From somewhere behind the nearby chariot, Trashcan Harry started shouting.
"I'm sorry! I couldn't help it. They made me do it!"
One of the dark figures popped up from behind a planter overgrown with rhododendron. His weapon burped. Trashcan Harry began jerking as slugs slammed into his body and sent him sprawling over a low railing into the area in which John and Faye cowered.
The goblin was exposed where he lay, so John grabbed Harry's hand and tugged hard. Harry moaned with pain, but slid a foot closer to cover. John was able to get a second hand on Harry's arm and start pulling him to safety behind the case. Some of the Mitsutomo raiders opened fire. Glass rained down on John as he tugged on the limp goblin. Harry's body slid suddenly and the motion forced John almost upright. Something buzzed past his ear. He dove for the floor. Unfortunately, Harry's smelly body was between him and the cool stone. The goblin whoofed when John landed on him.
"Lay down some fire, Reddy!" Kun shouted.
"Harry's hurt," John told him.
"Damn the goblin. We're all dead if you don't do something."
Kun knew about these sorts of things; he was probably right. In an awkward rush, John unslung the Viper and clicked the selector to full autofire. Without looking, he poked it around the case and pulled the trigger. The recoil nearly pulled the weapon out of his hand. The black-clad men fired back, forcing John to huddle behind the case.
"I'm sorry, Jack," Trashcan Harry moaned. "I didn't want to do it, but they hurt me. They made me do it."
"Do what?" Faye sounded infuriated. John knew instantly he never wanted her to use that tone of voice on him.
"Open the door," Harry whined. "They put a tracker under my skin."
Faye slapped the goblin across the face, and he whimpered.
With a shout, a knot of the raiders burst from their hiding places, running forward under covering fire from their fellows. Something small and black arced out from Kun's position to meet them.
A grenade.
The explosion broke the charge, scattering men like tenpins. One of the attackers, a man much taller than the rest, was lifted off his feet by the explosion and tossed back through the hole. In his flight, he struck the short one with the shotgun, knocking him backward. The man flung out an arm to regain his balance and his flailing hand struck the rainbow fringes of the opening. Screaming, he was sucked into the rainbow.
The survivors crawled for cover, but Kun showed them no mercy, firing at anything that moved. John joined in, sticking his head up enough to see what he was shooting at. His fire caught one of the raiders dashing between a couch and a cabinet. The man fell without a sound. But instead of lying there bleeding, he turned black, not the cloth black of his clothes, but a total, utter, light-swallowing black.
And then he was gone.
Only a few drops of blood remained to show that he had ever been there.
The firing died down. There was furtive movement on the other side of the chamber, but none of the attackers showed themselves. John thought he heard voices and guessed that the raiders were conferring. Kun took the opportunity for a conference of their own.
"Bear dead?"
"Can't tell," John replied. "Don't see much blood, but he's not moving."
"Anybody else hurt?"
Faye shook her head, her tousled hair and hard-eyed expression making her look feral. She held a knife she'd gotten from somewhere.
"Just Harry," John said.
"Fuck him. You see the elf lady anywhere?"
The Lady of the Lakes seemed to have disappeared.
"Not since the shooting started. She was standing right next to Bear."
"Elves don't seem to be much for hanging around when it drops into the pot."
John couldn't deny that.
"How's the doctor?"
"Bumped her head. She's too dizzy to be helpful."
Faye laid her hand on his arm. "John, they're surrounding
us."
"Better shift over here, Reddy. I'll cover you."
"What about Harry?"
"Leave him."
"But I can't—"
"John, they're coming. Let's go." Faye ran toward Kun's position.
John followed. Miraculously, they made it to where Kun and Spae were waiting without getting hit.
"Only two firing on overwatch," Kun said. "That would make a half-dozen unaccounted for."
"Over by Caliburn's place," Faye said.
"Flankers," Kun pronounced them.
John looked and caught a glimpse of a black figure disappearing behind a cabinet. Another flashed between a dividing
wall and one of the couches. Kun ordered them to shift around to a position where they would have cover from both the overwatchers and the flankers. By the time he was satisfied, they were under fire again and the flanking raiders were advancing across the area where Bear had gone down.
Looking like a bloody spirit of vengeance, Bear rose up behind the flankers. He held Caliburn in his hand. He raised the sword high, adding his free hand on the pommel to take a two-handed grip as he advanced. Their overwatchers spotted him, but with partners between them and Bear, they shouted a warning instead of firing. The raider nearest Bear tried to turn and face the threat, but he didn't get halfway around. Bear swept the sword down, burying it in the man's shoulder. The raider fell with a strangled cry, blackening as Bear pulled the sword free. Bear stepped through the space the man had occupied and was in among the rest of the flanking party, sword swinging.
Kun's elbow jogged John out of his openmouthed inactivity. The agent popped up to fire at the raiders on over-watch. John rolled to the edge of the cover to add his weapon fire to Kun's effort. Just then, the raiders around Bear broke, scrambling away. Two more of them had gone down to Bear's sword work. The two survivors fired as they ran, but Bear was too fast, ducking to safety behind one of the low walls.
The failure of the flanking maneuver seemed to sap the raiders' will. They started retreating toward the hole in the air, firing as they went.
"Let them go," Kun shouted.
The black-clad forms leapt over the rainbow line into the nacreous white and vanished one by one. The polychromatic circle contracted into a ball and winked out. Whoever they were, they were gone, gone back to wherever they came from.
"And good riddance to them."
John and Kun, weapons ready, spun at the sound of the voice, but Bennett didn't look at all impressed.
CHAPTER
25
With a ripple of air, the Lady of the Lakes appeared at Bennett's side; and that, John supposed, was what saved him. At least John was sure that was why he hadn't tightened his finger on the trigger of his machine pistol; no one seemed interested in hurting the Lady. Not that he wanted to shoot Bennett, but the fight with the raiders had left him ready to fire at any unexpected thing and Bennett's appearance was certainly unexpected. With a sigh of released tension, John lowered the weapon.
"You can come out now, Artos," Bennett called. "I know you have Caliburn, so you're not going to surprise me with it."
Bear emerged from behind a cabinet. Blood streamed from his wounded shoulder and he was shaky on his feet. "You're late again, Bennett."
Bennett chuckled. "As usual, you misunderstand. I wanted Caliburn free."
"You'll never take it from me."
"I don't intend to. You've already accomplished what I sought. Caliburn unbound is what I sought. That, and my son."
"What?"
Bennett laughed at Bear's confusion. "I thought it most amusing that you took him as your 'man.' "
"Jack, what's he talking about?"
"See for yourself," Bennett said.
John felt a blast of hot air. Bear's eyes went wide, as though he were seeing John for the first time. In a way, he was; John didn't need a mirror to know that his true face and form had been revealed at last. Bear's gaze passed from John to Bennett and back, his expression darkening into a scowl.
"I've been blind. You've been a serpen
t in my camp all along."
"Bear, I—"
"Speak no more to me, traitor."
Bear moved over to Kun and Spae, but kept his face turned from John. In a way it made it easier. The expressions on the faces of the other two were hard enough to bear. Too hard. John turned away to avoid seeing their betrayed looks.
"Behind you, Jack," Bennett called, gesturing over John's shoulder as he spoke.
To the tolling of a great iron bell, John turned to see Kun and Spae standing unnaturally still. Kan's weapon was half raised and a faint light flickered around the tip of Spae's staff. It died even as John saw it. Bear was stepping forward, Caliburn ringing in his hand. Bear took another step toward John and Bennett. At John's side, the elf gestured again. The sword toiled as the spell struck, but the tone cut off as Caliburn slipped from Bear's grip. The blade clattered as it hit the floor, not like a bell at all. Bear came on and Bennett gestured yet again. Bear, shorn of the sword's protection, stilled into immobility.
"You see, Jack? He is not so great and powerful, after all. Just another lumbering human who is ready to kill an elf without asking questions first."
"Questions like, what do you think you're doing?"
"Exactly like that. I took action only to ensure your safety."
"They wouldn't hurt me." "You trust them far too much." Bennett held out a slim bladed dagger of dark metal. "Take this, Jack."
John took it; it was lighter than he expected.
"The blade is ensorcelled and will pass through the stasis."
"You want me to kill him," John said, not really believing
it.
"Now that he knows who and what you are, he will tiy to kill you. You heard what he called you. In his time, a traitor to the king was killed out of hand. Act now, and save yourself trouble in the future."
John looked into Bear's face. Could he hear what was being said? Was what Bennett was saying true? Bear's lips remained frozen, and his still, staring eyes held no answer.
John was on his own.
Savagely he thrust the dagger back at Bennett, "if you want him dead so badly, why don't you do it yourself? He's helpless. He can't hurt you."
"I could kill him. Perhaps I will yet. I thought, however, that you deserved the chance."
"To commit murder?"
"One cannot murder lesser life-forms."
"He's a human being!"
Bennett raised an eyebrow. "I will say one thing in his favor; for all that he was only a human, Artos understood the value and importance of symbols. He became a rather powerful one himself to his fellows. Don't you think it fitting that he be a symbol one last time?"
"What do you mean?"
"Show me you know your blood, Jack. There before you is the symbol of mankind, of the life you knew: a king of the earthly realm. Throw off that mundane yoke. Strike off your fetters, by striking down the tie that binds you to the dross of their realm. Kill him, and be free to take up your heritage."
Was this the price of being an elven prince?
"I can't."
"Of course you can. If you don't want to use the dagger, use your gun. Or—yes, I think he would understand that the best—use the sword. I can free it from the spell. Having lived by it, Artos would surely appreciate dying by it. An honorable death, by his lights."
"No!"
"I told you he wouldn't," said the Lady to Bennett.
Bennett frowned. "Jack, there is no more time for foolishness."
"If being an elf means being a murderer, I want no part of it. I'd rather be human."
"There is no place for humans here."
"Then I'll go home."
"And be used against me?"
"I don't want anything to do with you."
"You cannot change who you are."
"Look, just let me go home. Let us all go home. We'll stay out of your way."
"I think not."
Bennett called fire to his hand as he had that night in the museum. John looked fearfully at the growing flames. He was not a mage like Nym; he had no defenses against those deadly energies.
Faye threw herself between Bennett and John, taking the brunt of the spell. She screamed and bent over at the waist as though she'd been gut-punched when the fire hit her, but the flames died out. She straightened, trembling, and faced Bennett.
"Your job is done," Bennett told her.
"Come away, little one," the Lady said.
Still trembling, Faye shook her head. She held her knife out, pointed at Bennett.
A contemptuous sneer on his face, he called the fire again and cast it at her. It wreathed her, clinging as she crumpled to the floor. Her screams tore at John's heart, but the sight of her pain paralyzed him. What could he do against such magic? Faye's screams shuddered down into whimpers, then into silence. The flames flickered and died.
Trashcan Harry threw himself at Bennett, but the wounded goblin's attack was crushed by a downward flick of the elf s hand. Harry collapsed in a heap at Bennett's feet. Bennett
bent down and lifted the goblin by the throat. With a twist of his wrist he snapped Harry's neck.
"Your part is over, too, pathetic creature," he said as he tossed the lifeless body away.
Trashcan Harry had never had a chance, but he'd shown a courage beyond his strength. Could John do less? He stepped forward and snatched up Caliburn, sweeping the sword up into en garde.
Bennett frowned. "What good do you think that will do? It is not yours. It will not protect you."
"No? But then, maybe I've had enough defending."
John's lunge caught Bennett off guard, but still the elf managed to twist lithely away from the attack. The blade did nothing more than slice through his coat. Bennett backed away rapidly, opening space between him and John.
Instead of pursuing, John turned back to Bear. Bear knew the sword, he knew how to use it best. Jamming the sword's grip into Bear's palm, he folded the man's stiff fingers around it and hoped he was doing the right thing.
"Stupid wretch," Bennett shouted.
Fire ate at John's back. He screamed as the pain dug iron spikes into him. He smelled the stench of his leather jacket burning; then another, more awful smell penetrated his agony. He collapsed to his knees, the world blackening around him. Somewhere, very far off, a bell began to toll.
Everything went dark.
After a sensationless interval of unknown duration, John found himself looking up at Bear standing astride him. Bear was brandishing Caliburn—not at John, at Bennett—and shouting.
"Face me alone, elf! We'll settle matters once and for ail."
Bennett laughed.
"Another day, Artos. For today, I am content with how the game has played." With that Bennett vanished from sight, winking out like a terminated holoprojection. But like the Cheshire cat's smile, his voice remained for a last echoing comment. "The reign of magic is begun again."
"He is right," said the Lady of the Lakes solemnly.
Bear turned on her and demanded, "What part did you have in this, Lady?"
"I was only an observer."
"You could have defended us."
"The cost would have been too high."
"I had dared think you a friend, Lady. I see I was wrong."
"Wrong is what you are now, Artos. You have more friends than you know. When you arrived, you told me that you did not intend to stay long. Now I think the time has come for parting."
"I have questions," Bear said.
"There will always be questions," the Lady said. "Now, you must go. I give you all health as a parting gift. Return to your earthly realm."
And with that, John stood on a grassy knoll in what appeared to be a small park tucked in the midst of office buildings. His back no longer hurt, and he shivered a little in the cool breeze blowing over his exposed skin. Little remained of his jacket save charred sleeves, and the H & K Viper was gone, left on the Lady's floor to be placed in one of her cabinets, no doubt.
He turned in place for a qui
ck survey of the area. He didn't recognize his surroundings, and none of the others was in sight. Where had the Lady sent them? Wherever it was, he hoped that they had received her healing gift as well. Especially Faye.
He intended to find out what had happened to all of them. Especially Faye. It might not be easy, but he had reason for optimism, for there was something different now.
Very different.
He could smell the magic in the air.
Robert Charrette - Arthur 01 - A Prince Among Men Page 28