The Seven Swords

by Nils Johnson-Shelton

  He led the knights up the hill toward the herd of aurochs, wanting to get away from the crossover a little before opening a moongate to the court-in-exile. As he ambled along he noticed that one of his shoelaces was untied. He bent to tie it, and when he did something zipped through the air, narrowly missing his head!

  “What was that?” Kay exclaimed.

  Lance dropped to the ground. “A crossbow bolt!”

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

  More crossbow bolts.

  A lot more.

  Everyone took cover. As Artie dropped into the grass, one ricocheted off his spear, nearly knocking it from his hand.

  Lance and Kay crawled next to Artie. “Where’re they coming from?” Kay asked.

  “The aurochs,” Lance said.

  “There must be someone hiding in the herd,” Artie said.

  “Ya think?” Kay blurted.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Lance said with a wink. He drew two arrows that had bulky cylinders where the arrowheads should have been. He nocked them, propped himself up, and let them fly. As he dropped back into cover, he ordered, “Heads down, folks!”

  The arrows hit the ground between the feet of the first line of aurochs and exploded with a bright flash and loud bang!

  Lance pumped his fist. Artie and Kay looked at him quizzically. “Flashbang grenades,” he explained. “Awesome, right? I made those arrows special. Got some other tricks in my quiver too.”

  But they didn’t have time to discuss any of that, because the explosions had set the herd in motion.

  Big-time.

  Lance stood defiantly as a contingent of the giant animals barreled toward them. He shot another arrow at the ground twenty feet in front of them. When it struck, a large fireball lit the plain, creating a wall that diverted the herd. Lance motioned for Artie and the knights to join him closer to the blaze. Not only did the fire prevent them from being trampled to death, it also prevented whoever had shot at them from being able to see them very well. Everyone moved up and took a knee, forming a little circle.

  “Holy sugar, Lance! What’re you, some kind of level-twenty-seven ranger or something?” Kay exclaimed, sounding more like a Dr Pepper head than she would’ve liked.

  “You weren’t kidding about those other tricks in your quiver, were you?” Artie asked with a lot less irony.

  Lance, all business, said, “No, I wasn’t. What now, dude?”

  Artie had momentarily forgotten that he was the one in charge. “If they’re Fenlandian, we should try to stop them, otherwise they might try to shut the crossover. Kay and I’ll go left; Bedevere, you take Erik to the right.”

  “Got it,” Erik said.

  “Lance, you have more of those fireballers?” Artie asked.

  “Three,” Lance said.

  “Good. Put two in the middle of the stampede, fifty feet apart. Save one for an emergency. Bercilak will be our go word. If you hear me say it, repeat it as loud as possible, and rendezvous back here so we can moongate out.”

  They nodded as Artie felt a surge of power and pride run through him.

  “Should I try to go berserk?” Erik asked.

  “I don’t see why not!” Artie exclaimed. “All right. On three. One. Two. Three!”

  They split around the fire wall, Lance momentarily joining Artie and Kay. He quickly shot two arrows—swoosh, swoosh—into empty spots in the stampede. Two more fireballs blossomed on the plain. Then he knelt and got ready to cover his friends.

  The knights moved out.

  Into utter chaos.

  Before they’d gone twenty feet, Artie and Kay had dodged five charging aurochs, jumped over a wayward calf, and ducked a few more crossbow bolts.

  Kay spun and yelled, “Over there!” Artie looked and saw a large man in dark-green leather armor lying on the ground. He appeared to be unconscious, a crossbow on the ground a few feet away. They moved toward him and saw that he’d been trampled.

  “Ugh,” Kay said, looking at his bloodied face and his caved-in chest.

  “Yeah,” Artie agreed.

  An arrow screamed inches above their heads as they turned to see another man, also in green leather armor, falling to the ground clutching his chest.

  Another of Lance’s shots zipped by Kay’s shoulder, but the soldier it targeted swiped his mace through the air just as he was about to be hit, knocking it down. In another instant he was upon Kay, swinging at her head.

  Kay stepped back and parried with Cleomede. The man brought the mace low and grabbed it with both hands, unleashing a backhanded swing at Kay’s stomach. She jumped back again and brought her sword across the mace, cutting it cleanly in two.

  “Don’t mess with me, dude!” Kay shouted, but the man moved very quickly, drew a knife, and stepped right up to her. He was preparing to push the blade between her ribs when he was run through the side with Artie’s spear and collapsed in a heap.

  Artie called for Rhongomyniad and the spear lifted out of the wounded man’s body and returned to Artie’s hand.

  Artie and Kay spotted more enemies about fifty feet to their right, locked in battle with Bedevere and Erik. Erik had followed Artie’s advice and flown into a berserker rage. In just a few seconds he knocked down at least six assailants. Bedevere wasn’t much worse. His claymore swept through the air like a whirligig, knocking down one, then two, then three attackers.

  Over the thumping of the stampede Artie heard someone yell, “Remember—do not kill the boy-king!”

  Artie spun in the direction of the voice. The guy giving orders was up the hill a short distance, behind more soldiers and a few straggling aurochs. He was about Artie’s height, had a medium-sized bird perched on his shoulder, and over his armor he wore a purple-and-white tunic that had a large double-headed, golden bird stitched onto it. A helmet obscured his face, and on top of this helmet were two short and crooked stag’s horns: one red, one blue.

  Artie didn’t recognize the coat of arms, but he knew that helmet.

  He turned to Kay and shouted, “That’s the guy who nabbed Qwon! He’s wearing the same helmet!” and bolted toward the kidnapper. A large aurochs crossed in front of him and he jumped over it like a track-and-field star, using the spear like a vaulting pole.

  About a dozen soldiers stood between Artie and his target. Three arrows zoomed past Artie, each hitting a different mark. What a shot Lance was!

  Artie threw his spear, and it impaled two more soldiers through their thighs like they were shish kebab. The men fell to the ground wailing.

  Artie drew Flixith and Carnwennan.

  A pair of soldiers was next in line. They each had long swords and plate shields. Artie spun Flixith wildly, and to the soldiers it appeared as though Artie spawned four, then six, then eight arms—all wielding swords!

  The trick bought Artie a fraction of a second. He used this moment to move between the soldiers and slice behind their knees with Carnwennan and Flixith, dropping them to the ground in useless, moaning heaps.

  Kay, ostensibly covering Artie’s flank, couldn’t believe how driven her brother was.

  Four soldiers were left. Two of these were armed with really evil-looking flails made of reinforced sticks and chains and spiky steel balls. The other two were snapping silver-roped whips.

  The kidnapper stood behind them holding a common-looking broadsword.

  “You’re not getting away this time!” Artie yelled as Kay skidded next to him.

  Dred looked down the slope past his remaining soldiers. The archer was occupied by half a dozen Fenlandian foot soldiers; the rest of Dred’s men were not faring well against the Black Knight and the one that wielded Gram. No matter. If Dred could capture the boy-king and the girl’s sword, it would still be a successful raid. He could get Gram later.

  Dred eyed Artie. He looked kind of familiar, but Dred couldn’t place him, and his features wouldn’t come into focus for some reason. Dred shook his head and said, “Drop your weapons, there’s no point in resisting further.” The bird
on his shoulder flapped its wings and screeched.

  “Ha! As if, loser!” Kay yelled. Then she stepped forward and took on the two bruisers with the flails.

  The soldiers tried to land a series of crushing blows on Kay’s rail-thin body, but before they knew what hit them, Kay had used Cleomede to cut the flails’ chains like butter. The shocked men stood there for a moment staring at nothing more than a couple of sticks.

  Kay was about to dispatch these guys and go after the ones with the whips—what idiot brought a whip to a sword fight?—when something caught her around the feet.

  As she fell, she saw a silver strand wrapping around her thighs and body, swiftly encasing her like a bug caught by a spider in its web.

  Oh. They were magic whips.

  Bummer.

  In a matter of seconds she was completely covered, her sword pressed flat against her cheek. And when she rolled over she saw that the same thing had happened to Artie!

  Artie couldn’t believe it. He looked from his sister to the guy with the horned helmet. “Where’s Qwon? What did you do with her?” Even though they were in pretty deep doo-doo, this was all Artie could think about.

  “Qwon? She’s fine. But she’s not very important right now,” Dred said. Artie’s face was still strangely obscured. It briefly occurred to Dred that if Morgaine didn’t want Artie to see him, then perhaps for some reason she also didn’t want Dred to get a clear look at Artie. Maybe she’d enchanted his helmet to do just that. He’d have to ask her about it later.

  Artie, ignorant of all this, said forcefully, “I’m going to get you for taking her.”

  Dred chuckled. “I doubt that, but you might get to see her again. Because you’re coming with me.”

  Kay growled, “Not if I can help it, you son of a—”

  “Shut up!” Dred interrupted, and when he did, his voice cracked, just like Artie’s sometimes did.

  “Hey—are you a kid?” Kay asked doubtfully.

  “I said, shut up!” Dred repeated, intentionally deepening his voice. “We’re leaving. Now.” He prepared to open a gate back to Fenland—but something downhill caught his eye. It was almost like the wall of fire had spawned a small, mobile fireball that was moving toward them.

  Quickly.

  This movement also distracted the two remaining soldiers fighting Lance, and he took advantage. He slammed their heads together, knocking them out cold, then turned and watched the moving fireball too.

  It jumped quickly up the hill and took cover behind one of the aurochs’ huge bodies. But then the fireball creature picked up the aurochs and threw it!

  The beast struck the two soldiers Kay had disarmed, the impact making an awful noise as their bones crunched and shattered.

  Artie rolled over as a second aurochs sailed above him, taking out his whip man.

  Dred moved toward Artie as an electrical gate opened, filling the air with the smell of ozone. The jaybird immediately took wing and darted through it.

  An arrow shot up the hill, catching the last soldier in the shoulder. He started running for the open gate, but another arrow caught him in the leg and he went down hard.

  Dred sheathed his sword and grabbed Artie by the ankles. He ducked through the portal and was on the other side when Kay said, “Hey, buddy, you better look out!”

  But Dred wouldn’t look. He had to get Artie and salvage some part of this mission. He concentrated on pulling Artie through while Artie writhed and yelled, “Let me go! Let me go!”

  The fireball creature drew closer, and finally Artie got a good look at it as it shed its conflagrated clothing.

  “Sami?” he yelped.

  There was no doubt. The guy they’d just duped was here, trying to save him. And he was about to tackle Dred and jump through the gate!

  Which meant Sami was going to end up in Fenland!

  “Wait!” Artie yelled, but Sami was already airborne.

  Sami’s broad shoulder barreled into Dred’s chest, knocking the wind out of him as the gate snapped shut, taking their enemy and their savior all at once.

  “Shoot!” Artie shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Qwon’s kidnapper had gotten away.

  Again.

  13 - CONCERNING A BUNCH OF STUFF, INCLUDING A SURPRISE FOR KYNDER

  Kynder was sleeping, slumped over a great oak desk in the Library’s main reading room, when his iPad began to make a noise.

  It took him more than a minute to come to and figure out what the sound was, and then another half a minute to unearth the thing from the books stacked haphazardly all around. When he found it he folded back its cover and accepted an incoming call from Artie.

  After a few seconds his kids’ faces filled the screen. They were back at the court-in-exile. “Arthur, Kay! I’m so glad to see you guys.”

  “Hey, Kynder!” his kids said together.

  “How ya doing?” Kay asked, a big smile on her face.

  Kynder rubbed the sleep from his eyes and said, “Good. I’ve been worried sick about you two of course, but what’s new?” Over the last few months, it seemed like all Kynder did was worry. “How’d the Gram quest go? Did you find Erik’s sword?”

  At that moment it struck Kynder how ridiculous it all sounded. He was used to asking his kids about their exploits in school and sports and video games, but as exciting as those could be, they weren’t life-and-death. They were school and sports and video games. This was something else. Artie and Kay weren’t innocents anymore. They weren’t students or athletes or gamers. They were—Kynder could hardly believe it—real-life heroes who’d been told that nothing less than the fate of the world would be determined by the success of their quests.

  “We got Gram all right!” Artie said, swinging the iPad’s camera to Erik, who stood in the background holding his sword proudly.

  “Cool! Was it hard?” Kynder asked.

  “Eh, not really,” Kay said convincingly. Artie knew he wouldn’t have been able to lie so well. They’d decided not to tell Kynder how close they’d come to getting captured by Morgaine’s forces because they didn’t want to freak him out any more than he already was.

  “What about you?” Artie asked. “Any luck figuring out who’s got the Peace Sword?”

  “No, but I’m homing in on some good leads, I think,” which was a lie since all Kinder had really been doing was trying to discover why Excalibur wanted Merlin dead. It was the first time in a long time that Kynder could remember lying to his children, and it made him feel awful. Also, the secret that Merlin had told him—that Artie was made by none other than Morgaine—gnawed relentlessly at him. How could he justify keeping this knowledge from his son? It felt so important, if not for Artie’s kingly missions, then at least for Artie’s peace of mind.

  Kynder had to tell him. And now was as good a time as any. He swallowed hard and tried to speak.

  But nothing came.

  Kay leaned forward and said, “You all right, Kynder? You’re turning red.”

  Kynder brought his fist to his mouth and coughed several times. When he was done, he said, “Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry.” With his other hand he was clutching Merlin’s magic stone as hard as he could.

  Kay gave Kynder a comforting smile. “Take it easy, Dad. We’ll be fine.”

  Kynder smiled back. His heart warmed when Kay called him Dad. “I know. I just wish I were there with you guys.”

  “Me too, Dad,” Artie said. There it was again. Kay put her arm around her brother and gave him a little hug.

  Man, being a parent was tough sometimes.

  Artie asked, “Have you learned anything else interesting? Maybe about the witch, or something that might help us get to Qwon?”

  “Come across anything about Mom?” Kay wondered. Cassie was always at the back of Kay’s mind, even though she tried hard not to think about her.

  Artie squeezed his sister’s knee as Kynder said, “I’m sorry, but no. Nothing on your mom, sweetie. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen anything on Merlin, eit
her, which is pretty strange. Although a ton of this stuff is in languages I don’t know. . . .” Kynder trailed off, rubbing his forehead. It had only been one day, but he looked pooped.

  Artie was about to suggest that his dad take a break when two more video chat chimes interrupted him, one from Merlin, the other from Thumb.

  Merlin, reporting from The Bunker, had baggy eyes and pale skin. His tattoos looked faded and blurry around the edges. In the corner of his video feed they could make out the top of a can of Mountain Dew.

  Kay pointed and said, “Hey, where’d you get that?”

  Merlin looked at the can before saying, “Special delivery. I have to say, Kay Kingfisher, that even though this stuff is probably poisonous, it is delicious.”

  “Soda hoarder,” Kay said bitterly. “You need to special-delivery some of that over here.”

  Merlin grinned and said, “Is that okay with you, Kynder?”

  Kynder rolled his eyes at Kay. “Why not.”

  “Sweet! Thanks, Kynder,” Kay exclaimed.

  Merlin changed the subject, asking about Gram.

  “We got it. It wasn’t that hard,” Kay said, lying again.

  “Kay Kingfisher, please. Don’t downplay anything. You quested to get one of the Seven. It can’t have been easy,” Merlin scolded mildly.

  “Were you guys holding out on me?” Kynder asked.

  “Maybe a little,” Artie said sheepishly.

  “Arthur, Kay,” Kynder said in his best I’m-your-dad-and-I’m-disappointed-in-you voice, “tell us everything.”

  Artie sighed and fessed up, giving all the details. Kynder was not happy that they’d gotten in a huge fight trying to escape from Surmik, but what could he do? Fighting was part of the deal.

  When Artie finished, Kynder said, “Well, I’m glad Lance and Bedevere were with you.”

  “Yes,” Merlin seconded. “And thank the trees for this Sami!”

  “I remember people like him from the old days,” Thumb yelled over his iPad. He was outside in a really windy place. “They were powerful hunters and beast masters. Surely his heritage is what allowed him to cross.”

  “Agreed. I remember them too,” Merlin said. “I hope he’s not treated too roughly in Fenland, though I imagine he will be.”