Pendragon's Heir

by Lori Bond

  “Dad, this meeting is bigger than Will or me,” I said to him.

  Arthur whipped around to face me, breaking his connection with Ginny. He squeezed my hand tight. “It’s not. It’s just another meeting between a bunch of rich people discussing the status of the world’s second most valuable company. Business will never be more important than you.” He paused and glanced behind me. “Or Will.”

  Will’s fingers stilled in mine, but I didn’t reassure or comfort him. I stayed focused on Arthur. “I didn’t say more important. I said bigger. What was it you said? The world’s second most valuable company? How many depend on that company? How many other kids need Keep Consolidated to keep going so their parents can pay for food and books and other important stuff?”

  Arthur raised his eyebrows at me, but he didn’t interrupt.

  “And that’s not even counting all the pensions and retirement accounts invested in Keep stock. Do you really want to risk the company’s valuation?”

  At this point Arthur openly gaped at me, but Ginny had a smug smile.

  “Good to know someone listens when I talk at dinner,” Ginny said. “Elaine, would you like to be looped in? You’re a little young, but we could introduce you to the workings of the company. It will be a good bridge for meeting the various executives. Perhaps an internship next semester. Should I modify your high school curriculum to add business classes?”

  “Please.” I gave a sniff. “I grew up with the world’s foremost forensic accountant. I can read a balance sheet.”

  “My mistake.” Ginny smiled to herself. She pulled up a mid-air screen and started taking notes.

  “Arthur,” I turned my attention to my father. He still looked rebellious, but he had stopped fighting back. “Yes, it’s only money, but money pays for all the stuff that keeps us safe. And money pays the salaries of your employees and keeps them sort of safe.” I stumbled on the last few words because that wasn’t quite what I meant. I shrugged. It had sounded good. “I’ll be fine here tomorrow,” I said with a confidence I didn’t possess. “I have Will, and he has Galahad. I have my armor and tons of knights. I’ll be fine.”

  “You’d better be.” Arthur crushed me to him in a giant hug. With a small shock, I realized he had reached around so he was hugging Will too. “You’d better both be.”

  I MEANDERED INTO THE SMALL BREAKFAST ROOM THE NEXT MORNING AT the leisurely hour of seven. Arthur and Will had suspended training for the day in honor of the meeting that afternoon at Keep Consolidated’s West Coast Headquarters. I had tried to sleep in, but apparently getting up a little before five every morning meant that “sleeping in” now consisted of waking up at six.

  When I got to the breakfast table, Arthur and Ginny already sat there like a Norman Rockwell painting, if the people in a Norman Rockwell read their news on tablets instead of newspapers. Ginny was her usual impeccable self, but even Arthur wore a tailored suit instead of his usual aging-surfer-chic.

  There was no sign of Will.

  Ginny greeted me with a smile. Arthur glared, refused to say a word, and sulked as if he was being dragged to an execution rather than going to gloat with a bunch of other rich people about how much richer they were making each other.

  “Elaine and Will could wait in the outer office while we all meet,” Arthur said, breaking into the middle of a conversation that Ginny and I were having about the earnings report the Board would discuss today and release next week. It was like he was still in the conversation from last night.

  “Security is good, but it’s nothing compared to the Rook. They’ll be safer here, and you know it.” Ginny turned back to me and pointed to the projections for Keep’s stock price.

  Arthur brooded for a few more minutes before interrupting us again. “I could teleconference in from a lab. Then I could fix the bugs in this while you all babble at each other.” He tapped a small button on the lapel of his suit’s jacket. I hadn’t noticed it before. I might have gotten better about determining how many exits a room had, but my general observational skills still needed work.

  “In person, Arthur,” said Ginny. “There’s no network, not even one of mine, that I’d risk broadcasting a closed board meeting over.” She turned back. “If you think the Dreki are bad, try fighting industrial espionage.”

  I didn’t even want to think about that. Instead, I turned back to my glaring father. “What is that?” I asked, waving at the little button thing on his jacket. “Some new kind of camera?”

  Arthur perked up a little. He tapped the button and shook his head. “This is a personal protection system. It generates an energy shield about a foot out from your body. It works on the principle of kinetic energy so it can stop high energy weapons like bullets.”

  “What about low energy? Could I still punch you?”

  Arthur looked pleased by my question. “That’s my girl. You’re right. It’s only for high energy projectiles. A good kick or punch would get through.”

  “Why are you wearing it if you’re still perfecting it?”

  Arthur gave an evil smile. “Right now bullets explode instead of being absorbed by the shield. It would protect me, but the explosions might just kill off half the board of Keep Consolidated sparing me from future tedious meetings.”

  Without a word, an irritated Ginny yanked the button off Arthur’s jacket and tossed it onto the center of the table.

  Arthur resumed sulking in his chair, but he didn’t put the button back on.

  “My lady,” said Percival. “The helicopter has arrived to take you to the airport.”

  “Excellent.” Ginny wiped her mouth with the cloth napkin and stood. “Come on, Arthur.”

  “Is Pendragon ready, Percival?” Arthur asked.

  Ginny didn’t let the AI answer. “Absolutely not. The President of Keep Consolidated’s Board of Trustees is not arriving in LA in a costume.”

  “It’s hardly a costume,” started Arthur.

  “I said no, Arthur.”

  “Fine.” Arthur tossed his napkin on the table and stood. “I will ride in my stupid helicopter and my boring subsonic jet. But I’m still bringing eight knights and Pendragon. We can’t go unprotected. They can fly in formation behind us.”

  “I would expect nothing else.” Ginny leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “Have a good day, dear. Call if you need us.”

  “Don’t even think about leaving this place,” said Arthur, “not even with Will.”

  “No fear there.” The thought of leaving the building without Arthur and Pendragon terrified me. It wasn’t like I’d forgotten the Dreki attacks or the thing with the Hell Hound in Central Park with the Fae, or even Vortigern’s reptilian demeanor the one time I’d tried to be on my own. Part of me was relieved I didn’t need to leave the Rook to go to the board meeting in LA. At this rate, I was in danger of becoming agoraphobic.

  About ten minutes after Arthur and Ginny left, I finished breakfast and went off to hunt up Will. When I stuck my head in his room, I found him out of bed, but still in his pajamas and a fitted sleeveless shirt.

  “You okay?” I asked, not venturing past the doorway.

  Will looked up from his phone. The color had drained out of his face, leaving him wan. In his half-dressed state, he looked like a convalescent that had tried to stumble out of bed too soon after an illness. “LANCE ordered me to come in today and report in person. Stormfield’s in New York, and he wants to chew me out, I guess.”

  “What?” I tried to keep my tone level, uninterested even. I didn’t want to panic Will further.

  “If I don’t come in, he’s coming here, probably with a large security detail. We can’t have him here without Arthur. You might end up in the Tool Shed.” The color had returned to Will’s cheeks, but he still looked like he might crumple at any moment. “I don’t know what to do. I promised Arthur I’d stay here, but I can’t stay here.”

  Pulling Will over to the couch, I made him sit. “This is easy,” I said when my fussing over him got on Will’s nerves.
He pushed away my attempt to prop a pillow under his head. “Don’t go.”

  Will looked horrified, like I’d just asked him to punch a little old lady in the face. “I have to go. Stormfield can’t come here. I don’t think you get what a risk that is.”

  Now I was the one worried I would be sick all over the floor. “Well, you can’t be considering going. Are Arthur and I the only ones taking my vision seriously? Cassie thinks it’s no big deal. Ginny thinks you’re safe enough here. I mean, she’s right, but still. You’re willing to go waltzing into LANCE headquarters with no care in the world.”

  “I’d hardly call it waltzing.” Will tried to sit up, but I shoved hard on his bare shoulders to keep him laying down. My hands on his bare skin didn’t spark a vision right then, possibly because I realized I was touching something other than his hand. I snatched my hands away like his shoulders burned. My face caught on fire. If Will noticed, he was nice enough not to comment.

  “You cannot go present yourself at LANCE so they can beat you up and toss you in a cell.” My voice rose.

  “I can’t stay here.” Will ran his fingers through his hair and then sat up, reaching for me. I’d been kneeling next to the couch, but I moved until I was curled up next to him, my face buried in his neck. “Ginny’s right that they won’t storm the Rook,” he said, “but they won’t leave. And I wouldn’t put it past Stormfield to get in here even without Arthur’s permission. The Dreki got past Percival once. LANCE might have figured out how to do it too.”

  “I think you underestimate Arthur and Ginny,” I said, my voice muffled. I refused to sit up and look at Will and the bleakness I would find in his eyes.

  “I think you underestimate Stormfield.”

  We sat there on the couch for several minutes, me hugging the life out of Will while Will hugged me back. At some point he ran his fingers through my hair like I was a small child in need of comfort.

  At that moment, I realized that once again, Will was in crisis, but he was the one comforting me, not the other way around. It was Will who was in danger of losing his freedom—or worse. And what was I doing? Figuring out how to save Will? No. I was letting him help me feel better.

  I leaned back, breaking our embrace. My front felt cold without the warmth from his chest. I realized with horror I had been snuggling with Will. With even more horror, I realized that I wanted to do it again. I wanted to curl back up in his arms with that illusion of safety and love.

  My heart almost stopped beating, and the blood drained out of my face to pool somewhere in my stomach. I didn’t just need Will because he was my visions’ crystal ball. I didn’t want to hang out with him because he was kind and considerate and sometimes funny. And although there was plenty of attraction there, my feelings for him went well beyond it. I wanted to save Will from LANCE not because I was fundamentally decent but because I was inherently selfish. I wanted Will for myself. I wanted that future where we were curled up on the couch watching TV. I wanted Arthur’s boyfriend comment to be real. Deep down where the feelings I didn’t want to examine lived, I knew this was more than simple friendship.

  And I had no idea if he even liked me back.

  19

  WHERE I TURN OUT TO BE A TRUE KEEP

  TO MY SURPRISE, I DISCOVERED THEN JUST HOW MUCH I WAS MY father’s daughter. When I couldn’t sway Will from going into LANCE headquarters, the tantrum I threw made Arthur’s efforts from the night before look like mild discontent.

  I ranted. I raved. I stomped up and down Will’s room while Will looked on in frank astonishment. It wasn’t pretty. I also finally got why Arthur reacted that way. I understood how he felt when we went to rescue my parents, and he wouldn’t let me join the battle. Sure, I had been scared for my parents that day, but there wasn’t anything they could do about the danger. A rocket was heading for them, and it was a matter of whether we would get there on time.

  With Will though, he was knowingly putting himself into danger. It terrified me, and I was furious he would be so cavalier. No wonder Arthur had locked me out of my armor.

  Eventually, my emotions wore me out, and I flung myself down on Will’s bed with my arm over my eyes. “Fine,” I said. “You insist on sacrificing yourself to the altar of honor or whatever.” I sat up to glare at Will again. Since I’d been glaring at him for ten minutes straight, he was immune at this point. He stared back with no expression. “Can you at least postpone this reckoning? The vision was for today not tomorrow. Surely, Stormfield can wait a day. Wait until Arthur’s back and can go with you. He will, you know. Go with you. Arthur, I mean. And Stormfield can’t chew you out for not stealing Arthur’s tech if Arthur is sitting next to you.”

  “The summons was for today, Elaine,” Will said. For some reason, Will seemed to get calmer the angrier I got, almost as if I was sucking the fear and turmoil out of him like some kind of emotion-eating vampire. “Stormfield will not rearrange his schedule for an underling. If he wants to see me today, he’ll make sure I see him today.”

  I had a brilliant idea. “You explain that with Arthur and Ginny and Cassie and the Defender gone, you can’t leave me today. It wouldn’t be safe to leave me alone. The Dreki might attack and all. You have to stay here.” Popping off the bed, I danced around the room. Will seemed taken aback like he was finding my rapid mood changes as dizzying to watch as they were to experience firsthand. “Best of all, it’s the absolute truth.”

  Will considered this for a moment, but then he shook his head. “Do you really want Stormfield to know Arthur’s gone?”

  “LANCE wouldn’t storm the Rook,” I repeated. We all kept saying this, but were we right? “Would they?” I asked in a smaller voice.

  Will didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. We’d been through this already. Several times.

  While I paced trying to think of another way to keep Will home, he got up and went into his closet. He came back out holding one of his gray suits.

  “Wear something else,” I told him. “You’re wearing a suit in my vision.”

  Will gave me a look like I’d suggested he go to LANCE naked. “I can’t go to LANCE in jeans. It would be inappropriate.”

  I barely kept from screaming. Instead, I stormed out of his room and headed for the breakfast room. If I couldn’t keep Will from throwing himself at LANCE, at least I could give him some form of aid. I grabbed the little personal protection shield button thing off the table where Ginny had tossed it. Maybe someone would shoot at Will, and the faulty device would blow LANCE headquarters up. Normally, I wasn’t so bloodthirsty, but the clandestine organization had rubbed my last nerve raw by threatening the guy I liked.

  With the button clutched in my hand, I’d been pacing the small breakfast room like a soldier patrolling the perimeter, but my last thought stopped me short. I hadn’t processed this whole being into Will thing yet. Now that I wasn’t watching Will courageously throw himself at LANCE in some misguided attempt to protect me, did I still have the same feelings? I paused for a moment for soul-searching. I decided I did. But was it more than liking?

  I decided I needed air. After telling Percival to send my armor out to meet me, I walked around outside, my armor a metallic shadow. Neither Percy nor Percival were chatty, so I worried over Will’s interest like a kid with a loose tooth.

  I knew one sided relationships existed. I’d seen enough movies about it, and I knew unrequited love (with a healthy dose of delusion) was how stalkers were born. Did that apply to me? On the whole, if someone disliked me, I disliked them—a mutually satisfactory arrangement. Will liked me. I was sure of that much. He wouldn’t be so considerate and consoling and always willing to be around if he hated my guts. That did not mean he liked me liked me. He liked that Arthur and Ginny treated him more or less like family now. It didn’t sound like LANCE had ever done that before. I kicked at an ornamental stone in one of the flower beds. I was probably like the sister he never had. How depressing.

  I decided I needed a distraction. “Hey, Percy,” I
said to my armor. “How’s that hack of Arthur’s personal files going?”

  “I managed access this morning.” Percy radiated smugness from the speaker on my armor. Over the terrace’s speaker, Percival sighed.

  I didn’t have any particular desire to rifle through Arthur’s electronic life, but Percy had been complaining about being bored. He was the whiniest AI I’d ever met. So, I asked him to try this hack. He never would have gotten through a firewall Ginny set up, but Arthur wasn’t in her league when it came to coding. His brilliance lay in the hardware.

  “Anything interesting?” I asked Percy. I settled down on my back on the drawbridge, with one foot dangling over the edge a few feet over the water. Above me many dozens of knights swooped and swirled in the sky like swallows. Arthur had almost the entire armory either standing guard on the terrace or flying above.

  “There’s a file named ‘For Elaine,’ but I don’t know if you’d find that interesting.”

  I rolled my eyes, not that Percy would care if he’d annoyed me. “What do you think? What’s in it?”

  “Videos,” Percy said. “Over three hundred.”

  “Grief.” I sat up, but I didn’t get up off the bridge. Instead, I stared at the armor as if its faceless helm would give me a clue. “Why in the world would he have saved three hundred videos for me?”

  “No idea. Want to watch one?”

  “Can we do that out here?” I had no desire to go back inside while I was still irritated with Will. I wanted to be able to see him without screeching at him like a nagging scold when I had to tell him goodbye.

  “Sure. Here’s the first one in the file. It’s from six years ago.”

  The terrace didn’t have mid-air screens like indoors, but Percy had a few tricks up his sleeve. Literally. My armor lifted her arm and held her palm straight at me. She was standing the way I had drawn Pendragon that day I’d had my first true vision. The palm split open at the center, and a small hologram projected out. It showed Arthur in the center of a room I didn’t recognize.