by Donna Hosie
“How did you end up here?” I asked.
“It was that acorn you left in the bedroom. Arthur had gone upstairs after Bedivere came charging in like a madman, saying you had marks around your neck. I was on my own. I’m not a freak, but I’m telling you, that acorn started making noises. It was like a bell ringing.”
“And what happened then?”
“I picked it up, and must have blacked out the second I touched it, because I woke up here with him leering over me.”
Slurpy sniffed and swallowed hard.
“I want to go home. They won’t have drugs here. I’m scared of the pain.”
“Perhaps Merlin will have something?”
“The miracle of producing new life is not to be diluted,” announced Merlin. He was standing right in front of us, and was holding a plate of bread, cheese and dark green stuff that may have been salad or grass, it was hard to tell.
“Easy for a man to say that,” I replied. “I bet if you were about to push a cannonball through your butt, you would be yelling for pain relief within seconds.”
“Is it going to be that big?” wailed Slurpy. “I want my mum.”
“Arthur’s heir will need to be hardy and strong,” replied Merlin, pushing the plate of food towards us. “So eat as if you are consuming for two.”
But Slurpy was clearly convinced she was going to have to push out a cannonball-sized baby, and had curled up into the foetal position.
I got up and walked over to where Merlin’s experiments were bubbling and hissing away. There was a pleasant, warm heat emanating from a long green tube, which looked like a thin wine bottle. A fat jug with two clawed handles was filled with small crystals, which were popping and bouncing around like fireworks.
“You have found your home in Logres, have you not, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table?”
“I want to be where Bedivere is.”
“You long to be reunited with Sir Bedivere?”
“Yes.”
“I see separation and enduring pain in your future, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table. The day will come when you must make a choice of the heart.”
“Any chance you can speak in anything other than riddles? You seemed to possess perfect clarity when you were back in my time.”
Merlin laughed, long and deep like a large bell. “You possess fire and spirit, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table. You and I were destined to be natural allies, for more reasons than I shall explain here. Not so Nimue, Lady of the Lake, of course. Her allegiance with the water nymphs marks her down as your foe.”
“Why?”
“Let me show you.”
The power of the scene I then saw crushed the breath from my lungs. I wasn’t just remembering Patrick’s drowning, I was actually living it. I was there, behind the boulder. My hand was pushing against the thin cotton of his blue t-shirt. Spray from the water hit my face, as Patrick tumbled backwards into the fast-flowing darkness.
And then laughter, like wind chimes. Musical and high.
“He is mine, he is mine,” it sang.
My father and uncle dived into the river. My dad grabbed at Patrick’s blue t-shirt, but I could now see black shadows, gliding like eels, through the water. They were pulling Patrick away, deeper and deeper towards the river bed.
“He is mine, he is mine.”
Merlin cocked his head at me as the scene evaporated. Silent tears were streaming down my face. I didn’t have the breath left in me to cry properly.
“Are you mine, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table?”
“I could hear Nimue,” I whispered. “She was saying my little brother was hers.”
“And you have seen him since, have you not? During your passage through the Vale of Avalon?”
“He told me to let him go. He said he was happy.”
“I was happy too - once. Nimue and I shared a great love, yet she betrayed me – imprisoned me. I will never forgive, nor forget, and neither should you, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table. Nimue will claim Arthur for her own, just as she claimed Patrick.”
Then Merlin was in my head again because I heard his voice, even though his mouth didn’t move.
Arthur will not choose Nimue, not in the end. The heir must be protected, and you must help me in this quest. Nimue is the great danger to Logres now. You must help Arthur choose. Your brother will believe you because you have a past, present and future that is connected through a lie. Now Arthur must choose wisely. The future of Logres depends on it. Arthur must not choose the Lady of the Lake.
What about Slurpy, I thought back, keeping eye contact with the wizard. You called her Morgana earlier. Why can’t she do magic anymore?
Lady Morgana needs only be reunited with a practitioner of the blue flame for her abilities to show once more. When that happens, her power will be limitless. She has attempted to drain my power, but I have fire in my blood, not water. She needs the blue flame.
So we have to keep her away from Mordred, the druids and even Nimue, I replied in my head.
Some events cannot be prevented, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table. Nimue and Arthur will soon join forces to attack me – that much is certain. What is also without doubt is that the druids will reclaim their own Queen.
And what about me? I thought back.
You have the presence and will of mind to decide for yourself. Your path in Logres is still uncertain. You are a rumour on the landscape, a shadow from the future.
You mean I don’t belong here?
Far from it, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table. You do belong here, indeed there is a part of you that has been here before, a long, long time ago. The question is: will the future reclaim you? For if it does, you will never return to Logres again. If the past is your future, then the future will remain your past.
I broke away from the mind meld. These riddles were starting to hurt my brain. Merlin had said the day will come when you must make a choice of the heart, but what did that mean? Who would I have to choose between? There was only Bedivere. There would only ever be Bedivere.
But what about Arthur? Why on earth would he join forces with Nimue, especially after she tried to strangle me in my bedroom? It didn’t make sense. Who could I trust?
I didn’t want to sleep, even though I was exhausted. How old would I be when I woke up? I felt like I could sleep for a month, but waking up as old as my mother was not an option.
Slurpy had already been defeated by her tired eyes. Hoping that the ageing of time only worked on her, I curled up on the damp ground and closed my eyes.
In the nightmare that followed I was with Bedivere, but we were both crumbling bodies with loose-hanging flesh. I caught a glimpse of green, just as a large black raven swooped down and plucked out his eyes. The bird’s huge wings flapped towards me, and the world disappeared into an excruciatingly painful dark void.
“Are you Arthur?”
But I could only scream in reply.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mucus and Mould
“Do I look older?”
“What?”
“If he’s speeding up time, then I want to make sure I haven’t aged forty years overnight.”
“I’m about to give birth without drugs, and all you care about is getting old?” wailed Slurpy, pushing her hand down on her moving stomach. “How can you be such a selfish bitch?”
“What do you mean, about to give birth? You’re not going into labour now, are you?”
“I don’t know. I keep getting these...” She trailed off suddenly. Her eyes widened, as did her mouth. “Ow, ow, ow, ow...”
“MERLIN,” I screamed. “The baby’s coming, the baby’s coming.”
The moment passed. Slurpy’s tensed shoulders slumped.
“Was that it? That wasn’t a contraction. They’re supposed to last for ages.”
“It still hurt,” she snapped.
“Probably trapped gas,” I muttered.
“You’re enjoying this,
aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I replied sarcastically. “I am absolutely loving the thought of you and my brother being joined for life. I am ecstatic that the one person who has gone out of her way to make my life hell for the last year, will be the mother of my brother’s baby. I am psyched into oblivion about the fact that I am going to be related to...”
“All right, I get it,” shouted Slurpy, jabbing the left side of her uneven bump. “You can shut up now.”
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and imagined I was kissing Bedivere. Arguing with Slurpy was exhausting, and very unsatisfying. Being pregnant made her weaker in my eyes. I felt like a bully.
Where are you, Bedivere? I thought to myself, willing his voice to appear in my head. But there was nothing but the buzzing of white noise. The one voice I was desperate to hear, was the one voice that remained silent to me.
Merlin was standing near the entrance to the cave; his back was towards us. I crawled on my hands and knees to the edge of the opening, and saw that he had his staff clutched between his hands. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t blinking. Merlin appeared to be in some kind of a trance.
I picked up a diamond-shaped stone and threw it into the water. It made a loud plop, but sank without a ripple. Merlin didn’t move.
Straining my back and neck, I looked skywards. The dark grey fog was thicker than the previous day, and seemed to hang lower in the sky. I felt something crawling up my hand and flinched, quickly flicking off the dark green mould that had appeared out of nowhere to inch along my skin.
I couldn’t see Arthur’s Ddraig, or hear the swooping sound of its leathery wings. Had it left us, or was it waiting, biding its time?
I stole another glance towards Merlin; he still wasn’t moving. He didn’t appear to be breathing.
The skull cave wasn’t a sheer face. It was uneven, with lots of handy holes for gripping. I was still wearing my sneakers and they had a good tread on them. I wasn’t scared of heights - I had walked up most of the Eiffel Tower before without suffering vertigo - so I knew I could stomach this climb without any problem.
But I slumped back against the cave wall and admitted defeat before I had started. What was the point in even trying to escape? Slurpy was so huge she could barely walk. It would take magic of the strongest kind to help her escape, and she had already admitted she wasn’t capable of the blue flame anymore. I couldn’t understand why I cared. I hated her. But I had to do this for Arthur.
And then the thought hit me, like an anvil dropped from a great height.
Byron!
The dwarf was on Arthur’s side, and more importantly, he had done some kind of hocus-pocus to carry himself away from the stake burning. Gareth had even seen him in the druid camp.
I needed to get Byron here. He would know what to do.
I crawled back over to Slurpy; she was in the middle of another two-second trapped-gas moment.
“Pretend you’re in real labour,” I whispered.
“What?”
“Pretend you’re in real labour,” I repeated.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because I want Merlin to summon Byron here.”
Slurpy scowled. “I don’t want that weird little dwarf here. He freaks me out.”
“For once in your life you have to trust me. We need Byron here because he can help. Now will you please start moaning and screaming. Pretend someone has just told you that you’ll have to wear track pants and flip-flops for the rest of your life.”
“If you’re doing this just to make me look an idiot...”
“Do you want to get out of here?”
“Yes.”
“Then start yelling.”
Slurpy gave me a poisoned look that reminded me of my mother, and started screaming. Just as I had hoped, Merlin came out of his silent trance and came hurrying over to us.
“She’s in labour, Merlin,” I cried. “She needs help.”
Merlin bared his stained teeth in a wide smile. The way he looked at Slurpy made me feel uncomfortable. He was leering, like he was coveting her as a prize.
“The heir of Arthur will need no help,” he replied.
“Well, the heir may not, but she certainly will,” I said. “Look at her skinny hips – do you think a big baby is going to come out through those without any problems? If she dies, then Arthur’s heir will as well.”
“DIES?” screamed Slurpy. “I’M GOING TO DIE?”
“And then there is all the blood and the waters breaking and all that mucus stuff that comes out,” I added quickly. “I’ve seen it on the television. It’s gross. Are you going to roll up your sleeves and get in there, Merlin? Because I’m not.”
“HE ISN’T TOUCHING ME,” screamed Slurpy; she was starting to turn purple.
Merlin’s leering smile was fading away.
“This is why I tricked Sir Mordred and brought you here, Natasha, Lady Knight of the Round Table,” said Merlin. “You will have the honoured position of bringing our heir into our world.”
“And what makes you think I’ll know what to do?” I replied. “I may be a Lady Knight of the Round Table, but I’ve never even held a baby before. Arthur’s heir needs a physician, or someone who knows how to do stitches.”
“STITCHES!”
“There is no one...”
“Get Byron here – quickly,” I interrupted. I gave Slurpy a swift kick to remind her to start wailing again. “Byron saved Talan’s life last year after the battle for Camelot, and Talan was in a really bad way. Byron will be able to deliver the baby, I’m sure of it.”
“Byron – the dwarf sire of Leodegrance?” Merlin hummed to himself, drumming his fingers on his chin.
“Blood and mucus and more blood.” I gave a dramatic shudder.
“I will retrieve the dwarf,” announced Merlin, “but you would be foolish to entertain...”
“Yeah, yeah, I know the score. No escaping,” I said quickly. “Now go get Byron, because the blood and the mucus...”
Merlin twirled his cloak in a circular motion, and with a crack like the sound of lightning, he disappeared.
Slurpy was panting. “So what now?”
“Now we wait.”
“And how exactly is that Byron going to help me?”
“He’s going to help us,” I corrected. “Now do me another favour and go stand outside the cave for a second.”
“I’m not your slave, you go stand outside.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger and counted to ten. When that didn’t have the required effect, I counted to twenty. Then fifty. Blood was pulsing in my temples. I had woken up with a headache, and every second spent listening to the grating, complaining Welsh voice of Slurpy just made it worse.
“My brother,” I said very softly, for my benefit more than hers, “has sent...something...out across Logres to track you. I think it’s here, in the clouds. Could you please, for the love of my sanity, just stand outside for a moment to see if it’s still here?”
“What do you mean? See if what is still here?”
“Last night I am certain I saw a Ddraig – a dragon – in the mist. Arthur...”
Slurpy started yelling again.
“A dragon? A dragon? You want me to go outside where there’s a dragon? You murderous little freak. You just want me to get eaten up so you can escape by yourself. You want me and my baby dead, don’t you?”
It was hopeless. Slurpy screamed abuse at me until her throat started croaking with the effort. Then she curled up in a large lumpy ball and started crying again.
A low-pitched tremor started to rumble through the cave. Glass tubes started clanking against one another. Two shattered, spraying liquid onto the cave floor; the rock sizzled and steamed as the acid-like mixture made contact.
“What’s happening? Is Merlin back already?” I asked. “Did this happen when he brought me here?”
Slurpy sniffed. Grimacing, she pulled herself up into a standing position.
“The ground didn’t shake when he got you.”
“Then we had better get out into the open,” I replied. “If this roof caves in, we’ll both be killed.”
“But you said there’s a dragon out there.”
“It’s Arthur’s dragon, and it’s searching for you, he showed it your picture on his phone...”
Slurpy pushed me in the chest. “LYING FREAK,” she screeched. “How pathetic do you have to be to make up stories like that?” She pushed me again; I took several steps back. “Were you brain-damaged at birth or something?”
“Don’t push me.”
Her palms propelled me further towards the mouth of the cave and the lake surrounding it.
“Arthur should have been an only child, and then none of this would have happened.” She pushed me even harder. “I hate you, Natasha Roth. You’re the weirdest freak I’ve ever met.”
“Why do you hate me so much? What have I ever done to you?”
“You exist. Isn’t that enough? Arthur should hate you like a normal brother, but he doesn’t. He always has to make sure you’re alright and it makes me sick.” She pushed me again. I wanted to hit her back, but she was so huge I just couldn’t do it.
“Then stay out of my face and I’ll stay out of yours.”
“You’re always going to be there, in his life, in my life. I’ll never have him to myself.”
“You do this because you’re jealous?” I couldn’t believe it. Of all the dumbass reasons to make my life a living hell.
My feet were inches away from the water; I could feel my heels sinking into the crumbling edge. The water was singing, it sounded like wind chimes, and suddenly Slurpy wasn’t my biggest problem anymore.
“SHE’S HERE. NIMUE’S HERE.”
A hand stretched out of the water and grabbed my ankle. The fingers were long and deathly pale, but the rest was covered in that horrible, glistening, dark green mould that was starting to creep over Logres.
I screamed and fell forward. Pain shot through my kneecaps as I landed on all fours.
Another mould-covered hand grabbed my other foot. I started to kick and wriggle, but the grip of the underwater entity was unbreakable.