedly call the remaining shard to her – whatever that meant.
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