Air: Merlin's Chalice (The Children of Avalon Book 1) (32 page)

“Dylan is, but he’s just gone to see…”

“There’s nothing there. She’s gone,” came an anguished whisper from Sir Dagonet.

I turned back to the old man. “What do you mean ‘She’s gone’? Who was there?”

“Lady Nimuë,” he whispered so softly I could barely hear him.

But just at the name, Bridget jumped up and looked around as if she was about to appear right next to us.

“Where was she, sir? What happened?” I asked, as I fought hard to keep from trembling.

Sir Dagonet lifted his head and took a shaky breath. “She was there, in the woods. She, she…oh, God, what have I done!” His face dropped down once again into his hands.

Dylan came back just then. “I couldn’t find anything or anyone. Whoever it was, they must be long gone.”

“It was Lady Nimuë,” I told him.

“What?” Dylan had just been about to put down his sword, but he took it right up again.

“Sir Dagonet says she met him in the woods, but we don’t know what she did to him.”

“Dylan, is there something you can do?” Bridget asked. She had returned to soothingly caressing Sir Dagonet’s back. I was surprised, first at Bridget speaking so nicely to Dylan, and second that she was trusting him to take care of Sir Dagonet.

Dylan paused to look at Bridget and then looked down at the old man. He nodded. Putting aside his weapon once more, Dylan took my place on Sir Dagonet’s other side. He placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated.

After a moment, Sir Dagonet let out a relieved sigh. He wiped his cheeks with a shaky hand as he looked up at the three of us. It was clear he was still very upset, but at least now he was able to look up.

“Thank you,” he said, patting Dylan on his arm. “It’s horrible what she does to a man, don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Dylan suggested.

Sir Dagonet shook his head. His fingers were fiddling with one another, those of his right hand disappearing up the other sleeve in his usual nervous habit. Finally, he gave a great sigh and said, “All I can tell you is that I’ve done a terrible thing.”

“What?”

“Told her where we were going,” he said, shame weighing down his words.

The three of us sat there in silence, digesting this. I wasn’t entirely certain what it meant. So, Nimuë now knew we were going to Avalon. Did that make a difference? Surely, Lady Morgan would protect us?

“Don’t you see, it’s now even more important that we find that chalice—before she does,” Sir Dagonet explained.

“She’s going to try to find the chalice?” Bridget asked, with a bit of a squeak in her voice. “How could she do that? It’s not destined for her.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s got power, wot? That’s all she cares about, don’t you know?”

We all turned toward Bridget. She was the only one who could help us to find the chalice. She had the answer in her dream, if she would only let Dylan in to find it.

“It’s the three of you who will be most in danger if she finds it before you do,” Sir Dagonet said, his face more serious than I had ever seen it. “She’ll have Merlin’s power, and she won’t hesitate to use it to kill you.”

I looked at Dylan, but there was no comfort coming from him. It was a stark truth Sir Dagonet shared. One that couldn’t be denied.

“You need to work together,” Sir Dagonet continued. “You need to be a team. No more of this not trusting one another.” He looked at Bridget. “And no favoritism as best as you can help it.” He looked from me to Dylan. “I know there are feelings here. Deep feelings, but you have to work together, the
three
of you. No matter what. You must have each other’s back and support each other in every way possible. If you don’t…”

“There is no question, sir,” Dylan said without hesitation. “Together we will fight or together we will fall.”

It sounded like something Dylan had learned when he’d trained to be a knight, but it was the truth. It was the way we had to live. I knew it. Recognized it.

And so did Bridget. She sighed and nodded her head. “All right, Dylan.”

Dylan reached out and gave her arm a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “I will look to see where these trees are and that is all, I promise.”

I cleared my throat. I should probably have done this in private, but it seemed that now nothing was private. “Dylan, I think we should put… whatever it is we have aside.”

Dylan looked at me, his eyes straying momentarily to Sir Dagonet and Bridget. No, he was not happy to have this discussion in front of them, I knew it. But I’d started it, and so I would finish it.

“After the chalice is found and Nimuë is taken care of, we’ll have the rest of our lives to… do whatever we want. But if we don’t deal with Nimuë first...” I paused and tried to put this into words he’d understand. “We started on a quest. We can’t let anything…
anything
distract us from it until it’s completed.” I looked at him, sadness filling my heart. It wasn’t easy, and it wouldn’t be easy being so close to him and yet unable to do anything more, or to be anything more than just friends, but it was essential. I knew this. I just hoped Dylan would recognize it, too.

When Dylan nodded his head in acceptance, I released the breath I’d been holding. “You’re right.” He shifted once again to look at Bridget. “There will be no favoritism. No… anything until we find the chalice and defeat Nimuë.”

Sir Dagonet let out a satisfied sigh. “Good decision.”

<><><>

I had hoped to be awake when Dylan went into Bridget’s dream, so I could watch him and find out where we would have to go.

But when I opened my eyes it was to the bright morning sunshine. I sat up immediately. I had moved back to sleeping closer to my sister. Sleeping so close to Dylan would have just been cruel—to both of us.

Bridget was just lying back under her blanket, staring up into the trees.

“Well? Did Dylan go into your dream? Do we know where the chalice is?” I asked.

Bridget turned her head toward me. “I don’t know really. I mean, I saw him there in my dream, but then he walked off while I stayed with the trees, following the branches through to the chalice as I have every night. I suppose you’ll have to ask him.”

I turned to look for him, but he was nowhere in sight. For a panicked moment, I wondered if perhaps he had left again. But then I saw his horse nibbling at the grass, and relaxed.

A few minutes later when he came out of the woods, I got up. “So? Do you know where we need to go?”

“Yes. We need to head due west from here to reach the shore. From there it shouldn’t be too far,” he said, giving me a smile. “It’s very close to a jut of land that sticks out a bit into the water.”

“Remembered the jut of land,” Sir Dagonet said, joining us. “Just didn’t remember where it was.”

“Have you been there, sir?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s from a little village there that I have taken the boat to Avalon.”

“So this tree is, in fact, very close to the island?” Dylan asked.

“Should be, wot?” Sir Dagonet smiled. “Merlin must have chosen it because of that. Very fond of the island, he was, don’t you know?”

I was so relieved to see Sir Dagonet back to his old self again that I laughed at his silliness. “Yes, I suppose he would be, since that was where Lady Nimuë lived and they were very close at one time, weren’t they?”

Sir Dagonet winked at me. “Just so. Just so.”

As we mounted our horses, even Sir Dagonet’s optimism had returned. “We’ll get there long before Lady Nimuë even figures out where we’re headed, wot, wot?”

“That’s right, sir,” Dylan agreed, but the look I saw in his eyes didn’t seem to be quite as optimistic.

“Of course we will,” I concurred and gave Dylan a very determinedly cheerful look.

He just laughed and shook his head before clicking his horse into a walk behind Sir Dagonet.

We rode as fast as we could that day, pushing the horses and ourselves. It was clear we were all eager to get there.

By afternoon, we broke free of the forest. I stopped my horse and took a great deep breath of the salty, fresh sea air. The water shifted in front of me in its unending dance. Forward and back, a lick up here, a pull there—I was mesmerized by the beauty of it, at the delicate lapping of the waves and at the immense strength of the water as it pulled back on itself before bounding once again onto the beach.

But as I stood there watching the sea dance before me, something else was lapping at my memory.

I had seen this before, but where?

I looked around me at the forest, the trees, the rocks that were scattered about on the shore. No, this wasn’t quite right. But it was close. We were very close; I was certain of that.

The wind picked up, welcoming me to its shores. I jumped down from my horse, landing on the soft sand at my feet. Bridget joined me, as did Dylan and Sir Dagonet.

“It’s magnificent!” Bridget said in awe as she looked out into the endless sea.

“Incredible!” I agreed.

“Neither of you ever see the sea before, wot, wot?” Sir Dagonet asked. Even he seemed to be a little in awe of the majesty before us.

“No,” Bridget answered.

I didn’t say anything. I’d never been to the coast, but somehow this was all very familiar, though I just didn’t know how it could be.

“It’s hard to tell, but I think that jut of land is just a little to our north,” Dylan said squinting up and down the beach.

“Yes. That’s exactly right,” I agreed.

Everyone turned to look at me in some surprise. I laughed nervously. “It…it seems like the most reasonable thing,” I said, with a shrug. I didn’t want to admit to having been here before, because I couldn’t remember when I had—if I had. It was all rather confusing.

As we traveled on, everything became ever more familiar to me. And just as a huge wave crashed over a boulder that had been negligently tossed on to the shore, it came to me in an instant.

I had seen this all in a dream. I had traveled this path, walked down this shore. I would know the place where the chalice was the moment we reached it.

Bridget was getting ever more antsy behind me, fidgeting this way and that, even making the horse nervous. The closer we got, the more she fidgeted. She finally gave up and just jumped off.

I pulled up on the reins. “Bridget!” I hadn’t even stopped the horse. We had been at nearly a trot when my sister had jumped down. She could have easily been hurt.

“Wot, wot? Is this it?” Sir Dagonet exclaimed.

Bridget flipped around to face the old knight. “No, I just, I just can’t stand it. We’re so close!”

“We are, I can feel it,” I added.

“I recognize where we are, but it’s farther down the beach,” Dylan said, about ready to jump off of his horse as well. The animal did a little sidestep, but he controlled it firmly and kept moving forward.

Bridget picked up her skirts and started to run. Her bright red hair, which had been tied into a neat braid, now had tendrils dancing wildly all around her, like the flames of a campfire. We slowed our horses to match her pace, but Sir Dagonet was overly eager and moved ahead.

And then Bridget stopped. She just stopped in the center of the beach, her hands on her hips, panting from her run. At first I thought she’d just gotten tired, but then I felt it.

We were there. We had reached the place.

There was nothing but a feeling, a tingle in the air that told me I was right.

Sir Dagonet, however, had ridden right by.

“Sir Dagonet!” I called out, but he didn’t hear me above the sound of the water.

“Sir Dagonet!” Dylan and Bridget called out in unison.

“Eh?” he turned.

“We’re here!” Dylan called out.

Bridget had already turned toward the forest. Slowly, reverently, she approached the trees, as if they were royalty.

And, indeed, they wore such vibrant colors they could have been royal. Brilliant red, gold, and orange leaves flared toward the sea like flames. The wind picked up and the branches swayed, bowing their greeting. And all the while, behind them, the water crashed upon the shore and yet retreated with grace so as not to get any of us wet.

It was a most perfect place.

I closed my eyes, just feeling the wind on my face, smelling the fresh air, the richness of the earth, and the salt of the sea. My ears were filled with the constant thunder of the waves. But beyond all of this, I felt the thrumming of magic. It was like a vibration that made my blood rush through my body and my heart sing with joy. I felt free and happy. I felt…home.

Yes, this was the feeling of coming home.

A feeling I’d reveled in after meeting my brothers. It was happy and sad, exhilarating and overwhelming. A rush of emotion thrilled through me such as I had never felt before.

I opened my eyes to share my joy. Dylan was looking rather pale. I climbed down off my horse and went over to where he stood peering into the woods.

“Are you all right?”

He shook his head clear and then turned to look at me. He seemed to force the smile to his lips, but he said, “Yes. It’s…it’s a little overwhelming, isn’t it? So much magic, concentrated into one place.”

“Yes,” I said, reaching out and touching his arm. I wanted to calm him, to reassure him, somehow.

His smile became true, reaching into his eyes as he placed his hand on top of mine.

“But these aren’t the trees.” Bridget’s voice broke into the moment.

Dylan turned to look and then moved forward to stand next to Bridget at the edge of the forest. He reached out to touch the beautiful leaves. But she was right. These weren’t the leaves of the intertwining trees that I remembered from my dream. These were the leaves of ordinary oaks and beeches.

“They must be here,” Dylan said, with a slight panic to his voice. He plunged headfirst into the thick growth that bordered the beach. But the branches were too thick for him to go very far very fast.

Bridget was smaller and more lithe. She passed him, ducking under and climbing over the branches that formed the dense barrier. “Here!” she called out.

“Is it there? Do you see it?” I asked from just beyond the tree line.

“Wot, wot? Is it there?” Sir Dagonet said, coming up from behind me.