He smiled at me. Then he folded his hands behind his head and lay back on the ground. I joined him. We stared up at the branches and watched the lone raven fly away.
For a minute, I was actually content. It seemed hard to believe given the last few developments in my story, but Daniel had that effect on me these days. The two of us had reached new ground. Like the very trees he had been comparing us to a minute ago, our friendship was deciduous; it was changing. And while I didn’t know what it would grow into, I did know that I wanted him by my side as I faced the challenges ahead.
“Hey, Daniel,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“I can’t imagine going through this without you.”
A short pause passed. Then he spoke.
“Good,” he said. “Because I promise you’ll never have to.”
“How’s it going?”
Ugh. Merlin.
After my talk with Daniel, I’d gone back to my room and elected to take a late-morning nap. The girls weren’t around and I wanted to be a little more well rested for when I told my friends about Nadia. Alas, rest was off the table now that Merlin had shown up in my dreams. It was just him and some furniture in the great white void. He was sitting on a royal blue sofa identical to the one in Alex’s bedroom in Midveil. I wondered if Merlin had gone picking through my memories to find it.
The wizard wore green robes and his usual utility belt. He patted the couch and gestured for me to sit beside him. “I’ve been waiting for you to start dreaming again,” he said. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about something important, but I thought I’d give you a break until your magic returned, call it an interlude of tranquility.”
Some interlude, I wanted to laugh.
“Now’s actually not a great time for me, Merlin. So if you don’t mind, can you please stop squatting in my headspace and let me be? I don’t want to talk at the moment. Whatever you have to say can wait.”
“Even if it’s about Daniel?”
My eyebrows shot up. I wasn’t sure if it was a result of my mind’s will or Merlin’s, but a dining chair that looked like those in the Lady Agnue’s banquet hall popped up behind me. I sat down and glowered at Merlin.
“What about Daniel?” I asked.
“Are you familiar with the tale of Sir Balin, The Knight of Two Swords?”
“Unfortunately. I had a dream previously where Rampart explained it to Arian.”
“Right, well, just to give you a refresher, Balin’s sword was enchanted so that only a hero of the purest heart and truest courage could claim it. The owner would then be endowed with enhanced strength and skill in combat. Not as much as those who wield Excalibur, but a substantial bonus nonetheless. Sadly, the blade was also cursed. Whoever claims it is doomed to use it to kill the person they love most. In fact, Balin ended up striking down his brother with the sword then later killed himself from the agony of what he’d done. The sword wrought havoc on noble knights throughout Camelot for some time until I got a hold of it. Since the weapon could not be destroyed, I laced it with a magic potion that would cause it to constantly change locations so as to minimize the chances of anyone actually finding it again. Following an episode with Sir Galahad years back, no one has found the blade and suffered its curse since. Until recently.”
I connected the dots. I didn’t want to, but bad vibes churned in my gut telling me the truth. It was like I’d gotten another shot of Poppy Potion. Only this time directly to my heart.
“No,” I said.
“I’m afraid so,” Merlin responded. “I didn’t take a proper look at it until the day you all left Camelot, but Daniel has Sir Balin’s sword. He must’ve come across it at some point during your journey. Though I don’t know when.”
I do.
On Avalon.
The Lady of the Lake had warned me that Daniel would fall victim to an unfavorable obstacle of fate if he came to the isle with us, but I had insisted. It was my fault. Daniel was doomed because of me!
Despite the lengths I’d gone to save Kai and ensure I didn’t cause her demise like his prophecy said I could, in the end we were still on the wrong path. The hero who called me his best friend had inadvertently been cursed to kill his true love because of me.
I struggled for air. Then I forced myself to center; this was not the time for a panic attack. I leaned forward and looked Merlin straight in the eye. “How do I break the curse?”
“Crisanta . . . that is why I wanted to talk to you. I’m not sure it can be broken. I’ve tried before and failed. Honestly, I don’t know if this problem has a solution.”
“Merlin, that’s nonsense,” I said bluntly as I abruptly stood from my chair. “Light exists for dark. Right exists for wrong. And solutions exist for problems. There is no one without the other; they’re complements. So tell me how to fix this.”
“Crisanta, I don’t—”
I grabbed Merlin by the collar and yanked him closer so that his face was inches from mine. “You’re not listening. Kai doesn’t die and Daniel doesn’t die. I’m not sure about how a lot of this story ends, but I do know those two things for certain. I can’t save everyone, but I have dedicated myself to saving them. So help me do that or I’m done helping you. You can forget about using me as your little life-giving minion anymore. I will not help anyone else you point me toward ever again.”
“Crisanta,” Merlin said evenly. “I think we both know that your threats are empty. You’re not capable of letting a good person die, not if you can help it.”
My glare narrowed. He knew me too well. I’d been performing exactly to his expectations since before we even met.
I let go of his collar and my gaze tempered—the steel of my resolve turning to liquid metal: still powerful, but softer.
“Then help me because it’s the right thing to do,” I said. “You’ve spent your whole life taking care of Camelot and Arthur. You constantly put them and the greater good before yourself. Well, keeping my soul from shattering is entwined with the greater good, Merlin. We used the last of the Four Waters of Paradise to cure Glinda, which means that I cannot escape from Pure Magic. With the corruptibility of my heart still tied to all our fates, we can’t afford to slip here because the domino effect will be irrevocable. If Kai or Daniel die, a piece of me will too—a piece that will be too big to come back from.”
I paced around the chair and paused, looking out into the emptiness of the void. I contained all my anger and devastation and as I stared into the nexus of nothingness, let genuine humility set in.
Saving others and saving yourself were big tasks. A person with strong character could certainly achieve them; I believed that one hundred percent. But if that person had back up, the odds were infinitely better. Which meant if I was truly serious about saving the people I cared about, the realm, and myself, I needed to let people help me do it. And I needed to ask them to.
I clasped my hands together and spoke to Merlin with utter vulnerability—my soul strong but my heart fragile with the desperation that came with knowing I was out of my depths and truly, sincerely in trouble.
“Merlin. Please. Help me so that you can help the realm from falling into the darkness that will be unleashed if I get broken. Because believe me, if this curse runs its course . . . that’s exactly what will happen.”
Geanna Culbertson is the award-winning author of The Crisanta Knight Series. Since Book One’s release in May 2016, the series has won many awards, including a Mom’s Choice Award for best family friendly media, a Living Now Choice Award for “best lifestyle and world changing books” in adventure fiction, a Benjamin Franklin Award for best books in Teen Fiction, and many more!
The Crisanta Knight Series is a proud sponsor of Girls on the Run, Los Angeles (GOTRLA). Driven by a heroine who is strong, smart, and bold, The Crisanta Knight Series is happy to be a continuous presence in the GOTRLA community, as both envision “a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential.”
The series has been feat
ured in Girls’ Life Magazine as recommended reading for preteen and teen girls. Culbertson is a proud supporter of nonprofits like Girl Scouts and Read to a Child. She is also a regular speaker at schools for an array of age groups (from elementary schools to major universities).
Culbertson is a proud alumna of the University of Southern California where she earned her B.A. in Public Relations and triple minor degrees in Marketing, Cinematic Arts, and Critical Approaches to Leadership. She is a part of only 1.3% of her graduating class to earn the double distinction of Renaissance Scholar and Discovery Scholar. Her Discovery Scholar thesis “Beauty & the Badass: Origins of the Hero-Princess Archetype” earned her acclaim in the School of Cinematic Arts, and helped fuel her female protagonist focused writing passions.
In addition to authoring The Crisanta Knight Series (set to be eight books with the final release in 2021), Culbertson is a full-time manager at a leading industry digital marketing firm, representing clients from an array of industries. When Culbertson is not working or writing, she can likely be found at her local karate studio (she is a black belt), going on adventures with her mother and best friend, and indulging her love of delicious food across the land.
Crisanta Knight: The Lost King Page 50