Twist of the Blade

by Edward Willett

  The shards’ combined rage almost overwhelmed her...but just enough of her remained to enable her to resist. With enormous effort, Ariane dropped the ice-sword into the pool and let the water suck her down and spirit her away.

  Her last sight of the cavern was of Wally kneeling in the pool, staring at her, blood streaming down his face.

  ~~~

  Spitting, sputtering, Wally hauled himself upright after Ariane’s first surge of water shoved him into the pool...just in time to be hit by the tentacle hurling itself back toward her, the second shard of Excalibur caught in its tip like a twig in a rip-tide. The piece of ancient metal laid his cheek open. Blood sprayed from the wound as he was flung into the pool once more, and he pressed his hand against the cut. The pain was sharp, but not as sharp as Wally’s hurt as he looked up and saw Ariane – now holding the second shard of Excalibur – let the tentacle of water fall apart into the pool, take one look at him and the onrushing Major and vanish, sucked down into the water and away.

  “No!” Major shouted, splashing through the spot where Ariane had stood an instant before. “Not again!” He spun and stared down at the place where the girl had vanished, fists clenched at his side. The ruby stud in his ear caught the light of Wally’s helmet lamp and glowed like a fleck of fire. Wally kept his hand pressed to his bleeding cheek. The cavern spun around him, and he bowed his head for a moment, eyes closed, afraid he might be sick. The nausea faded as footsteps splashed toward him. He blinked his eyes open again and looked up to see Major standing over him.

  “I told you,” the sorcerer said, his voice grim. “She is not your friend anymore. She is the Lady of the Lake, and you have become expendable.” He reached out his hand. Wally let Major pull him to his feet, but his head roared and his vision greyed. His knees buckled. He fell against Major, who steadied him with an arm around his shoulders. “Careful, son.”

  Wally pulled his hand away from his cheek and stared at the blood smearing his fingers. At least I’ve got something in common with my sister now. We’ve both been hurt by Ariane. He clenched his fist so tightly that the blood on his palm oozed between his fingers. More blood dripped into the water, making a pink swirl at his feet. He raised his head and met Major’s eyes. When Ariane had vanished, leaving him with Major, she’d taken his indecision with her. I guess I know who to trust now.

  Wally straightened as his dizziness retreated. “She’s got the second shard,” he said. “What do we have to do to get it back?”

  ~~~

  Ariane whirled away through the underground waterways, into the river, through lakes and ponds and pipes and pools all the way to the lake near Lyon where she had rested once before. The two shards of Excalibur blazed in her senses like twin suns. With both of them to draw on, what power she would have!

  Standing whole and dry on the shore of the lake beneath a gloriously bright blue sky, she stared at the piece of metal clutched in her hand. It was a little longer than the first shard, perhaps twenty centimetres, and a little wider. Unlike the first, whose one end was the sword’s sharp point, this was broken at both ends. With trembling fingers she pulled up her shirt and undid the tensor bandage holding the first fragment, the lakeside air chill against her exposed skin. She let the bandage fall to the ground. A shard in each hand, she closed her eyes, listening to their songs, equal now in joy and strength...but....

  She frowned. They were not singing in the same key. Perhaps if....

  Her hands trembling a little, she touched them together.

  The top of the first shard and bottom of the second fitted so neatly that only the faintest hairline marked the point of contact. But she could hold them there only for an instant; the clashing harmonies rose to such a cacophony that she jerked the shards apart again, gasping, unable to bear the discord.

  And yet at the same time the two shards longed to be together, yearned for it. To her astonishment, she found herself crying, heartsick that she couldn’t grant them the reunion they so fiercely desired.

  She blinked away the tears and stared at the two pieces. Both had power. She could draw on either one separately, but she couldn’t draw on both at the same time: not, she guessed, until the entire sword was forged anew. Using the shards one after the other, her powers might last longer, but she’d be no stronger than she was before.

  She remembered how close she had come to killing Major...how close she had come to killing Flish!...with the powers she already had, and wondered if that might not be a good thing.

  Just having an extra source of energy was nothing to be sneezed at, though, she thought, remembering how exhausted she had been when she’d crossed the ocean through the clouds. And she would certainly have to go home the same way, since she obviously could no more board a plane with two pieces of sharp metal strapped to her body than she could with one...and she suspected if she attempted such a thing in France, the consequences would be far more serious than they would have been in Regina.

  Wally, though, would still have to fly.

  And then, as if she’d breached a dam holding back the memory, everything she had thought about Wally and done to him in the cavern flooded back. She remembered the contempt she’d felt for his uselessness as he’d sat there in the pool, and her face flushed with shame. Useless? she thought, horrified in retrospect. If he hadn’t found me lying in the cavern, woken me up...Major would have come and gone with the shard and I would never have known he was there at all.

  But she’d shoved him out of the way, pushing him aside as though he were nothing more than a...a chair, or a table, some inanimate object blocking her access to the shard. Worse, she’d hurt him...she remembered his cry of pain, the blood on his face. And then – then –

  Then she’d just abandoned him, in Merlin’s clutches, no less!

  I had no choice! she cried to herself. The shards wanted me to kill Major. If I’d stayed another second, I would have cut him in half. I had no choice!

  You did have a choice, her conscience chided her. Major was after the shard. All you had to do was throw it across the pool. He would have gone after it. Then you could have grabbed Wally and gotten both of you out of there.

  She remembered another day, another confrontation with Major, a day when Major had threatened Wally’s life and she had simply handed him the first shard.

  This time, she hadn’t even considered it.

  This time, she’d left Wally behind.

  This time, faced with the choice between her friend and her quest, she’d chosen the quest, chosen her own power.

  Her lower lip trembled again, but crying wouldn’t do Wally any good. She had to rescue him from Major, get him back home.

  Most of all, she had to apologize.

  But first, she had to find him.

  She bent over, picked up the tensor bandage, wrapped it snugly around her belly again, then stuck a shard under each side of it. The lengths of steel felt cold against her skin, but they quickly warmed. Both shards sang in her mind. Though they could not sing in unison, not yet, they seemed...contented, in a way the single shard never had, as though in some strange fashion they were happy to be together again.

  They’re just pieces of metal, she thought, but of course she knew perfectly well they were much more than that.

  She tucked her T-shirt back into her jeans, covering the bandage, and then limped into the water. Every step on the ankle she had turned in the cavern felt as if someone were jabbing her with a fork, and so she let herself feel the cold of the water flowing around it; for once, the chill felt good. At least it wasn’t swelling much, so she didn’t think it was sprained too badly.

  Now what? she thought.

  Rescue Wally, of course.

  But that was easier said than done. She couldn’t return to the cave: she couldn’t materialize in the pool where the shard had been and there was no way she would materialize again in that deeper pool farther underground. Nor was there any water to draw on outside the cave except for the river, and Major would hardly l
inger there waiting for her to use it.

  She could think of only one possibility: the hotel in Lyon where she and Wally were supposed to be staying. Major might be as anxious to find her as she was to find him, if he intended to hold Wally hostage again in exchange for the shards. She would go there, lie low and wait.

  She paused, suddenly realizing that without her passport or any other form of identification, without any money, without even a change of clothes – all lost with her backpack in the depths of the cavern – her options were limited. She looked down at herself. Her jeans were torn at the knees, filthy with dirt, and stained with blood. Her palms and elbows were scratched and bruised and there was blood there, too. There was a cut on her ear, and she walked with a limp. They’d never let her check into the hotel, and they’d probably chase her out of the lobby if she tried to wait there.

  And of course there was no guarantee Major and Wally would show up at all. In fact, the odds were against it. Even if Major came looking for her, why would he come with Wally? He could bargain for Wally’s life without making him handily available for rescue. For that matter, he could just fly Wally to Canada, wait for her to get back, and then try to strike a bargain.

  Or....

  A snake of doubt slithered into her mind. Maybe Major didn’t have to take Wally hostage. Maybe Wally wanted to be with Major.

  She tried to push that venomous thought away, but it wouldn’t leave, sliding around her objections. Wally had accompanied Major to the cavern of his own free will. He’d wondered out loud to her, in their brief conversation before he’d rejoined Major, if they were sure the Lady was the one they should be helping. And then he’d done nothing to try to stop Major. He’d just sat there in the water, motionless, useless, while Major pounded on the rock holding the shard, seconds from claiming it as his own...

  No! she thought. This is Wally we’re talking about. Funny, kind, brave, trustworthy Wally. My friend, my companion, my ally. If he’s with Major, he’s a prisoner. And if Major is holding him hostage, I’ll rescue him. If he shows up at the hotel with Major – her lip curled – Major won’t know what hit him.

  And then everything will be just like it was before.

  With that thought, she let the water swallow her whole.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CALM BEFORE THE STORM

  Rex Major led Wally back to the path and to the frozen figure of Dr. Beaudry, still standing like a wax statue, mouth half-open. Major smoothed his short grey hair, took a deep breath, then said, “I believe I’ve seen enough, Dr. Beaudry.”

  The scientist jerked back to life, then blinked, bewildered. “I’m...I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten what I was saying.”

  “I’ve seen enough,” Major repeated. “Very intriguing, and I will be most happy to support your work. Now, if you could show us back to the outside world?”

  Dr. Beaudry glanced at Wally, who was holding his hand against the cut on his cheek, and his eyes widened. “You’re bleeding!” he said. “How...?”

  “He fell,” Major said smoothly. “Tripped and cut his cheek on a stalagmite. Very careless.”

  Dr. Beaudry was already pulling a small first-aid kit from one of the pockets of his orange jumpsuit. “Move your hand,” he ordered Wally, and a moment later had taped a gauze pad to the wound. “You must see a doctor in Lyon,” he said severely. “The wound will require stitches.” His eyes flicked up to the stitches Wally already had on his forehead. “And you do not want it to become infected.”

  Wally said nothing, but as Dr. Beaudry dressed his cheek he marvelled at how Rex Major had frozen the scientist in place. It’s the same power he used on me in Yellowknife, he thought. He can simply command people to do things...and command them to forget they’ve done them. He frowned. But when he tried to command all of us to forget what I’d said about the first shard, up in Yellowknife...it didn’t work. I didn’t forget. It didn’t work on the phone when I was in the hospital either. And he hasn’t tried it since.

  Wally looked past Dr. Beaudry at Major, who was staring off into space, fingering the ruby stud in his ear. Maybe I’m immune to his power now. Maybe that’s one of those special abilities he’s hinted at. He felt a little thrill at the thought.

  Dr. Beaudry took them back to the entrance of the cave, where the guards met them. Major looked at them and at Dr. Beaudry and said, his voice a little deeper and more resonant than usual, maybe, but otherwise perfectly normal, “Forget this boy was ever here.”

  It was as if Wally had suddenly donned an invisibility cloak. Beaudry’s gaze slid past him as though he didn’t exist. He didn’t even seem to notice Wally removing his jumpsuit and tossing it on one of the camp beds. The guards behaved in the same blind manner.

  Major and Wally trudged back up the cliff to the waiting Mercedes, climbed in and drove away.

  The drive passed in silence. Rex Major didn’t seem inclined to talk, and that suited Wally. With his head pressed against the cool glass of the window, watching the scenery flash by, Wally touched the bandage on his cheek, blood already soaking through it, the wound beneath burning like hot iron laid against his skin. He still couldn’t believe Ariane had done that to him. The blade had cut him only a little, but what if it had caught him in the throat? Even worse, she hadn’t even checked to see if he was all right, simply vanishing the moment she had the shard, leaving him to the mercy of the man she claimed to believe was evil incarnate.

  And if she really believed that, she wouldn’t have dared leave me at all, would she? he thought darkly. Even she doesn’t fully believe what the Lady told us about Merlin. But she’s doing the Lady’s bidding all the same.

  But not him. Not anymore.

  Wally thought Rex Major had fallen asleep, but as the Mercedes turned onto the busy highway that would take them the last few kilometres into Lyon, he straightened and said to Wally, “Once we have had a doctor look at your wound, I think you should return to your own hotel. If Ariane comes looking for you, she will come there.”

  “Won’t she just take the shard and head home?” Wally said. “If she were at all worried about me she wouldn’t have left me like that in the cavern.” He raised his hand to his cheek, wondering if he’d have a scar to match the one he’d probably have on his forehead. Well, he thought, at least it won’t change how girls look at you, since they mostly don’t.

  “I don’t think you’re being fair,” Merlin said, and that startled Wally so much he turned and looked directly at the sorcerer.

  “You’re defending her?”

  Major shrugged. “In a way. She’s becoming the Lady of the Lake...as cold, heartless, and selfishly single-minded as my ‘beloved’ sister. But she is not that yet. I think there’s still quite a bit of the girl she was just a few short weeks ago.” He paused. “Perhaps you didn’t notice, but just before she vanished, she had formed the water into a blade of ice: a blade in the shape of Excalibur. I think the shards wanted her to kill me with it. But she didn’t. There is enough of Ariane left that she didn’t want to commit murder. And if that much of her remains, then, yes, I think she’ll go to your hotel and wait for you. I suspect she’ll want to apologize.”

  Despite his anger at Ariane, despite his conviction they should be helping Merlin, not the Lady, Wally felt a chill. “You want me to accept her apology...and then steal the shard?”

  “Wally,” Major said. “First of all, it isn’t stealing: the shard no more belongs to her than to anyone else. If anything, it belongs to the rightful heir of King Arthur. That means...” He paused. “Well, anyway, it doesn’t ‘belong’ to her, she just happens to have it. Second, we talked about this. This is for her own good.”

  “And yours,” Wally pointed out.

  Major smiled a little. “And mine, of course. Have I ever denied it? If the shards weren’t something I needed I wouldn’t even be here. But it will still benefit Ariane.” He leaned closer, his eyes on Wally’s, his voice warm and earnest. “You’ll not only be helping me get closer to my dream of
a better world – a dream I know you share – you’ll also be helping save Ariane from being swallowed alive by the power of the Lady.”

  Oh, you’re smooth, Wally thought. But he didn’t disagree. He couldn’t. Ariane wasn’t the same as she had been. The way she’d hurt Flish, the way she’d hurt him...

  He hated to think of Ariane transformed into something both more and less than human. That transformation had already begun. But maybe, by helping Major, he could slow or even stop it.

  You’re supposed to be the loyal sidekick! an inner voice yelled. How can you throw in with the enemy?

  Because he’s not really the enemy, Wally snapped back. The Lady of the Lake is. Sometimes the sidekick has to stop the heroine from making a terrible mistake. And that’s what I’m doing.

  But there was still one thing he wanted to know for certain. “Why not just order me to do it, like you ordered Dr. Beaudry? I know you can, even without the shard.”

  “Because I wanted a willing ally, not a slave.”

  “What difference does it make to you, as long as you get the shard?”

  Major looked at him silently for a moment, then glanced out the window as if debating what he should say. Finally, he turned. “The truth is, Wally, I can’t Command you. You, alone of everyone I have met in this present age, are impervious to that particular power.”

  Wally felt another surge of excitement at hearing his suspicion confirmed. “Why?”

  “As I told you earlier, I think there is more to you than meets the eye...much more. But until I can test my theory, I’d rather not say what it is. And to test it, I need the shards.” He shrugged. “But whatever the reason, that is the truth, Wally. And it doesn’t matter. Even if I could Command you, I wouldn’t. I want to guide you to the correct path, not force you along it. I want you to choose what is best for all of us – not just me and you, but Ariane, too. But I want you to choose it of your own free will.” He spread his hands. “I told you before, Wally. If you don’t feel you can trust me, you are free to go. I won’t stop you.”