Wally’s seat for the short flight to Lyon was near the back and next to the window of the rather small jet, and as a result he was one of the last to exit. Having carried his backpack onto all three planes, he didn’t need to follow the crowd to the baggage reclaim area, but he did so anyway, since that was the likeliest place for Ariane to look for him. As he walked, he searched the crowds rushing past for Ariane’s mane of black hair and bright blue eyes.
He didn’t see her. He reached the baggage claim area, and watched as other passengers hugged children, kissed spouses or lovers, retrieved their luggage from the carousel and then headed off toward buses or parking or taxis or the train station. Still no Ariane.
But while he was staring off into the distance at a black-haired girl, trying to decide if it could be Ariane or not, a familiar voice behind him said, “Welcome to Lyon, Mr. Knight.”
Wally’s heart skipped a beat and his skin went cold. He spun to see a tall man with grey eyes, grey hair and an impeccably tailored blue suit smiling at him with even white teeth. A ruby stud glinted in the lobe of his right ear. “What are you doing here?” Wally said, and instantly thought that made him sound like an idiot, since Rex Major was obviously in southern France for the same reason he was.
“I am in France for the second shard of Excalibur, of course,” Major said. “But I am here, at the airport, to meet you.”
“Why?” Wally demanded. He looked around. The crowd of people arriving had dwindled to a group of four friends having an animated conversation on the other side of the carousel, on which a lonely pink suitcase was going round and round, unclaimed, but it still didn’t seem likely Major was going to forcibly haul him away in front of witnesses, no matter how few. “You can’t do anything to me here.”
“I don’t want to do anything to you,” said Major. “As to why I am here...isn’t it obvious?” He spread his hands. “Because no one else is.”
“Ariane’s here,” Wally said. “Somewhere.”
“Really?” Major’s eyebrows lifted. “But she didn’t board the plane with you in Regina.”
“She didn’t need to board the plane.”
The eyebrows knitted together again. “Then she has discovered a way to cross the ocean using the Lady’s magic? How?”
Wally said nothing. Merlin thought for a moment. “Of course,” he said. “The clouds.” He sighed. “I once suspected the Lady had that power, but I was never entirely certain.”
Wally, you’re an idiot, Wally thought. Sounds like Merlin didn’t know that bit of information until you dumped it in his lap.
“She surprises me again,” Merlin went on. “And yet...” he made a show of scanning the baggage area, “I don’t see her. Do you?”
“She’s around.” Wally shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “She probably doesn’t want to reveal herself with you here.”
“Maybe she’s hiding in the toilet,” Major said. “Possibly in the actual bowl.”
Wally’s mouth quirked despite himself. “She’s around,” he repeated. “You still haven’t told me what you want with us.”
“I said I came to meet you,” Major said. “Not you and Ariane, whom, unlike you, I never expected to be here. Just you.”
Wally didn’t like the sound of that. He stared around, wondering if he were about to be taken hostage for the second time in less than a month. “Ariane!” he shouted. “You can come out!”
The four people still chatting loudly in French by the baggage carousel cast surprised looks at him. So did the soldier in camouflage carrying an automatic rifle, which wasn’t something Wally was used to seeing in an airport. Catching the soldier’s cold blue stare, Wally snapped his mouth closed and decided not to shout again.
In any event, Ariane didn’t emerge from her hiding place...not that he could see any hiding places, unless she really was inside one of the toilets. “Do you still think she’s here?” Rex Major said softly.
“I know she is,” said Wally.
“Why? Because she promised?” Rex Major shook his head. “The Lady will promise anything to get what she wants, and break those promises without a second thought. Believe me, I know.”
“Ariane is not the Lady,” Wally said. “She –”
“Ariane is the Lady,” Major insisted. “Or is becoming the Lady.”
“She’s not....”
“...here,” Major finished for him. He moved closer, and said in a low voice, “And you know why, if you think about it. Now that I know she has found a way to use magic to get here, it’s certainly clear to me. She never really needed you. She let you come, because she likes you, I suppose, but she was really just humouring you.”
“That’s not true,” Wally said hotly. “We had it all planned. I would fly here, Ariane would use magic to get here, we’d meet up and go get the shard together.”
“Indeed,” Major said. “You had it all planned, you say. She promised to be here. And yet she is not here. And you know why, if you are honest with yourself. She’s not here to meet you for the simple reason that she’s already gone after the shard...without you.”
Wally said nothing for a moment. It all sounded horribly plausible. And the worst of it was, if Ariane had done that...he couldn’t even really blame her. He was just the sidekick in this story. She was the heroine. Heck, she was more than just a heroine: she was a superheroine. The two of them weren’t even Batman and Robin; they were more like Superman and Jimmy Olsen. Superman never waited for Jimmy. Why should Ariane wait for him, if she had a chance to get the shard?
The Lady gave both of us the quest, he thought plaintively. Hard on the heels of that thought came another, as it so often did: But I still don’t know if we can trust the Lady.
He searched the baggage area again, but it was a useless effort. Even the French foursome had left, and the carousel had stopped. The soldier remained, but he had pulled the unclaimed suitcase from the carousel and was kneeling beside it, talking into a microphone attached to his lapel. A woman suddenly burst through the door leading to the concourse and dashed over to the soldier, apologizing profusely in French.
Wally looked at Major, and tried to harden his wavering resolve. “Or maybe she’s not here because she had trouble getting across the Atlantic,” he said. “She wasn’t sure she could do it. That’s why she didn’t want to try to bring me with her that way. That’s why I came by plane.”
“You’re deluding yourself, Wally,” Major said softly.
“Then why are you here?” Wally demanded. “If I’m no use to Ariane, how could I be of any use to you? If she is what you say she is, she won’t give you the second shard...even if you threaten to kill me.” The woman rushed off with her suitcase; the soldier began walking away, his back to Wally and Merlin. Wally wished he’d come back. “That’s what comes next, isn’t it? You threaten to kill me?”
“Why would I do that?” Major said. “I only threatened you in Yellowknife to convince Ariane to give me the shard. Right now she doesn’t have the shard. I would know if she did.” He smiled. “I suspect she has been stymied by the rather...difficult...location.” He glanced at the soldier, now three carousels away and talking to a blue-uniformed policeman, took another step closer to Wally, and lowered his voice even more. “I am not here to take you hostage, Wally. I won’t try to influence Ariane by threatening you ever again, because now that she has one shard, and has held it for a significant period of time, threatening you won’t work. It can’t. The shard won’t let it.” He sighed. “Although at least, at this point, she’d still feel badly if something happened to you. Once she has two shards...I wouldn’t even bet on that.”
“Then why are you here?” Wally repeated. He looked around again. The soldier and cop were still talking. No one else was in sight.
Still no Ariane.
“I’m here to take you to where the second shard is hidden.”
Wally’s gaze jerked back to Major.
“Wally, I’m not the villain, no matter what th
e Lady would have you think,” Major continued. “I told you before – it’s true that I want the sword so that I can take charge of the world, but I want to make it better, not destroy it! I want to fix things. All the Lady wants is for Excalibur to be re-forged and returned to her, in Faerie, thereby sealing the door between the worlds. If that happens, magic will vanish from Earth forever, and poor suffering humanity will be left to its own resources, as it has been since my first attempt to heal the world went awry all those years ago in England.”
And it hasn’t exactly been a grand few centuries, has it? Wally thought. Especially the last one. But reminding himself again that this was Merlin he was talking to – though at least this time Major didn’t seem to be using magic on him – all he said out loud was, “I still don’t see what you want from me. I mean, yeah, I’m getting to be a pretty good fencer and I know my way around a computer, but...”
Major hesitated. “It’s possible...just possible...that you are very much more than you think...just as Ariane turned out to be much more than she ever thought.”
Wally’s heart skipped another beat. “Are you saying I have magic too?” Every fantasy novel he’d ever read about the ordinary kid who turned out to have extraordinary powers flashed through his mind. Maybe I’m not just a sidekick, he thought. Maybe the Lady saw that too...and didn’t tell me? Another mark against her, if true.
“It’s possible,” Major said. “But only the shards of Excalibur can tell me for certain.”
Wally’s excitement evaporated. “So it’s just a trick to get me to come with you.”
“It’s not a trick.” Major put out his hand and gripped Wally’s shoulder. “Wally, I just want you to spend some time with me. Let me explain my plans, my dreams. Don’t fear me. Please. I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m trying to help you.”
Wally swallowed an unexpected lump in his throat. That gesture was one his father had performed countless times. The hand on the shoulder...the direct gaze...the note of concern in the voice....
Yeah, and Dad didn’t really mean it, did he? Wally thought with deliberate harshness. It’s a trick. This man threatened to kill you, tried to kidnap Ariane. He’s not a nice guy.
But....
“You are very much more than you think....”
He tried to push away the possibility, not think about it. Focus on what you know, not what Merlin is trying to make you believe! He shrugged off Major’s hand and took a step back from him. “No. You’re trying to trick me into betraying Ariane, trying to get me to help you get the second shard!”
Major looked around the empty baggage area. “It appears to me,” he said, “that she has already betrayed you.” His gaze returned to Wally. “And, Wally, listen to yourself. Do you really think I need your help to retrieve the shard? I know where it is, and I know how to get it. It’s true I think you may have the potential to become something...someone...very special, but right now you’re just a rather clumsy fourteen-year-old boy.” He spread his hands. “I’m Rex Major. I don’t need your help, Wally. I’m just here to offer you the opportunity to observe me, and then judge for yourself whether I or the Lady most deserves your trust. And if you do choose to trust me, then I will tell you what...who...I think you might be. And if I obtain the second shard, and it confirms my suspicion, then, and only then, I may ask you to help me.”
“And if I refuse to come with you?” Wally said.
Merlin laughed. “Then you’re free to go. I’ll even give you money for a taxi to wherever it is you’re planning to stay while in France.” He smiled at Wally. “So. Will you trust me this little bit? Will you trust me enough to come with me to where the second shard is hidden?” He spread his hands. “I have met you in a public place. I have not tried to use magic on you. I am not threatening you. Whatever you decide is purely your choice.”
Choice. Wally hadn’t had much of that lately. The Lady hadn’t given him a choice. She’d thrust him into this quest without asking him if he wanted it (he would have agreed in a heartbeat, he freely admitted, but still, she hadn’t asked). He hadn’t had any choice about his parents splitting up either, or his sister moving out, or being stuck with Mrs. Carson as his guardian. But here, now, Major was offering him a choice. A real choice. He had come to Wally alone, with no bodyguards or henchmen. They were in a public place with an armed soldier and a policeman not far away. Wally could tell him “no” and walk away right now. Major was doing everything he could to back up his soft words with soft actions, to show that he was not here to threaten, but to make an honest offer.
And what if Major were telling the truth? If the stakes were as high as he said, could Wally really blame him for his actions in Yellowknife? Without the sword, Major would age and die. Without the sword, he could do nothing more than any other wealthy man to help the world. But with the sword...anything was possible.
A world united and free of terrorism, war, hatred, famine and disease, versus a world cut off from magic forever, left to sink even further into misery and destruction?
If I go with him, I’ll be putting myself at his mercy. If I take this chance and he’s lying, I’ll have ruined everything for Ariane.
But if he’s telling the truth, then I’ll actually be helping her by trusting him. Because that will mean the Lady is the dangerous one, the one who’s been misleading us. If Major is telling the truth, the real threat to Ariane is the way the Lady’s power...and that of the shard...is changing her. Corrupting her.
Wally didn’t see any way around it. As illogical as it seemed, the only way to find out if he could trust Major was to trust him. At the very least, if he let Major take him to where the shard was, he’d also be where Ariane either already was, or soon would be.
“All right,” Wally said. “I’ll come with you. But I’m not promising I’ll help you. And if you threaten me or Ariane, I’ll –”
“I would expect nothing less,” Major said. “Our last encounter was...clumsy. I was angry to discover the Lady was working against me. But I realize it’s not really your fault. It’s not even Ariane’s. She is in thrall to a power greater than herself. And while it is, of course, my ultimate goal to have Excalibur whole for my own use, it is also my sincere hope that my re-forging of the sword will free Ariane to once more be nothing but an ordinary teenager. I think she would be happier that way.”
Would she? Wally thought. He thought of Major’s vague, exciting suggestion that he, too, might have special powers. Would I, if I were in her place?
He didn’t know. But after what had happened to Flish, he was beginning to think Ariane and everyone around her would at least be safer if she didn’t have her powers.
The soldier and policeman were both watching them now, looking decidedly unfriendly. They’d obviously outstayed their welcome. “All right,” he repeated.
Major smiled. “This way,” he said. Wally followed him toward the street.
~~~
Ariane waited in the equipment shed for an hour before someone came to see her. She looked up, expecting the mysterious Dr. Beaudry – but it was only the English-speaking guard. “I have brought water,” he said, setting a large plastic bottle on a crate just inside the door. “Do you need to use the toilet?”
Well, she did, now that he mentioned it. And if there were enough water in that toilet...“Oui, s’il vous plaît.”
He nodded. “This way,” he said indicating she should follow him.
Her brief flicker of hope died when she entered the porta-potty and closed the door behind her. The only liquid she could sense was what had collected in the storage tank at the unit’s base, and she shuddered at the thought of trying to do anything with that. As soon as she emerged, she was taken back to the shed and locked up once more. The guard refused to answer any of the questions she asked him about how much longer she would have to wait for Dr. Beaudry.
She huddled there in the semi-darkness, taking a sip from the bottle of water periodically, as the afternoon wore away. Wally’s in L
yon by now, she thought. He’ll be wondering where I am. What will he do?
What could he do? Without her to guide him, he didn’t have a clue where the second shard could be. He would have to check into their hotel and wait.
He could phone home, she thought uneasily. She thought of Aunt Phyllis answering that call, hearing from Wally that he was in France, but Ariane hadn’t arrived...
Picturing Aunt Phyllis’s distress made her feel sick, but there was nothing she could do about it. I screwed up, she thought, not for the first time.
Finally, when the light streaming in through the narrow windows had taken on the distinctive blue tint of twilight, just when she’d started to worry they intended to leave her in the equipment shed all night, she heard a vehicle pull up outside, its lights flashing across the windows.
A car door slammed. Muffled voices grew louder, and then she heard someone fumbling with the padlock. She scrambled to her feet as the doors slid open.
Her English-speaking guard stood behind a much shorter (and balder), man, whom she had last seen emerging from the cave. “Dr. Beaudry, I presume?” she said.
His mouth twitched into an almost-smile, and she felt a flood of relief. He obviously wasn’t the monster her imagination had been building him up into over the past few hours.
And also, he spoke English.
“René Beaudry, oui. Director of Prehistoric Antiquities for Midi-Pyrénées, so appointed by the Ministry of Culture,” he said. His voice was soft and calm. “And you are...?”
She felt a moment’s panic. What name had she given the guards? “Ar...Arial. Arial Muirhead.” That was it. Mrs. Muirhead, she told herself. Just think of Macbeth.
“Canadian, I am told?”
“Yes.”
“But not French-Canadian, obviously?” Again, that flicker of a smile.
“No,” said Ariane. “I’m from Saskatchewan.”
“Well, Arial Muirhead from Sas-kat-chew-an,” he stumbled over the province’s name a little, “come out here, please. We must have a chat.” He stepped aside, and she exited the equipment shed with relief.
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