A moment’s pause, then his face broke into a warm smile. “Everyone, she’s back,” he shouted over his shoulder.
Brit couldn’t help but grin slightly at the knight’s enthusiasm. Perhaps she had been too hard on the man. He wasn’t that puny and stupid.
Guyon drew closer, looking from Brit to Amoret. “And you are?”
“My name is Amoret,” she said, her voice soft.
Guyon’s eyes widened. “Belphoebe will be delighted.”
As if summoned, Belphoebe came running out of the castle residence. “Amoret!” she exclaimed before sprinting the remaining distance to throw her arms around her sister. Amoret returned the embrace, and Brit let go as the pair of them sank to the ground, cries of delight coming from both of them, tears running down their cheeks.
After a moment, Belphoebe looked to Brit and said, “How can I ever thank you?”
“Seeing your joy is gratitude enough,” Brit replied, feeling her eyes sting. “But where is the young man who we found beaten nearly to death?”
“Scudamore?” Amoret looked hastily from Brit to Belphoebe.
“He’s alive,” Belphoebe answered her sister’s unspoken question. “But we didn’t know Brit would find you, and he left a day ago once he was well enough to travel. He swore he would come back with reinforcements.”
“What happened in the Shadow Realm?” asked Guyon, changing the subject as he looked to Brit. “You were gone for three days, and we were beginning to lose hope.”
“Three days? It felt like longer. Or possibly shorter.” Brit honestly couldn’t tell which.
“Time passes differently there,” Guyon confirmed. “But you’re lucky you got out when you did. Apparently, mortals can’t remain there for more than three days. We lost track of you once you encountered Wrath the second time.”
“Amoret was there for longer,” said Brit, glancing back at the two sisters who were still crying with their foreheads touching. Amoret looked up as Brit mentioned her name.
“I’m an exception. Being the Faerie Queen’s daughter gives me certain...immunities. It was one of the reasons why they wanted me to replace the Sin of Lust.”
Satisfied with that answer, Brit turned back to Guyon. “And what do you mean you lost track of me? How were you able to track me at all?”
“That was my doing,” said a voice behind Guyon. Brit peered over his shoulder to see George striding forward, looking solemn but more confident than she remembered. Since when had he shown up? “My connection to the Faerie Queen has given me the ability to see into the Shadow Realm, and even open a portal to it.”
“You could enter there?” asked Brit. “And you let me fight the Sins alone?”
“I had...other priorities,” said George, breathing out as though tired.
Guyon explained. “With George’s help we were able to communicate with you briefly, but soon after we lost the ability to see anything. We thought you were lost.”
“Obviously I was not,” said Brit. “But you’re getting ahead of your story. What happened after I left? How did you survive all the other monsters with Una and I gone? And when did he get here?” she pointed at George.
Guyon looked at George. “He arrived shortly after you left and helped us clear out the rest. But that didn’t take much time because most of them fled after Duessa took Una through the breach. I suppose they may have been given other tasks.”
Brit swallowed, remembering Una. “Have you any word of her?”
George spoke quickly, before Guyon could reply. “She’s actually here, resting. I retrieved her from Duessa’s stronghold in the forest.”
A wave of indescribable relief flooded through Brit, and she felt her knees buckle. “That is the best of news.” But when neither George nor Guyon appeared to share her joy, she paused and looked from one to the other. “Is she well? What happened?”
George glanced at Guyon then back at Brit. “Perhaps it will be better if you talk to her.”
Una lay staring up at the ceiling, lying on a bed that hadn’t been slept in for over three years. Other than a thick layer of dust, the place was remarkably well-preserved, tucked away in the corner of the living quarters so that the dragon hadn’t been able to damage it intentionally or otherwise.
She was alive, that was the most important thing. And she could move again, albeit with great effort. Whatever potion Duessa had used on her seemed to be wearing off.
But it mattered very little at this point. The damage had been done. Duessa had her prize in the false Una. The Faerie Queen had been right to warn her, even right to take her out of the picture. In the end she had given the Sins exactly what they needed.
Feet padding over stone informed her that George and the others had returned. But as they began filing into her room, Brit was with them.
Una took a deep breath and pushed herself to a sitting position. “You’re alive,” she breathed as Brit took a position beside George and Guyon.
“You are too. I am so glad,” said Brit. There was relief in her eyes at seeing Una, but something else as well. Shame? She hung her head and it was a moment before she could speak again. “Una...I...I…”
“It’s alright, Brit,” Una comforted. “You did what the Faerie Queen asked of you, and you were right to do so.”
“I am so sorry,” Brit exclaimed, her face growing red and her eyes glistening. “I didn’t see another way.”
“I forgive you.”
“I no longer wish for your life, I swear it,” said Brit in a hurry. “Now that you are safe, we won. The Faerie Queen was wrong about you.”
But Una was already shaking her head. “No, Brit. Gloriana was right. Duessa got what she needed from me.”
“What do you mean?”
“My magic is gone, Brit,” said Una, instinctively reaching for her power again to be sure, but finding nothing. “Duessa took it from me and gave it to another.”
“I don’t understand.”
Una began relating everything that had happened over the past few days. She started with what the Faerie Queen had told her, and how she had barely escaped her castle before flying off to rescue her friends. She mentioned what she had learned about her father, and how Duessa needed her special connection to bring him into the physical realm. Then she spoke of what happened after Duessa had captured her, about the false Una and how Duessa had somehow managed to transfer her blood and magic into the identical copy.
George added a few additional details. “The Faerie Queen ordered the entire Order of Maidenglory to attack the City of Pride. I was the only one she asked to stay behind. Of course, I could not do that, so I used much of what I learned recently to access the Shadow Realm. That’s how I found Una and got her out alive. But...many of my fellow knights were not so lucky.”
“They died in the attack?” asked Brit.
George nodded. “Either trying to breach the castle directly or sneak in through the Shadow Realm like I did. But few made it out alive.”
Una let her head rest on her pillow again. She hadn’t known that anyone was trying to reach her until George mentioned it. It only made her guilt deepen as she imagined the additional lives lost, even if they had been trying to end her. She could not imagine how she would feel had George lost his life.
George continued, “Now that I’ve rescued Una, I suspect my time with the Faerie Queen is over. And we may need to move soon. She could come after us next.”
Una shook her head. “There wouldn’t be any point. Duessa already has what she was after. I’m no more than a hollow shell of what I was. Besides, Gloriana likely has more on her mind with whatever Duessa’s planning.”
“I don’t see why any of us would want to work for the Faerie Queen anymore.” Surprisingly, those words came from Guyon, who stared at the floor with his jaw tightened. “She too asked me to kill you, Una. I couldn’t do it. And I can’t understand why she would ask that of anyone, especially your friends. I wouldn’t have defeated either Mammon or Acrasia without you
.”
“Gloriana needs to learn that the ends never justify the means.” The words came from Belphoebe, who entered the room with one arm around another young woman Una didn’t know, slightly younger than Belphoebe with light, short-cropped hair, and an air of supreme weariness on her countenance. “There is a reason why my sister and I distanced ourselves from her years ago.”
Sister? So that was the second woman Belphoebe had brought in. And based on the way Britomart looked at the girl, Una guessed that the Armorican knight had something to do with her arrival.
“Brit,” said Una, propping herself up on one elbow. “Perhaps you should tell me more about what happened to you in the Shadow Realm.”
Britomart obliged, beginning from the moment she’d followed after Una and Duessa. Una couldn’t help but come to a full sitting position, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed as Brit narrated her story. Guyon added a few bits about how he and the others had managed to peer into the Shadow Realm with George’s help, much as Una had done when Guyon had traveled there. But for the most part, Brit gave the full account. Every one of them gasped as Brit related what the Sins had been doing to Amoret in that evil place. The very idea seemed horrible, and Una couldn’t imagine what would have happened had they succeeded. Belphoebe only hugged her sister closer.
The story did something to Una, awakened a part of her that she thought dead after her experience in the City of Pride, a kind of righteous anger at the horrors of what had been done to Amoret. She wanted to do something about it. But what? She no longer had any magic, but then again, neither did any of the others, and yet they still managed to make a difference. George had slain the dragon, and both Guyon and Brit had a hand in defeating more than one of the Sins. Sure, Una had helped in some cases, but not always. And now that they had each other, they were stronger than any one person. Una would never forget that. She had learned the hard way the dangers of relying on oneself.
“What do we do now?” asked George, sounding genuinely at a loss. “Since the Faerie Queen will certainly not take me back, I don’t know where to go from here.”
Guyon glanced at the others, apparently not knowing what to say. It was Belphoebe who spoke first. “My sister and I are going to get as far from this place as we can. We’ll leave Britain and never look back.”
Brit nodded, “I would be honored to take you as far as Armorica.”
“Perhaps Una should go with you,” said Guyon. “I know the forces of light and dark have little need of her at this point, but I think it would be best if she escaped this place.”
Brit nodded in agreement. “And what will you do?” she asked Guyon and George.
“I suppose I will stay here. I have no plans to join the Faerie Queen’s Order of Maidenglory anymore, but there are people here who will need help.”
At a questioning glance from Brit, George merely remarked, “I go wherever Una goes.”
Brit nodded, “Then the two of you can come with us,” she indicated herself, Belphoebe, and Amoret. “Once in Armorica you can…”
“No.” All eyes turned to look at Una. “I’m not going to run.”
A stillness settled over all of them. Guyon took a half-step closer. “Una…”
“No,” she repeated. “Do you really think that leaving Britain will save us from what’s to come?”
Guyon set his jaw, clearly knowing it would not.
“We have to make a stand, even without my magic. After all, it’s not like I did all the work in defeating the Sins so far. All of you played a part. Together we are stronger, and there are only four Sins left. If there is even the slightest chance that we can stop Duessa before she brings my father into this world, then don’t we bear the responsibility to take it?”
An uncomfortable silence rested on each of them. Eventually, it was George who spoke. “My intrusion did cause the false Una to flee, and Duessa followed after her. She clearly feared what might happen to the girl, which means there could still be a weakness in her plans.”
“You should have just killed my copy,” said Una.
“Yes,” he said, gingerly rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought about that, but I didn’t want to run the risk of killing the wrong one.” Una shot him a look and he stammered. “I was fairly sure which of you was which, given what Duessa was doing to you. You appeared to be the main victim. But one can never be too sure.”
Una shook her head slightly but continued speaking to the rest of them. “My point is, if we can do anything, then it’s up to us to try.”
“What do you propose?” asked Brit.
Una glanced at the ceiling again. “I...think I want to stay here, to rebuild this place and send word to everyone, not just the Britons, but the Romans and even the Saxons. This will impact them as well. We send word that all who wish to fight against the forces of darkness are to gather here. Where better to strike against the City of Pride than from their own backdoor?”
Guyon gave her a slight smile and George was nodding, but Brit punched one hand into her palm repeatedly. “I like it. And perhaps then I can find that Saxon brute who dares to think he can be my husband.”
Una blinked. She had all but forgotten about Artegall, the man Brit wanted to kill. Though it did not matter much now. Una put it out of her mind and faced the Faerie Queen’s daughters. “And what about you?”
Belphoebe was shaking her head. “My sister has been through too much. I fear we must leave.”
Amoret placed one hand on her sister's shoulder. “I wish to stay.”
“Amoret…”
“Don’t, sister. I know firsthand what horrors the Sins can commit. I will not sit by and allow them to work their evil on others, not when we can help.”
Guyon looked at Una earnestly. “And what of the Faerie Queen?”
Una set her jaw. “I think it unlikely that she will want to work with us, even though we have the same goals. But if she offers, I will not deny her.”
“After everything she’s done?”
“Yes,” Una confirmed. “Because even though she has done horrible things, we need all the allies we can get. We cannot afford to pick and choose who will fight united against Duessa and who will not.”
Guyon nodded slowly, though inside he still appeared troubled. But as he met Una’s gaze, that inner conflict melted away and his face took on an air of firm resolve. “Alright, Una. What would you have us do?”
Epilogue
The false Una wandered through dark trees and unfamiliar pathways. She had run for some time, being chased by that dark-haired woman. But she was unusually fast with the fire that woman had injected into her. She’d found a strange power within her that had propelled her to run beyond the dark lady’s reach.
She thought back to the moment that fire had entered her, when she had been strapped to a table beside another who looked exactly like her. An imposter.
No, she was the imposter. Something inside her confirmed this. She had somehow been brought into being to replace the other, to be better than the other. It was her purpose, she knew this as surely as she knew she wanted...needed to survive.
That was why she had run. She had never known pain like that which had woken her. She had never known anything before that, but she knew that pain was not her friend, and neither was the dark-haired woman. There was something odd about that one. Part of the false Una seemed to think she was a friend, but another part despised her as an enemy, like an old memory of past wrongs, even though the false Una had no memories older than a few days.
She had to find the other, her true self. She had to end her so that she could take her place, to be better in every way. She would be the strongest, most loved, most beautiful woman in the world, she was sure of it.
The false Una continued wandering until she came to a much larger road, this one paved with rocks, though the trees still kept most of the light out so she could not make out much from either side.
Shrugging, she picked a direction at random and set out at a
light run. Perhaps the real Una had come this way, and if she had not, the false Una would simply turn around. It was nice to have such simple decisions arranged for her.
A new sound reached her ears, one she had never before heard, like the sound of large stones being dropped on other stones, but in a rhythmic pattern.
She turned, as the sound approached her from behind and waited until she saw its source. A great being made of metal stood upon a creature the false Una had never seen. It had four legs and a great torso, with a long head in front. Attached to the head was an instrument of some kind that connected to the great, metal person atop, who seemed to be guiding the beast somehow.
Upon seeing her, the metal man slowed the creature upon which he rode. “Whoa, there.” Then to the false Una, he said, “Who are you?”
“My name is Una,” she replied, coming closer to the beast. “What is this beautiful creature?”
“You mean my horse?”
A horse. What a fascinating name, yet somehow not quite enough to represent the majesty of such an animal.
“I must say,” said the metal man. “What is a beautiful girl like you doing in the forest? Are you lost?”
She looked up at him and smiled. He thought she was beautiful. “Yes, I’m afraid so. Can you help me?”
“Why, I would be delighted,” said he. Then, to the false Una’s dismay, he removed part of his metal head to reveal flesh beneath. It was a very attractive face. What a fascinating person.
“Now,” he said. “Where is it you want to go?”
She smiled, taking a sultry step in his direction. “You can start by taking me to your castle.”
The End of the third book of The Faerie Queen.
Author’s Note
Well, that was a crazy ride. I’ll admit, adapting this particular book of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene was much harder than the first two. This is due primarily to a massive number of new characters, convoluted storylines, and random tangents that the original author leads us on. But you can read more about that in the summary below.
Knight Spellbound Page 25